Techbuzz China By Pandaily

This week on TechBuzz China, our hosts Rui Ma and Ying-Ying Lu discuss two major stories in China tech. Rui talks about the upcoming initial public offering of Xiaomi, which will be the world's largest since Alibaba's debut in 2014, and Ying-Ying shares the news of Baidu's new financial services spinoff, called Du Xiaoman Financial, which is already valued at $4 billion. Rui and Ying-Ying take you back through the history of Xiaomi, and in for a close-up look at its legendary founder and CEO, Lei Jun. Why should Lei Jun be compared to Elon Musk instead of Steve Jobs, and why is Xiaomi going public just eight years after its founding? Ying-Ying then gives you the inside dish on the new Du Xiaoman Financial that's raising $1.9 billion at a $4 billion valuation. Rui shares how Alibaba and JD.com have done the same in the past, and explains that these moves skew the capital raising data from China. What does the decision really mean for Baidu, and how does it echo the disaster of LeEco? Tune in to find out! As al

This week on TechBuzz China, our hosts tackle two ambitious stories. First, Rui talks about the seven-year ban the U.S. government announced on sales of American components to Chinese telecom equipment and systems company ZTE, and the overwhelming response from Chinese tech media, which has called the ban a "very rude awakening." China has earmarked billions of dollars for semiconductor R&D and investment, but what impact do these funds have? What is going wrong, and what does this all mean for China's place on the global tech stage? Ying-Ying covers responses to the report released by Human Rights Watch about sexist hiring practices in China's tech sector. The Western media response lies in stark contrast to reactions from within China, and our hosts speculate as to why that is. Given that hiring is only one aspect of gender equality, what does this story say about the current state of gender norms in China's tech industry and how easily things will change? Why is this significant for the future of China

Pinduoduo is the fastest growing ecommerce platform that you have never heard of. It is behind only Taobao and JD.com in the number of users, exceeding JD.com in their monthly gross merchandise volume, and even surpassing Taobao in the penetration rate of users from lower tiered cities. To understand this phenomenon, Rui not only downloaded the app to give us a sense of why it is so popular, but also shared comments by Kathy Xu of Capital Today, an early investor in JD.com, on why she chose not to invest in Pinduoduo. We also had Mark Pols, a former investor from GGV Capital and Morgan Stanley, share his thoughts on how Pinduoduo has tapped into “an enduring human need.” Another trend that is sweeping China is the real estate side of the sharing economy: coworking spaces and offices. Is it a fundamentally real estate business, or does it belong to the service sector? Is WeWork’s purchase of NakedHub a sign that foreign startups can overcome barriers and succeed in China, or is it just the start of another tra

TechBuzz China is a short weekly podcast that talks all about China’s innovation, co-hosted by Rui Ma, who is an angel investor and entrepreneur, and Ying-Ying Lu, who is also an entrepreneur. The two hosts are both China experts who lived and worked in the technology space in China for many years. This week on TechBuzz China, Rui and Ying-Ying talk about the recent news involving three Chinese unicorns: Toutiao, Didi, and Meituan. Toutiao was recently under fire for posting fake ads on their flagship news app, but their punishment came in the form of a permanent ban on their jokes app, Neihan Duanzi, which you can read more about here. Rui compared the Toutiao CEO’s open apology with the Facebook CEO’s congressional hearing happening concurrently in the U.S. Ying-Ying shared news about Didi’s move into food delivery and what it means for the on-demand sector, which you can read about here. She also shared her thoughts and a personal story related to the recent acquisition of Chinese bike-sharing giant, Mob