Starbucks should focus on China for future expansion – Shaun Rein

 

Shaun Rein

Starbucks sold its stake in its South-Korean joint venture, worth in total over US$2 billion. The best they can do, is reinvest their capital in expansion in China, says business analyst Shaun Rein to Reuters. “Using the sale of its South Korean operations will equip it with more cash that it can deploy to China,” Rein said.

Reuters:

South Korea is Starbucks’ fifth-largest market with more than 1,500 stores across 78 cities, but analysts said that the country offers little growth opportunity for the world’s largest coffee chain due to its mature and saturated market.

“South Korea … would not be a market for major growth in the coming years. It’s better for them to sell their stake use the capital and proceeds to invest in faster growth markets like China,” China Market Research Group analyst Shaun Rein said.

The U.S. company has in recent years been expanding globally especially in China as its largest market – the United States – saturates and grapples with stiff competition. Sales from China in its latest second-quarter report nearly doubled.

“Using the sale of its South Korean operations will equip it with more cash that it can deploy to China,” Rein said.

More in Reuters.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your (online) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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Starbucks picks Beijing over Hong Kong - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Starbucks found itself in hot water as the protesters turned against Maxim, the major franchise holder of the coffee outlet in Hong Kong. When it has to choose between Hong Kong and Beijing, Starbucks will pick China's central government, says business analyst Shaun Rein according to Fortune.

Fortune:

For Starbucks, the politicization of their Hong Kong stores comes at an inopportune moment, as they plan further expansion into China in the face of new, homegrown competition. 

The approximately 170 Starbucks outlets in Hong Kong pale in comparison to mainland China, where Starbucks has already opened 4,000 stores in over 160 cities, with plans to reach 6,000 outlets by 2022. And unlike in Hong Kong, Starbucks fully owns its outlets in China. 

Starbucks is increasingly staking its financial future on growth in the Chinese market. 

Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz said in 2017 that as the Chinese market expands, the company would become less dependent on U.S. business. “China will become a much more important component of the financial results of Starbucks,” Schultz said. 

This means that as the protests in Hong Kong forge on, Starbucks’ main concern may be to appease authorities in the Chinese government. Shaun Rein, the managing director of China Market Research, recently told the Financial Times that Starbucks "can’t do anything to alienate Beijing.”

More in Fortune. Shaun Rein 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.

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China's consumers hate to go for a premium product - Ben Cavender

Ben Cavender

Competition between Starbucks and Luckin has been heating up, and Luckin seems to focus on a higher segment of the market. But business analyst Ben Cavender warns the company might fall into a sword it helped to create itself, he tells to Reuters.

Reuters:

Luckin CEO Qian Zhiya said the company was on track to break even at a store level at every store during the third quarter because rising scale would it give it more bargaining power to lower input costs. Store level costs exclude marketing expenses. 

Ben Cavender, Shanghai-based principal at China Market Research Group, cautioned that might prove to be a tall order. 

"It's difficult because they have trained consumers to only want to go to the stores when there are big discounts," he said, adding that each store does not attract enough customers to cover cost of operations. 

"Eventually they will probably have to cut non-performing stores and find a way to convince people that they have improved coffee quality along with slightly higher prices."

More in Reuters.

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Starbucks competitor Luckin struggles to hold on - Ben Cavender

Ben Cavender

The first quarter of China's coffee maker Luckin after it's US IPO earlier this year proved to be a rough one, as shares dropped. Luckin has a of work to do to catch up with competitor Starbucks, says retail analyst Ben Cavender to Reuters.

Reuters:

Luckin has gone toe-to-toe with Starbucks in China since it opened its doors early last year and the results highlight the Chinese company’s high cash-burn rate as it offers cut-price alternatives. 

Luckin’s operating expenses surged more than three times in the June quarter, as it opened 593 new stores taking its total to 2,963, about 1,000 fewer than Starbucks. 

On an adjusted basis, Luckin lost 48 cents per share. Analysts expected a loss of 43 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. 

“(While) Luckin probably has done slightly better in the most recent quarter in terms of acquiring and keeping customers, the company is still having to work on aggressive recruiting of customers, which hurts the bottom line,” Ben Cavender, Shanghai-based principal at China Market Research Group, said before the results were released. 

