Love Fashion? Don't Miss This Conversation Between Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada
They talked about "what fashion means," "how to find originality," "what Belgian fashion is," and more.
QDaily in English
2310 completed translations from the archive. Articles retain their original publication dates.
Microsoft Gained $25 Billion in Market Value Today. Why Is a Company Drifting Further From Us Doing Better and Better Business?
Two and a half years into Satya Nadella's tenure, Microsoft's market cap is up 50%
NetEase Games Dominates the App Store Charts — How Long Can That Last?
NetEase Games' advantage rests on in-house development. Is its current lead a win for that strategy, or is its rival simply not running at full power yet?
He Wants to Turn "Amateur" Product Designers' Sketches Into Things People Can Buy. It's Harder Than It Looks
The hardest part is that there doesn't seem to be much money in it.
Who Exactly Is Buying at Shanghai Fashion Week?
Making deals happen has become one of Shanghai Fashion Week's main aims — and from a market point of view, that is a sensible choice.
Two Years Ago These Movie-Ticketing Platforms Set Out to Disrupt the Business. Now They Admit They're Just "Service Providers"
They failed to destroy the industry, and they won't save it either. They are simply part of the film business.
Can the Media Take Sides on Who Should Be President?
If any journalistic principle was truly broken in this US presidential election, it was probably "balance."
Peter Handke, Meng Jinghui's Idol, Comes to China and Talks About Writing and Death
"No writer is entirely pure. Sometimes you have to get a little dirty."
We Had 49 Questions About the Children's Legend of the White Snake. Producer Gao Xiang Answered Every One
Audiences love the show. But does that make it good?
Smartisan Is Three Generations In and Its Chances Keep Shrinking — 11 Changes in the Smartphone Industry Behind That
The smartphone industry looks nothing like the one Luo Yonghao walked into when he started making phones.
Apple vs. Microsoft: Who Gets to Define the Computer? A Long Fight Over Who Sets the Terms in Tech | Ad Wars, Part 3
The 30-year argument over "what is a computer," fought out in Apple and Microsoft ads, is a history of technological change covering the golden age of the PC industry.
Six Months In, Bike-Sharing Is Raising Money Faster Than the Taxi-App War Did. How Will That Change the Way You Get Around?
Nine rounds of financing, 30 investors, hundreds of millions of dollars — all in the two months since Mobike entered Beijing.
What Goes Around Comes Around: Ten Years Ago His Basketball-Court Business Was Going Under. Now He's Caught Sports Capital's "Tailwind"
In theory this really is a business that only gets broader the further you go. But with investors egging him on like this, something feels off.
Who Are Those Designers Really Renovating the Old City For? | Is Old Beijing Dead? (2)
Nobody, it turns out, can answer that any time soon.
Beijing's Waves of Old-City Renovation: A New Way of Life, or Just New Talking Points? | Is Old Beijing Dead? (1)
A vessel for nostalgia, a political achievement on display, a social talking point, a design experiment — that is what Beijing's old city has become.
A Film About 40 Years of Taiwanese Folk Music Opened Just as Bob Dylan Won the Nobel. What Does It Say?
Forty years ago, Hou Chi-jan had just been born, and Taiwan's folk-song movement was beginning to stir. Forty years later, he was asked whether he could direct a documentary about those forty years of folk music.
Understanding Migration and Race Means Understanding Your Relationship With the World, and With Yourself | Recommending Some Good Books
Over the National Day holiday we asked eight young writers to recommend books they think are good. Each has built a reputation in their own field and enjoys sharing new knowledge and ideas. This is the last of them, Hu Peiling.
Bob Dylan, Nobel Laureate in Literature, Was More Than a 1960s Protest Singer
"All I've ever done is sing songs that are honest, that express a vast, new reality. They say I spoke for a whole generation, but I have almost nothing in common with that generation, let alone any real understanding of it."
Everyone Says GIFs Are a Young Person's Thing — Did You Know It's About to Turn 30? | QDaily Business History
Today's GIF is no longer the .gif of 29 years ago
What Happened When European Designers Came to China? | Maybe Europe Has the Answer ⑧
In this “adventure” of mixed curiosity, economics and creativity, both sides end up discovering the same thing: working together is not easy.
