Podcasts about Shenzhen

The world's two largest powers are closer than ever to a full economic break. Why neither the United States nor China want to blink, and what it will take for China to survive the trade war.Read more: A week after President Donald Trump's “Liberation Day” tariffs roiled global markets, his administration put China in its crosshairs, with a 145 percent levy on Chinese imports. China countered by raising tariffs on all U.S. goods to at least 125 percent and by publicly casting the United States as an irresponsible global power. Today on “Post Reports,” The Post's China bureau chief, Lily Kuo, joins guest host Chris Velazco to explain how the trade relationship between the two countries got so hostile, how China plans to weather the storm, and how the rest of the world might feel the consequences of this game of chicken. And China correspondent Christian Shepherd brings us to an e-commerce expo in Shenzhen, China, where sellers are pledging to find a way through the tariffs. Today's show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy and Elana Gordon. It was mixed by Sam Bair and edited by Reena Flores. Thanks to Anna Fifield. Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with Yawei Liu, Senior Advisor for China at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and Yukon Huang, former China country head of the World Bank and now Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The show was taped live at the 2025 Columbia China Summit at Columbia University, put on by the Columbia University Greater China Society, on April 13,. Special thanks to them for inviting us to attend!3:53 – Columbia University's history with China 7:52 – How Beijing views the current trade war 11:32 – Yawei's idea of “the clash of misperceptions”18:18 – The actual origins of America's trade deficits and China's trade surpluses 23:14 – How the inevitable talk between Trump and Xi Jinping may play out32:04 – Sinophobia versus changing attitudes toward China 35:43 – How the current trade war is related to innovation in China 45:31 – How we can wage peace Paying It Forward: Nicholas Zeller and his Substack newsletter, The U.S.-China Perception MonitorRecommendations:Yawei: Americans in China: Encounters with the People's Republic ed. by Terry Lautz, and Chinese Encounters with America: Journeys That Shaped the Future of China ed. by Terry Lautz and Deborah DavisYukon: David Brooks' April 2022 article, “The End of Globalization: The Dominance of Global Cultural Wars” Kaiser: The Weimar Years: Rise and Fall 1918-1933 by Frank McDonough See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Monte Carlo(s) Masters! Chris is back from Mallorca to join Joel and Kim to reflect on the past week in tennis, which saw Carlos Alcaraz claim his maiden Monte Carlo Masters Title on the ATP Tour against Italian Lorenzo Musetti. Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic had a horrible week on the French Riviera with early defeat to his clay nemesis Alejandro Tabilo as did Grigor Dimitrov who suffered a double bagel loss at the hands of Alex de Minaur and his short shorts. Whilst it was an off week for many of the top players like Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka on the WTA Tour, an Emma Raducanu-less Great Britain side made their way through to the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Shenzhen joining the likes of USA, Spain and defending champions Italy.The trio also discuss the latest coaching changes, as former World number 1 Dinara Safina joins Diana Schnaider's team, Emma Raducanu considers Mark Petchey as her latest coaching option and there's rumour of Goran Ivanesevic joining the Stefanos Tsitsipas camp. There is also news that a certain Mr. Roger Federer is itching for a return to an exhibition tennis court which has got Joel wildly excited at the prospect of a Battle of the Surfaces 2 event against Rafael Nadal (one can dream right?). They also test their knowledge of recent WTA 1000 winners, make some daring clay court predictions and preview Stuttgart, Munich and Barcelona all taking place this week.Roland-Garros Hospitality with Sports, Travel and Hospitality GroupTo guarantee the best seats in the house with ticket-inclusive official hospitality, visit https://bit.ly/4j6RYBzSOCIALSFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, plus email the show tennisweeklypod@gmail.com.MERCHPurchase Tennis Weekly Merch through our Etsy store including limited edition designs by Krippa Design where all proceeds go towards the podcast so we can keep doing what we do!REVIEWS***Please take a moment to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. It really means a lot to us at HQ and helps make it easier for new listeners to discover us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Mirakl. In today's Retail Daily Minute:Chinese Amazon Sellers Struggle Under 125% Tariffs -- Trump's latest tariff hike forces Shenzhen-based sellers to raise prices, cut U.S. investments, or exit the market entirely—reshaping global e-commerce strategies.Walmart Uses AI to Shrink Fashion Timeline to 6 Weeks -- Walmart unveils “Trend-to-Product” tech, using GenAI to turn global fashion trends into shelf-ready collections in under two months, boosting speed and style.DoorDash Launches Robot Deliveries in LA and Chicago -- Teaming with Coco Robotics, DoorDash deploys 1,000+ emission-free delivery bots to handle small orders—cutting emissions and speeding up local deliveries.The Retail Daily Minute has been rocketing up the Feedspot charts, so stay informed with Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, your source for the latest and most important retail insights. Be careful out there!

The 16:9 PODCAST IS SPONSORED BY SCREENFEED – DIGITAL SIGNAGE CONTENT The next plus-sized pro AV trade show on the annual calendar is InfoComm, coming up in mid-June in, yuck, Orlando, Florida. I'm always curious about what will be new and different with the show, and that's particularly the case in 2025, because there's a new person running things. Jenn Heinold joined show owner/operator AVIXA late last year as the Senior VP Expositions, Americas, so for the last several weeks she's been in drinking-from-the-firehose mode as she learns more and more about the industry, ecosystem and how people think about and use InfoComm. Heinold is a lifer in the trade show business, and while she has run tech-centric trade shows, pro AV is new to her. We had a really good conversation that gets into her impressions and thoughts about the industry, her perspective on ISE, the AVIXA co-owned sister show, and plans for what will be her first InfoComm in June - including what will be different and new. We also get into what, if anything, will be affected by all the trade and geopolitical turmoil that's bubbled up since the US presidency had its four year shuffle. Subscribe from wherever you pick up new podcasts. TRANSCRIPT Jenn, thank you very much for coming on. You've been on the job for how long now?  Jenn Heinold: I've been with AVIXA for just over three months. I joined in December as the Senior Vice President of Expositions for the Americas, and I'm over InfoComm in the U.S., which will be June 11th through the 13th in Orlando, Florida and then I'm also responsible for our new InfoComm America Latina launch event, which will be in October in Mexico City.  Did you know anything about the Pro AV sector before you got involved?  Jenn Heinold: No, honestly. I ran the largest satellite technology show in the U.S. for 15 years. So I've worked in technology, but Pro AV is different and I find myself now everywhere I go looking for display screens and how audio sounds. It's so fascinating how quickly you become immersed within the industry and you notice that it's everywhere and it makes our experiences better.  You'll be a display nerd in no time.  Jenn Heinold: I'm working on it. So have you always been in the trade show business?  Jenn Heinold: I have, yes, I dedicated my career to trade shows. I am super passionate about what happens in a face-to-face environment. I love the serendipity of it. I love that what I do helps businesses grow. The community aspect is amazing, right? Bringing people together with a common goal or challenge. The education that we can provide at trade shows. You can do a month's worth of meetings in three days. You can do a trip around the world in three days in some cases, right?  So I just love the format and really believe in what it can do for businesses and I'm excited to produce InfoComm. Because you had some background working with technology trade shows, has there been much of a learning curve? Setting apart the obvious that there are different companies and all that, but I guess their needs aren't all that dissimilar, are they?  Jenn Heinold: No, I think the commonality in working on technology shows is that you have the same structure where there are channel partners that are working to sell and integrate products, but then you also have all of the end users who use a specific technology. So I think it's important for us to be a forum for both Pro AV as well as our end-user audiences, and make sure that they each are fulfilled and feel welcome at the show and find value in the show.  You went to Integrated Systems Europe a few weeks ago, I saw you there. That was your first big Pro AV trade show, I assume, and I'm curious about your impressions.  Jenn Heinold: Oh, gosh, I was blown away by ISE. How could you not be? But for me, I was just so impressed by what the exhibitors did on the show floor. They really pulled out all the stops for ISE and the energy is amazing. It was so valuable for me to see the technology all together in real life, and then also to be able to meet with exhibitors here directly to know what are your strategic priorities for 2025 and beyond. Who should I be focusing on making sure that I have at the show, so it's the best for our exhibitors and our attendees alike?  I'm sure you were walking around with people like your boss Dave Labuskes both at ISE and InfoComm. Did you get some sense that ISE is its own thing? InfoComm runs differently. Yes, there are the same vendors and everything else, but apart from the obvious of Barcelona versus Orlando or Las Vegas, it does do things differently in some respects, at least. Jenn Heinold: Yeah, absolutely. I unfortunately don't yet have the comparison for InfoComm. I know what our plans are and what we're focusing on. ISE clearly has an amazing global footprint and InfoComm, while it is international, does skew a little bit more to North America just based on the location.  I think we at InfoComm have a much more training program and educational offering, which I really think is valuable. We need to not only nurture our current workforce and make sure that they have all the tools they need to succeed, but focus on the next generation as well, and I'm really proud that InfoComm does that. One of the things about ISE, as you said, there's not as much of a focus on training, there are certainly conferences and things like that, but it's more aimed at end users.  Do you find that you're getting exhibitors and other people saying, hey, it would be great if we had more end users if there was more kind of focus on that part of it, as opposed to, I sometimes refer to InfoComm is something of a gearhead show, and I don't mean that negatively, but it attracts the people who are going to go look at things like cable connectors and mounting infrastructure and so on and stuff that maybe somebody who's an experiential designer for a creative tech shop maybe doesn't care that much about. Jenn Heinold: Yeah. I will say that for 2025, we definitely are emphasizing the end-user audience. They are a key segment for us. Actually, one of the first things I did within my first week, Dave, was look at our end-user segments and compare what groups naturally grew when we were in Orlando versus Las Vegas, right? Just who organically was coming to the show and what I saw was a big increase in education when we're in Orlando, house of worship, retail, restaurants, and hospitality. None of this probably surprises you, but as we built out our marketing campaign, we've decided to really double down our investment on those segments that are organically growing in Orlando. I grew up in trade shows and marketing, so this has really been a passion project for me. Making sure that we have the right audience in InfoComm 2025 is my number one priority and I had to prioritize when I started at AVIXA so I had six months to really execute the show. So if there is one thing that I'm focused on day in and day out, it's the audience at InfoComm this year. When you say audience, are you hearing from exhibitors that they want to see more I end users or they want to see more partners because I think of an InfoComm as being a hyper-efficient way for a manufacturer to have a touch with a whole bunch of existing and potential resellers, and maybe not as worried about having like General Motors or some big retailer walking around.  Jenn Heinold: I hear both, Dave, and I think distributors and integrators are a super important part of the ecosystem, just as the end users are. We are putting more end users on Stage on the show floor this year, as well as within our conference program and I think, having the end users talk about how they are using AV technology only drives more end users to come to the show. That's what they want to hear, right? Uses cases of how they had successful installations, and how they have better employee engagement because of their conferencing and collaboration tools. We've got some retailers actually who will present how they're deploying AV technology in their stores, and what it's doing to improve their business. So we are making a real focus on that piece along with, of course, all the traditional content and certification we offer for the gearheads, as you said. I assume that's a bit of a tactic as well in, that if you invite, the Head of Digital for a big bank or big retail or whatever it may be to the show to do a speaking gig, there's a decent chance he or she is gonna bring some other people with them and then you've got people with big bank on the name tag walking around the show and you're able to talk about, look at the kinds of companies we're attracting. Jenn Heinold: That's absolutely a tactic. The other tactic is when we market to these end-user segments, and they go to our website, perhaps cold, having not really known much about InfoComm, and they see like-minded people on the website speaking, they realize it's an event for them too.  When you got involved, was there a discussion about how are things working right now? The old line about, if it ain't broke, don't fix it? Or were there things that you were told that are where we would like to grow, here's like where we would like to change things, that sort of thing?  Jenn Heinold: Yeah, I mentioned some of the deep dive I took into the show data when I first started. I also read the last five or so years' Exhibitor and Attendee Surveys. In reading those, one thing that bubbled up was just the onsite experience overall, and it is hard when you compare a U.S.-based show to an ISE at the Fira Barcelona is lovely and the food options are really healthy and great, and, unfortunately, we're a little bit behind in the United States on those things, but we are making  It's mind-blowing.  Jenn Heinold: It is a little embarrassing sometimes, but, I will tell you, I have already met with the team in Orlando. I actually was there about three weeks ago and talked about how we want to upgrade the food and beverage experience, have healthier options, and have more seating. So you will see an upgrade in the onsite experience as well.  That's something that we've done mindfully. When you have a better experience, you want to spend more time on the show floor, right? So, there's definitely another strategic priority for us.  Might as well talk about it now, I, people like me would be very happy if we never went to Orlando or Las Vegas again, and in the past, long before your time, InfoComm did move around a little bit. I remember the first one I went to was in Anaheim, and then it got in this rota of, back and forth between Orlando and Las Vegas.  Is that a finite thing or is that just how things are going to be?  Jenn Heinold: I don't think it's finite. The reality is InfoComm can fit in about five convention centers in the United States based on its size and Orlando and Vegas are two of them. Chicago could be an option, Atlanta, and New Orleans might work, but there are just not that many venues that can hold a show of our size, and also where the cities have the infrastructure to host us, so we are a little hamstrung that way.  I'm not opposed to looking at other cities. I think when we look at different cities, of course, we look at the cost structure. We look at the audience that is within a couple of hundred-mile radius and how accessible it is for air travel and everything else. I'm not opposed to it. We do have quite a few years booked already for Orlando and Las Vegas, but it's definitely something that I'm looking into.  If you come to the show, you'll see a lot of questions about our future cities and where we might be in the post-show survey, because it's something that I'd like to look into in the future. You've only been with AVIXA for three to four months, so you don't have a reference point for last year, but I'm going to ask anyway, what's going to be different this year with the show?  Jenn Heinold: Yeah, I mentioned our focus on the audience. That is a big priority for us. We always do local tours where you're able to see Avian Action. But this year I'm really proud that we're in Orlando. We've got a few new tours added to the schedule. One is, the Cirque de Soleil show behind the scenes in Disney Springs. We are going back to the University of Central Florida. We're also doing a large mega-church in Orlando for a house of worship tour. So we've added some fresh content there.  We also have a brand new panel discussion that we're launching this year called 2030 Vision. It will be moderated by Dave Labuskes, and we've got three visionaries from our industry, plus an end user up on stage to talk about what Pro AV look like in 2030, and what are the factors shaping our market. Our visionaries will be from Shure, Crestron, and Diversified. I'm really excited about having some different content models at InfoComm.  I talked earlier about the upgraded experiences. Again, we're really being mindful about making the event more comfortable and enjoyable to be a part of. I think in the last couple of years, AVIXA has really put a push on AVIXA Exchange and AVIXA TV. So I get a sense there's a lot more effort to educate the ecosystem and also use very modern ways to do it. It's not just the written word and case studies and so on. You're doing a lot of proper broadcast studio on-site at ISE and I assume probably something similar at Orlando.  Jenn Heinold: Yeah, absolutely. We'll have our AVIXA TV studios. The coolest thing about that, beyond being able to watch some of the interviews as they are recorded live, is that you get to see a fully functional broadcast studio on the show floor, right? You get to see how technology converges. It's not about just one box. It's about the whole solution and being able to present the whole solution is really special for us.  We've also got three stages. You mentioned AVIXA TV, that's more of a campfire format, right? So huddle around, and talk about different challenges that we're facing. We have our technology innovation stage which is really about highlighting new products that are coming to market and then we have our innovation Spotlight Stage and with the Spotlight Stage, we will have some exhibitors presenting thought leadership, but we also have some content partners there like Digital Signage Federation Plaza. We'll talk about lighting and staging. IABM will focus on the broadcast market opportunity and specifically the intersection of broadcast AV and IT. And FutureWorks who will talk about content creation.  Are you getting into some areas that - I saw at ISE that I didn't have enough time to really get over there and look at any, but it's enough just to get through those four days - but things like drones?  Jenn Heinold: We don't have a dedicated section of the show floor for drones. But certainly, there is some content about the use of drones projection mapping, and other applications.  What about the digital signage side? Through the years, AVIXA at InfoComm has tried to do “digital signage” pavilions, zones, and all kinds of things, and then in the last two to four years, I'm not sure of the number, you've worked with the Digital Signage Federation on a conference day called D Sign. Is that being replicated this year?  Jenn Heinold: Yeah, that'll return and we also have some content with Invidis who will cover a lot of digital signage as well so it's still a huge focus for us as part of the show. One of the attempts has always been to try to create an area thematically around it, but I've always told people that's super difficult because there are exhibitors who've been at that show for 10-20 years, and they have their spot. So it's hard to just say, okay, all of you digital science companies, you go over here, the audio people maybe do. Jenn Heinold: Yes. We don't have a dedicated pavilion for digital signage, but it gets back to our conversation earlier, Dave, I think it's a little bit less about one very specific piece of technology and more about the larger application and I think that's where our industry is going, and that's why really we can't box in those digital signage providers, right? Because they're doing so much more than just just a digital signage display.  Yeah, and that applies to just about any discipline these days that everything is cross-pollinating.  Jenn Heinold: Yes. So I think you'll see certainly some applications come to life at InfoComm 2025 and it'll be an even bigger part of our event design for 2026 where we are already having those conversations around what Infocomm 2026 looks like, which is really exciting. There was some noise at ISE around some of the major exhibitors, like notably Samsung, suggesting that they're not going to be at the show, that they're pulling their big stand, and this and that, and those were swatted down at the time, but I'm curious where that's at.  Jenn Heinold: Yeah, I personally speak to Samsung about every other week and they will be participating at InfoComm 2025. Will it be in the large booth presence that they have had in the past? Quite frankly, no, but, they will be there. They will have products on display. We welcome them and we're working with them to find the right marketing solution for what their needs are today and into the future as well. I find that weird because they had a massive presence at ISE and you would think they want to be there and if they're just doing whisper rooms, that sort of thing, it seems an odd decision. Is there something behind that? I read stuff about Korean politics or whatever, Korean government stuff that may be in the way of it. Jenn Heinold: I think that's a better question for them to answer, certainly, but they will do more than just a whisper room. They will have a presence at the show and we're working with them very closely on that. And they've been great partners. We want to continue to partner with them in a way that's mutually beneficial to both. Of course. Are you seeing some new exhibitors? Again, I respect that this is all new to you, but, some significant exhibitors coming into the InfoComm that maybe didn't do in the past.  Jenn Heinold: Yeah, I'm seeing, some more kiosk manufacturers. We're hearing more and more about that. Retail seems to be a really big end-user segment. That's a priority. We Just signed up AWS and they're bringing their equivalent of the Fire Stick for digital signage to the show. So those applications are fun to see and new for us.  We are always looking at a little bit of AI technology, we're always looking to make sure that we're introducing new and innovative technology to the show floor and one of the most fulfilling things for me is when you see those new tech come in and they might come in a 10 x 10 in the far corner of the hall and then they work their way there, work their way up, and have a bigger and bigger presence. Does your team do much coaching for some of the overseas exhibitors?  I'm particularly thinking about Chinese LED manufacturers who show up at these shows and it's always been a source of frustration and bewilderment for me that they'll spend a lot of money to bring all their tech over and bring a bunch of people over, and then when I wander into their booths and start asking questions, they don't tend to have many, if any people who can speak much in the way of English. So do your people coach them by saying, “Guys, if you're gonna do this, here's our advice!”  Jenn Heinold: We do.  It doesn't necessarily work?  Jenn Heinold: We do and we also try to help our exhibitors with their marketing campaigns and how to promote their presence at the show, and how to save money. A lot of the services are deadline-driven and talk through all of those things.  Yeah, we do that. We partner with sales agents as well that are in the country and we encourage them to work with their exhibitors as well as to coach them on exhibiting. I don't know if that is not necessarily working, but I do think it's a longer process because there are so many elements that tie into that. Yeah, and it's not easy to if you're in Shenzhen or Beijing or whatever, you just logically don't have a whole bunch of English-speaking people, but, I guess it's not that easy either to hire interpreters to come over and get questions thrown at them about chip on board and pixel pitch and things like that the interpreter is not going to understand either.  Jenn Heinold: That can be a challenge. We hire some interpreters for our own staff to help interact. And, yeah, it definitely can be a challenge. I do think we are so close. You travel internationally. I travel internationally and with Google Translate and so many new AI tools, I feel like we are so close to really having some breakthrough moments with that though. It's so much easier now.  Like the Facebook glasses, and there's some other ones out there where they can do real-time translation and it'll just show up on the lens, which would be amazing for just about anything I do once I leave this country or leave this continent. Jenn Heinold: Yeah, I see it too. I'm hopeful that'll really transform our shows.  I have to ask about the current political and economic climate with tariffs and everything else. How are AVIXA and InfoComm navigating their way through some of that?  Jenn Heinold: Yeah, I think it certainly comes up quite often. I mentioned that was doing a trip in South America, Mexico last week, and I think it's a concern for our exhibitors, and what we can do is just help support their efforts. I feel really confident that our exhibitors know how to run their business and know how to do it well, and they will pivot and make adjustments I have studied the AV industry over the last few months, having joined AVIXA and having seen how our industry navigated COVID and having worked for an organization that had multiple trade shows prior where I saw a lot of industries not navigate COVID as well as the AV industry, I'm super impressed with how agile and smart our exhibitors are.  I think this is just another challenge that we face. I have every confidence that we'll be able to navigate this too.  Do you have any sense of companies deciding, given everything that's going on, really don't want to travel to the U.S. right now?  I'm Canadian, so I suspect there's a whole bunch of people north of the U.S. border who are having second thoughts about, okay, do I really want to go to Florida right now or in June with all this stuff about Canada being the 51st state and so on. Jenn Heinold: Yeah, so right now, we haven't had a lot of pushback on traveling to the United States. We have been able to maintain the exhibitors on our show floor, but it's certainly something that I'm watching very closely.  As a show organizer, I do think it's our job to make sure that everyone feels welcome and that's what I'm focusing on.  Yeah, I think most Canadians like me, I've got a bazillion friends in the U.S. and I would miss them and everything else and I don't think they're the ones who are stirring the pot here. So it's just unfortunate.  Jenn Heinold: Yes, absolutely.  We'll just leave it at that, right?  Jenn Heinold: Yeah.  So tell me about Mexico City. I'm curious how you guys, not really rationalize that, but you have to counterbalance that. Okay. If you do a show in Mexico City for LATAM, does that siphon away some of what is in InfoComm US?  Jenn Heinold: I wasn't part of the initial launch conversations, but I will tell you having managed regional portfolios of shows, in my past life and now being part of a regional portfolio show, I really think that all ships rise with the tide, Dave, and having an event in the country and more specifically, the In the native language and being able to serve that community who may not be able to travel will only lift up and put calm in the U.S. as well. So I'm really excited about it.  The pride that the local community feels to have InfoComm in their backyard is really palpable and energizing. I'm proud that we're able to do the regional event, and I do think that it'll feed even more of the audience to InfoComm in the U.S. because in many ways it's a great introduction to the brand and we can say, now you experience this and please come to the U.S.  show as well.  Finally, I'm curious how things are tracking. I know that with ISE, I heard probably eight weeks out or something like that, it was going to be very busy, probably break records, and so on. I'm curious about what you're hearing or tracking for Orlando and also for Mexico City although I know Mexico is well out.  Jenn Heinold: Yeah, so for Orlando, our show floor is about 95 percent sold. We're targeting around 410,000 net square feet of exhibit space and for registrations, we're targeting 40,000 which is back to pre-pandemic numbers. Right now we're pacing really well. I'm watching it very closely, of course, and I'd love to check-in with you a little closer to the event and be able to share since we still have a few months to go. But all the indicators are really good for InfoComm in the U.S. We actually just added some hotel room nights because we were getting full with the hotels we're seeing our website traffic, pretty significantly year over year. We have to look at the full picture, but there are some really positive early indicators for InfoComm.  It's probably a bit too early to know much about Mexico City, right? Jenn Heinold: Mexico City's registration will open up in June, actually at InfoComm in the U.S. We've sold about 80% of the show floor. It's a much smaller show floor than InfoComm in the U.S., but I'm really happy with the early interest from exhibitors and support from the local community. We're hoping for about 5,000 attendees in Mexico City. All right. Thank you very much for giving me an update.  Jenn Heinold: Thank you. I really enjoyed our conversation.

