Beauty contest: China make-up brands rein in South Korea rivals

SEOUL/SHANGHAI(Reuters) - As a diplomatic spat between Beijing and Seoul raged this year, many South Koreans felt decidedly unwelcome in China. South Korean businesses were shunned, K-pop concerts were canceled and tourist trade dried up.

But one group of South Koreans have been very much in demand: the executives and employees of South Korea's cosmetics companies, who are being lured by Chinese rivals as a battle for China's huge beauty market heats up.

Chinese make-up brands including Jala, Proya and Suhu - which have long trailed Korean rivals in terms of quality - are hiring South Korean executives as well as spending up on research and buying overseas firms, industry executives and headhunters say.

The moves seem to be helping.

Chinese brands, which compete with Korea names from top-rated Amorepacific to nimble budget makers such as Clio, are gaining market share in the mid-range and premium cosmetics sector where South Korea has traditionally had strength in China.

While Chinese companies have been gaining ground for some time, the trend appears to have accelerated this year after Seoul's decision to install a U.S. anti-missile system against Beijing's wishes sparked a backlash against Korean companies.

At stake is a bigger chunk of China's $50.2 billion beauty and personal care market, which research firm Euromonitor projects will grow to $61.9 billion by 2020.

Jason Yu, Shanghai-based General Manager of market research firm Kantar Worldpanel, said mid-tier or "masstige" Korean brands were most exposed to Chinese brands improving their offering. High-end brands from France's L'Oreal and Japan's Shiseido tended to attract wealthier buyers.

"In terms of the price position, they will be more in direct competition with the emerging Chinese brands who are moving up the price ladder," said Yu, adding Chinese firms were "catching up very fast".

HIRING SPREE

There are signs that recent diplomatic tensions have played into the hands of local Chinese brands in their battle with Korean rivals.

Amorepacific's sales fell 8 percent in the January to September period from a year earlier, while operating profit skidded 30 percent. Smaller, budget makers were hit harder, with Clio's operating profit falling nearly 70 percent.

While some Chinese make-up brands use South Korean stars or highlight Korean links, others are playing up Chinese elements such as using traditional medicine ingredients or use slogans about suiting Chinese skin.

Zoe Zhuang, 24, an engineer in Nanjing, said she used to use cushion foundations and eye pencils from South Korea's Etude brand. She now uses more Chinese to "support local brands", she said, without referring to the dispute over the THAAD missile system.

"I actually don't think Chinese makeup is that good yet, there is plenty of room for improvement," she said.

Chinese cosmetics firms have been trying to close the quality gap by aggressively targeting South Korean executives.

"(Chinese cosmetics brands) are recruiting Koreans in almost all areas, including brand managers, packaging design, store interiors, purchasing and marketing," Choi Sun-hee, head of South Korean recruiting firm HR Biz Korea, told Reuters.

Some Chinese brands are willing to offer 50 percent higher wages, help with rents and flights home to woo Korean workers, Choi added.

Guangzhou-based Suhu plans to double the number of its South Korean employees to 40, Choi said. It recently hired an executive from Korea's Nature Republic to oversee the recent launch of its Rojank brand, he added. Suhu declined to comment.

Chinese brand Proya, which owns the Uzero and Cats & Roses brands, hired South Korean Kim Hoi-joon from Clio in 2014 to launch its Hapsode brand, Kim told Reuters.

Another former Amorepacific official said Kim had lured him to Proya last year with a salary hike of about 50 percent. He said he was one of over 10 Korean employees hired by Proya.

Proya declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Jala, one of China's leading cosmetics firms, hired a Korean executive earlier this year to revamp its mainstay Chando brand, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Jala also hired the former head of Amorepacific's Etude brand, Kim Dong-young, they added. Kim, reached by phone, confirmed he had been working at Jala for about a year, but declined to comment further.

Jala's press office was not available for comment.

The approach is not limited to cosmetics. Chinese firms from carmakers to flatscreen producers to smartphone vendors have recently opened up more to hiring foreign talent to help them gain a competitive edge, often taking market share from South Korean rivals as they move up the value chain and their industries mature.

But Korean brands aren't going down without a fight.

Amorepacific said it was working with experts in seven Chinese cities to study local skin characteristics and develop products for the local market.

"It is not that we are not worried about Chinese competition," Rho Jee-hye, an Amorepacific senior vice president told Reuters. "As there is Estee Lauder in the United States, L'Oreal in France and Amorepacific in Korea, an innovative Chinese company could emerge."

Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in SEOUL and Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI; Additional reporting by Joyce Lee in SEOUL, Editing by Soyoung Kim and Lincoln Feast

Source: Beauty contest: China make-up brands rein in South Korea rivals

Phablets to outpace smaller smartphone sales by 2021: IDC

Phablets (smartphones with screen size of 5.5-7-inches) will far outpace total market growth by climbing from 611 million units in 2017 to one billion units in 2021, representing a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.1 percent.

In comparison, the total smartphone market is expected to grow at three per cent CAGR during the same period, while normal smartphones (under 5.5 inches) will decline 7.4 percent, the International Data Corporation (IDC) said on Thursday. The smartphone shipments will grow from 1.5 billion units in 2017 to 1.7 billion units in 2021 globally.

In 2012, phablets were just one per cent of smartphone shipments and now they are approaching 50 percent of the market. "The rapid transition to bezel-less smartphones will help minimise the device footprint while growing the screen size from previous generations," said Ryan Reith, Programme Vice President with IDC's "Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers".

Android-based phablets have been the primary driver of large-screen smartphones and IDC expects this trend to continue in the years to come. Samsung's early dominance of the phablet category has been short-lived as other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) – many of which are Chinese OEMs – quickly pushed the category into the mainstream and even low end.

As a result, China consumed 50 percent of the 437.4 million phablets shipped in 2016. IDC expects China will remain the largest market for large-screen smartphones and to grow at a CAGR of 12.6 percent. "There is no doubt that 2017 gave birth to the new ultra high-end segment of the smartphone market," said Anthony Scarsella, IDC Research Manager.

"The latest flagship devices from Samsung, Apple, Google, LG, and others has pushed the high end to the $850-plus level for the first time." Android-powered smartphones have already captured 85 percent of total market volume and IDC expects this share to remain relatively stable.

Source: Phablets to outpace smaller smartphone sales by 2021: IDC

Japan, China dominate list of world’s top restaurants

Chef-owner Massimo Bottura's Osteria Francescana frequently tops best restaurant lists around the world. — Reuters picPARIS, Nov 29 — Japan and China have more of the world's best restaurants than anywhere else, according to the La Liste ranking, which will be published next week.

Although the French-based list will declare Guy Savoy's flagship Paris riverside restaurant the best in the world for the second year running — and French cooking dominates the top 100 — the big trend is the climb of Chinese haute cuisine.

"The rise and rise of China is the big story," said Jorg Zipprick, who crunched the numbers for the "guide of guides", which was set up as a "more scientific and reliable" rival three years ago to the British-based 50 Best Restaurants.

Japan still tops the country table with 138 restaurants in the top 1,000 of the French classification — which aggregates reviews from guides, newspapers and websites including TripAdvisor — but China is closing the gap fast with 123.

"Up to now China has been one of the most difficult countries to get data from," Zipprick told AFP, but a boom in local gastronomic guides has changed all that.

"Asia has a lot more restaurants than Europe and it is only logical that La Liste will reflect that," he added.

Mao's favourite dish

Tokyo institution Kyubey, whose sushi is renowned for being both "extraordinary and reasonably priced", took third spot after Le Bernardin, a New York fish restaurant run by Emmy award-winning US television chef Eric Ripert.

Two other restaurants in the Japanese capital made the top 20, the minuscule Kyo Aji and French chef Joel Robuchon's plush dining room in a reconstructed French chateau.

They were followed by the highest-placed Chinese restaurant, the Huai Yang Fu at Andingmen in Beijing — whose speciality is a roast pork dish adored by Chairman Mao.

While there is no dramatic change at the summit of the list, there were three newcomers to the top 10, including The French Laundry, a former saloon in California's Napa Valley which Kitchen Confidential author Anthony Bourdain has called "the best restaurant in the world, period".

It shared an almost perfect mark of 99 out of 100 with La Vague d'Or in the French Riviera resort of Saint Tropez and Martin Berasategui's restaurant in the village of Lasarte in Spain's Basque country.

Plankton sorbet

Another of the big climbers was Aponiente at the other end of Spain, where diners cleanse their palates with a plankton sorbet.

The Andalusian fish specialist in El Puerto de Santa Maria jumped 200 places on the back of getting a third Michelin star.

