The Flagship America Can't Have

It’s been quite a while since Huawei were driven out of most global markets by losing out on Google’s services and apps, with market share plummeting in numerous regions as a result. 

However, as the company continue to innovate and dominate sales back home in China, it turns out that Americans wish they could still purchase and use Huawei phones as well. 

Despite a strict US government ban preventing their devices from being sold through official channels, Huawei recently emerged as the top choice for American tech enthusiasts. In a major industry poll conducted by the mobile technology publication ⁠PhoneArena, asking which Chinese smartphone brand consumers would most like to see properly enter the United States with full carrier support, Huawei led the vote with nearly 31 percent of the total selection. 

This strong showing highlights a deep, ongoing demand among premium Android users for the brand's hardware innovation, even as the broader landscape of international smartphone options shrinks. 

This suggests that Americans not only still miss the company but would be willing to give up Google’s services and accept Huawei’s HarmonyOS as well. Huawei have been pushing out some crazy powerful devices with very unique designs and gimmicks, and you want to get your hands on them. 

Getting a Chinese smartphone in the US is a gargantuan hassle, and no channels exist to purchase one like you would a Samsung, Google Pixel, or Apple phone. Most people who do use Chinese phones in the US get an unlocked model and have to use workarounds to have an almost normal experience. 

But from the said reader poll, we now know how much Americans want access to other Chinese brands after Huawei. In second place is Oppo, with a little over 23 percent of respondents wishing that it would be sold stateside. 

Xiaomi followed with 22 percent of the votes, as the company have been pumping out some excellent smartphones in the last few years with spectacular specs and great ideas like a second display on the rear. 

Meanwhile, a little under 12 percent want Vivo to take on Samsung, Google, and Apple in the US. iQOO got over seven percent of the votes and Realme came last with a little under five percent of you wanting it to operate normally in the States. 

Malaysian women's doubles pair Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan secured their first semi-final appearance since the All England in March with a hard-earned victory at the Taipei Open yesterday. 

The world No. 5 had to work hard for their 21-14, 21-17 win over Taiwan's world No. 39 Lin Chih Chun-Yang Chu Yun in the quarter-finals.

The important thing is they won! 💪💪💪

But young women's doubles pair Low Zi Yu-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan's brave run came to an end. The world No. 67 suffered a 21-11, 20-22, 22-24 heartbreak to Thailand's world No. 36 Hathaithip Mijad-Napapakorn Tungkasatan after a titanic battle. 😞😞😞

Xiaomi's 2nd EV Model is Next

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The launch of Xiaomi's second electric vehicle (EV) model is on the agenda, as they had reached their target of delivering 100,000 vehicles this year ahead of schedule. 

 

The second model of Xiaomi EV, the car-making arm of the Chinese smartphone giant, is scheduled to hit the market in February or March next year, local media Caijing said in a report on Tuesday, citing a Xiaomi insider.

 

This coincides with the revelation by Xiaomi founder and chairperson Lei Jun (right) previous revelation that the production version of the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra will be officially launched in March 2025.

 

It is said that the second vehicle from Xiaomi EV is an all-electric SUV (sport utility vehicle), which is internally codenamed MX11. 

 

Although officially an SUV, the style of the car is very low, and many Internet users have pointed out that the car has a shape and silhouette similar to that of the Ferrari Purosangue. However, it is also obvious that some of the design elements of the SU7 are carried over into the new car, such as the headlights, continuous tail lights, frameless doors, and semi-hidden door handles. 

 

The car will be positioned as a direct competitor to the Tesla Model Y, citing industry speculation.

 

If Xiaomi's pricing strategy for the Xiaomi SU7 is followed, the new Xiaomi SUV will be priced below the Tesla Model Y's 249,900 yuan ($34,500) to 354,900 yuan ($48,950) price tag. Meaning the starting price of the Xiaomi SUV is likely to be under 250,000 yuan.

