Why Startups in China Are Going Global with Jing Yang
Analyse Podcast2 Loka 2025

Why Startups in China Are Going Global with Jing Yang

“I think this is a sort of coming-of-age moment. When I say coming of age, I mean collectively for Chinese entrepreneurs. Many of these founders are my age, or even younger, and I’ve spoken with some of them. I can really relate to why they want to build businesses that target the global market instead of just China. In the past, you could build a company in China first and then think about expanding outward. That’s no longer possible. For any consumer-facing software company today, from day one you must decide: Do I build for China, or do I build for Global minus China? The examples of TikTok, Shein, and many others show that you cannot do both. It’s not possible to serve both markets at once.” - Jing Yang

Fresh out of the studio, Jing Yang, the Asia Bureau Chief from The Information, shares her insights on ByteDance's pivotal moment, China's venture capital challenges, and the emerging U.S.-China competition in AI and robotics. Starting with ByteDance's latest financials, she revealed how the company now exceeds Meta in revenue but still lags significantly in profit margins, with its domestic business—Douyin and Toutiao—continuing to drive the lion's share of profits while TikTok remains unprofitable. Jing Yang explains how founder Zhang Yiming has entered "founder mode," dramatically increasing CapEx spending on AI development while ByteDance mysteriously went quiet on the AI leaderboard despite earlier dominance. Moving to venture capital, she unpacks why HongShan Capital has only deployed a quarter of its $9 billion fund raised in 2022, citing the collapse of exit opportunities, new overseas listing regulations from Chinese regulators, and the disappearance of big-ticket growth deals. She then explores the new wave of Chinese AI startups targeting global markets from day one, explaining how censorship and geopolitics force founders to choose between building for China or building for the world—they cannot do both. Finally, Jing Yang breaks down China's non-obvious advantage in humanoid robotics: not manufacturing prowess, but access to advanced manufacturing test beds where robots can be deployed, iterated, and refined at scale—an advantage The U.S. simply cannot match beyond Tesla.

Episode Highlights:
[00:00] Quote of the Day by Jing Yang from The Information
[02:14] ByteDance revenue exceeds Meta, profit lags
[05:01] Zhang Yiming goes founder mode with AI
[08:24] TikTok's significance to ByteDance's future
[10:18] China signals willingness on TikTok deal
[13:02] Chinese tech giants pivots to semiconductors, hard tech
[14:27] ByteDance's quiet AI strategy and leadership
[19:11] Why HongShan, formerly Sequoia China deploys only quarter of $9B fund
[21:00] China VC market lacks big growth deals
[24:20] New overseas listing regulations hinder exits
[26:15] Chinese VCs struggle with US investments
[29:53] Chinese founders target global markets from day one
[32:20] What forces global versus China product split
[38:28] Chinese apps feel holistic but culturally distinct
[43:00] ChatGPT arrival sparked physical AI revolution
[47:23] Chinese AI companies prioritize commercial use cases over AGI
[50:13] China's manufacturing provides crucial test beds advantage
[53:42] Redefining what constitutes a Chinese startup
[54:55] AI race between Chinese in China vs US
[58:00] Closing

Profile: Jing Yang, Asia Bureau Chief from The Information

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jing-yang-33548123/

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format.

Here are the links to watch or listen to our podcast:

Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia

Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl

Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245

Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/

Analyse Asia X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/analyseasia

Sign Up for Our This Week in Asia Newsletter: https://www.analyse.asia/#/portal/signup

Subscribe Newsletter on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7149559878934540288

Jaksot(515)

Resetting Expectations on Southeast Asia with Arnaud Bonzom

Resetting Expectations on Southeast Asia with Arnaud Bonzom

"So that's why if you have 1 billion to invest, we're not expecting the same return as if you invest 10 million. At that time, when all this money flowed to Southeast Asia, people there thought, "Oh, ...

23 Loka 20241h 4min

Learnovate, AI and EduTech with Joon Nak Choi

Learnovate, AI and EduTech with Joon Nak Choi

"The humans are going to be empowered to become superheroes like Tony Stark, and because you have your loyal A.I. assistant, Jarvis, doing all this stuff in the background, that's the example I always...

7 Loka 202454min

AI, Creativity and the Human Element with Tan Siok Siok

AI, Creativity and the Human Element with Tan Siok Siok

"Well, I think AI makes us, makes me more human in terms of understanding that nirvana or the ultimate achievement is not to be perfect. The ultimate achievement is to be authentic, present, and yours...

23 Syys 202446min

Disrupting E-Commerce: How Shein and Temu are Challenging Amazon's Reign with Jing Yang

Disrupting E-Commerce: How Shein and Temu are Challenging Amazon's Reign with Jing Yang

"Temu was launched in the US, their first market in September 2022. That is when Shein just started to gain a lot of traction. There's a lot of attention being paid to Shein. In the beginning, many pe...

12 Elo 202446min

How Netflix bring Asian Content to the Global Audience with Minyoung Kim

How Netflix bring Asian Content to the Global Audience with Minyoung Kim

“The most important lesson that I have learned is really Know your audience. You need to really understand your audience, and what they want because oftentimes the content executives make the mistake ...

18 Kesä 202435min

Google & Sustainability in Europe with Adam Elman

Google & Sustainability in Europe with Adam Elman

"We have these very ambitious goals and we've spoken about a few, but there are many others in Europe. In particular, the E.U. and countries like the U.K. have very ambitious climate goals. For Google...

13 Kesä 202430min

Executive Coaching in the Asia Pacific with Parin Mehta

Executive Coaching in the Asia Pacific with Parin Mehta

"I don't like to work with someone unless they're intrinsically motivated to do it. And so what I mean by that is, I don't think this is a service that you should sell to people. They should demand it...

4 Kesä 202452min

Product Management in a Scale-Up with Isaac Tay

Product Management in a Scale-Up with Isaac Tay

"If I were to summarize it, your job as a product manager is to deliver the right product to the right users, to solve the right problems at the right time. Now, your role is very contextual because y...

13 Touko 20241h 4min

Suosittua kategoriassa Liike-elämä ja talous

sijotuskasti
mimmit-sijoittaa
rss-rahapodi
psykopodiaa-podcast
rss-rahamania
ostan-asuntoja-podcast
juristipodi
rss-seuraava-potilas
pomojen-suusta
taloudellinen-mielenrauha
rss-sami-miettinen-neuvottelija
leadcast
yrittaja
rss-lahtijat
rss-myyntikoulu
rss-sisalto-kuntoon
oppimisen-psykologia
rss-h-asselmoilanen
rss-bisnespaiva
rss-paasipodi