Chinese Characteristics

‘Tis the 31st of Dec, and we’re on the cusp of 2023 and the high-quality growth phase. Let’s go through this year in Chinese Characteristics editions, and I’ll be back next week with the Annual reflections of 2022. The most widely read piece: Xiaohongshu deep-dive Xiaohongshu's (XHS) content strategy is a textbook example of what I’ve coined as the “commerce, content and community” trifecta in Chinese consumer apps.

Of course, I announce a comeback then disappear for a month. I’ve never been good at judging workloads. Thank you for bearing with me. Given the terrible mood around China these days, the contrarian in me had something to say. What emerged was a speculative fiction piece about what a blue-sky future case for China could look like drawing on policy direction from 14th Five-Year Digital Economy Development Plan and 14th Five-Year Plan.

This newsletter took longer than I anticipated to write, but better late than never. I’m writing this edition from a quarantine room in China, just like the very first edition of the newsletter. Life has a strange rhythm, doesn’t it? Anyway, It’s good to see you again. For the past few months, I’ve gone native amongst the public market analysts. I started by replacing the Patagonia, Arc'teryx and Common Project with premium mediocre business normcore but kept my Oura ring.

Hi everyone, I’ve got some news. The short version is that starting mid-July, I will join Baillie Gifford’s private company team, looking to back the best founders in China and beyond. I will keep writing the bi-weekly free newsletter, but the paid version is going away. Going forward, I will still focus my work on the type of business model analysis and sector review we’ve come to expect from Chinese Characteristics.

What’s the difference between content centred around utility versus entertainment? Looking at Xiaohongshu (shortened to XHS), often referred to as "China's Instagram and Pinterest", can reveal some answers on what that playbook looks like and how the company developed its own identity and philosophy. It's a content platform that decided to become more of a utility to users rather than entertainment.

Chinese tech longform analysis

When I asked Twitter what Chinese tech company they want to see profiled, I got many votes for Xiaohongshu (XHS) aka the Chinese take on Instagram. Today we’ll begin the journey by looking at their product. I recorded a 45-minute product walkthrough which premium subscribers have access to in Circles. Here’s the landing page in five minutes.

I was travelling last week and didn’t manage to get the edition out on time. So here it is this week! Premium subscribers did get an 18-page deep-dive on a very interesting (at least IMO) SaaS company. I’ll be back soon with a look at China’s carbon-neutral tech I recently finished The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption by Sebastian Mallaby, a book about the history of venture capital.

SaaS with Chinese characteristics