Already China’s most-used app, WeChat wants to make itself even more ubiquitous by allowing people to find and play games inside the messaging app. WeChat, which has nearly a billion users, today rolled out a handful of what it calls “mini games.” They’re specially created games that work only within WeChat and don’t require downloading … More WeChat rolls out ‘instant games’ you don’t need to install
It’s hard to understate the transformative power of Chinese travel. The rise of Chinese tourism, both in the number of tourists and spending, is forcing destinations and tourism firms around the world reorient their priorities. But it’s also spurring a transformation in different fields of consumer technology not directly connected to tourism. Read More – … More Chinese Travel is Transforming Consumer Technology
Didi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-hailing platform, is beginning its expansion abroad and into new sectors. Didi has already pushed out foreign competition from Uber in China and now seeks to leverage its dominance in the domestic ride-hailing market to open up opportunities in Taiwan and the fast-growing mobile payments market. The key overlap between these … More Didi pockets $4b to boost AI
and Sets its Sights on the Chinese Tourist
Not even one month after Jing Travel first reported that it looks like the recently-troubled relationship between China and South Korea was thawing, new reports indicate that any progress made on reversing the Chinese ban on travel to South Korea has been undone. The move also comes less than a week after South Korean president … More The Travel Ban is Back for South Korea
A new report from Deloitte shows a surprising leader among China’s luxury online shopping platforms. According to “China’s Luxury Online Consumption Report”, Secoo (寺库中国), a name unfamiliar even to many Chinese e-commerce fans, has grown to 25.3 percent market. They now have a much larger slice than Net-A-Porter, Alibaba’s Mei.com or JD.com’s Farfetch. On November … More How Secoo Leaps to the Top of Luxury E-Tail in China
Various outlets have been claiming that the U.S. tourism industry is experiencing a so-called “Trump Slump.” There is no doubt that President Trump’s rhetoric and his administration’s policies have had a negative impact on inbound tourism to the United States, with the “travel ban” being the most significant overall. But many observers have pointed out … More How Chinese Tourism Can Rally After 2017’s ‘Trump Slump’
Perhaps nowhere is the battle for Chinese tourists’ payments more obvious than in airports. For Alipay and WeChat Pay, presence in international airports is required to maintain the impression that their platforms genuinely are available in the international space. If these payment options aren’t even available in the most international of spaces—the airport—why would Chinese … More WeChat Pay Launches ‘Flagship Airport’ Program in Battle Against Alipay, UnionPay
First came the airlines, then came UnionPay, followed by mobile payment providers—and now: Chinese cellphone carriers. State-owned mobile services giant China Mobile is betting on the future of Chinese travelers (and expatriates) in the United Kingdom with a new partnership with UK telecom incumbent BT Group. The partnership will see China Mobile launch a mobile … More China Mobile Launches UK Carrier for Chinese Tourists
Online shopping giant Alibaba has invested in an electric car startup, it said today. Alibaba confirmed the move this evening to Tech in Asia following rumors in Chinese media about it funding Xpeng(also known as Xiaopeng), which last month launched its first vehicle, the all-electric Identy X SUV. The funding amount isn’t disclosed, but several … More Alibaba invests in electric car startup Xpeng
“Shut up the ping pong table and put away the mahjong tiles. Seventy-seven percent of Chinese people say that online shopping is their “favorite leisure activity”, according to a report released yesterday by KPMG and online shopping platform Mei.com. The fourth annual China’s Connected Consumers survey asked 3,004 people in mainland China about their … More Online Shopping is China’s “National Pastime” – same time the regulators are giving several alerts about a growing debt problem
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