BizChina

Quality content with a personalized touch commands premium price in a growing market driven by 'middle-class anxiety' over careers

For Chen Hua, 28, an automobile engineer in Shanghai, reading out English text aloud after taking pronunciation lessons on a mobile app has become an evening routine. Chen might skip dinner, but wouldn't trade even one language class delivered by the app for anything.

Geely Auto's Baoji Plant.

Li Shufu, founder of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, is a rising star in the global auto industry, with his scores of international deals prompting competition concerns in the West and drawing substantial praise in China. Though Li is currently jumping many hurdles in the West, people who know him well say he is a man on a global mission to save the traditional auto manufacturing industry.

He may not be as well-known around the world as some of the biggest names in China's corporate world - like the star founder of Alibaba Group Jack Ma Yun, who speaks fluent English and does not shy away from global media attention, or the outspoken billionaire behind conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group Wang Jianlin, who once vowed to prevent Disneyland Shanghai from making any profit for 20 years - but Li Shufu, the low-key founder and chairman of Chinese carmaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, is now a rising star in the global auto industry. 

Nice Boat Animation, producer of Dahufa, which won the Best Animation Feature category at the 2017 Golden Horse Awards, expects to see its revenue double this year, said a company executive.

The Tianjin-based company has experienced six years of losses since it was established in 2012 and only Dahufa helped it survive and achieve a revenue of 87 million yuan ($13.7 million) last year. Market insiders have suggested that if the film had not been released at the same time as the blockbuster Wolf Warrior 2, the figure could have topped 100 million yuan.

Hainan Airlines is set to launch its first direct flight route between China and London, with a new non-stop service linking the UK capital and Changsha in Hunan province.

The Chinese carrier said, starting on March 23, three of its Boeing 787 passenger jets will depart each week from Changsha Huanghua International Airport and arrive at London’s Heathrow Airport before making the return journey.