Momo (陌陌)

Momo is, by far, the most popular Chinese dating app and by the number of users this mobile app is only second to WeChat. In the last couple of years Momo has been trying hard to improve its past seedy reputation re-positioning itself more of an interest based social app rather than purely a hook up service. It has added some shopping elements, games, groups etc. Those changes also made it harder to navigate – it is sort of all over the place nowadays. Nevertheless, when it comes to Chinese dating apps, Momo is the first one that comes to mind of most singles in China. Unfortunately, it is only available in Chinese – the English version was discontinued 3 years ago, although the company promises to launch an international version in the future.

Tantan (探探)

After Momo, Tantan is the second most popular Chinese dating app. It doesn’t have a great deal of features focusing on just one mission – being a purely a location based hook up app. In terms of design, Tantan is a shameless Tinder rip-off taking advantage of its famous trademark feature – left or right swipe. Two users that “liked” each other can start a chat and there is a daily limit on how many profiles can be viewed. Similar to Tinder, more features can be unlocked with premium membership which is how the app makes money. Although Tantan is almost exact copy of Tinder (it also can be used in English), the western original has only itself to blame for not making it in China. By linking itself to Facebook as the only way to create an account, it has locked itself out of Chinese market from the start.

Baihe (百合)

Baihe takes looking for a date onto a whole new level. It targets people who are serious about finding the right match and are not there just looking for a booty call. In fact, users’ info in Baihe look more like job resumes rather than typical dating profiles. All users must use real names and have to pass verification to ensure there are no fakes. They are also encouraged to list assets like housing and cars with the proof that they really own them. Educational credentials such as diplomas and certificates as well as credit score are also common profile features. Dating is a serious business on Baihe and this attitude is what sets it apart from other Chinese dating apps.

QingChiFan (请吃饭)

QingChiFan literally means “invitation to a meal” which is already self-explanatory name for this Chinese dating app. The idea is that getting to know each other over a meal is the most natural form of dating. Typically, guys would be the ones offering dinner invitations and it is up to a girl to accept it. Of course, the opposite is also possible although much less common. User can also choose to extend invitation to a group as well as set the time frame within which the offer is valid: only for today, tomorrow or within a week. The “inviter” can narrow down the criteria for invitees based on age, profession and even zodiac sign. QingChiFan seems to be a great concept with a lot of potential and, for a change, without a direct equivalent in the West as far as we know.

Maohu

Most recently, Tencent has launched Maohu, a new video-centered dating app.

Users are matched based on gender (only heterosexual matching is allowed), location, interests and dating preferences. Once matched, users can only communicate via video in 5 minutes “dating sessions” while wearing a “mask”. Mask is removed for male users after 5 minutes while females can wear it indefinetly. Once the mask is removed, the beauty filters are applied automatically.

The app can be considered using a “slow dating” approach – only 3 conversations per day are allowed. “Only video” dating app is a fresh idea in the market but with the popularity of live streaming, it seems to be catching on.

Qingliao

Tencent is determined to establish itself as the top player in mobile dating market with another app called Qingliao that is being marketed as “high quality socializing”.

In essence, this is another Tinder clone – users are matched if they like each other, the only difference is that instead of left or right swipes users tap a “heart” or a “cross”. Tencent puts an emphasis on verifying members which can be done by linking to user’s verified WeChat account or sumitting photo ID.

Qingliao also limits the total number of profiles users can view within 18 hours period: 15 profiles for men and 22 for women. Most likely, paid members will be able to increase that limit but this option was not yet available when we reviewed it.

Blued

No list of Chinese dating apps would be complete without mentioning Blued, the most popular service for gay community. It is also available in English. Upon registration, users are required to upload a short video of themselves which will be manually matched with uploaded photos by Blued team. This way, the app attempts to make sure that only real people are allowed to use it but without having them to use real identities – a valid concern for many gays living in a fairly conservative Chinese society. Although it is still the most popular Chinese dating app for gays, Blued may soon find itself fighting a strong competitor – the majority stake of Grindr, the most popular Western equivalent, has recently been acquired by a Chinese billionaire.

