At the end of 2018, Connie Chan of Andreesen Horowitz, wrote about how podcasts in China monetize. However, what she calls podcasts aren't really what we call podcasts: they're more like paid-for educational audio content. Podcasting, like what we do at China Tech Talk, is actually still very immature in China. But that doesn't mean there aren't content creators following the "traditional" podcasting model.

To talk about this, we're joined this week by Rio Zhan, early stage VC and host of the Crazy Capital podcast. We share notes on podcasting and talk about how China's content models have evolved away from the open web.

Key questions

• Why is the China market different for audio content?
• Why is the open web almost non-existent in China?
• What role does culture play in creating acceptance of paying for content?
• How might Facebook's Libra enable monetization for Western podcasts?

Links

• Crazy Capital (in Chinese)
• Outgrowing Advertising: Multimodal Business Models as a Product Strategy
• The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet
• WeChat Conference: CHina CHat 2019!
• Become a member of TechNode Squared

Guest

• Rio Zhan, @RioJot

Hosts

• John Artman, @knowsnothing, TechNode
• Matthew Brennan, @MattyBGoooner, ChinaChannel

Editor

• Peter Isachenko

Podcast information

• iTunes
• Spotify
• RSS feed
• Music: "Theme from Penguins on Parade" by Lee Rosevere, Music for Podcasts 3