 

And on October 29, Xiaomi began pre-sales of the production version of the more powerful SU7 Ultra at a price of 814,900 yuan ($112,590), nearly four times the regular SU7's 215,900 yuan starting price. The official launch of the SU7 Ultra would be in March 2025, the company said at the time.  

 

Xiaomi officially launched their first model, the SU7 on March 28 and announced on November 18 that the electric sedan had surpassed their benchmark target of delivering 100,000 units this year. [Refer my blog post "EV Newcomer Rolls Out Their 100,000th Car In 230 Days" published November 16, 2024]. 

 

In fact, Xiaomi also announced a new 2024 target of 130,000 units on November 18, up from the previously mentioned challenge target of 120,000 units.

 

Xiaomi rock!

EV Newcomer Rolls Out Their 100,000th Car In 230 Days

Ford CEO Jim Farley is not the only who is enamored with the Xiaomi SU7. [Read my post "Ford CEO Loves His Xiaomi SU7" published October 27, 2024]. 

 

On Wednesday, Xiaomi’s founder Lei Jun shared on his Weibo page that the company rolled out their 100,000th SU7 off their assembly line earlier than expected. Xiaomi Automobile, the EV business arm of consumer electronics giant Xiaomi Corporation achieved this feat in a blistering 230 days since their launch. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to point out that it’s only been three years since the Chinese tech giant announced they were venturing into bespoke EV manufacturing, and they continue to move at a pace most young OEMs could ever dream of. 

 

Xiaomi announced the SU7 in December 2023 and the electronics specialist wielded all of their experience and manufacturing power behind developing and eventually producing their flagship model, the Xiaomi SU7 EV. After faster-than-expected development, the car was officially released on March 28, 2024, with Xiaomi securing over 50,000 orders in the first 27 minutes it went on sale. 

 

Although Xiaomi initially targeted building 60,000 EVs in 2024, the SU7’s impressive demand led the young automaker to bolster production to keep up. After the launch, the tech giant shared that they had already built 10,000 EVs in a blistering 32 days but would need to continue ramping up to keep up with their growing order books. By July, Xiaomi said those bolstered production lines were complete, hinting at the prospect of doubling their initial production targets for the year. And this month itself, they have already achieved 100,000 EV builds.

 

FYI, these builds aren’t just sitting around on lots around China, either. Xiaomi Automobile shared that the SU7 builds are also quickly making their way to customers, and they anticipate to hit their 100,000th delivery later this month.

 

With 100,000 SU7 builds now complete, Xiaomi could very well hit their revised target of 120,000 units for 2024, which would entail doing so in less than 275 days since launch. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the 2024 ACE Malaysia Squash Cup yesterday, Sivasangari Subramaniam needed only twenty-six minutes to secure an emphatic 3-0: 11-9, 11-3, 11-6 win over fellow Malaysian, Aifa Azman. 

 

She will meet world No. 28 Scotland's Georgia Adderley in the semi-final today.

Xiaomi SU7 Clone Nicknamed Redmi SU7

A copycat of the Xiaomi SU7 sedan has been spotted in China. 

 

The license plate tells us the EV’s name is Yunlei (韵蕾) and the badge reveals the manufacturer as Shandong Yanlu New Energy. Despite Xiaomi SU7 being a sedan, its clone is a compact SUV. Xiaomi will unveil their first SUV early next year, so Yunlei is way ahead of its time. 

 

Also, Yanlu’s designer did a pretty good job, as the front face, headlights, and hood shape are quite accurate, as is Xiaomi’s Blue Bay signature color. 

 

The Xiaomi SU7 clone belongs to the category of low-speed electric vehicles (LSEVs). 

 

LSEVs are small, affordable electric cars with limited speed and range, mainly used for short city trips and popular for their low cost and minimal regulations. Seniors mainly used them and were often copycats of expensive legacy cars. Their popularity culminated a few years ago. 

 

However, Yunlei EV proves that LSEVs are not yet done in China. 

 

Yunlei EV is manufactured in Gaotang County in Shandong province, about four hours south of Beijing, where Shandong Yanlu New Energy are based. 

