China Marketing & Advertising
Hong Kong ‘Super-business-man’ Li Ka-shing Announces Retirement at 90 Years Old
He is called ‘Superman’, he is known as Hong Kong’s richest man, and is said to be ‘Asia’s answer to Warren Buffet.’ Chinese business magnate Li Ka-Shing (李嘉誠) announced his retirement during a press conference on March 16.
With an estimated wealth over $34 billion dollars, Li, chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings, is the 23rd wealthiest person in the world, as well as the wealthiest person in Hong Kong. His business spans the fields of shipping, retail, construction, telecommunications, and energy.
Li was born in 1928 in Chaozhou, Guangdong, but moved to Hong Kong during World War II. The young Li started from a company making plastic flowers, and soon bloomed into one of China’s most successful entrepreneurs.
His first acquisition, back in 1979, made him the first Chinese-born businessman to buy a British trading company. His next notable purchase occurred seven years later when the global oil prices fell to $11 per barrel. At a time of market hysteria, Li Ka Shing made the bold move to buy controlling shares in Canada’s Husky oil company. He has since referred to the acquisition as “the greatest investment” in his lifetime.
Li Ka-shing during press conference.
Li Ka-Shing’s investments have even stretched to England’s energy and water sector. According to the Financial Times, roughly 25% of the electric market, 30% of the natural gas market, and close to 7% of the supplied water market are under Li Ka-Shing and his company’s ownership.
It is Li’s work ethic, along with his frugality and modesty, which made that he is often compared to Warren Buffet. Li is also an active philanthropist, like Buffett, providing grants and scholarships through his Li Ka Shing Foundation.
In Friday’s conference, Li announce that Victor, his eldest son, will take over as chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings, while Li will play an advisory role. He also stated he will focus on his charity foundation in his retirement.
The reactions to his retirement on Chinese social media have mainly highlighted the respect netizens have for Li Ka Shing as a businessman. One netizen recalled Li’s famous “coin story” reminding people not to waste money and our role in the economy.
According to this blog, the story is a follows:
“One day, Li was driven back home after work. When Li got off from his car, he dropped a $10 coin, and the coin rolled underneath the car. Li bent down and stretched his hand under the car in order to grab it back. With Li’s age, he was not able to do so even after a few tries. Li’s driver saw the situation, and asked, “Mr Li, what are you doing? Is there anything I can do for you?” Li told him that he lost his $10 coin. The driver took off his jacket, knelt down and grabbed the $10 coin out from beneath the car, and gave it back to Li. Li smiled, and happily put the $10 coin into his pocket. He then took out a $100 note, and gave to the driver as appreciation.Li said to the interviewer, “It’s not about the value of the money. I gave my driver $100, he would spend it and make use of it. If I didn’t pick up the $10 coin, it would be lost forever and wasted.”
Another person simply posted: “A person like Li Ka Shing just can’t retire,” while other praise Li for how he treated other people.
“He’s a legendary business person of his generation,” commenters on Toutiao.com say.
Others are more moderate, simply saying: “He’s pretty cool.”
Interested to read more about Chinese legendary business persons? Read the story of Tao Huabi, Lao Gan Ma’s spicy godmother.
By Ryan Gandolfo
Follow @whatsonweibo
- Featured image: Li on the cover of the Far East Economic Review magazine in 1981. He earned the nickname ‘Superman’ through his impressive business dealings and foresight in the market.
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©2018 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.
China Local News
Another Didi Murder Shocks China: 20-Year-Old Woman Raped and Killed by Driver on Her Way to a Birthday Party
Xiao Zhao is the second woman in China to have been killed by her Didi driver this year, raising concerns among Chinese regarding the safety of the car-hailing app.
A 20-year-old woman from Wenzhou, Zhejiang, went missing on August 24 after taking a Didi taxi from Yueqing (乐清) to Yongjia (永嘉) county at one o’clock in the afternoon to attend a birthday party.