Luckin has also expanded beyond coffee, allowing customers to buy food and other beverages via its app.... 

Analysts reckon both coffee companies will soon see more competition from smaller rivals. 

“At home Luckin is facing increasing competition both from quick service restaurant brands like KFC that are placing greater emphasis on coffee, as well as smaller chains like Manner Coffee that are using somewhat similar business models to interact with the consumer,” said Cavender. 

Luckin’s total net revenue surged more than seven-fold to 909.1 million yuan in the June quarter.

More in Reuters.

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How the trade war can turn sour for American brands - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

McDonald's, Starbucks, KFC and Burger King are some of the American consumer brands in China who can get burned as the trade war heats up further, says business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China's Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order, to the South China Morning Post.  

The South China Morning Post.

China is a prime market for US empires like Starbucks, KFC and McDonald’s, while Burger King recently announced plans to expand its presence there. 

“There is a huge risk in general for American brands, but especially for iconic ones like Starbucks,” said Shaun Rein, managing director at China Market Research Group. “With increased competition, combined with nationalism, and the trade war as a back drop, it is very possible Chinese consumers will boycott McDonald's and Starbucks and instead go to Chinese brands.” 

KFC makes up China’s largest network of restaurants, with 8,200 outlets and is the largest fast-food brand. It had a 5.2 per cent share of the market, worth US$6.63 billion, last year. Illinois-founded McDonald’s was in second place with a 2.4 per cent market share worth US$3.14 billion, and Florida-based Burger King was fourth, with 0.6 per cent, according to market research provider Euromonitor International... 

In April, messages emerged on Chinese social media urging people to boycott American firms. Little impact has been seen so far, said Rein, but “if this trade war gets worse I could very easily see the government targeting Western brands.” 

“So far in this trade battle the Chinese government have been very measured. They have criticised Trump but not American companies,” he said. “However, we have started to see in the last two weeks more Chinese getting angry at America because they view this is as no longer a trade war but a containment strategy – that Trump is using it as an excuse to contain China’s long-term economic rise, rather than iron out trade issues.

“These companies could come in for a rough time.” 

Florida-based hamburger restaurant Burger King has big plans. Daniel Schwartz, CEO of parent company Restaurant Brands International, recently said they plan to focus their global expansion on China. They intend to open more than 150 branches of the Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons, for the first time. 

“It is unlikely timing for them, but the reality is that you have to plan five to 10 years down the line. The hope is that the trade war will pass over the next six to 12 months and you need to go where the growth is,” said Rein.

More at the South China Morning Post.

Shaun Rein 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.

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Can Luckin beat Starbucks? - Ben Cavender

Ben Cavender

Competition is a key feature in China's industries, but coffee retailer Starbucks never faced those challenges. Now Luckin emerges, and Starbucks has no longer a free ride, tells business analyst Ben Cavender to the New York Times.

The New York Times:

In May, Luckin sued Starbucks, arguing that the U.S. chain had signed exclusive contracts with commercial property owners that barred other coffee shops from entering the space if a Starbucks was already there. 

It’s not going to be easy to oust Starbucks, which has 3,400 stores in more than 140 cities in China and plans to nearly double that by 2022. 

Ben Cavender, senior analyst of China Market Research, a consultancy based in Shanghai, estimates that it has a 70 per cent share of the market, blazing past other coffee chains like McDonald’s McCafé and Costa Coffee. But the company must prove it can stay on the cutting edge. 

“The challenge is that consumers are much pickier about the experience they get now; they have other good options that have standardized quality and potentially a more interesting environment,” Cavender said. “So Starbucks has to do a better job. It’s not a clear win anymore.”

More at the New York Times.

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Next in the trade war, the consumers? - Shaun Rein/Victor Shih

Victor Shih

China has been reluctantly been shooting back with tariffs at US imports up to know in the Donald Trump trade war. It might be even more reluctant to use the powerful tool of its consumers in the trade war, says political analyst Victor Shih in the Financial Post. But it could, and Apple and Starbucks should prepare, says business analyst Shaun Rein on Fox News.

