Showing posts with label Hangzhou. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hangzhou. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Jack Ma’s new packaged food enterprise – Ben Cavender

 

Ben Cavender

Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder, surprisingly got public again by investing in “Hangzhou Ma’s Kitchen Food”, selling prepared food. Business analyst Ben Cavender looks at the new move at CNN. “Packaged meals are becoming increasingly popular,” he told CNN.

CNN:

The Chinese market for ready meals — food that is ready to heat and eat — was worth about 71.1 billion yuan ($9.9 billion) last year, up about 28% from 2018, according to Euromonitor International.

Demand for other types of pre-packaged food has also shot up, with the market for meal kits — food boxes that require simple assembly or cooking — nearly tripling from 10.6 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in 2018 to 29.1 billion yuan ($4 billion) in 2022, Euromonitor data showed.

While the focus of Ma’s venture is not immediately clear, “this is a space that has a tremendous amount of room for innovation,” said Ben Cavender, managing director of China Market Research Group, a strategy consultancy.

“Packaged meals are becoming increasingly popular,” he told CNN. “Consumers in some cases are choosing these meals as they are trading down and not dining out as much, but are also choosing them for access to variety and due to time constraints.”

He said habits formed during the pandemic — to stay in and opt for convenient food options — as well as an economic slowdown in China were likely prompting more people to turn their attention to the space.

“If, instead, this ends up being more about sales of fresh foods like fruit, there is also demand for a wider variety of high-quality options and reasonable prices, and this is a space where his ties to e-commerce … would add value,” Cavender added.

More at CNN.

Ben Cavender is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more branding experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Private companies: not free of government control - Paul Gillis

Paul Gillis
The Hangzhou government raised eyebrows as it announced last week it would send 100 officials to private companies to check on them. Professor Paul Gillis at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management did not see that much news, he tells Bloomberg.

Bloomberg:
Government agencies may also be heightening their monitoring of the vast private sector at a time the Chinese economy is decelerating — raising the prospect of destabilizing job cuts as enterprises try to protect bottom lines. 
Alibaba is hosting its annual investors’ conference this week in Hangzhou against the backdrop of a worsening outlook for the country. 
“They might be checking whether the [Chinese] Communist Party [CCP] units are working effectively within the companies,” said Paul Gillis, a professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. 
“While China legitimized capitalism, the level of government influence was never intended to disappear. Occasionally private entrepreneurs forget about this and are reminded of it,” Gillis added. 
Zhejiang is considered the cradle of modern Chinese private enterprise, home to a generation of self-made billionaires from Alibaba’s Jack Ma (馬雲) and Geely founder Li Shufu (李書福) to Wahaha’s Zong Qinghou (宗慶后).
More in Bloomberg.

Paul Gillis is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more political analysts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Jack Ma's retirement plan: a unique step - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf
Chairman Jack Ma of Alibaba has been one of his kind in developing his company, and his retirement plan is no different, says Rupert Hoogewerf, the Shanghai-based founder of the Hurun Report, publisher of the China Rich List to the US News. "There's only Bill Gates who has done the same."

US News:
Ma, who turned 54 on Monday, has long flagged plans to step back, insisting that Alibaba management should be relatively young and his retirement is not expected to affect the running of the company.
But it is still extremely rare for a founder of big and transformative tech firm, especially one with a cult-like status like Ma, to retire so early. 
"There's only Bill Gates who has done the same. No other tech founder in the world has just resigned like that at the top," said Rupert Hoogewerf, Shanghai-based founder of the Hurun Report, which publishes an annual influential list of China's richest people. 
Hoogewerf added that in China, Ma was a figure like no other, with friends ranging from movie stars to billionaire moguls, though he often outshone them all. "He's the big one, he's the one that brings them together."
Ma will give up the chairman role in exactly one year on Sept. 10, 2019 and complete his current term on Alibaba's board of directors following the company's annual general meeting in 2020, the company said. He relinquished the role of chief executive in 2013.
More in US News.

Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more experts on China's take on its digital transformation? Do check out this list.

Tuesday, February 06, 2018

Zhejiang: the new hot spot for billionaires - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf
Zhejiang province, with its capital Hangzhou, have developed into a preferred destination for billionaires, says Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of the Hurun China rich list. Zhejiang not only passed domestic cities like Beijing and Shanghai, but also Paris and San Francisco in the 2018 Hurun report, writes the Digital Journal.

