Epacket tracking is another feature of ePacket shipping services. It is a convenient form of self-service made for the customers. It allows buyers to track their parcels through official sites such as USPS, China Post, or EMS for free.
Once the manufacturer dispatch the parcel, it is listed on the site. The customer gets a code to identify their package. They can track when the parcel reaches a destination by merely typing the information on one of the search pages on the website. All undelivered good is returned to the sender to make refunds easier if the customer does not receive their packages.
This feature is highly convenient both for the customers and the business owners. It allows customers to know the exact location of their parcel and how long they have to wait. In turn, it prevents the sellers from needing extra customer services. As a business owner, you can also use these delivery confirmation notes as proof to build your brand along the way.
In this article, we will talk about everything you need to know about ePacket delivery. So, without any further ado, let’s get started.
Epacket delivery is a part of the shipping deal when you use ePacket shipping. It was initially used mostly by merchants from Hongkong and China to send out parcels to the US. It is affordable and faster than regular courier services, so it is now available in many countries, over 46 countries, to be exact.
When the manufacturers dispatch the parcel, it is delivered to a final destination, which the local companies handle. By “local,” it means the carriers who operate in the country such as the Post Office, Royal Mail, USPS, Canada Post, Japan Post, and others.
These local carriers have their service charges and processing fees. The parcel also has to meet specific criteria for delivery, and these criteria differ for each carrier and country.
Which Countries Have ePacket Delivery Available?
There are 46 countries that have ePacket deliveries available for now and they are:
Brazil
Canada
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Croatia
Denmark
Estonia
France
Finland
Germany
Great Britain
Gibraltar
Hong Kong
Indonesia
Hungary
Greece
Italy
Israel
Ireland
Latvia
Kazakhstan
Japan
Luxembourg
Lithuania
Malta
Mexico
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Netherlands
Russia
Portugal
Poland
Spain
Singapore
Saudi Arabia
Sweden
Switzerland
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States
Vietnam
Thailand
Turkey
South Korea
Who Delivers ePacket?
Epacket delivery constitutes a network of carriers. There are several people involved in the delivery process. The first is the carrier based in Hongkong or China who delivers the package to the international border. It is then taken to the international carrier to the destination.
After it is picked up by the international carrier from the border, it goes for delivery to the respective country’s carrier—the national carrier then distributes it to the states through different agencies. The delivery process may differ for each parcel depending on the destination and the carriers responsible for each area.
Epacket delivery does not provide door to door services. They only deliver it to the customs, and the rest is left up to the local services. In some cases, if the destination is under high priority and security, there can be some exceptions arranged directly with the service providers. If not, you will have to depend on your local delivery services to deliver the package to the address.
How to Track ePacket?
ePacket service offers their customers the option of end to end tracking, for that they don’t charge any additional cost. Through this, the location of the package can be monitored on the official website of the e-Packet delivery company. There is also an assurity that, if the package is not delivered by the merchants, the refund will be given to the customers. ePacket tracker helps customers determine where their package is and when can they expect it, it is totally self-service.
Apart from using the official website to track your package, third-party tracking services are also available. Some of the websites are:
17track.net
AfterShip ePacket Tracker
Benefits of e-Packet Service
More and more countries are now engaging themselves with ePacket services. Some of the advantages that make it popular are:
It is faster than normal package delivery systems. It is said that within three weeks shipping of the package from China is delivered to another part of the world.
The shipping charge is cheaper than any other delivery system.
You can track your package very easily with the use of official websites.
If a package is not delivered, refunds are provided to the customers.
Conclusion
ePacket delivery is a popular shipping method, especially in Hong Kong and China. Apart from them, it has also become part of different countries’ shipping methods. The E-commerce industry is evolving regularly, so one needs to stay updated about the different shipping methods. With ePacket deliveries advantages, it wouldn’t be long before it will become one of the most popular methods of shipping.
FAQs
How long does it take for an ePacket to get delivered?
ePacket packages take less than 30 days to get delivered.
Does ePacket delivery let you track your order?
ePacket delivery lets you track your order without any additional cost.
Is ePacket delivery safe?
ePacket delivery is safe for both merchants and customers.
Economics has always been an important thing for a country. You may not like the subject in your school but it is something that is super real in nature. It is basically the allocation of resources to achieve the most optimum efficiency. As the number of people grows in a country, so does the responsibility and the load to be more active and unbiased in every sphere of allocation of resources. Good allocation of resources is important because resources are finite.
If not managed well, the whole economy can just crash, however big or small the economy is. This is what we are reminded of every now and then. This unusual year brought up the news of a country getting economically unstable. The country is Sri Lanka and it is in a really serious economic condition. The people of Sri Lanka are facing extreme situations associated with their economy. This article focuses right on the same topic.
Read this article to know about what is happening in Sri Lanka and what the world is saying about it, how the country plans to get out of this tight phase and much more. Here we go,
A Little Brief About the Sri Lanka Economic Crisis
Recently, the news broke out about Sri Lanka from which we came to know that the country to the south of India is facing a financial crisis and there are fears of bankruptcy. News resources reported that Sri Lanka is in a super tight place right now and it might have extreme economical conditions in the near future.
The Sri Lankan foreign reserves have hit a record low where the commercial banks are failing to secure “dollars to finance imports of food, fuel and medicines”, as says Deccan Herald. All of these started with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which devastated the country’s tourism sector, a pivotal industry of the Sri Lankan revenue, and also reduced the foreign workers’ remittances.
To save the country, the Sri Lankan government announced a broad import ban in March 2020. However, this backfired in the form of shooting the food prices up by 25%, as per the reports of February 2022, and has contributed to an overall inflation of 17.5%. Furthermore, the country is also facing 5-hour electricity blackouts each day because the thermal generators have run out of fuel. According to the reports, the country is still battling its $51 billion sovereign debt.
It has been heard that he Sri Lankan government had received a $1.2 billion economic relief package from India for a cure. This economic relief package, as announced by the government on January 4, 2022, amidst the ongoing forex crises of the country, ensures that the Sri Lankan government is optimistic about their future. They want to communicate that the country will not default on its international debt.
The Current Situation in Sri Lanka Due to the Crisis
The GDP of Sri Lanka over the years
Sri Lanka’s external reserves were dropped severely in November of 2021. The fall marked the external reserves to $1.6 billion. This fall triggered alarm in most of the domains and quarters of the country. Concerned people warned about this in the government. Economists and Think tank’s warned that this fall in foreign reserves will mean a sovereign default in the future.
American credit rating organisation ‘Fitch’, after the event in Sri Lanka downgraded the nation’s rating to CC. A CC rating is the lowest rating just before the defaulter tag. It is to be noted that Sri Lanka had a piling pile of feigning debt over the last few years. However, the island has never defaulted on any of the foreign debts until now.
Fitch Ratings of Sri Lanka
This downtrend in the year 2020 is seen as the record breaker for Sri Lanka. The current situation is seen as a super meltdown and has impacted the whole island. Living costs are rising impeccably, food shortages are forecasted up this year and as per the reports, Sri Lanka will likely default on the debt that it has accumulated.
Having said about the economic crisis and the depleting foreign reserves, there are many issues that Sri Lanka is facing right now. Inflation is seen at an all-time high in the country and the basic living conditions are getting costlier. Food prices are skyrocketing and its treasuries are shrinking.
The economic crisis that the country is facing right now is inhumane and the hole is too deep to get out from. The country appears to be staring at a human crisis that will hurt not only the growth rate in the pandemic era but the basic sustainability index of the country.
According to World Bank estimates, 5 lakh people in Sri Lanka have fallen below the poverty line since the pandemic struck, which it described as a “huge setback equivalent to five years’ worth of progress”.
The World Bank has estimated that about 5 lakh people have fallen below the poverty line and this trend started during the Covid 19 pandemic. This setback was so deepening that it took away Sri Lanka’s five years worth of growth with itself. This is a huge shock for the economy of Sri Lanka and the people who make up the economy.
In further reports, it is said that the country’s economy has contracted by 1.5%, just by the end of the third quarter of 2021. With the new year 2022, it is not going to be easy for Sri Lanka to sustain itself as there are real concerns about the country going bankrupt.
The government, however, said Tuesday the country will not default on its international debt as it announced a USD 1.2 billion economic relief package.
Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa said Sri Lanka would duly pay the international sovereign bond of USD 500 million due in a fortnight, a PTI report said.
Sri Lanka, which is an Island to the south of India, is a great tourist spot. It is estimated that tourism revenue makes up about 10% of the island’s GDP (Gross domestic product). This was the usual rate in the island country.
With the onset of the Covid19 pandemic, this rate was badly hit and the tourism sector came to a sudden halt. This had really a cascading effect on the earnings of the nation. However, every other major tourist destination faced this issue but the effect was real. Magnified on Sri Lanka as the tourism there makes up a good chunk of the GDP.
While the halting of tourists was a good attack on the economy, there were some other reasons as well. The other ascertained reasons for the fall would include, Heavy Expenditures. The president of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa did some hefty expenditures during the year.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa – President of Sri Lanka
His government tried to cut taxes from people that impacted government revenues. More and more spending led to less and depleting foreign reserves and thus the reserves hit a rock bottom. The country is very high on loans and grants and has China as a major debt partner. The Guardian recently reported that Sri Lanka has massive debt repayments to China alone.
Sri Lankan rupee (Currency of the island) crashed too. This is basically termed as ‘Inflation’. Inflation reached a record high in Sri Lanka, and is rising continually, leading to a spike in food prices, which was the reason for worry for the common citizens of the country. Reacting to the rise in inflation, President Rajapaksa announced an economic emergency in August 2021, just a couple of months before the foreign reserves crash. This emergency was implemented to control the situation and contain it. The effect was to lessen the hoarding of items by people in their homes, which could lead to more severe shortages.
Four months went by and as the inflation rose more, basic goods became unaffordable for the general public. Not just that, it has been reported that even well off or socially rich people are having trouble affording basic needs and wants. These many months, the citizens of Sri Lanka faced a tough time to make both ends meet.
The government had appointed a former army general as commissioner of essential services, giving him the power to seize food stocks hoarded by traders and retailers, and ensure essential items were sold at prices set by the government, but little was done on the ground to lift people out of their misery, the Guardian report said.
What Sri Lanka is facing right now is inhuman and horrendous. The economic conditions there have seen very tight phases but this phase is the most horrific. Adding to that, this is when the whole world is facing a global pandemic which could lead to any ruins. This has broadened the possibilities of Sri Lanka going bankrupt. After witnessing a drop of 70% in foreign exchange reserves during the past 2 years, the government of Lanka and the people of the island country, are experiencing a currency devaluation and are looking forward for help from the global lenders. According to the latest news dated March 28, 2022, Sri Lanka, which is a country for 22 million people, is struggling to pay for essential imports Let us see what the numbers and opinions about the country say.
This is not a certain statement but the probability of this country going bankrupt has never been this high. It has been reported that the country is super deep in debts and owes tremendous amounts to other counters. Here we are presenting a few stats that prove the misery of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka owes an amount that is more than $5 billion to China. This is probably the biggest amount of debt that the country has ever taken. The country is paying the China debt in instalments.