Financial Post:

China has been careful to pose as the good guy in this fight. The spectacle of Beijing unleashing nationalist boycotts on Procter & Gamble Co., Coca-Cola Co. and Apple would make that facade harder to maintain, and give ammunition to the U.S. argument that China’s economy is ultimately a tool of the Party. 

The lack of consumer boycotts is “a bit unusual, but consistent with the Chinese rhetoric that China would be a defender of the global trading order,” Victor Shih, an associate professor and expert on China at the University of California, San Diego, said. “The reality is that the status quo allows China to protect many of its industries, so China wants to maintain the status quo.” 

Don’t count on that forbearance continuing if tensions escalate. In all, Chinese subsidiaries of U.S. companies had about US$223 billion in revenue in 2015, according to Deutsche Bank AG. Reduce those sales by just 20 per cent – a rather modest target, given what consumer boycotts did to Korean firms last year – and you’ve already done US$45 billion in damage, more than equivalent to the 10 per cent tariff the U.S. is threatening to levy on a further US$400 billion of imports if Beijing doesn’t back down.

Fox News:

Shaun Rein, managing director at the China Market Research Group in Shanghai, told The Post that the Chinese government could stoke anti-American sentiments among consumers, similar to its boycotts last year on South Korea’s Lotte Group, causing dozens of their stores to close. “If I was Starbucks or Apple,” he said, “I would be scared right now.”

More in the Financial Post and Fox News.

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How brands can overcome political problems - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff

Cartoon Peppa Pig was the latest to get into China's political crosshairs, but it was not the first and will not be the last, says branding expert Tom Doctoroff. For Mumbrella Asia he gives a quick overview of those problems, and some tips to avoid them, and limit the damage when you get caught.

Tom Doctoroff:

But, once anger abates, normalcy returns. Chinese consumers are even more pragmatic than nationalistic. Superior value always wins the day. 

That said, there is no room for complacency. 

The best armor is a compelling and well-defined brand purpose, a consistent long-term relationship between consumer and brand that underpins all subsequent engagement with that brand. It articulates a brand’s calling and how it contributes to consumers’ lives. 

SK-II overcame its scandal by elevating the brand’s purpose from functional anti-aging to an emotive “power to change your destiny.”  It resolved a conflict between women’s desire to both conform to conventional standards of beauty and escape the confines of societal expectations. The brand’s efforts were multidimensional. For example, it created a social movement to arm “left behinds” – unmarried women over the age of 27 – with the confidence to be beautiful at any age. 

Brands must also be “customer obsessed”. 

In an era of consumer empowerment fueled by technology, experience is king. From a delivery app that reveals courier location to facial recognition that generates tailored menu recommendations, KFC occupies a high ground of “seamless personalisation” within the quick service restaurant category. 

Starbucks has overcome media brouhahas about tainted meat and price gouging. But business is booming – there are more than 3,000 stores across the PRC – because the brand offers inspired customer experience, not just coffee.

More in Mumbrella Asia.

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Why the Chinese censor might not like my book - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

How to make money in China, and how the country works as a powerbroker are the key subjects of The War for China's Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order by author Shaun Rein. For NPR he tells what companies are doing well, but also why the Chinese censor might ban his book, as they did with previous ones.

NPR:

Brancaccio: Now, international companies have a huge stake in figuring out how to crack this, and which companies are doing better do you think, Shaun, which are doing worse in understanding where China is going? 

Rein: I think you see companies like Starbucks are doing really well. Apple's also doing very well. For both companies, China is their largest market out of the United States. Another great example would be KFC — over 50 percent of their global revenue comes from China. So these companies are keeping their core brand DNAs, but they are localizing to fit the needs of the Chinese consumers. So for instance, with Starbucks, in the United States, I believe about 80 percent of their sales are takeout. In China, about 80 percent of their sales are dining in, because Chinese like to go feel part of an American culture, feel like they're part of a globally sophisticated elite, and they're able to do that by having coffee. Luxury in a cup. 

Brancaccio: Before we go, I want to bring up something Shaun, I don't know if it's a sore subject, but I remember a couple of books ago, you wrote the book "The End of Cheap China." That was not embraced in China, that book. 

