Newsletter (Archive)

I’ve written a few things on logistics here and there, but am by no means an expert. However, as rural and cross-border logistics become a greater national priority, I think it’s important to start taking a look at some of the players. It’ll also be our next (long overdue) Tech […]

I’ve spoken to various first and secondhand sources in the gaming sector and sat in on Pei Pei’s livestream today (ex-SinoLink analyst who focuses on gaming quite a bit, ie this post was translating his ideas) and I think that everyone is confused about whether or not more gaming restrictions […]

Folks new to China tech are often incredibly impressed by Tencent (ie here). However, a recurring theme in Chinese internet is the demise of Tencent’s Gaming business. It seems to happen with regularity every year, and with ByteDance stepping up its attacks, that narrative is coming back in full force. […]

I meant to space out the private company profiles, but it seems that there’s not too many interesting news other than even more CGB so I figured I’ll give everyone a break and talk about Genki Forest. Again, not a tech company but effectively run like one, as is the […]

This was a really interesting post (Chinese) from LatePost, a very well regarded digital media initiative from Caijing magazine. They do mostly investigative, deep dives, and today’s was on Community Group Buying (CBG). Again, we did a podcast episode (Ep. 80) on the topic, and you should definitely check it […]

Update: The valuation is $2Bn now (as of mid June, in Chinese), maybe even $3Bn. So I tweeted about this coffee chain on Twitter and got way more comments from fans than I expected. Of course, most people on Twitter who follow me but live in Shanghai are going to […]

For those who thought their Insider account was broken … sorry, it was because I had started the post and then my power went out for the next ten hours! Californian infrastructure … OK, so, the biggest piece of non-news this week aside from clarity on the cybersecurity situation was […]

Caixin had a deep dive on the Chinese semiconductor industry (in Chinese) that I thought was worth summarizing and highlighting. I will confess I don’t know a lot about semis; but I was lucky enough to speak to a few very experienced folks and I am continually updating myself on […]

As you know, I enjoy following former equity analyst now independent blogger Pei Pei’s thoughts on gaming, which is his main focus. Recently he wrote a few things on ecommerce, one of which reminded me of something I’ve come to feel increasingly strongly about — the reasons for PDD’s rise. […]

As discussed on Discord, I found myself agreeing with a lot of the below transcript of GGV GR SVP Mr. Wang Lidong’s assessment of the 2022 China tech regulation landscape. (Edit: The NDRC document released today doesn’t contradict what he’s said at all and I think affirms some of it quite nicely.) The comments were made on January 5, 2022. I thought it to be quite interesting, although as always, do remember that this is just one person’s opinion. I should also emphasize though that this is an informed opinion – Mr. Wang had spent 11 years at MOFCOM after graduation and subsequently worked for a few years at Alibaba as well in its government relations department. So especially with regards to Alibaba and platform economies, I’d regard him as credible. The full document is quite long, so I’ve summarized it more succinctly below and attached the complete Chinese version at the end for those who want to wade through the original.

Sorry for the condescending title, but hopefully you recognize that I’m merely referencing the “it’s the economy, stupid” phrase popularized years back in the US during Clinton’s campaign against the elder Bush. This is a first draft of an oped for a news outlet, but I figured I’d share it […]

For a whole week, the Chinese-speaking internet was hooked on the divorce scandal of goody-two-shoes but actually serial adulterer and regular prostitution customer Wang Leehom. (Don’t believe me? Politicians blamed the low turnout and subsequent failure of the Taiwanese referendums on it.) But then he was miraculously saved from further […]

I’ll try to keep this short, since I’ve had enough of writing about laws and regulations recently, but I think there are a few facts that could affect the market in the near term. So first, you probably know by now that there is a Cybersecurity Review Office (CRO) that […]

Naixue beats Heytea to IPO. The prospectus is here. Note: This isn’t quite tech … but the newest generation of consumer / retail brands in China operate with so much digital savviness and share many of the same investors as pure tech companies, so I’ll include a brief note here. […]

The most consistent question I get from all of you these days is — what’s up with Beike $BEKE, the real estate platform company that we did a podcast episode on a year ago when it went IPO? Since then, it lost its founder to lung cancer this May, and […]