Not only that, but Sri Lanka is also a debtor to Beijing for $1 billion, which it took to overcome the previous acute crisis. Along with the major countries and regions that Sri Lanka owes money to, it is reported that there are many private and government entities that it owes money to. This situation of enormous debts and depreciating foreign reserves can be a ‘Checkmate’ situation for the republic of the nation.
“We have high debt from three countries — China, Japan and India. The total outstanding for this year would be USD 6.9 billion,” FM Rajapaksa, the younger brother of President Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, was quoted as saying in the PTI report.
The finance minister of Sri Lanka openly announced the amount they owe to countries. He said that Sri Lanka owes a sum total of about $7 billion to countries like China, Japan and even its neighbour, India.
Sri Lanka’s huge foreign debt burden is one of the main reasons for its economic crisis. As of November, foreign currency reserves available with the country were just $1.58 billion, down from $7.5 billion when Rajapaksa became the president in 2019, the report said.
National debt of Sri Lanka
Amid the falling environment, the opposition party in Sri Lanka also took a dig. An opposition member of parliament, Harsha de Silva (who is also an economist) told parliament that foreign reserves would be in the negative if the rate of decline continues. Moreover, the Sri Lankan newspaper ‘Daily mirror’ quoted “The nation will go totally bankrupt”.
Opposition MP Harsha de Silva, who is also an economist, told Parliament in December that the country’s foreign currency reserves would be minus $437m by January, and the total foreign debt services would be $4.8 billion between February and October 2022. “The nation will be totally bankrupt,” Sri Lankan newspaper Daily Mirror quoted him as saying.
De Silva said he was not trying to scare anyone but it was a reality that “all imports will come to a halt, the entire IT system will be shut down including the google map as we will not be able to pay for it”.
The government has, however, always made an optimistic approach and has insisted that it can meet the obligations.
Minister Ramesh Pathirana has said they would try to settle past oil debts with Iran by paying them with tea. Sri Lanka plans to send $5m worth of tea every month to Iran to save “much needed currency”, The Guardian reported.
Ministers are worried about what the future may look like and all they want is to minimise the damage.
Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal has also said that Sri Lanka would be able to pay off its debts “seamlessly”.
Former central bank deputy governor WA Wijewardena, however, told The Guardian that there were high chances that the country would default on repayments, and that would have catastrophic economic consequences.
“When the economic crisis deepens beyond redemption, it is inevitable that the country will have a financial crisis too. Both will reduce food security by lowering production and failing to import due to foreign exchange scarcities. At that point, it will be a humanitarian crisis,” he warned.
The chances of Sri Lanka defaulting on loans and debts have never been high. However, when we dug up information about the finance department in the government and what the finance minister has to say about this, we found that they have a plan.
The plan is a new and strong relief package that will try to rebalance the economic imbalance. The debt can be looked at as a secondary objective but for now, the thing that they would like to focus on is the foundation of the economy. The employees, pensioners and differently-abled soldiers are the first-hand people who will get the benefits.
The finance minister, meanwhile, said Tuesday they have a plan in place. He said the new $1.2 billion (229 billion Sri Lankan rupees) economic relief package includes payment of a special monthly allowance of Rs 5,000 to 1.5 million government employees, pensioners and differently-abled soldiers from January 2022.
This is by far the response of the Sri Lankan government to the crisis that the nation is facing. Let us now look at some of the major factors on why and how the economy at Sri Lanka sunk this much, the first one is the tourism setback.
Reasons Behind the Economic Crisis in Sri Lanka
Tourism in Sri Lanka and turmoil
The impact of the pandemic was huge on Sri Lanka. Covid 19 has stopped any sort of travel and tourism in the country for a long time now. According to the reports of the world travel and tourism council, nearly 2 lakh people have lost jobs in the travel industry since the pandemic began and globalised.
The loss of foreign revenue is huge too. According to the Hindu report last year, forex reserves have dropped from $7.5 billion to $2.8 billion, which is a steep decline and is obviously not healthy at all. The loss of foreign revenue from the sector has been substantial.
Adding to the above-mentioned deficits, the Sri Lankan rupee is depreciating too. This is known as inflation and it is very high in Sri Lanka right now. Basic livelihood items such as food items’ prices have risen manifold and people have to face difficulties to meet both ends. The nation, for now, has to depend heavily on imports.
Food Shortage in Sri Lanka
Photos of Lines and queues of people can be seen all over the news from Sri Lanka. These are the lines of people who are in a queue to buy home essentials, like food items. Prices of such basic items have risen enormously and are out of reach for many. Prices of bread, rice, wheat, sugar etc., have all risen several times.
People standing in Queue in Sri Lanka
It has never been hard for poor and middle-class people to buy items like these. The daily wage earners especially are affected the most.
Quoting a man who works as a chauffeur in Colombo, The Guardian report said he has now taken up a second job and his family now eats two meals every day, and not three. He said his village grocer now makes ten 100g packets out of a 1kg milk powder packet because no one can afford to buy the full packet.
The pandemic has just more severely affected those in the nation. The government’s efforts to make Sri Lanka ‘100% organic’ is at a loss. Last year, The Hindu reported that the country is planning to cut the use of chemical fertilisers to almost zero. To which farmers opposed and replied that this will affect food production. Pandemic made the food situation of Sri Lanka more severe.
“The government has no money for fertiliser subsidies. Many of us farmers are reluctant to invest money because we don’t know if we will make any profit,” A farmer was quoted as saying.
At the time of crisis, everyone hopes high from the government and the people of Sri Lanka are hoping the same from the government there. Speaking at the parliament in December 2020, MP, Harsha de Silva said that the only solution to the crisis is to seek assistance from the IMF(International Monetary Fund). He said homegrown solutions would not help, and only the IMF can revive the country’s economy.
The president’s office did not have an official notice or announcement for the citizens and the central bank is appealing for the foreign currency. The government of Sri Lanka is hustling to make things better for the people but it is just too hard. They are trying to stabilise the situation and try to help poor and sick people first and apply that others have to sacrifice a little.
The central bank had earlier last year prohibited traders from trading more than 200 Sri Lankan rupees for a single US dollar, they also have stopped traders from entering into forwarding currency contracts. The government has since been taking temporary relief measures to ease the situation.
Early December, Finance Minister from Sri Lanka Basil Rajapaksa visited neighbour India and commenced talks with his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman and India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to which they were thinking to take forward.
Basil Rajapaksa with Nirmala Sitharaman
The talks included a total of $1.9 billion of assistance for the country and besides that, a $500 million credit line for fuel and $400 million swap was discussed too. Similar talks were also held with China and Bangladesh.
Of all the reliefs and grants, Rajapaksa, (The President) assured that the relief package would not contribute to further inflation and that there won’t be any new taxes.
India’s Relations with Sri Lanka and the Assistance
India has always been a healthy and supportive friend to its neighbours. One of the neighbours of the Indian subcontinent is Sri Lanka. Speaking of help and assistance from India, the news is flooded with nice gestures from the Indian government for the Sri Lankan government. Let us have a look:
India assured Sri Lanka of its support to ally over these “difficult times” even as it welcomed the Trincomalee tank farms project saying it will augment bilateral energy security.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, when asked at a media briefing on the possibility of India extending the credit line to help Sri Lanka overcome its economic crisis, said it has always stood by the people of that country.
It is a great hope to notice how countries are helping each other in such times. India has agreed to mostly increase the credit line and time for repayments for Sri Lanka. Decisions like these will help foster friendly relationships with neighbouring countries.
After a telephonic conversation with his Sri Lankan counterpart, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India will support Sri Lanka in “these difficult times”. “Greeted FM G.L. Peiris of Sri Lanka in the New Year. A reliable friend, India will support Sri Lanka in these difficult times. Agreed to remain in close touch,” Jaishankar tweeted.
“We have seen reports that the Sri Lankan Cabinet has approved the development of the Trincomalee tank farms. Energy security is an important area of our bilateral cooperation with Sri Lanka,” he said supporting relations with the neighbour.
The Sri Lankan government replied that after analysing the three existing agreements with the Indian government about the strategic Trincomalee oil tank complex, usually known as the Trinco oil tank farm, the two countries have reached an agreement to implement a joint development project to make
On the query on extending the credit line time by India, Bagchi referred to the visit to New Delhi by Sri Lankan Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa last month.
“He briefed the Indian side on the economic situation in Sri Lanka and his government’s approach in addressing these challenges. India has always stood by the Sri Lankan people and Sri Lanka is an important part of our neighbourhood first policy,” Bagchi said relying on support to the island.
The above dialogues and discussion proved that India was ready to help Sri Lanka. Therefore, after mutual agreements and deals that were beneficial for both the countries, India extended a relief fund of $1 billion to the present Sri Lankan government. This was a good move indeed and helped Lanka in its time of need. However, after the March relief extended by India, Sri Lanka is again seeking for an additional credit line of $1.5 billion on top of the earlier funds. This credit line will also be met by India, which will be used by Sri Lanka for the import of its essential goods like rice, flour, sugar, pulses, medicines and more, as far as the Reuters reports go.
The help, extended by India, will undoubtedly be beneficial for the economically devastated Lanka and will further help in bettering the relations between the countries. India always proves that it is very much ready to help out everyone and set an example of moral duties for onlookers.
It is not that the nation of Sri Lanka has found this issue very sudden, but that the country is experiencing it for quite some time now, which is more worrying. It has been two years since the pandemic started and globalised but the foreign reserves at Sri Lanka were depleting long back and it only shows some leniency. The tolerance of the Sri Lankan government can be detained in the present crisis as a reason for the same.
India, as a supporting country, has always been together with other countries who are in need. It plans to do the same this year too, even when the shadows of the pandemic are hovering above still and India itself needs support. It is time that every country follows the same rules and morals so that the world can be a happier place to live in. The pandemic has massively accelerated empathy in the world and whatever lies ahead, we can feel a sense of togetherness.
FAQs
Why is there an economic crisis in Sri Lanka?
The economic crisis that Sri Lanka is currently undergoing points to a severe depreciation of the country’s foreign exchange reserves. The crisis started back in 2019, when there was a massive dip in the country’s overall produce, which declined by 50%. Then the Covid19 pandemic struck, which made it insanely difficult for the country to recover, followed by a ban on import on March 2020. Now, the struggle of the country is real, with debts piling in and the government requesting relief funds from the other countries to import the essential goods.
How much does Sri Lanka owe the world?
The national debt of Sri Lanka is around $51 billion, as of March 2022.
Is Sri Lanka in an economic crisis?
Yes, Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic and debt crisis, which started in 2019 and is continuing even now!
All over the world, the clothing industry is worth thousands of billions of dollars. You go to your nearest market and you will find that clothes are the items that are evergreen in nature. Always present and omnipresent. Every business-minded person when thinking of a business idea, his/her first choice is to choose clothes. This is true most of the time. There are huge players and then there are normal players in the clothing segment. However, The demand is such that every brand has enough to fill its pockets.
