Twenty years on, do you still remember the electronic pet that once soothed your loneliness?
Its proper name is Tamagotchi. Its brief moment of glory saved the company that invented it — and then other toys took its place.
QDaily in English
2310 completed translations from the archive. Articles retain their original publication dates.
When a Startup Hitches a Ride on a Giant Like IKEA, Is That Good News or Bad? | Maybe Europe Has the Answer, Part 6
In the startup stories below you'll find more than new ideas about home design; you may also learn something new about how small companies handle their relationship with the giants of their industry.
"Everyone Speaks in Their Own Voice, and Everyone Has the Right to Defend What They Really Think" | Beijing Book Fair
S. A. Alexievich, the 2015 Nobel laureate in literature, has come to Beijing. She is a writer, and also a journalist.
60 Billion Cigarettes Have Gone Missing. Have Young Chinese Decided Smoking Isn't Cool?
Cigarette sales in China fell in 2015 for the first time in 20 years. Will the decline last, and what set it off?
400 Million App Users, 1 Million Phones in Three Years: How Hard It Is to Sell Your Fans Anything
When the core business makes no money, the company starts telling a more complicated story about how it will. That familiar startup path may no longer work.
Yongkang Road, the Bar Street With 13 "Owners," Is Breaking Up
We have been following Shanghai's recent campaign to restore the historic character of its old streets. The story is still going, and so are we.
Social media's beauty queen: which foods has Instagram made famous, and how did they get there?
Beyond the kitchen, Instagram is the second front chefs have to conquer.
Golf Is Leaving the Stage, and Taking Its Old Vanities With It | Market Inventors
The game has moved out of the well-off middle class and into a smaller, richer circle.
Two Million Copies in Four Years: Why Do Chinese Readers Love *The Willpower Instinct* So Much? | The Stories of Six Book Editors, Part 4
Part of our Shanghai Book Fair series. In a market that still looks healthy, watch the smartest minds chase the fads the internet manufactures.
Every Airline Wants You to Book Flights in Its App. Should You?
What more than 4,500 fare comparisons show: unless someone else is paying, installing only the airline's own app is a bad idea.
Where Does Handmade End and Machine-Made Begin? He Has an Answer Worth Hearing
An interview on what 3D technology means, ethical fashion, fashion's sense of humor, and democracy.
The Secret of the Blockbuster Novel: Healing, Healing, Healing | The Stories of Six Book Editors, Part 3
Part of our Shanghai Book Fair series. In a market that still looks healthy, watch the smartest minds chase the fads the internet manufactures.
IKEA Is Finally Selling Online in China. What Kind of Online Store Will It Be?
We gathered what is known and put it into 10 questions, to make the picture clearer.
He Built a Hundred-Person Company Chronicling the Boom. Now He Chronicles Startups' Decline | What Is Silicon Valley Anxious About ❺
A data company that grew up the old-fashioned way — and a close observer of how American tech is changing.
Who Made *84, Charing Cross Road* a Bestseller, and How Many Books Did the *Yu Zui* Series Sell? | The Stories of Six Book Editors, No. 2
Part of our Shanghai Book Fair series. Here you'll see how the smartest minds in a market that still looks prosperous are chasing trends manufactured by the internet.
"I Agree With 'Get Closer to a Star's Stage, and Further From Their Life'" | At 22, What Is She Thinking? (27)
"Now I like TFboys, and I hope they hurry up and find a chance to date while they're young."
Why Has Alibaba Stopped Talking About That Phantom Number, GMV, and Started Telling a Story About "Time Spent"?
Everything Alibaba does is meant to get you to buy more. But now it first has to keep you there — and nothing does that better than content.
Who Manufactured Bestselling Author Liu Tong and His Three Books? | Stories of Six Book Editors, Part 1
Part of our Shanghai Book Fair series. You'll see how, in a market that still looks like it's booming, the smartest minds chase trends manufactured by the internet.
When It Comes to New Media, Look at How Someone Named Huffington Started the First "Internet Newspaper"
The Huffington Post, which she founded in 2005, was not a print outlet gone digital. It was an internet media company in the true sense.
SMAP, Japan's Biggest Idol Group, Really Is Breaking Up. How Did It Spend 25 Years Becoming a Miracle?