 

“Our company take independent research and development as the core value and adheres to the business philosophy of environmental protection”, the company, which focused mainly on producing electric tricycles, claim. Chinese social media users nicknamed Yunlai a Redmi SU7, referring to Xiaomi’s low-cost smartphone series. 

 

LSEVs were famous in China for providing cheap copies of famous vehicles. You could, for example, buy an electric Bodo BD10, a replica of the Hummer H2, Buggati Chiron, or Volkswagen UP! clones. The price was usually no more than 30,000 yuan ($4,200). The cars had only a few horsepower. 

 

FYI, Xiaomi SU7 was launched on March 28 in China. CEO Lei Jun said they will deliver 100,000 units by the end of November, exceeding the original target. The new target is 120,000 units delivered by the end of the year. 

 

And on October 29, Xiaomi Auto unveil the production model of the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, positioning the battery-electric vehicle as the world’s most powerful and fastest road-going sedan with 1,527 hp and a top speed of 207 mph (333 km/h). Pre-orders have already started, and the company announced a starting price of 814,900 yuan ($111,700).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By comparison, Porsche's Taycan Turbo GT retails at $230,000.

 

With the SU7 Ultra, Xiaomi signal a serious entry into the high-performance electric-vehicle market, but its success will likely depend on its reception beyond the domestic Chinese market as it aims to challenge performance-car mainstays such as Porsche, Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi.

Ford CEO Loves His Xiaomi SU7

In a story for the Wall Street Journal last month profiling Ford CEO Jim Farley, the Blue Oval figurehead recounted a story that motivated his current aggressive electric vehicle game plan* involving a team of California-based engineers he dubs the company's "Skunk Works".

 

[*Ford have decided to dial back their bigger plans for their electric line-up. Initial plans to develop three-row electric crossovers have been scrapped, and in their place is a focus on vehicles they feel will sell better – three-row hybrid SUVs in the same flavor as their popular Explorer family haulers].  

 

During a trip to China in 2023, he and Ford CFO John Lawler got a taste of their Chinese contemporaries when they visited Ford's partner in China, Changan Automotive.

 

According to WSJ, the duo test-drove an electric SUV made by Changan, the conclusion of which prompted the executives to sit "silently, stunned at the progress Changan had made". 

 

“Jim, this is nothing like before”, Lawler reportedly told Farley after the test drive. “These guys are ahead of us”. 

 

Despite his characterization of Chinese electric OEMs as an "existential threat" to their Western contemporaries, Jim Farley (right) admitted something that sounds as a betrayal to loyal, patriotic American car enthusiasts. 

 

During a recent appearance on the Fully Charged Show podcast, the Ford CEO admitted that he has not only been driving the competition but also enjoying every minute of it. 

 

Around 21 minutes into the podcast, Farley began talking about Xiaomi, the consumer electronics brand that recently had a hit with its foray into EVs with the best-selling SU7 sedan. To the surprise of the host, Robert Llewellyn, Farley noted that it isn't unusual for electronics companies to make cars. 

 

"In the West, our cell phone companies are not into cars; they don't have car companies", Farley explained, as the host listened in surprise. "But in China, both Huawei and Xiaomi, the two biggest cell phone companies, are inside of every vehicle that is made".

 

The Ford CEO then described Xiaomi as "an industry juggernaut", noting that the company are able to sell tens of thousands of SU7s per month and have accumulated a six-month waiting list. However, one of these "satisfied customers" is Jim Farley himself! 

 

Although the car isn't officially for sale in the United States, Ford shipped one stateside for research and development. As far as Farley's testimony goes, he seems to be getting anecdotal experiences that go beyond traditional benchmark testing. 

 

“I don’t like talking about the competition so much, but I drive the Xiaomi”, Farley confessed. “We flew one from Shanghai to Chicago, and I’ve been driving it for six months now, and I don’t want to give it up”.

Chinese EVs Go Global

Chinese electric vehicles (EV) are making their presence felt globally. In fact, there are so many Chinese EV brands that I have lost count of. And many that admittedly, I am not familiar with.

