According to reports, the government will examine Dixon Technologies’ recent deals with Chongqing Yuhai and Kunshan Q Technology, two Chinese electronics companies, as well as other domestic electronics manufacturers.
According to a media agency, an official told them that when their application falls under Press Note 3 regulations, proper process would be followed. According to Press Note 3 regulations, foreign investments from nations that share a land border with India—such as China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar—must have government clearance.
Dixon Signing Agreement with Chinese Firms
Dixon reportedly signed contracts with two Chinese electronics component companies, Chongqing Yuhai Precision Manufacturing and the Indian branch of Kunshan Q Technology, just two days ago.
The agreements cover the production and distribution of electronic components used in various electronic devices, including laptops and mobile phones. According to the agency, Dixon intends to form a joint venture with Chongqing Yuhai to manufacture and supply precision components for laptops, mobile phones, the Internet of Things, automobiles, and other products.
Dixon is expected to own 74% of the JV, with Chongqing owning the remaining shares. Dixon also inked a legally binding agreement with Kunshan Q Tech Microelectronics India (often referred to as Q Tech India) and its shareholders, Kunshan Q Technology International and Q Technology Singapore, for the proposed purchase of a combined 51% stake in Q Tech India.
Dixon also waited for the Indian government’s consent more than a month ago before pursuing a cooperation with China’s HKC for its display module manufacturing facility.
Foxconn Already Replaced Chinese Engineers with US and Taiwan Specialists
The multinational electronics powerhouse Foxconn has already devised a different strategy to save its iPhone 17 production in India by bringing in specialists primarily from Taiwan and the US.
This development comes a day after it was revealed that Beijing had “forced” Foxconn Technology Group to return its Chinese engineers and technicians from its Tamil Nadu plant. Recalling workers is perceived as a tactic to thwart Western IT companies’ attempts to move their manufacturing out of China.
Additionally, it is perceived as an extension of the diplomatic dispute between China and India. The export of essential machinery needed to upgrade assembly lines to produce the iPhone 17, which is anticipated to be released by September of this year, was already being restricted by Chinese officials.
As anticipated, a media article stated that Foxconn already had a strategy to hire engineers primarily from the US and Taiwan. Furthermore, the problem only relates to the upcoming debut of the new iPhone 17 series.
For earlier versions, Indian technicians are already in charge. The replacement of the Chinese experts might take up to two months. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), according to the report, stated that Foxconn and Apple have been aware of the potential loss of Chinese engineers for the past four to five months.
The import of essential equipment can still be an issue even if technicians are replaced. The iPhone 17’s price may rise as a result. However, according to industry experts, the average compensation for a US expert is approximately six times that of a Taiwanese expert.
Further, the average compensation for a Taiwanese expert is approximately 50–60% higher than that of a Chinese engineer. This could result in an increase in the production costs for the company.
DeepSeek has emerged as a formidable force in the AI industry, rapidly challenging established players with its groundbreaking approach to artificial intelligence. Unlike traditional AI firms that rely on expensive proprietary models and massive computational power, DeepSeek has adopted an innovative, cost-efficient strategy that delivers high-performance results without the need for cutting-edge hardware. By leveraging open-source methodologies and advanced training techniques, the company has proven that AI breakthroughs don’t always require billion-dollar budgets.
With its unique ability to develop powerful AI models at a fraction of the cost, DeepSeek is not just a competitor—it is a paradigm shift in how artificial intelligence is built and deployed.
In this StartupTalky article, we will explore DeepSeek’s journey, its founder, startup story, business model, revenue model, competitors, challenges, and the implications of its success on the AI industry.
DeepSeek AI is a China-based company specializing in open-source large language models. Backed entirely by the Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer, it has managed to create AI tools that rival ChatGPT in performance. What’s remarkable is that DeepSeek achieved this using significantly fewer resources and at a fraction of the cost. The company developed its model despite challenges posed by U.S. sanctions on China, which limited access to Nvidia chips and aimed to curb the country’s progress in advanced AI technologies.
DeepSeek – Industry
DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, has shaken the global AI landscape with its low-cost, open-source model, R1. This breakthrough has put pressure on industry leaders like OpenAI and Meta while triggering a notable market reaction—most significantly, a decline in Nvidia’s valuation. DeepSeek’s rise underscores China’s growing influence in artificial intelligence, forcing competitors to rethink their strategies.
Disrupting the AI Industry: DeepSeek’s cost-efficient, open-source model challenges tech giants like OpenAI and Meta, redefining AI accessibility.
Market Ripples: The impact of DeepSeek’s entry is evident, with Nvidia’s market cap decline signaling a shift in industry dynamics.
India’s AI Landscape: While India has promising AI initiatives, it lags in global competition. Prioritizing cost-effective solutions and attracting top talent could help bridge the gap.
Projected AI Growth: The global AI market is on track to reach $1.8 trillion by 2030, while India’s domestic AI industry is expected to grow to $17 billion by 2027, presenting significant opportunities for innovation and investment.
DeepSeek – Founders and Team
Liang Wenfeng, Founder & CEO
Liang Wenfeng – Founder and CEO, DeepSeek
You’ve heard of Tim Cook, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman — big names in tech and innovation. But lately, it’s Liang Wenfeng who’s turning heads. He’s the brain behind DeepSeek R1, the cutting-edge Chinese AI model that has caught the industry off guard and shaken up Wall Street.
Liang is a Chinese entrepreneur who co-founded the hedge fund High-Flyer and later launched its AI division, DeepSeek. Born in 1985 in Zhanjiang, Guangdong, he grew up in a simple household, with his father working as a primary school teacher.
He studied at Zhejiang University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in electronic information engineering in 2007, followed by a master’s degree in information and communication engineering in 2010. For his master’s thesis, Liang worked on a project about low-cost PTZ cameras and tracking algorithms — a far cry from the world-changing AI he’s known for today.
Liang’s interest in AI and finance took shape during the 2007–2008 financial crisis. While still in university, he teamed up with classmates to gather financial market data and experiment with quantitative trading using machine learning. After graduating, Liang moved to an affordable flat in Chengdu, Sichuan, where he tried applying AI to different industries. Most of his early ventures didn’t work out, but everything changed when he focused on finance, paving the way for his later success.
Liang Wenfeng might not be a household name outside China, but his knack for merging emerging technologies with smart investments has built a reputation that’s hard to ignore. In April 2023, High-Flyer, the hedge fund he co-founded, launched an artificial general intelligence (AGI) lab focused on developing AI tools outside its financial ventures. Just a month later, this lab spun off into its entity, DeepSeek, with High-Flyer as one of its key backers.
Venture capital firms initially hesitated to invest, doubting the lab’s ability to deliver quick returns. However, DeepSeek silenced skeptics in May 2024 with the release of DeepSeek-V2, an AI model offering impressive performance at a remarkably low cost. This move sparked what’s now referred to as China’s “AI model price war.” Tech giants like ByteDance, Tencent, Baidu, and Alibaba were forced to slash their AI model prices to keep up. Despite its affordability, DeepSeek managed to turn a profit, unlike many of its rivals that struggled with losses. Its pricing strategy earned it the nickname “the Pinduoduo of AI.”
