Insights

Our perspectives

Our thinking on growth, brands and markets — viewpoints and notes from the TLU team

Perspective · ConsumerSeptember 21, 2026

When One Brand Owns 75%: China's Sugar-Free Tea Oligopoly and the Challenger's 3D Playbook

China's sugar-free tea market hit RMB 82 billion with Oriental Leaves holding roughly 75% share — a near-unprecedented concentration in FMCG. The only viable path for challengers is a 3D repositioning across demographics, scenes, and functions.

Perspective · AutoSeptember 10, 2026

More Features, Less Brand? The Real Test for Chinese Automakers Going Global

When your biggest selling point is your feature list, you’re building a spec sheet — not a brand. Why Chinese automakers’ next challenge isn’t adding more tech, but converting it into trust.

Perspective · ConsumerAugust 6, 2026

Rewriting the Playbook: How Community, Aesthetics, and Capital Are Reshaping China's Sportswear Brands

The Sportcation and training-daily wear market is shifting from product-function competition to a new logic of "community + aesthetics + cultural identity" — brands that master vertical scene entry, content seeding, and capital sequencing will define the next decade of athletic apparel in China.

Perspective · ConsumerJuly 22, 2026

The GuZi Economy: A Hundred-Billion Track of Emotional Value and a Brand Playbook

The GuZi economy is not a fad but a structural consumption shift — a 168.9 billion yuan market growing at 40%, yet store closures and speculation controversies show that only brands grasping the underlying logic of ita-culture will survive the cycle.

Perspective · ConsumerJuly 14, 2026

Not Selling Hardware, Selling Bonds: A Brand Playbook for the Pet Smart and Emotional Consumption Sector

The pet smart hardware and emotional consumption sector is a structural growth opportunity driven by pet humanization and AI cost reduction — the winning playbook is to go narrow on health data, build trust through authentic content, and design for global from day one.

Audio · FounderMarch 17, 2026

China brands going global

A founder's notes on what 'going global' really means — localization, consumer differences, and learning from DJI

Listen · 4 clips

Audio · FounderMarch 30, 2026

AI, and 'raising lobsters'

On AI replacing repetitive work, the cost of supervising it, and why China's environment is unique

Listen · 4 clips

Audio · FounderNovember 18, 2025

The pet economy

Pets as emotional anchors, a category exploding in variety, and the gaps in healthcare and brand building

Listen · 4 clips

PerspectiveJune 28, 2026

Technology that understands business

Why the next wave of growth comes not from more data, but from closing the loop between insight, decision and execution