 

Here's a sample of twenty Chinese EV brands you may or may not know about:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

China passed a milestone in the green revolution in July 2024 when sales of EVs and hybrids surpassed those of internal combustion engine cars for the first time. 

 

Retail sales of “new-energy” cars – the umbrella term used in China for EVs and hybrids – made up 51.1% of all sales in that month, a giant leap from just 7% three years ago. 

 

The landmark follows a continuing surge in the popularity of EVs in the country. From January to June 2024, total sales of new-energy vehicles in China reached 4.34 million, a year-on-year increase of 35.1 percent. 

 

Already, the country’s manufacturing dominance has helped it overtake Japan as the world’s biggest vehicle exporter in 2023. 

 

This prowess in green technology, however, has put China’s EV industry in the cross hairs of the United States (including vassal state Canada) and Europe, as they worry about the impact on their own manufacturers and over-reliance on an adversary. Already, the US quadrupled the tariff rate on Chinese EVs  to 100% and which took effect September 27!

Tesla, perhaps the best-known of the EV manufacturers in Western markets, saw first-quarter sales down by 20 percent this year, compared with the same period in 2023, and their share price has slumped by more than 25 percent since the beginning of this year.

 

But make no mistake, the EV industry is still the future. And China is definitely going ahead full throttle and its EVs are taking over the world.

Xiaomi Join Crowded EV Race

 

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi launched their much-anticipated electric car, the Speed Ultra 7 (SU7) sedan on Thursday in Beijing, China and have already started taking orders. 

 

The technology giant's chief executive Lei Jun said the standard SU7 model would be priced at 215,900 yuan ($29,874) and the Max version would cost 299,900 yuan ($41,497). And Xiaomi have secured 88,898 firm orders for the SU7 within 24 hours following its introduction.

 

Xiaomi's entry into the electric car market comes as sales growth has slowed globally, triggering a price war. This has not deterred them and they are determined to take on EV rivals including Tesla and BYD. And they're hoping that the SU7's shared operating system with their phones, laptops and other devices will appeal to existing customers. 

 

FYI, Xiaomi are the third-largest seller of smartphones worldwide with a market share of about 12%, according to research firm Counterpoint.

 

The SU7, which Xiaomi has been teasing since last year, has drawn comparisons to Porsche's Taycan and Panamera sports car models. It will be made by a unit of state-owned car manufacturer BAIC Group at a plant in Beijing that can produce as many as 200,000 vehicles a year.

 

"While getting this far is itself quite an achievement, the ultimate achievement would be to demonstrate that there is a consumer market for Xiaomi as a smart EV brand", Bill Russo of Automobility told the BBC. 

 

In an indication of the challenges facing technology firms who want to make electric cars, iPhone maker Apple last month reportedly cancelled their plans to build an EV. 

 

Russo added that Xiaomi's entry into the car market reflected their confidence "in the relevancy for their brand" in China while Apple did not see enough potential in the EV market outside of China. 

 

Xiaomi have said they will invest $10 billion in their vehicles business over the next 10 years. 

 

My March 24 blog post refers. The Russian Investigative Committee reported on Thursday, citing preliminary findings, that the suspects in last week’s Moscow terrorist attack were linked to Ukrainian nationalists. 

 

The perpetrators had received “significant sums of money” from Ukraine, the law enforcement agency said. Investigators have obtained “substantiated evidence” that the suspected assailants received funding from Ukraine in the form of cryptocurrency, which was then used to prepare the terrorist attack, the statement read. 

 

Earlier, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Aleksandr Bortnikov (right), told reporters that the US, UK, and Ukraine may have been behind the attack. He said that the Ukrainians may have been preparing a “window” for them to cross back over the border. “On the other side, they were to be welcomed as heroes”!

 

The death toll from the concert hall attack has continued to rise, with the number of deaths increasing to 144 on Friday when another severely injured victim died in a hospital, according to Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko.

