We need your help to create Season 2 of Digitally China!Just got a few short questions for you here: https://radiichina.com/digitally-china-2019-wrap/As many of our loyal listeners might have felt, Digitally China has been taking a short break. But don’t worry, we’ll be coming back with Season 2 in no time.Throughout the 26 episodes of Season 1 we’ve really appreciated all the support and feedback from our fantastic listeners who have tuned in to the bi-weekly series. Thanks to this feedback, Season 2 of Digitally China will see a few changes. We will fine-tune the format a bit ..read more

This episode of Digitally China is about Brian Wong, his experiences from being part of the early days of Alibaba but at the same time also a story about how it was to first-hand be part of how China grew from almost nothing to the largest internet market in the world.  The location is a hotel in San Francisco, the year is 1999. The internet hype is in its peak. United States at this moment have over 100 million internet users, 10 times more than the much larger country in the East, China. While his friends are leaving school to join the company that seems to be the next big thing, G ..read more

In the latest Digitally China we’re looking back on history. Meituan-Dianping is China’s clear market leader within group buying, offline discovery and online-offline services today. But it wasn’t that clear a few years back. In fact, the opposite was true, with the American giant Groupon entering China backed by a powerful partner in Tencent. In a hyper-competitive environment, there were suddenly thousands of group-buying services all fighting for the position that Meituan has today.For a sense of what that time was like, we interviewed Tim He, who was a senior execu ..read more

The business of selling clicks and fake accounts is the scourge of social media today, where anyone from wannabe influencers to political saboteurs can purchase likes, followers, and even comments.In China, the issue is so severe that nearly a third of the country’s internet traffic last year was rated “abnormal”, according to third-party advertising data monitor Miaozhen Systems.And though Chinese social media platforms from WeChat to Weibo to RED have repeatedly cracked down on fake and bot accounts, the shady business behind the “like” economy is alive and well.In this episode of Digitally ..read more

In the latest episode of Digitally China, Tom is joined by Jill Tang, co-founder of Ladies Who Tech, an influential Chinese organization focusing on entrepreneurship and gender diversity in China. As someone who works in the unique cross-section of tech, diversity, multinational companies, and market-entry in China, Jill shares her observations and thoughts on how multinational companies can be more gender inclusive in China, and how China's younger and more international workforce is changing work culture in the country.Topics covered in this episode:- Ladies Who Tech & gender divers ..read more

Companies around the world are latching onto social commerce, but in China, where mobile payments are ubiquitous and consumers are extra wary of fake goods, the integration between social media and online shopping has been especially fast. That doesn’t mean it’s a silver bullet for brands though -- or even the multi-billion dollar internet celebrity industry, where influencers are tasked with advertising products without appearing too commercial.In this episode of Digitally China, we’ll discuss Xiaohongshu or RED, which is often compared to Instagram and Pint ..read more

In China’s fast-growing tech industry, it’s easy to focus on exciting new products and businesses while overlooking one of the most important elements of any company: the talent.Inthis episode, we look at how the recruiting process at Chinese tech firms does -- and doesn’t -- differ from that of multinational firms, and how China's new wave of tech professionals view their career options.EpisodeOutline: - Incentives/disincentives for working at multinational firms vs. Chinese internet companies - The importance of 996 or working overtime - Probation and the concept of “hire fast, fire fast ..read more

Corporate offerings such as secondary listings and IPO’s from Chinese tech companies are accelerating. This year alone we have seen 161 such events, which is already 72% of entire last year. Why do Chinese tech companies turn to public markets to raise capital? Why are the Hong Kong stock exchange increasingly popular? And how does the domestic Chinese stock market fit in all this for tech companies? In the latest episode of Digitally China we are interviewing the co-host of China Tech Investor podcast James Hull to get an understanding of the latest trends and what all of this means ..read more

(The previous publication was not the full version due to a technical bug. This is an upload of the full episode - sorry for that!)Chinese telecoms giant Huawei is one of China’s largest success stories in tech.No other domestic tech firm has been able to grow its business overseas around the world and beat the competition the way the Shenzhen-based company has, despite keeping a relatively low profile.But over the past six months, Huawei has found itself increasingly in the limelight and under public scrutiny. After the arrest of one of its top executives in December and an escalating trade w ..read more

Chinese telecoms giant Huawei is one of China’s largest success stories in tech.No other domestic tech firm has been able to grow its business overseas around the world and beat the competition the way the Shenzhen-based company has, despite keeping a relatively low profile.But over the past six months, Huawei has found itself increasingly in the limelight and under public scrutiny. After the arrest of one of its top executives in December and an escalating trade war, the Chinese telecoms company has become a symbol for both China’s technological rise and ambition -- and the threat that poses ..read more