Despite escalating trade tensions between the United States and China, Chinese e-commerce apps like Taobao and DHgate have experienced a remarkable surge in global popularity. This trend underscores the complex interplay between consumer behaviour, social media influence, and international trade policies. In April 2025, Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao, operated by Alibaba, catapulted from 47th to 5th place among free apps on the US Apple App Store. Similarly, DHgate, a platform… …
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A rapidly growing demand for whisky in China has seen UK exports rise substantially, but the big players are not just looking to bolster their selling power to China … now the race is on to create the first Chinese whisky, reports Tom Pattinson The heavy bass of the music bounces off the walls of the club, arms wave in the air, and waiters deftly dart around the cavernous nightclub,… …
In the latest in Focus’ series on “Can Chinese brands go global in 2024?”, we take a look at online retailer Shein, which has found itself at the centre of a debate about fast fashion and expanding Chinese influence abroad Since exploding in popularity in the late 2010s/early 2020s, fast fashion retailer Shein has captured the attention of millions of shoppers worldwide with its rapid trend cycle and rock-bottom prices…. …
China has embraced mobile payments, becoming an almost cashless society in recent years. While this makes life very convenient for people living in China, it can create problems for people who are just visiting Thankfully, in July 2023, WeChat announced that it would start facilitating the use of Visa, Mastercard, JCB and other international cards for payments in China via WeChat Pay (sometimes known as Weixin Pay). This follows a… …
From Huawei’s 5G to Jack Ma’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat, the plethora of wildly successful Chinese tech companies mean the country is well on its way to achieving its goal of becoming a leading global technological superpower by 2050. Here’s how it’s unfolding The world’s appetite for new technologies is only increasing, and China is determined to take advantage of this demand and become a leading global technology market. China’s… …
FROM JACK MA TO MA HUATENG, WHEN IT COMES TO GROWTH, CHINA’S RICHEST HAVE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD. SINCE 2003, THE COUNTRY HAS GONE FROM HAVING NO US-DOLLAR BILLIONAIRES, TO NEARLY 1,000 TODAY. MANY STARTED WITH NOTHING, BATTLING THEIR WAY TO THE TOP OF THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMIC BOOM. SO WHO ARE THEY? Alex Colville finds out The year 2016 saw a significant milestone: it was when the number of… …
It is true that opportunities for businesses in China are great. But all too often foreign businesses repeat the same mistakes. Jean Yves Lavoie examines the most common 1. Misunderstanding Chinese consumers Chinese consumers are not the same as consumers in the UK or the West. Their tastes, styles, budgets and requirements are all different and therefore products and services that sell in the UK might not necessarily sell in… …
Gordon Orr is a non-executive board member of Meituan, Swire Pacific, Lenovo, EQT and the China-Britain Business Council. He is a senior advisor to McKinsey on China related topics and was responsible for establishing McKinsey’s China practice in the 1990s. Here, he provides his insights as to what might be in store for China in 2021 China enters 2021 economically stronger relative to major economies than anytime since 2009. This …
Earlier this month, China’s leadership published its proposal for the 14th Five Year Plan, which will serve as a blueprint and scorecard for economic policy in the coming 5 years. As expected, technological self-reliance and the new Dual Circulation Strategy are top of the agenda. Further opening up and the liberalisation of China’s service sector remain important goals. CBBC’s Torsten Weller gives his analysis Unusually, the proposal does not include …