In a recent fireside chat, Arnold Ma, Founder of Qumin discussed with his colleagues what marketers looking to China should watch out for in 2020. The 3 major pillars they discussed, in particular, are people, technology and how these affect marketing.
Arnold was joined by Qumin co-founder Thomas Nixon and Qumin marketing manager Louisa Loehrig and they discussed the following topics:
- the rise of consumer spending power in lower-tier cities (xiachen) and what makes the people in smaller cities different to those in Beijing and Shanghai
- Why the Chinese people have made health, entertainment and fitness the biggest growth sectors in China
- Sustainability – why people are starting to care, but why it must be ‘top-down’, but then people are starting to care
- Live streaming – not just for e-commerce (e.g. on Taobao) but also reviews (e.g. Xiaohongshu) and knowledge-based platforms (e.g. Zhihu)
- Facial recognition in East and West and the ethical dilemma – should you scan your face to get the tube?
- 5G and why it is not just about the increased download speed, and more about what kind of tech it opens up
and many more…
Watch Arnold’s fireside chat below:
Arnold Ma is a speaker, writer, podcast host, and the founder of Qumin, UK’s first Chinese Digital Creative Agency.
Born in China, which at the time was still known as ‘the poor man of Asia’, Arnold (Chinese Ai Fu) moved to the UK in 1996 which was then still worlds ahead of China. By 2011, China was re-emerging on the global stage, but Western brands were not ready to engage with China. Hence why Arnold founded Qumin, at the age of 25, the first and largest Chinese Digital Creative Agency in Europe.
Qumin’s mission and Arnold’s bigger purpose in life became to ‘Open The World To China’. Owing to his bi-cultural upbringing and work scope, Arnold knows both Western and Chinese markets, businesses and, most importantly, he understands the different people and cultures. He knew to focus on the users behind the platforms, the subcultures behind the hashtags and the audiences behind the consumers. Only then could one conceive, design and build experiences that connect global brands with Chinese people.
For almost a decade now Qumin has helped copious Western brands including Sony, Man Utd, Mars Inc, General Mills, Unilever and many more to understand and engage with Chinese consumers. Notably, Qumin was responsible for the Chinese launch and ongoing consultancy for Skyscanner until its exit to China’s CTrip, the largest British tech exit to this day, valued at £1.4bn. Arnold has also helped Chinese companies including Bytedance, the world’s most valuable Tech start up, China Mobile and Huawei with their Western marketing.
In addition to being quoted in various media outlets including the Financial Times, Campaign, Reuters, McKinsey, The Drum, and more, Arnold is regularly invited to deliver keynote speeches on China, most recently at YMS London, FUTR Europe, NKF Fintech Summit in Germany and the Data and Analytics Summit. Topics of talks range from Chinese technology development and platforms to youth culture, but all put people and cultures at the core.
Arnold‘s keynotes are:
- A glimpse of the future from China
- Deviant Youths: Chinese Subcultures
- Chinese Youths – how to build hyper relevant campaigns to attract Chinese students
- How Chinese youths are travelling the wold
- Your Digital Analytics Future Is In China Today
- Dethroning WeChat, how short-form vertical video is changing Social Media in China
Contact us if you would like to engage Arnold Ma to speak at your next event.