Xiaomi Launch Home-grown Cross-device System with HyperOS

Smartphone and gadget giant Xiaomi Corp have become the latest Chinese industry player to unveil a unified operating system for their mobile devices, cars and Internet-connected home products, as US-sanctioned Huawei Technologies work towards liberating their own integrated OS completely from Google’s Android. 

 

Xiaomi described HyperOS, their recently introduced OS, as a combination of a highly customised Android system and the company’s proprietary Internet of Things (IoT) platform Vela, launched three years ago to support a range of smart devices from wristbands and smartwatches to speakers, home appliances and sensors. The Beijing-based firm touted HyperOS as a “human-centric” OS that is a culmination of efforts to bring their vast and expanding product portfolio under the roof of one single OS for centralised and easier management. 

 

HyperOS will come pre-installed on the latest Xiaomi 14 smartphone series, as well as devices launched in the mainland Chinese market, such as smartwatches and televisions, the company said.

 

Xiaomi are not the only Chinese company that have taken a shot at developing a home-grown OS. Huawei Technologies, one of the first domestic handset makers to make such an attempt, are now preparing a bolder move to launch HarmonyOS Next. 

 

Huawei have confirmed that HarmonyOS NEXT will commence official developer beta activities in early 2024, followed by closed and public beta tests before the full public release. 

 

The Next system is Huawei’s attempt to sever their ties with the Android ecosystem by removing support for Android apps on Huawei devices equipped with their new OS. HarmonyOS was launched in August 2019, several months after the US Department of Commerce added Huawei to their Entity List that barred the Shenzhen-based telecoms titan from buying technologies from American companies – including Google apps and services – without Washington’s approval.

 

While the Android Open Source Project is still free for anyone to use, Huawei have been pushing through with efforts to expand the use of HarmonyOS, which was first released on a smart television, to all their IoT and personal devices. But to soften the blow to users, Huawei – which were briefly the world’s top-selling smartphone brand before US trade sanctions decimated their international handset business – have so far allowed Android apps to run on HarmonyOS devices.

 

Android held a roughly 70 percent share of the global mobile OS market in September, according to data service StatCounter, while HarmonyOS had a negligible share.

 

Still, Huawei appear ready to move forward. 

 

“HarmonyOS had four rough years. Looking back now, the light boat has already passed ten thousand mountains”, Richard Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business, said at a launch event for HarmonyOS 4 in September, citing a famous line written by ancient Chinese poet Li Bai. 

 

Today, more than 700 million devices run on HarmonyOS, with more than 2.2 million third-party developers creating apps for the system, according to Yu. 

 

Meanwhile, other Chinese smartphone manufacturers continue to build their customised OS on the open-source Android. They include Oppo’s ColorOS and Vivo’s OriginOS.

Huawei Overtake Apple in China's Smartphone Market

Since its well-received launch, Apple's iPhone 15 family has been beset by hardware and software issues that have stripped the polish away from Apple’s collection of slick launch videos. That run continues with the latest disappointing sales figures from China.

 

According to a Monday report from Jefferies analysts, Apple’s iPhone has officially been dethroned from its position as the smartphone market leader in China. 

 

The analysts said smartphone sales in China have showed positive growth year over year, driven primarily by high double-digit growth in Android sales led by Huawei, Xiaomi and Honor devices. But Apple’s iPhone has seen a significant, double-digit decline, and its volume growth year over year has been negative since the iPhone 15 launch, according to the analysts. As a result, Huawei overtook the iPhone in the No.1 spot for market share.

 

“We believe weak demand in China would eventually lead to lower-than-expected global shipments of iPhone 15 in 2023”, the analysts wrote, adding that the trend suggests the iPhone will “lose” to Huawei next year. 

 

Shares of Apple closed flat on Monday. 

 

The Jefferies analysts wrote that Android’s volume growth can’t be chalked up to discounts and that discounts on iPhones, excluding the iPhone 15 models, have been stable, while the average discount for Android “is not high”.

 

The analysts noted that resale iPhone 15 devices are all “trading at discounts to official selling prices”, which also reflects the weak demand in China.