China is the most populous country in the world. Everything that The world needs, is needed more in china. It is safe to say that China is a value magnifier or a demand manufacturer. One of the clothing brands in China is called Shein. It is a famous brand and is founded by a very amazing personality. The founder of Shein is Chris Xu. This article talks about the company Shein and the founder who is often regarded as the torchbearer for this mysterious clothing brand. Let us have a closer look.
There is a reason why we began talking about the founder before we start talking about what he has actually found. Chris Xu is the founder of Shein, he is a popular entrepreneur in the world and specifically in China. He is the torchbearer for the brand from the initial stages. He built the brand so mysteriously that he is respected for the vision and works that he had pulled off.
He has achieved so much significance in the fashion industry that he becomes no less than a pioneer in this industry. Chris has been an entrepreneur who has been able to start from zero and scratch and then make a name for himself. Interestingly, the person behind Shein is an mysterious man. He has a name and the work that he has done, that speaks for itself and nothing else.
By the term, nothing else, we mean that the man does not even have a Wikipedia page. This is super mysterious and intriguing at the same time. He is super hideous on the internet. As the world becomes smaller and smaller with each passing day with uprising technology, he remains in his mystery palace. According to us, all this blackout about his information and interviews have been intentional.
All the information that is related to Chris is hidden intentionally all over the internet. The reason behind this agenda can be the security and integrity of the person’s name in public. However, there can be multiple more reasons for doing that.
Let us have a glance at his career. This is by the way rare information. Chris Xu was born in 1984 in the city of Shandong. He graduated from the University of Qingdao in the field of science and technology. He graduated in 2007. Soon after graduation, he moved to Nanjing to work in an integrated marketing consulting company.
Nanjing Aodao Information Technology Co, in 2008, where he specialised in SEO. This is also a fact about Chris Xs that he is an expert in SEO or search engine optimisation. While working in Nanjing integrated marketing consulting company he learnt everything possible about SEO. He did get a fair bit of exposure in the organisation of selling and commercial activities.
After learning the nuances of commercial selling of Chinese goods to the international world, he thought of an opportunity. He left the company following that vision or the opportunity. At the inception, he started building this dream with two other entrepreneurs who were now the co-founders. The idea was to ship cheap items online to every person. Basically an online retail store of the first kind.
In choosing the items to sell, Chris found out the huge demand that wedding dresses operate with. He discovered that these were one of the most highly sought products that were demanded by international markets. These dresses could become the first segment of products that the company will offer. However, there were some issues too in the first place.
Foreign customers were not buying these dresses and the reason was conversion rates. Customers were not able to convert money to buy their desired products. That was the issue that he thought to solve and started to shift all his focus in finding solutions to that. With the money earned from selling wedding dresses in the country, he began building SheInside, which is now famously known as Shein.
According to QQ news, once Xu realised that the only thing stopping international customers from buying products was currency conversion, he ‘vanished’ with his entire SEO team.
Let us now focus on the brand that this mysterious man has built for the world. The fast-fashion retailer ‘Shein’ is here with its journey that is full of controversies.
A Small Brief About Shein
‘SheInside’ was the primary name of this organisation and gradually the name became Shein to the world. Even though the first sort of dresses that Chris picked were wedding dresses, they diversified into a lot more domains afterwards.
They diversified into summer wear like bikinis and swimwear which was designed for the summers. They were low price and that was a huge differentiating factor for customers. It became the first thought of girls when they thought of summer wear and as summers approached every year.
The journey was not easy though, there were many ups and downs in the way. They caused several controversies at the beginning pointing to the cheapness of the products. There were allegations of child labour, environmentalism and the quality of the clothes. There is a mystery of the process with which the company operates. Despite all the problems, the company has been able to maintain itself as a trustable brand with its audience.
Inception of Shein
The story of Shein begins when Chris Xu thought of starting out his own venture. Before starting out with Shein, Chris owned a successful wedding dress company and gave it up all, to begin with, a new venture. It was in the initial stages when the name “SheInside” was chosen.
It was later in 2015 when the name was changed to Shein as the efforts of branding grew and as the brand emerged as a favourite destination for clothing. The United States was the place where the company was widely successful and still is the place where most of the revenues come from.
The story really started when an American born graduate gave up his business of wedding clothes in search of building a sustainable clothing brand. They acquired the domain name called sheinside.com and primarily focussed on women’s clothing. In 2015 the name was changed and renamed to Shein. It now focussed on the overseas markets and began riding its way into the fashion industry. Which proved to be fruitful in the future.
Through all the ups and downs, it has managed to become a brand in the clothing world. The United States has always been a really good market for these guys. The United States still is Shein’s biggest market. It ships to almost the whole world. It has revenue streams from 220 countries with websites built for Europe, the middle east, Australia and the United States has been ignited by a series of funding rounds. That was the series E funding for the company that happened in the pandemic year 2020. With this funding in hand, the company got a decent valuation that exceeds the 15 billion dollars mark.
Speaking of the nice valuation, it is also noted that the revenues are not made public. The revenues are in some excess of 10 billion dollars. Which is a really pretty number and proves satisfactory growth.
Taking in mind that this number estimate was coming in the pandemic year which was the most difficult for companies. Not many people were buying new clothes to go out. It was all lockdowns and virus precautions. These amazing numbers really attract Asian investors and international venture capitalists and private equity houses among its capital structure supporters.
The Core of Shein – Fashion Predictions
For most of the time, Shein is identified with clothes and as fashion retail, its core is just identification and predictions. It is often mentioned and said that Shein as a company is deeply obsessed with identifying hot fashion and trends. The company is often seen to predict the type of clothes, fabrics and style statements that will mostly go viral in the coming dates. It has even been reported that it has a faster fashion cycle than the Zara. It has a good social media activeness index and markets heavily on Instagram and manages to continue that trend across social media platforms. It tries to make an impression of a Weibo friendly image for attainable and accessible fashion clothing across all the social media.
As mentioned before, the brand has seen ups and downs in the same proportions of magnitude. The success of this brand does not come easy. It has had many incidents that have shaken the base of the company. For instance, the company was condemned to list a pendant that was shaped like a swastika. The problem and the error was later apologised profusely.
The products are all over social media and they have managed to create a brand image for themselves. Shein uses celebrities as well as fashion influencers to elevate the vision and create an image for the clothing line. Most of the operations are online and they do have offline stores too.
The branding from this company has elevated the low quality and low-cost reputation that was allegedly established in the beginning. They have managed things well even during the pandemic. They had an event hosted called SHEINTogether which was streamed globally in May 2020. Artists like Katy Perry, Rita Ora were roped in for the show.
They still manage the repute that they have built over the years. The cloth brand that started in China went from being homegrown to becoming a key player in the clothing segment in the world. Before 2014, Shein didn’t even have its own supply chain. This is mysterious in all senses but it is also true that it is sheer hard work and consistency from the brand’s side. Let us catch a glimpse of the marvellous emergence in the world today. First, let us see the potholes in their way of work.
Controversies Faced by Shein
One of the biggest controversies that the clothing brand started was child labour and abuse. The claim comes after customers begin questioning the cheap products that the company was able to produce. There were allegations of child abuse and child labour to be involved in the matter. Even though, The website of Shein and in all the legal announcements of Shein, the company has maintained to announce that they are strictly against any sort of child labour.
One other concern which concerned consumers all over was carbon emissions. A report mentioned that they keep all their emissions in check and that the magnitudes are within limits. Fast fashion is a subject line that can have a lot of pain points. The fact that it is fact, also makes it full of residuals. These residuals are mostly harmful to nature. If a brand is able to manufacture quality with less price, they face allegations of child labour, which happened with the clothing brand Shein.
“Shein is one of the only large retailers that orders 100 pieces or less for new products to help eliminate dead stock – which makes up 10% of the carbon emissions across the entire supply chain for the apparel industry. Shein is fully committed to upholding high labour standards across the entire supply chain and to improving the lives of workers in the global supply chain by supporting national and international efforts to end forced labour.” A company’s spokesperson explained
The other thing which was pointed out by consumers and critics was that the brand is super secretive. Following the products which it goes by, Shein is a fast-fashion retailer, it maintains all the secrecy in the world. Even the information about the founder of the company is rarely found on the internet. Social media and websites are maintained properly but there are no guest and news appearances. This opaqueness by a brand raises many eyebrows.
Overall, Shein (previously She Inside) is a complete mystery. No phone number, no email and certainly no press contact was to be found online. Even the name of its founder remains a total enigma, as El Mundo reports. This seemingly opaque company relies mostly on digital marketing and bloggers to get you hooked on their products, rather than divulging anything about their supply chain transparently. – Euronews reported.
Emergence of Shein
It is amazing to notice that the brand didn’t have its own supply chain up until 2014. They used to buy their clothes directly from Guangzhou’s Shisanhang Garment Market. It is a wholesale market in China that is famous for the clothing segment. Soon when the company began running operations, it was hit with strong demand. Watching the demand trend, they soon realised that they will have to become self-reliant in everything. From getting their own supply chain to managing shipment and everything else.
Realising this, preparations were made to go more independent. Chris created a team, or we should say assembled a design team. It was an in-house department that works within the specified locale. Within the first two years, the team expanded and there were now 800 people in the design team. This move was not only focused to improve designs but also to save time. The design team made the designs and prototyping efficient and thus rapid. This ensures that time is saved and it lies with the company’s goal of fast fashion. This has also generated a good demand for its new launches.
Adding to the above, the company has also initiated timely payments of the products that it offers to china. Getting payment in time was a rarity in China but Shein doesn’t go with it. With this effect, Shein moved its operations and supply chain from Guangzhou to Panyu in 2015. Taking forward this effect, all the factories that operate under the brand have to relocate their factories for cost control measures.
The year of relocation of factories was also the year in which the brand entered the Middle East market. The sales were big even in the initial stages. The revenues for fiscal 2016, Shein earned 617 million dollars in revenue. In 2017 those revenues soared 1.5 billion dollars.
Market share data from Earnest shows that Shein began 2021 with 13% of total Fast Fashion sales, trailing traditional leader H&M. Since January, Shein continued to gain share and now leads with 28% of the Fast Fashion market, with Zara the only other brand growing share during that period. – Earnest
The future plans for this venture are even more optimistic. They want to include mobile payments into their operations and they want to get more into the supply chain finance division. In the modern world today, they are also hoping to do more advertising to market products. Nonetheless, they are also looking forward to adding more brick and mortar business centres out there. As retail stores also add a lot of magnitude to the revenues. All this growth and emergence from nowhere is not magical, even though it is mysterious but it also acts as proof of work.
Clothing is one of the most favourite items in the world. People love to dress up and that is the basic thought that works behind the scenes of the fashion industry. Fast fashion is the new trend that companies try to capitalise on. They are trends that come and go. This might seem easy but it is a lot of work that goes into fast fashion. Zara is a fast-fashion retailer and Shein also comes on the list. A lot of companies are built from the fashion industry. In fact, Fashion is really a big strong word.
