Seeking Success in China? Better Become a New Retail Company

This week, we have a pair of stories from a joint AliResearch and Bain & Co. New Retail report. The report details the imperative brands face to digitally transform in China. And one author explains the six steps for such revolutionary change.

Landmark Licensing Deal for Ali Music

Digital-rights agency Merlin, whose 20,000 member labels comprise 12% of all titles in the market, signed licensing deals with Ali Music and four other of China's top digital music services.

Alibaba Cloud Boots Up New Indonesia Data Center

Alibaba Cloud has launched its first data center in Indonesia, addressing a growing demand for reliable, scalable cloud services among small- to mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

Turn Here: AutoNavi Puts Rural China on Tourism Map

Well off the beaten path, rural China has been nigh impossible for tourists to navigate. But now, Alibaba Group-owned AutoNavi has a solution. It will provide routes and visitor information via its GPS mobile app to attract tourists to largely untraveled parts of China, helping boost local economies.

Julie Deane on Satchels, Business and Life
Julie Deane started the Cambridge Satchel Company to pay her kids’ school fees—and the bags took off. Then the big-money experts got involved, Deane’s marriage cratered, and sales tanked. So she went back to basics, Vanity Fair's Sarah Ellison reports on the woman whose brand is a hit on Alibaba's Tmall.

How China is Rebooting Retail
The story of shops closing and the decline of retail has become a familiar one across the Western world. And yet, real-life retail is enjoying an unlikely resurgence at the same time in China, led largely by a New Retail model championed by Alibaba that fuses the online and offline shopping experiences. Read The Conversation story.

From Austin to Alibaba: Lone Star State Businesses Pitch China Consumers in Real Time
Texas companies made the best of an opportunity to sell to a live audience in China, with local businesses using live-streamed video from the city of Austin to pitch everything from skincare products to snack foods and, of course, tequila. Read the full China Daily story.

The 8 Ways to a Chinese Millennial Shopper's Heart

Brands desperate to capture the business of China's powerful Millennial shoppers need to know these eight things about them drawn up from Jing Daily's qualitative and creative research.