Xi’an is famous for its terracotta warriors but still faces significant challenges in air pollution. Synopsis: Every first Friday of the month, The Straits Times catches up with its foreign correspondents about life and trends in the countries they're based in. In six of the 10 years between 2014 and 2023, Xi’an had the poorest air quality among China’s new top-tier cities, which are the most commercially attractive cities after Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. In 2023, the city ranked fifth from the bottom out of 168 key cities in China, having recorded harmful PM2.5 levels of 48 ug/m3 on average that year, much higher than the healthy limit of 5 ug/m3 recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). While there are improvements in air quality over the years - thanks to measures taken by the government, there is still a long way to go. The local residents, while they do not disregard the pollution, are more concerned with their financial situation. In this episode, ST’s foreign editor Li Xueying speaks with ST correspondent Ang Qing - who shares her experiences being in Xi'an for three months, a city known for its terracotta warriors and its air pollution challenges. They also talk about the role of civic engagement and environmental activism in China, highlighting the efforts of young activists and their challenges advocating for change. Highlights (click/tap above): 3:03 Qing’s personal journey in Xi’an 5:54 The state of air quality in Xi’an 8:42 Government measures and community responses 11:34 Public perception and future challenges? 14:22 Qing's takeaways: Civic engagement and environmental activism in China Read Ang Qing’s article here: https://str.sg/JUC7c Read Li Xueying’s articles: https://str.sg/iqmR Follow Li Xueying on LinkedIn: https://str.sg/ip4x Register for Asian Insider newsletter: https://str.sg/stnewsletters Host: Li Xueying (xueying@sph.com.sg) Edited by: Fa’izah Sani Executive producer: Ernest Luis Follow Asian Insider on Fridays here: Channel: https://str.sg/JWa7 Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/JWa8 Spotify: https://str.sg/JWaX Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg --- Follow more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7 ST Podcasts website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts ST Podcasts YouTube: https://str.sg/4Vwsa — Get The Straits Times app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX --- #STAsianInsiderSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Xi’an is famous for its terracotta warriors but still faces significant challenges in air pollution. Synopsis: Every first Friday of the month, The Straits Times catches up with its foreign correspondents about life and trends in the countries they're based in. In six of the 10 years between 2014 and 2023, Xi’an had the poorest air quality among China’s new top-tier cities, which are the most commercially attractive cities after Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. In 2023, the city ranked fifth from the bottom out of 168 key cities in China, having recorded harmful PM2.5 levels of 48 ug/m3 on average that year, much higher than the healthy limit of 5 ug/m3 recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). While there are improvements in air quality over the years - thanks to measures taken by the government, there is still a long way to go. The local residents, while they do not disregard the pollution, are more concerned with their financial situation. In this episode, ST’s foreign editor Li Xueying speaks with ST correspondent Ang Qing - who shares her experiences being in Xi'an for three months, a city known for its terracotta warriors and its air pollution challenges. They also talk about the role of civic engagement and environmental activism in China, highlighting the efforts of young activists and their challenges advocating for change. Highlights (click/tap above): 3:03 Qing’s personal journey in Xi’an 5:54 The state of air quality in Xi’an 8:42 Government measures and community responses 11:34 Public perception and future challenges? 14:22 Qing's takeaways: Civic engagement and environmental activism in China Read Ang Qing’s article here: https://str.sg/JUC7c Read Li Xueying’s articles: https://str.sg/iqmR Follow Li Xueying on LinkedIn: https://str.sg/ip4x Register for Asian Insider newsletter: https://str.sg/stnewsletters Host: Li Xueying (xueying@sph.com.sg) Edited by: Fa’izah Sani Executive producer: Ernest Luis Follow Asian Insider on Fridays here: Channel: https://str.sg/JWa7 Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/JWa8 Spotify: https://str.sg/JWaX Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg --- Follow more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7 ST Podcasts website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts ST Podcasts YouTube: https://str.sg/4Vwsa — Get The Straits Times app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX --- #STAsianInsiderSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Hazza Harding, a young Australian who began learning Chinese and made his way to China where he became a pop singer with hits on Chinese pop charts and a state media newscaster — and also lost his husband tragically, suffered through the COVID lockdowns while grieving for his loss. Yet he remains committed to furthering understanding and engagement, and has shown admirable resilience. Read his remarkable essay on his experiences here.6:51 – How Hazza started in China, and how his career changed throughout his time there 19:27 – Hazza's experiences feeling alienated in China 27:00 – Hazza's experience working in Chinese state media 34:04 – How China shaped Hazza and Wayne's love story, and how grief has shaped Hazza's perspective on life56:08 – The loveliness of everyday interactions 58:43 – Hazza's advice on giving oneself time and leniency 1:02:38 – How Hazza may find his way back to China in the future Paying It Forward: James Laurenceson at UTS Sydney Recommendations:Hazza: China Blonde: How a newsreader's search for adventure led to friendship, acceptance… and peroxide pandemonium in China by Nicole Webb Kaiser: The TV series Xi Bei Sui Yue (Into the Great Northwest) (2024 - )See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Jeffrey Ding, author of Technology and the Rise of Great Powers, a book that argues that a nation's ability to invent foundational technologies matters ultimately less in its overall national power than its ability to diffuse those "general purpose technologies," like electricity, digital technology, the internet, and — in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution — Artificial Intelligence. I ask Jeff whether he thinks that China, with its powerful tech companies and its new enthusiasm for open source, may at last be closing what his book identifies as a diffusion deficit.2:19 – Jeff's argument for the power of diffusion in technological leadership6:07 – China's diffusion deficit 12:09 – Institutional factors that affect technology diffusion, and how culture can also play a role 19:49 – China's successes in (non-GPT) diffusion 24:29 – China's open source push 29:55 – Discussing He Pengyu's piece on semiconductors 32:19 – How Jeff might tweak his chapter on China in a second edition of Technology and the Rise of Great Powers Paying It Forward: Matt Sheehan of the Carnegie Endowment for International PeaceRecommendations:Jeff: The TV series The Pitt (2025 - ); and James Islington's The Will of the Many Kaiser: The album Perpetual Change by Jon Anderson and The Band Geeks; and Steven Wilson's new album, The OverviewSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In dieser Episode werfen wir einen Blick auf die geopolitischenEntwicklungen rund um China, sowohl aus westlicher als auch aus chinesischer Perspektive. Wie nimmt China seine Rolle in einer sich verändernden Weltordnung wahr? Wir beleuchten, wie China nicht nur militärische „Hardpower“ einsetzt,sondern auch mit „Softpower“ – durch wirtschaftliche Initiativen wie die „Belt and Road Initiative“ (1B1R) – globalen Einfluss gewinnt. Welche Auswirkungen hat dies auf Afrika und andere Regionen, die die Lücken westlicher Hilfe wie USAID füllen? Und wie sieht China selbst seine geopolitischen Ziele?Ein wichtiger Teil der Diskussion ist auch, wie sich die Beziehungen zwischen Europa und China entwickeln. Was bedeutet die Entfremdung zwischen den USA und dem Westen für das Verhältnis Europas und China? Welche wirtschaftlichen, politischen und gesellschaftlichen Prioritäten haben die Menschen in China, und wie sehen sie die EU und die USA? Dabei gehen wir auch auf die unterschiedlichen Perspektiven zu Menschenrechten, sozialer Gerechtigkeit und wirtschaftlicher Entwicklung ein.Abschließend betrachten wir die Frage, wie Europa mit China umgehen sollte – pragmatisch und strategisch, um einelangfristige Partnerschaft zu fördern und dabei die eigene Autonomie zu wahren. Ziel ist es, ein differenziertes Bild von China zu zeichnen, das über die Mainstream-Narrative hinausgeht und auch die Perspektive der Menschen in Chinaeinbezieht.Gäste:Thomas Eder ist Post-Doc Researcher am Österreichischen Institut für Internationale Politik (ÖIIP). Zu seinen Forschungsschwerpunkten gehören: Chinas Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik, China und Völkerrecht, sowie europäische und US-amerikanische China-Politik. Er hat zu diesen Themengebieten zwei Bücher, und zahlreiche Artikel und Analysen verfasst und kommentiert regelmäßig in nationalen und internationalen Medien. Vor seiner Zeit am oiip, hat er bei internationalen Think Tanks, an den Universitäten Wien und Hongkong, und im österreichischen Außenministeriumgearbeitet. Er hat an der Universität Wien, der Peking Universität und der Universität Hongkong studiert, war Gastforscher an der Academia Sinica und der NYU, und hat in China mehrfach Feldforschung betrieben.Lukas Weber beschäftigt sich seit 20 Jahren mit China. Als studierter Sinologe setzte er sich auch in einem Philosophie- sowie einem MBA-Studium schwerpunktmäßig mit China auseinander. Sein Fokus liegt auf den kulturellen Unterschieden zwischen abendländischer und chinesischer Weltanschauung, deren Ausprägung in der heutigen Gesellschaft und die damit verbundenen politischen Implikationen. Neben seiner Arbeit für die Austrian Chinese Business Association verbrachte Lukas Weber mehrere Jahre in China, in denen er das Land quer durch alle Gesellschaftsschichten vom Wanderarbeiter bis zum Vorstand von Huawei kennenlernte, und in all seinen Facetten, von tibetischen Schafzüchtern bis zum Golfclub von Shenzhen zu durchdringen trachtete.Moderation:Stephanie Fenkart, Direktorin des IIPDiese Folge wurde am 25. März mit der Unterstützung des Zukunftsfonds Österreich aufgezeichnet.

This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with Jeremy Garlick, Director of the Jan Masaryk Centre for International Studies, Prague University, and a scholar of China's international relations. Jeremy is the author of the book Advantage China: Agent of Change in an Era of Global Disruption, but the book we're talking about this week is his new Cambridge Element titled Evolution in International Relations. It's a fascinating attempt to apply ideas from evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, and archaeogenetics to further our understanding of how nations interact.6:13 – Why Jeremy decided to apply an evolutionary framework to IR 15:34 – Why evolutionary science hasn't really been integrated into IR19:32 – How Jeremy views his project as refining the IR field 22:43 – The risk of the misappropriation of Jeremy's work, and the evolutionary elements of cooperation and intergroup competition 28:54 – How to avoid the trap of viewing evolution as teleological 34:07 – The idea of self-domestication 39:55 – Morality and human rights 45:17 – How emotions affect decision-making and diplomacy 50:32 – Hierarchy and status-seeking in IR 56:56 – Applying an evolutionary framework to the IR phenomena of alliances, nuclear deterrence, and strategic balancing 1:01:31 – Altruism toward out-groups 1:05:57 – The inevitability of competition with China 1:08:19 – The intellectual challenges Jeremy faced while working on this project, and what he would develop further in the future1:12:51 – Jeremy's thoughts on what IR as a discipline should address, integrating evolutionary science Paying It Forward: Richard TurcsányiRecommendations:Jeremy: The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous by Joseph Henrich; and The Expanse novels by James S. A. CoreyKaiser: Playground by Richard Powers See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

OpeningJordan Peterson. Ride or DieGrok vs GoogleGolfCalifornia BusinessMarketsS&P 8% off highs. Was 10% 1 week ago. So that was a correction Tesla 52%. Nvidia, Meta: 20%. Apple: 18%.Finance EducationSecurity. Digital Hygiene:  Great from Karpathy 2-factor authentication and strong password for financial websites. YubiKey. 1PasswordIRA Contributions401k Max: 2025: $23,500 + Employer Match + After-tax = $70,000Still can do $7000 in IRA.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and All-inFull Interview on X here.PalantirDOGEWebsite is GREAT!! www.doge.gov I had to google “Timor-Leste”Elon on what DOGE is finding.DOGE's spending cuts are ramping up so quickly that United Airlines announced government travel is down a MASSIVE -50%NetflixCNBC video here. MoffetNathanson Upgrades Netflix to $1100. “Netflix has won the streaming wars.Case closed”Nvidia Jensen Huang KeyNote at GTC 2025Nvidia working on driverless vehicle with GM!!   Video post here.Blue the robot. Robots are coming!!SpaceX Tesla$480. Now $230. Sow down 52%. So increase 1.1x or 110% to get back. Play at 0:30. Winner take most by Cathie Wood. $8-10 trillion in Revenue in 2030. ½ to platforms, like Tesla. Which is the biggest AI platform in the world.Dragon crew launch to ISS.Carried a russian cosmo.Stuck no More! WSJ 285 days in space. 9 months. No other US company can do this. 400th landing of Falcon 9 booster.  Will launch to Mars and carry Optimus. Crossover.Per Elon, SpaceX carries 95% of payload to orbit.Starship is the only “vehicle” currently built that can go to Mars. Boston Dynamics Robot - Break dancing. Yes its here. BYD. Sheer size of Shenzhen factory. University EndowmentsTrump threatening to suspend federal grants to Columbia University per WSJ.Play  Andreeson on University funding. RecommendationsAll-In Podcast. Chamath and Friedberg interviewing Secretary of Treasury Scott DictatorsWhite LotusElon Interview on Ted Cruz

Veronika Viegas conta de como é morar e trabalhar na China. Eu conheci a Veronika Viegas na plataforma chinesa REDnote. Atualmente ela esta na Gestão de Contas Internacionais da VEDU Foreign Trade em Shenzhen e atendendo clientes no Brasil, Africa, Estados Unidos e China. http://www.vedutrade.com.cn https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronikazvPara conhecer e conectar com mais entrevistados no BBN Brasil Podcast.

Employees in China may get a chance to take a breath from the grueling "996 work culture", where people work from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week, after several Chinese companies issued internal reminders to prevent formalistic overtime working and workplace rat race.在多家企业发布内部通知，要求遏制形式主义加班和职场内卷后，中国职场人士或将迎来“996”工作文化的缓解。“996工作文化”指的是员工每天从早上9点工作到晚上9点，每周工作6天的工作模式。The central government has also shown greater determination to regulate the unwholesome "work culture".与此同时，中央政府也展现出更加坚定的决心，规范这种不良的“职场文化”。In an action plan released recently by the State Council, China's Cabinet, local authorities have been urged to better protect workers' right to rest and tighten supervision of employers' behavior of illegally lengthening employees' working hours.中国国务院近日发布的一项行动方案敦促地方当局更好地保护员工的休息权利，并加强对雇主非法延长员工工时行为的监管。Before the release of the action plan, several Chinese companies sought to relax their tiring working schedules.在该方案出台前，已有多家中国企业尝试放宽紧张的工作时间安排。Shenzhen-based drone manufacturer DJI became a trending topic on social media platform Sina Weibo recently after some of its employees posted their experiences of not being allowed to work overtime after 9 pm.深圳无人机制造商大疆创新（DJI）近期登上社交媒体微博的热搜，原因是该公司部分员工发布了自己晚上9点后不准加班的经历。The posts said that DJI's human resources managers patrolled around the building and asked the employees to leave by 9 pm.帖子称，大疆创新的人力资源经理在大楼周围巡逻，并要求员工晚上9点前离开。Midea, a home appliance manufacturer, issued an internal notice in late January, asking its staff members to streamline their working patterns. Midea confirmed the existence of the notice, according to Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper.家电制造商美的在1月底发布内部通知，要求员工简化工作模式。据上海媒体《澎湃新闻》报道，美的方面证实了该通知的存在。The group asked the employees not to have meetings or work overtime, reduce the number of work-related WeChat groups and prohibit any formalistic behavior.集团要求员工减少会议和加班时间，精简工作相关的微信沟通群组，并杜绝形式主义工作方式。As employees have seen increased working hours in recent years, even longer than the length regulated by the nation's Labor Law, their complaints about the unreasonable schedules intensified after the "996 work culture" was promoted by some large companies or industrial titans.近年来，随着“996”工作文化被部分大型企业和行业巨头推崇，员工工作时长普遍延长，甚至超出《劳动法》规定，使得员工对不合理工作时间的不满愈演愈烈。"My colleagues and I usually joke that we get a 'sense of shame' by leaving the office at 6 pm sharp. It has become a stereotype that you are not hardworking if you don't stay very late to work in the office," said Wang Xiaofeng, a telecommunications engineer in Beijing, who works from 9 am to 8 pm and on Saturday every other week.“我和同事们经常开玩笑说，晚上6点准点下班会让人有‘羞耻感'。大家普遍认为，如果不加班到很晚，就会被认为不够努力。”北京的一名电信工程师王晓峰表示，他的工作时间是上午9点到晚上8点，并且每隔一周还需要在周六上班。The 30-year-old said he was happy to see this news and hopes that his company can relax its working schedules, as the job has almost taken all of his time so far. However, he expressed his concerns that it may be hard to quantify the overtime work and overtime fees if an employee has to continue work after returning home.这位30岁的年轻人说，他很高兴看到这个消息，并希望公司能放宽工作时间安排，因为到目前为止，这项工作几乎占据了他所有的时间。然而，他也担忧如果员工回家后仍需继续工作，如何量化加班时长及加班费可能成为一大难题。Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics show that employees at domestic companies have had longer working hours in recent years—reaching 49 hours a week in 2024, up from 47.9 hours in 2022.国家统计局的数据显示，近年来国内企业员工的工作时间持续增长，2024年已达每周49小时，高于2022年的47.9小时。However, based on the Labor Law, employees should work no more than eight hours a day and a maximum of 44 hours a week. Employers can lengthen the working day by one hour at most after negotiating with trade unions and employees.然而根据《劳动法》规定，员工每天工作时间不得超过8小时，每周工作时间不得超过44小时。用人单位在与工会和员工协商后，最多可将每日工作时间延长1小时。Experts and industry insiders said the measures taken by companies to shorten working hours or optimize working patterns will help protect employees' rights and their physical and psychological health.专家和业内人士表示，企业缩短工时或优化工作模式的举措，有助于保护员工权益和身心健康。"As job seekers' views about careers, labor relations and working patterns have changed in the new era, employers may find that the employees are losing their passion for or loyalty to the job after being asked to work overtime," said Li Qiang, vice-president of recruitment portal Zhaopin.招聘平台智联招聘副总裁李强表示，随着新时代求职者对职业发展、劳动关系和工作模式的观念发生变化，企业如果长期要求员工加班，可能会导致员工对工作失去热情和忠诚度。Noting that work schedules like"996" have hurt people's working rights, Li Chang'an, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said that employees find it hard to achieve a work-life balance and may have health or marriage problems because of those unreasonable schedules.北京对外经济贸易大学的国家对外开放研究院教授李长安指出，“996”这样的工作模式损害了人们的劳动权益，使得员工难以实现工作与生活的平衡，甚至可能引发健康或婚姻问题。He said that steps taken by these companies to improve their working schedules will help promote high-quality employment, with their working hours being more in line with the national regulations.他认为企业改善工作安排，使员工的工作时间更符合国家规定，将有助于促进高质量就业。"The companies themselves can also improve their attractiveness to workers, as corporate social responsibility and sound protection of workers' right to rest have become an important part of their competitiveness in the market," Li said.“这样的话，企业也可以提升对求职者的吸引力，如今，企业社会责任以及对员工休息权的保障，已成为企业市场竞争力的重要组成部分。”李长安补充道。He said he hopes that more companies can adopt a reasonable and humanistic work culture to ease the workload, which can help create harmonious working relationships, expand consumption and increase the marriage rate.他表示，希望更多企业能够采取合理、人性化的工作文化，以减轻员工的工作负担，这样不仅能营造和谐的工作关系，还能促进消费，提高结婚率。