Interestingly, DeepSeek remains research-focused, with no immediate plans for commercialization. This approach not only sets it apart but also allows its technology to sidestep China’s strictest AI regulations, which heavily govern consumer-facing tech. By staying out of the spotlight of direct consumer applications, DeepSeek has carved a unique niche in the AI industry.
DeepSeek – Mission and Vision
Mission DeepSeek’s mission is to redefine how high-performing AI models are developed by leveraging innovative training techniques and cost-effective resources. By utilizing less-advanced chips and pioneering new approaches to model training, DeepSeek aims to make advanced AI accessible, efficient, and affordable, driving progress in artificial intelligence without the need for cutting-edge hardware.
Vision DeepSeek envisions becoming a global leader in AI innovation, setting a benchmark for building powerful yet cost-efficient AI systems. The company aspires to revolutionize the AI landscape by proving that excellence can be achieved through ingenuity and resourcefulness, shaping a future where AI is both impactful and sustainable.
DeepSeek – Name, Tagline and Logo
DeepSeek Logo
DeepSeek – Business Model
DeepSeek is shaking up the AI world with its large language models (LLMs) that compete head-to-head with industry giants like OpenAI, Google, and Meta. Despite hurdles such as chip export restrictions, the company has achieved extraordinary milestones, raising questions about the future of AI development and its underlying technologies.
In December 2024, DeepSeek launched an LLM that performed on par with OpenAI’s models, capturing the industry’s attention. Just a month later, in January 2025, the company revealed another model, claiming it was developed at a fraction of the cost of its competitors. These breakthroughs, driven by open-source technology and groundbreaking training techniques, have left Wall Street analysts speculating about DeepSeek’s unique approach and its potential to disrupt the AI market.
What sets DeepSeek apart is its ability to deliver high-performing AI systems without relying on advanced, high-cost chips. This has sparked a larger conversation about whether the demand for high-end semiconductors, a critical factor in the success of companies like Nvidia, will remain as strong as before. DeepSeek’s success demonstrates that innovation and resourcefulness may now play a more significant role in shaping the future of AI than access to the most cutting-edge hardware.
DeepSeek, initially known for its prowess in quantitative trading and algorithm development, has leveraged its expertise in mathematics, optimization, and resource management to make waves in the AI industry. By repurposing its extensive GPU infrastructure—originally intended for trading and mining—DeepSeek has efficiently trained and deployed its AI models, including the groundbreaking DeepSeek R1, at a fraction of the cost of its competitors.
The release of models like DeepSeek V3 and R1 as open-source and open-weights has been a game-changer for the AI industry. This bold move directly challenges major players like OpenAI and Claude, who have invested billions into proprietary models and infrastructure. By making its models freely accessible, DeepSeek has enabled anyone to reproduce and utilize its technology, shifting the focus from monetization to industry disruption and influence.
While the models themselves are free, DeepSeek offers a highly affordable API for running the models, making advanced AI accessible to a broader audience. This low-cost strategy could attract a significant user base, allowing the company to generate revenue through scale. Additionally, DeepSeek’s innovative techniques for efficient training and inference ensure that the company can sustain its low-cost offerings while remaining profitable.
By disrupting traditional AI business models and democratizing access to advanced AI technology, DeepSeek is not just reshaping the AI landscape—it’s redefining how innovation and efficiency can drive both accessibility and profitability.
DeepSeek – Challenges Faced
While DeepSeek’s rise in the AI industry has been impressive, its disruptive approach has not come without significant challenges.
Industry Disruption and Competition
By releasing its V3 and R1 models as open-source with open weights, DeepSeek has upended the AI industry, challenging established players like OpenAI and Claude. These competitors have poured billions into proprietary models and infrastructure, creating a stark contrast to DeepSeek’s accessible, low-cost offerings. While this strategy has earned DeepSeek praise, it has also sparked intense competition and scrutiny. Critics question whether DeepSeek’s open-source model can sustain long-term innovation and profitability in the face of giants with vast resources.
Cybersecurity Threats
DeepSeek has also faced direct threats in the form of large-scale cyberattacks. These attacks have temporarily forced the company to limit user registrations as it works to assess the extent of the damage and implement precautionary measures. The company’s website even issued a public notice, acknowledging “large-scale malicious attacks” that are disrupting its services. While DeepSeek has not disclosed specific details about the nature of these attacks, the situation highlights the vulnerabilities faced by tech companies, particularly those that challenge established norms.
Operational Strain
As its low-cost AI models continue to gain global attention, DeepSeek is grappling with the operational strain of handling increased demand while dealing with ongoing security challenges. The surge in interest, coupled with malicious attacks, has made it difficult for new users to access its services, potentially stalling its growth momentum.
Navigating Global Perceptions
DeepSeek’s Chinese origins also add a layer of complexity in navigating global markets, particularly as geopolitical tensions and concerns over data security influence public perception and industry partnerships. The company’s reliance on innovative, cost-effective strategies may face skepticism in regions where proprietary systems are the norm.
DeepSeek – Online and Social Media Presence
Social Media Buzz and Public Reaction
DeepSeek AI has taken the online world by storm, rapidly gaining traction across social media and app stores. On the Apple App Store, it has even outpaced OpenAI’s ChatGPT in popularity, thanks to its promise of delivering high-quality AI capabilities at a fraction of the cost of major US tech giants.
Viral Hype and Memes
DeepSeek Memes
The launch of DeepSeek-R1 has triggered a wave of online discussions, with social media flooded with reactions ranging from excitement to humor. Users have shared memes and witty commentary on the model’s unexpected rise, playfully mocking how it has disrupted the AI industry and forced competitors to rethink their pricing strategies.
Strong Presence Across Platforms
DeepSeek AI is aggressively promoting its models—V3, R1, and Janus-Pro-7B—on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), WeChat, and Reddit. The company’s marketing efforts emphasize its ability to challenge the status quo, making AI more accessible and affordable.
Community-Driven Growth
Unlike many closed-source AI projects, DeepSeek’s open approach has fueled community engagement. Developers, researchers, and enthusiasts have actively discussed the potential of its open-weight models, further amplifying its reach.
With its mix of affordability, performance, and viral appeal, DeepSeek AI is proving that a well-executed disruption can capture both market share and cultural attention.
DeepSeek – Competitors
DeepSeek AI’s rapid rise has disrupted the AI landscape, challenging traditional business models and sending shockwaves through the market. Its low-cost, open-source approach threatens established players who rely on expensive, proprietary AI models. As competition heats up, major tech firms are being forced to rethink their strategies.
DeepSeek AI is making waves in the global AI landscape, proving that cutting-edge models don’t require billions in funding. With its latest release, DeepSeek V3, the company has positioned itself as a serious contender against industry giants like OpenAI and Meta, delivering impressive performance at a fraction of the usual cost.
