A Place in Hangzhou Called the "Library of Textile" Wants to Show Off Both the Appeal of Fabric and the Business in It
Have you ever seen the 20 different textures and finishes a single fabric can take on?
QDaily in English
2310 completed translations from the archive. Articles retain their original publication dates.
China's Film Market Spent 2016 Watching Its Hopes Collapse. Where Does It Go From Here? | QDaily's 2016 Year in Review
QDaily will be rolling out a series of year-end review articles for 2016. Stay tuned.
Old Giant or Young Upstart, the Ultimate Question Is the Same: How Do You Grow?
For any business, there is only one ultimate question: growth and more growth, profit and more profit.
The Company That Invented the Color of the Year Says Every Color Has a Good Side, and You Have to Treat Them All Equally
The color of the year also sums up current events and the human mood. It is more a talking point than a rule.
LEGO Has Built a Factory in Jiaxing. We Asked Its Global CEO Where “Learning Through Play” Goes Next in China
If it won't bring prices down, what does LEGO actually get out of building a factory in Jiaxing?
Double 12 Has Become Alipay's Holiday, But the Payments War Isn't Over
To be precise, it's getting further from over
A decade out front: have Shanghai's luxury-branded "Mei-Tai-Heng" complexes finally gone stale? | 2016 Big-Company Digitization ⑩
Standard offices in high-rise towers, and malls so dense with luxury brands they can feel intimidating — how much do these still appeal to young workers and the companies that employ them? Commercial real estate has run into a different kind of trouble.
He Opened a Hangzhou Hotel on the Strength of Its Design. Now He Has to Keep People There
After years of running serviced apartments, he decided to build a hotel brand.
There Are Many Ways to Express Passion and Curiosity About the World — Magazines Are Still One of Them
These are this year's most admired independent magazines. We hope they give you some ideas about life.
How the Scandal at America's Biggest Startup Came to Light
Most scandals and cons begin to come apart from the inside, one piece at a time.
37 Days, 10.8 Billion Yuan Gone: Only a Trading Halt Stopped LeEco's Slide. Time to Talk About a Way Out
LeEco grew big by painting a picture of the future. Now that no one believes in that future, it is fighting for its life.
How Big Food Companies Follow a Niche Need, Then Turn It Into a Trend | Who Decides What You Eat, Part 3
You can see the same pattern in one food trend after another in recent years: a small company hits on a consumer need, by design or by luck; the niche market grows; and once the big companies notice and step in, that need finally becomes a trend. Big companies can push a concept until everyone knows it, but the process is never smooth.
Want to Understand How the Business World Is Changing? Here Are the Financial Times' 10 Books of the Year
The subjects range widely: gender discrimination, the rise of Alibaba, Brazil's polarized society, and how to prepare for a life that may last a hundred years.
Big companies are bullish and demand is huge — but renting is still the traditional broker's game | 2016 Big-Company Digitization ⑨
If we're going to talk about real estate for young people, it's time to take the rental market seriously.
She Wants to Lure You Back Into the Kitchen With "Meal Kits" — and She Knows It's a Hard Business | Founders Speak
The semi-prepared ingredient delivery business is in bad shape. So what opportunity did Pan Xiaoyue see when she founded 321 Cooking?
From Precision Medicine to Artificial Meat: frog's Tech Predictions for 2017
Is our world getting better? Sometimes technology has no particular purpose — it just explores whatever it can explore.
We Asked the 3D Cinematographer of *Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk* What Shooting at 120 Frames a Second Really Means
"The essence of filmmaking hasn't changed. A good cinematographer was good 50 years ago, and is still good today."
Exception Turns 20, and Its Two Businesses Are Headed in Completely Different Directions
One is a womenswear retail brand that already looks tired; the other is an experiential space that style-conscious young people love. Which path will Exception take — and which one can it take?
Every Phone Brand Says India Is the Next China. We Found 45 Facts About What the Indian Market and Indian Buyers Are Really Like
It won't become the next China anytime soon, but it's a market smartphone brands can't afford to skip.
In 2016, Starbucks Pleased No One — Not Investors, Not Customers | Top 15 Annual Report
Howard Schultz, who announced his resignation as CEO last Thursday, capped a turbulent year for Starbucks. Behind the upheaval lies a harder truth: the industry's undisputed leader has hit its ceiling, and it needs to find its next engine of growth.