Subscriber-only episodeWant to know what makes Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong unique? From fast-paced city life to delicious food and tech hubs, each city has its own charm. Join MaoMi Chinese+ to explore more! Please see transcript and translation via here.*Please be aware that Spotify does not support the membership program.Text me what you think :)

Every year, millions of young Chinese leave their hometowns to chase dreams in mega cities like Beijing and Shanghai. No family, no home, just hard work and uncertainty. Why do they do it? And what is life really like as a "漂" (drifter)? Let's dive into their world!Membership preview:Want to know what makes Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong unique? From fast-paced city life to delicious food and tech hubs, each city has its own charm. Join MaoMi Chinese+ to explore more! Join us on Tuesday 18th March!Don't miss out! Interested in joining the membership? ⬇️Support MaoMi & Get exclusive   to premium content!https://www.buzzsprout.com/1426696/subscribe ↗️Transcript and translations are available on https://maomichinese.comInterested in any topics? Leave me a message on: https://maomichinese.com or https://www.instagram.com/maomichinese/?hl=en*Please be aware that Spotify does not support the membership program.Text me what you think :)Support the show

We start with a school lunch update. The NZ Govt is trying to take back control of the economic narrative with an Infrastructure Summit, amid global trade uncertainty. The UK Labour Party is abolishing 'NHS England' and making life harder for disabled people.This episode's co-hostsPhilip, Pmax, SimoneTimestamps0:00 Opening 2:29 School Lunches13:42 Nationals Failures20:10 Nothing Infrastructure28:12 Schengen Zone43:10 In Opposition49:14 State Owned1:07:09 ClosingsIntro/Outro by The Prophet MotiveSupport us here: https://www.patreon.com/1of200

An unexpected trip to a Shenzhen dentist leads to a wide-ranging chat about the Chinese economy, as Fred and Herald reunite in the Hong Kong studio. Disclaimer: https://www.research.hsbc.com/R/101/X6nBRpV. Stay connected and access free to view reports and videos from HSBC Global Research follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/hsbcresearch/ or click here: https://www.gbm.hsbc.com/insights/global-research. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, a special episode taped live at the University of California, Berkeley — my alma mater — on March 6 and featuring Jessica Chen Weiss of Johns Hopkins SAIS and Ryan Hass of the Brookings Institution, both well-known to people who follow U.S.-China relations. This episode was made possible by the Center for Chinese Studies at UC Berkeley's Institute for Asian Studies, and will be available on video as well — I'll update with the link.5:32 – Looking back on the Biden administration's approach to China12:28 – Attempting to outline the new Trump administration's approach to China20:34 – The view from Beijing of Trump 2.026:54 – The Kindleberger Trap (and other "traps")29:35 – China, the U.S., and the Russo-Ukrainian war, and the idea of a “reverse Kissinger” 34:23 – The problem with framing objectionable Trump policy moves as ceding victories to China 36:51 – How countries in the Western Pacific region are responding to the new administration 38:48 – Taiwan's concerns for Trump's shift on Ukraine41:45 – Predictions for how the Trump administration will handle technology competition with China, and the apparent abandonment of industrial policy 48:14 – What the affirmative vision for U.S.-China policy should look like Paying It Forward:Ryan: Patricia Kim and Jon Czin at BrookingsJessica: Jeffrey Ding at George Washington University and Jonas Nahm at Johns Hopkins SAIS Recommendations:Jessica: The movie Conclave (2024)Ryan: Derek Thompson's piece in The Atlantic, “The Anti-Social Century,” and Robert Cooper's The Ambassadors: Thinking about Diplomacy from Machiavelli to Modern Times Kaiser: The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

①China's ice city greets over 90 million visitors in 2024-2025 winter season②China's tech hub Shenzhen unveils plan to boost embodied intelligent robotics③More insurers join China's insurance platform for new energy vehicles④China reports vibrant sci-tech voluntary services sector⑤7,000-year-old fire-making toolset unearthed in east China⑥A Thousand Whys: Book of Songs – the origin of China's poetic tradition

This week, I'm proud to announce a new collaboration with Trivium, a China-focused strategic advisory firm you've probably heard of. They've got offices in DC, London, Shanghai, and Beijing, and they focus on analyzing and forecasting Chinese policy developments for multinational companies and institutional investors across a range of verticals -- including macroeconomics, technology, automotive, resources, renewable energy, critical minerals, and green technology. They put out a terrific podcast each week, and you'll be able to listen to it here or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for the Trivium China Podcast.On today's show, you'll hear a half-hour chat between me and the two co-founders, Andrew Polk and Trey McArver, which we taped ahead of the Two Meetings — the NPC and the CPPCC. Then you'll hear a conversation between Andrew and his colleague Dinny McMahon, who you've heard on the show before in an episode we did on the digital yuan, talking about what came out of the Two Meetings.You'll be hearing from lots of the great folks at Trivium in coming episodes, so be sure to tune in.Beginning next week, or possibly sooner, we'll also be running a regular economy-focused roundup put together by Andrew and the team at Trivium. That will come out on Fridays.A warm welcome to Trey, Andrew, and all the excellent people at Trivium!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

①China's top political advisory body starts its annual session. What are the key issues dominating this year's agenda? (00:40)②As Trump's new tariffs take effect, China hits back with retaliatory measures. How will the trade war escalate in the coming months? (14:05)③The United States pauses military aid to Ukraine. What's behind this decision, and what are the potential consequences? (24:34)④Austria has sworn in a new government, ending five months of political deadlock over forming a coalition. (32:19)⑤Shenzhen has released an action plan to expand the city's AI industry to one trillion yuan, or about 140 billion U.S. dollars, by 2026. (40:42)

This week: Part 2 in a series of podcasts in conjunction with the China Research Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The series, titled "Studying China in the Absence of Access: Rediscovering a Lost Art," ran from September to November 2021, and featured four eminent "Pekingologists," or specialists in Chinese elite politics: Joseph Fewsmith, Thomas Fingar, Alice Miller, and Fred Teiwes. The talks were later published in a volume you can download here. The series is introduced by Andrew Mertha, George and Sadie Hyman, Professor of China Studies and director of the SAIS China Research Center, and each lecture includes a moderated discussion with Andy. After this series, I'll also be sharing with you a second series of lectures titled "Studying China from Elsewhere," which will include talks by Maria Repnikova, Mike Lampton, William Hurst, and Maggie Lewis — many of whom Sinica listeners will know from the show.Alice Lyman Miller is a leading scholar of Chinese politics and foreign policy. A research fellow at the Hoover Institution and lecturer in East Asian Studies at Stanford University, she previously served as an analyst at the CIA and editor of China Leadership Monitor. Miller's work has been instrumental in decoding the opaque world of Chinese elite politics, with a particular focus on political discourse and leadership transitions. Her major publications include Becoming Asia: Change and Continuity in Asian International Relations Since World War II (2011).Joseph Fewsmith is one of the foremost experts on contemporary Chinese politics, known for his in-depth analysis of political reform, elite competition, and policy shifts under the Chinese Communist Party. A professor of international relations and political science at Boston University, Fewsmith has authored seminal books such as China Since Tiananmen: The Politics of Transition (2001) and Rethinking Chinese Politics (2021), which challenge conventional wisdom on China's political system. His work blends rigorous historical analysis with close readings of official discourse. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The relationship may not necessarily be purely competitive only. Synopsis: Every fourth Friday of the month, The Straits Times will now analyse the hottest political and trending talking points, alternating between its Malaysia and China bureaus. For February, host and deputy foreign editor Albert Wai and assistant foreign editor Chang May Choon connect with colleagues - Magdalene Fung based in Hong Kong, and Joyce Lim in Shenzhen. They wonder if Shenzhen has indeed eclipsed Hong Kong today, and look at how the two cities’ roles have evolved in recent years. Once a rural backwater that looked up to its richer, savvier neighbour across the border, Shenzhen underwent rapid development in the past four decades and flipped the power dynamics. But within the Greater Bay Area (GBA), the reality is that both cities will need each other in order to have sustainable growth going forward. The GBA refers to the region comprising the semi-autonomous cities of Hong Kong and Macau, and nine cities in Guangdong, including Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Highlights (click/tap above): 1:50 Past history: When Hong Kong was less developed and Shenzhen was just a village 3:40 Light show comparisons: The Shenzhen light show, launched in 2018, and Hong Kong’s Symphony of Lights - a tourist staple since 2004 5:35 Does Shenzhen represent the future, in terms of the tech edge? 8:35 Hong Kong is still the big brother that is the largest source of investment for Shenzhen 11:35 Why would one cross the border, to visit either city? 13:42 Understanding the Greater Bay Area concept Read more: https://str.sg/9Snd Register for Asian Insider newsletter: https://str.sg/stnewsletters Hosts: Albert Wai (albertw@sph.com.sg) & Chang May Choon (changmc@sph.com.sg) Produced and edited by: Fa’izah Sani Executive producer: Ernest Luis Follow Asian Insider Podcast on Fridays here: Channel: https://str.sg/JWa7 Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/JWa8 Spotify: https://str.sg/JWaX Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg --- Follow more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7 ST Podcasts website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts ST Podcasts YouTube: https://str.sg/4Vwsa --- Get The Straits Times app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX --- #STAsianInsiderSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The relationship may not necessarily be purely competitive only. Synopsis: Every fourth Friday of the month, The Straits Times will now analyse the hottest political and trending talking points, alternating between its Malaysia and China bureaus. For February, host and deputy foreign editor Albert Wai and assistant foreign editor Chang May Choon connect with colleagues - Magdalene Fung based in Hong Kong, and Joyce Lim in Shenzhen. They wonder if Shenzhen has indeed eclipsed Hong Kong today, and look at how the two cities’ roles have evolved in recent years. Once a rural backwater that looked up to its richer, savvier neighbour across the border, Shenzhen underwent rapid development in the past four decades and flipped the power dynamics. But within the Greater Bay Area (GBA), the reality is that both cities will need each other in order to have sustainable growth going forward. The GBA refers to the region comprising the semi-autonomous cities of Hong Kong and Macau, and nine cities in Guangdong, including Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Highlights (click/tap above): 1:50 Past history: When Hong Kong was less developed and Shenzhen was just a village 3:40 Light show comparisons: The Shenzhen light show, launched in 2018, and Hong Kong’s Symphony of Lights - a tourist staple since 2004 5:35 Does Shenzhen represent the future, in terms of the tech edge? 8:35 Hong Kong is still the big brother that is the largest source of investment for Shenzhen 11:35 Why would one cross the border, to visit either city? 13:42 Understanding the Greater Bay Area concept Read more: https://str.sg/9Snd Register for Asian Insider newsletter: https://str.sg/stnewsletters Hosts: Albert Wai (albertw@sph.com.sg) & Chang May Choon (changmc@sph.com.sg) Produced and edited by: Fa’izah Sani Executive producer: Ernest Luis Follow Asian Insider Podcast on Fridays here: Channel: https://str.sg/JWa7 Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/JWa8 Spotify: https://str.sg/JWaX Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg --- Follow more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7 ST Podcasts website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts ST Podcasts YouTube: https://str.sg/4Vwsa --- Get The Straits Times app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX --- #STAsianInsiderSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Taylor Ogan is Chief Executive Officer of Snow Bull Capital, based in Shenzhen, China. His firm invests in Chinese technology companies, with a focus on areas such as clean energy, AI, and automation. Part 1 of this discussion, from November 2023: https://www.manifold1.com/episodes/taylor-ogan-snow-bull-capital-chinas-tech-frontier-the-view-from-shenzhen-47 Steve and Taylor discuss: (00:00) - Introduction (01:23) - Shenzhen: The Tech Hub of China (04:14) - The Rise of Huawei and Its Impact (06:59) - DeepSeek: China's AI Breakthrough (11:32) - The Role of Government in Tech Development (26:17) - Humanoid Robots: The Next Frontier (38:01) - Huawei and PLA? (40:49) - The Semiconductor Race (43:13) - Huawei's accelerated chip development (45:13) - Government's Role in Technological Advancements (46:21) - China's Domestic Tech Ecosystem (48:56) - Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship in China (51:57) - Corporate Culture and Innovation (55:48) - China's Competitive Edge in Various Industries (01:00:00) - Perceptions and Realities of Chinese Tech (01:08:37) - When will China be "investible" again for Western funds?  Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.  – Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to manifold1podcast@gmail.com or Steve on X @hsu_steve.

This week on Sinica: February 24 marks the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and as I've done for the last two years, I moderated a panel organized by Vita Golod, a Ukrainian China scholar who happens to be here in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at UNC as a visiting scholar. She's worked tirelessly to promote awareness of the war, and I'm honored again to have been asked to moderate this panel.The guests you'll hear from are:Dr. Una Aleksandra Bērziņa-Čerenkova, Director of the China Studies Centre at Riga Stradins University in Latvia. Fluent in Chinese, Russian, and English, she has collaborated with scholars like Kerry Brown of King's College London and has done extensive work on China's role in Europe and beyond.Dr. Dmytro Yefremov, Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at the National University "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy" in Ukraine. A board member of the Ukrainian Association of Sinologists, he specializes in China's foreign relations and has traveled extensively to China, providing firsthand insight into Ukraine's perspective on China's role in the war and beyond.Dr. Qiang Liu, Director of the Energy Economics Division at the Institute of Quantitative & Technical Economics within the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). He also serves as the Co-chair and Secretary-General of the Global Forum on Energy Security. His research focuses on energy security, energy economics, and policy, with a particular emphasis on China's Belt and Road Initiative and its global energy partnerships.Dr. Klaus Larres, Richard M. Krasno Distinguished Professor of History and International Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. An expert on transatlantic relations, U.S., German, and EU foreign policy, and China's role in the post-Cold War order, he has a profound interest in the history of the Cold War and the politics of Winston Churchill.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with David Zweig, a veteran China scholar who is Professor Emeritus from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. We discuss Davis'd latest book, The War for Chinese Talent in America, which looks at Chinese efforts to harness the intellectual firepower of Chinese scientists and engineers who studied abroad, especially in the United States, and bring them — or at least their knowledge —back to China. David's book takes a balanced look at both the very real problems generated by Chinese policies as well as the overreaction by the U.S. Department of Justice in the form of the infamous China Initiative. 3:40 – Why got David interested on this particular topic 7:07 – The diaspora option12:09 – The Thousand Talents Program/Plan18:28 – How the talent programs operate23:48 – Motivations for Chinese to participate in the talent programs, how geopolitics now impacts these decisions, and what the effect of the China Initiative has been on collaboration 36:29 – The China Initiative's climate of fear and the concern for racial profiling 49:40 – The extent of the validity of U.S. security concerns57:24 – David's suggestions for balancing national security interests and open scientific exchange Paying It Forward: Dan Lynch and his book, China's Futures: PRC Elites Debate Economics, Politics, and Foreign PolicyRecommendations:David: It's a Wonderful World — The Louis Armstrong Musical in New YorkKaiser: The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection by Tamim Ansary, especially the audiobook read by the authorSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Imagine a world where your local government is operated by robots—not the kind that seek to dominate humanity, but those that expedite the permit process. Welcome to Shenzhen's Futian District, where 70 AI 'employees' are enhancing efficiency and streamlining paperwork. How will these digital assistants reshape local governance? On the show: Niu Honglin, Steve Hatherly & Yushan

Byd a caccia di componentistica europea. E il colosso cinese sceglie l'Italia come prima tappa del road show che lo porterà a toccare tutti i Paesi europei dove c è una presenza importante di imprese del comparto automotive. Il produttore di Shenzhen ha puntato la bussola su Torino, una delle culle dell auto in Italia. La tre giorni parte oggi al Museo dell Auto di Torino, a pochi giorni dalla presentazione dell Atto 2, nuovo modello del marchio del Dragone che ha ormai ingaggiato una sfida diretta con Tesla. Sarà un confronto con le imprese che si sono iscritte all evento, realizzato in collaborazione con l Anfia. Una tre giorni da tutto esaurito: 380 le aziende della componentistica che parteciperanno. Alla plenaria ha partecipato Zhiqi He, vicepresidente e capo acquisti di Byd, che ha presentato i programmi della multinazionale cinese nel Vecchio Continente: due nuove fabbriche, una in Ungheria, che sarà operativa da questo autunno e l altra in Turchia, prevista per il 2026. Per evitare i dazi imposti dalla Ue sulle auto made in China, Byd fa il suo ingresso in Europa con due unità produttive e un ambizioso piano commerciale. A spiegare le rotte dell azienda ci sarà anche Alfredo Altavilla, special advisor di Byd e già braccio destro di Sergio Marchionne ai tempi di Fca. Altavilla, nel suo ruolo di consulente per le strategie europee, spinge perché l industria automobilistica cinese cominci, per la prima volta, a fornirsi di componentistica made in Italy. E quelle competenze, oggi frustrate dalla crisi dell auto e dal rallentamento di Stellantis, sono state individuate soprattutto nella filiera piemontese, più di 700 imprese e 20 miliardi di ricavi. Intervengono con il loro punto di vista Marco Stella, vice presidente di ANFIA e Presidente del Gruppo Componenti di ANFIA e Filomena Greco, Il Sole 24 ore.Prada, quattro settimane per l'acquisto di Versace Il gruppo Prada prova ad accelerare per l acquisizione di Versace. Secondo indiscrezioni la società del lusso che fa capo a Miuccia Prada e Patrizio Bertelli e guidata da Andrea Guerra avrebbe fissato quattro settimane di trattative in esclusiva con la multinazionale Capri Holdings, attuale proprietaria del brand di Donatella Versace. Le discussioni di Prada, anticipate dal Sole 24 Ore lo scorso 10 gennaio, entrano dunque in una fase cruciale. L unione potrebbe mettere sotto lo stesso tetto due brand leggendari e potrebbe segnare il ritorno del gruppo Prada all espansione tramite M&A: secondo indiscrezioni, all interno della famiglia sarebbe in corso una riflessione per valutare l impatto di una acquisizione di questo tipo.Il gruppo Prada è infatti cresciuto negli ultimi anni in maggior misura in modo organico. Nella prima metà degli anni 2000, invece, il gruppo aveva avviato una campagna di acquisizioni, sul modello delle grandi conglomerate del lusso francesi, per poi fermarsi successivamente. Tra le acquisizioni principali del passato ci sono state quelle di Helmut Lang per 40 milioni di dollari, di Jil Sander per 105 milioni di dollari, entrambe poi cedute, e del gruppo Church s per 170 milioni di dollari. Facciamo chiarezza con Carlo Festa, Il Sole 24 Ore.Campari corre in borsa sui 500 tagli al personale Taglio dei costi e razionalizzazione del portafoglio marchi di Campari. In attesa di presentarsi ufficialmente al mercato il 4 marzo per illustrare i conti annuali del gruppo milanese, conti che però non portano la sua firma, la sfida del top manager britannico Simon Hunt per risollevare la marginalità di Campari parte dalla sforbiciata ai costi. Secondo indiscrezioni di stampa, a un mese dal suo insediamento il nuovo ad del colosso italiano degli spirits ha preparato un primo intervento di risparmi con cui provare a invertire la china di un ebitda (590,7 milioni di euro) che a livello organico nei primi nove mesi dello scorso anno ha segnato una diminuzione del 2%, in calo drastico a due cifre (-14%) nel solo terzo trimestre. Le forbici si abbatteranno sui costi fissi e in particolare su quello del lavoro. Già a fine ottobre, in occasione della presentazione della trimestrale, Campari aveva fatto capire che la riorganizzazione avrebbe potuto coinvolgere anche il corpo dei dipendenti. Con 25 stabilimenti in giro per il mondo e una rete distributiva propria in oltre 26 Paesi, Campari impiega quasi 5 mila persone. Il piano di Hunt prevede che a livello globale venga ridotto del 10% il numero dei dipendenti, da mettere subito fuori perimetro, percentuale dunque che corrisponde a circa 500 addetti. Di questi, 100 lavoratori sono in Italia, inclusa una ventina di dirigenti. A questo potrebbe poi aggiungersi un ulteriore sforbiciata ad altri costi non ritenuti necessari. Ne parliamo con Giorgia Colucci, Radiocor.

Sleeping With Your Cat While we all love to sleep with our animals - few of us actually get a restful night. Mikkel Becker (Dr. Marty Becker's daughter) has some tips on getting a good night's sleep again. Listen Now Pet Career Boom Many of those who lost their jobs during the recession are re-inventing themselves in the pet industry. After all, it is the second fastest-growing sector. Mary Collister and her daughter started a business that sends pet goodies to your doorstep every month. Listen Now Find Out How Smart Or Dumb Your Dog Is A new online test uses the latest scientific research to tell you EXACTLY how smart or dumb your dog is. It costs $60. The test uses games to test your dog, then gives you a full breakdown of their intelligence and personality. Listen Now Public Restrooms For Pets Public restrooms in China will no longer be limited to just pedestrians. According to the Chinese-language news site Shenzhen Special Zone Daily, China plans to build bathrooms just for pets as part of new civility laws to keep city streets clean. Launched as a trial in the Luohu District of Shenzhen, the open-air pet restrooms are filled with sand and measure about 10 square feet in size. Listen Now Python Is Their Choice Babysitter A family in China is turning heads with their choice of babysitter. 13-year-old Azhe Liu is often watched after by the family's pet python, who measures 15 feet long and weighs 220 pounds. Dad Chan Liu explains that they've had the snake since Azhe was born, and the two have become inseparable over the years. Listen Now Read more about this week's show.