Competitive Performance: DeepSeek V3 excels in text comprehension, coding, and problem-solving, matching leading AI models.
Unmatched Cost Efficiency: Trained using just 2.78 million GPU hours ($5.58M), far less than Meta’s 30.8 million GPU hours.
Breakthrough Technology: Leverages Multi-Head Latent Attention (MLA) and Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) to optimize speed and memory use.
Open-Source Approach: By making its models publicly available, DeepSeek fosters innovation and accessibility in AI development.
FAQs
What is DeepSeek?
DeepSeek is a Chinese artificial intelligence company that develops open-source large language models (LLMs).
Who is the founder of DeepSeek?
Liang Wenfeng is the founder and CEO of DeepSeek.
When was DeepSeek founded?
DeepSeek was founded in 2023.
Is DeepSeek a Chinese company?
Yes, DeepSeek is a Chinese company headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by NetDragon Websoft.
The technological world keeps setting new records. Recently, the Chinese mobile game developer NetDragon Websoft selected “Tang Yu” as its Rotating CEO. Tang Yu is a virtual human backed by artificial intelligence. A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG, sometimes known as an MMO), is an online video game that has a lot of people on the same server, usually hundreds or thousands. MMOs often include a sizable, ongoing immersive experience, while there are some games that don’t. These games are available on the majority of network-capable platforms, such as mobile phones, gaming consoles, personal computers, etc.
Players can participate and compete with one another on a global scale in MMOs, as well as occasionally engage in important global interactions. They reflect several different video game categories and offer a diversity of gaming styles.
NetDragon Websoft, a China-based organization, creates mobile applications as well as massively multiplayer online games. In 2002, the business unveiled its first product.
Here’s the success story of NetDragon Websoft that covers all about the company, its startup story, founders, competitors, revenue model, acquisitions, and more, you can check ahead!
Operating as an investment holding business, NetDragon Websoft, Inc. creates and manages online games. Online game development, comprising game design, graphics, and programming, as well as online game operation, are the company’s and its subsidiaries main business operations.
Since 2004, NetDragon has also operated its games directly in foreign markets, doing so in Spanish, English, Spanish, and other languages. Way of the Five, Zero Online, Conquer Online, Eudemons Online, and Heroes of Might & Magic Online are some of the current titles available in the Group’s game portfolio. Other games in the portfolio cater to different player types and gameplay interests.
The Group is also working on a new version of Ultima Online in addition to Tian Yuan, CJ7 Online, Disney Fantasy Online, Dungeon Keeper Online, and other games. The company was established in 1999 and has its headquarters in Fuzhou, China.
In recent years, NetDragon has started to develop its online education business with the management’s objective to create the biggest international online learning network and provide genuine comprehensive blended learning services to every school around the globe.
NetDragon – Industry
The market for game creation software is expanding rapidly and is predicted to continue doing so over the coming several years. Game development software aids in the creation, monetization, and distribution of video games for the web, desktop and mobile platforms by gaming studios, independent developers, and educational institutions. These software programmes provide extra features including social features, statistics of user activity, and marketing.
Along with level editing and script compilation, the software tools enable the conversion of 3D textures and models into a game format. It is frequently offered as a pre-packaged software/solution suite that facilitates the creation of 3D, 2D, or both types of games. To help game creators produce material rapidly and effectively, businesses provide platforms or software with a procedural content production feature.
The global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 outbreak has had a significant effect on a number of businesses. People are spending a lot of time on social media, utilising internet-based calling applications, watching material, and playing games as a result of lockdowns in many different nations. The use of better applications and services may become more popular in the long run as a result of this transformation.
The pandemic has had a beneficial effect on the game development software sector since online gaming is becoming more and more popular all over the world. Companies that create mobile games are encouraging consumers to remain inside. During this season, game developers spend a lot of effort creating new games and updating their already current games.
NetDragon Websoft Headquarters Inspired by Star Trek
There are some crazed “Star Trek” fans throughout the world, but the NetDragon Websoft office in China takes fanaticism to a whole different extreme. Since Dejian, the creator of NetDragon, is reportedly a major “Star Trek” fan, the company’s headquarters is designed to resemble an Enterprise of the same. Dejian graduated from the University of Kansas and is on the board of directors for the Chinese online giant Baidu.
NetDragon – Founder
In 1999, Dr. Liu Dejian founded NetDragon Websoft.
Dr. Liu Dejian, the founder and chairman of NetDragon, committed $500,000 to build the centre and fund preliminary operations. The money came from one of the numerous businesses he controls, Digital Train Limited.
Liu Dejian
Dr. Liu Dejian – Founder and Chairman of NetDragon
The invention of Disciplined Design Methodology is credited to Dr. Liu. One of China’s top online gaming businesses, NetDragon Websoft Holding Ltd., is founded by him. In 2007, NetDragon Websoft debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Liu received the Special Allowance Expert title from the Chinese State Council in 2015. With more than 65 million registered overseas users, NetDragon has expanded its product line to more than 180 countries and 10 languages under his direction. The largest M&A deal in Chinese internet history at the moment occurred in 2013 when NetDragon announced the sale of its 91 Wireless to Baidu for 1.9 billion USD.
Liu established Huayu Education in 2010, a NetDragon wholly-owned subsidiary. Huayu combines cutting-edge mobile internet technologies with resources for education from across the world. Huayu focuses on K–12 and ongoing education for students worldwide. Huayu Education just won a Smart Media Award from Academics’ Choice for creating 101 Education, a high-calibre product that makes it easier for instructors to plan courses. Liu has received the highest degree of certification available from the China Association of Science and Technology: senior engineer.
At Beijing Normal University, he serves as co-dean and chair of the Council for the Smart Learning Institute. He has also been invited to serve as an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he co-teaches a course on Next Generation Design: Methods and Heuristics with Professor Chris Dede.
On September 1, 2022, NetDragon Websoft announced its CEO named “Ms Tang Yu”, an artificial intelligence-powered virtual humanoid robot as the Rotating CEO of the firm.
NetDragon stated that it hopes to “pioneer the use of Artificial Intelligence to alter management teams and catapult production performance to a new level” by placing a virtual humanoid at the top of its C-suite. The virtual robot CEO is a symbol of NetDragon’s “AI + management” methodology and is seen as a significant step toward the organisation’s strategy of becoming a “Metaverse company.”
Dr. Liu, the founder of NetDragon, claims that the new virtual robot CEO is no joke. She is a component of his company’s current acceptance of the potential tomorrow.
“We believe AI is the future of corporate management, and our appointment of Ms. Tang Yu represents our commitment to truly embrace the use of AI to transform the way we operate our business, and ultimately drive our future strategic growth,” Dr. Liu said in a statement.
Ms. Tang Yu has certain tasks, which NetDragon has outlined.
“She will streamline process flow, enhance quality of work tasks, and improve speed of execution,” the company said. She’ll also serve as a “real-time data hub and analytical tool to support rational decision-making in daily operations,” while enabling a more effective risk management system. She’s also expected to play a critical role in the “development of talents and ensuring a fair and efficient workplace for all employees.”
