19 episodes

A podcast about the Chinese tech industry by Tom Xiong, Eva Xiao and Jacob Loven. Created together with RADII (radiichina.com), an independent media platform about today's China and its next generation.

Digitally China is a bi-weekly podcast where we together with experts discuss the fascinating stories from the Chinese tech industry from a Chinese and global perspective. New trends and technology will change our world - Digitally China wants to deliver a fresh perspective on how tech will impact both our today and tomorrow.

Digitally China is co-hosted by Tom Xiong (founder of the startup Move Shanghai in China), Eva Xiao (an established China-based reporter) and Jacob Lovén (10+ years experience of successful Internet companies).

All the music in the episodes is licensed.

Digitally China DigitallyChina

    • Science
    • 4.7 • 13 Ratings

A podcast about the Chinese tech industry by Tom Xiong, Eva Xiao and Jacob Loven. Created together with RADII (radiichina.com), an independent media platform about today's China and its next generation.

Digitally China is a bi-weekly podcast where we together with experts discuss the fascinating stories from the Chinese tech industry from a Chinese and global perspective. New trends and technology will change our world - Digitally China wants to deliver a fresh perspective on how tech will impact both our today and tomorrow.

Digitally China is co-hosted by Tom Xiong (founder of the startup Move Shanghai in China), Eva Xiao (an established China-based reporter) and Jacob Lovén (10+ years experience of successful Internet companies).

All the music in the episodes is licensed.

    BRB (and What’s to Come on Season 2)

    BRB (and What’s to Come on Season 2)

    We need your help to create Season 2 of Digitally China!
    Just got a few short questions for you here:https://radiichina.com/digitally-china-2019-wrap/
    As many of our loyal listeners might have felt, Digitally China has been taking a short break. But don't worry, we'll be coming back with Season 2 in no time.
    Throughout the 26 episodes of Season 1 we've really appreciated all the support and feedback from our fantastic listeners who have tuned in to the bi-weekly series. Thanks to this feedback, Season 2 of Digitally China will see a few changes. We will fine-tune the format a bit and use each episode to deep-dive even more into the exciting Chinese tech ecosystem.
    If you've listened to the “The War of a Thousand Groupons” or “From 8 to 800 Million Internet Users,” these episodes give you an idea of the direction we want to take for the new Season 2 — but we still want to hear your thoughts and ideas on what topics to cover and how we can do better.

    • 10 min
    From 8 to 800 million internet users - An Inside View with Brian Wong

    From 8 to 800 million internet users - An Inside View with Brian Wong

    This episode of Digitally China is about Brian Wong, his experiences from being part of the early days of Alibaba but at the same time also a story about how it was to first-hand be part of how China grew from almost nothing to the largest internet market in the world. 
     
    The location is a hotel in San Francisco, the year is 1999. The internet hype is in its peak. United States at this moment have over 100 million internet users, 10 times more than the much larger country in the East, China. While his friends are leaving school to join the company that seems to be the next big thing, Google, Brian is instead meeting a fairly unknown entrepreneur at that time with the first name Jack who enthusiastically is talking about his company, Alibaba.
     
    As many of his friends on the west coast of the US, he believes that technology will change the world. But instead of staying in his hometown and the Middle Kingdom of innovation, Palo Alto, he moves to Hangzhou to work with e-commerce in country that barely have internet users.
     
    In this episode we’re listening in on Brian’s story, reflecting on the learnings from the growth of the Chinese technology sector, what we can learn from it and how it will impact the rest of the world.

    Guests:
    · Brian Wong, VP at Alibaba

    Hosts: Tom Xiong & Eva Xiao
    Producer: Jacob Lovén & Katarina Andersson

    Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered “Fair Use”. Digitally China is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

    • 43 min
    The War of a Thousand Groupons

    The War of a Thousand Groupons

    In the latest Digitally China we’re looking back on history. Meituan-Dianping is China’s clear market leader within group buying, offline discovery and online-offline services today. But it wasn’t that clear a few years back. In fact, the opposite was true, with the American giant Groupon entering China backed by a powerful partner in Tencent. In a hyper-competitive environment, there were suddenly thousands of group-buying services all fighting for the position that Meituan has today.

    For a sense of what that time was like, we interviewed Tim He, who was a senior executive of Gaopeng, the Chinese subsidiary of Groupon when they entered the market. Tim, who took a break from Harvard to go back to China to take on the daunting task of trying to win in such an enormous, sprawling market, takes us through some of the incredible stories from that exciting period.

    As a seasoned investor at one of Europe’s most renowned venture firms, Kinnevik, Tim also reflects on learnings from the Chinese technology sector as well as the success factors behind today's “super apps” of China.