How Far Are We From the Future of Film?
At the International Advanced Imaging Conference, scientists and people from the industry discussed VR, AR, and what these technologies really come down to.
Nokia's Smartphones Are Coming Back. Will They Stay This Time?
Phones are becoming as routine as home appliances — that's Nokia's opening to return. But to stay, it will have to do more.
November Had More Blockbusters Than Anyone Could Watch. So Why Was the Box Office Still Bad?
Administrative orders ran against market logic, and left the film business colder than before.
What a Fully Digital Rival Like Airbnb Can Teach the Hotel Industry | 2016: How Big Companies Went Digital ⑧
The hotel industry needs to learn more than how to use the internet. It needs to ask why a rival in its own business — Airbnb — is already thinking about something completely different.
Five Years Ago, When He Shot Mirai-chan, Kotori Kawashima Never Imagined He'd Become the Photographer Everyone Wanted
Asked how he chooses his subjects, Kotori Kawashima doesn't stop to think: "I love photographing people just as they're about to change fast."
Vegetarianism, Environmentalism, Animal Welfare… Which Kind of Eater Are You? | Who Decides What You Eat, Part 2
“We want our food to be delicious, varied, cheap, convenient, sustainable, protective of animal welfare, local, and low in chemicals. But these values often conflict with one another.”
Another U.S. President Wants iPhones Made in America. It Probably Won't Happen.
And if it did, it wouldn't mean much.
Why Do Hot Pot Trends Shift as Unpredictably as Fast Fashion?
Social media, the favor of capital, and a rush to copy — the lifespan of a hot pot hit keeps getting shorter, and no one knows what comes next.
After Opening Four Restaurants, He Wants to Build an Operating System for the Restaurant Industry | Founders Speak
Wang Dongfeng thinks that, more than an operating system, Wuwei is really a company that exports a methodology.
Big Companies Hit a Wall in 2016. Where Is IKEA's Ceiling? | Top 15 Annual Report
"We need to take care of our existing stores and our existing customers first. Only then do we discuss expansion. That is the philosophy we have always held."
Tim Yip Thinks the Three-Dimensional World Is Going Flat, and He Wants Art to Preserve the Memories of the Past
“The rifts we have created — I hope they can be reconnected.”
BAT Has All but Consolidated China's Music Industry. How Much Room Is Left for NetEase Cloud Music?
NetEase's biggest advantage is a good user base and a product made with care. But how to keep moving forward against expensive licensing and fierce competition — judging from our interview, the company hasn't figured that out yet.
America's Own Double 11: Why Amazon Is the Second Company, After Walmart, to Reshape the Country
Every great company solves the same problem: shortening the time and distance it takes for goods to reach users. To serve consumers better, you have to get closer to them.
LoveLive!: Why Does an Idol Group That Lives Both in Anime and in Real Life Have Such a Hold on Fans?
A complete cross-dimensional product built by five companies has stirred heartfelt love in countless fans.
A Self-Taught Programmer Now Wants to Change How People Eat | 100 Entrepreneurs
Ruofan wants to localize Soylent, the meal-replacement food, for China — which means taking on eating habits built by traditional food.
What Happened After Word Spread That Shanghai's Private International Schools Would Be "Rectified"
Everyone is holding on to what little choice they have left, caught between Chinese-style thinking and Western-style education
Black Friday Was Loud for One Year, Then Went Quiet: Five Changes Behind Online Shopping
Buying overseas brands has become ordinary, and there isn't much room left for small e-commerce players.
From Sweeping the Country to Starting Over: Was Sexy Marketing Really All That Sank A&F?
A&F once satisfied most Americans' teenage (sexual) fantasy of high school. Consumers woke up fast. The brand stayed asleep.
If You Treated Korea's Entire Beauty Industry as One Company, How Did It Get So Successful? | 2016 Big-Company Digitalization ⑦
Taken as a whole, the Korean beauty industry is a perfect fit for "internet thinking": win on volume, test the market fast, and adjust the product mix fast.
Makoto Shinkai Comes to China to Talk About the Story Behind Your Name.
