Not All Giants Are Created Equal
Of course, you can’t just throw a dart at a list of companies. Look at Alibaba. It’s easy to dismiss it as China’s Amazon, but it’s more like an entire digital ecosystem. It’s the marketplace, the bank, and the cloud server all rolled into one. Then you have Baidu, which is often called the Chinese Google. The crucial difference, however, is that Baidu operates with the implicit blessing of a government determined to build its own tech champions, a luxury its Western rivals certainly don't enjoy.
It’s not all about high tech either. A company like Yum! China, which runs thousands of KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants, is a brilliant, if slightly greasy, barometer of the real economy. It thrives on the simple, everyday spending of millions of people. It’s a direct bet on the rising disposable income of the average person, and a reminder that growth isn’t always found in a semiconductor chip.