    Topics covered in this episode
    How Groupon entered the Chinese market
    The group-buying industry
    How to operate in a market with thousands of competitors
    What lessons can you learn from China that are applicable for Western markets?
    The success factors behind super app companies such as Meituan-Dianping, Alipay and more

    Guests:
    · Tim He, investor at Kinnevik and previous senior executive of Gaopeng, the Chinese Groupon.

    Host: Tom Xiong
    Producer: Jacob Lovén & Katarina Andersson

    Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered "Fair Use". Digitally China Is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

    • 45 min
    Interview: Diversity and entrepreneurship with Jill Tang

    Interview: Diversity and entrepreneurship with Jill Tang

    In the latest episode of Digitally China, Tom is joined by Jill Tang, co-founder of Ladies Who Tech, an influential Chinese organization focusing on entrepreneurship and gender diversity in China.
     
    As someone who works in the unique cross-section of tech, diversity, multinational companies, and market-entry in China, Jill shares her observations and thoughts on how multinational companies can be more gender inclusive in China, and how China's younger and more international workforce is changing work culture in the country.

    Topics covered in this episode:
    - Ladies Who Tech & gender diversity at companies in China
    - Entrepreneurship, different types of entrepreneurs and startups
    - What multinational companies in China do well and can be better at
    - Market-entry for foreign brands to the complex Chinese market

    Guests:
    · Jill Tang, co-founder Ladies Who Tech

    Host: Tom Xiong
    Producer: Jacob Lovén

    Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered “Fair Use”. Digitally China is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

    • 28 min
    RED: The ups and downs of social commerce

    RED: The ups and downs of social commerce

    Companies around the world are latching onto social commerce, but in China, where mobile payments are ubiquitous and consumers are extra wary of fake goods, the integration between social media and online shopping has been especially fast.
     
    That doesn’t mean it’s a silver bullet for brands though -- or even the multi-billion dollar internet celebrity industry, where influencers are tasked with advertising products without appearing too commercial.
    In this episode of Digitally China, we’ll discuss Xiaohongshu or RED, which is often compared to Instagram and Pinterest.
     
    The fast-growing app, which is popular among young, female urbanites in China, has over 85 million monthly active users and is valued at $3 billion following a $300 million funding round last year led by e-commerce heavyweight Alibaba.

    But the e-commerce side of RED is still behind more price-conscious competitors like Pinduoduo — and the app hit its latest roadblock earlier this week, when it was pulled from Chinese app stores.

    We’ll cover some of the challenges the app is facing as it tries to grow its e-commerce business – monetizing its vibrant user community -- and manage the thousands of influencers on its platform.  

    Episode summary:
    · Xiaohongshu backstory and introduction
    · Xiaohongshu vs. competitors
    · Xiaohongshu’s content quality problem
    · Success cases of brands working with influencers
    · Cosmetics: an industry where Chinese brands have really optimized social media and ecommerce

    Guests:
    · Elijah Whaley, chief marketing officer at Parklu, an influencer marketing tech firm in China
    · Huo Qiu, a fashion and cosmetics influencer with over 1 million followers on Weibo and about 30,000 followers on Xiaohongshu

    Hosts: Eva Xiao and Tom Xiong
    Producer: Jacob Lovén

    Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered “Fair Use”. Digitally China is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

    • 30 min
    So You Want to Work in Chinese Tech

    So You Want to Work in Chinese Tech

    In China’s fast-growing tech industry, it’s easy to focus on exciting new products and businesses while overlooking one of the most important elements of any company: the talent.

    Inthis episode, we look at how the recruiting process at Chinese tech firms does -- and doesn’t -- differ from that of multinational firms, and how China's new wave of tech professionals view their career options.

    EpisodeOutline:
    Incentives/disincentives for working at multinational firms vs. Chinese internet companies
    The importance of 996 or working overtime
    Probation and the concept of “hire fast, fire fast”
    Unstructured vs. standardized hiring practices
    China’s gender discrimination proem

    Guests:
    Vincent Wang, a senior associate at executive recruiting firm Atkins & Associates
    Ben Jiang, who runs the India bureau of Krasia, an Asia-focused tech media platform 
    A Zhen, a product manager and team leader for front-end development at a Shanghai-based internet company

    Hosts: Eva Xiao and Tom Xiong
    Producer: Jacob Lovén

    Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered “Fair Use”. Digitally China is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

    • 40 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
13 Ratings

13 Ratings

Art Dicker ,

Great job guys

Love the episode on Xiaohongshu

數篇愛飛翔 ,

One of my favorite tech podcasts

Love this!! Super insightful. Keep up the good work :)

Tech Geek 888 ,

Refreshingly insightful discussions on the latest topics from China’s tech and internet world!

A unique perspective each time and different from the usual Silicon Valley hype! Well done guys!

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