Image source: Study in China

Maseratis, grey hair & start ups in China

Two week in one update this time. Last week escaped me like dark hair escapes an 80 year old man.

Here’s some more key learnings from Chinaccelerator:

1. Skype doesn’t work on the high speed rail from Beijing to Honjao. What’s app does. Turns out you can onboard new team members from anywhere, anyhow when you have a device & some 3G. Ah, technology.
2. Alimama platform & the Taobao store are super powerful throughout China. On International Maserati day, within 18 seconds, 100 Maserti’s sold on their platform. 18 seconds. Maserati’s. Think about that.
3. “Entrepreneurs move to Beijing to be a part of something momentous.” There’s a huge start up market and movement happening in Beijing; called the #BeiArea. Although, Beijing’s mayor did claim the city to be unliveable.
4. Concierges simply aren’t what they used to be, even in 5 star hotels. We recently approached 15 different 5 star hotels in Asia to understand their key service providers, they couldn’t even recommend where to go for basic personal services. One told me, “just walk down the street over there somewhere, and turn left”, when asked for the name of a nearby shoe repair store. No personalisation, no trust. No real outcome other than further validating why we at chozun do what we do for our business travellers.
5. WeChat, WeChat, WeChat. As a business new to China, it can be overwhelming to know where to start with how to use it. But, we’ve learnt, it’s another medium to put your content on. Another platform to engage with your audience in China. And a damn powerful one. WeChat content needs to be smart, witty, engaging.

China moves faster than all those Maserati’s sold on International Maserati day combined, multiplied by 100 billion, and we love the pace. Now to another week, maintaining our brown hair.