The first day being an in-home tutor, Chen only felt shocked. She was then majoring in Chinese literature at a prestigious university in Beijing. She saw a message in a Wechat group in need of an in-home tutor teaching both Chinese and English. Wanting to make some pocket money, she took the deal.
Category: Hong Kong

6G Technology, the Race for Telecommunication Dominance
The battle for 6G is already intensifying, although this communication standard remains purely theoretical, but it highlights how geopolitics is fueling the technological rivalry, especially between the US and China. However, it is highly likely the 6G technology will not be available until 2030.

The Poor Kid That Resembles Jack Ma is Home
The kid that looks like Jack Ma is finally back home. On February 19, Fan Xiaoqin’s father, Fan Jiafa, told journalists that his youngest son, after four years of fame, would come back to continue the 4th grade at a local primary school. The man that hired Xiaoqin, Liu Changjiang, terminated the contract earlier this year.

HSBC Exits U.S. Retail Banking Business
HSBC Holdings will announce its 2020 annual results on Tuesday, and the investment community is concerned about the results of its strategic review. The British Financial Times quoted a person familiar with the matter as saying that HSBC will revisit its “pivot to Asia” business strategy and withdraw from retail banking in the United States.

Chinese Internet Troll Arrested for Defaming National Heroes
Since the imprisonment of the provocative Spanish rapper Pablo Hasél on February 16, violent street protests have been going on every night across Spain despite the Covid-19 nightly curfew imposed by the Spanish government. For his “lyrics and tweets that compared Spanish judges to Nazis and called former King Juan Carlos a mafia boss,” among other accusations, Pablo was given a nine-month prison sentence.

Chinese Young People Rush Into National Civil Service Examination in Hope of Stability
Having graduated from one of the best universities in China, Na still hasn’t found a job in six months. “Sometimes I even think about becoming a waitress. But my family wouldn’t allow me. It’s a disgrace for their reputation. But here in Xinjiang, there are barely any good job offers.” Finding no better way out, she signed up for the next National Civil Service Examination (NCSE), which led to a second problem: should she sign up for a training course?

Disney Takes Substantial Hit, Still Profitable
Disney’s performance in the last quarter was unexpectedly profitable. In the first quarter of this fiscal year, it recorded a profit of $17 million, a year-on-year decrease of 99%. After deducting special items, the profit per share was 32 cents, which was better than the market’s expected loss of 41 cents.

Young People Rush into Financial Market in China
A recent report by Tencent shows that in China, over 84% of post-90s (people born after 1990) are doing some sort of personal financial planning (PFP), especially investing in the stocks and the funds. It’s like suddenly, everyone is talking about “Baijiu” (a Chinese liquor), one of the most speculated funds during the last year along with medical stocks.

Young People Find Construction Sites More Comfortable Than Factories in China
Born in 1999, Yang is the youngest construction worker on his team. He has no regrets about working a blue-collar job. Six years ago, dreaming to shine in a big city, Yang came to Xiamen with some friends after finishing only junior high school.
In the beginning, not knowing what to do, he listened to a friend’s idea and signed up for a training course to become a hairdresser. During a whole month, he did nothing but washing hair. “The final exam was to wash the instructor’s hair. If he felt comfortable, course completed. I didn’t even touch any scissors there.”

Shanghai Police Arrest Members of China’s Leading Fansub Team
On February 3, Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau hosted a special press conference that caused deep sadness all over the internet in China.
“The suspects have created several companies since 2018 with overseas servers. They download videos via illegal foreign torrent websites and hire translators to make Chinese subtitles for $60 per episode.

Working Overtime Becomes Normal in China
Everyone knows that Chinese white-collars work overtime, but to what extent? Recently, a study by Zhaopin, one of China’s largest online headhunters, has given us a peek at the truth.
About 81.95% employees work overtime every week, 77.61% of whom do it for free. 24.70% of them even work overtime every day without being paid. The average overtime is 6.45h per week. In 2016, Chinese mobile transportation platform DiDi published a ranking of the companies with the most overtime, the top 3 being JD, Tencent and 58Ganji. The average time of leaving the office at JD was 23:16. DiDi has stopped publishing this ranking, possibly due to PR pressures from such companies. But the situation apparently didn’t improve just because the statistics are no longer disclosed.

Side Hustle – How to Turn Your Ideas into Money
If this is the first time you’re hearing of a side hustle, let me elaborate – generally speaking, a side hustle is something you do “on the side” that brings in extra money, in addition to your mainstream of income. The income your side hustle brings in is often directly related to the effort you put in. It can involve spending 1 to 2 hours a week completing surveys or using rebate programs, or it can be a full-fledged business that you grow in the evenings and weekends, spending 10 to 15 hours a week. Side hustles can bring in anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand a month!