I'm delighted to bring you today the first in a series of conversations from a remarkable day-long session put on by the Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs, or ACF, at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The session was held on Monday, February 3, and was called “Getting China Right.” On today's show, we've got U.S. Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey, one of the best-informed and sensible legislators focused on China today. He'll be in conversation with James Steinberg, dean of SAIS, who also served as Deputy Secretary of State from 2009 to 2011. You'll hear introductory remarks from Jim and from Jessica Chen Weiss, inaugural faculty director ACF and David M. Lampton Professor of China Studies at SAIS, who listeners certainly know from her appearances on Sinica. More to come in this series, so stay tuned! Please enjoy Senator Kim's very thoughtful remarks.Watch the morning sessions on YouTube here.The Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs (ACF) of the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) was established in 2024 to add rigor and reason to public and policy discussions on China and the range of domestic and international issues that intersect China's global role, bringing together experts and practitioners to foster informed public dialogue, promote evidence-based research, and support the next generation of scholars and practitioners. ACF was founded with the support of Johns Hopkins University and philanthropic contributions from across the United States.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with economic historian Andrew B. Liu of Villanova University about how to understand Trump's thinking on China and tariffs. Andy wrote about this in an excellent piece on N+1 called "Back to the 80s? Trump, Xi Jinping, and Tariffs." Check it out and then listen to the show!3:59 – How the U.S.'s current trade anxieties echo those of the ‘80s9:34 – How Cold War geopolitics shaped U.S.-Japan trade relations18:23 – The lessons China learned from Japan's experience and how it has shaped its recent economic strategy 21:03 – What Xi Jinping's vision for the Chinese economy actually looks like 34:26 – Why China is favoring a more Ford-like model of industrial structure41:28 – Michael Pettis's ideas from Trade Wars Are Class Wars and points of critique 52:44 – The Trump administration's use of tariffsPaying It Forward: Viola Zhou's reporting on Rest of World (especially her piece on Foxconn in India) and Dong Yige Recommendations:Andrew: Hetty Lui McKinnon's Substack for vegan modern Cantonese recipes Kaiser: The Substack of the Carter Center's U.S.-China Perception Monitor; and the essay “The new frontline: The US-China battle for control of global networks” on the Transnational Institute websiteSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bundle tickets for AIE Summit NYC have now sold out. You can now sign up for the livestream — where we will be making a big announcement soon. NYC-based readers and Summit attendees should check out the meetups happening around the Summit.2024 was a very challenging year for AI Hardware. After the buzz of CES last January, 2024 was marked by the meteoric rise and even harder fall of AI Wearables companies like Rabbit and Humane, with an assist from a pre-wallpaper-app MKBHD. Even Friend.com, the first to launch in the AI pendant category, and which spurred Rewind AI to rebrand to Limitless and follow in their footsteps, ended up delaying their wearable ship date and launching an experimental website chatbot version. We have been cautiously excited about this category, keeping tabs on most of the top entrants, including Omi and Compass. However, to date the biggest winner still standing from the AI Wearable wars is Bee AI, founded by today's guests Maria and Ethan. Bee is an always on hardware device with beamforming microphones, 7 day battery life and a mute button, that can be worn as a wristwatch or a clip-on pin, backed by an incredible transcription, diarization and very long context memory processing pipeline that helps you to remember your day, your todos, and even perform actions by operating a virtual cloud phone. This is one of the most advanced, production ready, personal AI agents we've ever seen, so we were excited to be their first podcast appearance. We met Bee when we ran the world's first Personal AI meetup in April last year.As a user of Bee (and not an investor! just a friend!) it's genuinely been a joy to use, and we were glad to take advantage of the opportunity to ask hard questions about the privacy and legal/ethical side of things as much as the AI and Hardware engineering side of Bee. We hope you enjoy the episode and tune in next Friday for Bee's first conference talk: Building Perfect Memory.Show Notes* Bee Website* Ethan Sutin, Maria de Lourdes Zollo* Bee @ Personal AI Meetup* Buy Bee with Listener Discount Code!Timestamps* 00:00:00 Introductions and overview of Bee Computer* 00:01:58 Personal context and use cases for Bee* 00:03:02 Origin story of Bee and the founders' background* 00:06:56 Evolution from app to hardware device* 00:09:54 Short-term value proposition for users* 00:12:17 Demo of Bee's functionality* 00:17:54 Hardware form factor considerations* 00:22:22 Privacy concerns and legal considerations* 00:30:57 User adoption and reactions to wearing Bee* 00:35:56 CES experience and hardware manufacturing challenges* 00:41:40 Software pipeline and inference costs* 00:53:38 Technical challenges in real-time processing* 00:57:46 Memory and personal context modeling* 01:02:45 Social aspects and agent-to-agent interactions* 01:04:34 Location sharing and personal data exchange* 01:05:11 Personality analysis capabilities* 01:06:29 Hiring and future of always-on AITranscriptAlessio [00:00:04]: Hey everyone, welcome to the Latent Space podcast. This is Alessio, partner and CTO at Decibel Partners, and I'm joined by my co-host Swyx, founder of SmallAI.swyx [00:00:12]: Hey, and today we are very honored to have in the studio Maria and Ethan from Bee.Maria [00:00:16]: Hi, thank you for having us.swyx [00:00:20]: And you are, I think, the first hardware founders we've had on the podcast. I've been looking to have had a hardware founder, like a wearable hardware, like a wearable hardware founder for a while. I think we're going to have two or three of them this year. And you're the ones that I wear every day. So thank you for making Bee. Thank you for all the feedback and the usage. Yeah, you know, I've been a big fan. You are the speaker gift for the Engineering World's Fair. And let's start from the beginning. What is Bee Computer?Ethan [00:00:52]: Bee Computer is a personal AI system. So you can think of it as AI living alongside you in first person. So it can kind of capture your in real life. So with that understanding can help you in significant ways. You know, the obvious one is memory, but that's that's really just the base kind of use case. So recalling and reflective. I know, Swyx, that you you like the idea of journaling, but you don't but still have some some kind of reflective summary of what you experienced in real life. But it's also about just having like the whole context of a human being and understanding, you know, giving the machine the ability to understand, like, what's going on in your life. Your attitudes, your desires, specifics about your preferences, so that not only can it help you with recall, but then anything that you need it to do, it already knows, like, if you think about like somebody who you've worked with or lived with for a long time, they just know kind of without having to ask you what you would want, it's clear that like, that is the future that personal AI, like, it's just going to be very, you know, the AI is just so much more valuable with personal context.Maria [00:01:58]: I will say that one of the things that we are really passionate is really understanding this. Personal context, because we'll make the AI more useful. Think about like a best friend that know you so well. That's one of the things that we are seeing from the user. They're using from a companion standpoint or professional use cases. There are many ways to use B, but companionship and professional are the ones that we are seeing now more.swyx [00:02:22]: Yeah. It feels so dry to talk about use cases. Yeah. Yeah.Maria [00:02:26]: It's like really like investor question. Like, what kind of use case?Ethan [00:02:28]: We're just like, we've been so broken and trained. But I mean, on the base case, it's just like, don't you want your AI to know everything you've said and like everywhere you've been, like, wouldn't you want that?Maria [00:02:40]: Yeah. And don't stay there and repeat every time, like, oh, this is what I like. You already know that. And you do things for me based on that. That's I think is really cool.swyx [00:02:50]: Great. Do you want to jump into a demo? Do you have any other questions?Alessio [00:02:54]: I want to maybe just cover the origin story. Just how did you two meet? What was the was this the first idea you started working on? Was there something else before?Maria [00:03:02]: I can start. So Ethan and I, we know each other from six years now. He had a company called Squad. And before that was called Olabot and was a personal AI. Yeah, I should. So maybe you should start this one. But yeah, that's how I know Ethan. Like he was pivoting from personal AI to Squad. And there was a co-watching with friends product. I had experience working with TikTok and video content. So I had the pivoting and we launched Squad and was really successful. And at the end. The founders decided to sell that to Twitter, now X. So both of us, we joined X. We launched Twitter Spaces. We launched many other products. And yeah, till then, we basically continue to work together to the start of B.Ethan [00:03:46]: The interesting thing is like this isn't the first attempt at personal AI. In 2016, when I started my first company, it started out as a personal AI company. This is before Transformers, no BERT even like just RNNs. You couldn't really do any convincing dialogue at all. I met Esther, who was my previous co-founder. We both really interested in the idea of like having a machine kind of model or understand a dynamic human. We wanted to make personal AI. This was like more geared towards because we had obviously much limited tools, more geared towards like younger people. So I don't know if you remember in 2016, there was like a brief chatbot boom. It was way premature, but it was when Zuckerberg went up on F8 and yeah, M and like. Yeah. The messenger platform, people like, oh, bots are going to replace apps. It was like for about six months. And then everybody realized, man, these things are terrible and like they're not replacing apps. But it was at that time that we got excited and we're like, we tried to make this like, oh, teach the AI about you. So it was just an app that you kind of chatted with and it would ask you questions and then like give you some feedback.Maria [00:04:53]: But Hugging Face first version was launched at the same time. Yeah, we started it.Ethan [00:04:56]: We started out the same office as Hugging Face because Betaworks was our investor. So they had to think. They had a thing called Bot Camp. Betaworks is like a really cool VC because they invest in out there things. They're like way ahead of everybody else. And like back then it was they had something called Bot Camp. They took six companies and it was us and Hugging Face. And then I think the other four, I'm pretty sure, are dead. But and Hugging Face was the one that really got, you know, I mean, 30% success rate is pretty good. Yeah. But yeah, when we it was, it was like it was just the two founders. Yeah, they were kind of like an AI company in the beginning. It was a chat app for teenagers. A lot of people don't know that Hugging Face was like, hey, friend, how was school? Let's trade selfies. But then, you know, they built the Transformers library, I believe, to help them make their chat app better. And then they open sourced and it was like it blew up. And like they're like, oh, maybe this is the opportunity. And now they're Hugging Face. But anyway, like we were obsessed with it at that time. But then it was clear that there's some people who really love chatting and like answering questions. But it's like a lot of work, like just to kind of manually.Maria [00:06:00]: Yeah.Ethan [00:06:01]: Teach like all these things about you to an AI.Maria [00:06:04]: Yeah, there were some people that were super passionate, for example, teenagers. They really like, for example, to speak about themselves a lot. So they will reply to a lot of questions and speak about them. But most of the people, they don't really want to spend time.Ethan [00:06:18]: And, you know, it's hard to like really bring the value with it. We had like sentence similarity and stuff and could try and do, but it was like it was premature with the technology at the time. And so we pivoted. We went to YC and the long story, but like we pivoted to consumer video and that kind of went really viral and got a lot of usage quickly. And then we ended up selling it to Twitter, worked there and left before Elon, not related to Elon, but left Twitter.swyx [00:06:46]: And then I should mention this is the famous time when well, when when Elon was just came in, this was like Esther was the famous product manager who slept there.Ethan [00:06:56]: My co-founder, my former co-founder, she sleeping bag. She was the sleep where you were. Yeah, yeah, she stayed. We had left by that point.swyx [00:07:03]: She very stayed, she's famous for staying.Ethan [00:07:06]: Yeah, but later, later left or got, I think, laid off, laid off. Yeah, I think the whole product team got laid off. She was a product manager, director. But yeah, like we left before that. And then we're like, oh, my God, things are different now. You know, I think this is we really started working on again right before ChatGPT came out. But we had an app version and we kind of were trying different things around it. And then, you know, ultimately, it was clear that, like, there were some limitations we can go on, like a good question to ask any wearable company is like, why isn't this an app? Yes. Yeah. Because like.Maria [00:07:40]: Because we tried the app at the beginning.Ethan [00:07:43]: Yeah. Like the idea that it could be more of a and B comes from ambient. So like if it was more kind of just around you all the time and less about you having to go open the app and do the effort to, like, enter in data that led us down the path of hardware. Yeah. Because the sensors on this are microphones. So it's capturing and understanding audio. We started actually our first hardware with a vision component, too. And we can talk about why we're not doing that right now. But if you wanted to, like, have a continuous understanding of audio with your phone, it would monopolize your microphone. It would get interrupted by calls and you'd have to remember to turn it on. And like that little bit of friction is actually like a substantial barrier to, like, get your phone. It's like the experience of it just being with you all the time and like living alongside you. And so I think that that's like the key reason it's not an app. And in fact, we do have Apple Watch support. So anybody who has a watch, Apple Watch can use it right away without buying any hardware. Because we worked really hard to make a version for the watch that can run in the background, not super drain your battery. But even with the watch, there's still friction because you have to remember to turn it on and it still gets interrupted if somebody calls you. And you have to remember to. We send a notification, but you still have to go back and turn it on because it's just the way watchOS works.Maria [00:09:04]: One of the things that we are seeing from our Apple Watch users, like I love the Apple Watch integration. One of the things that we are seeing is that people, they start using it from Apple Watch and after a couple of days they buy the B because they just like to wear it.Ethan [00:09:17]: Yeah, we're seeing.Maria [00:09:18]: That's something that like they're learning and it's really cool. Yeah.Ethan [00:09:21]: I mean, I think like fundamentally we like to think that like a personal AI is like the mission. And it's more about like the understanding. Connecting the dots, making use of the data to provide some value. And the hardware is like the ears of the AI. It's not like integrating like the incoming sensor data. And that's really what we focus on. And like the hardware is, you know, if we can do it well and have a great experience on the Apple Watch like that, that's just great. I mean, but there's just some platform restrictions that like existing hardware makes it hard to provide that experience. Yeah.Alessio [00:09:54]: What do people do in like two or three days that then convinces them to buy it? They buy the product. This feels like a product where like after you use it for a while, you have enough data to start to get a lot of insights. But it sounds like maybe there's also like a short term.Maria [00:10:07]: From the Apple Watch users, I believe that because every time that you receive a call after, they need to go back to B and open it again. Or for example, every day they need to charge Apple Watch and reminds them to open the app every day. They feel like, okay, maybe this is too much work. I just want to wear the B and just keep it open and that's it. And I don't need to think about it.Ethan [00:10:27]: I think they see the kind of potential of it just from the watch. Because even if you wear it a day, like we send a summary notification at the end of the day about like just key things that happened to you in your day. And like I didn't even think like I'm not like a journaling type person or like because like, oh, I just live the day. Why do I need to like think about it? But like it's actually pretty sometimes I'm surprised how interesting it is to me just to kind of be like, oh, yeah, that and how it kind of fits together. And I think that's like just something people get immediately with the watch. But they're like, oh, I'd like an easier watch. I'd like a better way to do this.swyx [00:10:58]: It's surprising because I only know about the hardware. But I use the watch as like a backup for when I don't have the hardware. I feel like because now you're beamforming and all that, this is significantly better. Yeah, that's the other thing.Ethan [00:11:11]: We have way more control over like the Apple Watch. You're limited in like you can't set the gain. You can't change the sample rate. There's just very limited framework support for doing anything with audio. Whereas if you control it. Then you can kind of optimize it for your use case. The Apple Watch isn't meant to be kind of recording this. And we can talk when we get to the part about audio, why it's so hard. This is like audio on the hardest level because you don't know it has to work in all environments or you try and make it work as best as it can. Like this environment is very great. We're in a studio. But, you know, afterwards at dinner in a restaurant, it's totally different audio environment. And there's a lot of challenges with that. And having really good source audio helps. But then there's a lot more. But with the machine learning that still is, you know, has to be done to try and account because like you can tune something for one environment or another. But it'll make one good and one bad. And like making something that's flexible enough is really challenging.Alessio [00:12:10]: Do we want to do a demo just to set the stage? And then we kind of talk about.Maria [00:12:14]: Yeah, I think we can go like a walkthrough and the prod.Alessio [00:12:17]: Yeah, sure.swyx [00:12:17]: So I think we said I should. So for listeners, we'll be switching to video. That was superimposed on. And to this video, if you want to see it, go to our YouTube, like and subscribe as always. Yeah.Maria [00:12:31]: And by the bee. Yes.swyx [00:12:33]: And by the bee. While you wait. While you wait. Exactly. It doesn't take long.Maria [00:12:39]: Maybe you should have a discount code just for the listeners. Sure.swyx [00:12:43]: If you want to offer it, I'll take it. All right. Yeah. Well, discount code Swyx. Oh s**t. Okay. Yeah. There you go.Ethan [00:12:49]: An important thing to mention also is that the hardware is meant to work with the phone. And like, I think, you know, if you, if you look at rabbit or, or humane, they're trying to create like a new hardware platform. We think that the phone's just so dominant and it will be until we have the next generation, which is not going to be for five, you know, maybe some Orion type glasses that are cheap enough and like light enough. Like that's going to take a long time before with the phone rather than trying to just like replace it. So in the app, we have a summary of your days, but at the top, it's kind of what's going on now. And that's updating your phone. It's updating continuously. So right now it's saying, I'm discussing, you know, the development of, you know, personal AI, and that's just kind of the ongoing conversation. And then we give you a readable form. That's like little kind of segments of what's the important parts of the conversations. We do speaker identification, which is really important because you don't want your personal AI thinking you said something and attributing it to you when it was just somebody else in the conversation. So you can also teach it other people's voices. So like if some, you know, somebody close to you, so it can start to understand your relationships a little better. And then we do conversation end pointing, which is kind of like a task that didn't even exist before, like, cause nobody needed to do this. But like if you had somebody's whole day, how do you like break it into logical pieces? And so we use like not just voice activity, but other signals to try and split up because conversations are a little fuzzy. They can like lead into one, can start to the next. So also like the semantic content of it. When a conversation ends, we run it through larger models to try and get a better, you know, sense of the actual, what was said and then summarize it, provide key points. What was the general atmosphere and tone of the conversation and potential action items that might've come of that. But then at the end of the day, we give you like a summary of all your day and where you were and just kind of like a step-by-step walkthrough of what happened and what were the key points. That's kind of just like the base capture layer. So like if you just want to get a kind of glimpse or recall or reflect that's there. But really the key is like all of this is now like being influenced on to generate personal context about you. So we generate key items known to be true about you and that you can, you know, there's a human in the loop aspect is like you can, you have visibility. Right. Into that. And you can, you know, I have a lot of facts about technology because that's basically what I talk about all the time. Right. But I do have some hobbies that show up and then like, how do you put use to this context? So I kind of like measure my day now and just like, what is my token output of the day? You know, like, like as a human, how much information do I produce? And it's kind of measured in tokens and it turns out it's like around 200,000 or so a day. But so in the recall case, we have, um. A chat interface, but the key here is on the recall of it. Like, you know, how do you, you know, I probably have 50 million tokens of personal context and like how to make sense of that, make it useful. So I can ask simple, like, uh, recall questions, like details about the trip I was on to Taiwan, where recently we're with our manufacturer and, um, in real time, like it will, you know, it has various capabilities such as searching through your, your memories, but then also being able to search the web or look at my calendar, we have integrations with Gmail and calendars. So like connecting the dots between the in real life and the digital life. And, you know, I just asked it about my Taiwan trip and it kind of gives me the, the breakdown of the details, what happened, the issues we had around, you know, certain manufacturing problems and it, and it goes back and references the conversation so I can, I can go back to the source. Yeah.Maria [00:16:46]: Not just the conversation as well, the integrations. So we have as well Gmail and Google calendar. So if there is something there that was useful to have more context, we can see that.Ethan [00:16:56]: So like, and it can, I never use the word agentic cause it's, it's cringe, but like it can search through, you know, if I, if I'm brainstorming about something that spans across, like search through my conversation, search the email, look at the calendar and then depending on what's needed. Then synthesize, you know, something with all that context.Maria [00:17:18]: I love that you did the Spotify wrapped. That was pretty cool. Yeah.Ethan [00:17:22]: Like one thing I did was just like make a Spotify wrap for my 2024, like of my life. You can do that. Yeah, you can.Maria [00:17:28]: Wait. Yeah. I like those crazy.Ethan [00:17:31]: Make a Spotify wrapped for my life in 2024. Yeah. So it's like surprisingly good. Um, it like kind of like game metrics. So it was like you visited three countries, you shipped, you know, XMini, beta. Devices.Maria [00:17:46]: And that's kind of more personal insights and reflection points. Yeah.swyx [00:17:51]: That's fascinating. So that's the demo.Ethan [00:17:54]: Well, we have, we can show something that's in beta. I don't know if we want to do it. I don't know.Maria [00:17:58]: We want to show something. Do it.Ethan [00:18:00]: And then we can kind of fit. Yeah.Maria [00:18:01]: Yeah.Ethan [00:18:02]: So like the, the, the, the vision is also like, not just about like AI being with you in like just passively understanding you through living your experience, but also then like it proactively suggesting things to you. Yeah. Like at the appropriate time. So like not just pool, but, but kind of, it can step in and suggest things to you. So, you know, one integration we have that, uh, is in beta is with WhatsApp. Maria is asking for a recommendation for an Italian restaurant. Would you like me to look up some highly rated Italian restaurants nearby and send her a suggestion?Maria [00:18:34]: So what I did, I just sent to Ethan a message through WhatsApp in his own personal phone. Yeah.Ethan [00:18:41]: So, so basically. B is like watching all my incoming notifications. And if it meets two criteria, like, is it important enough for me to raise a suggestion to the user? And then is there something I could potentially help with? So this is where the actions come into place. So because Maria is my co-founder and because it was like a restaurant recommendation, something that it could probably help with, it proposed that to me. And then I can, through either the chat and we have another kind of push to talk walkie talkie style button. It's actually a multi-purpose button to like toggle it on or off, but also if you push to hold, you can talk. So I can say, yes, uh, find one and send it to her on WhatsApp is, uh, an Android cloud phone. So it's, uh, going to be able to, you know, that has access to all my accounts. So we're going to abstract this away and the execution environment is not really important, but like we can go into technically why Android is actually a pretty good one right now. But, you know, it's searching for Italian restaurants, you know, and we don't have to watch this. I could be, you know, have my ear AirPods in and in my pocket, you know, it's going to go to WhatsApp, going to find Maria's thread, send her the response and then, and then let us know. Oh my God.Alessio [00:19:56]: But what's the, I mean, an Italian restaurant. Yeah. What did it choose? What did it choose? It's easy to say. Real Italian is hard to play. Exactly.Ethan [00:20:04]: It's easy to say. So I doubt it. I don't know.swyx [00:20:06]: For the record, since you have the Italians, uh, best Italian restaurant in SF.Maria [00:20:09]: Oh my God. I still don't have one. What? No.Ethan [00:20:14]: I don't know. Successfully found and shared.Alessio [00:20:16]: Let's see. Let's see what the AI says. Bottega. Bottega? I think it's Bottega.Maria [00:20:21]: Have you been to Bottega? How is it?Alessio [00:20:24]: It's fine.Maria [00:20:25]: I've been to one called like Norcina, I think it was good.Alessio [00:20:29]: Bottega is on Valencia Street. It's fine. The pizza is not good.Maria [00:20:32]: It's not good.Alessio [00:20:33]: Some of the pastas are good.Maria [00:20:34]: You know, the people I'm sorry to interrupt. Sorry. But there is like this Delfina. Yeah. That here everybody's like, oh, Pizzeria Delfina is amazing. I'm overrated. This is not. I don't know. That's great. That's great.swyx [00:20:46]: The North Beach Cafe. That place you took us with Michele last time. Vega. Oh.Alessio [00:20:52]: The guy at Vega, Giuseppe, he's Italian. Which one is that? It's in Bernal Heights. Ugh. He's nice. He's not nice. I don't know that one. What's the name of the place? Vega. Vega. Vega. Cool. We got the name. Vega. But it's not Vega.Maria [00:21:02]: It's Italian. Whatswyx [00:21:10]: Vega. Vega.swyx [00:21:16]: Vega. Vega. Vega. Vega. Vega. Vega. Vega. Vega. Vega.Ethan [00:21:29]: Vega. Vega. Vega. Vega. Vega.Ethan [00:21:40]: We're going to see a lot of innovation around hardware and stuff, but I think the real core is being able to do something useful with the personal context. You always had the ability to capture everything, right? We've always had recorders, camcorders, body cameras, stuff like that. But what's different now is we can actually make sense and find the important parts in all of that context.swyx [00:22:04]: Yeah. So, and then one last thing, I'm just doing this for you, is you also have an API, which I think I'm the first developer against. Because I had to build my own. We need to hire a developer advocate. Or just hire AI engineers. The point is that you should be able to program your own assistant. And I tried OMI, the former friend, the knockoff friend, and then real friend doesn't have an API. And then Limitless also doesn't have an API. So I think it's very important to own your data. To be able to reprocess your audio, maybe. Although, by default, you do not store audio. And then also just to do any corrections. There's no way that my needs can be fully met by you. So I think the API is very important.Ethan [00:22:47]: Yeah. And I mean, I've always been a consumer of APIs in all my products.swyx [00:22:53]: We are API enjoyers in this house.Ethan [00:22:55]: Yeah. It's very frustrating when you have to go build a scraper. But yeah, it's for sure. Yeah.swyx [00:23:03]: So this whole combination of you have my location, my calendar, my inbox. It really is, for me, the sort of personal API.Alessio [00:23:10]: And is the API just to write into it or to have it take action on external systems?Ethan [00:23:16]: Yeah, we're expanding it. It's right now read-only. In the future, very soon, when the actions are more generally available, it'll be fully supported in the API.Alessio [00:23:27]: Nice. I'll buy one after the episode.Ethan [00:23:30]: The API thing, to me, is the most interesting. Yeah. We do have real-time APIs, so you can even connect a socket and connect it to whatever you want it to take actions with. Yeah. It's too smart for me.Alessio [00:23:43]: Yeah. I think when I look at these apps, and I mean, there's so many of these products, we launch, it's great that I can go on this app and do things. But most of my work and personal life is managed somewhere else. Yeah. So being able to plug into it. Integrate that. It's nice. I have a bunch of more, maybe, human questions. Sure. I think maybe people might have. One, is it good to have instant replay for any argument that you have? I can imagine arguing with my wife about something. And, you know, there's these commercials now where it's basically like two people arguing, and they're like, they can throw a flag, like in football, and have an instant replay of the conversation. I feel like this is similar, where it's almost like people cannot really argue anymore or, like, lie to each other. Because in a world in which everybody adopts this, I don't know if you thought about it. And also, like, how the lies. You know, all of us tell lies, right? How do you distinguish between when I'm, there's going to be sometimes things that contradict each other, because I might say something publicly, and I might think something, really, that I tell someone else. How do you handle that when you think about building a product like this?Maria [00:24:48]: I would say that I like the fact that B is an objective point of view. So I don't care too much about the lies, but I care more about the fact that can help me to understand what happened. Mm-hmm. And the emotions in a really objective way, like, really, like, critical and objective way. And if you think about humans, they have so many emotions. And sometimes something that happened to me, like, I don't know, I would feel, like, really upset about it or really angry or really emotional. But the AI doesn't have those emotions. It can read the conversation, understand what happened, and be objective. And I think the level of support is the one that I really like more. Instead of, like, oh, did this guy tell me a lie? I feel like that's not exactly, like, what I feel. I find it curious for me in terms of opportunity.Alessio [00:25:35]: Is the B going to interject in real time? Say I'm arguing with somebody. The B is like, hey, look, no, you're wrong. What? That person actually said.Ethan [00:25:43]: The proactivity is something we're very interested in. Maybe not for, like, specifically for, like, selling arguments, but more for, like, and I think that a lot of the challenge here is, you know, you need really good reasoning to kind of pull that off. Because you don't want it just constantly interjecting, because that would be super annoying. And you don't want it to miss things that it should be interjecting. So, like, it would be kind of a hard task even for a human to be, like, just come in at the right times when it's appropriate. Like, it would take the, you know, with the personal context, it's going to be a lot better. Because, like, if somebody knows about you, but even still, it requires really good reasoning to, like, not be too much or too little and just right.Maria [00:26:20]: And the second part about, well, like, some things, you know, you say something to somebody else, but after I change my mind, I send something. Like, it's every time I have, like, different type of conversation. And I'm like, oh, I want to know more about you. And I'm like, oh, I want to know more about you. I think that's something that I found really fascinating. One of the things that we are learning is that, indeed, humans, they evolve over time. So, for us, one of the challenges is actually understand, like, is this a real fact? Right. And so far, what we do is we give, you know, to the, we have the human in the loop that can say, like, yes, this is true, this is not. Or they can edit their own fact. For sure, in the future, we want to have all of that automatized inside of the product.Ethan [00:26:57]: But, I mean, I think your question kind of hits on, and I know that we'll talk about privacy, but also just, like, if you have some memory and you want to confirm it with somebody else, that's one thing. But it's for sure going to be true that in the future, like, not even that far into the future, that it's just going to be kind of normalized. And we're kind of in a transitional period now. And I think it's, like, one of the key things that is for us to kind of navigate that and make sure we're, like, thinking of all the consequences. And how to, you know, make the right choices in the way that everything's designed. And so, like, it's more beneficial than it could be harmful. But it's just too valuable for your AI to understand you. And so if it's, like, MetaRay bands or the Google Astra, I think it's just people are going to be more used to it. So people's behaviors and expectations will change. Whether that's, like, you know, something that is going to happen now or in five years, it's probably in that range. And so, like, I think we... We kind of adapt to new technologies all the time. Like, when the Ring cameras came out, that was kind of quite controversial. It's like... But now it's kind of... People just understand that a lot of people have cameras on their doors. And so I think that...Maria [00:28:09]: Yeah, we're in a transitional period for sure.swyx [00:28:12]: I will press on the privacy thing because that is the number one thing that everyone talks about. Obviously, I think in Silicon Valley, people are a little bit more tech-forward, experimental, whatever. But you want to go mainstream. You want to sell to consumers. And we have to worry about this stuff. Baseline question. The hardest version of this is law. There are one-party consent states where this is perfectly legal. Then there are two-party consent states where they're not. What have you come around to this on?Ethan [00:28:38]: Yeah, so the EU is a totally different regulatory environment. But in the U.S., it's basically on a state-by-state level. Like, in Nevada, it's single-party. In California, it's two-party. But it's kind of untested. You know, it's different laws, whether it's a phone call, whether it's in person. In a state like California, it's two-party. Like, anytime you're in public, there's no consent comes into play because the expectation of privacy is that you're in public. But we process the audio and nothing is persisted. And then it's summarized with the speaker identification focusing on the user. Now, it's kind of untested on a legal, and I'm not a lawyer, but does that constitute the same as, like, a recording? So, you know, it's kind of a gray area and untested in law right now. I think that the bigger question is, you know, because, like, if you had your Ray-Ban on and were recording, then you have a video of something that happened. And that's different than kind of having, like, an AI give you a summary that's focused on you that's not really capturing anybody's voice. You know, I think the bigger question is, regardless of the legal status, like, what is the ethical kind of situation with that? Because even in Nevada that we're—or many other U.S. states where you can record. Everything. And you don't have to have consent. Is it still, like, the right thing to do? The way we think about it is, is that, you know, we take a lot of precautions to kind of not capture personal information of people around. Both through the speaker identification, through the pipeline, and then the prompts, and the way we store the information to be kind of really focused on the user. Now, we know that's not going to, like, satisfy a lot of people. But I think if you do try it and wear it again. It's very hard for me to see anything, like, if somebody was wearing a bee around me that I would ever object that it captured about me as, like, a third party to it. And like I said, like, we're in this transitional period where the expectation will just be more normalized. That it's, like, an AI. It's not capturing, you know, a full audio recording of what you said. And it's—everything is fully geared towards helping the person kind of understand their state and providing valuable information to them. Not about, like, logging details about people they encounter.Alessio [00:30:57]: You know, I've had the same question also with the Zoom meeting transcribers thing. I think there's kind of, like, the personal impact that there's a Firefly's AI recorder. Yeah. I just know that it's being recorded. It's not like a—I don't know if I'm going to say anything different. But, like, intrinsically, you kind of feel—because it's not pervasive. And I'm curious, especially, like, in your investor meetings. Do people feel differently? Like, have you had people ask you to, like, turn it off? Like, in a business meeting, to not record? I'm curious if you've run into any of these behaviors.Maria [00:31:29]: You know what's funny? On my end, I wear it all the time. I take my coffee, a blue bottle with it. Or I work with it. Like, obviously, I work on it. So, I wear it all the time. And so far, I don't think anybody asked me to turn it off. I'm not sure if because they were really friendly with me that they know that I'm working on it. But nobody really cared.swyx [00:31:48]: It's because you live in SF.Maria [00:31:49]: Actually, I've been in Italy as well. Uh-huh. And in Italy, it's a super privacy concern. Like, Europe is a super privacy concern. And again, they're nothing. Like, it's—I don't know. Yeah. That, for me, was interesting.Ethan [00:32:01]: I think—yeah, nobody's ever asked me to turn it off, even after giving them full demos and disclosing. I think that some people have said, well, my—you know, in a personal relationship, my partner initially was, like, kind of uncomfortable about it. We heard that from a few users. And that was, like, more in just, like— It's not like a personal relationship situation. And the other big one is people are like, I do like it, but I cannot wear this at work. I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Because, like, I think I will get in trouble based on policies or, like, you know, if you're wearing it inside a research lab or something where you're working on things that are kind of sensitive that, like—you know, so we're adding certain features like geofencing, just, like, at this location. It's just never active.swyx [00:32:50]: I mean, I've often actually explained to it the other way, where maybe you only want it at work, so you never take it from work. And it's just a work device, just like your Zoom meeting recorder is a work device.Ethan [00:33:09]: Yeah, professionals have been a big early adopter segment. And you say in San Francisco, but we have out there our daily shipment of over 100. If you go look at the addresses, Texas, I think, is our biggest state, and Florida, just the biggest states. A lot of professionals who talk for, and we didn't go out to build it for that use case, but I think there is a lot of demand for white-collar people who talk for a living. And I think we're just starting to talk with them. I think they just want to be able to improve their performance around, understand what they were doing.Alessio [00:33:47]: How do you think about Gong.io? Some of these, for example, sales training thing, where you put on a sales call and then it coaches you. They're more verticalized versus having more horizontal platform.Ethan [00:33:58]: I am not super familiar with those things, because like I said, it was kind of a surprise to us. But I think that those are interesting. I've seen there's a bunch of them now, right? Yeah. It kind of makes sense. I'm terrible at sales, so I could probably use one. But it's not my job, fundamentally. But yeah, I think maybe it's, you know, we heard also people with restaurants, if they're able to understand, if they're doing well.Maria [00:34:26]: Yeah, but in general, I think a lot of people, they like to have the double check of, did I do this well? Or can you suggest me how I can do better? We had a user that was saying to us that he used for interviews. Yeah, he used job interviews. So he used B and after asked to the B, oh, actually, how do you think my interview went? What I should do better? And I like that. And like, oh, that's actually like a personal coach in a way.Alessio [00:34:50]: Yeah. But I guess the question is like, do you want to build all of those use cases? Or do you see B as more like a platform where somebody is going to build like, you know, the sales coach that connects to B so that you're kind of the data feed into it?Ethan [00:35:02]: I don't think this is like a data feed, more like an understanding kind of engine and like definitely. In the future, having third parties to the API and building out for all the different use cases is something that we want to do. But the like initial case we're trying to do is like build that layer for all that to work. And, you know, we're not trying to build all those verticals because no startup could do that well. But I think that it's really been quite fascinating to see, like, you know, I've done consumer for a long time. Consumer is very hard to predict, like, what's going to be. It's going to be like the thing that's the killer feature. And so, I mean, we really believe that it's the future, but we don't know like what exactly like process it will take to really gain mass adoption.swyx [00:35:50]: The killer consumer feature is whatever Nikita Beer does. Yeah. Social app for teens.Ethan [00:35:56]: Yeah, well, I like Nikita, but, you know, he's good at building bootstrap companies and getting them very viral. And then selling them and then they shut down.swyx [00:36:05]: Okay, so you just came back from CES.Maria [00:36:07]: Yeah, crazy. Yeah, tell us. It was my first time in Vegas and first time CES, both of them were overwhelming.swyx [00:36:15]: First of all, did you feel like you had to do it because you're in consumer hardware?Maria [00:36:19]: Then we decided to be there and to have a lot of partners and media meetings, but we didn't have our own booth. So we decided to just keep that. But we decided to be there and have a presence there, even just us and speak with people. It's very hard to stand out. Yeah, I think, you know, it depends what type of booth you have. I think if you can prepare like a really cool booth.Ethan [00:36:41]: Have you been to CES?Maria [00:36:42]: I think it can be pretty cool.Ethan [00:36:43]: It's massive. It's huge. It's like 80,000, 90,000 people across the Venetian and the convention center. And it's, to me, I always wanted to go just like...Maria [00:36:53]: Yeah, you were the one who was like...swyx [00:36:55]: I thought it was your idea.Ethan [00:36:57]: I always wanted to go just as a, like, just as a fan of...Maria [00:37:01]: Yeah, you wanted to go anyways.Ethan [00:37:02]: Because like, growing up, I think CES like kind of peaked for a while and it was like, oh, I want to go. That's where all the cool, like... gadgets, everything. Yeah, now it's like SmartBitch and like, you know, vacuuming the picks up socks. Exactly.Maria [00:37:13]: There are a lot of cool vacuums. Oh, they love it.swyx [00:37:15]: They love the Roombas, the pick up socks.Maria [00:37:16]: And pet tech. Yeah, yeah. And dog stuff.swyx [00:37:20]: Yeah, there's a lot of like robot stuff. New TVs, new cars that never ship. Yeah. Yeah. I'm thinking like last year, this time last year was when Rabbit and Humane launched at CES and Rabbit kind of won CES. And now this year, no wearables except for you guys.Ethan [00:37:32]: It's funny because it's obviously it's AI everything. Yeah. Like every single product. Yeah.Maria [00:37:37]: Toothbrush with AI, vacuums with AI. Yeah. Yeah.Ethan [00:37:41]: We like hair blow, literally a hairdryer with AI. We saw.Maria [00:37:45]: Yeah, that was cool.Ethan [00:37:46]: But I think that like, yeah, we didn't, another kind of difference like around our, like we didn't want to do like a big overhypey promised kind of Rabbit launch. Because I mean, they did, hats off to them, like on the presentation and everything, obviously. But like, you know, we want to let the product kind of speak for itself and like get it out there. And I think we were really happy. We got some very good interest from media and some of the partners there. So like it was, I think it was definitely worth going. I would say like if you're in hardware, it's just kind of how you make use of it. Like I think to do it like a big Rabbit style or to have a huge show on there, like you need to plan that six months in advance. And it's very expensive. But like if you, you know, go there, there's everybody's there. All the media is there. There's a lot of some pre-show events that it's just great to talk to people. And the industry also, all the manufacturers, suppliers are there. So we learned about some really cool stuff that we might like. We met with somebody. They have like thermal energy capture. And it's like, oh, could you maybe not need to charge it? Because they have like a thermal that can capture your body heat. And what? Yeah, they're here. They're actually here. And in Palo Alto, they have like a Fitbit thing that you don't have to charge.swyx [00:39:01]: Like on paper, that's the power you can get from that. What's the power draw for this thing?Ethan [00:39:05]: It's more than you could get from the body heat, it turns out. But it's quite small. I don't want to disclose technically. But I think that solar is still, they also have one where it's like this thing could be like the face of it. It's just a solar cell. And like that is more realistic. Or kinetic. Kinetic, apparently, I'm not an expert in this, but they seem to think it wouldn't be enough. Kinetic is quite small, I guess, on the capture.swyx [00:39:33]: Well, I mean, watch. Watchmakers have been powering with kinetic for a long time. Yeah. We don't have to talk about that. I just want to get a sense of CES. Would you do it again? I definitely would not. Okay. You're just a fan of CES. Business point of view doesn't make sense. I happen to be in the conference business, right? So I'm kind of just curious. Yeah.Maria [00:39:49]: So I would say as we did, so without the booth and really like straightforward conversations that were already planned. Three days. That's okay. I think it was okay. Okay. But if you need to invest for a booth that is not. Okay. A good one. Which is how much? I think.Ethan [00:40:06]: 10 by 10 is 5,000. But on top of that, you need to. And then they go like 10 by 10 is like super small. Yeah. And like some companies have, I think would probably be more in like the six figure range to get. And I mean, I think that, yeah, it's very noisy. We heard this, that it's very, very noisy. Like obviously if you're, everything is being launched there and like everything from cars to cell phones are being launched. Yeah. So it's hard to stand out. But like, I think going in with a plan of who you want to talk to, I feel like.Maria [00:40:36]: That was worth it.Ethan [00:40:37]: Worth it. We had a lot of really positive media coverage from it and we got the word out and like, so I think we accomplished what we wanted to do.swyx [00:40:46]: I mean, there's some world in which my conference is kind of the CES of whatever AI becomes. Yeah. I think that.Maria [00:40:52]: Don't do it in Vegas. Don't do it in Vegas. Yeah. Don't do it in Vegas. That's the only thing. I didn't really like Vegas. That's great. Amazing. Those are my favorite ones.Alessio [00:41:02]: You can not fit 90,000 people in SF. That's really duh.Ethan [00:41:05]: You need to do like multiple locations so you can do Moscone and then have one in.swyx [00:41:09]: I mean, that's what Salesforce conferences. Well, GDC is how many? That might be 50,000, right? Okay. Form factor, right? Like my way to introduce this idea was that I was at the launch in Solaris. What was the old name of it? Newton. Newton. Of Tab when Avi first launched it. He was like, I thought through everything. Every form factor, pendant is the thing. And then we got the pendants for this original. The first one was just pendants and I took it off and I forgot to put it back on. So you went through pendants, pin, bracelet now, and maybe there's sort of earphones in the future, but what was your iterations?Maria [00:41:49]: So we had, I believe now three or four iterations. And one of the things that we learned is indeed that people don't like the pendant. In particular, woman, you don't want to have like anything here on the chest because it's maybe you have like other necklace or any other stuff.Ethan [00:42:03]: You just ship a premium one that's gold. Yeah. We're talking some fashion reached out to us.Maria [00:42:11]: Some big fashion. There is something there.swyx [00:42:13]: This is where it helps to have an Italian on the team.Maria [00:42:15]: There is like some big Italian luxury. I can't say anything. So yeah, bracelet actually came from the community because they were like, oh, I don't want to wear anything like as necklace or as a pendant. Like it's. And also like the one that we had, I don't know if you remember, like it was like circle, like it was like this and was like really bulky. Like people didn't like it. And also, I mean, I actually, I don't dislike, like we were running fast when we did that. Like our, our thing was like, we wanted to ship them as soon as possible. So we're not overthinking the form factor or the material. We were just want to be out. But after the community organically, basically all of them were like, well, why you don't just don't do the bracelet? Like he's way better. I will just wear it. And that's it. So that's how we ended up with the bracelet, but it's still modular. So I still want to play around the father is modular and you can, you know, take it off and wear it as a clip or in the future, maybe we will bring back the pendant. But I like the fact that there is some personalization and right now we have two colors, yellow and black. Soon we will have other ones. So yeah, we can play a lot around that.Ethan [00:43:25]: I think the form factor. Like the goal is for it to be not super invasive. Right. And something that's easy. So I think in the future, smaller, thinner, not like apple type obsession with thinness, but it does matter like the, the size and weight. And we would love to have more context because that will help, but to make it work, I think it really needs to have good power consumption, good battery life. And, you know, like with the humane swapping the batteries, I have one, I mean, I'm, I'm, I think we've made, and there's like pretty incredible, some of the engineering they did, but like, it wasn't kind of geared towards solving the problem. It was just, it's too heavy. The swappable batteries is too much to man, like the heat, the thermals is like too much to light interface thing. Yeah. Like that. That's cool. It's cool. It's cool. But it's like, if, if you have your handout here, you want to use your phone, like it's not really solving a problem. Cause you know how to use your phone. It's got a brilliant display. You have to kind of learn how to gesture this low range. Yeah. It's like a resolution laser, but the laser is cool that the fact they got it working in that thing, even though if it did overheat, but like too heavy, too cumbersome, too complicated with the multiple batteries. So something that's power efficient, kind of thin, both in the physical sense and also in the edge compute kind of way so that it can be as unobtrusive as possible. Yeah.Maria [00:44:47]: Users really like, like, I like when they say yes, I like to wear it and forget about it because I don't need to charge it every single day. On the other version, I believe we had like 35 hours or something, which was okay. But people, they just prefer the seven days battery life and-swyx [00:45:03]: Oh, this is seven days? Yeah. Oh, I've been charging every three days.Maria [00:45:07]: Oh, no, you can like keep it like, yeah, it's like almost seven days.swyx [00:45:11]: The other thing that occurs to me, maybe there's an Apple watch strap so that I don't have to double watch. Yeah.Maria [00:45:17]: That's the other one that, yeah, I thought about it. I saw as well the ones that like, you can like put it like back on the phone. Like, you know- Plog. There is a lot.swyx [00:45:27]: So yeah, there's a competitor called Plog. Yeah. It's not really a competitor. They only transcribe, right? Yeah, they only transcribe. But they're very good at it. Yeah.Ethan [00:45:33]: No, they're great. Their hardware is really good too.swyx [00:45:36]: And they just launched the pin too. Yeah.Ethan [00:45:38]: I think that the MagSafe kind of form factor has a lot of advantages, but some disadvantages. You can definitely put a very huge battery on that, you know? And so like the battery life's not, the power consumption's not so much of a concern, but you know, downside the phone's like in your pocket. And so I think that, you know, form factors will continue to evolve, but, and you know, more sensors, less obtrusive and-Maria [00:46:02]: Yeah. We have a new version.Ethan [00:46:04]: Easier to use.Maria [00:46:05]: Okay.swyx [00:46:05]: Looking forward to that. Yeah. I mean, we'll, whenever we launch this, we'll try to show whatever, but I'm sure you're going to keep iterating. Last thing on hardware, and then we'll go on to the software side, because I think that's where you guys are also really, really strong. Vision. You wanted to talk about why no vision? Yeah.Ethan [00:46:20]: I think it comes down to like when you're, when you're a startup, especially in hardware, you're just, you work within the constraints, right? And so like vision is super useful and super interesting. And what we actually started with, there's two issues with vision that make it like not the place we decided to start. One is power consumption. So you know, you kind of have to trade off your power budget, like capturing even at a low frame rate and transmitting the radio is actually the thing that takes up the majority of the power. So. Yeah. So you would really have to have quite a, like unacceptably, like large and heavy battery to do it continuously all day. We have, I think, novel kind of alternative ways that might allow us to do that. And we have some prototypes. The other issue is form factor. So like even with like a wide field of view, if you're wearing something on your chest, it's going, you know, obviously the wrist is not really that much of an option. And if you're wearing it on your chest, it's, it's often gone. You're going to probably be not capturing like the field of view of what's interesting to you. So that leaves you kind of with your head and face. And then anything that goes on, on the face has to look cool. Like I don't know if you remember the spectacles, it was kind of like the first, yeah, but they kind of, they didn't, they were not very successful. And I think one of the reasons is they were, they're so weird looking. Yeah. The camera was so big on the side. And if you look at them at array bands where they're way more successful, they, they look almost indistinguishable from array bands. And they invested a lot into that and they, they have a partnership with Qualcomm to develop custom Silicon. They have a stake in Luxottica now. So like they coming from all the angles, like to make glasses, I think like, you know, I don't know if you know, Brilliant Labs, they're cool company, they make frames, which is kind of like a cool hackable glasses and, and, and like, they're really good, like on hardware, they're really good. But even if you look at the frames, which I would say is like the most advanced kind of startup. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There was one that launched at CES, but it's not shipping yet. Like one that you can buy now, it's still not something you'd wear every day and the battery life is super short. So I think just the challenge of doing vision right, like off the bat, like would require quite a bit more resources. And so like audio is such a good entry point and it's also the privacy around audio. If you, if you had images, that's like another huge challenge to overcome. So I think that. Ideally the personal AI would have, you know, all the senses and you know, we'll, we'll get there. Yeah. Okay.swyx [00:48:57]: One last hardware thing. I have to ask this because then we'll move to the software. Were either of you electrical engineering?Ethan [00:49:04]: No, I'm CES. And so I have a, I've taken some EE courses, but I, I had done prior to working on, on the hardware here, like I had done a little bit of like embedded systems, like very little firmware, but we have luckily on the team, somebody with deep experience. Yeah.swyx [00:49:21]: I'm just like, you know, like you have to become hardware people. Yeah.Ethan [00:49:25]: Yeah. I mean, I learned to worry about supply chain power. I think this is like radio.Maria [00:49:30]: There's so many things to learn.Ethan [00:49:32]: I would tell this about hardware, like, and I know it's been said before, but building a prototype and like learning how the electronics work and learning about firmware and developing, this is like, I think fun for a lot of engineers and it's, it's all totally like achievable, especially now, like with, with the tools we have, like stuff you might've been intimidated about. Like, how do I like write this firmware now? With Sonnet, like you can, you can get going and actually see results quickly. But I think going from prototype to actually making something manufactured is a enormous jump. And it's not all about technology, the supply chain, the procurement, the regulations, the cost, the tooling. The thing about software that I'm used to is it's funny that you can make changes all along the way and ship it. But like when you have to buy tooling for an enclosure that's expensive.swyx [00:50:24]: Do you buy your own tooling? You have to.Ethan [00:50:25]: Don't you just subcontract out to someone in China? Oh, no. Do we make the tooling? No, no. You have to have CNC and like a bunch of machines.Maria [00:50:31]: Like nobody makes their own tooling, but like you have to design this design and you submitEthan [00:50:36]: it and then they go four to six weeks later. Yeah. And then if there's a problem with it, well, then you're not, you're not making any, any of your enclosures. And so you have to really plan ahead. And like.swyx [00:50:48]: I just want to leave tips for other hardware founders. Like what resources or websites are most helpful in your sort of manufacturing journey?Ethan [00:50:55]: You know, I think it's different depending on like it's hardware so specialized in different ways.Maria [00:51:00]: I will say that, for example, I should choose a manufacturer company. I speak with other founders and like we can give you like some, you know, some tips of who is good and who is not, or like who's specialized in something versus somebody else. Yeah.Ethan [00:51:15]: Like some people are good in plastics. Some people are good.Maria [00:51:18]: I think like for us, it really helped at the beginning to speak with others and understand. Okay. Like who is around. I work in Shenzhen. I lived almost two years in China. I have an idea about like different hardware manufacturer and all of that. Soon I will go back to Shenzhen to check out. So I think it's good also to go in place and check.Ethan [00:51:40]: Yeah, you have to like once you, if you, so we did some stuff domestically and like if you have that ability. The reason I say ability is very expensive, but like to build out some proof of concepts and do field testing before you take it to a manufacturer, despite what people say, there's really good domestic manufacturing for small quantities at extremely high prices. So we got our first PCB and the assembly done in LA. So there's a lot of good because of the defense industry that can do quick churn. So it's like, we need this board. We need to find out if it's working. We have this deadline we want to start, but you need to go through this. And like if you want to have it done and fabricated in a week, they can do it for a price. But I think, you know, everybody's kind of trending even for prototyping now moving that offshore because in China you can do prototyping and get it within almost the same timeline. But the thing is with manufacturing, like it really helps to go there and kind of establish the relationship. Yeah.Alessio [00:52:38]: My first company was a hardware company and we did our PCBs in China and took a long time. Now things are better. But this was, yeah, I don't know, 10 years ago, something like that. Yeah.Ethan [00:52:47]: I think that like the, and I've heard this too, we didn't run into this problem, but like, you know, if it's something where you don't have the relationship, they don't see you, they don't know you, you know, you might get subcontracted out or like they're not paying attention. But like if you're, you know, you have the relationship and a priority, like, yeah, it's really good. We ended up doing the fabrication assembly in Taiwan for various reasons.Maria [00:53:11]: And I think it really helped the fact that you went there at some point. Yeah.Ethan [00:53:15]: We're really happy with the process and, but I mean the whole process of just Choosing the right people. Choosing the right people, but also just sourcing the bill materials and all of that stuff. Like, I guess like if you have time, it's not that bad, but if you're trying to like really push the speed at that, it's incredibly stressful. Okay. We got to move to the software. Yeah.Alessio [00:53:38]: Yeah. So the hardware, maybe it's hard for people to understand, but what software people can understand is that running. Transcription and summarization, all of these things in real time every day for 24 hours a day. It's not easy. So you mentioned 200,000 tokens for a day. Yeah. How do you make it basically free to run all of this for the consumer?Ethan [00:53:59]: Well, I think that the pipeline and the inference, like people think about all of these tokens, but as you know, the price of tokens is like dramatically dropping. You guys probably have some charts somewhere that you've posted. We do. And like, if you see that trend in like 250,000 input tokens, it's not really that much, right? Like the output.swyx [00:54:21]: You do several layers. You do live. Yeah.Ethan [00:54:23]: Yeah. So the speech to text is like the most challenging part actually, because you know, it requires like real time processing and then like later processing with a larger model. And one thing that is fairly obvious is that like, you don't need to transcribe things that don't have any voice in it. Right? So good voice activity is key, right? Because like the majority of most people's day is not spent with voice activity. Right? So that is the first step to cutting down the amount of compute you have to do. And voice activity is a fairly cheap thing to do. Very, very cheap thing to do. The models that need to summarize, you don't need a Sonnet level kind of model to summarize. You do need a Sonnet level model to like execute things like the agent. And we will be having a subscription for like features like that because it's, you know, although now with the R1, like we'll see, we haven't evaluated it. A deep seek? Yeah. I mean, not that one in particular, but like, you know, they're already there that can kind of perform at that level. I was like, it's going to stay in six months, but like, yeah. So self-hosted models help in the things where you can. So you are self-hosting models. Yes. You are fine tuning your own ASR. Yes. I will say that I see in the future that everything's trending down. Although like, I think there might be an intermediary step with things to become expensive, which is like, we're really interested because like the pipeline is very tedious and like a lot of tuning. Right. Which is brutal because it's just a lot of trial and error. Whereas like, well, wouldn't it be nice if an end to end model could just do all of this and learn it? If we could do transcription with like an LLM, there's so many advantages to that, but it's going to be a larger model and hence like more compute, you know, we're optim