Her parents contacted the police when they could not reach their daughter Xiao Zhao after 14:00, which is when she had sent a message to a friend that she was in trouble.
“Help me,” Xiao Zhao cried for help through message before her phone lost contact.
Although her friend (@Super_4ong) immediately tried to contact Didi after Xiao Zhao had cried out for help, she was allegedly told to wait and no immediate action was taken.
Hours later, in the early morning on Saturday, August 25, police arrested the suspect responsible for the woman’s disappearance, the 27-year-old driver from Sichuan.
Yueqing authorities reported that the body of Xiao Zhao was discovered in a mountainous area nearby, after the driver told police he had killed her and had thrown her body off a cliff. Local police report on their official Weibo account that the driver had also admitted to raping the woman.
It now appears that the driver had been reported by another female passenger earlier this week for indecent behavior. She came forward through WeChat today, claiming the same driver had harassed her around the same place where the murder took place. She was able to get away, and says she later contacted Didi to have his license removed but that Didi had not taken action yet.
Didi Chuxing (滴滴顺风车) is China’s biggest ride-sharing company. Like Uber, it allows customers to arrange a taxi via the app or Wechat programme. Didi has around 450 million users in more than 400 cities across China.
The case is seemingly similar to another shocking Didi murder that occurred earlier this year. In May of this year, the murder of a 21-year-old flight attendant raised concerns among Chinese regarding the safety of car-hailing app Didi.
The 21-year-old Lucky Air flight attendant Li Mingzhu (李明珠) was killed in the early morning of May 6th after she had arranged a ride through Didi, and was on her way home from Zhengzhou Airport in Henan province. A friend of Li had received messages from her while she was on her way home, saying that her driver was “acting strange” and was telling her that he was “tempted to kiss her.”
Unable to contact their daughter later that day, Li’s family reported her missing on the afternoon of May 7. Her body was discovered by local police the following day. Police confirmed that the woman was killed by the driver with a weapon. The body of the driver was later retrieved from a river nearby.
At the time, Didi Chuxing issued an apology for Li’s death, and said they had “incumbent responsibility.” They also promised to improve their safety measures for passengers, but apparently have not succeeded in doing so; before yesterday’s brutal killing, at least ten other Didi incidents also occurred since May, including the rape of a young female passenger on May 15 in Nantong (Jiangsu), the rape of an intoxicated woman in Foshan (Guangdong) who took a Didi taxi after going for a night out on May 13, and the sexual assault of another woman in Huai’an (Jiangsu).
Today, the company again issued a statement on Chinese social media, in which they said they were “filled with grief” over Friday’s violent crime, and that they are deeply sorry: “We fell short of your expectations,” they wrote. The statement received over 200,000 comments today.
The Didi murder is a major topic of discussion on Chinese social media today, with the hashtag “Wenzhou woman murdered when taking Didi” (#温州女孩乘滴滴遇害#) having been viewed more than 16 million times on Weibo at time of writing. Another similar hashtag (#女孩乘滴滴顺风车遇害#) was viewed more than 430 million times. Five of the top 10 ‘hot search’ list topics relate to the murder.
Five out of ten trending topics on Weibo relate to the Didi incident.
One commenter (@Babylily杨杨莉莉) wrote: “As someone of the same age as she was, and me using Didi all the time, I’m just happy nothing has happened to me before. But I hope Didi can undertake action so that all women can safely use their services.”
“I’m too afraid to ride with Didi now,” others said. Amid safety concerns, some netizens now say they want Didi to incorporate an alarm button into its app, so that users can send for help immediately the moment they are being harrassed by their driver.
Others encourage women to quickly change settings in their app to allow the option to automatically share one’s ride with friends, so they can exactly follow the location of the car.
There are also many people who simply do not want to use Didi’s services anymore; they are posting screenshots of them deleting the Didi app from their phones.
UPDATE: More details emerge.
