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Here’s the real question: what can an American sell to Chinese people? History is full of businesses that took off because someone took advantage of very low co
by mattmaroon 3y ago
Here’s the real question: what can an American sell to Chinese people? History is full of businesses that took off because someone took advantage of very low cost shipping caused by empty return legs. Sushi went from an expensive delicacy in Japan to common man food because the planes that brought their electronics to the US were going back empty and our fisheries took advantage. Fiji water got popular because Fiji imported a lot and exported nearly nothing so sending boats full of water out was very cheap. Etc.
The only thing I know of right now (I am sure there are lots I don’t know) is chicken feet, which is basically where all the profit is in the chicken industry.
Surely we HN users must be able to think of something we could ship to China cheaply!
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- darkerside 3y agoWe don't make money on it, but we pay them to take our trash, for similar reasons
- herbst 3y agoChina mostly banned waste import somewhere 2018.
- dougmwne 3y agoI had the impression we shipped a lot of food back. Send that California wine!
- mattmaroon 3y agoRight. I’m wondering if a strong marketing push could make Chinese people love something they don’t already that we have a lot of. Food is definitely a thought, it’s perishable so air travel would be preferred.
- tintor 3y ago"what can an American sell to Chinese people?" Software, Movies, TV Series, Songs, Video Games, Technology Licenses
- TheRealPomax 3y agoYou seem to have quoted, but then forgotten about, the word "sell". It needs to be things China both wants, and is willing to pay for. Everything in your list is either "already available for free", "banned by the party", or "Why? US patent law does not apply in China".
- alephnerd 3y agoThis is why we in the business world do something called "Marketing" and "Branding" An Oppo or LibrePhone might be a peer substitute to an iPhone a neckbeard on HN, but an Apple iPhone is still a luxury good. Sell goods with a strong brand cache and they will continue to sell like hotcakes. You will be skewered for using a knockoff. Conversely, this is why Temu and Shien do well - why should I spend $20 at Uniqlo or $40 at GAP on fast fashion when I can spend $10 for the exact same thing on those Apps. It comes from the same factories in China and Vietnam anyhow
- internet101010 3y agoApparently in certain parts of Beijing it's not uncommon for someone to be completely ignored at a business unless they have a nice handbag.
- shiroiushi 3y agoChinese business men carry fancy handbags?
- cko 3y agoI heard man purses are a thing there. But I think OP meant a salesperson will not solicit you in a store if you don't have a nice accessory. Which sounds like an awesome side effect.
- nickphx 3y agoPork.
- 082349872349872 3y agoat least in 2020, chinese demand had even improved the quality of US-market pork: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23291595 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23291595 Edit: judging by https://u.osu.edu/nopaylean/ractopamine-free-facts-info/ https://u.osu.edu/nopaylean/ractopamine-free-facts-info/ the US is going backwards: "Effective for the 2022 Fair, the use of ractopamine is no longer banned for use in the Fairfield County Jr Fair Swine Show"
- waffleiron 3y agoWithin the EU we tend to call this the Brussels effect. Where high standards affect the standards of trading partners even when it’s not required in those countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_effect
- Scoundreller 3y agoand soy and corn. > Soybeans were the nation's top export to China in 2022 — in fact, the US exported nearly twice as much value in soybeans as it did any other product. The legumes were 11.6% of overall US exports to China https://usafacts.org/articles/what-are-the-top-us-exports-to-china/ https://usafacts.org/articles/what-are-the-top-us-exports-to... Electronics are #2. Crude oil #3. Blood products (probably plasma) #4. Aircraft & parts #5.
- alephnerd 3y ago> what can an American sell to Chinese people Products with high brand value. There's a reason why aspirational people show off Apple iPhones, Mercedes cars, Rolex watches, and Louis Vuitton bags
- pkulak 3y agoAnd none of those brands have factories in NA. Well, Mercedes, but not for export.
- alephnerd 3y agoFor most consumer goods, there isn't value manufacturing in the first world. Margins are too low. That kind of manufacturing is itself leaving China. Most Temu products are Made in VN ime I've written more than enough about this in previous comments so read those. If some low karma commenter (not you pkulak) wants start a flame war about this they can piss off
- herbst 3y agoExcept apple none of these even is a US brand. And apple doesn't produce there. We (Europe) actually export plenty of random and luxury stuff to Asia, the question was about the US
- slipperybeluga 3y agoOpium worked well in the past
- est 3y agoFentanyl worked well these days, from the Chinese precursors.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- cjbgkagh 3y agoAmericans do quality control and reliable contractual law which is actually really valuable. The Chines can buy other Chinese goods sold in the US with some degree of assurance to quality standards and minimal supply chain fraud. Without that expensive high tech devices will fail due to pervasive fraud in the supply chain. China can try to crack down on such fraud but that is really hard to do effectively, much easier to ‘outsource’ quality control with normal business incentives. The US isn’t the only country with quality control and the standards have degraded, so has the reliability of contract law has also degraded. So this ‘service’ may not be maintainable long term. For example, Amazon to me is now a faster and more expensive Alibaba, I cannot rely on Amazons quality control or reviews. It would have been so easy to algorithmically ensure quality but less profitable and Amazon chose the option with more profit. In Australia there are faux grocery stores where people (often Chinese nationals) film themselves buying groceries to send to China. Is called ‘daigou’. Things like baby powder and alcohol. For one I would never drink alcohol in China, a friend almost died there from drinking fake beer. The idea of using sewer oil for cooking still makes me gag. I think they’ll keep getting better at fraud and it’ll be harder and harder to avoid. The world seems to be increasingly corrupt and the general population does seem more amenable to fraud than even 10 years ago so I do worry that quality standards will slip to the point that we’ll have our own ‘tofu-dreg’ projects. Australia already has problems with poor concrete standards for high rises and I expect this to get worse over there.
- tamimio 3y ago> Surely we HN users must be able to think of something we could ship to China cheaply! Well, first, I assume by ‘we’ you mean the US, since not all HN users are from the US. That being said, we do ship to China, but those products don’t require an empty airplane. It’s the software, especially the open source ones, that China needs. Hardware-wise, China may be ahead of the rest of the world for various reasons, but software-wise, it’s still lagging behind. And this is not just a Chinese market issue. Remember, even Japan until recently had a majority of users who used IE!
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- solardev 3y agoSoy? We produce nearly 6x more than China does: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_soybean_production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_soybean_p...
- Scoundreller 3y agoSoy is 11% of US exports to China. https://usafacts.org/articles/what-are-the-top-us-exports-to-china/ https://usafacts.org/articles/what-are-the-top-us-exports-to... Electronics are #2. Crude oil #3. Blood products (probably plasma) #4. Aircraft & parts #5. Cars #6 (kinda surprising). Corn #7.
- solardev 3y agoWhoa. I knew we made a lot of it, but didn't realize it was our top export there. I'm surprised (thought it'd be services or some such). Thanks for sharing!
- neither_color 3y agoComplex, novel goods with high r&d costs like passenger aircraft. The fact is they can mass produce almost anything for themselves and very few western companies can stay competitive there for very long unless they have high brand affinity(think european leather goods, iPhones, etc)
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- paxys 3y agoWhy are you assuming the plane returns to China empty after dropping off your package? Global delivery networks are very highly optimized. Spare capacity gets filled fast.
- est 3y ago> what can an American sell to Chinese people? Treasury Bonds.