B2B — SAP Hong Kong, Deloitte Team Up
SAP Hong Kong and Deloitte have teamed up to bring an enhanced product solution to their customers. The union deal allows Deloitte to extend SAP products to clients, including SAP GTS which is ideal for global companies that have to deal with international B2B trading compliance issues.

Chinese Couples Get Poorer After Marriage
Recently, a new opinion thread opened on Douban, a Chinese social website where people discuss anything: “How much does a wedding cost? My boyfriend and I are getting married as soon as we’ve saved enough money.” The answers, however, are a bit intimidating.
Even people from small cities or towns claim that a wedding could easily cost them over $30,000, three times the annual GDP per capita in China. Are Doubaners being extravagant or is that the reality nowadays?

Creator of WeChat Blames Keyboard Apps for Stealing User Data
Allen Zhang, known for leading the developments of WeChat, QQMail and FoxMail, three major products of Tencent, announced on this year’s Night of WeChat that WeChat will soon have its own virtual keyboard app. Why? ‘To keep other keyboard apps from stealing user information and chat history.’
“On a daily basis, there are 1.09 billion users texting on WeChat, 330 million of them use it to have a video call. 670 million photos are uploaded on WeChat Moments and over 100 million short videos every day.” Since its first version in 2011, WeChat has now become a must-have for the Chinese people. It’s an app for everything: messaging, social media, mobile payment, food ordering, train and flight tickets booking… Many companies even use it as their main communication tool.

Antitrust Investigation Against Alibaba – Bluff or Just a Start?
In late December 2020, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation announced that they have launched an antitrust investigation against Chinese tech giant Alibaba, whose “pick one” policy has received multiple complaints from its competitors over the years.
The “Pick one” policy dates back to 2013 when Alibaba forced online-shop owners to choose only one place to run their business: either they close their shops on Tmall and Taobao, Alibaba’s own platforms, or they exit all other platforms, especially JD, the second biggest platform at that time. Since 2017, JD has been suing Alibaba for its unreasonable policy.

Buy Bulk Candy on Shop The Globe and Sell eBay or even Amazon – A Sweet Deal
For the past month, Shop The Globe has demonstrated how our site— your new global online wholesale marketplace— beats eBay at providing the popular, name brand products you want at prices you can’t afford to pass up. Thanks to our new vendor, Wholesale B2B, Shop the Globe can enable you to sell these in-demand American products in your shops.

Xiaomi – The Chinese Brand
Founded in 2010, Xiaomi managed to establish itself in China before expanding its international market to the point where it was regularly referred to as the “Chinese Apple”.
With less than 10 years of service, the brand co-founded by several entrepreneurs continues to leverage immense potential, focusing on several products, including smartphones.

Chinese Celebrity Accused of Abandoning Her 2 Surrogate Kids
Zheng Shuang got famous in China thanks to her leading role in the phenomenal TV series Let’s Watch the Meteor Shower in 2009. She has remained one of the top female celebrities for over a decade without other noticeable works. Her pretty face and bold personality have gained her a rather radical fan base, who always defend her all over the internet whenever there is any negative news about Zheng. But things are different this time.

Mask Up Direct from Manufacturers at Shop The Globe
The benefits of buying direct from manufacturers are well known, and Shop The Globe has made it easier than ever. Shop The Globe offers all the benefits of direct-from-manufacturer shopping, bringing you the items you want at a low price, with more control over the sales process, and a more personal connection between consumer and manufacturer.

Shop The Globe Prices Beat eBay on Hygiene Products
A month ago, we at Shop The Globe showed how customers and retailers can buy popular American brand name products, via our new vendor, Wholesale B2B, to sell in their shops and yours. The example we gave were hygiene products. As a follow-up, we decided to show further how our prices compare to the competition, and in particular, eBay.

Knowledge Anxiety – Paid Study Rooms Thrive in China
Unlike traditional cafés, Paid Study Rooms (PSRs), the name already gives away how it works: people pay to self-study here. Many of them bear the word “dream” in it, like Dream Runner, Dream Seeker or Dream Builder. In this society where competition and hardworking are extensively encouraged, PSR has just started its journey.

Buy Direct from Manufacturers at Shop the Globe and Save
At Shop the Globe, we’ve made it easier than ever to buy the items you want at a low price, direct from manufacturers. In a short time, we’ve also been able to offer more features and capabilities than other, more established wholesale sites, and decisively beat the prices of a certain, famous auction site.

Founder of Alibaba Becomes the Symbol of Capitalism in China
Where is Jack Ma? The whole world is wondering what has happened to one of the richest men in China, who used to have a very high profile and now has disappeared for over two months. The founder of Alibaba didn’t even show up in Africa’s Business Heroes as scheduled, a TV show funded by Jack Ma Foundation. Concerns and speculations over his current situation have been circulating in China.

