China Brands, Marketing & Consumers

Higher Prices, Bothered Passengers: Why Are Didi’s Prices Going Up?

It has been the question going around Chinese social media: why are the prices of China’s most popular e-hailing app service Didi (滴滴) going up? Users of the mobile taxi-calling app are not happy now that prices are increasing as much as 20%. Read the story of Didi Chuxing, its increasing prices, and what Chinese netizens are saying about it.

Published

10 years ago

September 12, 2016

Manya Koetse

It is the question of the day on Baidu’s Quora-like question asking platform: why…

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Manya Koetse

Manya Koetse is a sinologist, writer, and public speaker specializing in China’s social trends, digital culture, and online media ecosystems. She founded What’s on Weibo in 2013 and now runs the Eye on Digital China newsletter. Learn more at manyakoetse.com or follow her on X, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

1 Comment

Jon

September 14, 2016 at 3:50 am

Pay wall to read this? Fucking lame. Nope! Byeee!

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China Brands, Marketing & Consumers

Quack Like a Goose: Why Beijing Street Vendor “Auntie Goose Legs” Sparked a Nationwide Debate

After the first complaints surfaced, Auntie Goose Legs admitted the truth about her business: she ha been selling duck legs all along.

Published

2 months ago

June 20, 2026

Manya Koetse

🔥 Originally published in Eye on Digital China.
My premium newsletter covering the stories, memes, debates, and viral moments shaping online conversations in China. Subscribe here to receive future editions.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it might still be a goose – or the other way around. That, at least, is the takeaway from two stories that recently went viral on Chinese social media.

The woman at…

Chapter Dive

My Mum Has Two Husbands: The OPPO Mother’s Day Fiasco and 7 Other Gender Marketing Fails in China

Inside OPPO’s Mother’s Day PR fiasco and other failed marketing campaigns in China’s gender minefield

Published

3 months ago

May 12, 2026

Manya Koetse

The backlash to OPPO’s Mother’s Day ad came from multiple directions, from grassroots netizens to official organizations. Here’s a closer look at the controversy, along with 7 other cases that show how gender-related marketing has become a recurring minefield for brands in China.

Mother’s Day is over, but OPPO is still recovering. The Chinese smartphone brand went viral over the weekend for a Mother’s Day marketing campaign that failed spectacularly. In the campaign, OPPO…