WeChat

WeChat isn’t typically considered a dating app, although it is often used as one. The popular “Search nearby” feature allows looking for profiles within a short distance filtered out by gender preference. Users have to enable the feature first before they can be found, which means that everyone who shows up in search results is making him or her visible on purpose. Moreover, no matter what dating app one uses, once the match is found, sooner or later, they would move to WeChat anyway – it’s just easier and everyone has it anyway. So, although WeChat isn’t a dating app, it can rightly be considered to be a part of the overall dating ecosystem in China.

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International education in China: facts and trends

The main reasons behind increased demand for international education are internationalization of labor, the rapid growth of academic mobility at the higher education level, and the increasing dominance of English as the language of business.

International education in China has been mainly the market for the children of expatriate families. Government regulations have been holding back the development of this sector for locals which, potentially, could be practically unlimited. Therefore, 410 international schools in China have mostly been teaching foreign children or those from mixed marriages where one parent is a foreigner.

Dulwich College has been one the most well represented international schools in China with facilities in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and Zhuhai. Presently, every single first tier city and larger number of second tier ones, have at least one American and one British school and their numbers keep growing.

Some of the most well-off Chinese parents go as far as obtaining for their offspring passports from African and Caribbean countries which are used for the sole purpose of qualifying them for international schools. This is why it is not uncommon to come across Chinese kids with Gambian or Senegalese passports enrolled in some of those prestigious educational institutions.

Moreover, international education in China is also one of the most expensive in the world with fees reaching $40,000 per year for high-end Shanghai and Beijing schools. Such price level is already comparable to tuition fees of top Western universities.

Trying to tap into this lucrative market, increasing number of private Chinese schools are now offering international curriculum for locals. Students in such schools can choose to opt out of traditional Chinese programs in favor of English based ones in order to boost their chances of enrolling in top Western universities.

There are also signs of authorities gradually easing their strict rules with regards to international education in China. One of them was a relatively recent relaxation in the regulations for Sino-foreign school partnerships. If the regulations are eased further, and given Chinese students’ demand for overseas universities,  the market will most certainly grow further.

Considering Chinese parents insatiable drive to invest in the their children education combined with the means of large number of them to do so, international education in China is well on the way to become the largest market globally.

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Chinese internet ecosystem is, perhaps, the only one in world where names like Google, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter are entirely absent from the vocabulary. Admittedly, one of the main reasons for it is inaccessibility of those platforms from China. However, even when they were allowed to operate, they simply didn’t adapt fast enough to the local market like their local competitors did. The eventual government’s sponsored shutdown was just the last nail in the coffin for those services.

The Chinese equivalents who filled the vacuum have quickly established themselves as not only the viable alternatives but also as the innovation leaders in their own right. They were not a mere copycats (those who just copied didn’t do well), but figured out their own unique place in the market.

Some of the big names like Facebook and Google haven’t given up on the idea of coming back to China in way or the other. Facebook has been busy establishing some local partnership, so there is a hope that, at some point in the future, a “sanitized” version of Facebook will be allowed to rejoin much evolved Chinese internet ecosystem.

Google is now almost certain to reestablish itself in China with the censored version of its search engine that is rumored to be in the works.

Those companies, undoubtedly, will be facing an uphill battle against the local competition. The infographic below gives an overview of the most important players in Chinese internet ecosystem and their key statistics.

Chinese Internet Ecosystem Infographics

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In this post we gathered some up-to-date stats and a translated piece from respectable Caixin site followed by our own analysis.

First, the article from Caixin with our translation and commentary about China coronavirus outbreak:

As of January 31, the cumulative number of severe cases accounted for 15.8% of the confirmed cases, and the mortality rate (accumulated death cases accounted for the cumulative confirmed cases) has remained at the level of 2.2% for 3 consecutive days.