The company hasn’t yet unveiled a physical representation of Ms. Tang Yu. In accordance with a statement from the firm, Tang Yu will enhance decision-making during regular business operations and offer a better approach to risk management. She will serve the board as genuine analytics software and the database server as well. Other responsibilities of Tang Yu include ensuring that the staff work in a fair atmosphere.
Ms. Tang Yu “will enable us to attract a much broader base of talents worldwide and put us in a position to achieve bigger goals,” Dr. Liu said.
In China’s internet gaming and internet sectors, NetDragon is a key pioneer and guiding genius. It was founded in 1999 and is a leader in cutting-edge Research and innovation as well as a vertically integrated MMORPG developer and operator. In 2002, the firm released “Monster & Me,” their first independently developed online game. Other releases included “Eudemons Online,” “Conquer Online,” and “Zero Online.”
Meanwhile, the firm has consecutively released a range of mobile games, including “War of Gods,” “Warring States,” and “Crazy Horde,” drawing on their years of expertise in R&D and game operation. They were also China’s first company to directly operate titles in foreign markets, doing so in English, Arabic, Spanish, and other languages starting in 2003.
Over the years, NetDragon has established a track record of success, incubating online gaming and mobile internet ventures, including the largest and most prominent smartphone service platform in China, 91 Wireless, and the No. 1 Chinese online game portal, 17173.com.
NetDragon – Mission and Vision
NetDragon’s mission statement says, ” to promote education development and innovation in the internet and mobile education industry.”
NetDragon’s business and revenue model is divided into four segments: –
Gaming – In House Game & Engine Development, Oversea Marketing, and Game License
Mobile – 91 Open Mobile Platform, Application Development
Innovation – 91kt.com (with Cartoon Network), Digital Publishing, Outsource Platform
Education – Education sites, Education e-books and apps, Mobile School
In 2021, the company’s revenue increased by 14.6% YoY, reaching $1.01 billion (RMB7.0 billion) as both gaming and education businesses continued to grow strongly. The company’s revenue from the games business stood at $525 million (RMB3.6 billion) and revenue from the education business was recorded to be $466 million (RMB3.2 billion).
NetDragon – Education
In an effort to create “the greatest learning community internationally,” NetDragon Websoft began becoming involved in education in 2010. Among the purchases the company has made in this area are:
The establishment of the UNT-NetDragon Digital Research Centre through a collaboration with the University of North Texas.
To imagine modern technologies without artificial intelligence would not make much sense. Therefore, Dr. Liu, the company’s originator, highlights the significance of this upswing in the business.
According to Dr. Liu, the firm thinks artificial intelligence is the future of corporate leadership. The firm’s hiring of Ms. Tang Yu demonstrates its resolve to really adopt the application of AI to modify the way we run our organisation and eventually drive our appropriate development and growth.
As they gradually transition to a metaverse-based working community, he said that he is looking ahead and the firm will continue to expand on its algorithms behind Tang Yu to build a fully accessible, engaging, and highly transparent management system, which will enable everyone to attract a much broader base of skills and abilities globally and set the team up to accomplish higher ambitions.
FAQs
What is NetDragon?
NetDragon is a publicly traded company based in China that develops and operates online and mobile games as well as educational platforms. Its games include web-based games, mobile games, PC games, and e-sports games.
Where is NetDragon located?
NetDragon Websoft has its headquarters in Fuzhou, China.
Who is the CEO of NetDragon?
On September 1, 2022, NetDragon Websoft named “Ms Tang Yu”, an artificial intelligence-powered virtual humanoid robot as the Rotating CEO of the firm. NetDragon Websoft is the first company in the world to have appointed an AI-powered female bot as its CEO.
Who owns net dragon?
Dr. Liu Dejian is the founder and chairman of NetDragon. He provided $500,000 to build the centre and fund the preliminary operations of the company. The money came from one of the numerous businesses he controls, Digital Train Limited.
Which games are offered by NetDragon?
NetDragon’s games portfolio consists of a wide range of games that interest various kinds of players. These include Way of the Five, Zero Online, Conquer Online, Eudemons Online, and Heroes of Might & Magic Online.
How much did Edmodo sell for?
NetDragon Websoft, a Chinese holding company bought Edmodo, one of the largest online communities for students and teachers in the world for $137.5 million in April 2018.
Nobody could have ever predicted that China would experience another period of rapid economic boom. Similar to how Toyoko dominated the automotive industry, a brand that has been reigning the consumers for more than 6 years by offering a variety of goods and services is MINISO. It was founded by Chinese entrepreneur Ye Guofu in 2013, and the company was inspired by Japanese design-led lifestyle products. Since 2017, a Chinese-retail chain, Miniso has accounted for a major share of the consumer market.
By earning customers’ trust and catering to their preferences in many countries, Miniso has experienced tremendous success in the market owning more than 5000 stores across the world. Miniso instantly gained fame for producing ingenious, cost-effective, and low-priced goods. We all adore small consumer goods that are both practical and appealing, right? For instance, Miniso has developed a remarkable technique for producing facemasks that effectively puts the compressed facemasks into a bowl of water and waits for it to expand. In this context, we may say that Miniso, a Chinese company, has been manufacturing design-led lifestyle products that are secure, cost-effective, stylish, trendy, and simple to use.
In this article, we will go through the marketing strategies that made Miniso a renowned brand throughout the world.
Miniso is a popular Chinese company that has stores all around the world. It is probably the first name to pop up in people’s heads whenever someone thinks of buying beautiful-looking stuff on a budget. It is because of the brand’s amazing marketing strategies that make it a popular name among everyone. The following are the key marketing strategies of Miniso:
Market Entry Strategy
Miniso undoubtedly offers the best product and customer experiences because it has explored the international markets and launched more than 5000 stores in the US, Canada, South Korea, India, UAE, Hong Kong, and many other countries. As mentioned before, Miniso emphasizes products with appealing appearances, reasonable prices, and high quality to meet customers’ specifications. Furtherly, Miniso’s business strategy is known as “Three Highs, Three Lows,” where “Three Lows” refers to low prices based on low costs and low margins whereas “Three Highs” refers to higher efficiency, higher technology, and higher product quality.
Communication Strategy
Miniso is considered a fast fashion brand, which combines trend and leisure in its product, and prioritizes creativity, high quality, low price, and safety of the product. Miniso communicates or launches any new product through social media platforms. For instance, Miniso created Hashtags like #LoveLifeLoveMiniso, #MinisoLife, and #MinisoIndia to advertise its products. All this contributes to mass-media advancements, word-of-mouth referrals, and sales promotion and also makes people aware of its product and services.
Intensive Management Strategy
Applying the model ‘Three Highs Three Lows’, Miniso never fails to amuse us with its Intensive Management, where the interior decoration style of the store is modest and unique, American colour palette, product presentation, it’s shelving, making it difficult for the customers to walk away with empty hands.
