KT Business Talk

The soaring prices of thermal coal used to produce electricity caused the second-largest economy in the world, China, to suffer a significant energy crisis  in the past few weeks, leaving many Chinese in the dark. Multiple businesses were forced to be closed, factories were told to reduce output, lifts and traffic lights were not working, many Chinese even complained on various social media platforms about the lack of heating. It was the worst electricity crisis China had faced in a decade. The timing for this energy crisis could not be any worse as China was rebuilding its economy after the COVID-19 pandemic while preparing to host the Winter Olympics game and fighting off the collapse of some of its largest companies .  China's high voltage transmission tower Image Source: Business Standard The origin of China's energy crisis can be traced back to 2020, when China decided to ban coal imports from Australia due to the strained relationship between the two countries.  After Aus

On Aug 30, 2021, China announced that it would be restricting the amount of time that under-18s can spend on online video games to just three hours a week . For minors under 18, the new regulation specifies that all online video games in China can only provide an hour of service on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and holidays, from 8 pm to 9 pm in China Standard Time.  The new policy applies to video games on all types of electronic devices, including phones, tablets, and computers. Now, almost every online video game in China requires a real-name registration and authentication before a player can log in.  As the phenomenon of video gaming addiction continues to erode the minors in China, a Chinese state-run newspaper described online video games as " spiritual opium " at the beginning of Aug 2021. Authorities in China claimed that this new regulation aimed to solve the problem of online gaming addiction within minors in China and protect the physical and mental health of future g

It is an understatement to say that real estates in China's major cities are expensive. Shanghai is now arguably the most expensive city in the world, with its cost of housing 36.1 times higher than a resident's average annual income, by Bloomberg. This trend isn't only in Shanghai, however. In Shenzhen, the cost of an apartment is 43.5 times a resident's average annual income, per Bloomberg. In fact, Shenzhen actually has China's highest real estate prices and lowest home-ownership rates. To go along with Shanghai and Shenzhen, Guangzhou also saw a 16 percent home price increase this year. When looking at the big picture throughout the years, about 4 to 5 Chinese cities consistently appear on the list for the top ten most expensive property markets globally. So what led to these outrageous prices in the China real estate market? The city of Shanghai. Image Source: Wikipedia Investment An important reason behind China's expensive housing prices is that real esta

As the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics comes to a close, the topic of discussion in China has shifted from the controversial opening ceremony to the gold medals those incredible Chinese Olympic athletes had won. Team China has put up some fantastic performances in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics , especially in swimming, weightlifting, and shooting, where they smashed expectations and have seen significant breakthroughs. In terms of medals, Team China is second in both gold medals count total medals count. As a result of their outstanding performances, these Chinese Olympic athletes sparked many topics and discussions on various Chinese social media platforms, such as Douyin and Weibo, and attracted much attention. Whether it's about the performances in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics or the backstory behind their journey to become an Olympic champion, trends and topics related to Chinese Olympic athletes went viral in China. With the rising popularity of various Chinese athletes, many Chinese business

Erke has gone viral in China in an unexpected way. With many parts of Central China's Henan province suffering from flooding after heavy rainfall, the sports brand Erke donated 50 million yuan (approximately 7.7 million dollars) worth of supplies to provide financial aid and help with the flood relief in the province. After Erke announced the news on its Weibo account, the post had gathered more than 280,000 comments as well as more than 9.45 million likes. Topics, hashtags, and trends related to Erke and its kindness also generated millions of views across various social media platforms. Sales for Erke's products also skyrocketed. According to the statistics provided by JD.com, one of China's largest eCommerce platforms, Erke's sales alone on Friday, July 23rd, 2021, witnessed a 52-fold increase . In offline stores, shoppers were so enthusiastic about Erke's products that the company said it was experiencing a serious lack of inventory due to a surge of demand. A

Recently, Michelle Ice City (MiXue BingCheng), a Chinese beverage chain brand that mainly focuses on ice cream and tea, has gone absolutely viral in China. Most of the credit for this sudden popularity goes to the brand's theme song. "I love you, you love me, MiXue Ice Cream & Tea..." With its unique and catchy melody, Michelle Ice City's theme song has become so popular that people were joking you can't stop singing it once you heard it. As I'm writing this blog, the song has been played over 2.5 billion times on the internet. On BiliBili, a popular video streaming platform in China, the song's music video has already reached almost 5 million views for the Chinese version and approximately 17 million views for the Chinese and English bilingual version. No one saw this coming. In fact, the song was created in 2019, but it never caught the public's attention. So what made the brand and its theme song go viral now? Michelle Ice City's theme song