Here is the most recent data of February 4th from DXY.cn (blue line – total cases, yellow line – suspected cases, red line – confirmed infections):

The current situation of the new coronavirus epidemic situation is still serious, the epidemic situation is still spreading throughout the country, and the number of newly diagnosed cases has increased. At the same time, the growth rate of confirmed cases nationwide has also shown signs of decline. The number of newly cured cases on the 30th and 31st days exceeded the number of new deaths.

The declining growth rate proves that the quite extreme quarantine measure China are having an effect.

New test kits for the novel coronavirus have been developed and were approved by the Chinese regulator NMPA (vid). These new kits allow to test new patients in just 30 minutes. The people who have a normal flu can now be early on distinguished from those who have caught the virus.

The graph of new suspected cases per day (yellow) is flattening while the number of newly confirmed cases per day (red) is now linear and starts to show a slight decrease.

As the epidemic progresses, the data is not yet as straightforward as noted in the article, so it is still too early to identify such trends. Here is the data of February 4th from DXY.cn (blue line – total cases, yellow line – suspected cases, red line – confirmed infections):

Unless something unforeseen happens in the next few days, we are now coming near to the peak of the China coronavirus epidemic. The number of new infections per day may soon start to decrease.

All this is good news. The Global Times is already pushing for new economic measures to increase growth when the epidemic is over.

On the negative side, some people use the epidemic for profit.

There have been a number of conspiracy theories which make totally unfounded claims that the virus is a bio weapon and that it escaped from a high security bio lab in Wuhan or was intentionally created or released by Chinese researchers.

The truth is that the novel coronavirus is NOT a bioweapon. No military would invest in developing a weapon that kills only 2% of those affected by it. A real bioweapon would also spread much faster then the current rate of infection with the novel coronavirus.

In conclusion, based on what we know so far, here is our own take on the current situation:

– Mortality rate has remained steady at 2.2% and is not increasing as many have predicted. However, it worth noting that many international observers consider this figure unrealistically low, although it isn’t a government conspiracy as some might suggest. This may have to do with the fact that in China, unlike in most countries, it is customary to put only one cause of death on a death certificate. For example, if a person dies of a preexisting condition and was also treated for coronavirus infection, it would be up to a doctor to choose the cause of death.

– The number deaths and confirmed cases is growing linearly and not exponentially. This would indicate that the China coronavirus is not spreading out of control.

– The number of cured cases has now overtaken the number of deaths and this gap is increasing daily. This was not the case just a few days ago.

– We are approaching an inflection point in the number of new cases which means it’s slowly decreasing although it is still relatively high in absolute numbers.

– The number of infections outside of China is negligible, this means that it hasn’t reached pandemic level. Also, up until this point, there was just one coronavirus related death outside of China (in Philippines). This also suggests that the virus is not as lethal as was initially assumed.

Of course, the situation is still very dynamic and far from certain. Also, our analysis is based on the official statistics from sites like DXY.cn and we should always keep in mind that things still might take turn to the worst.

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There are many things that make Jack Ma unique among China’s business elite, such as his humble upbringing and lack of political connections from the start. Also, as opposed to most founders of successful internet and tech companies in China such as XiaoMi (Lei Jun), Tencent (Ma Huateng) or Baidu (Robin Li), Jack Ma never had any technical background or training.

10 interesting facts about Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma

#1: Pivotal friendship

The pivotal moment in young Jack Ma’s life was meeting and developing friendship with Australian teenager David Morley and his father Ken Morley. They have taught him English and even bought his first apartment. In fact, the English name “Jack” was also given to him by his Australian friends who couldn’t pronounce his Chinese one.