Product Design
One of the greatest strategies of Miniso lies in its product design. Miniso never fails to offer high-quality appealing products at affordable prices. Most of the brand’s designers are Japanese who make the products so appealing that it becomes hard for the customers to not make any purchase from them.
Brand Strategy
MINISO Partners With MARVEL and Hello Kitty – MINISO Brand Strategy
From food & beverages, cosmetics, health & beauty, clothing, household goods, digital products, daily life products, to fashion accessories, the Chinese brand has been earning profit through selling its wide range of products all over the world at low cost and proposing new products regularly. Moreover, Miniso collaborates with other renowned brands, such as Hello Kitty, and Marvel Studio so the fans out there would love to have products if Iron man is in them. Miniso’s brand strategy is based on the choices of the customer and aims to entice the widest range of middle-class customers.
The following are the unique features of Miniso’s marketing strategy that makes it stand out:
In-Store Experience
Miniso perfectly identifies and meets this unspoken need. Shelves serve as marketing communication, and the American colour scheme provided by the brand, makes one want to make a purchase immediately. When you add in the brand’s stunning decorations, it becomes pretty much unavoidable to leave their store.
Smart Collaboration
Synergy always results from partnering with another profitable organization. By working with brands like The Pink Panther, Hello Kitty, and Marvel Studios, Miniso demonstrated this in person. Before the publication of Avengers Endgame, one must have observed how popular its commodities were and Miniso did not miss to take advantage of it.
Giveaways and Contests
MINISO India Holi Giveaway
Free things are always the best way to draw people’s attention regardless of how big or small they are. Everyone loves getting things for nothing. Even if they might never use the free goods, they still desire them, regardless of how essential it is. So, to take advantage of this fact, Miniso regularly conducts contests and giveaways for the customers.
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Products promoted by prominent personalities are frequently adored by consumers. We are more inclined to make a purchase when it is promoted by our favoured celebs and is within our price range. When everyone desired the popular Marvel drinks, attractive coin purses, and AirPods cases, the brand’s popularity skyrocketed.
Psychological Marketing
Miniso maintains its prices at Rs. 99 or Rs. 249 and tailors the beauty products by incorporating sun signs, adorable customized notes, and colour chord progressions. This helps the brand create a connection with the customers. People are encouraged to spend longer time in the store due to the lively ambience, attentive floor staff, and Billboard Top 50 songs streaming in the background.
Campaigns
Another unique feature of Miniso’s marketing strategy is its appealing campaigns on social media. With promotions like #ShowMinisoColour on Holi, it inspires customers to take photos of all the colourful Miniso merchandise they have purchased. People were urged to reflect on their personalities and use colour to express them. Miniso created its shopper personas and infused them with advertising effectiveness techniques. Additionally, it leveraged the pandemic scenario to rally its fans on social media, using hashtags like #WeWillGetThroughThisTogether to uplift people’s life force with their acquisition.
STP of MINISO
Segmentation
Previously stated that Miniso frames its marketing strategies according to the choices of customers. Generally, Miniso focuses on the age group of 15-35 years old and impose restriction on the use in the hands of children as it contains plastic and Miniso’s psychographic is based on middle-class customers.
Targeting
The key demographic for Miniso are homemakers who require uniquely designed goods and services. It concentrates on homewares and consumer goods that offer excellent value at affordable prices.
Positioning
The positioning of product differences is the foundation of MINISO’s marketing strategy. Miniso demonstrates creativity and is renowned for its unique and fashionable items of high quality at reasonable prices. It is presented as a fast-fashion brand.
On March 22, 2022, the international lifestyle store celebrated the conclusion of its MINI bus global tour and #love2gether campaign. The programme which promoted love and unity throughout the world involved 100,000 consumers from nine different nations. The #love2gether campaign by MINISO, which went live on February 22, uses social media to spread a theme of happiness and harmony. The label MINISO flagship shop in Soho, New York City, was the starting point for the MINI Bus, which travelled to Mexico, Italy, Spain, Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates, among other places. The bus travelled to famous locations all around the globe in a 30-day period.
On March 28, about 100,000 customers visited physical MINISO stores to leave greetings. People also posted online content with the hashtag #love2gether which amassed more than 3 million likes. Every experience was customized by MINISO to meet the needs of various markets, from influencer relationships to the layout and transit of the MINI Bus.
The MINI Bus in Naples, Italy, was encased in a vintage design that reflected the distinctive aesthetic identity and rich history of the city. For the big finale of the MINIBus global tour and the #love2gether marketing in the UAE, MINISO lighted up the iconic Ain Dubai. The worldwide retail network of MINISO is also responsible for the camp’s triumph. By the end of 2021, MINISO had established 5,045 retail locations across 100 nations, bringing happiness to all lands. Since MINISO Plushie Day was established, this is the organization’s first significant advertising effort. MINISO promoted a message of hope and brought additional energy throughout the Covid period.
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A Winning Couple in MINISO USA for the #LoveWithoutDistance Campaign
A secret $100 MINISO gift package will be delivered to the recipients’ loved ones on Valentine’s Day in 2021 as part of MINISO’s #LoveWithoutDistance Campaign, which it launched on Instagram and selected 100 heartwarming love tales from people divided by COVID-19 lockdowns. The successful contestants received a thoughtfully packaged personalized gift box that could be scooped up at their nearby MINISO location.
This helped them enjoy a challenging Valentine’s Day in 2021 and echoed the brand’s purpose of encouraging us all to appreciate life’s little wonders. 100 MINISO prize packages were sent to finalists from 16 different countries as part of the campaign, which involved over 11,000 participants worldwide. Over 930,000 people worldwide had been contacted by the campaign. With a sum of 545 comments and 28,791 likes, the campaign also garnered strong organic involvement on Instagram.
Conclusion
MINISO is a global brand that specializes in various products like cosmetics, personal care, toys, stationary, and more. The brand’s stores in various countries are what makes it the most appealing among the customers. Thus, MINISO’s product design, in-store experience, social media campaigns, brand strategy and overall marketing strategy are responsible for making it a renowned brand throughout the world.
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List of the Best Laptops in India for Office and Personal use
List of the Best Laptops in India for Office and Personal use
The List has been curated keeping in mind the requirements for a professional/student which are Performance, Display, Operating system, Design, Ports & Connectivity. So what you are waiting for? Check the list now to find the perfect laptop for yourself.
A popular social media app, Tiktok allows its users to create, watch and share short videos that are created on mobile devices or webcams. The app has taken the digital world by storm as users create videos of different genres like pranks, games, entertainment, etc. It owes its popularity to its ease of use, high levels of engagement and addictive quality.
Douyin is a short-form video hosting service created and owned by a Chinese Company called ByteDance. It was originally released in September 2016. The international version of Douyin is called Tiktok, which was launched in 2017 in most markets outside of mainland China for iOS and Android platforms. However, it was only after it merged with another Chinese social media service, Musical.ly in August 2018 that it became available for use worldwide.