Continuous innovation, global expansion and industrial upgrade will empower Chinese companies to counter rising protectionism and geopolitical tensions this year, driving foreign trade growth and reinforcing China's global competitiveness, said market observers and exporters.市场观察人士和出口商表示，持续创新、全球扩张和产业升级将使中国企业在今年能够应对日益加剧的保护主义和地缘政治紧张局势，推动外贸增长，增强中国的全球竞争力。Despite challenges, China's foreign trade remains resilient, adapting to an increasingly complex global landscape shaped by the United States' new tariff policies, supply chain disruptions, and regulatory uncertainties in certain countries, they added.他们补充道，尽管面临挑战，中国外贸依然保持韧性，不断适应日益复杂的全球格局。这一格局是由美国新关税政策、供应链中断以及某些国家监管不确定性等因素导致的。Zhang Xiaotao, dean of the School of International Trade and Economics at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, said that as a major player in global trade, China has accumulated extensive experience in navigating international political and economic shifts over the past decade.北京中央财经大学国际贸易与经济学院院长张晓涛表示，过去十年里，中国作为全球贸易的主要参与者，在应对国际政治和经济变迁中积累了丰富经验。"Foreign trade companies have already seen positive results from their strategic adjustments to tackle headwinds, including building new factories and overseas warehouses in countries such as Thailand, Hungary, the US and Brazil, as well as increasing investment in research and development," Zhang said.张晓涛说：“外贸企业已通过战略调整来应对逆风，并取得了积极成果，包括在泰国、匈牙利、美国、巴西等国建设新工厂和海外仓库，以及加大对研发的投入。”Denis Depoux, global managing director at German management consultancy Roland Berger, said that China is now increasingly recognized for its high-value, technologically advanced products, including electric vehicles, solar cells and liquefied natural gas carriers, as it moves up the value chain to drive export growth.德国管理咨询公司罗兰贝格全球董事总经理丹尼斯·德普克斯表示，随着中国在价值链上攀升以推动出口增长，其高价值、高技术产品正越来越受到认可，包括电动汽车、太阳能电池、液化天然气运输船等。Chinese companies exporting high-value products include Narwal, a manufacturer of household robots based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. The company saw the number of its export markets expand from less than 10 in 2023 to over 30 last year, covering multiple regions and countries including North America, Europe, Australia and Japan.广东省深圳市家用机器人制造商云鲸是出口高价值产品的中国企业之一。该公司产品出口市场从2023年不到10个扩展到2024年的30多个，覆盖北美、欧洲、澳大利亚、日本等多个地区和国家。"We will continue to invest in multiple fields such as 3D perception, artificial intelligence solutions, binocular vision technologies and big data applications to win more orders," said Zhang Junbin, the company's founder.公司创始人张峻彬说：“我们将继续在三维感知、人工智能解决方案、双目视觉技术、大数据应用等多个领域进行投资，以赢得更多订单。”Li Lizhong, sales director at Zhejiang Yueli Electrical Co, a home appliances manufacturer based in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, said the company's personal care products, such as hair dryers and curling irons, previously targeted the US and Western Europe markets.浙江省宁波市家电制造商浙江月立电器有限公司销售总监李立中表示，该公司的个人护理产品（如吹风机和卷发棒）此前主要销往美国和西欧市场。"However, our exports to these traditional markets have been impacted by the US tariff hike and the Russia-Ukraine conflict in recent years," he said, adding that the company has launched more intelligent, eco-friendly home appliances to expand into markets in Central and Eastern Europe, and economies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.他说：“但近年来，我们面向这些传统市场的出口受到了美国关税上调和俄乌冲突的影响。”他补充道，公司已推出更多智能、环保的家电产品，以拓展中东欧市场以及参与“一带一路”倡议的经济体市场。Data from Ningbo Customs showed that Zhejiang Yueli's hair dryer exports reached 602 million yuan ($82.4 million) in 2024, marking a 6.3 percent year-on-year increase, while the company's exports in this category to Central and Eastern Europe totaled 45.46 million yuan, up 39.2 percent compared with 2023.据宁波海关数据显示，2024年，浙江月立公司的吹风机出口额达6.02亿元人民币（8240万美元），同比增长6.3%，其中面向中东欧市场的出口额为4546万元人民币，较2023年增长39.2%。Li said the increasing penetration of the internet in Central and Eastern Europe has allowed e-commerce to expand at a remarkable pace in countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania. The company's cross-border e-commerce exports emerged as a key growth driver after it deployed resources in this business segment in the region, he added.李立中表示，由于中东欧地区互联网日益普及，波兰、捷克、罗马尼亚等国的电子商务迅速扩张。他补充道，月立公司在该地区部署资源后，跨境电商出口已成为其关键的增长动力。As China continued to enhance its high-value export portfolio and deepen its market presence in emerging economies, the nation's foreign trade rose 5 percent year-on-year to reach a record high of 43.85 trillion yuan in 2024, according to the General Administration of Customs.据海关总署数据，中国不断优化高价值出口产品的结构，巩固在新兴市场的地位，2024年中国外贸总值达到43.85万亿元人民币，同比增长5%，规模再创历史新高。Meanwhile, China's mechanical and electrical product exports grew 8.7 percent year-on-year, accounting for 59.4 percent of the country's total exports. Last year, the country's EV exports rose 13.1 percent compared with 2023, while its 3D printer exports increased 32.8 percent and industrial robot exports surged 45.2 percent.同时，中国机电产品出口同比增长8.7%，占中国出口总值的59.4%。2024年，中国电动汽车出口同比增长13.1%，3D打印机出口增长32.8%，工业机器人出口增长45.2%。Lan Qingxin, a professor at the School of International Trade and Economics of the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said the restructuring of global supply chains and protectionist moves in certain countries have pushed Chinese companies to adapt and leverage their strong manufacturing and technological capabilities.北京对外经济贸易大学国际经济贸易学院教授蓝庆新表示，全球供应链重组、某些国家的保护主义举措,促使中国企业调整并利用自身强大的制造能力和技术能力。By responding innovatively to these changes, the companies can meet market needs in other emerging economies, thereby enhancing their competitiveness and expanding their global presence, said Lan.蓝庆新说，企业通过不断创新来应对这些变化，可以满足其他新兴市场的需求，从而提升竞争力并扩大全球影响力。A Chinese business delegation, organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, departed on Monday for Kazakhstan to explore new opportunities for economic and trade exchanges.2月10日，由中国国际贸易促进委员会组织的中国经贸代表团赴哈萨克斯坦，探索经贸交流新机遇。During the four-day trip, the delegation, comprising representatives of more than 30 Chinese companies across industries such as petrochemicals and machinery manufacturing, hopes to sign several cooperation agreements and foster mutually beneficial outcomes.本次代表团由来自石油化工、机械制造等领域的30多家中国企业代表组成，开展为期四天的交流活动，希望签署多项合作协议，实现互利共赢。warehousen.货仓，仓库hiken.（价格或费用的大幅）提高，增加

