The digital entertainment industry had burgeoned with the advancement in streaming media technology and the growing popularity of social media. In 2019, <i>The Coming One</i>, a musical talent variety show in China jointly produced by Wajijiwa Entertainment and Tencent Video, was approaching its third season, and audiences were losing interest. Danni Long, the founder and chief executive officer of Wajijiwa, was confronted with the challenge of determining how to strategically revitalize the show’s brand. The brand had been repositioned through creating, marketing, and monetizing content strategically on social media platforms. Would this strategy work for the next season or should Long find alternative strategies to inject fresh vitality into the original brand?

In mid 2019, Mobiuspace, a Chinese Internet company, faced a new challenge. As a result of declining revenues from domestic mobile Internet markets, overseas markets offered new opportunities. In 2009, Snaptube, a short video aggregation and distribution platform that Mobiuspace offered as its main product, seized the opportunity to grow in emerging markets by creating localized and personalized video content. Despite the company’s initial success with its expansion strategy, Mobiuspace’s chief executive officer still needed to figure out how to achieve sustainable profitability and long term growth. In particular, he had to enhance users’ engagement and diversify the company’s sources of revenue. How would he achieve all of his objectives?

In mid 2019, Mobiuspace, a Chinese Internet company, faced a new challenge. As a result of declining revenues from domestic mobile Internet markets, overseas markets offered new opportunities. In 2009, Snaptube, a short video aggregation and distribution platform that Mobiuspace offered as its main product, seized the opportunity to grow in emerging markets by creating localized and personalized video content. Despite the company's initial success with its expansion strategy, Mobiuspace's chief executive officer still needed to figure out how to achieve sustainable profitability and long term growth. In particular, he had to enhance users' engagement and diversify the company's sources of revenue. How would he achieve all of his objectives?

In 2016, China witnessed a significant rise in the knowledge economy. Many users, who had been used to consuming information on the Internet for free, had become increasingly willing to pay for user-generated-content (UGC). Recognizing this emerging opportunity, Qiushibaike (QB), a well-established UGC platform with a focus on entertaining content, rolled out a new pay-for-knowledge product, namely Youliaodao (YLD), which focused on informational content. Instead of following the popular pay-for-knowledge product endorsed by eye-catching celebrities for hedonic needs, YLD differentiated itself by charging for high-quality UGC for practical problem-solving. QB needed to make a critical decision: Should the company support YLD with additional investments and promotion of its informational content, or should QB terminate YLD and return to the company’s core competence area of promoting more entertaining content? How could YLD cope with the increased competition and overcome these obstacles?

In 2016, China witnessed a significant rise in the knowledge economy. Many users, who had been used to consuming information on the Internet for free, had become increasingly willing to pay for user-generated-content (UGC). Recognizing this emerging opportunity, Qiushibaike (QB), a well-established UGC platform with a focus on entertaining content, rolled out a new pay-for-knowledge product, namely Youliaodao (YLD), which focused on informational content. Instead of following the popular pay-for-knowledge product endorsed by eye-catching celebrities for hedonic needs, YLD differentiated itself by charging for high-quality UGC for practical problem-solving. QB needed to make a critical decision: Should the company support YLD with additional investments and promotion of its informational content, or should QB terminate YLD and return to the company's core competence area of promoting more entertaining content? How could YLD cope with the increased competition and overcome these obstacles?

The case on Chow Tai Fook (CTF), the world's largest jewelry company, introduces an important challenge for data analytics in the jewelry or luxury product industry. It is difficult to provide an accurate demand prediction for a product at CTF. The reasons are mainly three-fold. First, the jewelry products are of high value and slow-moving, with mostly single digit sales numbers over a year. Second, the demand of a product partly depends on the availability of other products, due to customers' substitution behavior. There are 16 product categories with more than 15,000 distinct products offered by CTF, and how the sales of different products are related is not clearly understood. In this case, traditional statistical methods such as linear regression is not useful.

In 2012, Strategic Global Capital ("SGC") was founded by Bryan Kuhn, his wife Cathy and his mother Dorothy as a secondary debt market for micro finance notes. Using the founders' money, SGC launched a pilot program in Ecuador that proved their concept worked. Leveraging on their success, Bryan and his family wanted to further expand the business. In order to grow SGC with the most optimal capital structure Bryan and his family would need to consider all the existing financial conditions and potential risks. What would be the best overall capital structure in terms of the proportion and type(s) of debt and equity that should be utilized by the company? How (or should) the company raise equity based capital? How (or should) the company raise debt based capital?

This case describes how Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN), a leading provider of broadband, IPTV, and long-distance services in Hong Kong with approximately 2 million Internet subscribers, went through a management buyout (MBO) transaction with CVC Capital Partners (CVC), a global private equity investment firm. Subsequently, the case describes how HKBN's unique corporate culture, particularly its Co-Ownership scheme, led the company from an MBO to a successful IPO. In May 2012, CVC along with key management team members purchased HKBN from Ricky Wong, a well-known Hong Kong entrepreneur in the technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) industry, and completed the MBO transaction. Through a series of value-added efforts made by both the management team and the CVC team, two years and 10 months after the MBO, HKBN made an IPO in early 2015, resulting in HKBN being one of the few successful MBO transactions in Asia. What are the key factors that contributed to this success within a short time? How should the management team ensure that these success factors, particularly the Co-Ownership scheme, continue to guide HKBN to success in its industry?

The case introduces students to the concept of supplier management with scorecard and other performance measures and the concept of Total Cost of Ownership The purpose of this case is to enhance the student's understanding of the role of performance measures in the inter organizational setting - buyer supplier partnerships. In particular their role in managing the purchase allocation decision made by the buyer. • The role of management accounting information in the purchase allocation decision is explained by the total cost of ownership concept. • Purchase allocation decisions are made with respect to various factors including past performance, strategic importance and inventory requirements • Understanding the extent to which these factors are in play in the purchase allocation decision by buyers is important to the development of modern management systems in settings where there is increased outsourcing of non-core value added activities. As more parts of the global supply chain are being located in China, greater responsibility falls on the management to adopt systems that can help them to manage and satisfy international standards for delivery and quality.