"I don't think I'm necessarily the next Hayao Miyazaki... but what I emphasize in my work is the emotions of teenage boys and girls."
Why Are Travel Companies That Started Online All Getting Into Ground Services?
"Nobody in independent travel used to want this job, but it's part of the upgrade travelers want once they're on the ground. You can't just hand them off to some cookie-cutter local agency with terrible service, the way it used to be done."
Young People Have Taken to Buying Calendars, and Publishers Don't Want to Miss Out — Their Main Business, Selling Books, Isn't Doing Well
"Of course there's copying going on here — no question about it."
The Internet Spent Years Trying to Remake the Car Market — and It May Have Been Aiming at the Wrong Target All Along | 2016 Corporate Digitization ⑥
Online car sales, used cars, car washes — last year's most heavily funded sectors have all gone cold.
Airbnb Has Long Looked Like a Threat to Hotels. Its Ambition Runs Further Than That
Airbnb told more than 170 news organizations that it will now build a differentiated destination-travel business. Making money that way demands far tighter control of the supply chain. It is a question not only of cost and staffing, but of how fast and how well Airbnb can turn itself into a “travel platform.”
50 Musicians Worth Watching — Their Songs Might Become Your Next On-Repeat List
We hope you'll hit it off with one in fifty of them
He Directed Plays at Beijing Renyi for 10 Years. Now He's Made the Hit Web Series Medical Examiner Dr. Qin
From The Sorrow of Comedy to 12 Citizens to Medical Examiner Dr. Qin — what new problems has Xu Ang run into?
This Swiss Man Wants to Fix China's Air Pollution | 100 People With Ideas
Liam Bates doesn't like to call himself an "entrepreneur." He doesn't care about so-called competitors, and his idea of starting a business is a little "unconventional."
Design history is full of famous chairs. This one is famous for making you love work more
More and more companies are putting thought into designing and remaking their workplaces, and managers are asking how to show off the company's brand culture and how to spark employees' creativity and efficiency. But when you list the tools of productivity, don't forget the office chair — and no conversation about office chairs can get around the Aeron.
He Came Back, Played a Few Hands, Then Quit: How to Judge Liang Jianzhang's Four Years Back at Trip.com Group
Inside the company and outside it, he seems to come and go exactly as he pleases.
"Yunnan Coffee" May Be the Story Nestlé Wants to Tell Today, and Can't Tell Well
Instant coffee is Nescafé's biggest source of revenue and its biggest brand burden. At winning over young consumers, this company may not be nearly as deft as it needs to be.
This Team Wanted to "Use Technology to Convey Emotion," So They Made Art Installations Their Day Job | 100 People With Ideas
As for how they stay alive, the answer is commercial partnerships.
Two Days With the MacBook Pro: A Big Upgrade, but You May Not Care About That Bar
The hardest part of this review was finding a simple way, in writing, to tell the 13-inch MacBook Pro 2016 without Touch Bar apart from the 13-inch MacBook Pro 2016 with Touch Bar.
Hollywood, What Are You So Afraid Of? | 2016: How the Giants Went Digital ⑤
As Hollywood's own creativity runs dry, digitalization has not solved its problems — it has become a heavy burden.
The Data Outlet That Called Two US Elections Almost Perfectly — Why Did It Get This One Wrong Too?
The problem underneath: even with the technology we have today, we still know very little about what the public thinks.
China's Cinema-Chain Merger Wave Has Begun. Where Will It Take the Film Industry?
When an industry hits bottom, that is when consolidation starts.
How Did "Gluten-Free" Food Catch On in America? | Who Decides What You Eat, Part 1
Call them followers of a fad if you like — but underneath is real anxiety about food and real panic about health.
What Does Kanye West Really Mean to Adidas? | 2016 Big-Company Digitization ④
The answer: designer, brand ambassador, the opening shot that ignited sales — almost everything to a company that had spent years hanging its head.
This Frenchman Has Spent 12 Years in Shanghai — and Owns All Six "Internet-Famous" Shops on the City's Prettiest Street
Fussy, controlling, a workaholic — that is how many people describe Franck Pecol.
Shanghai Just Held Its Second Comic Con — So How Did Figurines Become the Biggest Draw?