Since its launch, Tiktok has rapidly grown and gained popularity in almost every part of the world. By October 2020 Tiktok was downloaded in excess of 2 billion times, making it the third fastest-growing brand of 2020. Growing further, it became the most popular website of 2021, surpassing Google.
Top Downloaded Apps in 2021
The Downfall of TikTok
Controversies Related to TikTok
Although successful and globally popular, Tiktok has had its share of controversies. Through the years, it has been subjected to bans in countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan which have cited reasons like inappropriate content.
These bans, however, were lifted within a short time as the company took proactive steps to take down offensive material as well as set up local offices to monitor and sanitize the content posted on its app.
India Banned TikTok
March 23, 2020, will always be remembered in history as the day the world literally came to a standstill.
China came into sharp focus as the epicentre of the dreaded COVID-19 virus.
India banned 59 Chinese apps including Tiktok in June 2020 citing reasons of security of the state and public and prejudicial to the sovereignty of India.
In January 2021 this ban was made permanent.
India was Tiktok’s largest market with over 200 million users just before the ban.
The Tiktok app was downloaded more in India than anywhere else in the world between July 2019 and June 2020.
The app’s struggle first began in August 2020 with then President Donald Trump.
Trump signed an order to ban all Tiktok transactions in 45 days if it was not sold by ByteDance
Within days, Trump issued a second order giving ByteDance 90 days to sell the US portion of its business to US companies. This was done citing reasons for national security. The Trump administration was concerned over the privacy issues of the app users.
There were talks of Oracle and Walmart buying a stake in Tiktok. This was done to alleviate fears of the misuse of the private data of US citizens.
These tentative deals have been blocked by numerous court challenges and it remains uncertain.
The fight continued with the Joe Biden Administration.
The new administration has yet not set any new policy on the app.
It claims to be evaluating the risks to USA data and will deal with it decisively and effectively if required.
On June 30, 2022, Brendan Carr, one of the commissioners of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) renewed the call to remove the app from Apple and Google’s App Store.
He has written to these companies strongly advocating the removal saying,
“It is clear that TikTok poses an unacceptable national security risk due to its extensive data harvesting being combined with Beijing’s apparently unchecked access to that sensitive data”.
The letter also refers to the numerous controversies that the app has found itself in, over the years. The ByteDance-owned Tiktok however firmly denies sharing user data with the Chinese Government.
This begs the question – Will Tiktok survive if the US succeeds in convincing Apple and Google to remove the app from its stores?
The statistics of Tiktok users
Tiktok has over 138 million users in the US alone.
The age demographic ranges from 13 to 60.
In terms of revenue, the app earned in excess of 500 million dollars in 2020.
The number of users of the app is consistently growing. Even among the adult users.
So yes, if the USA succeeds in convincing Apple and Google to remove the app from its stores, it will certainly be detrimental to the business.
However, the app is still active and growing exponentially around the world. The marketing of the app, although in its nascent stages, is growing in demand due to its vast audience access. There are agencies which are eager to help brands create quirky content that garners eyeballs on Tiktok.
Brands have also joined the app by opening user accounts which are used to create and post mini-videos for promotions. Tiktok offers them the option of promoting their videos to other users for a fee.
Tiktok also makes money from in-app purchases.
Its easy accessibility, high engagement and deep penetration in different markets globally make it the world’s most popular app ever. It is available in more than 150 markets in 75 different languages.
Conclusion
Even if the US market shuts down for this app, the likelihood of the business shutting down is slim. The app is like a multi-headed giant that just grows a new head when an existing head is axed. Having said this, it is imperative for the app to put measures into place that ensure the user of their privacy as well as have a strict policy about the content being posted on it.
FAQs
Is the FCC banning TikTok?
Yes, the FCC has asked Google and Apple to remove the Chinese app, TikTok from their stores.
Is TikTok banned in the US?
No, TikTok is not banned in the US but might be soon banned over privacy concerns.
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.
One of the few industries that have grown tremendously during the Covid 19 Pandemic is the EdTech Industry. Many education institutes were shut down, while the universities/colleges had to move online due to the lockdowns and this is what gave rise to the already existing EdTech startups. The Global EdTech industry is estimated to reach over $7 trillion by 2025.
While the Grand View Research also put out a statistic that the global education technology market size is estimated to rise to an all-time high of $285.2 billion by 2027. The EdTech companies are now looked up as the global phenomenon as they are shaping the new generations. One of the countries that are seeing the fastest growth in investment into the EdTech industry is China, as it currently has the largest EdTech market.
China has more than 1,058 EdTech startups that cater to 400 million students in the country. The country’s Edtech industry reached RMB 453.8 billion in 2020, according to iiMedia’s Research. The statistical report on Internet Development in China that China has over 423 million online educational users in 2020 alone. The Edtech industry in China focuses on robotics, tutoring and creating innovative educational technologies that will help in integrating technology into the classrooms of the country’s educational institutes.
China’s Edtech startups have the potential to increase digital education in the country but the Chinese Government has recently imposed new laws making the Edtech companies go nonprofit. Besides going nonprofit the companies are also banned from going public or raising foreign capital, this could not only hinder the growth of the industry but also destroy its $100-billion Edtech market.
Yuanfudao started by Shuai Ke, Xin Li and Yong Li in 2012 is one of the top EdTech startups in China. The company also founded Yuantika in 2015, a platform that provides online question banks and other school-based test preparation. The platform is known for its live tutoring, virtual classes and providing apps that are helpful for completing homework, all of which are AI-enabled. Besides that Yuanfudao also connects students with their teachers and through their app’s live stream.
It provides exercises to improve testing efficiency designed specifically for China’s exams such as the National college entrance exam, post-grad exams, Civil service exams, schools & university level exams among many others.
It currently has more than 30,000 employees and over 4 million student users. The students also have an option of choosing whether they want one on one tutoring or join a class with a group of students. The company is estimated to be around $15.5 billion making it one of the most valuable Ed-tech startups in China.
VIPKid
Company
VIPKid
Founded year
2012
Headquarters
Beijing (China)
Funding
$1.1 Billion
Investors
Tencent, Sequoia Capital China, YF Capital, Learn Capital, Matrix Partners, Coatue, Sinnovation Ventures, Northern Light Venture Capital
VipKid Logo
VIPKid was founded in 2018 is one of the leading English tutoring education apps in China. The platform provides more than 1.5 million free English tutoring classes for children from age 4 to 15 years old. VIPKid currently has over 700,000 paying users and more than 80,000 North American teachers. The platform allows the parents of the students to book for sessions and later upload their classes online.
The English classes are often based on the American state’s standard, while the teachers can review their students work and give their feedback. The company aims to create a global classroom that empowers students and teachers and connect different cultures around the world. During the beginning of the Covid 19 Pandemic, the company was dedicated to providing free classes to the children of Wuhan.