Goodbye, BlackBerry: Born for the Office, Killed by the Office | QDaily Business History
2002–2016: what kind of phone business did BlackBerry run?
Burger King vs. McDonald's: They Both Just Sell Burgers — Why Make Life So Hard for Each Other? | The Ad Wars, Part 2
In an industry as settled as fast food, it is rare for a product or a technology to upend the competitive order. And an advertising strategy that attacks a rival, once it is shown to work, gets used again and again — until it loses its magic.
Theme Parks Are Multiplying Fast in China. Are They Really There to Make You Happy?
A new campaign to grab land and sell apartments — 90% of the parks don't make money.
He Wants to Build a Children's App That Solves the Education Problems Schools Can't | 100 People With Ideas
But it isn't that easy.
The "2016 Best Global Brands" Ranking Is Out — 9 Things Worth Noting
Apple is first, technology keeps getting more valuable, carmakers are rising across the board, luxury brands are struggling... The only two Chinese brands on the list are Huawei and Lenovo.
What Kind of Life Did "the Greatest Intellectual of Our Time" Lead?
This is the first full-length biography of Albert Hirschman. It has won the Association of American Publishers' honorable mention for biography, the *Financial Times* Best Economics Book of the Year, the *Guardian* Best Book of the Year, the *Bloomberg Businessweek* Best Book of the Year, and the Joseph J. Spengler Prize for the best book in economic and social history, among other awards.
Google Built Its Name on Free Services. Why Is It Suddenly Going After Rich People's Money?
Pixel, a new phone priced on par with the iPhone, is Google's attempt at a new business model.
Why Do So Many People Dislike Hillary Clinton and Still Think She'd Make a Competent President?
QDaily will keep following the US presidential election — and not just because it keeps getting more dramatic.
His New Hangzhou Project Has Opened. We Asked Architect Wang Shu About His Clients and This Era
Wang Shu says this era leaves him feeling a little helpless — the helplessness of “a mantis trying to stop a chariot.”
Under Armour vs. Nike: How Does a Newcomer Win a Voice From the Industry Giant? | The Ad Wars ①
Advertising is one of the most direct reflections of corporate competition. Behind the brawling on screen, what shifts in the sporting-goods industry are playing out?
These Two Artists Work in Clay and Music. Nothing About It Is Sweet — and It's Great | 100 People With Ideas
They study the dark, chaotic state that existed before culture arrived — and, beyond that, the human subconscious.
Wang Jianlin Has Turned In the Homework a Crowd of Stars Backed Three Years Ago — He May Just Be Borrowing Hollywood's Limelight Again
Chinese audiences, used to the formula of culture as the stage and economics as the show, will recognize this for what it is: a Wanda real estate project. For Hollywood outsiders hoping to break into the Chinese market, it may look more like a golden opportunity.
Why Has Hermès's Instagram Gone So Odd Lately?
The luxury brands that once won over the last generation of shoppers — what do they have now to catch young people's attention?
Year After Year, Is Beijing Design Week Really About Promoting Design?
Developing in every direction at once may mean being mediocre in every direction at once — or something worse than mediocre.
The Core of Economics Is How You See People, Not Money | Some Good Books
Over this year's National Day holiday, QDaily asked eight young authors to recommend books they think are worth reading. Each has made a name in their own field, and each is glad to share new knowledge and new thinking. This is the seventh, Xiaoyu Lu.
How to Be a High-Quality Single Person in a Noisy, Vulgar World
If you're still single, we won't wish you a speedy exit from it. We wish you a good, active single life — and a quick escape from the folk fantasy of "the empress of the East Palace bakes the flatbread while the empress of the West Palace peels the scallions."
Looking for Graphic Design Inspiration? Start With These 10 People on Behance
An incomplete list. What they have in common: they balance art and commerce well, and they manage to show both a brand's personality and the designer's own.
Beyond *The Crowd*: Other Books That Explain How Groups Behave | Book Recommendations
Over the National Day holiday we asked eight young writers to recommend the books they think are worth reading. Each has made a name in their own field and likes sharing new knowledge and ideas. This is the sixth writer, Fang Kecheng.
How Should We “Judge People by Their Looks” in This New Era?
