Ant Financial, Didi Chuxing and Xiaomi made it to the top-3 Chinese unicorns in 2017 on a list of 120 most successful unicorns in Greater China, announced the Hurun Greater China Unicorn 2017 Index last week. Beijing is leading the pack, says Hurun founder Rupert Hoogewerf, followed by Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou. Keeping up with the amazing growth is tough, Hoogewerf tells AsiaVenturepedia.Read More →

The BBC reports on a booming, but secretive industry in China: how to get rid of the mistress of your husband. Author Zhang Lijia of Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China explains why flaws in the current divorce rules cause this weird phenomena.Read More →

Getting rid of legal barriers is key for using innovation in real life, and Beijing approved the first regulations in China on self-driving cars, writes lawyer Mark Schaub at the China Law Insight. He elaborates on the details. “We expect more regions to follow Beijing’s lead and compete for innovation in this key sector,” he adds.Read More →

China’s financial authorities have scrutinized over 2017 many deals by Chinese companies, but the purchase by Fosun of the Asahi 19.9% stake in China’s key brewer Tsingtao might go down well with them because the capital goes into a domestic company, explains business analyst Ben Cavender to Reuters. Read More →

The holiday mood has already been kicking in at the China Speakers Bureau, and just-in-time we can wish our following the best seasonal wishes. While we keep an eye on our mailbox during those holidays, response time might slow down, while we try to have a good time. We hope you will also have time to enjoy the upcoming slow-down and get-together time.Read More →

Tencent’s WeChat started early 2017 their mini programs, a solution away from full blown apps, or building a platform, to help brands on their service. WeChat expert Matthew Brennan explains at the JingDaily how why the mini programs took off successfully after a slow start.Read More →

How to make money in China, and how the country works as a powerbroker are the key subjects of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order by author Shaun Rein. For NPR he tells what companies are doing well, but also why the Chinese censor might ban his book, as they did with previous ones.Read More →

Renowned China expert Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, uses the final edition of the China Economic Quarterly (CEQ) to rub it in. Many journalists and other analysts made a living predicting China’s demise over the past two decades. Kroeber explains why those predictions failed, and not China itself, in the South China Morning Post.Read More →

China is using its growing state power to put pressure on other countries and companies, but it is not only the government, argues business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order. The government has become very sophisticated in using also the consumer wallets to put pressure on foreign brands and tourist destinations, he tells The Diplomat.Read More →

A visibly angry Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China, shows that the eviction of migrants in Beijing – described by the insulting term “low-end population – is raising the tensions in China’s capital. “We live in a socialist country,” she fumes at CNN. “They are the unsung heroes of our country.”Read More →

Known as the ultimate consumer guru, business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order, now turned to politics in China, he explains at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club. In the past you could make a lot of money, no questions asked, he tells. Now you can still make money, but not that much and you need much more political sensitivity, he says. The pros and cons of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive.Read More →