Shop The Globe Beats eBay — Save on Bulk Candy
Shop The Globe, your one-stop wholesale shopping networked experience, is already a great place to stock up on in-demand, brand name items and keep your storefronts full. But how well does it stand up against the competition? We did some comparison shopping to show how you can save on popular items with Shop The Globe, versus eBay.

Esources UK Wholesale Suppliers vs Shop The Globe and Searches – Which B2B Wholesale Website Provides You With a Better Service?
If you’re looking for a 20 year old directory list with almost no real search capabilities, Esources UK Wholesale Supplies is your source. If, like most wholesale buyers or sellers, you’re looking for a one stop website location that offers very good search capabilities, that is Shop The Globe.

Chinese Internet Users Indignant at Another Young Karoshi
Right before the new year, on December 29, Zhang didn’t leave work until 01:30 a.m. While walking home with her colleagues, she suddenly fainted. Even though she was immediately sent to a local hospital in Urumchi, she still passed away six hours later.
The tragedy had been circulating unperceivably on the internet, until it trended on January 3. One day later, on Zhihu, people started to spread a screenshot of a post by the official account of tech giant Pinduoduo:

Buy Direct from Manufacturers Globally at Shop the Globe
The internet has democratized the human experience in ways once unimaginable even two decades ago. News and information is available at one’s fingertips instantly, from sports scores to stock tips. New connections and friendships can be formed, bringing past pen pals together in an instant. This, of course, extends to the world of commerce.

Hong Kong Re-Arrests Jimmy Lai
A Hong Kong court on Thursday once again issued an arrest warrant for businessman Jimmy Lai, a notable critic of China who had been granted house arrest on bail. Lai’s case is the first to involve a person accused of violating the new National Security Law, which many see as a test of the territory’s judicial independence.

Wholesale Central Directory Listing vs Shop The Globe and Searches – Which Website Provides You With a Better Service?
When Google came out with a new search engine, it became a far better solution for searching based on the criteria you put in, and this new company transformed the entire search industry. Before Google most products on the internet were listed and then purchased indirectly from yes directories. So called search engines in the early days like Yahoo (which had a dominant position early) were simple listing directories.

Rich Chinese Couples Explore New Form of Marriage
Will China get old before it gets rich? This is an important question frequently discussed in China and by its rivals. It’s a matter of national power. The answer, according to most, is Yes. And it is already happening. Statistics from the CIA show that China has the same median age as the US, which is not a good sign for a developing country where the income per capita is not even half the level of a common developed-country.

Shop The Globe Offers New, Brand Name Products for the New Year
Shop The Globe, your new, online global wholesaler, understands the value and demand of name brand products. The name and logo on the package conveys a sense of distinctiveness from competing products and cultivates brand loyalty— and increasing, dependable demand with it.

Values Expressed by Chinese Government Unsettle Internet Users
Ding Zhen became famous overnight. On November 11, a 7-second video of him was uploaded to TikTok, in which he simply smiled slowly to the camera. It went viral and trended on many social platforms. Internet users are deeply charmed by his raw beautiful face. But no one could have foreseen how the story would unravel itself.

Linking to a Global Value Chain – How to Build a More Efficient Sales Process
Using the global value chain as a selling tool is a new phenomenon. Listing can also help you uncover a competitive advantage over rival businesses, boosting company profits and enticing new customers. Global Trade accounted for 54% to 60% of all worldwide sales in the last few years. So you can benefit from global sales.

Shop the Globe Offers Name Brand Products at Wholesale Prices
At Shop the Globe, we understand the struggle wholesalers face, during good times and bad, to keep your storefronts stocked with high-demand products at affordable prices. Dozens of vendors have already signed up with our new, global, online wholesale outlet, selling products from all over the world to wherever their customers may be.

Three Ways to Help Your Business Global Value Chain
Global Trade accounted for 54% to 60% of all worldwide sales in the last few years. We would like to help you find the first key steps to increasing your company’s global trade.
The first step toward improving your global trade is to find global key sources and suppliers. It is becoming apparent that companies are reducing their overall reliance on China, which currently has about 28% of global manufacturing. This is creating new and incredible opportunities away from China.

Concerns Over the Future of Community Group Buying in China
The concept of community group buying (CGB) started in Changsha in 2016, when several local supermarkets explored selling daily necessities online. Neighbors of the same residential unit could participate together to make a big order, and the supermarkets would deliver the orders at once in a few days.