Walk by, pass by — the eye misses nothing. In a flash, you can tell a hit when you see one.
"Once You've Been Through Enough, You Can Find a Way to Stay in Control" | Creatives Speak
So I don't think there is any such thing as a "mistake." Everything helps you move forward.
Five Years Without Jobs: Which of the Changes He Set in Motion Stuck, and Which Didn't?
How long has it been since an electronic gadget last excited you?
Ang Lee on His New Film: This Isn't Showing Off — I Want to Bring You Back to the Theater
As for the people in Hollywood: "It takes me a long time to tell them that, actually, you're not good enough."
"You Always Have Information Anxiety — I Feel Like I Live in Fear Every Day" | Creatives Speak
These past three years have probably brought the biggest change in consumer behavior in the advertising industry's 100-year history.
Even Fighting Has a History Worth Reading | Some Good Books
Over the National Day holiday we asked eight young writers to recommend the books they rate. Each has made a name in their own field and likes to share what they learn. This is the fifth, Bo Qiao.
Opportunity? Atmosphere? Why Some People Would Rather Live in a Big City | QDaily Big Survey
We want to reopen an interesting and worthwhile question — why big cities pull people in — in a way that isn't so heavy going.
These Books Aren't Easy, but They Can Help You Understand "the City" | Some Good Books
Over the National Day holiday we asked eight young writers to recommend the books they rate. Each is accomplished in their own field and glad to share what they read and think. This is the third: Zhao Yimin.
In a World Full of Games, How Do You Recognize True Love?
The QDaily Research Lab shares some patterns, numbers and standards that hold across most relationships, so you can look at "true love" from a relatively scientific angle.
To Stay Calm in the Face of the Absurd, You Really Do Need Some Science and Humanities | Some Good Books
Over the National Day holiday we asked eight young writers to recommend the books they rate. Each has built something real in their own field and enjoys passing on what they learn. Here is the second of them: Chen Chao.
"I Envy Woody Allen — He Will Never Try to Please the Majority" | Creatives Speak
Probably every creative envies the way Woody Allen lives.
One of China's best rappers just took a job at a "big" company like LeEco. What for?
Xiao Laohu senses hip-hop is about to catch fire — and he may well be the one feeding it wood.
Why Recommend Politicians' Stories to Ordinary Readers | Some Good Books
Over the National Day holiday we invited eight young writers to recommend the books they rate. Each has made a name in his or her own field and likes to share what they learn and think. Here is the first of them, Mu Yao.
At the World's Biggest Ad Conference, Everyone Was Talking About "Trust" Too | Agency Daily: Advertising Week New York
The old line in the ad business was that nobody knew where 50% of the ad budget went to waste. Now the digital age is here, and WeChat official accounts tell us 90% of it went to the wrong place.
42 Architects from 15 Countries Came to Beijing. Which of Their Ideas Matter to Us?
A lot to take in. We hope it helps.
After Spending More Than 5 Billion Yuan, Evergrande Is Selling Its Water Business: How Did a Hit Become a Burden?
Three years, more than 5 billion yuan — how did Evergrande Spring end up here?
A Year Ago We Spent 18 Days Living on So-Called "On-Demand O2O." Almost None of It Works Now
The early boom ran mostly on prices that subsidies had pushed far below cost.
Google or Facebook: Which One Is the Future of Advertising? | What Changed Advertising ④
"Facebook believes the most important thing for making an ad work is user identity. That's the key to performance … They know who you are, and they know a great deal about you. Google believes identity is secondary to intent. What matters is what you want right now, because the products and services being advertised exist to satisfy a wish or a need."
Everyone Knows Ads Should Run on Quality Media. So Who Defines "Quality" Now? | What Changed Advertising ③
Advertisers judge by sales conversion; ad tech firms put the efficient use of data first; agencies are scrambling to sign up as many media outlets as they can. Traffic still matters, but narrow audiences and long-tail demand are worth more and more.
Good at social, never at media: after 10 years of agonizing, Twitter is finally selling itself
Once cast as Facebook's rival, and the biggest company to go public in 2013, Twitter now has to sell.
Joe Sutter Is Gone, and the Age of the Boeing 747 Really Is Ending
A textbook case of "the times make the hero, and the hero makes the times"
The iPhone 7 Plus Has Unlocked Every Camera Feature. How Good Are Those Two Lenses?