Rein: That book was actually banned in China. The Chinese government didn't like it because it talked about local corrupt officials that were protecting the red light districts and really stealing from everyday Chinese. So that book was banned in the country. 

Brancaccio: Getting any feedback on the new one? 

Rein: The state-owned media has gone quiet on me. When they first heard that I was writing this book, "The War for China's Wallet," they wanted to interview me and profile me. After they saw the advance media copies, they stopped returning my calls. So I'm expecting that this book is going to get banned, too. And I'll get a little bit of heat in the coming months. 

Brancaccio: What do you think, what's so controversial from the Chinese perspective about what you've just been talking about? 

Rein: I think that the government doesn't want people to know the framework that they punish other countries and companies if they don't follow what they want. So I mean, if you look at it, when Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize, China blocked imports of salmon from Norway. Overnight, that dropped from about 80 percent market share down to zero percent.

More in NPR. Shaun Rein 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.

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How to make money in China - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China's Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order explained at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club how foreign companies become winners and losers in China. The “methodical, systematic plan” to garner support for the One Belt, One Road initiative was the result of a “divide and conquer” strategy on the part of the Chinese government, he said.

The Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club:

“China is no longer a cheap place to do business. The cost of doing business is crazy high,” he said at the December 12 club breakfast. 

Rein pointed out that foreign brands including KFC and Starbucks make a huge profit in China. But he warned that multinationals were increasingly adhering to the political goals of Beijing in order to operate there. Publicly backing the One Belt, One Road initiative – President Xi’s development strategy to establish trade routes between Eurasian countries – is one way of staying in favour with the Communist Party. Those who speak out against China, said Rein, risk economic punishment or outright banishment. He gave the example of the Philippines, whose mango imports to China were blocked after an international tribunal on territorial disputes ruled in favour of the Philippines. The block was lifted once Rodrigo Duterte came to power in the Philippines and declared allegiance to China over America. 

“The theme of the book is that China punishes and rewards countries,” Rein said. But he added that now China has also started punishing foreign companies for the actions of their countries’ governments, citing South Korea’s Lotte Group, which provided land in South Korea for the U.S. THAAD missile system. 

Rein said the “methodical, systematic plan” to garner support for the One Belt, One Road initiative was the result of a “divide and conquer” strategy on the part of the Chinese government. 

He predicted that multinational financial services would continue to suffer in China, but that foreign insurance companies would flourish, as would wealth management.

More at the website of the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club.

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How Starbucks conquered a tea-drinking nation - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff

Starbucks opened its largest outlet last week in Shanghai, and is moving from US to China as its largest operation. Marketing guru Tom Doctoroff looks at the strategy of the US coffee retailer who entered a tea-drinking nation, and gained tracking few foreign companies got, he explains in IdealsShanghai. "A Houdini act of Marketing".

Tom Doctoroff:

I once heard an analogy that Starbucks is a true modern day colonial power – one that quietly enters a country, builds four walls around people and puts expensive lattes in their hands. Of course, the actual concept behind the Starbucks brand in the West lies in Howard Schultz’s  ‘The Third Space’; being the space between home and work where consumers can slip into a plush chair and quietly read a book in total anonymity and relaxation. 

China, however, is a different beast entirely. For one, it’s a nation of tea drinkers, and secondly, consumer behaviour here is very specific. Yet this week brought with it the launch of Starbucks’ new roastery concept in Shanghai, another ribbon to add to a year that has seen Starbucks become the fastest growing brand in China, with 3000 physical stores, a new one opening every 15 hours, and plans to open 5000 by 2021. 

Starbucks has entered the China market with extreme precision. ‘The Third Space’ has no relevance in this market and they recognised this instantly. For a premium price and a premium brand, Chinese consumers don’t desire relaxed anonymity, they want to project an identity and status associated with their choice. It was critical that Starbucks localized their strategy, and they did. This is something I like to call ‘Houdini’s Act of Marketing’; Starbucks needed to work out how to maximise public consumption – only then could it charge premium prices. 

To a foreign brand looking to make a splash in China, scale is everything. When it launched, the real estate strategy was always to secure big stores in high end office buildings. Individual chairs were also demoted in favour of bigger tables to create social spaces. Starbucks was aligning itself with the ‘professional elite’ and the stores rapidly became a gathering site for people who wished to identify with, and more importantly, project this image.