For the first time a Canadian restaurant, Alo in Toronto, has entered the top 100, while the Turkish female chef Aylin Yazicioglu makes the grade for her highly-rated Istanbul restaurant, Nicole.

New York's Eleven Madison Park, which was first in the 50 Best Restaurants ranking in 2017, was placed fourth on La Liste.

But the two lists differ widely beyond that — although they roughly agree that El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain; Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, as well Alain Ducasse and Le Bernardin represent more or less the summit of the culinary arts.

La Liste's aggregator of the 1,000 top-rated restaurants in the world is modelled on the world tennis rankings and the Shanghai Ranking for universities.

While Japan, China, France and the United States top the league for having the highest number of best restaurants, Switzerland with 38 for a population of eight million, has the highest per capital rating.

Zipprick said its database — which is available as a smartphone app — now includes 16,000 eateries across the world which it classifies from haute cuisine to lower-priced "Food Gems".

Superstar chef Gordon Ramsay's flagship London restaurant remained the highest-rated British table, pipping L'Enclume, which operates in a former blacksmith's forge in Cumbria, northwest England.

This year's winners will be formally announced at a banquet in Paris on Monday, with 40 of the world's leading chefs also invited to meet French President Emmanuel Macron at his Elysee Palace residence. — AFP

Source: Japan, China dominate list of world's top restaurants

Gionee S11, M7 Plus and 6 other smartphones launched: Price, specifications, features

Gionee has today taken the wraps off its eight new smartphones at a launch event in Shenzhen, China. The company has been teasing the launch of these smartphones for a very long time now. The eight products range from the premium category at RMB 4,399 (Rs 42,900 approximately) to the most affordable, the F205, at RMB 999 (Rs 9,700 approximately). One feature that remains common in all the smartphone is the full-view display with 18:9 aspect ratio, following the footsteps of LG Q6 and Samsung Galaxy S8-duo.

At the event, Gionee launched the S11, S11S, S11 Lite, M7, M7 Power, M7 Plus, M7 mini, and F205. Here, it is worth noting that Gionee has already launched smartphones including the M7 Power, F205 and M7 in the Chinese market. However, given the highlight of the event, the M7 Plus was surely the showstopper of the event, given its premium specifications and price. 

Gionee M7 Plus

Priced at RMB 4,399 (roughly Rs 42,900), the smartphone is said to be available in January next year. Gionee M7 Plus features a 6.43-inch AMOLED 18:9 FullView display. Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC paired with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage.

On the camera front, it sports a dual camera setup at the back – 16-megapixel + 8-megapixel sensors, and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. Armed with a 5,000mAh battery, the smartphone, as the company claims is the first Chinese brand smartphone to offer wireless charging at 10W. Additionally, the phone is equipped with a dual security chipset that guarantees the security of payment, system and data.

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Alongside the M7 Plus, Gionee also launched the M7 Mini. The smartphone is priced at RMB 1,399, which is approximately Rs 13,600. According to Gadgets360, the smartphone comes with a 5.5-inch HD+. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 SoC paired with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. On the camera front, there is an 8-megapixel front as well as rear cameras. The phone is armed with a 4,000mAh battery.

Gionee S-series

Gionee launched three smartphones under the S-series smartphones called, the S11, S11S and S11 Mini. The company says that the S11 will be considered to be the flagship product for overseas markets. According to Gadgets 360, the company will launch the S11 in India in the next couple of months.

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In terms of specifications, the S11 features a 5.99-inch, bezel-less FullView display. Under the hood, there is an octa-core MediaTek Helio P30 SoC paired with 6GB of RAM. There is also a 64GB of internal storage, which can be expandable up to 256GB via microSD card. It runs on Amigo 5.0 based on Android 7.1 with a battery capacity of 3,410mAh.

On the camera front, the phone comes with four cameras that include 16-megapixel + 8-megapixel dual camera up on the front, and 16-megapixel + 5-megapixel dual cameras at the rear. The Gionee S11 is priced at RMB 1799, which is around Rs 17,500.

Gionee also launched the S11S, which comes with a 6.01-inch FullView display with a resolution of 2160X1080 pixels. At the heart, there is the same MediaTek Helio P30 SoC paired with 6GB of RAM with 64GB of onboard storage.