The organizers inherited some of New York Comic Con's pedigree, but there is still plenty they meant to do and couldn't.
Double 11 Is Over at 120.7 Billion Yuan — Still the Only Number Anyone in the Room Cared About
We're reporting from the Double 11 venue. Alibaba has said again and again this year that it doesn't care about total sales — so what was it talking about at this year's Double 11?
[This World] Everything That Happened After Trump Became President of the United States
Long. Proceed with caution.
Marks & Spencer Quits China: A Company With No Ambition That Made Almost Every Mistake It Could
It got so much wrong that how it came to this is a mystery in itself.
For the Luxury Industry, Nothing Is Going Right — and Its Fate No Longer Seems to Be in Its Own Hands | 2016: Big Companies Go Digital ③
New channels, new ways of communicating, and new consumers arrived long ago. The sluggish luxury industry is only now catching on.
Why Did the Brand That Led America's Organic Food Boom Stumble Just as the Market Took Off?
What did Whole Foods do wrong?
Trump Won, the American Media Got It All Wrong — Now How Is the World Reacting?
Social networks and live news are available at any hour, and yet the gulf between one group of people and another has only grown wider.
LeEco Has Hit a Life-or-Death Moment. Is This the Start of a Chain of Bubbles Bursting?
How much bigger LeEco's bubble — and China's internet bubble with it — can be blown may come down to whether Jia Yueting can convince the market one more time today.
Tim Burton Came to China to Talk About His New Film, a "Teen Version of X-Men"
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is now counting on the China box office.
Everyone Says They Didn't Spend Less. So Where Did the Double 11 Ads Go? | Double 11 Insights ③
Every e-commerce platform now wants something different out of Double 11. The ads are all still there — they've just gone quiet.
From Beijing's Nanluoguxiang to Hangzhou's Hefang Street: How Did the Business of Tourist Districts Get So Cheap, and So Alike?
Why do tacky little businesses find it easier to survive in tourist districts? And where can the businesses that take more imagination — the ones that are "more different" — go instead?
The Comic *Not Human* Has a Million Fans. Why Still No Profit? | 100 Entrepreneurs
In other words, is it impossible to commercialize an ACG work with no strong plot?
Xiaomi Looked Like It Had Beaten the Old Sales Channels. So Why Did OPPO and vivo Beat Xiaomi This Year? | 2016 Digital Transformation at Big Companies ②
Going fully online — the digital playbook Xiaomi pioneered so brilliantly. We thought it had beaten the traditional channels. It turned out we were wrong.
Why Can Only Five Theaters in the World — or, More Precisely, Why Are Only Five Willing to — Show Ang Lee's High-End Film?
It's a gamble: after spending a fortune on a one-time equipment overhaul, how much money comes back — and how many future films will ever use the equipment?
45 Things QDaily Found Out About How Young People Watch Movies
For young people, the movie theater is a social venue. That means they care more about the theater itself and about the whole experience before, during and after a film — and it means they sort films by occasion.
Ang Lee's New Film Drew Bad Reviews in New York. At the Taipei Premiere, He Seemed Uneasy Too
Ang Lee: everything about film has to be upgraded — “film criticism has to be upgraded too”
Why Have So Many Chinese Books About the Gulag Appeared in the Past Three Years?
The Gulag — short for the Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps — was the Soviet Union's tool for crushing dissent, and it held millions of prisoners.
Lenovo Made Phones for 14 Years and Sold Hundreds of Millions. It Is Ending Without Leaving a Mark
The company's main investment has gone back to PCs.
Wang Jianlin Went to Los Angeles to "Scare" Hollywood. Has Chinese Cinema's Swagger Really Grown This Big?
Hollywood has stayed fairly restrained about this loud-talking rich man.
From Self-Order Kiosks to Delivery Platforms: What Technology Gave McDonald's, and What It Cost | 2016 Digitization of Big Business ①
Optimistically, McDonald's will keep winning new customers. What it gives up is the brand's sharp personality, and the feel for its consumers that lives behind the data.
How Did CrossFit, a Workout This Hard, Become So Popular? | Market Inventors
"It really feels like you don't quite want to live, but you don't quite want to die either."