We discussed a lot about Shien and its emergence as one of the leaders in the market today. The brain behind the brand is Chris’s and he is as mysterious as a Hollywood movie spy. The zeal that the company shows is indefinitely inherited from Chris Xu’s vision in the mission. He is one of the most hard-working and well sought after entrepreneurs in the land of China.
With almost no fingerprints whatsoever on the internet. He has been a learner for most of his life and he definitely thinks with first principles. Let alone the business accomplishments, he has practical knowledge and a way of looking at things. It is not a fast skill to learn but is built over time.
FAQs
Who is Chris Xu?
Chris Xu is an SEO expert and the founder and CEO of mysterious fashion e-commerce website, Shein.
Who is the CEO of Shein?
Chris Xu is the founder and CEO of Shein.
How did Chris Xu start Shein?
Chris Xu used to sell wedding dresses, after looking at the popularity he thought of starting his own fashion retail company. He started SheInside with his team and later changed the name to Shein.
India is a very calm country. It has shown resilience in every work that it has taken in hand. The government and all the diplomats keep on trying hard to maintain that image of a peaceful country. But when we say that India is peaceful and calm, we don’t mean that it just tolerates any nonsense that the world throws at it.
In a bugle of incidents, India was hit by China in a very crucial spot. There were fatal border clashes between these two biggest countries in the world. set of events started to take place in India. A trend that was probably never thought of before. The trend was to boycott Chinese products in India. Anything or any product that was a product of China was boycotted from the market in large numbers.
All this was done in a hope that it will affect the Chinese economy in a bad way. It was done as a reply to the Chinese backlash that happened across the border. The backlash was one of a kind and was never seen before. It happened on the land of the border of India and China.
When this happened and people of India began to think that they will reduce the consumption of Chinese products up to a level zero, they didn’t think about the after-effects of this action. They didn’t even think if boycotting at a national level is even possible or not? They didn’t even think about the fact that, if this action is even possible? If you have ever wandered in this direction of thought, then this is the article for you. Here, in the article, we will discuss how the Chinese goods were boycotted and were even possible for a country like India to boycott products of China.
This is the core issue that India faced and it is also the core of the thought of boycotting Chinese products in India. China was involved in some serious backlash on the border of India. Every citizen thought of taking revenge on China. The fastest way that they could think of, was the Gandhian way. The way of boycotting anything and everything that was manufactured in China.
Anything and any product from China faced a backlash. People all over the country decided to boycott products from China. This was a patriot blind act but this really shows the zeal with which the citizens of India operate.
This was the beginning of the Anti China trend which focussed on eradicating every Chinese product from the market. People in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad hurled Chinese TV sets down their balconies, while traders in the capital, Delhi, protested by burning Chinese goods.
On the other hand, when people were hugely boycotting Chinese products, the government of India said nothing. The government of India mentioned nothing officially to the anti china sentiments that flowed in the country.
Despite the Indian government saying nothing about the boycotting of goods from the land of China, there was something that went on in the background. In the backstages, Indian public sector undertakings and all the designated departments of the government were supposed to lessen the influence of Chinese counterparts and Chinese involvement in the processes. This is something that can be seen clearly when the accounts of the government were scrutinised.
The railways were one of the organisations which hold a lot of tender for every work that it does. It was also the organisation that was reported to have cancelled a lot of work that was outsourced to some of the Chinese companies in the record. This really raises eyebrows in the direction of boycotting Chinese involvement in every major decision in India.
It was also reported that the government also asked all the electronic commerce on the internet to show the country of origin, from which the products are sold. This can be a way to promote more transparency and fluency in electronic commerce but this can also be something relating to the anti china movement.
Later in time, India took even more intense steps to stop Chinese influence and involvement in India. The government banned more than half of apps that were flagged as inappropriate in privacy and safety issues. This included very famous apps like TikTok, UC browser and the CamScanner.
After the backlash that happened because of China, the bilateral relations were obviously bad and it was proof of bad handling of relations from the side of China. China became a culprit to the whole world and trades with India worsened at the time of the clash. It was also seen that the bilateral trade between countries was already down by as much as 15 percent. This figure was the lowest since 2018.
It was also speculated that the Indian government will also impose more and more tax on the import of items from China. Which will eventually demotivate people of India to buy from China and look for other alternatives. This was a big question, the question of selection of alternatives apart from the land of China.
China, as it is known to the world, is a cheap Labour country, which can manufacture things at a very low cost. This is a very big competitive advantage that China has over the world. It is populous and it provides products that are relatively cheap than most parts of the world.
Multiple companies who are MNCs use China as a step in their supply chains all over the world. So this is a crucial question to ask. What are the alternatives to China and if India can even afford the boycott? Is it even possible to reduce products from China and still keep the growth levels up in our country? Let us discuss some reports.
Is There a Substitute for China?
As the Anti-Chinese sentiment flourished on the land of India, it was very few people who were thinking, “If not China then who ?” China is probably the biggest exporter to India in terms of the magnitude of imports from the nation. There are a lot of industries that are dependent on China in terms of materials that they require to carry on their respective productions.
“At least 70% of India’s drug intermediary needs are fulfilled by China,” Sudarshan Jain, president of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, told the BBC.
Not just for India, for China too, India is a great market. Both are hugely dependent on each other but China has a competitive advantage of being at a high level of manufacturing for the world. In other words, China is the second-largest trading channel for India after the United States. This makes it really important for China to not mess up relations with India.
Another fact is that all the imports from China account for about 12 percent of sectors such as automotive components and parts, Chemicals, pharmaceuticals and consumer electronics.
India’s booming smartphone sector is also one of the sectors which heavily depends on cheap Chinese phones made by Oppo, Xiaomi and others with the majority of share in the local market.
“We are not worried about finished goods. But most players across the globe import key components such as compressors from China,” says B Thiagrajan, managing director of Blue Star Limited, an Indian manufacturer of air conditioners, air purifiers and water coolers.
He also adds that it generally takes a lot of time to set up supply chains that are local and intrinsic to a nation. For a country like India where demand is huge for every product and service, setting up a local supply chain will be a work of wonder. Especially for the products for which it is hard to find a substitute. Handicraft is a category where India imported $431 million worth of goods from China in the 2020 financial year without any significant opposite in exports.
China is a big player in not just the market of China but also in the market of India. There can be multiple occasions when investors from China invest hugely in India. There are instances when Chinese money flew out to India into Indian startups which later turned into unicorns and are now a world-renowned brand.
There are many companies that invest in India, such as the technological giants of Alibaba and Tencent, which are behind a lot of money that flows into the Indian economy through startup tunnels. The examples include a lot of famous and household names like Zomato, Paytm, Big basket and cab aggregator Ola.
All these companies were once small companies and startups which grew to become multi-million dollar ventures with help from investors all over the world. One of the investors was from China and they mean serious business when it comes to money and wealth creation for both parties.
“There have been more than 90 Chinese investments in Indian startups, most of them made over the last five years. Eighteen out of 30 Indian unicorns [tech startups valued at over $1bn] have a Chinese investor,” says Amit Bhandari, an analyst at Gateway house.
At $6.2 billion, direct Chinese investment in India appears relatively small. But, Mr Bhandari says, restricting the likes of Alibaba from creating monopolies in the Indian market will be crucial given the “outsized impact” of these investments.
The foreign direct investments are a great mention here. India has already amended its FDI (foreign direct investment) rules to stave off hostile takeovers of Indian companies.
While China has accused India of contravening WTO principles, it’s unlikely to cut ice under current circumstances “as there is no way of enforcing any decision if an intercountry conflict is cited as a reason to justify the violations”, Zulfiquar Memon, managing partner at MZM Legal, said in an email interview.
This will provide India with some freedom to reduce the dependency that it has in terms of imports from China. This is the mantra of self-reliance, which is simply the fact that you can reduce imports when you are Atma Nirbhar, or self-reliant in yourself. India has a big trade deficit that touches the number that’s nearly $50 billion.
When everyone is talking about boycotting China and letting the bird go out of hand, it is the question of how the land will be satiated. This can be done by finding some alternatives to China which are really rare. Or this can be achieved when Bharat becomes self-reliant in its goods and produces. This is the time when the government is promoting the self-reliant scheme in India. It is promoting and motivating every initiative that will lead to making India self-reliant in some way or the other.
So to lessen the dependence of imports among the Anti China sentiments, India is thinking of reliance. That is the reason why The government is now emphasising “Atma Nirbhar” or “self-reliance” in India. It is a term that explains some entity that is full in itself and does not need others to sustain itself. The Atma Nirbhar Bharat Yojana tries to cover five crucial things in an economy: economy, infrastructure, system, vibrant demography and demand.
In a recent report, The daily Global Times warned that “China’s restraint is not weak”. It says it would “be extremely dangerous for India to allow anti-China groups to stir public opinion, thus escalating tensions”, and adds that the focus should instead be on “economic recovery”.
The domestic manufacturing sector of India can substitute as much as 25% of total imports from China, according to new findings from Acuité, a rating agency. This would lead to a reduced import bill of over $8bn in a single year.
This is a huge step towards a self-reliant India but this will introduce many retrains in the market. People would have to face some issues of supply and demand for that matter too. Mr Bhandari of Gateway House says boycotting popular Chinese apps such as TikTok might be more effective than boycotting physical goods in terms of value-added because there are multiple alternatives.
Conclusion
As we see that both China and India are huge storehouses of demand and supply. For India, China accounts for about 12 percent of imports in many major sectors of the country. China is the second-largest trade channel for India which is just after the United States. Thus, both the economies generate a lot of demand and supply which help both the countries in the manner they should.
The Anti-china sentiment that flew across India was a big blow to the relations and magnitude of imports and exports. This effect was deepened when the coronavirus hit the world.
As the covid 19 pandemic blew in the whole world, the demand for medicines and all the equipment that is needed by doctors increased a million times. This was the time when India’s imports from China rose in June and July 2020 by about 7.2%. At the same time, exports to China have contracted by 1.4% despite the demand slowdown due to COVID-19. The primary instruments needed in India were the PPE kits and all the emergency equipment required for treating the Covid 19 disasters.
Not just this, Chinese capital has been a very good source of foreign direct investments in India and this has broadened relationships in many ways. Both the countries benefit from this, in terms of wealth creation.
According to Invest India, there are more than 800 Chinese companies in India’s domestic market. All these factors include that India replied to China on borders a hard way. Citizens too joined the party by trying to boycott Chinese goods.
This is impossible to completely vanish Chinese produce from India but it is good to be self-reliant. The government has probably found a sweet silver line of hope in all this time of Anti China sentiment. The idea of sustainability will improve the nation-building process and is overall a sustainable method for growth.
FAQs
Can India completely boycott Chinese products?
As of now, it is not possible to completely boycott Chinese goods as India is on its way to becoming a self-reliant nation. Also, there will be huge job losses as China will push their companies to stop their production in India.
Why are Chinese products popular in India?
As the products of China are somewhat cheap compared to Indian products so people prefer Chinese products.