 

Counterpoint Research similarly saw a decline in sales for iPhones in China, blaming an economy struggling to rebound from a Covid slump. However, Counterpoint analysts say Huawei could sell 5 to 6 million units of the Mate 60 Pro alone this year, and that could rise above 10 million units in 2024.

 

The Chinese numbers are in contrast to US numbers. The iPhone is doing well in the United States and after two strong weekends, is "expected to post double-digit growth”, according to the analysts at Jefferies. This will take the sting out of the Chinese sales figures, but the US numbers will have to be spectacular to keep global sales stable.

Apple's iPhone Sales Are Said To Be Under Threat

Huawei's new 5G smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro is potentially posing a serious threat to new iPhone sales in China, it has been reported.

 

That is, according to analysts at Jefferies, who said in a note this week that "Chinese consumers see it as a big win over US sanctions". They estimate the Mate 60 could eat into as much as 38% of iPhone sales in China. 

 

Apple CEO Tim Cook (above) who was in the country in March reportedly said at the time: "Innovation is developing rapidly in China, and I believe it will further accelerate". He was right, but probably didn't foresee what it might cost his company. 

 

After all, the country has been a hugely important market for Apple, which generated almost a fifth of their $394.3 billion net sales in their most recent fiscal year.

 

And with less than a week to go before the release of the iPhone 15, there should be a huge buzz around Apple as they prepare for the biggest event in their calendar year. Instead, they're having to nurse a sudden $200 billion drop in market value, amid investor concerns about China as well as fears of a government crackdown on iPhone use among government employees.

 

This "news" and Huawei's new launch are signalling that the new iPhone may not fly off the shelves. Already, the Mate 60 Pro is expected to help Huawei recapture lost ground in China. 

 

Linda Sui, a senior smartphone analyst with TechInsights pronounced that “Huawei’s strong return will have a huge impact on China’s smartphone market in the second half and in 2024, with more impact on other Android-based phone brands vying for the high-end Chinese smartphone market”. 

 

But she added that although Huawei may reshuffle the top five smartphone brand rankings in China, they pose less of a threat to Apple because the brands have different target client bases. 

 

According to data from consultancy firms IDC and Counterpoint, Chinese smartphone shipments dropped to 286 million units in 2022, with Huawei ranking sixth with a market share of only 7.9 percent, after Vivo, Apple, Oppo, Honor and Xiaomi. This is a big change from Huawei's heyday, when they led the China market for four consecutive years from 2017 to 2020.

 

Still, the Mate 60 Pro model is being seen by some analysts as a potential savior for Huawei, with sales surging on both online and offline channels. 

 

Anyway, we will know how Apple's iPhone 15 is going to fare soon enough!

Xiaomi Smart Glasses

On February 27, 2012, I had a post on "Superspecs" – basically, a phone on your face – that was supposedly being developed by Google. 

But the vision of a pair of futuristic glasses that would deliver all the services of a smartphone straight to the wearer’s eye – Google Glass – crumbled in early 2015. 

Well, Google Glass is back from the dead, with a new $999 headset that delivers upgraded capabilities, longer battery life, and the promise of new confusion around augmented reality. 

But Google aren’t selling Glass 2 to consumers. The company are only interested in enterprise buyers at the moment. Their applications, too, are focused on work, rather than the consumer slant that got us so excited about the original wearable.

 

The Glass Enterprise Edition 2 is, as the name makes clear, not intended for consumers. Instead, Google is hoping to convince businesses that their workers should be wearing a computer. 

But hey, no worries! Introducing Xiaomi Smart Glasses:

 

They’re coming soon!

Indian CEOs of American Companies versus Chinese Entrepreneurs

Someone posted this on Facebook today – it’s a very interesting insight from Seshadri Kumar, an IIT graduate from Mumbai, India with an MTech and PhD from the US. 

He wrote in an Indian publication, The Wire that it is not surprising that a “dozen of the top CEOs in the world come from a country with 18% of the world’s population”. 

He said he won’t be joining in the celebrations. 

He explained: “But you know who should really be proud? The Chinese. Because Chinese people did not need to go to the US to rise to the top. They were able to create success stories for themselves sitting in China. 