It doesn't work quite the way Apple says it does.
QDaily Has 56 Findings on How Young People Travel Now, Starting With "Passive Travel"
For many people, "passive travel" — "tacking a look around onto a business trip," "going to another city to see a long-distance boyfriend or girlfriend," "teaching in a rural school and walking the villages nearby" — may be closer to how they actually travel.
“We’re Always Racing Our Clients” — but Ad Agencies No Longer Know How to Stay Half a Lap Ahead | What Changed the Advertising Industry ②
Why have ad agencies, whose whole business is making “creative,” entered an age of “product R&D”? What are the “data” and “technology” everyone keeps talking about, and can the things agencies are building keep them the authority on what consumers want?
JD.com Took a Runway Show to London Fashion Week. It May Really Have Been Just a Show
Make noise abroad, sell traffic at home. JD.com's way of doing fashion is still a blunt instrument.
The Trendy Bags That Replaced "Affordable Luxury" Never Called Themselves That
Value for money is a good thing; sameness is not. Being easy to buy is a good thing; making your customer look cheap is a serious mistake.
Michelin Finally Published Its Shanghai List. Honestly, Nothing Much Happened
Some of the restaurants that made the list don't think it's a big deal, and the city's amateur foodies don't seem satisfied
Fined over fake-drug ads, now inside the medical industry: what has Google been doing to prepare?
Ten years ago, Google's relationship with medicine amounted to selling ads — many of them fake.
Even a Client as Big as PepsiCo Now Does Its Own Creative. Agencies, What Do You Make of That? | What Changed Advertising, Part 1
Track a trend fast, pin down the audience precisely, hold the brand's tone steady — the demands of digital marketing are pushing advertisers to look for possibilities outside the traditional advertising process.
Why You Still Can't Buy a Jet Black iPhone 7
Jet Black and every Plus model are nearly impossible to find, and authorized resellers have pushed the price to 20,000 yuan
This 26-Year-Old Ad Man Says Advertising Takes Itself Too Seriously — He Wants to Crack a Few Jokes | 100 People With Ideas
The few creative projects that have made Jean-Baptiste Le Divelec somewhat known are all personal projects he made for fun and posted online.
You Probably Still Remember "Cue the VCR!" — Now the VCR's Own Story Is Over
These stories are the first sketch of how today's film and TV companies do business. In the dozen-odd years the internet has ruled, the story of the videocassette recorder has simply been remade and re-released, again and again.
They Don't Want to Be Nokia: Carmakers Built on Outsourcing Are Now Building Self-Driving Cars Themselves
Carmakers haven't spent this heavily on new technology in 20 or 30 years.
McDull Sets Out to Save the World With a Robot — a New Assignment for Him and for His Creator, Alice Mak
Guess how McDull ends up saving the world. (Spoilers ahead.)
2016, Communication University of China: The Young People Leaving the Animation Department
Why did they study animation? And where is their future?
Freelancers Seem to Do Whatever They Want. What Is Their Life Really Like?
We interviewed nine freelancers, four employees at large companies, a new freelance-recruiting company, and two elders willing to give their views on the subject (they were not easy to find)
20 Years of IKEA's Catalogue in China — and the 12 Secrets Hidden Inside It
More than a showcase for products and design, the catalogue is IKEA's argument about what a “home” should be — and a powerful piece of values marketing.
Everyone Said the Internet Would Disrupt Riding. NIU, the Only One Getting Anywhere, Is Doing the Most Traditional Things
Better design, traditional sales channels, and the enormous demand left behind by motorcycle bans keep electric two-wheelers evolving.
Why Do the Designer Booths at China's Biggest Furniture Fair Look So Shabby? Is This Generation of Designers Just Not Good Enough?
Small and cluttered — that is the impression the designer section of this year's China International Furniture Fair leaves you with. How did it get this way?
China's K-12 Back-to-School Season May Be an Overlooked Market
"School uniforms" is the excuse you hear most often, but clothes aren't the whole of back-to-school spending. For companies watching the youth market, this may be an underrated opportunity.
Plenty of Players Are Great at Tennis. Why Do Brands Single Out Federer?
