Lulu Yilun Chen

How China Lost Patience With Jack Ma, Its Loudest Billionaire

While the sudden cancellation of his Ant Group IPO shocked many investors, Ma’s fall from grace had been years in the making.

Tencent Dominates in China. Next Challenge Is Rest of the World

The WeChat app has almost a billion users, and many of them use it all day. So why isn’t the company everywhere by now?

The Chinese Powerhouse That Scares Banks

Ant Group’s extraordinary rise over the past 15 years has come largely at the expense of traditional financial companies in China and, to a lesser extent, overseas. Ant’s wildly popular money-market funds have siphoned deposits from banks. Its online payment systems have disrupted card issuers. And its credit units have challenged lenders of all stripes.

The Chinese Unknown That’s Making Africa’s Phones

Transsion’s rise in Africa comes at a time when the continent is undergoing rapid transformation, owing significantly to the convergence of technology, trade, urbanization, and a huge swing in Chinese investment, including $60 billion since 2016.

Why China’s Millennials Are Happy to Own Nothing

Faced with a widening wealth gap and the slowest economic growth in more than two decades, millions like Tyler Xiong find themselves priced out of the big cities and are rejecting the consumer trappings of a modern lifestyle. Instead, they’re embracing the sharing economy to a far greater degree than their Western counterparts.

Dealmaking in Escort Bars Thrives in Pockets of Corporate Asia

In Tokyo’s Ginza, Seoul’s Gangnam and Beijing’s Chaoyang financial district a familiar scene plays out almost every night of the work week. As dusk falls, businessmen flock to karaoke and hostess clubs to close deals and build relationships in the liquor-lubricated intimacy of young women.

World’s Most Valuable AI Startup Scrambles to Survive Trump’s Blacklist

The co-founder of China’s SenseTime Group Ltd. was visiting New York to encourage more collaboration with the U.S. on artificial intelligence when he heard the news: The Trump administration had blacklisted his company. So much for more cooperation

Hedge Fund’s Big Short Shows Why Alt-Data Demand Is Surging

Covid-19 has prompted a fresh surge in demand for off-the-beaten-path statistics that might shed light on the pandemic’s impact on economies and markets. Interest in Chinese data has been particularly strong as money managers try to get an early read on efforts to contain the virus and reboot the world’s second-largest economy

China Loses a Tech Generation as the Big Payoff Promise Fades

Amid mounting job losses, startup employees are pushing back against a relentless work culture

The Chinese IPO That Led the Way in Wall Street’s Virtual Shift

Virtual dealmaking may outlast the virus in an industry that’s long mythologized the handshake. As the pandemic began rattling markets, there was no such thing as business as usual.