With sales dropping at home, Yum! Brands Inc, owner of the Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut brands, is planning to expand its business in the Chinese market, which could make the country its biggest source of profit within a decade.

KFC was the first foreign fast food company to move into China, opening its first outlet in 1987. Since then, Yum has become China’s biggest restaurant chain with $2 billion of annual sales and over 2,500 KFC and Pizza Hut outlets.

But like many foreign firms in China, the US fast food giant has discovered it can’t just rely on a foreign brand name for growth and must instead adapt to local tastes and lifestyles. By offering a menu with dishes similar to the food that tens of thousands of Chinese have every day, Yum boosted its sales by 12% in the first quarter, while those in other international destinations and the US were 5% and 3% respectively.

And now Yum intends to increase its lead and plans to add 425 restaurants in China this year while McDonald’s, its nearest rival in the country, has said it aims to open at least 125 stores in the country in 2008.

Yum CEO David Novak has said he envisages eventually having over 20,000 restaurants in China. “We’re in the first inning of a nine-inning ball game in China,” Novak said recently. He also has predicted China’s contribution could reach 40% by 2017, exceeding 30% for the US by then.

So far, investors are welcoming the China strategy. Operating profit of Yum’s China division surged 30% to $375 million last year, accounting for over a quarter of the firm’s total operating profit of $1.36 billion, which rose 8%.

Nowadays, with its sound economic performance and huge potential market, China has attracted many overseas business people to invest and do business in the country. Then how to achieve the highest possible efficiency in a foreign country? Maybe virtual assistants can be the best choice. BPOVIA Ltd based in China can always be the source for businessmen interested in exploring the Chinese market.

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BPOVIA, China, economy, KFC, market share

Powered by the booming economy and high stock investment returns, the net profit of publicly traded Chinese firms soared 49.7% on average in 2007.

According to the Shanghai Securities News, net profit of the 1,574 companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges totaled 949.7 billion yuan ($136 billion) last year. Their revenue climbed 25% to 9.45 trillion yuan, taking up 38.3% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and earnings per share grew 39.7% to a record high of 0.42 yuan.

China’s GDP witnessed the fifth straight year of double digit growth of 11.9% last year. In the mean time, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index nearly doubled.

In spite of such negative factors as slower export growth, tightening monetary policies and the worst winter in more than five decades, Li Feng, a Galaxy Securities analyst, foresees a no lower than 30% growth in the first quarter corporate profits of listed firms.

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China, economy, investment, listed firm, stock

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Shanghai Financial Information Service Industrial Park
The founding of the Shanghai Financial Information Service Industrial Park is a decisive point in the national strategy in turning Shanghai into a global financial center, and is also one of the essential professional foundation in the Zhangjiang High-tech Park which , in the light Read more…

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BPO, centre, China, economy, finance, Shanghai, software

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Besides reliable clientele and fine quality, another reason that Cai is so confident is that his company is capable for innovation.

They have enough outstanding designers in overseas and dozens of others doing research and development. “Quite a number of our products are sold overseas carrying the Quanyu trademark,” Cai said. Read more…

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China, crisis, economy, export, Guangdong, manufacturing, Shantou, toy

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According to Guo Zhuocai, Huawei director and president of the Chenghai Toys Association, the market is to unsteady to be predictable and everything became more expensive.

90% of Huawei’s products, including remote-control toys, electronic dolls and robots are sold to overseas markets. Read more…

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China, crisis, economy, export, Guangdong, manufacturing, Shantou, toy

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Shi Xiaohong, chief technician with 360.cn, a leading online safety company in China, expressed his opinion of the matter as follows.

Hackers usually do not change or cancel the information, but resell it to other people to make profits. In this way, they fall outside the ambit of the current law. To put Trojans, most of which are used to steal information or remotely control the computers, on a certain web page is the most common way to steal information from a personal computer. Read more…

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China, economy, gainer, hacker, law, profit

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At present, a dozen cultural companies have signed rental contracts with the center that can accommodate between 2,000 and 5,ooo people, and a total of 200 members are expected to move in by the end of 2009. They include performing arts companies, TV and movie production firms, publishing houses, cartoon and animation producers and others. Cultural-related companies keep showing strong interests such as four branch companies under the Xinhua Media have already settled in the building. Read more…

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China, economy, industry, opportunity, service, Shanghai