Author Archives

Always running around: job, sports, craft beers and food culture. Many interests in politics, economics, marketing and my "hard-boiled" passions!

• Is China still the global manufacturing hub?

  By valeriosoldani on February 19, 2016 • ( 1 )

  

  Activity in China’s manufacturing industry has been shrinking at a quick pace in the last four years, missing also the market expectations in the last news reported on January. The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) registered a weak level of… Read More ›

• Ghost cities show China crisis, but is the Chinese furniture market still interesting?

  By valeriosoldani on February 12, 2016 • ( 4 )

  

  Yujiapu is one of the most impressive ghost cities in China. An almost empty agglomerate of half-finished buildings and skyscrapers modelled on Manhattan’s skyline. Many say it’s one of the most scary landmark of China’s failed ambitions: a ghost city… Read More ›

• Cool War: United States and China in the future of the global competition

  By valeriosoldani on January 2, 2016 • ( 6 )

  

  Are we on the edge of a new Cold War era? Or, alternatively, every power struggle mindset has to be considered a lost legacy of the XX century and we’re headed to a new era of global cooperation? These are… Read More ›

• China’s emerging cities offer a land of opportunities for foreign investors

  By valeriosoldani on March 27, 2015

  

  While looking at the opportunities in the Chinese markets, many companies and observers are lately focusing on the so called “second-tier cities” that offer huge business chances compared to the traditional urban centres that drove the development in the last… Read More ›

• China’s startup scene: the new companies to watch

  By valeriosoldani on February 28, 2015

  

  While everybody focuses on the success of Xiaomi, the Chinese success story of a startup founded in 2010 that sold over 61 million devices in 2014, there’s a growing startup scene that is definitely reshaping the international scenario of the… Read More ›

• China: the tricky chessboard of the free trade agreements

  By valeriosoldani on October 10, 2014

  

  US and China are facing each other with similar but opposite strategies in the whole Asia-Pacific area: The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), of which China isn’t a part, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) led by China and the… Read More ›

• China: Revving up for e-learning market opportunities

  By valeriosoldani on May 28, 2014 • ( 4 )

  

  The e-learning market has been reshaped by the widespread of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) set up by a large range of top players globally: from the established Ivy League universities to the most daring projects set up by innovative… Read More ›

• Pioneering digital marketing in China

  By valeriosoldani on December 16, 2013 • ( 5 )

  

  The Chinese market is a key target for global luxury brands and export oriented companies focusing on high-end quality products and services. Setting up a marketing strategy could be the hard part of the job, even for brands and companies… Read More ›

• Chinese wine market: bright horizons for foreign producers?

  By valeriosoldani on April 23, 2013 • ( 3 )

  

  The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) reported the increasing relevance of Chinese consumption trends in its last global report. China is the 5th market in the world, with a wine consumption value of over 15 million hectolitres (Mhl)… Read More ›

• Growing opportunities in China for Italian design

  By valeriosoldani on March 14, 2013 • ( 4 )

  

  Italy decided to boost its export of design and furniture products towards the Chinese market, with an official trade promotion programme “La Cina Arreda Italiano” organised by the Italian Trade Commission and the main industrial associations (Federlegno/Arredo – COSMIT, Confartigianato,… Read More ›