The Chinese government continued to increase its efforts to combat environmental violations in 2016 with a total number of 137.8 thousand cases investigated and fines totaled 6.633 billion yuan on 124.7 thousand cases, a record high according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
China to spend twice as much as the US on development research by 2018
China is expected to invest up to twice as much as the US, or US$658 billion (4.5 trillion yuan) in another five years, in the back end of R&D chain, focusing on translating basic and applied research into commercial products and new manufacturing processes according to BCG.
China outbound tourists spent US$261 bn overseas in 2016
China continued to lead international outbound tourism with a 12% increase in spending in 2016, followed by the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and France as top five spenders according to UNWTO.
A snapshot of WeChat Economy in 2016
WeChat has driven information consumption of 174.3 billion yuan (US$25.3 bn) in 2016, an increase of 26.2%. It accounted for 4.54% of total information consumption in 2016.
Top digital video mobile apps in China in Feb 2017
iQiyi ranks on top in China’s mobile video category with 245.61 million active users in Feb 2017, followed by Tencent Video, Youku, Letv, and Mango TV.
China GDP grew faster than expected in Q1 2017
The gross domestic product (GDP) of China was 18,068.3 billion yuan (US$2,626.81 billion) in the first quarter of 2017, a year-on-year increase of 6.9% at comparable prices according to the preliminary estimates of National Bureau of Statistics of China.
Top Australian vitamins brand enters China following e-commerce success
With the fast growth of cross-border retail e-commerce market and the increasing consumption strength in China, the Australian natural health brand Swisse announced its official entry into this market on 8 April 2017.
China’s spending on robotics will more than double to $59.4 bn in 2020
China’s spending on robotics will more than double to $59.4 billion in 2020 from $24.6 billion in 2016 (over half from manufacturing) according to IDC.
Alibaba’s cross-border B2C platform AliExpress reached 100M buyers
A girl from Chile bought her father a watch as a gift at US$41.01 from Alibaba’s retail platform AliExpress on 10 April 2017. What she did not know is that she is recorded by Alibaba as the 100 millionth customer.
5 Travel trends in China in 2017
Tourism has become an important consumption necessity in China as 98% respondents in a Ctrip survey expressed their intentions to travel in 2017.
“Alibaba economy” to generate about 30% of all jobs in 2035
The “Alibaba economy” could generate about 122 million of the 415 million total jobs available in China’s digital economy or 29.4% of all the jobs in 2035 from today’s 31 million jobs according to BCG.
China smartphone market overview in Feb 2017
iOS market share dropped to 26.3% in China’s smartphone market from 29.1% in January 2017 according to a research company Newzoo.
Top 7 Mobile News Apps in China in Feb 2017
Tencent News is the top mobile news app by the total number of monthly active users (150.6 million), followed by Toutiao, Tiantian (also owned by Tencent), Sohu News, and Phoenix News.
China has 249 billionaires, worth US$670 bn in 2016
There are 2,397 billionaires in the world, which represents a 3.1% decline in billionaire population in 2016, the first annual decrease since the global financial crisis according to Billionaire Census 2017 by Wealth-X.
China bike sharing market insights
China bike sharing market is estimated to reach US$1.5 billion (+735.8%) and 209 million users in 2017. Ofo, Mobike, and Ubike are the top brands in the market with the highest brand awareness while Baicyle is also in the top 3 by user satisfation after Ofo and Mobike.