Fans won't be the only losers. Japan's economy will take a hit too.
A Few Young Foreigners Started a Mandarin School in China. How Did It Turn Into a Gamble?
“There was the Olympics in 2008, the World Expo in 2010 — China was a giant magnet.” Five years ago, Jan believed the country would keep opening up, and he placed a dangerous bet on it.
Who's Buying MO&Co.?
Beyond the cotton-linen and Japanese-Korean styles that fill Chinese stores, this company has found a market of its own.
The Olympics Have Thrills, Tension, Excitement and National Pride. So Why Don't We Care Anymore?
We still seem to be talking about the Olympics — but none of it has much to do with the Olympics itself.
How Do You Build a Sexy Small Company? | Maybe Europe Has the Answer ⑤
Hold the company to around 35 or 40 people — stay lively, get more done.
Forget Virtual Reality and 8K Ultra-HD TV at the Rio Olympics — These Are the Technologies Actually Changing Sports
From how we watch to the sports themselves, technologies you can see and technologies you can't have seeped into everything.
Jawbone Is Dying. Like the Wearables Industry, It Raised a Lot of Money but Never Found a Reason to Exist
After its successes in Bluetooth headsets and Bluetooth speakers, the wearables market may make Jawbone the first Silicon Valley unicorn to die.
Convenience-Store Coolers Are Filling Up With Juice That Costs More Than 10 Yuan. How Did It Catch On?
Most of them tout the letters "NFC." What does that mean?
How Are These New Nordic Home Brands Winning Over Young People Worldwide? | Maybe Europe Has the Answer ④
"We've never had the ambition to open hundreds of stores... For us, what we're good at is design."
Keds, the Little Canvas Sneaker, Has Risen and Fallen for 100 Years — Its Story Shows That Business Comes Down to Capturing One Crowd
Otherwise, why did its golden age arrive so many years late, even with Hollywood stars endorsing it?
Hey, Cricket, How About We Turn You Into an Energy Bar?
Americans' appetite for protein supplements is hard to fathom. Now they think insect protein is a good business.
How a British Magazine Became One Chinese Businessman's Lifestyle "IP"
Five years on, Monocle's founder is back in China, and the people who run lifestyle brands are flocking to him. They all want to hear what the mentor has to say.
Boeing Considers Ending 747 Production: How the Jumbo Jet Rose, and Why It Is Falling | QDaily Business History
A program even Boeing wasn't sure would last became the symbol of intercontinental flight for half a century.
Twelve Years In, What Can the World's Biggest Electronic Music Festival Actually Bring This Small Town?
It could have been a small bomb dropped on a sleeping town. Instead, everyone here is working to tamp down the "fairy-tale" notion that the festival will remake the place.
He didn't think the big companies had cracked the music business either, so he started crowdfunding for music | 100 People With Ideas
"The big platforms will always go after the top acts first, so we'll take the bottom."
Why Can't the Middle Class Get Enough of That Resort Called Club Med?
It caught on in Europe, and some Chinese consumers are already fans. Can it now be sold to more Chinese people?
At China's Biggest Gaming Expo in 2016, Games Are No Longer the Main Event
Games haven't been reduced to mere tools yet, but the ambitions of the big companies clearly now stretch as far as the imagination can reach. Games, today, are a capital concept.
Labor Keeps Getting More Expensive. How Does a Small Manufacturer Survive? | Maybe Europe Has an Answer, Part 3
How do you save money? How do you innovate? Why do small companies stand a better chance of surviving than big ones? The story of one stroller maker may hold the answers.
We Talked to the Head of Hermès's Crystal Brand About Luxury, Young Consumers and Doing Business in China
The age gap between our European and Chinese customers is about 25 years.
Every Company, Big or Small, Whatever It Does, Is Talking About Artificial Intelligence — As If There Were No Other Choice | Why Is Silicon Valley in Such a Rush ❹
This is not the first artificial-intelligence boom of the past 50 years.