This week as we enter the Year of the Snake, Sinica co-founder Jeremy Goldkorn makes a re-appearance on the show. It's been a year since his last, and much has changed — and indeed, if Jeremy is right, we may be at an inflection point in American attitudes toward China. With the "TikTok Refugees" on Xiaohongshu or "RedNote" taking in a view of China that contrasts starkly with the image presented by the U.S. Government and by many American media outlets, and with DeepSeek now having upended some ideas about American tech primacy, the "vibes" on China among young people seem to have changed for the better. Will it endure? Jeremy and I plunge into that question on this week's episode of the Sinica Podcast.2:55 – What Jeremy has been up to lately 4:19 – What has been driving the recent narrative/vibe shift in China discourse in the U.S., and why human rights rhetoric around Xinjiang has died down 14:11 – Whether the narrative/vibe shift will be long-lasting and the role of young people in driving it 23:06 – Predictions for future changes within China29:40 – The concern that the narrative/vibe shift could go too far, or that the copium will overwhelm the positive of the shift 33:24 – Previous narrative shifts around freedom of speech, the internet, and China, and technological innovation 43:57 – What recent developments reveal about Chinese soft power, and Jeremy's predictions for how everything will play out 49:34 – Whether the narrative/vibe shift will change how American politicians talk about China, and the Chinese government has reacted to the shift so farPaying It Forward: Savannah Billman's Career China email newsletter Recommendations:Jeremy: Paul Cooper's Fall of Civilizations podcast series; David Kidd's Peking Story: The Last Days of Old China; and The 404's podcast interview with a PornHub exec (which includes discussion of real-name registration requirements) Kaiser: The TV miniseries American Primeval (2025) on Netflix; and Paul Triolo's Substack See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

While the mainstream headlines often focus on the Magnificent Seven, we're diving into a global powerhouse that often flies under the radar — Tencent. Based in Shenzhen, China, Tencent is a giant in gaming, social media, and cloud services. From the creation of WeChat—a super-app with over a billion monthly users—to investments in companies like Tesla, Spotify, and Snapchat, Tencent's story is one of relentless innovation and strategic dominance.  Since its IPO in 2004, shares of Tencent have increased by nearly 500 times, producing an average annual return of 35% per year. To help cover the story of Tencent, Clay will be sharing what he learned from the book Influence Empire by Lulu Chen. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN: 00:00 - Intro 01:54 - Tencent's journey from IPO to becoming a global tech powerhouse. 05:28 - Lessons from Pony Ma's leadership and Tencent's strategic vision. 18:33 - How Tencent's investments shaped global tech innovation and growth. 31:12 - The evolution and impact of WeChat as a transformative super-app. 49:11 - Insights into Tencent's dominance in the gaming industry. 57:15 - Challenges of navigating Chinese regulations and political risks. 01:08:47 - Tencent's role in AI, cloud services, and strategic share buybacks. And so much more! Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences. BOOKS AND RESOURCES Join the exclusive TIP Mastermind Community to engage in meaningful stock investing discussions with Stig, Clay, Kyle, and the other community members. Chen's book: Influence Empire. Email Shawn at shawn@theinvestorspodcast.com to attend our free events in Omaha or visit this page. Related Episode: Listen to TIP661: Betting Big on China & Lessons from Bear Markets w/ Richard Lawrence. Related Episode: Listen to TIP636: Billionaire Investing Legend Li Lu w/ Clay Finck. Related Episode: Listen to TIP682: Buffett's Early Investments. Follow Clay on Twitter. Check out all the books mentioned and discussed in our podcast episodes here. Enjoy ad-free episodes when you subscribe to our Premium Feed. NEW TO THE SHOW? Get smarter about valuing businesses in just a few minutes each week through our newsletter, The Intrinsic Value Newsletter. Check out our We Study Billionaires Starter Packs. Follow our official social media accounts: X (Twitter) | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok. Browse through all our episodes (complete with transcripts) here. Try our tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: TIP Finance Tool. Enjoy exclusive perks from our favorite Apps and Services. Learn how to better start, manage, and grow your business with the best business podcasts. SPONSORS Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors: Found Netsuite Unchained Vanta The Bitcoin Way Fintool PrizePicks TurboTax HELP US OUT! Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Spotify! It takes less than 30 seconds, and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it! Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm

Happy Chinese New Year! This week, while I'm decompressing from 10 days in the Alps, my friends at the Asia Society of Switzerland have graciously offered to let me share a podcast recorded just after the U.S. presidential election in November at their annual State of Asia event. "The State of China" features three terrific guests: Wang Qing (王卿), the host of the popular Chinese podcast "The Weirdo" (不合时宜), Zichen Wang of the Center for China and Globalization, and Adam Tooze, one of the truly great public intellectuals of our time. It's all skillfully moderated by the South China Morning Post's Europe editor, Finbarr Bermingham, and it covers a lot of ground. I'll be back next week in conversation with my dear friend Jeremy Goldkorn, and we'll be asking (and answering) the big question — Are we in the middle of a narrative shift on China?May the Year of the Snake be prosperous and full of happiness and success for all you Sinica listeners!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Daily Quiz - Geography Today's Questions: Question 1: Which Country Has The Longest Coastline? Question 2: Which of these cities is in Japan? Question 3: What is the capital city of Spain? Question 4: In which country is the city of Shenzhen? Question 5: The world's first leaning skyscrapers, Puerto de Europa, can be found in which country? Question 6: Which of these cities is in South Korea? Question 7: Which California city was a whaling port in the mid-1800s and is located 12 miles north of Mexico? Question 8: In which country would you find the city of Saint Petersburg? Question 9: Which of these cities is in Taiwan? This podcast is produced by Klassic Studios Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, I bring you the first in a series of podcasts in conjunction with the China Research Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The series, titled "Studying China in the Absence of Access: Rediscovering a Lost Art," ran from September to November 2021, and featured four eminent "Pekingologists," or specialists in Chinese elite politics: Joseph Fewsmith, Thomas Fingar, Alice Miller, and Fred Teiwes. The talks were later published in a volume you can download here. The series is introduced by Andrew Mertha, George and Sadie Hyman, Professor of China Studies and director of the SAIS China Research Center, and each lecture includes a moderated discussion with Andy. After this series, I'll also be sharing with you a second series of lectures titled "Studying China from Elsewhere," which will include talks by Maria Repnikova, Mike Lampton, William Hurst, and Maggie Lewis — many of whom Sinica listeners will know from the show.This week's talk is from FrederickTeiwes, truly a legend in the field. The American-born Australian sinologist is best known for his analysis of Chinese Communist Party elite politics. He served as a professor emeritus in Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney until his retirement in 2006. Teiwes has frequently collaborated with Warren Sun, producing seminal works such as The Tragedy of Lin Biao (1996) and China's Road to Disaster: Mao, Central Politicians and Provincial Leaders in the Great Leap Forward, 1955-59 (1999). In this talk, he focuses on forthcoming work on the transition following Mao Zedong's death in 1976.Great thanks to Andy and to Hasta Colman, who first suggested this collaboration when we met in Shanghai recently.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

International conferences are back and they're bigger and better than ever! What do conferences and tradeshows of the future look like?In this episode of Associations Thrive, host Joanna Pineda interviews Sven Bossu, CEO, of the International Association of Convention Centres (AIPC). Sven discusses:How AIPC represents 200 convention centers across 60 countries.AIPC's membership growth in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, which is driven by economic expansion and changing market dynamics.Sven's journey to becoming CEO of AIPC in May of 2020 during the pandemic, when 95% of members were shut down.How during the pandemic, convention centers pivoted to support communities as hospitals, testing centers, vaccination hubs, and even creative spaces like drive-in cinemas.AIPC's “Future Shapers” leadership program, focused on cultivating top talent through leadership training, mentorship, and real-world challenges. Participants present innovative solutions at the annual conference.AIPC's “Regional Academies,” which are globally accessible, five-day boot camps for middle management, emphasizing practical skills like crisis management and conflict resolution.AIPC's “Quality standards” certification program, which helps convention centers in developing regions overcome perceptions of being “inferior” markets.AIPC's upcoming annual conference in Shenzhen, China will highlight cutting-edge technology and ambitious practices in the convention space. The conference will be held in the world's largest conference center, covering 400,000 square meters, and with two separate subway stations underneath.How events are shifting from traditional formats to unique, immersive experiences with flexible layouts, natural light, and a focus on sustainability.References:AIPC WebsiteFuture ShapersMusic from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/zoo/clarity

After visiting a conference recently, a friend of mine told me about a place in where all of the biggest Amazon Sellers (and all the black hat tactics came from) in China congregate: China's New South City. In this episode, Dave talks about his visit to New South City in China, what he found while he was there, and why this place exists.  Let's be real – email marketing isn't flashy, but that's what makes it great. Who needs chaos when you can have steady, reliable results? That's where Omnisend email and SMS comes in. Check it out today and use code ECOMCREW. Ever heard of China South City? It's where all of the top Chinese Amazon sellers congregate and work together. This is also the place where Chinese black hat Amazon tactics comes from.  Dave decides to visit China South City during a recent trip to Asia, and shares what he found, some insider information that he found out about after talking to sellers there, and some of the black hat tactics Chinese sellers are using.  The Big Takeaway: China South City is a massive hub of the biggest Chinese Amazon sellers in Shenzhen, China. Chinese sellers are getting subsidies from the government to encourage exports into other countries. Having all sellers within the same area also encourages collaboration and networking among sellers, unlike in the US or the West in general. Chinese sellers inspect a higher percentage of their products more than Western sellers. Many Chinese sellers operate multiple Amazon accounts for security reasons. The 2021 Amazon ban wave had a significant impact on Chinese sellers; reducing China's overall trust in Amazon. Because of the ban wave, Chinese sellers are also diversifying their sales channels beyond Amazon. Temu is starting to become one of the key places for growth among Chinese sellers. Live selling is a major trend in China, with dedicated studios for streaming in each floor. Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction to China South City 02:53 - The Structure and Purpose of China South City 06:10 - The Community of Amazon Sellers 09:00 - Operational Strategies of Chinese Sellers 11:52 - Challenges Faced by Chinese Sellers 14:45 - The Impact of Amazon's Account Suspension Sweep 18:05 - Tactics and Strategies of Chinese Sellers 20:57 - Diversification Beyond Amazon 23:47 - The Rise of Live Selling in China 27:12 - Conclusion and Final Thoughts As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested.  Don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can.  Thanks for listening! Until next time, happy selling!

I wanted to put this out quickly as it's one of those rare, news-pegged episodes of the show. The full show notes and transcript will be available later this week. I know I'd said last time there would be no show this week, but that was before this fascinating episode involving TikTok users signing up en masse to Xiaohongshu. Hilarity ensued, and my two guests — Ivy Yang, who runs Wavelet Strategy, an expert in cross-cultural communication, and David Fishman, Shanghai-based senior manager at Lantau Group who specializes in the Chinese energy sector and writes wonderfully about his excursions into the Chinese countryside. They've both been following this fascinating episode closely and have really smart things to say, so enjoy!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I'm joined by Lizzi Lee, fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute and by my lights one of the most astute, well-informed people writing on China in the English-speaking world today. She has fascinating perspectives on China's preparations for the Trump administration, on China's reluctance to roll out large-scale cash stimulus, and Xi Jinping's challenges. Don't miss this one! (I will update the show notes and publish the transcript early next week — thanks for your patience!)3:39 – Lizzi's argument from her op-ed, “Counting the Hawks in the Trump 2.0 Administration is Pointless”: the importance of which country will be able to get its act together 10:25 – U.S.-China competition as a long game, from China's perspective14:22 – How China views the current state of division in American politics19:00 – The main risks and opportunities for China presented by Trump's return, including opportunities in the geopolitical realm with the Europeans 28:09 – The state of China's domestic economy33:28 – Counterarguments to critiques of China's cautious deployment of stimulus, and where Lizzi stands on the issue 43:46 – Lizzi's thoughts on deflation in the Chinese economy 49:30 – The idea of accepting short-term pain for long-term gain in economic recovery 53:59 – Xi Jinping's vision for China's economy 58:46 – How Xi Jinping's ideological language can be challenging for officials and markets 1:03:57 – How China's political calendar has hindered execution of policy 1:06:42 – What Lizzi thinks the Chinese leadership should prioritize nowPaying it Forward: Lizzi recommends the work of Barclay Bram, especially his series on Chinese youth at the Asia Society here.Recommendations:Lizzi: Grazia Ting Deng's book Chinese Espresso: Contested Race and Convivial Space in Contemporary ItalyKaiser: More historical fiction by Robert Harris, including An Officer and a Spy and Munich.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I speak with Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld, both investigative reporters at the New York Times, about a series of stories they've done, stretching between August and December 2024, on the Falun Gong-run performance troupe Shen Yun, and the Falun Gong-affiliated newspaper The Epoch Times. Read the latest two articles in that series here and here. There will be links to the other stories on the transcript page.4:33 – Nicole and Michael's collection of pieces on Falun Gong 6:26 – Background on [the?] Falun Gong: Li Hongzhi, the context out of which the movement emerged, its international spread, and the CCP's crackdown in the '90s12:00 – Shen Yun performances, and audience reactions 18:46 – Following the money: Falun Gong's dramatic financial growth, gray areas, and where the money goes 29:03 – Spiritual project or big grift?31:39 – What Nicole and Michael uncovered 36:23 – Memorable individuals: Chang Chun-ko, Kate the performer, and Josh the violinist41:10 – The dynamics within [the?] Falun Gong, and what has been alleged45:34 – The Epoch Times, and their editorial changes 53:02 – The appeal of Falun Gong, and the level of scrutiny it getsPaying It Forward:Nicole: Researchers/freelancers/translators Yi Liu and Peiyue Wu Michael: New York Times colleague Susan Beachy Recommendations:Nicole: Connie: A Memoir by Connie Chung Michael: Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel; One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (and the new One Hundred Years of Solitude TV series (2024)); and the TV series Gomorrah (2014-2021)Kaiser: TikTok accounts workplace_doodles (a former Shen Yun performer born into a Falun Gong family) and cocolarkincooks (a fantastic cooking resource)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, we're giving you the best Amazon and Walmart strategy clips of 2024 so that you can start off 2025 with a leg up on your competition. ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Welcome to this special annual recap episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast, where we bring you the most impactful strategies from the past year to give your e-commerce business a competitive edge in 2025. Join us as we explore the essentials of selecting verified manufacturers and the importance of third-party verification in ensuring accurate information. We'll discuss the advantages of trade assurance for payment protection and the significance of management certifications like BSCI and ISO, which indicate high-quality factory standards and social compliance. Additionally, we touch on regional manufacturing specializations, exemplified by the production of egg dispensers, and the importance of measuring the halo impact of ad strategies on total sales and rankings using metrics like TACoS and cost per customer acquisition. Listen in as we discuss strategies for international Amazon success, highlighting a thriving American brand's expansion into Amazon Japan. We'll explore the strategic benefits of entering the Japanese market, such as lower PPC costs and favorable tax conditions, which contribute to higher profit margins. Patience, quality products, and strong supplier relationships are emphasized as key differentiators from competitors. We also explore optimizing Amazon PPC campaigns with lifecycle-based rules and the power of using index images with numbered benefits to effectively communicate value in product listings. Discover effective strategies for online marketplaces as we recount past challenges and successes in sourcing and selling products in the U.S. market. Learn about creative approaches to finding less visible suppliers and the importance of clear communication and relationship-building. We also highlight the effectiveness of Target's marketplace and the strategic advantages of being indexed on Google to enhance Amazon rankings. Finally, we'll cover the critical importance of using correct HTS codes to avoid costly import tariff mistakes, sharing a personal experience that led to significant cost savings. Tune in and equip yourself with these valuable insights to kick off 2025 strong. In episode 628 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, we discuss: 00:00 - SSP Top 20 Strategies of 2024 02:02 - Selecting Verified Manufacturers for Trust 09:53 - Keyword Analysis and Visibility Tracking 12:25 - Strategies for International Amazon Success 19:36 - Effective Strategies for Online Marketplaces 20:06 - Leveraging Google for Business Growth 23:43 - Optimizing Amazon Listings for Google Images 25:40 - Optimizing Amazon Listings for Sales 32:12 - Enhancing Amazon Listings With COSMO 33:29 - Avoiding Costly Import Tariff Mistakes Transcript   Bradley Sutton: Today we're giving you the best strategy clips of the year so that you can start off 2025 with a leg up on your competition. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That's a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And, like we do every year and we have been doing this since we started in what was it 2018, 2019? we do a recap episode where I handpick some of the best strategies of the entire year. Every year, we go through about 100 episodes a year, not including the weekly buzz, where we have a lot of guests and everybody has great strategies. It's really hard to pick some of the top ones, but what I did is me and the team got together and pulled out some of the top strategies that you guys had talked about in social media and such that you liked, and we put it together so that you could get a leg up on the competition now that we're at the beginning here of 2025.   Bradley Sutton: And so these are strategies that are not out of date. They're still valid. There are some that already, within a few months, became out of date. They're still valid. There are some that already, within a few months, became out of date. We're not including them here. So, guys, I hope you enjoy this episode. Get your pen and paper out. I want each and every one of you to make it your homework to pick five, at least five of these that we're about to get. I think we're doing about 20 here, but do five that most apply to you and your business. Not everything applies to everybody equally. Pick five out of these and implement it this month in your business, or at least make a plan for it. All right, so let's go ahead and see the top strategies of the year.   Kian Golzari: So the first thing you did was you selected verified manufacturers. And what's that for? It means any information that they provide on their listing, whether it be number of years in business, how many staff they have, what certificates they have, what patents they have, what products they have, what does their production line look like, the images and videos in the factory. That's all been verified by a third party, meaning InterTech, SGS, TUV. One of these very reputable companies have gone in and verified all the information is true, whereas if we didn't work with verified suppliers, then whatever information they want to put there, we just have to sort of take their word for it. So verified is the most important thing to search for first. Then, on the left-hand side of the page, you'll see trade assurance right, I would always click that as well and trade assurance just means that your payment is protected. So if you've ordered an egg dispenser which holds, you know, 20 eggs and you do the production and you receive one which only holds 10 eggs, then the trade assurance will protect you and it will refund your order because you've selected that right. That's just a little bit of a safety net important for, like you know, new sellers, right. And then, as you scroll down on the left-hand side of the page, you'll see something that says management certification, right. And if you scroll down a little bit more, yeah. So you see like BSCI and you see Zedek, you see ISO. I always like to select BSCI and ISO. So BSCI is your business social compliance initiative and ISO is just a really high-quality standard and this just basically means these are factory certificates that they have. So, uh, BSCI will go in and they'll check, like you know, um how many years you've been in business. Do you have, like, fire extinguishers? Do you have adequate lighting? Do you have safety exits? Like we've checked the dormitories, we've checked like the canteen where the workers eat. So it's kind of like gives you confidence that you're working for a very, very good factory, right. So now, if we go back to the top of the list, right, we've. Now we've searched by manufacturers, we've got verified manufacturers, we've got trade assurance and we've got factories which have, you know, BSCI and ISO certification. So now, as I'm scrolling down the list, like if you zoom in on the company names, like the first word in the company name is always the city or the province in which that factory is located.   Kian Golzari: So sometimes, like the factories, like electronics are made in Shenzhen, backpacks are normally made in like Shenzhou. Like furniture, like steel tubing for furniture, chairs is made like Yongkang. So I'm just trying to get familiar. Is there an area which specializes in egg dispensers? Maybe not because it's such a niche product, right, that maybe you could make it, make it anywhere. But as I scroll down, I'm trying to see, like, is there one name that pops up more frequent than others and in that area which specializes in that product? But I see Ningbo has probably popped up a few times, right? So, but anyway, it doesn't matter. If Ningbo had popped out like eight out of nine times, I would say, right, well, that's the region we need to be ordering from.   Bradley Sutton: Interesting.   Gefen Laredo: You know ACOS is great, but obviously this is TACoS Tuesday and TACoS is the metric of your total sales.   Carrie Miller: Yes.   Gefen Laredo: And so when we're looking at total sales something that we brought in and I know it's a little vague, but we really looked at the halo impact of ad strategies and how they impacted ranking and total sales, right. And so when we focused our ad strategy, maybe on a cost per customer acquisition model, maybe on a TACoS model, and we look to really prioritize, hey, where are we showing up, right? So, if, if, if we're driving all this traffic and we have a 20 percent conversion rate, let's say, on this keyword, are we tracking using, using uh, using a Helium 10, of course, um, are we tracking that ranking properly? To say, hey, we started running these ads aggressively on August 1st and if we have been tracking ranking on that keyword for the last two months since going aggressive on that term, where are we ranking now and how have sales changed? and are there broader KPIs that we're measuring outside of just direct ad revenue? And that worked really well for us because we centered that around tentpole events and this is a really big strategy of ours. That is incredibly complex, it takes a whole village to actually execute. But when we focus our customer acquisition and ranking models around major times in the year so think Prime Day, think Fall, Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, holiday and then, of course, if you're a one-off brand, if you I don't know are ski related, then obviously your season is January to March. You know like there are differences, but really peak seasons. If you're able to focus your growth model around the times that are going to give you the most reward, then that worked really well for us last year and we expect to see a lot more of that this year, especially as we all expect people are going to be more deal oriented. It's a constant battle for margins, so the better rank you are, the more organic sales you drive, the better your TACoS is.   Ben Webber:                           Several years ago we were about to stock out of as you know, we sell a lot of fourth quarter products and kind of joke toy products and we're about to stock out of one that we sold between 800 and 1000 units a day of which is a fairly substantial issue. So we actually loaded up a cargo van and drove the cargo van to Amazon, talked our way through the front gates to deliver it and they took it, and so we did that once, then we did it again and we got through again. The third time they're like no, you can't do this, and so like okay, but somehow, like no, you, you can't do this, and so like okay, but somehow, we have to be able to do this. So we looked into carrier central and figure out how we could become a last mile rider, which is incredibly easy it takes about 15 minutes to fill out a form and then you have to show that you can back in and out of a parking spot incredibly, incredibly easy. But so in that January we bought a truck and the rest is history from there. But it came about because we were about to stock out and panicked and we're like, well, what's the worst that can happen?   Silas Moestrup Pedersen: And one of the things that I recommend to every time that we have a new client or meet someone is to narrow in on fewer skills. It sounds quite simple, right, but what we do every time is that if you have a big catalog A, B, C and D products and then A products they get a special treatment compared to B, C and D. It could even be, if your catalog is massive, you only focus your ad spend on A products. Same thing from a content perspective. Those are the ones that get the most love in terms of title, bullet point, backend attributes, et cetera, descriptions. So it's just having that focus on fewer products, I think, is number one. Then, if you can automate your reporting, we have that in Looker automated so that you don't have to necessarily sit and look at the data and pull Excel spreadsheets et cetera it just saves you so much time. If you're capable of doing it and spending time on it, then I think. Thirdly, we talked a little bit about it, but I think taking the time to do super solid keyword research from the get-go Like get into Magnet, get into Amazon's data sources, get into Cerebro, look for all your competitors' keywords et cetera understand what those A keywords are, and those A keywords are the only thing that you focus on in the start. Those are the ones that go into your rank campaigns, that they go into your manual campaigns, et cetera, and that those are the ones that just like where you track everything through Like a little hack could be for your A products. Every week you use a repro. Every other week you put in your A product and then you export all the data for that. You take a spreadsheet. In column A you say this is the date when I pulled the. This is the date of either. I pulled the data, this is the ASIN you put in the ASIN that you pulled the data for. Then you make a formula.   Silas Moestrup Pedersen: You can just ask ChatGPT where, based on the paid and organic rank, you say whether you classified the keyword as being on page one, two, three or four, and then you pull this data in this way every single week for maybe two months when you're running a new test or something like that. You take all the data, you put it into a pivot table and boom, then you would have an overview and a graph of how many like your all your page one, two, three, four positions across your entire catalog and you could even put a filter on up in the top and then you can sort by ASIN and then you basically have your own visibility tool where you can see your paid on your organic visibility on a weekly level at an Asian level. And you can use that to take all those keywords If you're ranking let's say page three or two or something like that put them into a rank campaign. If you feel like they're good, you can take all the keywords where you're on page two, maybe put them in the title, et cetera. So, like building those systems, that allows you to scale something consistently.   Bradley Sutton:                           What was your gross sales yesterday, last week, last year? More importantly, what are your profits after all your cost of selling on Amazon? Did you pay any storage charges to Amazon? How much did you spend on PPC? Find out these key metrics and more by using the Helium 10 tool Profits. For more information, go to h10.me forward slash profits.   Cara Sayer: So one of the biggest things was the fact that I do think a lot of Amazon sellers don't really have a brand. They just have a name for a business or a name for something that they use and they don't really have a what I'd call a true brand. And they don't always. I think sometimes also, existing only on Amazon makes you lose perspective on you know how normal businesses work, like businesses that aren't based on Amazon, and so you know a lot of businesses. I mean, I think throughout life, people buy from people and I think that's so important to remember that, even on Amazon, one of the reasons why Amazon focuses so heavily on A plus listings and now they're bringing in the premium A plus and all the rest of it because Amazon knows right. You know me quite a few years now and I've always banged on about brand. I've always banged on about having a story. Tell your story. It doesn't have to be your story necessarily, it could be the product story, but you need to have something that differentiates you. And even then, I was chatting to someone at the conference earlier on and I was saying the thing is that sometimes it's not even the fact that you're selling different products, it's the way that you curate them right. So it's the collection of products that you've chosen to sell under your brand name says something.   Nick Katz: So one of our clients is an international brand. They're an American registered company and they last year they cleared seven figures and we're definitely looking to do a lot more this year. That's in two years. They're doing very, very well in America, they sell in Europe and they sell in Canada. But the Japanese sales are now almost comparable to the to the us sales, but the profit margins are a lot higher.   Bradley Sutton:                           That was about my second question.   Nick Katz: Yeah, because you know things like the PPC is a hell of a lot cheaper. The ACOS for the account is about uh, I think it's about eight, nine percent now. The TACoS is about three or four percent. It's the kind of figures you can't really get in the US. So actually in theory you could sell a lot less in Japan and still end up with the same kind of profit as you could in the US. But obviously if you're getting sales close to the US you're probably going to have much, much higher margins. Japan generally is cheaper. It's cheaper tax as well if you are off the threshold to pay tax. But if you're under 10 million yen, which is probably about 60,000, 70,000 US, if you're under that in sales, you don't have to pay consumption tax. There is no tax. So anybody like me selling in Europe who gets absolutely lost by the tax authorities there, paying 19, 20, 21, 23% in some of the regions in Europe, you could be selling 50, 60,000 US in Japan and not have to pay any consumption tax whatsoever. So there are definite advantages to selling in Japan.   Bradley Sutton: What are some of the things that set you apart from maybe the 10 other matcha people who maybe have started and gone out of business, you know, because they didn't have your strategy? What do you think set you apart from others?   Sam: Well, I think a handful of things. The first one is okay, so I think you can use. You can rely on Amazon PPC. You can look at your search term impression share reports, you can look at your keyword ranking and all that kind of stuff and that will help you in the short run. But honestly, the thing that really helped us the most was patience and making sure that your product is on a sensory level it's actually good and people like it. Once you have those two things covered, then you just need to get people to try it, get them to tell their friends, and then their friends who are interested in Marchable buy. Then they are buying again and then this whole thing kind of grows by itself. Your PPC and all of these other tools that you have are really just like fuel that you add to this engine.   Singchuen: And on the other side of things is, obviously you kind of need to make sure that you treat your suppliers well as well. Make sure that they understand what you're going through and make sure that you try to understand what they're going through. If language is a barrier, hire an interpreter, right, it's not too difficult. Decency goes both ways. So you may be pressed, but you've got to recognize that the factories themselves, they are pressed as well. So working together for a compromise, understanding each other and not throwing too much Just to be a little bit more understanding towards each other, goes a long way. A bit more understanding towards each other goes a long way. I think what tends to happen is that if you're not patient, as Sam has mentioned, you may cut off communications with factories that may help you in the future, and you don't want to do that.   Destaney Wishon: I think the biggest things that we look at is we create rules for the different outcomes we want. If we're launching a brand-new product, then we're creating rules that are based off sales. So we're going to be taking a deep dive into, hey, what is the conversion rate and what is the sales? And we're going to build rules for maximizing that increased bid when I have a certain conversion rate. On the flip side, if our goal is profitability, we're going to work backwards from our ACOS or RoAS goal. We're going to say, hey, let's build rules that are based on lowering bids when our ACOS is too high, and maybe layering in our conversion rates also low, let's go even lower, right. So those are the two simplest ones that we look at, but it really needs to be strategic. You can create rules that are based off the phase your product's in, whether it's launch, consistency, profitability, organic rank. You can create rules based off your overall business outcomes. Which is always an important one is what is that key RoAS that you're going to optimize for all of your campaigns, but just making sure not to overcomplicate it in the beginning, right. Once you start to understand the correlation between CPC and RoAS, then you can start building in a little bit more customization around lifecycle and things like that.   Kevin King: This is how you been converting like crazy with what? what do you call an index image? This he calls it the uh, it's the image in your listing that will be the top reasons why your product is the best. This is not your main photo. This is not your photo number one. This is what he calls this photo number two and it's an index of of your products is why I think it's why he calls it the index image, and what he says is you need to number the benefits. A lot of of people are using call-outs, they use infographics, but they don't number them. So you want to actually have numbers like this. So this should be something like this should be your second image the five reasons you love, or the seven reasons or the three reasons.   Odd numbers are always better than even numbers. Three, five or seven or nine always work the best. But here he's got the five and look, there's big, there's numbers. That's important. He just doesn't list them. People like order and when they see numbers, their mind can sort it and they can read it quickly and it makes sense to them. So the numbering system here is critical, not just the fact that he put the main point, the main benefit and capital, and then explained it in. I mean in bold and a little bit larger than explained everything else below it in light blue, but he's got these numbers. That's the critical thing is numbering it.   Bradley Sutton: Maybe this is a little bit of the sexy side of patents, but you've talked before about how patents doing patent searches can actually be a form of product research and finding a product to sell on Amazon. How in the world is that possible?   Rich Goldstein: Yeah, absolutely it's true, because the way that the patent system works, once a patent expires, it's fair game for anyone to use it. So a utility patent lasts for 20 years and a design patent lasts for 15. But once that patent expires, anyone can make that product and, at the same time, keep in mind that a lot of people have an idea for a product, they get it patented, but they never do the research, they never learn about the process enough to actually get that product launched, and so there are a lot of great ideas that have been patented that are just in the patent archives and they've never actually been put on the market. There are some lousy ideas, but there are also some great ideas, and so if you know how and you search the patent record for expired patents, you can find ideas for really great potential products.   Tom - Honest FBA: We dabbled with the US a few times in the past and Thomas Net is really popular. You see, it's spoken about quite a lot as a place, as a resource. Honestly, we never had any success there. There was a time when we were the MOQs are always insanely high and there was a product previously that we agreed to the MOQ. It was something like 10 or 20,000 units. It was pretty high. And there was a product previously that we agreed to the MOQ. It was something like 10 or 20,000 units. It was pretty big. And we were like, okay, we'll go for it, but can you just repackage them into a different kind of mix? And they just said, nah, nah, don't fancy it. And we were like, right, okay. So we kind of banged our head against the wall. So now a little-known site called Google is honestly the best bet, so like, but I'm not talking page one at Google. You've got to dig. So put on a VPN. If you're somewhere like we are, like in Spain, put on a US VPN and then get down to like pages five, six, seven, eight, get in there. And then I just hammer a lot of emails out, but a lot of the websites that you find down in those stages or those pages. They're not good at SEO, they're generally kind of old sites, but you're finding older, established businesses so and often you'll find a phone number. So one of the best lessons I say is like get on the phone and just ring them up and you can save months of time, like the guy who ended up.   Tom - Honest FBA: One of the guys who ended up working with had a phone call with him on the first day. I found it and we ended up. We're now doing two products with him already. We've got another three lined up and he had nothing to do with the niche we're in. He was in so we're in pets. He was in humans. He was in food. I just gave him a call, explained the brand vision, what we're trying to do. He got really excited. He's now helping us source new ingredients. He's coming to me with product ideas. He's now going to do a whole range of products for us. So that was one of the beauties is like having that communication line and being able to really explain yourself has been massive. We are still sourcing in China, by the way. We still think it's a really viable option, but having this US option as well, there's so many benefits to it.   Grace Kopplin: In terms of Walmart, that's always been a strategy for us. Transparently, Walmart just hasn't been a volume driver for us. It's been steady but it hasn't really been a place that's warranted a ton of focus for us. But another marketplace that has been great for us is actually Target's marketplace, target Plus and that's been a key, key piece of our success, especially with working with brands who are looking for store placement at Target. For example, we've had a few items that we've listed on Target's marketplace that have done really well, that have gotten the attention of a buyer and actually got store placement, which is really exciting. And, at the end of the day, getting an item placed on shelves most of the time can drive more volume than a mid-tier listing on Amazon. So we tend to try to use that strategy.   Bradley Sutton: How do you get on target these days? Wasn't it invite only back in the day or now that Target is adding that 360 or some kind of like yeah.   Grace Kopplin: I think it might still be invite only, but I know they've been actively adding a lot of sellers. I know that their backend is still quite archaic compared to what Amazon is. It's probably what Walmart was like four years ago. But I think it is still invite only, but definitely something to reach out to your connections and see if you can get a connect with a Walmart e-comm buyer.   Leo Sgovio: So there are a few reasons why you want to be indexed on Google, and for the most, let's start from the most advanced ones, right? Advanced sellers they normally try to send traffic to Amazon, especially during the launch period, using external traffic, right? So Google, we know, is a good referral that tends to help your rankings, and so Amazon tends to reward you if they see traffic coming from Google. So if you're not indexed, you lose a chance to show Amazon that you are getting traffic from Google. Now, I have a theory that paid traffic has a little bit more weight than organic, but the reason why you want to be indexed and the reason why you might want to be indexed for certain keywords is so that when you drive traffic through the URL to Amazon, you can actually give attribution to that keyword. That's number one, right? So you can actually use these URLs as your two-step.   Leo Sgovio: Number two if you do a good job with your indexation and your listing is optimized, you actually also appear in the images, right? And so if people are looking for specific products, sometimes I search on Google using images because I'm looking for specific products that might be hard to find on Amazon. But if I look through the Google images and I find the product, then I go to Amazon and so if you're not indexed, you're also not going to be able to be found there, and Google images actually gets a ton of traffic. So here are some of the reasons why, two of the reasons why. I can think of many more, but the most important are these ones. Google is still one of the largest search engine, and so missing out on that opportunity search engine and so missing out on that opportunity, I'm afraid it causes a lot of missed visibility for an Amazon seller at a listing level.   Carrie Miller: I think one of the things that sets us apart is that when I've created our listings, or whenever I create our photos, I think about what are the main benefits of the product, the main selling points of it, and I realized this isn't something that everyone can easily do, and so the way I kind of have been teaching it is that you can take your competitor's listing, download their reviews, download their best reviews, their five-star reviews, and say ask ChatGPT, like, what do people like most about this product? What are the benefits of this product according to reviews? What do people like? Basically, ask a bunch of questions to ChatGPT and you'll get a bunch of kind of selling points and you'll kind of see a trend of like the top selling points or top benefits of your product. And that's what you want to focus on is like what's in it for the customer? You've got to kind of appeal to their emotions. How is it going to make their life better, easier, are easier, are they going to be more beautiful? Are they going to you know what? What is it, what's in it for them?   Carrie Miller: And I think that that is going to be the key that sets you apart, and I know it's. It sounds pretty basic, but I've actually been doing some looking at different listings. People have been asking me hey, can you take a look at my listing? And when I look at the listing, I'm like, well, these aren't, these are not actually selling points or benefits. Like, these are features of the product. Right, you can always put the features in right later on, but how are you appealing to the person when you were? If you're telling somebody about your product, are you being like oh hey, the dimensions are 14 by 14. Like that's, that's like an afterthought, right? You, you want to. However, you would even just sell to a person, like talking face to face. That's how you're going to do that. Your first image shouldn't be a dimension photo. It should be a selling point, your main, like best selling point, main benefit in that first image. So I think that's a huge thing that a lot of people are kind of missing.   Bradley Sutton: What would you say is the most actionable things from search career performance? That kind of closes out like, hey, this is actually something that is not just, oh, it's good to know, but hey, I'm actually going to take action, uh, on this.    Mansour Norouzi: Taking action. I would say, even when I look at my own brand one is that for the main keywords, what I actually I do this on a weekly basis I have a list of the main keywords which is for my, for one of my aces are like 10 uh, 10 uh keywords and actually I go into the detail of week over week what is happening to my click share for those keywords, because they are very important for me and I want to be on the top and like top five for these turns. I want to be aware of what is going on with my competitors and what's my need. So if I see I have a track of my click share for the keywords, if I see it is going down, right away I'll figure out what's going on and maybe push with my advertising, for that for me would be our main keywords and what's going happening for my click share rate, conversion rate and click share just on my top keywords. Honestly, I will go, I think, by myself going with all for all the keywords, just like top five to 10 keywords, what they are, and I'll keep it very close overview and monitor them to see exactly what's going on, because you see that search volume going up or down, but I want my click share and my conversion share that I have I'm generating. Either they are consistent or going up. So if I see this trend is down, right away I start doing maybe I run coupon code or I push with my advertising to make sure I'm getting them back into track.   Bradley Sutton: What is your favorite? Helium 10 tool Ksenia or function of a tool.   Kseniia Reidel: Probably the audience. That's the one that I use all the time. Is it called audience?   Bradley Sutton: Yeah, the split where you ask the questions to the people and say, how are you using that Like for your images, or just for product ideas, or what are you using that?   Kseniia Reidel: Honestly for everything. For both for the product ideas, for your images, or just for product ideas or what are you using that? Honestly for everything. But both for the product ideas, for the images, because I just think it's so easy. You know, when you're thinking about like the product we find, then I usually do um, like the drawing and uh, 3d, you know the 3d image of the product that doesn't exist yet. Then usually all my products are like, really designed differently, that's what's on the market right now, and I just upload the image there and I see what people say and ask them would you buy this product? And if you wouldn't buy this product, why, why not? Or what would you change in this product? And sometimes I see the things that I didn't even you know, I didn't even think about that.   Bradley Sutton: So you're launching just the 3d rendering and just asking a question on that image, or you're launching it like, or you're launching it, you're putting it in a poll next to like existing products and asking them, or which one are you doing?   Kseniia Reidel: I'm doing both. Actually, the first, I just do the rendering and ask them would you buy this product? And if you would not buy this product, what would you change Like? How would you make it better for you? And then sometimes I also compare it to the other products that are on the market and ask them which one would they buy?   Bradley Sutton: Interesting.   Kseniia Reidel: And a lot of times I do the changes on the product based on what the people say.   Bradley Sutton: What was the results of those search, find, buy in order to send those relevancy signals? Again, not for rank, but to send those relevancy signals to Amazon. Take a look at this when I ran in Cerebro on June 19th, just three days after they did that relevancy single, you know, push those three coworkers here at Helium 10,. Take a look now at the Amazon recommended rank. Remember how it was only showing two keywords for Amazon recommended rank. Now it was showing multiple ones and it put that keyword that I sent the relevancy signal for egg holder countertop. It had Amazon recommended rank number three, which basically means that that was the third most important keyword according to Amazon for this product. Now do you remember what I was getting for impressions in PPC? Like 200 total impressions over three days. What did sending those relevancy signals to Amazon do for my PPC impressions? Take a look at this. To amazon, do for my PPC impressions. Take a look at this.   The next three day period from June 19th when my relevancy got fixed to June 21st instead of 200 impressions, 5 000 impressions, 4 000 of that. How? What keyword was it for? Egg holder countertop, that one that I sent those relevancy signals to Amazon for? This works, guys.   Ryan King:                          So Walmart has the equivalent would be brand portal, and I would absolutely recommend, if you're the seller, if you're the brand, to register through brand portal, and the main reasons are there are certain advertising opportunities that are only available to brand registered brands, so sponsored brand videos, sponsored brand ads that go across as banner displays. Another major one would be brand shops, brand shelves we can talk about later as well and then IP protection, and so the advantage of being registered in Brand Portal is that you can file IP infringement claims, and in this case, the most successful one to do is to file claims against those alternate listings for using your copyrighted imagery, and so we see success of getting those pulled down within 48 hours, typically when that happens. Now you can still file that IP claim even if you're not registered through Brand Portal. There's a link to file that claim, but you can't track its progress, you can't see the history, all those kinds of things. So it just gives you greater credibility in those and greater ability to look back at the progress. And the last one I'd say is if you're a registered brand, it's going to give you the highest content ranking for your listing. So even if there are other sellers that have tried to change that listing content. You're going to outrank them as the registered brand and chances are you're not going to have to deal with things changing on your listing in that regard.   Kevin Dolan: Cosmo is a specific tool and I think that the function that it performs is valuable to enhancing Amazon's understanding of a listing. So I certainly would not be surprised to see Amazon implementing this in a production capacity on a large swath of searches. That would not be surprising to me, but it's not as massive as the shift that we've seen into semantic-focused search. Cosmo in particular discusses essentially a mechanism for enhancing Amazon's understanding of a product by taking into consideration things that aren't expressed in the query and things that aren't expressed in the listing. The example that they use in the paper, the canonical example, is if you're looking for shoes for pregnant women, a listing might not literally say shoes for pregnant women. It might produce a specific type of open toed shoe that has good support, good comfort. That might not literally be listed as a keyword in the listing, but it might be something that the system can infer based on its knowledge of the universe, about what it's like to be a pregnant woman and the types of products that they might benefit from.   Norm Farrar: Out of everybody that we've looked at, it was up to 80. But 70% of Amazon sellers do not have the proper HTS code. They let their Chinese seller set an HS code and it's wrong. So when they get in here and guess what, nobody, nobody is calculating that as a part of your cost of goods. So they're going out, they're sourcing in China, they're not calculating, and this could be as high as 400%. Now, I've never seen it that, but it can be. So you know you're 25, 40% of your cost of goods. Is that not something that should be calculated? And like for me, I was doing natural soaps and I was paying 17%. So we were taking a look at it and Afolabi says can you consider this Castile soap? And I said yeah, it's olive based. And he goes well, how about I give you some good news. Pay zero. I just stuffed 17% back in my pocket. So out of the 70% of people that are missing the boat, they don't have the proper tariff code and the average person that gets the proper tariff code on an order the average that we've been able to calculate has been $7,800.