Is China a threat to the Indian market?
Yes, China provides goods that are really cheap compared to Indian products which are affecting the small and medium business industry in India.
Chinese companies have acquired a huge part of the Indian market. The recent ban of some of the major Chinese companies has pushed them out of the limelight. These companies dealt in the field of fashion, gaming, and entertainment. It includes big names such as Shein, Club Factory, PUBG, WeChat, Halo, etc. But still, some companies bag huge profits from India and dominate the Indian market.
Xiaomi is one of the top Chinese mobile brands in India. It is popular for many reasons. MI makes mobiles and electronic accessories suitable for almost all kinds of customers. The price ranges from affordable to high with varying features. Xiaomi first entered the Indian market on July 13, 2014, in partnership with Flipkart to sell its MI 3 for 13,999 INR. Today, it has become the most sold mobile brand in India and is leading the electronic market among other chief brands.
Oppo
Oppo – Chinese company in India
Oppo is a popular Chinese company that entered India in 2014 to woo Indian customers with its fancy camera phone. It launched a huge marketing campaign that covered Indian ‘bazaars’ is Oppo banners. With Deepika Padukone as the brand ambassador, Oppo got into the minds of young Indians.
All its marketing strategy revolved around the camera and it still does. Oppo also partnered with PUBG gaming to draw in customers to play the cult favorite game in high graphics. It has its fingers on the pulse of youth and continues to make great sales in the market.
Vivo
Vivo – Chinese company in India
Vivo entered India with Oppo only with the similar concept of selling its camera phone. It applied the same marketing strategy and captured a huge portion of the Indian market. Banners and hoardings of Vivo were seen alongside Oppo and they painted the market green. Vivo also sponsored many gaming events to promote its performance and dominated the Indian mobile sales.
One Plus
Oneplus – Chinese company in India
One plus was also launched in 2014 and it was more on the costly side. Unlike Oppo and Vivo, One Plus mobiles are not available at cheaper rates. It begins with 27,999 INR which is expensive for an average mobile user in India. It was marketed as a high-performance mobile with an astonishing camera.
Huawei is also a competitor among many Chinese mobile companies in India. Huawei sell mobiles, tablets, watches, and speakers. Their most popular mobile was ‘honor’ that did extremely well in the Indian market. Later, it faced issues due to technical problems and India’s relationship with China but now it’s back on track.
Motorola
Motorola – Chinese company in India
Motorola is another Chinese company that makes smartphones, accessories, and smart home devices. They also sell baby monitors and smart nurseries. Motorola is not as popular as other Chinese mobile brands but it has significance in earlier times. But, Motorola has also increased its shipment and is planning to make a comeback in the market with its new gadgets.
Coolpad is another smartphone company of China. It is headquartered at Shenzhen, China. It is not much popular as compared to other Chinese brands but recently Chinese investors put in $500 million into Coolpad and have set eyes on 5G shares. It has head offices in Karnataka, Haryana and Tamilnadu.
Lenovo
Lenovo – Chinese company in India
Lenovo is a Chinese electronics manufacturing company whose laptops are especially popular in India. It also makes other gadgets like smartphones, wearables, and television. Lenovo laptops are trusted by Indian buyers for their durability and reasonable price. It is the choice for students other than HP or Dell.
Haier
Haier – Chinese company in India
Haier is another electronics brand that has been in India for nearly 12 years. It manufactures refrigerators, microwaves, AC, TVs, and water heaters. Haier is popular among the masses for the well-built products that last long. It also makes appliances that are required in factories such as commercial freezers and air conditioners. Indian, is the highest contributing market to Haier’s net worth. It aimed to become a billion-dollar company by 2020 but Covid got in the way.
TCL
TCL – Chinese company in India
TCL is another electronics company that majorly deals in TV and home theatre. They also make home audio and air treatment devices. The company also focused on making AI-induced appliances and launching them in the domestic market. It aims to join the list of the top three smart TV brands in India. TCL’s revenue in India has reached 4 million dollars in recent years.
Realme
Realme – Chinese company in India
Realme is also a mobile brand from China that has formed quite a grip in the Indian market. Its new models sell fast and the company has registered immense profit in the past few years. As the young customers reach for the newest model, the demand for such mobile brands increases. With a wide price range, it has managed to double its shipment in the year 2020.
WISCO
WISCO – Chinese company in India
WISCO stands for Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation. WISCO entered India on 8 Aug 2008 and registered itself at Registrar of Companies, Mumbai. It deals in manufacturing materials of different kinds and produces bronze for all construction purposes.
Conclusion
This was the list of top Chinese companies operating in the Indian Market. A large percentage of the Indian population buys Chinese smartphones as other alternatives are costly. These companies have acquired the market through a smart strategy of a wide price range and it’s apparent that they’re not going anywhere anytime soon.
FAQs
How many Chinese companies are in India?
There are a total of 105 Chinese companies registered in India.
How many Chinese apps are banned in India?
The Indian government has banned around 224 Chinese apps.
Which are the Chinese mobile companies in India?
Some of the top Chinese mobile companies in India are:
Xiaomi
Oppo
Realme
Oneplus
Vivo
iQOO
Which Indian companies are in China?
Top 5 Indian companies which have a good market in China are:
Changpeng Zhao is the founder of the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance. He has turned out to be a true inspiration to many since the company’s inception in 2017. In a span of a few months, Zhao turned the company into the largest exchange platform for the crypto trade. Changpeng Zhao, popularly known as CZ, was valued as the 11th richest person in the world. Recent estimates revealed that his net worth is around $96 billion.
From selling his apartment to buy cryptocurrencies to turning out to be one of the richest people in the world, the life of CZ is something inspiring and exciting to learn about. Let us see where and how Changpeng Zhao’s journey started, his early living and his life as the CEO of Binance.
Changpeng Zhao is a Chinese-Canadian business person who was born in Jiangsu province of China on 10th September 1977. Both of his parents were teachers. Zhao’s father was working as a professor in a university and he was exiled after getting labeled as “pro-bourgeois intellect”. As a result, the family moved to Vancouver, Canada by the late 1980s. During his teenage years in Canada, Zaho started working part-time to support his family’s expenses. He used to work at McDonald’s and a few gas stations after his school.
Changpeng Zhao – Initial Career
Changpeng Zhao was a computer science graduate from McGill University, Montreal. After graduation, he started his career as an intern in Tokyo. He worked for a trader on Tokyo Stock Exchange, who asked Zhao to develop software for matching orders in the stock trade. After the initial experience, he joined the Bloomberg Tradebook LLC in 2001 and worked as the head of Futures Development sector for the next 4 years.
Later in 2005, Zhao co-founded a company called Fusion Systems. The company was involved in providing IT solutions and other business consultancy services. Changpeng Zhao remained as a partner in Fusion Systems until the end of 2013 and then entered the world of Crypto.
Changpeng Zhao – Professions in the Crypto World
Changpeng Zhao – Binance Founder
By 2013, Changpeng Zhao joined as the head of the development team in Blockchain. Blockchain.com is a company that provides various cryptocurrency-related services. It created a cryptocurrency wallet that has dealt with almost 28% of the bitcoin transactions between 2011 and 2020. Zhao worked in this company for developing software related to crypto wallets.
After working in Blockchain for about a year, Zhao resigned from the company and joined as the Chief Technical Officer in a company named OKCoin. OKCoin, like Binance, was a Crypto Exchange company and is considered to be one of the largest in the world. But Zhao felt that the company doesn’t suit his vision on crypto exchange and he decided to quit his position.
Coming out of OKCoin, CZ founded a company named Bijie Tech. This company provided crypto exchange services to people in Shanghai. It kept serving people for two years from 2015 to 2017, until one day, all the platforms and websites of Bijie tech went dead. There was no information given or clarified from the management regarding the disappearance of the company. But with the death of Bijie Tech emerged a mighty company named Binance.
Changpeng Zhao – Journey as Binance CEO
Binance Logo
Changpeng Zhao’s interest in cryptocurrencies started as early as 2014 while he was playing a poker game with his friend. During that time he got to know about Bitcoin and started investing in it. He even sold his house to buy Bitcoins. Such was his interest in the crypto market. Zhao added experience to his interest by working in various companies.
Bijie Tech slowly disappeared only to bloom as Binance. All the top management and resources of the former company structured Binance. Changpeng Zhao has remained the CEO of the company since its formation in 2017. This cryptocurrency exchange platform is the largest exchange in terms of trading. Binance made Zhao a billionaire within just 180 days of its operation. He has grown to be the 11th richest person in the world with his net worth estimated at $96 billion.
Zhao faced myriad challenges during these 5 years in Binance. China’s stringent policies on crypto forced him to shift the headquarters from the Chinese land to Caymen Islands. The United States Department of Justice has put Binance under investigation for money laundering offenses. Similarly, many other countries like Germany and UK have also raised legal actions or warnings against the company. In fact, in 2019, there was a huge theft of bitcoins from Binance whose value stood around $40 million. Zhao faced all these challenges explicitly including the bitcoin theft. He made sure that the company makes up for all the losses and never let his customers down.
Conclusion
The story of Changpeng Zhao is truly inspiring. Everything we think as impossible was made possible by him. Cryptocurrencies and their market are just getting popular and most people are less knowledgeable or still unaware about it. In such a situation CZ created his own pathway and set a benchmark for aspiring leaders. Zhao created a belief that it is possible to start a business and make it the world’s largest in 5 years. He showed that becoming one of the richest in the world would take just a couple of years. He also proved that despite any hardships from the superpower countries, it is possible to flourish a business in every part of the world. A lot to grasp from such a stimulating personality.
FAQs
Who is Changpeng Zhao?
Changpeng Zhao is the founder of the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance.
When and where was Chengpeng Zhao born?
Zhao was born on 10th September 1977 in Jiangsu province of China.
What is the work of Binance?
Binance is the cryptocurrency exchange platform that helps people trade cryptos for assets.
Which is the largest crypto exchange platform?
Binance is the largest crypto exchange platform in the world.
The world has about 775 crore people living on its surface. If you look at the population graph, you will notice a straight line facing the sky. The rate at which the population is growing makes a steep graph.
The world is divided into continents and countries. Most people live in china. China is the most populous country in the world. In fact, China has been the most populous for a long time now. When we write ‘for a long time, it means centuries. The first census showed the Chinese population at 583 million and by the fifth census, it had risen to double at 1.2 billion. The Chinese population now has crossed a mark of 1.4 billion people. It also covers most geographical time zones after that of Russia. This means that the country is not just big in population but also huge in the area.
A big country like that of China needs a lot of products and services. They need a lot of goods to meet the needs of people residing in that country. Some of the goods can be imported and the rest have to be produced in the home country. In fact, most goods that they can’t import or the goods that are not economical to import, they have to manufacture by themselves.
Not to mention that China is one of the cheapest labour countries out there. In this article, we are gonna cover the economy of this country. We will discuss what comprises the most in this economy and what are its driving factors. Read on to know more about the second-biggest economy in the world.