Jack Ma and his Australian pen pal David Morley in Hangzhou

#2: Eye opening trip

In 1985, Jack has spent a month-long vacation in Australia, a trip that, according to him, has changed his life. Here is what he said in one of the interviews: ” Before I left China, I was educated that China was the richest, happiest country in the world. So when I arrived in Australia, I thought, oh, my God, everything is different from what I was told. Since then, I started to think differently.”

#3: Education

Jack Ma couldn’t pass the exams to get into more prestigious universities and had to settle to one of his home city’s “worst” ones – Hangzhou Teachers University.

#4: Job search

After graduation, Jack Ma was having hard time finding a decent job and was even turned down by Kentucky Fried Chicken. Eventually, he found a teaching position that only paid 100 to 120 RMB ($12-15) a month.

#5: Meeting the internet

Next pivotal moment in Ma’s life was a trip to Seattle as a part of trade delegation in 1995. This is where he first experienced the internet. At that moment he realized that whatever he was going to do in the future has to be about the internet.

#6: First business venture

Almost immediately after his return from US, Jack Ma, along with his wife and a friend, raised $20,000 to start an internet company dedicated to making websites for businesses. It was called “China Yellow Pages” and within 3 years it grew to a $800,000 company at which point he quit and returned to Hangzhou to found Alibaba.

#7: Founding Alibaba

Alibaba was founded in 1999 as China-based business-to-business marketplace site that connects Chinese manufacturers with Western buyers. The original investment was just $60,000 from 18 friends that Jack gathered in his apartment to pitch the idea.

#8: First years of Alibaba

By the end of 2002, Alibaba was only breaking even having made almost no profit. The focus was put towards improving the product and continuous learning cycles. Today, the company serves more than 79 million members from more than 240 countries and territories

#9: Tai Chi

Jack Ma is Tai Chi enthusiast having practicing it since 2009. He often hires Tai Chi masters to teach regular classes to employees in Alibaba at which the attendance is mandatory. He hopes to be remembered as Tai Chi master foremost, rather than as a founder of Chinese largest ecommerce firm.

#10: Conservation work

Jack Ma is also a prominent supporter of conservation efforts in China and around the world. He is dedicating full-time attention to his new role as Board of Trustees Chairman for the Conservancy’s China program and has recently made a $5 million gift to the fund.

If you’d like to learn more, get a book by Duncan Clark about Jack Ma: Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built.

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Top 5 China emerging cities with fastest growing local economy

No. 1: Guiyang

Guiyang is the capital of Guizhou province of Southwest China. Guizhou has been the poorest of China provinces with economy heavily relying on state owned enterprises. With the population of 2.8 million, it is now becoming a hub of operations for Chinese giant telecom companies. Private companies are also following the lead with Alibaba setting up cloud-computing facilities in the city.

Guiyang also serves as an important transportation hub for South Western China. The Guiyang–Guangzhou High-Speed Railway began operations on December 26, 2014. Three more high-speed rail lines to Chongqing and Kunming, and Changsha will commence operations within the next few years.

Disposable income per person is currently at USD 5,100, almost half of China’s average of USD 9,800. Guiyang has been ranked number 1 fastest growing local economy by the Economist.

No.2: Xiangyang

Xiangyang is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hubei province. Xiangyang possesses large water energy resources whilst its mineral deposits include rutile, ilmenite, phosphorus, barite, coal, iron, aluminum, gold, manganese, nitre, and rock salt.

Textile production has been the mainstream industry of the area followed by machinery manufacture, chemical processing, electronics, and manufacture of construction materials. However, in the last few years, it has become an attractive destination for industrial transfers, the trend of companies relocating their manufacturing facilities to cheaper locations.

With its population of 1.6 million and disposable income per person stands at USD 4,300 and the city has been ranked at number 2 among China emerging cities.

No.3: Hengyang

Hengyang is the second largest city of Hunan Province after its capital Changsha. The population of the metro area is 1.3 million but if counting the suburbs, it reaches over 7 million people.