FountainVest Partners, Sequoia Capital China, Tiger Global Management, Softbank Vision Fund, Alibaba Group, Xianghe Capital
Zuoyebang Logo
Zuoyebang is another popular EdTech startup in China that was founded by Hou Jianbin in 2014. The platform offers assistance and support for the student’s homework. It also allows its users to upload their questions and doubts and receive an answer later, as it is driven by AI software. Zuoyebang is made especially for the students of primary, junior, middle and high school only.
The platform has paid and free online courses and live classes on various subjects, for students up until class 12. It currently has more than 50 million daily student users and over 170 million active users in a month. The parent company of Zuoyebang is Baidu and it has so far raised over $2.9 billion.
Hujiang
Company
Hujiang
Founded year
2001
Headquarters
Shanghai (China)
Funding
$187 million
Investors
SIG China, Baidu, Kaishi Capital, China Minsheng Investment, Anhui Xinhua Media, etc
Hujiang Logo
Hujiang is a well-known Chinese EdTech platform for learning different languages. This Shanghai headquartered company was initially founded by Cairui Fu in 2001. Besides providing language-learning solutions, it also offers corporate training solutions for Chinese companies. The languages that Hujiang provides classes in are English, German, French, Spanish, among others.
Hujiang app and website also have many languages learning online tools such as translators and dictionaries for all the languages it teaches. Its platform is divided into four different services which include a news platform, an online community, online tools and live or online courses and works on the enrollment revenue model. Hujiang provides its services offline schools and colleges across the country in order to fill the gaps in the education sector.
Tencent, Hike Capital, Trustbridge Partners, Yuanfudao, GSR Ventures, GGV Capital, Seqouoia Capital China, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Huohua Siwei Logo
Huohua is another leading EdTech startup in China that is an AI-based online learning platform that focuses on students below class 12. The company was founded by Jian Luo in 2016 and has its headquarters based in Beijing, China. The platform offers online classes, live sessions, AI based interactive games, and is available on both android and iOS platforms.
Huohua focuses on subjects like Maths and Science, while its games are designed in a way that develops student’s fundamental ability of thinking and concentrating. So far the platform has over 250,000 active student users and more than 85,000 daily active users. Its mathematic classes have become popular because they are divided into three modules which are spatial thinking, computing power and logical reasoning.
Changingedu
Company
Changingedu
Founded year
2014
Headquarters
Shanghai (China)
Funding
$188 million
Investors
Sequoia Capital China, IDG Capital, FREES FUND, Trustbridge Partners, TAL Education Group, ClearVue Partners
Changingedu Logo
Changingedu is an upcoming online to offline Edtech startup that was founded by Liu Changke in 2014. The company has its headquarters in Shanghai and is known for making educational apps that connect students, parents and teachers. Changingedu focuses on creating after school learning services, while the parents are also allowed to send their doubts and enquiries about the app’s services.
The platform offers virtual services, educational services, live streaming and get your questions answered. Changingedu offers one on one teaching courses for primary & secondary school students and is available in over 11 cities across China. Changingedu has a six-week learning contract with students for a one on one teaching experience, if the students don’t like it they can ask for a refund. The platform claims to have provided 10 million hours of teaching services.
CITIC Securities, Goldstone Investment, Youshan Capital, Sino-Ocean Capital, Wens Investment, Hillhouse Capital Group, Baring Private Equity Asia, Greater Bay Area Homeland Development Fund
CodeMao Logo
CodeMao is another leading Chinese Edtech company that focuses on online programming learning tools for children up to class 12. Besides provides programming courses, the platform also helps in IT learning and training tools. The company was founded by Tianchi Li and Yue Sun in 2015 with its headquarters based in Shenzhen. The students can collaborate on different projects with other students.
CodeMao aims in helping students learn programming and computer coding through an interface that is game-oriented. The courses are designed in a way that children can learn coding tools, programming concepts and exercise their logical thinking abilities. Through this platform, the students can use coding tools and coding languages to build games, software’s, animations that will be reviewed by their teachers.
DaDaABC
Company
DaDaABC
Founded year
2013
Headquarters
Shanghai (China)
Funding
$863 million
Investors
Loyal VC, Yonghua Capital, TAL Education Group, Qingsong Fund, Warburg Pincus, Oriental Fortune Capital, Tiger Global Management
DaDaABC Logo
DaDaABC is another English learning EdTech platform that competes with VIpKid. The company was started by Grace Zhi and Dennis Lee in 2013 with headquarters based in Shanghai, China.
This platform provides students of the school with one on one English courses live and has so far won over 15 awards for its excellence in the field. DaDaABC is said to operate on flipped classroom model that uses blended learning strategies to teach their students.
Unlike VIPKid the platform hires native speaking teachers especially for student of 5 to 16 years old. The platform also teaches French and Spanish from 2017 and also has an option where children below six years can learn English. So far the DaDaABC has over 10,000 teachers and more than 100,000 active students weekly.
17zuoye
Company
17zuoye
Founded year
2011
Headquarters
Shanghai (China)
Funding
$585 million
Investors
Dong Ni Education
17zuoye Logo
17zuoye is known to be one of the largest online EdTech Companies in China, with headquarters in Shanghai, China. The company was founded by Dun Xiao and Liu Chang in 2011, while the platform focuses on providing homework solutions and live English & math’s classes. As of 2018, the platform had over 60 million users and 120,000 schools and plans to expand to more middle and high schools across the country.
17zuoye offers services such as learning tools, learning contests, study reports submitted to the parents, among others. The company also has many global partners with countries like the USA, UK, Japan, South Korea, where it promotes its content. The platform aims to provide international level education and give students equal access to education.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently come out and asked China to help him achieve the goal of Common Prosperity, a bill that can help narrow the growing wealth gap and focus on social value. Common Prosperity was first mentioned by Mao Zedong the former president of the People’s Republic of China in the 1950s but has come to existence again with the current President Xi Jinping.
Currently, people of the country are unclear on how this law may be implemented, but according to the speculations, the big tech companies of China are now under pressure from Beijing to donate towards the initiative. According to Xi Jinping, Common Prosperity is not only an Economic goal that the country has to reach, but is also the core of the Chinese Communist party’s governing foundation.
According to few studies, 20% of the China rich population earn ten times more than 20% of the poor population. This is a wider wealth gap than compared to countries like America, Germany and France.
The statistics of the country say that over 600 million people (which account for over half of the country population) live on an annual income of 12,000 yuan or $1,856 US dollars. While the rich sector of the country has only increased over the past few years, China has a total number of 1,058 billionaires as of 2021.
A Brief about the Common Prosperity Bill
As mentioned above Common Prosperity was initially coined by mentioned by Mao Zedong the former president of the People Republic of China in the 1950s. The law was also mentioned again by Deng Xiapong who was the former leader of the People Republic of China, the man who played a vital role in modernizing the Chinese economy after the Cultural Revolution.
Deng Xiapong version of Common Prosperity is different from president Xi Jinping idea because it centered on allowing certain people and regions to get rich first in order to speed up economic growth in the country.
This has long been the goal of the current President Xi Jinping, as he had mentioned the goal in his 2017 speech at the party congress to mark the start of his second term.
