2026-08-26
Notes.
Short writing on how markets and operations actually work across Asia and the West. What we see when we look at who actually moves product in a market, and at how an operation actually runs underneath it.
The growth wasn't where the plan said.
A factory, an online community, and a product that hadn't launched. The growth was available in every one — and never where the plan pointed. Three questions to ask before spending more on the plan.
You can't buy your way in during October.
Channels take weeks to buy. Communities take months to be let into. So the community deadline for Singles' Day lands months before the retail date, and most brands find out in October.
Fractional isn't part-time.
Hours per week is the wrong way to measure an operating lead embedded in your team. Here is the right way, for founders who confuse fractional with freelance.
Why Western brands fail in China.
The famous exits — Home Depot, Marks & Spencer, Amazon's marketplace — weren't marketing failures. They were operating-model failures. What they had in common, and what to do differently.
Douyin vs TikTok Shop, explained.
Same parent in ByteDance, two different machines. Separate accounts, separate algorithms, and a commerce gap you can't run as one, and why it changes how you sell.
Tmall vs JD.com for foreign brands.
Two operating models, not two storefronts. Tmall is a pure marketplace where you run your own flagship; JD is a hybrid that can buy and hold your stock. Which fits your category, and what changes once you pick one.
How to expand an Asian brand into the US market.
It isn't a translation job. The regulatory, logistics, and channel gaps an Asia-side brand hits first — from the MoCRA responsible-person rule to the end of US de minimis — and the order to fix them in.