As a busy and growing industrial hub and transportation center of Hunan, its economy has traditionally relied on manufacturing of chemicals, agricultural, mining equipment, textiles, paper and processed foods. However, it has also become one of the destination of industrial transfers. Most recently, Taiwanese Foxconn, the main maker of Apple products, has been investing in the city.

Hengyang’s disposable income per person is currently USD 4,900. It has been ranked at number 3 China emerging city.

No.4: Chongqing

Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities in China. Administratively, it is one of China’s four direct-controlled municipalities (the other three are Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin), and the only such municipality in inland China.

It is an enormous city of 8.9 million people and booming real estate market. It is also one of the fastest urbanizing centers in China with more than 1,300 people moving into the city daily, adding almost 100 million yuan (US$15 million) to the local economy.

Chongqing is China’s third largest center for car manufacturing and the largest for motorcycles. US car giant, Ford Motor Company, has 3 plants in Chongqing. In addition to presence of major financial companies (HSBC Standard Chartered Bank Citibank, Deutsche Bank, ANZ Bank, Scotiabank) and retail brands (Wal-Mart, Metro AG, Carrefour), it is also another major site of Foxconn investment.

Chongqing disposable income per person stands at USD 5,400 and is ranked at number 4 among China emerging cities by the Economist.

No.5: Suqian

Number 5 on the Economist scale is Suqian, is a prefecture-level city in northern Jiangsu Province. Suqian has been benefiting from closer integration with the other economic hubs in Jiangsu, one of the most well developed Chinese provinces, and the city’s proximity to both Shanghai and provincial capital Nanjing.

With the population of about 1 million and relatively low disposable income per person (USD 4,100), Suqian is still one of the cheapest location for manufacturing in the province.

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The trade war between two world’s biggest economies, the U.S. and China, is escalating. Since January 2018, we’ve seen rounds of tariffs, applied on various products, impacting negatively local businesses and their customers.

The automobile, tech and agriculture sectors are already suffering from the dispute. Companies manufacturing in China, like Apple or Tesla, are facing a price increase on raw materials which most possibly will result in higher prices of their products and eventually fewer buyers. American farmers report $11.8 billion loss in their personal incomes. Not to mention those, who went bankrupt after introducing the soybean tariff. What is going to happen next?

With the help of a infographic prepared by Trademachines.com you can get a visual insight into the subject, understand what tariffs are, and why Donald Trump turned into protectionism. This visual summary of the war traces back the initial motives of the trade dispute and gives you a timeline of the most relevant events.

US has now imposed new round tariffs on wide range of Chinese made goods worth USD 200 billion overall. China has retaliated with its own tariffs, albeit for only 60 billion.

Naturally, since the trade between the two countries is unbalanced in favor of China (the official pretext of this trade war) America has more opportunities to impose new tariffs on more good rather than China.

Huawei, China’s top tech giant and the world largest telecom equipment maker, has already become the latest casualty of this trade war. The first shots were fired with the arrest of Huawei CFO and the daughter of the founder, Meng Wangzhou.

US and many of its allies stopped doing business with this firm. This even included Google blocking Huawei’s access to its Andriod system updates and Play Store.

China has promised to retaliate and there is a growing popular sentiment aimed at boycotting US firms such as Apple.

Here is the infographic on US-China trade war

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China’s ambitions to impress the world and demonstrate its engineering prowess are best represented by the impressive number of new Chinese skyscrapers dominating the landscapes of country’s large cities.

China has already been on the top of list of leading skyscraper builders worldwide for the last 23 years.

According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, 88 new skyscrapers were completed in China in 2018 alone. Despite the worries of the slowing Chinese economy, this was the record year for the country. This also represents over two thirds of 143 buildings of 200 meters and higher that were completed in 2018.

For the third year in a row, the city of Shenzhen has registered the largest number of completions of 200 meters plus skyscrapers. The city’s fourteen skyscrapers constructions account for nearly ten percent of the global total this year.