By Manya Koetse, and Miranda Barnes
Follow @whatsonweibo
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China Marketing & Advertising
Remarkable Rebranding: Employees Confused and Angry about “58 Transport” Name Change to “Fast Dog Drivers”
Some workers at Fast Dog would’ve rather seen a cat in their company’s remarkable rebranding campaign.
Chinese logistics and delivery company “58 Transport” (58 Suyun/58速运) recently changed its name to “Fast Dog Drivers” or “Fast Dog Pickup [Service]” (loose translation of Kuài gǒu dǎchē 快狗打车), but workers are not happy about the name change.
A Chinese media news report (video) shows how workers in Zhengzhou have gathered at the office to express their anger about the name change. (Video also on Youtube here).
Many drivers feel the name has a double meaning, implying that either the drivers themselves are ‘dogs’ or that the people they serve are ‘dogs,’ or that they are actually picking up dogs.
‘Dog’ in Chinese (狗 gŏu) can be used as an insult, meaning ‘damned’ or ‘cursed.’ The words gǒudàn (狗蛋, lit. ‘dog egg’) or gǒuzǎizi (狗崽子, lit. ‘dog bastard’), for example, can be translated as ‘loser’ or ‘son of a b*tch.’
But ‘dog’ also pops up in many other vulgar or derogatory terms. Gǒupì (狗屁, lit. ‘dog fart’) meaning ‘bullsh*t’ and gǒurì (狗日) meaning ‘lousy.’
Many Chinese (negative) idioms also use the word ‘dog.’ Gǒu yǎn kàn rén dī (狗眼看人低, lit. ‘dog-eye-look-people-down’）means ‘to act like a snob.’ Or gòu gǎi bù liǎo chī shǐ (狗改不了吃屎), literally ‘a dog can’t stop himself from eating shit,’ meaning ‘bad habits are hard to change.’
Some employees at the “Fast Dog Drivers” are afraid their new name might get in trouble, and refuse to have the new name sign on their minivans, asking: “Why can’t the main company just change its name, and let us carry the old name on our vans?”
The new Fast Dog sign on a delivery van.
Some drivers have even put up signs on their van, saying: “We are respectful! We are no ‘dogs’!”
One employee speaking to reporters (video) said: “If I call up a customer, am I supposed to say, ‘Hello, this is ‘Fast Dog’ [‘fast bastard’] speaking? I can’t say that! I’d be scolding myself and the company!”
“Hello this is Fast Dog speaking, I can’t say that!”
The employee further tells reporters: “Our company told us that JD.com also has a dog in its logo, yeah, but their name is still JD.com!” He says: “Just look at Tmall [e-commerce site 天猫 lit. ‘day cat’], they have a ‘cat’ [in their name] and that’s not insulting. Nobody uses ‘cat’ as a bad word, now do they, telling someone they’re a ‘cat’ doesn’t do anything, now does it?”
E-commerce companies JD.com uses a dog in its logo, whereas Tmall uses a cat in both logo and Chinese name.
On Weibo, news about the name change is also causing some surprise: “Is this for real?”, some say: “This name is so undignified!”
The name change surely is for real; ’58 Transport’ has also changed its Weibo account to ‘Fast Dog Drivers’ (@快狗打车官方微博). But the name introduction on its Weibo page has also attracted some dozen reactions saying: “Are your drivers ‘dogs’ [‘damned’]?”
Some people, however, mention the fact that one of China’s biggest search engines also has a ‘dog’ in it: Sougou (搜狗) literally means ‘searching dog.’
’58 Transport’ or ‘Fast Dog Drivers’ is a company that operates in more than 25 major cities across China. It offers services in picking up goods, moving services, and other transport services, and especially stresses the speed of delivery and quality customer services as its main company strengths.
For now, according to reports, the workers in Zhengzhou do not need to put the new name on their minivans – if they do not have them yet – until the headquarters release instructions about the future marketing strategy of the ‘Fast Dog’ company.
By Manya Koetse
Follow @whatsonweibo
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