More in IdealsShanghai.

Tom Doctoroff 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. 

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Why has Starbucks no real competitor in China? - Jeffrey Towson

Jeffrey Towson

Competition in China is rough and bloody for almost every company that even has the smell of possible success. But Beida business professor Jeffrey Towson did not yet find a reason why this rule does not apply to Starbucks. No competitor gets near the giant and - he wonders at his weblog - there is no real reason for that.

Jeffrey Towson:

Chinese Wanda is openly challenging Disney. Uber spent $2B fighting with Chinese DidiChuxing. Adidas has been fighting Chinese Li-Ning and Anda for decades. And Apple is now struggling against multiple rising Chinese competitors,(Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, etc.). One thing you can always count on in China: A successful international company will inspire serious domestic competitors. 

So why doesn’t Starbucks have a serious competitor in China? I’ve been asking people this for months and I still can’t get a good answer. It’s weird. 

Starbucks has been in China since 1999 and currently has about 2,400 outlets. They have likely had the majority of the China retail coffee market for years. And CEO Howard Schultz has recently announced plans to open 500 new outlets per year. That will get them to 5,000 China stores by 2020. 

Also, on Starbucks’ November 3, 2016 earnings call, Schultz said “our newest class of Starbucks stores in China is delivering the highest AUVs, ROI and profitability of any store class in our history in the market.” 

So Starbucks in China has big market share, rapid growth and apparently attractive economics. Although they are breaking the #1 rule of doing business in China as a foreigner: If you are doing really well, keep it quiet. 

Starbucks does have some smaller competitors in China. There is Costa Coffee from the UK. Costa is planning to have 900 China stores by 2020. There is CaffeeBebe from South Korea and Coffee Bean from Los Angeles. Both are fairly small in China. There is UBC Coffee (originally from Taiwan) but this is really more of a restaurant. And there is Pacific Coffee of Hong Kong, which has been majority acquired by China Resources. 

You could also consider convenience stores like Family Mart and 7-11 as competitors. Certainly lots of coffee is sold there and they both have huge operational footprints. Also, there is McDonalds which has its McCafes. But these are a stretch as direct competitors I think. 

Overall, I just can’t point to any serious Chinese competitor for Starbucks. I don’t see a China Mobile, Alibaba, Suning or Wanda-type company fighting them for their customers.

More possible answers at Jeffrey Towson's weblog.

Jeffrey Towson 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.

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Starbucks, at last, joins WeChat payments - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

When you deal with consumers in China, WeChat and its payment systems, cannot be ignored. Starbucks did so for years, and lost much business, says business analyst Shaun Rein to Bloomberg. The American company now joined WeChat, although concerns about data safety remain.

Bloomberg:

About 200 million consumers use Weixin Pay and Alipay, the system owned by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s financial affiliate, at physical stores because of the ease and speed at which consumers can make purchases. Some overseas retailers have balked at digitized transactions because of costs involved in changing payment systems and concern that data collected could breach customer privacy. 

“Accepting mobile payment would unlock massive value for Starbucks,” said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group, in an interview. “Since they couldn’t move customers through the line faster, they were losing 5 to 10 percent of business.”... 

For giants like Starbucks, which is opening stores in China at the pace of more than one a day, the concern was over safeguarding the data of its customer base, said China Market Research Group’s Rein. 

“A lot of chains are concerned about too much user-data controlled by Alibaba,” he said. “It’s their customers, but now all the data goes to the mobile payment providers. There are concerns about confidentiality.”

More in Bloomberg.

Shaun Rein 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. 

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Why Yum, Starbucks are lagging in China - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Getting traction among China´s picky consumers is one thing, keeping it up is another. Larger foreign firms like Yum and Starbucks have been slow in picking up consumer trends in China, says business analyst Shaun Rein to Bloomberg, for example in their adoption of fintech developments.

Bloomberg:

In recent years, Yum has ceded market share to local competitors because it was slow to react to market changes, said Rein. 