Rio Countdown: So Far, the Most Consistent Performer Is Advertising
Besides the robberies and the virus, this is also the highest-grossing Olympics ever for advertising
Where Do a Convenience Store's Weekly New Arrivals Come From? We Sat In on a FamilyMart Tasting Session
A model the convenience store industry has widely adopted — and it decides which products end up in front of you
70 Years On, Why "A Diamond Is Forever" No Longer Works
Consumers have changed and new rivals have arrived. The natural diamond industry needs a new story.
Don't Be Afraid: Each of These 30-Odd Jobs Has Been Sentenced to Death at Least Once — and Look, They're All Still Fine
New technology really has destroyed some jobs, but it has created others. And what happens in the workplace also turns on the economy, employment policy, labor supply and demand, and how work gets divided up.
Who Was Screaming at Bilibili's 12,000-Person Anime Meetup Last Weekend?
Maybe everyone — otherwise they wouldn't have been there. It was all for love.
After the Slowdown, Programmers Became the Busiest People in Europe | Maybe Europe Has the Answer ②
Almost every city that hopes startups will revive it runs into the same problem: talent.
How Did All These Look-Alike "Healthy Meals" Catch On? | Market Inventors
Most companies selling healthy meals refuse to limit their customers to people who work out. They are after anyone "pursuing a healthy lifestyle."
Apple Just Posted Its Worst Earnings in 13 Years — Again. Here's What Happened, in 10 Charts
Apple's own guidance says next quarter won't be any better.
A Football Match Canceled Five Hours Before Kickoff — Why It's the Most Embarrassing Friendly in History
Heavy rain, sweltering heat, deception and cover-ups — and an organizer cashing out at any cost.
The Little Label on Food Packaging Has Been Revolutionized Again. How Many Big-Company Secrets Does It Hide?
When food companies must choose between the short-term gain of satisfying consumer demand and the long-term interest of public health, they always choose the former.
Dead Street | Shanghai's Urban Renewal (Part Five)
We've been following Shanghai's recent push to restore the historic character of its streets. The series runs to five articles, and tries to record as many of the people living through it as possible. This is the last one.
China's Rio Olympic Delegation Is Set. Who Wins Off the Field?
To say it again: the business world is far more brutal than sport.
After Her Master's, She Chose to Raise Horses in Ireland First | At 22, What Is She Thinking? (21)
"It wasn't until I got there that I realized this was a massive industry."
Amazon Is About to Pass Buffett's Company: Who Were the Most Valuable Companies of the Past 50 Years, and What Change Do They Represent?
Market capitalization shows what investors think about the size and prospects of the market a company is in.
"Dancing Lets Me Escape the Place Where I'm Different from Everyone Else" | What Is She Thinking at 22? (Twenty)
"For me, I'll dance for the rest of my life, no matter how much money it makes."
McDonald's Invited 300 People to a Healthy Meal in Guangzhou. What Was It Trying to Prove?
McDonald's is stuck with an aging customer base and a menu that has stopped surprising anyone, and it calls its new healthy lineup the core of its response for 2016. Out of that came a PR show built around raw vegetables.
Mango TV Wants to Be a Real Video Site. How Far Off Is It?
Not an online version of Hunan TV but a real internet company — and that may have to start with moving its headquarters out of Changsha.
The cervical cancer vaccine you had to fly to Hong Kong for is finally coming to the mainland — 20 questions you may want answered
This vaccine changed the way patients and researchers face cancer, that "modern plague." These 20 questions tell the story behind it.
At 27, Bi Gan Got Famous for Kaili Blues. Most Young Directors Are Still Struggling on the Road
Film is a fairly mercenary business. Even once you have proved you are good enough, the hard part may be just beginning.
In Xishuangbanna, Do You Really Want a Wanda Plaza You Could Just as Easily Find at Home?
Travel spending is moving upmarket. Tourists have gone from whistle-stop bus tours to wanting "a quiet day with nothing much to do" — so what can actually satisfy that?
Why Aren't Big Personal-Care Companies' Distributors Working as Hard Anymore? | From Tier-One to Tier-Five Cities, What Happened (Conclusion)
Over the past two months or so we interviewed 11 people who work in this industry, from the big personal-care companies and from every role along the distribution channel. This series runs to three articles, all trying to answer one question: why did the traditional distribution systems of the big personal-care companies collapse? This is the last of them.