And unlike Indians, who are merely CEOs of companies founded by Americans, like Google, Microsoft and Twitter, the Chinese entrepreneurs founded world-beating companies in China – Alibaba, Tencent, Didi, Xiaomi, Great Wall Motors, Huawei, ZTE, Foxconn and many others. When Indians do that, I’ll join the party”! 

Celtic maintained a four-point gap behind Scottish Premiership leaders Rangers with a narrow 1-0 win over Motherwell. 

Tom Rogic swept home (45+3) as the Steelmen’s defence failed to react to David Turnbull's cute cut-back.

Celtic face a gruelling midweek trip to Dingwall on Wednesday to face Ross County before the League Cup final on Sunday against Hibernian.

China's Big Impact on the Fortune Global 500

For the first time, China-based companies are making a bigger impact than American companies on the Fortune Global 500. 

As many as 124 companies based on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong appeared on this year’s ranking, exceeding the 121 companies from the US – and the addition of Taiwan-based firms brings the tally to 133. 

The world's 500 largest companies generated a combined revenue of $33.3 trillion and profit of $2.1 trillion in 2019. Together, this year’s Fortune Global 500 companies employ 69.9 million people worldwide and are represented by 32 countries. 

In the Top 4, already three of the behemoths are from China. Top positioned Walmart ($523.9 million in revenues) was followed by Chinese companies Sinopec Group ($407.0 million), State Grid Corp of China ($383.9 million) and China National Petroleum Corp ($379.1 million) in second, third and fourth place respectively. 

And among Internet companies on the list – 4 out of the 7 are also from China. Alibaba rose the most to 132nd place this year, up 50 positions from 2019. JD.com, Tencent and Xiaomi grabbed the 102nd, 197th and 422nd spots. The other 3 are Amazon (#9), Alphabet (#29) and Facebook (#144).

Two clear facts can be discerned. The first is the sheer gravity-defying rise of China as a leader of global business. There were precisely zero Global 500 companies based in mainland China in 1990 when Fortune magazine began the survey. Today there are more giant for-profit enterprises there than anywhere else on earth. 

The second – and equally dramatic – narrative is the steep rise of global trade in general, which has been just as inexorable, it seems, as China’s ascent. 

In the first running of the Global 500, world trade represented less than 39% of global GDP, according to the World Bank; in 2018 (the latest year available), such trade accounted for more than 59% of our planet’s economic output. 

"The quickly expanding number of Chinese firms reflects China's growing economic significance and its engagement in global business", said Lei Xinjun, an associate research fellow specializing in international trading and investment at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Economics. 

China is not to be ignored. Not now, not ever.

Superheroes as Cats

I love my superheroes and I know those who love their cats. 

Indonesian artist Fajareka Setiawan put the two together to create a cleverly illustrated collection in which superheroes are captured as cats. 

Included in this series are AquaCat, Venom Cat, Ant-Cat, CATPOOL and Black Kitteh:

Indeed, superheroes and pussies are a perfect match! 

After Apple warned of disappointing iPhone sales in China – did you read my post 'A Rough Day for Apple' yesterday? – industry observers have been quick to point to Chinese smartphones as being responsible. 

As the phone market in China reaches saturation and sales shrink, the country’s hardware makers are pushing hard, and increasingly winning fans, in places like France, Germany, India and Southeast Asia, where consumers find that the phones can do just about everything an iPhone can do at a fraction of the cost. 

Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo are China’s biggest smartphone brands. Around the world – although not yet in the United States – they are making the handset business brutally competitive. 

There’s no doubt, Apple sits comfortably atop the market in many countries, including China, for the highest-end handsets. 

But the Chinese brands are fast gaining the quality recognition they deserve. And they have started to do elsewhere what they have done in China, competing with the iPhone, not just on experience and value but luring customers with price comparisons that make them rethink buying Apple’s signature product. 

Competition is always desirable. So, it’s good to know that Chinese brands have boldly challenged the status quo.