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The camera is the major USP of the smartphone, and it comes with a 20-megapixel + 8-megapixel up front with fixed-focus. At the rear, there is a 16-megapixel + 8-megapixel dual-camera setup. The smartphone is armed with 3,600mAh battery, that the company claims will last up to 13.5 hours of non-stop usage. It is said to retail at a price of RMB 3,299 (Rs 32,100 approximately). Both the smartphones will go on sale starting December 2017.

Details about the Gionee S11 Lite are unknown at the moment, however, the smartphone will retail at RMB 1,299, which is Rs 12,600 in India. The smartphone is expected to be available starting January 2018.

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16 MP + 8 MP dual Camera with f/1.8 aperture

Source: Gionee S11, M7 Plus and 6 other smartphones launched: Price, specifications, features

China eyes MaaS adoption of ‘Mobility as a Service’

Armed with a wealth of startups, incumbent service providers and willing consumers, China is well positioned to become a leading market for on-demand mobility. By Freddie Holmes

With millions of smartphone users already more inclined to hail cabs than to own a car, China is poised to become a leading market for Mobility as a Service (MaaS).

Traffic is a serious issue for China's Tier One cities, and mobility services have been seen by many as a flexible way to get around without the hassle of parking and commuting. TomTom data shows that Beijing was the tenth most congested city in the world in 2016, with Chongqing fourth. Back in 2010, one traffic jam outside Beijing hit the news as it reportedly stretched for 100km (62 miles).

It has not always been this way. Wind the clock back a few decades…

This content is available only to members of Automotive World with a valid subscription.

Next steps:

Source: China eyes MaaS adoption of 'Mobility as a Service'

China’s tech giants reach global elite with gamers, shoppers

BEIJING — Powered by Chinese smartphone users splurging billions on mobile games and online shopping, China's tech giants Tencent and Alibaba are racing up the elite league of the world's most valuable companies.

Hong Kong-listed Tencent, famous for its games and WeChat messaging service, became the first Asian firm to break into the $500 billion league last week — briefly overtaking Facebook as the world's fifth biggest company in terms of market value.

Alibaba is just a few billion shy of joining its Chinese competitor at the top table of public listings — and is already there when taking into account its private affiliates.

While the top five — Apple, Google's parent company Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook — thrive across the world, the two Chinese firms have made their fortunes by cornering China's own vast market of 750 million internet users.

Tencent and Alibaba do have a major advantage over American rivals because China severely restricts access to its internet, with Facebook and Google kept outside the "Great Firewall".

But they have also deftly tapped into smartphone technology to woo China's large, adaptable population.

"Chinese consumers' acceptance of new technology is faster than nearly anywhere," said Zhao Chen, a managing partner at the China office of tech accelerator Plug and Play.

"Even my grandpa, who is 88 years old, uses WeChat and WeChat payment."

Tencent boasts nearly one billion monthly active users of WeChat, known as a "super app" for its combination of instant messaging, social media, mobile payment options, games and publishing.

Half of WeChat users spend more than 90 minutes a day on the app.

In smartphone games alone, the company's revenues surged by 84 percent in the third quarter, driven by the success of the "Honour of Kings" title.

Alibaba, meanwhile, has dominated the e-commerce market, with Chinese consumers flocking to its shopping platforms to buy everything from laundry detergent to Boeing 747s.

The firm created an annual sales promotion held during China's "Singles Day", with consumers spending a record $25 billion on November 11 — 40 percent up from last year.

Electronic cash

Both companies have benefited from China's rapid smartphone adoption, with cheap phones flooding the market and bringing millions online for the first time.

"This is basically a story of the mobile internet," said Shameen Prashantham, an associate professor at China Europe International Business School, of the tech giants' growth.

"This country leapfrogged the (personal computer) stage straight onto the smartphone stage."

Today, there are more than one billion smartphones running in China, according to iResearch. Both Tencent and Alibaba earn most of their revenue from mobile.

They have also developed mobile payment applications — WePay and Alipay — that are driving hundreds of millions of Chinese to pay for everything from groceries and eating out to water bills.

People simply aim their smartphone cameras at a "QR code", similar to a barcode, and click.

For merchants, the transaction fees cost just a fraction of swiping a credit card in most countries, and can be completed on the go.

This has also unlocked new business models, like for companies who offer sharing services, which now range from bikes to basketballs.

No ads, no business 

Although Alibaba and Tencent have grown in a protected corner of the internet, they have developed unique ways to rake in cash.

While Amazon takes a cut from the sale of goods like traditional retail, Alibaba takes a different approach.