The Economy Is in Decline. How Do Small Companies Survive? | Maybe Europe Has the Answer, Part 1
Over the past two months we visited nearly 40 companies in Europe, hoping their experience would show Chinese companies how to handle what is coming. This is the first piece in the series.
How Come Companies Like Procter & Gamble Always Lose to Local Brands in Small Towns? | From Tier 1 to Tier 5, What Happened (Part 2)
Over roughly the past two months we interviewed 11 people who work in this industry — at big personal-care and household-goods companies, and in every kind of job along the distribution chain. This series runs to three articles, all trying to answer one question: why did the traditional distribution systems of the big personal-care companies collapse? This is the second.
What Does Google Think the Carrier of the Future Looks Like? We Used It for 20 Days
Leave aside the handset restrictions, and this is the best carrier service you can get right now.
The Internet Destroyed the Personal-Care Giants: How Do They Sell Now, and to Whom? | From Tier-1 to Tier-5 Cities, What's Happening (Part One)
Over roughly the past two months, we interviewed 11 people who work in this industry, drawn from every kind of role at the personal-care giants and in their distribution channels. This series runs to three articles, and tries to answer one question: why did the traditional distribution systems of the personal-care giants collapse?
Forget China's Animation Industry — the Fight Over *Big Fish & Begonia* Has Nothing to Do With It
The visuals are gorgeous, the music moving. Neither can hide how thin the story and its characters are. And yet the film was a hit. How?
Meditation Helps You Make Calmer, More Accurate Choices
The author, Russell Simmons, says: "My success has always been rooted in the quiet moments I have lived through. The more of those quiet moments my life holds, the more happiness and fulfillment I get."
[QDaily Big Survey] What Do College Students Make of the Virtual World Inside Their Phones?
More than 50 face-to-face interviews and 2,000 online survey responses: we tried to give you some clues for understanding a group that has clearly become very important.
Nestlé Turns 150. What Secrets of the Food Industry Hide Behind That Number?
It's hardly an exaggeration to say that the growth of this one company shows how an entire industry expanded.
Silicon Valley's Promised Perks Are Vanishing. Is This Really Just About Food and Drink? | What's Silicon Valley So Anxious About ❸
The third piece in QDaily's Silicon Valley series. This one is about what a changing macro environment is doing to employee perks.
"The People I Meet Always Vanish Without a Word" | At 22, What Is She Thinking? (15)
"I don't think I ever really knew any of the people I met on DoNever, Tantan, or through WeChat official accounts, and they didn't really know me either."
More and More People Are Promoting Combat Sports — Humanity's Oldest Sport — in China. What Will That Bring?
Combat sports, boxing and wrestling among them, mix strength, wounds, national pride and an old code of courage and honor. What happens when China's professional sporting system and the West's meet?
LeEco, Are You Running Li Yuchun's Concert, or Selling LeSports Memberships?
Is the so-called ecosystem really just "buy one, get one free"?
Who Took a Gap Year? What Were They Looking For?
A gap year rarely eases the anxieties of your twenties. More often it makes them erupt all at once.
Japanese Director Hirokazu Kore-eda Talks About His New Film at the Taipei Film Festival
The title, it turns out, comes from a Japanese song by Teresa Teng
Can Children's Wear Win These Chinese Brands Back the Hearts of Young Shoppers?
For the first time, children's clothing puts China's "fashion brands" on the same stage as the international fast-fashion chains. It is a miniature of the upgrading of Chinese garment manufacturing.
We Asked Director Wang Xiaoshuai What It Takes to Make a Good Movie in China Now
The rule of this business is simple: the film itself has to be good, so that one generation of viewers after another grows up surrounded by good movies.
This Book Covers the 14 Great Leaps in the History of Human Creativity
An encyclopedia of science and art, covering 4,002 of the world's top figures in every field and what they achieved.
Want to Understand Fashion? Start With This Little Encyclopedia
How were the bob, the corset, the high heel and the lipstick invented, and what charming stories lie behind them? How did the outdoor picnic and the masquerade ball come into fashion? This book sets out to answer such questions.