“They didn’t make corporate decisions quickly enough, such as in adopting mobile payments, or adapting to consumers wanting more premium offerings,” said Rein. “Their ability to deal with the more complex environment here was held back by the lack of knowledge, the slowness of the U.S.”... 

Starbucks stores in China still do not accept Alipay or Wechat, only Apple Pay, a decision which costs them 5 to 10 percent of sales, estimates China Market Research Group’s Rein. 

Starbucks launched its own mobile payment system in China in July, allowing customers to pay with pre-loaded Starbucks Gift Cards via their mobile devices, according to the company. 

As China’s consumer market continues to grow, more overseas companies may consider following Yum down the path of segregation.

More in Bloomberg.

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Consumers will get over Starbucks price rise - Ben Cavender

Ben Cavender

Starbucks raised its prices, causing a stir among the many users of the popular coffee chain. They will whine a bit, but get over it very soon, says retail analyst Ben Cavender in the China Daily, and he does not expect a sustained backlash.

The China Daily:

This is the first rise since 2012. Ben Cavender, principal of China Market Research Group, said the price change had to happen after such a long time. 

"Despite the low inflation, there are increasing costs for most brands here in China, including rents and ingredients," he said. 

Since its first entrance to the Chinese market in 1999, Starbucks has opened more than 2200 stores in 102 cities, making the country its largest market outside of the United States. He said Starbucks' current price rise of 8 to 10 percent will not change buying behavior among Chinese customers as they don't have many options in the coffee market, which is dominated by Starbucks. The main competitor, Costa Coffee, has even higher prices and lower priced brands have no scale. 

"Customers might complain about the price change for a while, but the regular customers will not give it up and will keep coming back to Starbucks," said Cavender.

More at the China Daily.

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The struggle of food companies to stay clean - Ben Cavender

+Benjamin Cavender 

A large number of retailers and restaurants from 7-Eleven to Starbucks to McDonald´s had to cut ties with their meat supplier in Shanghai, as authorities forced to close its operation. Retail analyst Ben Cavender explains in the WSJ what it takes to keep supply chains clean.

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What is cool in China - Shaun Rein

+Shaun Rein 

The magazine Slate investigated what is cool worldwide. Our business analyst Shaun Rein explained for them what is ku or cool in China, and how it is influenced by South-Korea. 

Slate:

A recent study on China's "Red Cool" by TBWA/China, an international ad agency, found that "zheng neng liang" (meaning "positive energy") is a popular notion among Chinese youth today. TBWA/China's research suggests that being positive and aspirational are considered cool traits among youth. "Real 'cool' is to bring [your] dreams to reality and make them perfect," one young adult explains in the study. "No one should compromise on the way to realizing a dream." 

To a perhaps unsurprising extent, in China the monoculture still exists, so being different is often not seen as ku. The things that are cool—or at least highly consumed—include Starbucks ("an indication that they've reached a certain status," says Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group) and Adidas' NEO line. On the home front, Rein reports that the Chinese-made JDB, an herbal tea, outsells Coke and Pepsi in many parts of the country while Feiyue shoes have been a hit for hip urban types. The iPhone isn't cool, apparently; Apple's phone has lost sway with mainstream Chinese consumers as of late. (This may in part have to do with there being only eight store locations in the entire country, according to Rein.) 

Interestingly, Chinese coolness is heavily influenced by South Korea: It can be found in nearly every form of Chinese consumerism—movies, TV, fashion, and especially pop music. Long before Psy introduced K-pop to the Western world, South Korean culture was dominant across Asia, thanks to Korea's realization that it could find success by exporting culture and investing millions of dollars in arts and entertainment.

More in Slate. 

 Shaun Rein 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.

China Weekly Hangout

+Harm Kiezebrink 

China is preparing for a new bout of bird flu, and noted already a second victim in October. In Zhejiang the first victim was infected with the H7N9 virus, and chicken farms are preparing for the upcoming new year, meaning more risks. The +China Weekly Hangout is today discussing with bird flu expert Harm Kiezebink how you can prepare you and your company when the bird flu pandemic hits China. You can register here to participate, or read the full announcement here. Our sustainability expert +Richard Brubaker from Shanghai explained on October 10 what features in sustainability in Singapore could be applied in China too, and what it takes to get it done. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.

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