According to him, Common Prosperity aims in closing the wealth gap in the country and proving the legitimacy of Communist Party rule. Common Prosperity is often misunderstood as egalitarianism, but it does mean bringing down the rich in order to help the poor.
According to many Chinese analysts, the goal of common Prosperity should be about helping those who need it the most. This bill will however target the Successful MNCs of the country, Tech and Gaming companies, which has alarmed the investors.
There are possibilities the law will include policies ranging from Tax evasions and limits on how many hours tech companies employees can work among others. The taxes are said to be used to expand the proportion of the Middle class and boost the income of the poor in the country. The goal will also help adjust excessive income of the rich and possibly ban illegal ways of income.
The Chinese Government is now encouraging the country’s top MNCs and rich individuals to contribute to society through the means of charity and donations. Recently Alibaba announced that it will be investing over $15.5 billion to support the initiative of Common Prosperity. Other big tech companies like Tencent have also pledged over 100 billion Yuan or $15 billion towards numerous initiatives.
While founders of big companies like Pinduoduo, Meituan and Xiaomi have all promised billions of dollars toward social causes in order to support the goal of Common prosperity. These companies are said to invest money into the sectors of innovation of new technology, development of the country’s economy, creating high-quality jobs and supporting vulnerable groups.
Besides that, the Chinese Government has is already implementing laws for restricting gaming time for minors below the age of 18 years old to only three hours a week.
The Chinese government is also planning to ban tutoring companies from making a profit by teaching their students the syllabus on nights and even weekends. The Government also announced a reform plan to reduce healthcare costs, especially in public hospitals.
Many state agencies and tech companies have started to announce that they will invest huge amounts of money to help reach this goal, by doing this they are signaling their allegiance to this Communist Party and its upcoming schemes. If this bill is put in action it can help make housing more affordable especially in the main cities of China.
There are speculations that the bill might lead to the nationalization of private companies. The bill also will help the middle class and poorer sectors of Chinese populations in accessing education and healthcare. It also encourages the richer sector of the Chinese population to be more philanthropic and donate towards the growth of society.
The income of the rural areas can increase and they will also be able to avail public services easily. With this bill, China is aiming to increase domestic demand and self-reliance which has been propelled by the ongoing tensions between China and America.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently come out and asked China to help him achieve the goal of Common Prosperity, a bill that can help narrow the growing wealth gap and focus on social value.
Who first coined the term Common Prosperity?
Common Prosperity was first mentioned by Mao Zedong the former president of the People Republic of China in the 1950s.
Why is the Common Prosperity Bill being implemented?
The Common Prosperity Bill is being implemented in order to reduce the wealth gap in China’s population and help the country’s economy increase.
How many billionaires does China have?
China has a total number of 1,058 billionaires as of 2021.
On August 31st 2021, China’s National Press and Publication Administration have released a statement regarding the restrictions on online gaming in order to reduce gaming addiction among minors. The video game companies will now have to restrict gaming time for teenagers below the age of 18 years old.
The minor will not be allowed to play only from 8 pm to 9 pm on Friday and at weekends like Saturday and Sunday. This move was taken by the Chinese Government in order to combat the gaming addiction that is rising among Chinese minors. The statement also urged parents and schools to step up their supervision as children could continue playing through adult’s accounts.
The new restrictions imposed by the Chinese Government
Besides adding restrictions on forbidding teenagers under 18 years to only 3 hours of playing every week, the gaming companies must also ensure that the verifications for the apps are strict.
The gaming apps should also be connected to an anti-addiction system that will be set up by the NPPA. This system is a strict ID verifications system that lets a person have only one account and only through their real name. The punishments for going against these restrictions are that the gaming companies will have to pay huge fines and penalties.
This is not the first time the Chinese government has imposed restrictions as in 2019, the government passed laws to limit minors to play games for only one and a half hours on weekdays and three hours on weekends, with no gaming from the timings of 10 pm to 8 am. There was another limit on how much minors can spend on in-app game purchases, the maximum amount that could be spent depending on age was ranged from $28 to $57.
Earlier in 2017, the major gaming company Tencent Holdings also made restrictions for limiting the time minors spent on playing their game Honor of Kings, after many parents complained about their kids getting addicted to the game. Tencent also came out with a facial recognition feature that helped parents keep vigilance over their children especially at night.
The Gaming addiction in China
China is known to be the world largest market for online gaming, the top gaming companies are from China. This has led to China youth becoming highly addicted to the gaming culture. The situation in China has worsened as teenagers below 18 years are getting treated for their gaming disorders in clinics. Besides Gaming addiction, China also reported that its rates of nearsightedness have increased considerably in 2018.
According to many studies over 62.5% of Chinese teenagers play online games often, while 13.2% of teenagers play online games for more than two hours every day.
China also has had growth rates of Myopia for the past two or three years. According to the newspaper called People Daily, the government had to be ruthless with restrictions because it wanted to impair normal study life and improve the physical and mental health of the teenagers.
What do teenagers think of the new gaming restrictions?
Teenagers over the country are enraged and are not happy with the new restrictions. Many teenagers came to social media to showcase their outrage with the new restrictions.
One comment said, “This group of grandfathers and uncles who make these rules and regulations, have you ever played games? Do you understand that the best age for e-sports players is in their teens?”
Some teens think that it is a useless restriction as many kids can use fake details or and national identification numbers when signing into games by using the login details of adult family members.
A 17-year-old gamer added that this wasn’t a family education issue, not a gaming issue. However, many parents are heartened by the new rules saying that this will help reduce their children’s addiction towards gaming.
Revenues generated by online gaming in China
Impact of these restrictions on Gaming Startups
All the gaming companies will now have to have a strict ID verification system, which means the users can only have one account and only through their real name. The regulators are installed in order to keep a watch on whether or not gaming companies comply with local regulations.
According to many analysts, the restrictions will not have much financial impact on the Gaming Industry now as the children do not provide much revenue for gaming companies, but the implications for the long-term growth of the gaming industry can be worse. Another analyst also added that these restrictions have the possibility to destroy the entire habit-forming nature of playing games at an early age, which can be detrimental to the gaming industry.
What the industry is scared of is if the Chinese government stops approving new games as it had done in 2018, where it had suspended game approval of new video game titles for a duration of nine months. In addition to that, the new restrictions do not punish the individuals for infractions but the gaming companies.
But other investors are not concerned about the restrictions and have continued buying Chinas major gaming companies. The top Gaming Companies like NetEase, Krafton Inc, Nexon and Koei Tecmo, have already seen their stocks falling from over 3.45 to 4.8%.
The top Gaming companies in China are Tencent, NetEase, Nexon and Koei Tecmo, etc.
What are the new gaming restrictions in China?
The video game companies will now have to restrict gaming time for teenagers below the age of 18 years old, so they can now only play for three hours a day.
Will the new restrictions impact the Gaming industry in China?
According to many analyst, this will not impact the gaming industry currently but the implications for the long-term growth of the gaming industry can be worse.