Parents’ Anxiety Creates a New Multi-Billion Market in China
“The next Bill Gates will be someone who starts programming as a toddler.”
“In the future, illiteracy means not knowing how to code.”
Recently, many education companies in China offer programming lessons for kids from 4 years old. Such lessons consist in using toy blocks to construct required shapes and interacting with robots. A 40-minute lesson costs about $15, while a full training course usually contains more than 40 lessons.

The Marriage Between the Deceased in China
In 2008, Li Zhong suspected that his wife, Kang Cuicui, was cheating on him. They had a fight and Kang ran away. She went to a hotel and drank paraquat, an acute toxic herbicide without antidote. Her family was outraged, and Li’s parents had to spend over $15,000 to bury her properly in the family tombs. On November 14, 2020, when they went to clean the tombs, Li found out that Kang’s tomb had recently been dug up and buried again. They called the police and opened the coffin, only to find nothing inside but a big red carrot.

Shop the Globe Now Sells Wholesale Brand Names at Incredibly Low Prices
Dozens of vendors from around the world have been rushing to create storefronts on the new global wholesale outlet Shop the Globe. They sell products from the United States, Ghana, Australia, Hong Kong and France just to name a few.
Now hundreds of brand name American Products are available at prices that will astound you. Buyers can find brand names such as 5-Hour energy, Baby Ruth, Advil, Chips Ahoy and Claritin just to name a few.

New Internet Fraud on the Rise in China
The Covid pandemic has greatly reduced social interactions in the real world, which becomes a big opportunity for online dating apps. They not only survived but thrived during this difficult time. However, you never know who is on the other side of the phone. In China, internet fraud is living its life this year.

Pompeo: Hong Kong Another City Controlled by CCP
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned business leaders that the United States will treat Hong Kong like other cities in mainland China. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam jumped out to argue that Hong Kong’s status as a global trade and financial center will not change.

Why Are Global Value Chains So Important?

Global Value Chain or sometimes referred to as Global Supply Chain (GVCs) are possibly the world’s strongest drivers of productivity growth, job creation, and increased living standards for both countries and companies.
- GVCs make a significant contribution in international growth and development. Value-added global trade contributed about 30% to the GDP of developing countries.
- GVCs are coordinated across geographies.
- Companies and countries that embrace them have proven to grow faster, import skills capital and technology, and boost employment.
- A Global Value Chain has proven to sell products and do marketing on a low cost digital marketing globally.
- With GVC-driven development, countries over time generate growth by moving to higher-value-added tasks and by embedding more technology and know-how in all aspects of their business helping to leap-frog their global competitors.

Long Commute is “Killing” Workers in China
“Every morning when I get on the subway, I feel like a pig on a slaughterhouse truck, waiting to be sacrificed.” Hu Yun spends over three hours each day on commute. In Beijing, she’s far from alone.
According to a report by Alipay, Beijing is the earliest city in China to wake up. Millions of people have to get up at 5 am when it’s still dark outside, rushing into the center of Beijing and then coming back at night. It’s Beijing’s tide. The average commute there surpasses half a marathon. “Just getting to the company already takes away all my energy. What is spare time? When I get home I only want to lie down because it’s almost midnight.”

Brands Remain Committed to Wholesale Despite Problems
Last month, in a widely-reported survey, nearly 700 small to enterprise-level brands gave their thoughts on the future of wholesale. The survey found that 80% of brand executives surveyed do not have a negative outlook on the future of wholesale, and in fact, 90% plan to continue investing in the wholesale side of their businesses.

Chinese Government Targets Private Credit Products
On December 4, Beijing Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party Beijing Municipal Committee, posted on Weibo an article titled “The Young Generation that Got Stuck in Huabei.” According to a study, there are 175 million people born between 1990 and 1999 in China, the so-called “post-90s.” Only 13.4% of them claim that they avoid any debt, while 86.6% have tried credit products, the most popular ones being Huabei and Jiebei, two credit services offered by Ant Group.

The Simplest Way for Manufacturers to Buy and Sell Online Worldwide
Manufacturing Buyer is changing
The world markets for manufacturers and online eCommerce has and is radically changing. Where today’s buyers of manufactured goods are rapidly adopting the newer approaches, they are adopting a much faster and more effective shopping path for manufactured goods, especially in developing counties.

Census Continues to Provide Promising News for U.S. Wholesalers
Getting in one last bit of work before the long weekend, the US Census Bureau released its Monthly Advance Economic Indicators Report for October on the day before Thanksgiving. Advance wholesale inventories were up for the month of October, by 0.9%. The August to September percentage change was revised from up, 0.4% to up 0.7%.

Hong Kong — Joshua Wong Remanded Over Protests
Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong pleaded guilty to inciting and staging illegal demonstrations in the Special Administrative Region, and risks up to five years in prison. The activist was remanded in custody on Monday after the first court hearing in his case, related to his involvement in pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong last year.