After Alibaba Started “Making Content,” What Changed for Merchants Big and Small? | Double 11 Insights, Part 2
A string of questions now faces sellers: What are the new rules of the game? How does staffing keep up? How do you fight for Alibaba's scarce, high-quality resources?
Chinese Animation Has Money Now, and It's No Longer Content to Be Japan's Student
Much as in its dealings with Hollywood, China is still the one learning — but with a huge market and a lot of capital behind it, what it says now carries more weight.
Ride-Hailing Came Under Regulation Today. What Will Change? We Compiled the Rules From 58 Cities
Hangzhou was the first to loosen the limits in its implementation rules.
The music industry has posted surprisingly good numbers lately. But is it time to breathe easy?
Of course, the steady arrival of new consumers is still good news for the industry.
Two Young Chinese Designers Opened a Studio in Berlin. They Say Sincere Design Is Good Design
"If we're going to design something, we have to offer something new. Does it solve a problem, or does it offer a new aesthetic, a new way of using the thing? There has to be something in it."
Taobao Keeps Saying It Wants to "Make Content." How Did All This Happen? | Double 11 Insights ①
The entry points that draw consumers' purchases or their attention are changing, and Alibaba probably feels it more keenly than anyone.
How to Get Wild This Halloween? Every Big Brand Has Tricks Lined Up (For You)
Young people are getting better at catching up on these holidays, giving themselves a reason to relax. What brand would pass up a marketing chance like that?
Disney Has Written Down Its “Princess Rules” for the First Time. It's No Joke — It's About Women's Rights
Feminism is an overused word by now; it has turned into a tool for opportunists. Even so, more and more people in Hollywood are talking about it.
This Film Has 180 “Forks in the Road” and 7 Different Endings. Would You Enjoy Interacting With It?
A film from Switzerland lets the audience decide where the plot goes.
Hands-On With the New MacBook Pro: Apple Puts a Touchscreen on a Laptop for the First Time
Apple has updated its MacBook Pro line, in both 13-inch and 15-inch sizes.
Long Lines at Shawn Yue's Sanlitun Streetwear Store: Is the Celebrity Streetwear Business Getting Better?
Starting a streetwear brand looks like an easy move for a celebrity. But beyond the “fan economy” and “hunger marketing,” it takes something more.
Before the Midlife Crisis Arrives, Your Friend "Quarter-Life Crisis" Is Already Online | QDaily Research Lab
Quarter-life crisis is a catch-all term for the anxieties of young adulthood — about work, relationships, and getting out of poverty — which add up to something like "Is this really all my life is going to be?" Today, QDaily Research Lab takes a close look at it.
This Man Single-Handedly Put NetEase Cloud Music on Track — Now He Wants to "Save" Baidu Music
But Baidu is not NetEase, and this is not 2012.
Twice in a Week, Didi Says It's Going Global — What's the Rush, and How Big Is the Opportunity?
If Chinese regulation ends up as strict as this month's draft rules, Didi may have no choice but to go overseas.
To Understand 40 Years of Japanese Pop Culture, Don't Miss This BEAMS Short Film
When a clothing brand becomes a cultural symbol, don't underestimate how far its influence reaches.
Sixty Years of the Shipping Container, and How It Turned Ordinary Life Upside Down | QDaily Business History
Standards, scale, efficiency, cost — all of it changed as a result.
Why is it so hard for Silicon Valley's biggest tech companies to build a car?
Even if the driverless cars tech companies are betting on arrive sooner than expected, how anyone makes money from them is still an open question.
Designing for Budget Restaurants Became His Studio's Foundation | 100 People With Ideas
In just two years this studio has finished more than 20 projects and concept designs. How?
BMW vs. Mercedes-Benz vs. Audi: Whether to Fight Back Depends on Whether the Challenger Measures Up | The Ad Wars, Part 4
When a company changes the target of its ad attacks, it is because its competition has changed.
What Do 2016's Most Eye-Catching Package Designs Tell Us About Shoppers?
In an age ruled by looks, even if you have absolute faith in the product itself, it still pays to dress it up a little.
Online Furniture Brands Are All Opening Physical Stores. What Does That Really Get Them?
Either way, the furniture and home-goods business no longer seems to be competing on the furniture itself. The competition has moved to brand experience and service.