China or the Republic of China (official name) is a country in East Asia. As we mentioned earlier it is the biggest, in terms of population. It contains the largest number of people than any country. This country also spans and covers most geographical time zones after Russia.
The country has 23 provinces, 4 municipalities, 5 autonomous regions and 2 SARs (Special administrative regions). The capital of China is Beijing. The largest city in China, which is also the financial centre, is Shanghai. In terms of technological and innovative approaches, the city of Shenzhen tops the chart in this country.
China at its inception emerged as one of the very first civilisations. It was the fertile land basin of a river named Yellow that marked its beginning. After the civilization boom, China also emerged as one of the first economically strong countries. Their time as a strong economic power also remained for almost most of the two millennia (thousand years).
Also, the political system of this country is based on monarchies. It has been this way for almost a thousand years (Millenia). This means that for those many years, China’s political system was controlled by rulers and then their heirs and then their heirs. This is what we call an absolute hereditary monarchy. This system of political control began from the ‘Xia dynasty in about the 21st Century BCE. Moreover, since then the country of China has seen multiple expansions, fractions and re-unities.
China: The Culture
The culture of such a big country is expected to be special and unique. Since very ancient times, the culture has been heavily influenced by the philosophy of Confucianism. Which is a tenet in philosophy. This is also known as a truism and inspires people to live a humanistic, rationalistic and very simple life.
The culture there in the past also offered examinations, tests. Those exams were to be passed by a person to get a highly prestigious and better status in society. This is one of the reasons why China has a long history of writing and calligraphy. In fact, calligraphy, writing poetry and painting are more celebrated than other forms of art like dancing or dramatics. Its culture also inspires people to be diving deep into the lanes of history to know about their past. This also invokes the trait of an inward-looking behaviour of Chinese people in the past, this ran at a national level of thought process.
China: The Economy
It is an aforementioned fact that China is big and has a lot of people. It has to cater to about 1.4 billion people for its sustenance. This really marks that the economy must be big and effective. However, this is not as easy as it seems.
Even though China is the largest in terms of population, we cannot really say that it is the biggest when it comes to the economy. It is second in terms of magnitude just after the United States. It is important to note that economies are weighed in terms of GDPs. GDP stands for the gross domestic product. That is in simpler terms, the sum total of all the valuable products or services that a country produces in a financial year.
According to the GDPs, in the pandemic year 2020, China is seen to have the second-largest GDP in the world. Here are the top five countries according to the GDP ranks.
Highest-ranking countries in the world in nominal GDP
When we talk in terms of GDP, we measure it in dollars. We can also notice that China may be the second largest in GDP but it is the largest in terms of PPP.
PPP stands for purchasing power parity. PPP is a popular macroeconomic analysis metric that is used to compare economic productivity and standards of living between countries in purchasing power. The theory follows a theory known as the “Basket of goods” for comparing the purchasing power of different countries.
China tops the list when we see through the lens of purchasing power parity. This shows us the fact that even if the Chinese economy is the second-largest, the citizens of China are better in purchasing power and economic productivity than that most countries. Please note that PPP here does not mean a paycheck protection program, made by the CARES Act.
China’s growth rate (In annual terms) is displacing that of the United States of America. Many think that China’s rate will overtake the United States in terms of Nominal GDP too in the upcoming years. Don’t get scared of the terminology “Nominal GDP”. Nominal GDP is a form of GDP that is in the current rates, without accounting for the effect of inflation on the GDP. So, this is a GDP at the current market price.
There are many reasons for china that made this country get this spot of a top tier pacer in the economic race. We will discuss more in a second. But let us get some overview, China has progressively opened its economy with the whole world, continuously for more than forty years. This reveals a good reason why its economy is on a paced growth and why the standards of people there have been improving vastly.
The Chinese government has gradually phased out collectivised agriculture too. It means the type of agriculture in which multiple farmers can hold land and share workloads of the agriculture activity. Thus, it helps in sharing Profits and losses among farmers and makes farming a little more smooth sailing.
Collectivised farming has also boosted flexibility for market prices and increased the autonomy of businesses. When a country’s agriculture is doing well, it can then pay more attention to the industrial sector and thus China’s domestic and foreign trade magnitudes are also rising at a good rate of growth.
By far we have discussed China and its economy. We have seen that it is a rapidly growing economy with such a behemoth sort of population. This might interest you in how this big country is fostering growth with such a huge number of people and how it is able to raise citizens’ standard of living. This is the part of the article where we discuss the reasons for such growth in China. How it is becoming, what it is becoming and what are the main drivers of growth for this economy.
The Manufacturing Hub of the world
China, if you don’t know, is the manufacturing hub of the world. If you are using a product that is sold by a brand or even a local product then it is a good possibility that the product would be manufactured in China.
Yes, look around yourself. Your favourite Apple products are assembled in china, your favourite Converse or Nike sneakers are made in China, and most things that you can think of are manufactured in China. Do you ask for a reason? The reason is obviously cheap labour.
With such a big population, China has some special benefits over any other country in the world. It can provide a good basis for cheap labour. For that one reason, it has emerged as the global capital of manufacturing items.
Besides its large hands on the textile industry, the economy also is big on machinery, processing of food items, Cement for infrastructure, consumer goods and many many more fields.
Moreover, China is not a huge hub only for domestic manufacturing plants, it also caters to the needs of foreign companies to come and manufacture there or assemble items. Famous examples may include Apple. Apple designs their products in California and they are assembled in China. Adding to this, The Chinese software and IT industry grew by over 14.2% from 2018 to 2019, generating revenue of approximately $940 billion.
Apple Factory in China
Heavy Focus on Industries
Another reason which makes this country a big economy is its industries. As any normal developing country, China knows that for growing its economy, it needs to pay attention to the industries that are set in its territory. So they focus extensively on that.
China is a super friendly nation when it comes to industries wanting to set up manufacturing plants there. Results of which are the fact that China is the world’s biggest steel manufacturer. This shows a strong will of steel.
The Chinese government began opening up the economy for the whole world in 1978. Which is also known as globalisation. So it began its reforms for economic development under the leader named Deng Xiaoping. That was a turning point in the history of this big country, after the reforms it went on to become the fastest-growing major country globally.
According to a report, the growth rates were averaging 10% over 30 years. China also has three of the ten largest stock exchanges in India. They are located in prime cities like Shanghai, Hong Kong and Shenzhen. They are big in terms of market capitalisation and trading volume. All these factors establish that China is an industrial hub.
The Medicines industry
Abbreviated as Pharmaceutical industry. China has one of the best, state of the art medical supply chains. The growth trends in this industry copy the whole of China. It grows almost as China grows, which is rapid. China had the second-largest pharmaceutical market in the world as of 2017.
The pharmaceutical industry follows the same structure as most of the world. They have manufacturers at the top and then middlemen or distributors and then retail stores communicate directly to the general public. However, the global share of China’s medicines is seen less. With a big population, it is forecasted to grow even more and is still one of the biggest in terms of scale.
The Population’s Demand-pull
As mentioned earlier, China is very populous. Which makes it a generator of huge demands. Brands all over the world try to target this demand to get some share of this market. So this has become one of the most important drivers of economic growth for that country. It is a consumer paradise with all types of demands for goods, be it normal or luxury items.
China has some of the biggest shopping malls in the world. They, not to mention, stimulate growth in a good direction. The retail lines of China contributed about 1.8 trillion dollars to the Gross domestic product.
China Global Center Mall
China is also the home to the E-Commerce giant Alibaba. It is responsible for giving a lasting boost to the already big consumerism in China. A report said that Alibaba on a shopping festival achieved something sort of called a miraculous sale. It touched a sales record of 540.3 billion Yuan (it is about 84.5 billion dollars), which is a huge record for such a huge country. This gave a much-needed boost to the consumer sector. Even today it is one of the benchmarks for sales all over the world.
Alibaba Logo
Tourism and travel is also big sector in China. It reportedly contributed 992 billion dollars to the Chinese GDP in the year 2019. Other sectors that are the prime demand pullers are transportation, construction and estate.
What can go wrong with China?
China, however big it may seem from the outside, can go weak from the inside. There can be many premises on which the country is not doing well. For example, China uses a lot of Non-renewable resources to produce power, electricity. The population needs it and the shift in this sector seems impossible. This marks the country as a huge member of the world’s pollution and a big emitter of greenhouse gases.
As we discussed previously, the China government is a monarch at its core. This makes enough space for corruption. The government is however trying to curb corruption and make the country more flexible and friendly for the world’s businesses. This can take time and if not done correctly can leave a bad impression on the image of China. This problem is not just one faced. It is a multifaceted problem, as it can lead to fewer industries in China and thus low employment rates in the country.
Speaking of that, China also faces the problem of unemployment. It needs to place people with enough skillsets for employment. Which is also a big deal in a country as big as China.
In addition to the political and the internal housing issue, one more issue lurks there. The recent downward trend of the labour industry. This means that China is slowly losing the crown of the cheapest labour in the world. The reason for this can be inflation and the digitalised working models and economy. China is losing its position to other cheap labour countries like Pakistan, India etcetera. For India, it is good news but if China has to retain its manufacturing position then it needs to be more ready for this changing technological world.
As we discussed above, China is a big country with a huge population and big demands. It is important to note that it, obviously, also has some cracks. Some cracks in the economy that are not severe but if not cured could sink a big ship.
The recent Evergrande fail was one such big example of how things can go wrong. China has seen real estate bubbles in its history too. The previous bubble burst and hit the whole world’s market, more recently the Evergrande crisis made the investors scared of investing in China.
It is a good point to say that “With great powers comes great responsibilities”. China has a load of the most people on the globe, which can be overwhelming to the government. In these times of pandemic, the future remains random and uncertain.
The fact that the Covid 19 pandemic originated from the heart of China also is affecting the Chinese economy in the wrong manner. It has defamed China in some sense. This is the reason that some industries are looking to shift base to developing countries like India.
For China, it remains a tough call to tackle a pandemic and the future of its economy. Again, it is not supposed to be easy to handle such a big and populous economy.
FAQ
Is China a developed country?
Yes, China is one of the largest developing countries in the world.
What is China’s GDP?
The gross domestic product (GDP) of China is around 14.87 trillion U.S. dollars as of 2020.
Is China the fastest growing economy?
Yes, China ranks second in the world’s fastest-growing economy.
There is a unique kick in Unboxing something new, a new gadget, a new parcel because it has a sense of surprise in it. India is a country of festivals and we absolutely love to shop but have you ever wondered how these goods are made ? How do they land in the package ready to be used ? How are we able to get dreamy-deals that save us money ? There is a lot of behind the scenes of making a product, packaging the value in a box.
In a world as fast as ours, we tend to forget the process and focus mainly on the outcome. This article talks about a product process and how a brand manages to save costs with countries with cheap labour. We will also discuss Pakistan as an emerging nation with cheap labour.
It is said that Labour is handicapped without capital, and our capital is handicapped without labour. The word labour has direct relations with inputs that we put in to get some final product.