This week on Sinica, I welcome back Michael Cerny — formerly of the Carter Center and now a Ph.D. student at Harvard — and Rory Truex of Princeton University to discuss a new working paper they've co-authored. They undertook a large-scale survey of foreign policy professionals at U.S. think tanks to ascertain whether there is a "consensus" on China policy, as is often claimed, and whether people working in think tanks feel pressure to take on more "hawkish" positions on China policy. We also introduce a new segment called "Paying it Forward."5:04 – What motivated Michael and Rory to write their paper together 7:30 – Groupthink vs. consensus10:08 – The methodology: combining surveys and interviews, and the sampling frame 14:35 – Trying to avoid leading questions 17:58 – Creating the “China Confrontation Index” 20:25 – Different levels of acceptance of the labels “hawk” and “dove” 23:33 – The issue of preference falsification 25:43 – Mechanisms behind disparities in perceived pressure 29:01 – Tying in Rory's previous research on self-censorship 32:42 – How Michael and Rory decided on interviews 34:10 – What Michael believes were the most important and robust findings36:09 – The distinction between the beliefs of think tankers vs. elected officials, and why people tend to believe there is a bipartisan consensus on China 40:34 – Pressure on hawks 42:35 – Specific policy questions44:18 – Feedback on the paper so far, and what Michael and Rory may tweak in a subsequent draft 49:47 – The possible role of personality in hawkishness or dovishness 51:58 – Discussing Mike Mazarr's concerns about the potential parallels between current Chinese discourse and the lead-up to the Iraq War 55:06 – Advice to younger professionals entering the foreign policy/China field New segment: Paying It Forward:Rory: Michael Cerny and Edi Obiakpani-Reid Recommendations:Rory: Edi Obiakpani-Reid's Sinobabble podcast about Chinese historyMichael: Jeffrey Ding's Technology and the Rise of Great Powers: How Diffusion Shapes Economic CompetitionKaiser: Imperium by Robert Harris See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica I'm delighted to be joined by Amy King, Associate Professor in the Strategic & Defence Studies Centre at The Australian National University. She shares her ideas about how perceptions of insecurity can paradoxically motivate closer economic relations between two states, and she looks at not only the examples of China and Japan after the end of World War II, but Australia and China as well. We also discuss Sino-Australian relations over the last 15 years, and much else!2:48 – Key phases of Australia-China relations over the past 15 years and the security and economic nexus 9:05 – Amy's research into the Sino-Japanese relationship and how perceptions of insecurity can motivate closer economic ties, and how Australia is responding to China now 21:22 – How Amy would argue the case for economic engagement with China to folks in Washington 26:31 – Securitization in Australia and the important differences between Australia and the U.S. 30:20 – The shift in the Australia-China relationship under the Albanese government 33:12 – What the U.S. can learn from Australia 35:14 – Why people tend to conflate Australia's experience with America's 39:04 – Amy's essay, “The Collective Logic of Chinese Hegemonic Order,” and how we can understand China's role in the emerging post-unipolar world42:47 – Three mechanisms employed by China to amplify its voice post-war (amplifying, grafting, and resistance by appropriation) and how modern “middle powers” can influence the international order now 52:31 – The state of discourse on China in Australia and what Amy believes China wants 58:54 – Amy's thoughts on pluralism and international order 1:03:22 – What lessons about de-risking and navigating multi-alignment Australia should be learning from other nations in the region Recommendations:Amy: Fintan O'Toole's We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland Kaiser: The Paul Reed Smith (PRS) SE Hollowbody II Piezo electric guitar See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

China's rapid surge in electric vehicle manufacturing, adoption, and export has variously encouraged, delighted, impressed, frightened, and even enraged people around the world. What did China get right in facilitating the explosive development in this industry? Was is just subsidies, or were there other important policies that helped jumpstart it? How have other geographies responded? And what can they learn? Ilaria Mazzocco, deputy director and senior fellow with the Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) joins me to share her rich insights into the Chinese EV industry.3:49 – How Ilaria became interested in green industrial policy5:59 – The reality of progress in EVs in China 11:21 – The role of state subsidies and other things that tend to get missed in trying to understand EVs in China 16:51 – How other countries are trying to adopt China's approach 19:21 – The differences between the EU and U.S. approaches 24:17 – The outlook for competition in the Chinese market 26:08 – Business models in the Chinese EV sector and the example of BYD30:53 – Chinese firms' push for internationalization and how the rapidity of becoming multinationals [multinational companies?] may pose challenges 35:54 – Alignment between host countries and Chinese companies 39:58 – What the U.S. is doing and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)42:27 – How U.S. protectionist measures may affect third markets, and whether restrictions may backfire 48:57 – The coming shift to next-generation batteries, and the potential for international collaboration in advancing more circular practices 55:43 – How Ilaria's fieldwork shifted her perspective on the EV industry 59:38 – How we can improve industrial policy Recommendations:Ilaria: My Antonia by Willa Cather; the Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel; The Army of Sleepwalkers by Wu Ming (an Italian novelist collective) about the French Revolution Kaiser: The Wolf Hall audiobooks read by Ben Miles; the HBO series Rome (2005-2007) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Jane Hayward, lecturer at King's College London, about her excellent YouTube channel, Jane Hayward China, and her efforts to bring up-to-date scholarship on modern and contemporary China to audiences through internet video, slaying various bugbears along the way.3:28 Why Jane started her YouTube channel, her intended versus actual audiences, and navigating the current toxic media environment 10:56 The benefits of an area studies approach, and why Jane chose a U.S. PhD program14:46 Defining the complicated public discourse in the West 19:35 Jane's videos: the surprising popularity of “Xi Jinping is NOT like an Emperor;” and more controversial videos26:28 New Qing History and different critiques of it34:50 Jane's series on types of communism, and her video on reporting on China in British media 42:31 What may be coming next on Jane's channel RecommendationsJane: David Priestland's The Red Flag: A History of CommunismKaiser: The YouTube channel Chinese Cooking Demystified, and specifically their video “63 Chinese Cuisines: the Complete Guide” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.