About Us

Baiguan is made for anyone with a real stake in China. Your trusted partner for accurate and sharp insights about China, Baiguan is powered by massive and unique sources of on-the-ground data, cross-boarder researchers with decades of domain expertise and cutting-edge technology. We publish multiple times per week on current affairs and unique business topics such as:

Is Pinduoduo a fraud?
Are people leaving 1-tier cities like Shanghai or Beijing and where are they going?
When US capital leaves China’s venture capital industry, what happens?
How can understand China’s future potential by looking at its many micro-worlds such as one of its most ordinary cities, one of its richest towns, its “porcelain capital”, or its “Utopia city”.
Why are foreign brands like Decathlon, Lululemon and Uniqlo doing so good in China even though many foreign businesses (such as swiss watch) are suffering?
Why have China’s education companies surge back from the disastrous government overhaul? And will the Chinese government shuts it down again?
What do grassroots insights tell about China’s consumer market and real estate?
How to invest in China without taking on the China risk?
Can China catch up with US in AI competition?
What’s going on with China’s job market?
Who benefits from US-China decoupling?
Why are Chinese companies rushing into Mexico?
How will China win the Chip War?
Why, fundamentally, won’t China hide her pride to the West?

Baiguan, or 百观, literally means "A Hundred Perspectives" in Chinese. This name calls upon a metaphor similar to the Chinese idiom "盲人摸象 blind men touching an elephant", in which a blind man may touch on an elephant's ear and confidently declare that an elephant is no more than just a huge ear. It speaks to a core flaw of human cognition, that we can only see things that we are able to see. Our tunnel vision is just an unavoidable part of us. The only way a person can be wiser is to try to at least to have more perspectives, more "Baiguan", so hopefully when the blind man touches the leg, the belly and the tail, he might be able to piece together something closer to truth.

This tunnel vision is especially strong when it comes to China. To begin with, we all know China is massive. There is simply no one way to describe this huge, often self-contradictory country. You have to employ data and technology to grasp the multi-faceted nature of this subject.

China is also an enigma to many observers. She is an enigma partly because of the cultural divide between her and the outside world. It is also because there just aren't many interpreters who are both capable and trustworthy, someone who can stay to the facts while also speaking your language. Now, as the world has once again become more and more divided, the necessity for such interpreters only becomes stronger.

So this is the mission of Baiguan. We want our content to be both fact-based and interesting. Here you will not find conjectures, second-guesses and made-up stories. You will not find ideologies on either sides of the Pacific. You will only find information that matters. Grounded in our massive datasets spanning commerce, retail, social media, foot traffic, vehicle traffic, delivery, mobile traffic, production activity, transaction receipts, user panel, etc., we strive to present you with only credible, multi-faceted and actionable insights about China. In short, Baiguan will be your trusted, matter-of-fact partner when it comes to doing business in China.

A typical subscriber of Baiguan is someone who:

Has a stake in China, be it a financial stake, a private investment, a business operation, a career, or simply a strong intellectual stake
Is often intimidated by a constant stream of shocks from China as a result of changes in user behaviors, policies, geopolitics and a general lack of context
Craves for insightful, fact-based, and contextualized content about China that actually matters, instead of stereotypical stories or over-generalized takes

For more details about the story behind us, about our key beliefs, principles and assumptions, please read this article about the story behind the creation of Baiguan.

Paying-member-exclusive community

Exclusive for paying members of Baiguan, we operate a Discord community where members with similar tastes but diverse backgrounds can come together to engage in civil, meaningful dialogues and share useful information with each other.

The community is also a live ask-us-anything channel, where Baiguan’s team members stand ready to answer many of your questions. And it’s not just about data. One type of content our members find helpful is our on-the-ground observations of how the “temperature” feels in the many different places that we visit. Moreover, to avoid a mix-up of unrelated interests, we have set up different sub-channels with easily identifiable topics such as economy, equities, domestic policy, private businesses, geopolitics, culture, etc.

At the same time, we have also invited Baiguan’s expert friends to come and share their knowledge. Our first batch of experts includes one highly reputable sell-side research analyst, a leading think-tanker, and a top venture capitalist.

In short, Baiguan is not just a newsletter, but a fast-growing crowdsourced pool of knowledge contributed only by verified sources.

For details on how to join, please refer here.

For existing institutional clients of BigOne Lab, you are entitled to 1 complimentary professional-tier subscription for each $10,000 spent annually at BigOne Lab. Please contact your sales representative for complimentary access if you meet this criteria.

For readers who have the option of having the subscription expensed by the company, we have put together an email template that will hopefully save you time:

Email Template for Baiguan Reimbursement