Rui Ma and Ying Lu, Author at Pandaily

Ep. 38: Battle of the Red Packets

In episode 38 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma dive into this year’s Battle of the Red Packets. The name refers to the custom of money-giving, which is an important part of the Chinese New Year experience.

Ep. 37: The WeChat Mini Program — The End of Apps or Not?

In episode 37 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma dive into the world of WeChat Mini Programs. Arguably some of the biggest innovations to come out of the Chinese internet, Mini Programs have no real Western equivalent.

Ep. 36: China Tech is Risky Business – Pinduoduo’s Hack and DJI’s Corruption Scandal

Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about the dirty, risky, and more unseemly aspects of China tech, primarily focused on two stories that grabbed headlines recently: the “hack” at Pinduoduo, and the corruption scandal at DJI.

Ep. 35: New WeChat Challengers: Duoshan, Toilet, and Bullet 2.0

In episode 35 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about WeChat competitors. Specifically, they focus on three apps that all decided to launch on Tuesday, January 15, 2019: Bytedance’s Duoshan, Wang Xin’s self-proclaimed “anti-WeChat” Toilet, and Bullet Messenger 2.0.

Ep. 34: WeChat’s 7.0 Update and Allen Zhang, the Man Behind the App

In episode 34 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about the latest version of WeChat, which first came out on iOS the third week of December 2018, and on Android a few days later.

Ep. 33: Tencent Music – Totally Not China’s Spotify

In episode 33 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about Tencent Music (TME), which finally completed its $1.2 billion IPO after a two-month delay due to market volatility.

Ep. 32: Luckin Coffee, Starbucks Challenger or a New Breed of F&B for the 21st Century?

In episode 32 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about Luckin Coffee, the hybrid online-offline coffee chain unicorn startup that’s turning heads in China with its rapid expansion and innovative business model.

Ep. 31: Alibaba and The Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu): Powering Ecommerce with Content

In episode 31 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about Xiaohongshu, also known as RED, which had received a $300 million investment from Alibaba.

Ep. 30: The Greatest Trainwreck of China Internet — Renren, China’s Facebook

In episode 30 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about Renren Inc., the closest Chinese analogue to Facebook.

Ep. 29: Alibaba Singles’ Day $30.8Bn Extravaganza – The Real Deal or Not?

In Episode 29 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about China’s version of “Black Friday,” the biggest ecommerce shopping festival of the year which Alibaba invented out of thin air in 2008 and now falls yearly on November 11.

Ep. 28: The World’s Most Valuable Startup: Bytedance, Maker of Tik Tok & Toutiao

In Ep. 28 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about the Chinese AI company that recently toppled Uber to become the highest-valued startup in the world: Bytedance.

Ep. 27: Poking at the Hornet’s Nest: Fake Reviews in China Tech

In Ep. 27 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma discuss the latest scandal to come out of Chinese internet — fake reviews on one of China’s leading travel websites, Mafengwo. Mafengwo had $1.5 billion in sales last year, 63k transactions, and over 100 million monthly active users.

Ep. 26: The O2O Local Services War: Alibaba vs. Meituan? Part 2: Koubei

In Ep. 26 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma discuss Koubei, rounding up the second installment of a two-part deep-dive into the local services space in China. An Alibaba subsidiary, Koubei recently merged with ele.me, another Alibaba-owned (via acquisition) entity which was covered in Ep. 25 last week.

Ep. 25: The O2O Local Services War: Alibaba vs. Meituan? Part 1: Ele.me

In Ep. 25 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about Alibaba’s recent moves to firm up its strategy around local services, putting pressure on Meituan-Dianping to defend itself.

Ep. 24: The Man and the Firm behind China’s Tech Renaissance

In Ep. 24 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about China Renaissance Group, a tech-focused investment bank founded and led by one of the country’s most famed rainmakers, Bao Fan.

Ep. 23: Update on Meituan, the Super App that Won Against a Thousand Clones

Happy Holidays, TechBuzz listeners! That’s right, it’s Mid-Autumn Festival, followed closely by Golden Week for the Pandaily team back in Beijing. In honor of the holidays — and to commemorate *almost* six months since we released our first episode of TechBuzz back in April of this year — co-hosts Rui and Ying-Ying are taking off as […]

Ep. 22: NIO – The Road Ahead for “China’s Tesla”

In Ep. 22 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about electric carmaker NIO, which went public on September 12 on the NYSE. This episode covers how NIO got started, its purported business model, and how it differs from its competition.

Ep. 21: Is WeChat Bulletproof?

In Ep. 21 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma talk about the new messaging app, Bullet Messenger, which took the Chinese internet by storm and reached five million registered users in just eleven days.

Ep. 20: Are Startups Behind the Rising Rents in Beijing?

In Ep. 20 of TechBuzz China, co-hosts Ying-Ying Lu and Rui Ma look into the alleged causes behind the recent 22% hike in rent prices in Beijing, a rise which has sparked outrage in citizens. In addition to blaming real estate startups, some headlines have also proclaimed that the influx of venture capital and private […]

Ep. 19: Tencent and the Case of the Missing $140B

So far in 2018, Tencent’s stock price has continued to tumble from analysts’ price targets. Today, it sits at $430B, a far cry from its $570B market cap in January, and having done far worse than the market. Some commentators blame the decline on Tencent’s Q2 results, which showed a 2 percent drop in earnings […]

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