Attending a tour of a company called China Cord Blood Corporation (NYSE: CO) on Sunday, I was reminded of China’s one-child policy. Essentially, in order to manage population growth, the Chinese government prohibits many married couples from having more than one child.
China Cord Blood, based in Beijing, is a cord blood bank, providing storage services of umbilical cord blood stem cells from newborn babies. As with cord blood banks in the US, parents pay a one-time fee for initial processing when the baby is first born (CCB charges ~$735), and then an annual fee (~$91/yr) for storage. The premise is that stem cells can be applied toward regenerative medical therapies for Leukemia, Type 1 Diabetes, brain injury, stroke, etc. I knew a little bit about the business from of an SEO project I took on several years ago for Family Cord — at the time we helped get them to page one in Google on the term “cord blood”.
The executive from CCB specifically cited the one-child policy as a key driver of the business. Because so many Chinese families are limited to one child, parents take extra precautions — such as cord blood storage — to ensure their progeny’s health.
Another company presenting at the Rodman & Renshaw conference, China Education Alliance (NYSE: CEU), also mentioned the one-child policy as a revenue driver. CEU’s primary business is test preparation services for 6-18 year-olds. Obviously, as many families have only one offspring, the parents dedicate all resources to that one child. The Chinese take education very seriously — education expenses are the third largest expense in a family’s budget, after food and housing.
Back in January, I read an article about the shortage of women in China and some of the social problems arising out of the one-child policy. So it was interesting today to hear about the business impact from the Chinese government’s “family planning” mandate.
Posted 2 years, 2 months ago at 6:37 pm. Add a comment
We’ve heard stories about government intrusion and censorship in China, including a recent stand-off with Google, but a couple of real-life examples have hit me just 24 hours into my trip: attempts to log onto Twitter & YouTube, for example, yield “dead links”. There are ways around this using Proxy Servers, but you have to be a bit resourceful, and I’m not looking to go out of my way to upset the Chinese government.
By the way, it was interesting to see the Google ads that appeared when I Googled “proxy servers”:
Posted 2 years, 2 months ago at 7:42 pm. Add a comment
I’ve been lapse about updating my blog over the past several months — I don’t have any particular excuse, but I’m going to make an effort to post a bit more regularly again, and will re-start today with a bit of a travel journal from my first day in Beijing, China.
For quick background, I opened up an account with Rodman & Renshaw in October ‘09 based on a recommendation from a friend who’s been working with them for a while. Rodman is a NY-based boutique investment banking firm that seems to specialize in taking Chinese companies public on the NYSE, NASD, AMEX, and OTC-BB, and following the emerging companies with ongoing research. With all of the news these days about China, I thought it made sense to have a piece of my portfolio invested in this market, so I allocated some funds accordingly. Thus far, I’m up a little bit on the investments, but the most exciting thing to come of this relationship was an invitation, which I accepted, to attend their “Annual China Conference” in Beijing. Nearly 100 companies are presenting March 7-9. How could I say no to hearing keynote speaker, Colin Powell, not to mention a special live musical performance by ?
My friend and fellow Manhattan Beach entrepreneur Steve Svajian decided to join me at the event, and we landed early morning March 6 Beijing time.
Beijing airport was immaculate. Beautiful, modern design and incredibly clean. We sailed through customs and jumped in a taxi for the 35-minute drive to our hotel. I was definitely prepared for a “language barrier”, but the blank stare on our cab driver’s face when we said “Park Plaza hotel on Jinbao Street” was a bit surprising. It was as if he didn’t understand a word of what we were saying. However, we made it without a hitch and checked into our hotel which was also very modern and spotless — once again, TripAdvisor comes through with a great recommendation!
Steve and I conquered the buffet and set out to walk around. It’s barely 30 degrees today — sunny for the most part, very smoggy, and crisp. I can’t tell if it’s just a hazy day, or whether Beijing’s air pollution leaves a permanent haze — there appears to be a brownish/yellowish layer coating the sky.
We are virtually the only American faces I see, which is pretty wild, but adds to the allure of the adventure. At one point, as Steve and I were fumbling around with a map, a young Chinese woman, stopped and offered to help point us in the right direction. Ying Ying, 26, ended up being our tour guide for the afternoon and the chance meeting turned up to make our day particularly interesting as we got a true sense of daily life from a local.
I could feel the history as we approached Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City — amazing to watch the throngs of people strolling around on a Saturday afternoon.
As Steve and I chatted with Ying Ying, it really hit me that while only 12 hours of air-travel separated us from the people of China, we are world’s apart in attitudes toward government and politics, personal freedom, as well as opportunity. I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts on this in the coming days.
Additional pictures are posted here.
Posted 2 years, 2 months ago at 12:22 pm. Add a comment