"I've Been Coming to Cannes for 15 Years. For the First Time, Not One Person — I Mean Not One Person — Was Talking About Creativity"
Things may be friendlier than you'd expect: the division of labor in advertising is getting clearer, and both sides think there should be more collaboration.
[QDaily Big Survey] You're Graduating From College — Have You Found a Job Yet?
More than 50 face-to-face interviews and 2,000 online questionnaires: some clues for understanding a group that has clearly become very important.
The “Unicorns” Internet Companies Love to Talk Up Look Shakier by the Day — Even to the American Who Coined the Term | What Is Silicon Valley Anxious About❷
In one investor's words, “Too many companies burn $300–500 million to bring in $30–40 million in annual revenue.”
In China, Who Offers LGBT People Support and a Sense of Belonging? Who Listens to Their Stories?
For these groups who move about outside the mainstream, being recognized by an "organization" means something special
The Biggest European Championship Ever: How Did the Advertisers Do?
Who turned out to be the dark horse? Who just came for the party? And who are the old faces that always run this kind of marketing?
The Apple Watch's New OS Is Basically Apple Tearing the Watch Down and Starting Over
This is the first major Apple hardware product in more than a decade to change direction just one year after launch.
How Has the Trendy “Minsu” Changed This Mountain County in Southern Zhejiang?
And where will the people and the capital chasing that concept take it next?
Are There Gay Characters in Disney's Animated Films? The Question Is Harder Than It Looks
As a company that promises to "bring joy to families around the world," Disney champions the safest values available — which is what most big companies do. Lately, though, that approach keeps running into "crises."
The Michelin Guide Comes to Shanghai — Who Will Care the Most?
Or put it another way: what will this little book bring? Stricter restaurant management, more pressure on chefs, or fussier diners?
How Do Big Companies Treat LGBT People? 15 Cases That Show How Their Stance Has Changed
From keeping their distance, to coming close and then pulling back, to same-sex couples appearing openly on ad posters. Today, being associated with LGBT causes can earn a company a name for being progressive, free, open and inclusive, and win the spending of this community — but it is also a constraint.
Popeye Magazine Turns 40. How Did It Come to Lead Japanese Pop Culture?
It defined urban life for men, and it gave rise to select-shop groups like Beams.
The Youngest Dating Coach, Working at the "Bad Boys Academy" | What Is He Thinking at 22? (Part 5)
He has been teaching guys how to pick up girls since he was 18.
"This World": 47 Things That Happened on the Day of the Brexit Referendum
Let's look at everything that happened on the day that shaped history.
A Europe Split Apart by World War II, a Community That Was Never Real
June 24, 2016. What did that historic moment the British made yesterday actually mean?
A well-known American writer wrote a book about Xiaomi — but before it was even translated, Xiaomi's world had changed
The book is called *Little Rice: Smartphones, Xiaomi, and the Chinese Dream*
Has the Travel Market Upgraded? We Started by Talking to 20 People About the So-Called “Homestay”
Arty young people play the prophet, infecting ordinary young people; in the end, more and more newly prosperous Chinese will come around to this new way of living.
He's Won Many Awards for His Documentaries. What He Records Is Absurdity.
Zhou Hao doesn't agree with the domestic directors who keep railing against censorship. “It's just there, blocking your way, and you can't get around it. So are you going to stop making films?”
In Silicon Valley, We Keep Seeing the WeChat Official Accounts of Four Years Ago. What's Going On? | What Silicon Valley Is Anxious About❶
In the end, this is about building artificial intelligence — the tech industry's search for its next platform.
A Week With iOS 10: The iPhone's Biggest Software Upgrade in Three Years
What matters more is what it opens up for third-party apps
16 Years of a Small-City Cosmetics Shop: This Market Isn't What You Think
Behind the distributor networks and retail outlets that big companies are so proud of stand individual people. The owner of this cosmetics shop helped shape that industry, and her story is also a small portrait of how one generation's spending gave way to the next.
China's Film Market Is Booming. Keeping It Growing Is the Hard Part
Ordinary article
QDaily's Big Survey: Where Does College Students' Money Go? We Have at Least 39 Answers
More than 50 face-to-face interviews and close to 2,000 online survey responses — we tried to give you some clues for understanding a group that is clearly already very important.