2011 was rough for Alibaba, and 2012 is off to a rocky start. Last year a scandal rocked Alibaba.com, the company’s only listed subsidiary; this year a (rumored) attempt to take Alibaba.com off the Hong Kong Board was stymied by yet another squabble with major shareholder Yahoo. Zeng Ming, Chief Strategy Officer at Alibaba Group, didn’t really want to talk about any of that much, but he did give a brief on where he thinks Chinese e-commerce is heading, and answered some uncomfortable questions.
Episode 16: Who’s afraid of an International Board?
December 9, 2011
Zhao Xingge of CEIBS on why every time regulators start talking about allowing international companies to list in China, local share prices collapse
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Episode 15: Revolutionary television; Explaining declining property prices to the Chinese middle class
November 2, 2011
Pete, Ana, Chris and Jake talk about the recent drive to clean up Chinese television and what it signifies for the media market; Ana discusses recent protests against declining house prices in Shanghai； Why SOEs hate investing overseas.
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Episode 14: The rise of China’s megacities
October 27, 2011
Journalist Michiel Hulshof and architect Dan Roggeveen discuss their new book, “How the City Moved to Mr. Sun: China’s New Megacities.” China expects 300 million rural residents – roughly the population of the US – to move into cities by 2025. Over the last three years, Hulshof and Roggeveen have documented the monumental changes in China’s largest cities you’ve never heard of and the effects of these changes on ordinary people.
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Episode 13: Fraser Howie on bailing out the banks
October 19, 2011
Pete talks with Fraser Howie, co-author of “Red Capitalism” and “Privatizing China”, about recent moves by Central Huijin Investment to prop up Chinese banks through a stock purchasing program, the state of the bond markets, and what it all means for the liberalization of China’s financial system.
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Episode 12: A link in the bio-pharma chain
September 22, 2011
Ana speaks with several of DHL’s global executives about transporting biological products and pharmaceuticals within China and around the world. Angelos Orfanos, the president of DHL’s life sciences and healthcare division, Tan Piak Hwee, China VP of marketing and sales, and Roger Crook, CEO of DHL Global Freight Forwarding tell us about the obstacles China faces in becoming a global supplier of pharmaceuticals, and why you should always carry extra batteries for your transistor radio.
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Episode 11: Are SMEs going bankrupt?
September 19, 2011
Pete interviews Zhang Weijiong, director of the Centre of Chinese Private Enterprises at China Europe International Business School about his survey of China’s top 100 private enterprises. They also discuss how Beijing can help the Chinese small businessman, whether a wave of SME bankruptcies is really underway, and new barriers to foreign investments in Chinese internet firms
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Episode 10: Taxi advertiser TouchMedia wants to interact
September 9, 2011
Ana talks with Neil Ducray, the managing director of taxi ad company TouchMedia, about interactive technology, China’s unique advertising market, and how to get a girl to give you her phone number.
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Episode 9: A conversation with Michael Pettis
September 1, 2011
Author and well-known China watcher Professor Michael Pettis of Peking University talks about the end of the global liquidity boom, why China’s GDP is understated, and why increasing consumption’s share of GDP is harder than it looks
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Episode 8: Can China hold up the world economy?
August 25, 2011
In which Pete and Ana talk to Nicholas Kwan of Standard Chartered about Chinese consumption, the state of the double-dip, and whether the Chinese consumer will ride to the rescue. Interestingly, Kwan argues that China still needs yet more fixed-asset investment.
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