The company earns most of its money from charging merchants to advertise on its Tmall and Taobao platforms.

"If you don't buy ads, you won't have any business," said Liu Song, owner of the Sweet Lisa Flagship Store, which sells women's dresses, rompers, and skirts on Alibaba's Tmall store.

Liu frequently buys those keywords on Alibaba's platform, paying anywhere from eight to 18 cents when shoppers click into his online store.

Unlike Facebook, Tencent earns most of its money from selling virtual items to its millions of users rather than selling their eyeballs to advertisers.

WeChat users pay for emoticons they send to friends; players of its slash-and-burn hit game "Honour of Kings" purchase new outfits for their characters for 30 yuan ($5) up.

Recently, Tencent has begun to sell some advertising and analysts believe this could be its next big growth driver.

The world beyond China also offers opportunity, though neither Tencent or Alibaba can yet challenge their American rivals on the global stage.

Should US tech giants fret?

"Not really," investor Zhao said. "But they should be alert that Chinese companies are coming up with new business models that really work."

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Source: China's tech giants reach global elite with gamers, shoppers

Best Android gaming smartphones for early 2018

China, being the biggest smartphone market in the world today, has more than 110 million shipments per quarter, according to TechCrunch. In fact, 3 vendors from China, namely Huawei, Vivo, and Xiaomi, make up the top 5 in smartphone market share based on International Data Corporation's statistics. Meanwhile, the US was recently surpassed by India as the second largest smartphone market. This is mainly due to India having a much larger population than the US.

While smartphones are essentially an extension of both Americans' and Chinese' lives, their uses slightly differ. Americans tend to rely on smartphones for their financial tracking, shopping, and news alerts; while a massive number of Chinese users engage in mobile gaming. In fact, China now has the largest mobile gaming market in the world.

Chinese game publisher Tencent, known for mobile games such as Honor of Kings, generated 17.1 billion yuan from online gaming in the first half of 2016, as reported by Xinhua News. Compare that to the game publisher Gaming Realms, which enjoyed 146 million yuan in revenue for the same period, as stated in a finance report from Gaming Intelligence. In hindsight, many of Tencent's mobile games have yet to be released worldwide. Gaming Realms, which owns the thematic slot game platform Spin Genie, has titles readily accessible to mobile phone users around the world. The disparity in revenues is just one aspect, but it already shows the immensity of the Chinese mobile gaming market even if the majority of its audience is within the country.

In line with China's current mobile gaming trend, let's look at the best smartphones in the market for gaming.

Samsung Galaxy S8 (and S8 Plus)

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and the slightly larger S8 Plus are deemed the best smartphones for mobile gaming today. The S8's brilliant curved 5.8 inch AMOLED display can scale from 720p (HD+) to 1080p (FHD+) and 1440p (UHD). It is able to handle graphics-heavy games with ease because of its powerful Snapdragon 835 processor (or Samsung Exynos 8895 processor), Adreno 540 GPU and 4GB RAM.

The S8 also features a dedicated Game Mode, where you can configure the settings, like screen mode, to get a better experience. This tool also allows you to block app notifications for uninterrupted gameplay.

See More: Samsung Galaxy S8 takes away the Best Phone award at the Mobile Choice Consumer Awards 2017.

OnePlus 5 (and 5T )

OnePlus' flagship device is a heavy hitter with its 6GB/8GB RAM. It has a 5.5-inch display with 1920 x 1080 resolution, which is more than enough for most mobile games available today. It features the Snapdragon 835 and has a slightly better battery life (3,300 mAh) than the Samsung Galaxy S8. Similar to the S8's Game Mode, OnePlus 5 has 2 unique gaming features: the Gaming Do Not Disturb, which disables notifications; and the Dash Charge While Gaming, which allows faster charging.

New OnePlus 5T version carries almost similar gaming hardware, but with different 6-inch display with 2160 x 1080 resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio, but it's more or less down to personal preference.

See More: OnePlus 5 Review.

Moto Z Play

If there's one edge this phone has over others, it's battery life (3510 mAh). This means it can last for two full days before its next charge. To compensate with the powerful battery though, the phone has the older Snapdragon 625 processor. However, you can take advantage of Motorola's Moto Mods, including the Moto Mod Gamepad, which essentially transforms your phone into a mini-Nintendo Switch.

See More: Deal: $45 off on the Moto Z Play.

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Source: Best Android gaming smartphones for early 2018