Monday, September 02, 2013

Internet companies going global - China Weekly Hangout

Lionel Messi
When the soccer player Lionel Messi appeared in commercials by Tencent's WeChat this summer, we knew something big was happening. Even a month earlier, we cancelled an update of the China Weekly Hangout of November last year on the global aspirations of China's internet companies, because there was not that much to update. But things can change fast in China.

WeChat has signed up over 150 million users outside China, since Messi was retained for the commercials. Sina Weibo has been setting up offices in Singapore and Indonesia. And there is the looming IPO by Alibaba, which will provide the company with a huge warchest to go global. And we might forget about Baidu, that still has a lot of money to spend. And then there was Xiaomi retaining +Hugo Barra from Google for its global aspirations. Did we forget anything big?
China's companies are going global, partly because high growth domestically is not that high anymore. But what do they have to offer to the outside world? Many pundits argue Chinese companies are unable to innovate, let alone offer the world outside China something worthwhile.

The +China Weekly Hangout on Thursday 5 September will dive into this issue together with +Steven Millward of +Tech in Asia, and perhaps you can participate too, of you register at our event page.
The China Weekly Hangout will be broadcast on Thursday 5 September live at this page, at our event page, and at our YouTube page on 10pm Beijing, 4pm CEST (Europe) and 10am EST (US/Canada). You can also leave your questions or remarks here in the comments.
China Weekly Hangout

Can China really innovated, the +China Weekly Hangout discussed in October last year, with political scientist +G. E. Anderson and China consultant at-large Janet Carmosky. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.



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