Labour can have many dynamics like mental, physical or social efforts that are required to manufacture something. Essentially on the basis of skillset, labour are of two types – Skilled, Unskilled and in some cases even Semi-skilled.
As the name suggests they are categorised on the basis of skills and training required to make them work effectively. Unskilled labour is the cheapest form of labour and is required to do work that does not require any sort of training.
Global sourcing of Labour
The initial motive of global sourcing of labour is cost savings. With the progress of globalisation, product differentiation in contemporary markets is not that remarkable anymore, to some extent, which leads to a greater emphasis being placed on price competition.
This has especially been the case with consumer products. Besides cost savings, plenty of studies have also identified quality and availability as critical aspects for global sourcing
Cheap Labour and its History
In every society around the globe, employers try to follow the downward trend of cost of labour. Thus, saving themselves the most capital. They pinpoint some stratum of people who are the most vulnerable and employ them with low wages.
This topic can go further to the ‘apartheid’ faced by the South Africans in contrast to white population. Their wages were as low as one-fourteenth of white counterparts even when they comprised around 80 percent of the total population.
Government implementing racist policies, commended employers with greater power over this section of workers. Which in turn employed discrimination among the general public.
Another method employers follow is ‘De-Skilling’ which means to eliminate a skill that is required for a job. Making it easy for a worker to be replaced. This drives down labour cost.
New technologies are also a way to increase competition among workers resulting in less wages. This makes the labour cheap and employers end up with more surplus. These are the usual cases in the world of manufacturing but there are some more natural ways on how labour can be cheap.
Factors like economic development, growth of a nation and per capita income of citizens of the country matters in determining the cost of labour. China has been a global player.
China: The world’s factory
China is considered as a factory for the whole world, the reason being the huge population and cheap availability of labour. This trend was followed for a long time and now it is up for a spin. The world demographics are changing and we are witnessing a downward trend in the employability of labour, the prime reason is rising labour costs.
Due to rising demands of people and rising cost of goods, China is not prized as the ‘cheapest’ country to produce goods anymore. Moreover this phenomenon has led some foreign countries to exit the country and find their nest somewhere else. There are several reports on how the trend is moving.
According to one Report, it is observed that hourly rates in Mexico are lower than that of China. This might not be good news for monopolist China but it is surely good for developing countries where labour is relatively low.
Cheapest Countries in Asia
When the world’s factories are becoming a little expensive, the biggest players in the manufacturing sector are looking for a shift. The new home should obviously be cost effective. To answer this question satisfactorily, we will have to look through a lens of cost. The cheapest countries in the largest continent of the world i.e. Asia are listed below –
India
Pakistan
Nepal
Sri Lanka
Included a Forbes article. This essentially shows where the manufacturing giants could move their base to. The list coincides with the trends that we see every other day, like Tesla coming to India, Apple pondering over ideas to start a manufacturing unit in India, Pakistan becoming the next hub for cheap labour in the world and much more. These are the hotspots where new industries are eyeing for better sustainability.
The land of Pakistan
Pakistan is the fifth most populous country in the world with a population of over 200 million. These statistics make it an important player in the world. Several studies have concluded that the country entails a good number of workers and manpower. With these numbers we can safely say that the country is rich in workforce.
Is Pakistan the new heir?
A populous country as Pakistan with abundance of labour seems a good choice for industries all over the world. The abundance can be a signal of cheap labour that can be used to produce goods and services with ease and with better efficiency.
Salman Shah of ‘Taskforce on Textile’ during the TEXPO-2019 seminar mentioned that a recent survey concluded that the labour unit in their work in this domain is much cheaper than that of the dominant China. The textile expo (TEXPO) also witnessed clothing brands‘ total presence and active participation during the event.
Moreover, rather than dismissing it as an impediment, we can use this unique aspect as a benefit for our nation. He also mentioned that this trait can become very useful when we talk about China-Pakistan economic corridor projects. Cheap labour in Pakistan can help build a soft spot for the country in the world where it already faces other economic and relational issues.
What is digital labour? How is it different from online labour ? these questions might be popping in your head. The funny thing is that it is easier to understand. There is a famous quote that goes like this – “Software is eating the world”
Almost all people on this planet are witnessing this (Except fewest of third world places) phenomena. We live in a digital era and we work digitally. You are reading this blog on a mobile or other device digitally. So you can easily see the blanket of technology that the world is wearing right now. It’s beautiful and gives us a sense of abundance.
Examples of digital labor might include on-demand platforms, micro level of working and data generated by users of digital platforms like our favourite, social media. Digital labor generally describes work that entails a variety of online tasks. If a country has the structure to maintain this kind of digital economy, then this form of labour can incubate income for citizens without the limits of physical obstacles.
Christian Fuchs cites that of the world’s 2,000 largest transnational corporations 11.6% fell under the umbrella of communications and digital media. Tech companies like Google, Amazon, etc. are shaping the economy in exciting ways.
Pakistan and Digital Labour
Online Labour Supply
A report by the International labour organisation concluded that Pakistan already is the third largest provider of labour for digital or online platforms globally. The report also mentioned that India is the biggest labour supplier. Digital labour can be categorised in two types, location based and online web based.
The web-based platforms are defined in which tasks are performed online or remotely by workers without being physically present. “These tasks may include translation, legal work, financial and patent services, designing and software and freelancing.
Location-based platforms on the other hand are those done in person in specified physical locations by employees. These can include taxi driving, delivery services and home improvement (plumber or electrician), domestic labour and caretakers.
Conclusion
We are witnessing a decline in the Chinese empire of cheap labour. This is true for sure. While companies search for alternatives for meeting their manufacturing demands, Pakistan is going to be seen.
On the other hand, India is a big player and it will shine in the search of manufacturers to find a better place. However, the filter of cheap labour is sharp enough to cut India from the picture and put Pakistan in the spotlight. Who will rule this industry is hard to say because there are a lot of variables involved.
Variables like globe conditions, Pakistan’s relations with the world and need shifts of brands. We live in a beautiful world of change and numerous probabilities. We can study numbers to tell a story but the reality may unfold in its own fashion.
FAQ
Is China still the Low Labour cost country?
No, due to the rising demands of people and the increase in the cost of goods, China is no longer regarded as the ‘cheapest’ country to manufacture goods anymore.
Is Indian Labour cheaper than China?
The hourly wages in India are five times less than in China.
Can Pakistan become the next cheap labour country for the world?
Yes, Cheap labour force in Pakistan can help attract foreign industrialists.
We are at a time, where digital currency holds the utmost importance, in our life. Payment card, UPI, and now cryptocurrency, it seems like complete domination is inevitable.
The digital currency has literally grasped the mind of people and the big stacks of notes may become obsolete in the future. In recent years, Cryptocurrency has somehow started gaining momentum, especially amongst the younger generation. So much is the craze that almost everyone is willing to invest some funds in them.
Cryptocurrency at this point has been able to gather attention on itself from everyone. Some are already investing, some are speculating, and some are just watching it from the side. Whatever it is, the world’s eyes are on this, and it cannot be ignored anymore.
The rising star suddenly got a bump in the road, this year in the month of May, Cryptos suddenly saw a great deal of decline, and the market got crashed. Again on the mid of September, the market crashed and somehow it has created tension.
“As the value goes up, heads start to swivel and skeptics begin to soften. Starting a new currency is easy, anyone can do it. The trick is getting people to accept it because it is their use that gives the ‘money’ value.”
– Adam B. Levine
In this article, we will find out about the reasons for the crashing of the Crypto market. Before that, let’s find out about what Cryptocurrency is.
A cryptocurrency is a form of digital currency that is decentralized in nature, with the help of Blockchain technologythat means it is not controlled by the government or any other mediator.
It is the direct exchange of this digital currency between two people. People use this to buy goods and services but mostly they are used for investment. Most of the countries still haven’t declared it as legal tender.
There are some common forms of cryptocurrency that are used in the world and they are:
As mentioned above Crypto market crash in the month of May and again in September of this year, the fluctuating nature of cryptocurrency is creating uncertainty amongst investors and others. There are a few reasons that can be identified to be the cause of the crashing of the cryptocurrency market.
Elon Musk Denies Cryptocurrency
In the month of March 2021, Elon Musk the CEO of Tesla, the most valuable car company announced that they are willing to accept the most popular cryptocurrency, that is Bitcoin as a payment method in the USA. With that, it was also said that they will try to introduce this payment method in other countries as well.
By the month of July, the market experienced a 50% dip, and that was quite a lot. Bitcoin faced a 35% plunge at that time.
Bitcoin Price after Elon Musk tweet
We can say that, although cryptos future seems great, but it not being environmentally friendly is causing it a great deal of concern. The news causes apprehension and over 8 lakh traders decimate their investment.
China asked the institutions to refrain from providing services to those who are trying to get them by using cryptos and ordered banks to stop providing support to cryptocurrencies. China even instructs bitcoin has to close down its mining operation in Sichuan and like that it got shut down there.
Even though this prevention did some damage to this digital currency market, in August the market saw a surge, and as per the report, the value rise above $2 trillion.
The good weather didn’t stay good for a long time; China central bank permanently announced that any transaction done with cryptocurrencies is illegal and banned any type of virtual currencies use.
As per them, it placed people’s assets in danger. China banned the trading of cryptocurrencies in 2019 but foreign exchange through online continued happening.
This announcement of China in the month of September of 2021, put the last nail on the coffin of the crypto market in the World’s most populous country. Following this announcement bitcoin showed a 9% drop again.
China was one of the top names in the crypto industry but this sudden move has plummeted the virtual currency business in the country, with that it has also destabilized the entire crypto market of the world.
Although this fluctuating nature of cryptocurrency is turning people’s heads more towards into them but with industry giants like Tesla giving up and refraining from considering crypto coins as a method of payment is straining the virtual currencies presence in the market.
Not to forget China’s ban on crypto is questioning the digital currencies’ entire authenticity because of that people are now being skeptical over-investing in them.
FAQ
What is cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that is decentralized in nature.
Is Cryptocurrency Banned In China?
China’s Central Bank termed all virtual currency transactions illegal, which is done by cryptocurrency from 24th September 2021.
What is the reason for Cryptocurrency crash?
Cryptocurrency crashed in may because Elon Musk denied purchase of tesla using bitcoins and later China banned all the cryptocurrency transactions.
A crisis is any event or period that will lead, or may lead, to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in human or environmental affairs, especially when they occur abruptly, with little or no warning. – Wikipedia
Ever since the inception of human life on the planet earth, or even before that time, We have faced Crisis. So much so that it is a part of life and we don’t deface the fact anymore. Crisis has taught us that we lack something, and we need to work more on the present systems to make things more liveable. Making us more decisive, it cures indecision. This is a kind of help in our constant journey of making things better. However, We humans are the dominant species in nature.
Why, you may ask ? Because we have hacked evolution !
Ours is the only species that has decided to actually become better or more efficient without waiting for the process of evolution to take place (that is always slow). So, we are the only animal who has hacked evolution. That makes us the most fast-paced living species than anyone. Does that mean we don’t have a crisis anymore? No, we get crises every now and then to showcase us that some things are just so fickle. A house of cards.