His career is winding down and the brands have stayed. Is that Federer's charm, or something peculiar to tennis sponsorship?
Robots Are Already in Our Rooms. Are They the Home Appliances We Always Imagined?
In fact, the future we imagined is still some way from reality
Everyone Has Their Own Greatest-Games List — However You Rank Them, It's All One History of Video Games (Part 2)
This art form has existed for only about 50 years, but it has moved at extraordinary speed, and it has all but redefined entertainment.
Everyone Has a Best-Games List. However You Rank Them, It's a History of Video Games (Part 1)
This art form has existed for only about 50 years, but it has grown so fast that it has all but redefined entertainment.
It Calls Itself the "China International Furniture Fair." This Year, "International" Is Still a Long Way Off
If you want to sell a lifestyle, you can't keep running an export-goods clearance sale.
What Do Success and Failure Mean for a European Startup Without a High Valuation? | Maybe Europe Has the Answer ⑦
European startups have long gone their own way, growing up under a different model of survival.
So many big brands want Hatsune Miku in their ads. What do they see in her?
You never have to worry about her generating scandal — affairs, drugs, drunken streaking, tax evasion, plastic surgery. Hatsune (at least officially, so far) is a good kid you can count on.
iPhone 7 Hands-On: A Better iPhone, but the Two-Year Leap Is Over
The iPhone is now a business like the Mac — it gets its annual update, but stop expecting a big change every two years.
Here Are the Details of the iPhone 7 and the Second-Generation Apple Watch. Do You Want to Upgrade?
The hardware that most exceeded expectations may be the AirPods.
Mobike Is a Hit in Beijing, Too. Can It Make Public Bikes Work Across China?
A bicycle has become Beijing's latest internet sensation.
What Makes Taiwan's Sticker Illustrators More Popular Than Pop Stars?
Sticker illustrators have become stars of Chinese-language social media. Before we get to the ones working on WeChat, here is what the trade has been through in Taiwan — told by the island's most popular illustrators themselves.
Adidas Says It Will Revive Performance and North America. Its Opening Line Is a White Hoodie
Everything the company wants to say is riding on this hoodie: serious performance and everyday wear, technology and fashion. But can it have all of it?
Every Year 2.5 Million People Jump Into Its Mud Pits. Now It's Coming to China
We talked to Will Dean, the man who started it.
Shanghai Disneyland Is Nearly Three Months Old. What Are the People Making a Living Off It Worried About?
We talked to the shopkeepers of Disneytown, the sales clerks at Shanghai Village, and the homestay owners nearby. Here is what they told us.
So Who Actually Bought China's Biggest Restaurant Company?
Yum China, owner of KFC, Pizza Hut and other brands, is a business of more than 7,000 stores valued at over $10 billion. A private equity fund and an internet finance group have just put down a $460 million deposit on it.
Sequels Wrecked Hollywood This Summer. How Did It Fall Into the Trap, and Why Can't It Get Out?
What's next — are we about to see a reshuffling of the major studios?
Linux Is 25 and Everywhere — How It Ruined Microsoft's Plan to Rule the World | QDaily Business History
Linux changed the world. Linus, though, hasn't changed one bit.
Storybooks with lots of pictures and few words are becoming the education tool of choice for China's new generation of parents
Picture books, once dismissed as poor value for money, have been handed all kinds of educational duties — and pushed into a fiercer market fight.
Why Don't Young People Drink Tea?
Drinking tea properly takes fairly involved technique, and the spaces you drink it in are either dated or rough. Both may be what "gets in the way" of more young people falling in love with this culture.
Besides Amazon, Who Else Could Threaten Walmart?
The 100-plus-year history of American retail is a story of new retail formats beating the old ones, over and over. Low prices are the core of it, but what matters most is how you use innovation to get there.
Hollywood Still Rules: What Films Has the English-Speaking World Embraced Over the Past 16 Years?
The BBC has compiled a list of the best films since 2000. What does it tell us? Does it match what you'd expect?
Look at What These Food Giants Are Going Through — Do Americans Just Not Want to Eat Anything Anymore?
What new consumer behavior has beaten these long-established food and fast-food companies? Do the changes underway in the US market add up to a trend? There may be lessons here for China.