The highest Chinese skyscraper in 2018 was the Citic Tower in Beijing with a height of 528 meters. It has ousted Hong Kong’s International Commercial Center from the list of top 10 tallest buildings in the world and is now the eighth tallest skyscraper and the fourth highest in China.

With 108 floors above ground, it is now the eighth tallest building in the world. The second highest skyscraper of 2018 was the Vincom Landmark 81 of 469.5 meters (1,540 feet) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, while another Chinese building is in third place. The 452 meter high (1483 feet) Changsha IFS Tower T1 was built in the city of Changsha.

In another feat of engineering was unveiling a 350-foot waterfall of Liebian Building in southwest part of the country. It flows from the side of the new Chinese skyscraper down to a public plaza in the city’s central business district.

“People in the southwestern city of Guiyang telephoned newspapers to report what they believed was a massive water leak,” the Times of the U.K. reported.

According to the reports, the electricity needed to keep the monstrous mountain of water flowing costs about $118 per hour.

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Singles day is an informal shopping festival in China that has originally celebrated people who are still single. It falls on 11/11 which is meant to symbolize people who are not in a relationship. Since it started back in 2009, it has become the largest shopping event in China, akin Black Friday or Cyber Monday in North America, although much bigger.

Originally, the event was started by Alibaba which began offering discounts on its main shopping platforms, Taobao and Tmall, that lasted for 24 hours. The festival was picked up by other Chinese e-commerce sites like JD.com and now, increasingly, by traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Most of the action still goes online via e-commerce sites and mobile apps.

Every year, the festival kept getting bigger but this year, there were concerns that  it might actually slow down a bit. The main worry was that slowing Chinese economy and the trade war with US would dampen shoppers’ enthusiasm.

“It is possible that there will be a slowdown in growth for Singles Day sales, given that they have had exponential growth in the past,” Xiaofeng Wang, an analyst with Forrester, said before the event.

This did not happen. In fact, 2018 Singles Day raked a whopping $30 billion in the first 24 hours, beating the last year record of $24.2 billion.

Here is the latest data compiled by Statista:

Similar North American events are dwarfed by China’s 2018 Singles Day – the sales on Thanksgiving Day combined with Black Friday are about 5 times smaller.

Attempting to capitalize on seemingly insatiable appetite of Chinese shoppers for foreign products, the event was picked up by platforms outside of China. A recent survey from research firm Oliver Wyman found that 57% of China’s online shoppers consumers were planning to buy goods from overseas during 2018 Singles Day. The top countries that were most popular with the consumers are Japan, USA and Australia.

In addition, Alibaba’s South East Asia subsidiary, Lazada, was offering Singles Day discounts in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

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Geographic distribution of China expat population

Most foreigners live in Guangdong, the richest Chinese province and the first one to lead Chinese economic development after the country started to open up in the late 70s.

Shanghai has the next largest expat population in China that stood at over 209,000 few years ago. It has most likely doubled since then. Beijing is the third largest population center for expats.

Top nationalities in China expat population

According to China-Briefing, South Koreans form the largest foreign community in China at 21% of the total. Large Korean conglomerates such as Samsung and LG have been setting up manufacturing facilities in China, bringing large number of employees to fill top management and key technical positions.

From non-Asian countries, Americans are the most numerous. Most of them have been posted by multinationals which are mostly in manufacturing, logistics and export business.

According to the research by InterNations, 18% of expats were sent to China by their employers and 17% came “for an adventure”. Although, China ranks quite low at the ease of settling down (not surprising given significant culture and language barriers), it scores near the top at personal finance criteria, despite steadily rising cost of living.

Overall, 76% of expats indicated general satisfaction about living in China and only 1% were extremely unhappy.

Air quality and health issues were among the most pressing concern of foreigners. Incidentally, healthcare has been the main area of dissatisfaction of local Chinese as well.

Most recent country report by InterNation breaks down China expat population in more details:

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