The Digital Journal:
Explaining the winning formula of the province to CNNMoney in 2016, Jack Ma, billionaire CEO of leading online platform e-commerce platform, Alibaba, and native of Hangzhou in Zhejiang, had attributed the economic achievements of the province to “It's... surroundings, culture, (and) history". 
Today, such environment, culture, and history cited have seen the region produce 72 billionaires, 32 of which live in the capital city of Hangzhou - that's two more than Paris and four more than California's San Francisco. Notable among the 72 billionaires from the region are Neil Shen, founder of Sequoia Capital China; Ding Lei, founder of NetEase; and Li Shufu, founder of Geely Auto Group, which owns Volvo and is based in Hangzhou. With a population that makes up just about 5% of China's population, the region produces about 15% of the country's richest people, according to Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman, Hurun Report. 
But that's not all. Beyond the individual billionaire count, Zhejiang's overall economic stats are equally mouth-watering. With a staggering GDP of 5.1768 trillion RMB which is 766.7 billion USD for the year 2017 (bigger than the GDP of Netherlands in 2016!), the Province of Zhejiang has become a glowing haven of wealth creation.
More in the Digital Journal.

Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more stories by Rupert Hoogewerf? Do check out this list.  

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Alibaba IPO pushes Hangzhou up - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf
Rupert Hoogewerf
Alibaba´s IPO might have made a lot of people and banks more wealthy, especially Hangzhou - the birthplace of the eCommerce giant - will benefit. Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of the Hurun rich list, expects more expensive sport cars in the Hangzhou streets, he tells in USA Today.

USA Today:
China's newly prosperous typically rush into real estate, cars and luxury items such as expensive watches, said Rupert Hoogewerf, the Shanghai-based publisher of Hurun, China's best-known "Rich List." "Inevitably, more sports cars will be sold in Hangzhou than before," said Hoogewerf, who expects Hangzhou may rise from fifth place on Hurun's ranking of Chinese cities with most millionaires, based on U.S. dollars. 
"The biggest challenge to somebody who got rich overnight is the change in lifestyle. Some turn to gambling, others live a lifestyle not commensurate to their wealth," he said. "But these tech people are slightly different. They put a lot of heart and soul into the business," said Hoogewerf, who expects that many Alibaba millionaires will buy property but also re-invest a significant amount in other start-ups.
More in USA Today.

Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you interested in more experts on luxury goods at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out our recent list.

Friday, August 05, 2011

Corruption and executions in Suzhou - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
Suzhou resident Bill Dodson talks about the executing of his corrupt vice-mayor to Paul French of the Ethical Corporation in a podcast. Local debts are becoming a liability and local officials paying with their lives. A look behind China's corrupt economy.

Two high profile executions of the former mayor of Hangzhou and a vice-mayor of Suzhou triggers off speculations on what might behind those high-level capital punishments at a local level. Bill Dodson expects that the attention for the problem of local debts - some of the earlier ones after the first global crisis started - are due very soon.

"It is a signal to local officials," Bill Dodson says. Also, the upcoming change in government in 2012 triggers off internal struggles where communist officials have to rally behind certain issues and leaders, well ahead of the transition.

You can listen to the podcast at the Ethical Corporation

Both Bill Dodson and Paul French are speaker on the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need them at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch. 
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Sunday, May 27, 2007

Shanghai finds excuse to halt Maglev expansion


Transrapid on fire

The expansion of the Maglev or transrapid from Shanghai to Hangzhou has been suspended for fear of radiation, state media wrote this weekend. (h/t CDT). Official reason is the concern of citizens for their health.
An official with the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress confirmed a major reason for the suspension was the radiation concerns from residents living along the proposed route.

While I'm not a radiation expert, it sounds to me like a load of bullshit that is being used to look good in the eyes of the concerned citizens and to hide the real reason: the high costs. Accidents both a fire in Shanghai and a derailment in Germany had already complicated the negotiations with the German participants, the New York Times writes.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Big buildings and no fear of the GFW


Big building in Hangzhou

It is always fun to get reports from first-time visitors to China. Jeremy Zawodny was invited for a techie conference by Alibaba in Hangzhou and is still coming to terms with his jet lagged impressions.
People here seem not to think much of the Great Firewall. The technology savvy folks I talked to said that those who really want to get around it know how to, so it kind of doesn't matter.
If Hangzhou is representative of other similarly sized (or larger) cities, China is truly in the middle of a renaissance. Looking around, it's not hard to guess which of the
stores and large buildings are less than 5 years old. And there's a lot of new demolition and re-building going on.
Welcome in reality. Nothing beats a few own observations. More here.

BTW: The name Hoffa, when I use it in Google News search, triggers off some problems. Maybe he is not welcome in China?