We all are terrestrial mammals, we live on earth, land. Build houses and earn a living. Housing or real estate is a super demanded domain in this world. As population boosts we will want more and more houses, dwellings to accommodate people. Amongst the constantly rising demands for land, it is very imperative for all of us to make sure that land is distributed justifiably. To provide for the need that is round-the-clock. Not to mention, being such a big sector, Housing sector or real estate sector is not oblivious to shockwaves, you know CRISIS. Whenever a wave hits this epicentre, human lives move. It moves to that extent of magnitude which we cannot even measure on a Richter scale.
China is the world’s most populous country on the globe. Most humans live there. Housing sector is as big as it gets. It has seen its share of crises in this magnanimous sector. A really big economy. It has seen his share of strides and waves of uncertainties on his pupils. Lets see an example for clarity.
Real estate in China is developed and managed by public, private, and state-owned red chip enterprises. In the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, the real estate sector in China was growing so rapidly that the government implemented a series of policies—including raising the required down payment for some property purchases, and five 2007 interest rate increases- due to concerns of overheating. But after the crisis hit, these policies were quickly eliminated, and in some cases tightened.
The Chinese property bubble (2005-2011) was a real estate bubble in residential and/or commercial real estate in China. The phenomenon has seen average housing prices in the country triple from 2005 to 2009. It deflated in 2013.
Massive doesn’t even begin to describe the situation with China’s property market, but that’s somewhat expected with a population of 1.4 billion people.
And as the chart below shows, the bubble keeps on getting bigger!
China Real Estate Bubble
Well we know that this thing is of the past. This was a crisis and China hopefully learned some things from it. That’s why storms come, to make us more stable. This article is not about the past but for the future. This point in time, we are gonna see another crisis. Maybe more tense than the past. Maybe a more lethal Than past. So, what is it this time ?
EverGrande Crisis in China
China’s second biggest real estate mogul EverGrande is facing a crisis. To be more precise the company is going through financial difficulties. It is having liquidity issues to pay back its lenders. To give you some context, China’s real estate market has been booming in the recent past and to capture the trend and grow, Evergrande had taken up so much debt that they are struggling to pay it off now. The magnitude of this upcoming crisis is such that, if it collapses, people will lose homes. Not only China’s economy but the global economy as a whole could be affected. Lets see what is the scene here,
The Evergrande Group or the Evergrande Real Estate Group (previously Hengda Group) is the second largest property developer in China by sales, having developed projects in over 170 cities in China. It is ranked 122nd on the Fortune Global 500. It was founded in 1996 by Xu Jiayin. It sells apartments mostly to upper and middle-income dwellers. In 2018, it became the most valuable real estate company in the world. Evergrande Group owns 565 million square metres of development land and real estate projects in 22 cities, including Guangzhou. The company and Alibaba own 50 percent each in Guangzhou Football Club and Evergrande football school is the biggest football school in the world. In the year 2009, the company filed for an IPO, An Initial Public Offering to get public
As of September 2021, the company is at risk of defaulting on its debt. An estimated 1,500,000 customers could lose deposits on Evergrande homes that have yet to be built.
“I think ultimately the Chinese authorities will step in to make sure at least the wider financial system doesn’t run into a crisis,”. “If you’re a property developer you’re facing a few bleak months ahead. The key distinction I think is policymakers will allow property developers to suffer considerable pain, but they’ll step in to make sure the banking system is okay.” – Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics.
Kotak tweeted, the threat over China’s second-largest real estate developer reminded him of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS). Last year in September, the infra leasing and financial services company wasn’t able to pay its debt due to shortage of funds. The financial services market felt the tremors, and led to a liquidity crisis. However, the government came to its rescue and hand-picked nominees to replace the board in October. It had extended Kotak’s term as non-executive chairman of the debt-ridden group by one year.
Lauding the government’s swift decision-making, the 62-year-old veteran banker said the Indian leaders provided calm to financial markets. “The government-appointed board estimates 61% recovery at IL&FS. Evergrande bonds in China trading, approximately 25 cents to a dollar,” he wrote.
The Lehman Brothers Financial Crisis
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill), with about 25,000 employees worldwide. It was doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading (especially U.S. Treasury securities), research, investment management, private equity, and private banking. Lehman was operational for 158 years from its founding in 1850 until 2008.
The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008 was the climax of the subprime mortgage crisis. After the financial services firm was notified of a pending credit downgrade due to its heavy position in subprime mortgages, the Federal Reserve summoned several banks to negotiate financing for its reorganisation. These discussions failed, and Lehman filed a Chapter 11 petition that remains the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, involving more than US$600 billion in assets.
The bankruptcy triggered a 4.5% one-day drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, then the largest decline since the September 11, 2001 attacks. It singled out a limit to the government’s ability to manage the crisis and prompted a general financial panic. Money market mutual funds, a key source of credit, saw mass withdrawal demands to avoid losses, and the interbank lending market tightened, threatening banks with imminent failure. The government and the Federal Reserve system responded with several emergency measures to contain the panic.
Radhika Gupta (MD and CEO of Edelweiss) said in a public notice that the real estate sector is highly regulated, given the large role it plays in the Chinese economy. In synopsis, the fund managers(at Edelweiss) do not think that the sector is facing systematic risk(Risk inherent to the entire market). The government is prioritising this issue and rapid regulations are expected. She also advised that investors with a long term horizon should stay patient as fund managers at Edelweiss see a transitory volatility.
Tweeted as a part of a disclaimer, the Edelweiss Greater China Equity Offshore Fund was at its highest risk on the Riskometer.
Dear Shareholders, I am pleased to present the reports of China Evergrande Group (“Evergrande” or the “Company”) and its subsidiaries (the “Group”) for the year ended 31 December 2020. The Group’s turnover and gross profit for the year amounted to RMB507.2 billion and RMB122.6 billion respectively. Net profit was RMB31.4 billion. Core business profit was RMB30.13 billion. In order to repay the trust and support of shareholders, the Board recommended the payment of a final dividend of RMB0.152 per share for the year 2020, which will be distributed upon approval at the general meeting of the group. – Prof Hui Ka Yan (Chairman of the Board of the Group, Chairman of the real estate group)
This is quoted from the annual report of 2020 of the company. It paid a dividend. The company was saying it out loud and clearly, that we are fine, Everything is fine, we are paying dividends, Take your profits share, shareholders. Well now we see the whole big picture, Loud and clear.
Evergrande founder and Chairman Hui Ka Yan continued his precipitous drop in Bloomberg’s wealth ranking as the company’s shares fell to their lowest in a decade. His fortune now stands at $7.3 billion, down from a peak of $42 billion in 2017.
Smothered by a $300 billion liabilities burden that has crushed its credit rating, share prices and reputation among a once-adoring public. Throughout last week, the concourse outside Evergrande’s mirrored offices in the southeastern city of Shenzhen was occupied by unpaid contractors, angry sales agents and investors scenes echoed across a country where prolonged protest is rarely tolerated.
Now, as default appears all but inevitable, fears are abounding of a contagion within the Chinese property market — and far beyond.
The month of September is typically when real estate companies in China record higher contract sales of properties. However, the ongoing negative media reports concerning the Group have dampened the confidence of potential property purchasers in the Group. The Company expects a significant continuing decline in contract sales in September, thereby resulting in the continuous deterioration of cash collection by the Group which would in turn place tremendous pressure on the Group’s cash flow and liquidity.
Here is a little excerpt of previous financial statement to back the downward trend in operations of the company.
Balance Sheet Excerpt of last year.
As disclosed in the Operating Statistics Announcements, the contract sales of properties of the Group in each of June, July and August 2021 amounted to RMB71.63 billion, RMB43.78 billion and RMB38.08 billion, respectively, which showed a decreasing trend.
Announcements and Notices by Evergrande (14 September,2021) The Real estate giant also mentioned in a recent public open notice that –
No material progress on sales of interests in members of the Group
The disposal of the Company’s office building in Hong Kong has not been completed within the expected timetable
The Problems:
The company has $300 Billion debt to bondholders
Property sales declining for months and will continue
Company owes $103 billion to construction companies and other business creditors
Banks are not ready to refinance
Company wants to repay debt in the form of property and parking spaces
China’s Government has imposed limits on the amount of real estate borrowings, which caused bondholders to withdraw their money
EverGrande now needs to pay interest of $83.5 Million on bonds now, with a grace period of 30 days
China stock markets and Global markets, mainly in the US is reacting negatively to the news.
Stock markets globally sank on Monday as investors weighed the risk of a spillover from Evergrande’s debt. Bitcoin dropped 5.4 percent this week to $45,025
China’s property market is majorly affected and we see the 2008 financial crisis all over again.
Evergrande bondholders might sell their other investments too to keep their money as cash at the moment. This might cause market correction
In an effort to flatten the crisis curve, China’s central bank boosted its gross injection of short-term cash into the financial system after concern over a debt crisis at China Evergrande Group roiled global markets. The People’s Bank of China pumped 120 billion yuan ($18.6 billion) into the banking system through reverse repurchase agreements, resulting in a net injection of 90 billion yuan.
Injecting funds to flatten curve.
China bails out the company indirectly by asking borrowers(state owned banks mainly) to take the property and parking spaces and waive off the debt.
Evergrande Crisis Effect on India
Sensex and Nifty are at great heights and thus are more volatile to corrections.
Short term corrections may happen
Over a medium term, India can benefit from the situation because the Chinese crisis cause increased money flow into the Indian markets
This crisis can put the rupee under pressure. If Evergrande is allowed to default, the market could see a massive sell-off with significant contagion risks for global financial markets – HDFC bank economist’s report.
If one single company that owes $304 billion can develop financial exposure to hundreds of lenders, millions of investors in bonds and stocks, and hundreds of thousands of homebuyers, Then we cannot be sure of big corporations anymore in china.
Indian steel still sees a strong spine as evergrande goes to a cash crunch.
Improvement In indian steel sector
Shailendra Kumar, Chief Investment Officer at Narnolia Financial Advisors feels till now Evergrande issue looks localised and Chinese policymakers should be able to handle it using steps like restructuring. He believes the Indian economy and Indian equity market is set for exciting times ahead. “While the global trend of digitalization is a megatrend favouring the Indian economy, domestically, formalization is another megatrend adding further positivity to Indian equities,” he said.
So, what shall happen tomorrow, for sure we can’t predict it to a nice accuracy, But we can surely see that what we are facing is risk, Uncertainty or maybe the silence before a storm. Let’s call it a crisis.
FAQs
What is Evergrande crisis?
Evergrande is an enormous company embedded across China’s financial system and economy, that relies mainly on real estate.
What does Evergrande do?
Evergrande Group is an investment holding company in China. It is involved in real estate business. Evergrande group does development, investment, and management of real estate properties.
Who is the founder of Evergrande Group?
Xu Jiayin (Hui Ka Yan) has founded Evergrande Group, headquartered at Shenzhen, Guangdong, in 1996.
