Below are 10 business-related stories regarding China from the past 10 days. Many thanks to VG, Matt S and of course Sinocism for providing them. Feel free to send me any you may come across as well.
- China’s Move Toward Electric Cars Stalls – The Wall Street Journal
Electric vehicles are mentioned in passing in Chapter 10.
- Delisting in China ‘Exists in Name Only’ – The Wall Street Journal
Public listings and IPOs on the mainland are discussed in Chapter 5.
- Jack Ma Toys With Audience on Alibaba IPO – The Wall Street Journal
Jack Ma recently stepped down as chairman of the Alibaba Group, the largest domestic e-commerce company in the world… which still has not had an IPO. I mention it several times in Chapter 7, 12 & 13.
Ubuntu is the most widely used Linux distribution. However, as I mention in Chapter 20, there have been a number of top-down directed technology projects concocted on the mainland over the years. While it may fare better than Jike (a search engine that flopped) I doubt it will replace Android or iOS anytime soon, if at all.
- Rare Chinese bowl, $3 at tag sale, sells for $2.2M from Associated Press
China is both the largest luxury goods and art auction market. See Chapter 11 for more.
As discussed in Chapter 3, China exports a large number of different food and beverages globally.
- Wine makers in China: Mihalis Boutaris finds a ‘sweet spot’ for grapes in Gansu from Grape Wall of China
As discussed in Chapter 3, Chinese consumers consumed an enormous amount of red wine each year. In 2011 1.3 billion bottles of red wine were sold.
As mentioned in Chapter 14, China is the largest online gaming market, PC gaming market and now mobile gaming market. Epic Games are the developers behind the Unreal engine and the eponymous game series.
- Tencent’s Internet Advertising Revenue Up 58.3% for China Tech News
In Chapter 12 I discuss the internet empire that is Tencent, the largest tech company on the mainland. They are developers behind the immensely popular WeChat (Weixin) phone app and the golliath that is QQ instant messenger (as well as Qzone and Tencent Weibo). Add me on it.
- Chinese people, goods and money pouring into South Africa from The Asahi Shimbun
82 million Chinese tourists traveled overseas last year. 60,000 traveled to South Africa in the first half of 2012. See Chapter 4 and 11 for more.
82 million sounds like a lot of tourists? where do they all go?
Typically the top destinations are in Southeast and East Asia. The US is the only top 10 non-Asian destination right now, with 1.36 million in-bound visitors in 2011.