Welcome to Jing Daily‘s Weekend Sound Bites: a rundown of what industry influencers were saying about the week’s top stories on the business of luxury and culture in China.#
—FRIDAY, 8/1 —#
"We can drive demand up at will… One guy in China got so upset that when he got his car he bashed it.”
-Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, explaining why he believes acts of rage against the company in China are a good thing. (Quartz)
—THURSDAY, 7/31 —#
“The next big wave in China is food, as Chinese are eager to discover a new lifestyle.”
-Nicolas Van de Casteele, managing partner at Asia Retail Partners, talking about why restaurants are becoming more popular in malls. (WSJ)
—WEDNESDAY, 7/30 —#
"I believe the price gap between China and Europe is difficult to maintain, as Chinese consumers have the Internet, daigou and travel a lot. The more luxury becomes a middle class phenomenon the more so, as middle class consumers are more sensitive to price differences."
-Luca Solca, the head of luxury goods at Exane BNP Paribas, discussing his thoughts on why luxury price inflation in China is unsustainable. (Business of Fashion)
— TUESDAY, 7/29 —#
"It’s hard for the platform operator to ensure the quality and authenticity of goods offered by these third-party merchants, since there are often hundreds or even thousands of such merchants on many such platforms. Jumei is a much younger company and has much less experience in the business. So it’s not really a huge surprise that it is still trying to figure out ways to ensure that fake goods aren’t sold on its platform by third-party merchants."
-Doug Young, a financial journalism professor at Fudan University, describing e-tailer Jumei's mishap with third-party merchants selling counterfeits on its platform. (SCMP)
— MONDAY, 7/28 —#
“The boom of duty-free business in China is on the one hand fueled by the government's policy to stimulate domestic consumption, and on the other hand it arrives just in time as luxury consumption in China is experiencing a transition period.”
-Zhou Ting, head of Beijing-based luxury industry research firm Fortune Character Institute, on how domestic duty-free shopping is taking off in mainland China as luxury sales growth slows down. (SCMP)