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At this point, it’s clear that these Chinese companies are making a mad dash to get as much money as they can before investors finally catch onto them.

I honestly fear for China’s markets if only because of the instability that will come along with it.



I think Chinese companies are making a mad dash to grab as much market share as transportation switches rapidly away from petroleum.

Scooters are kinda interesting in that an electric scooter appears to be more of an 'appliance' than gasoline scooters which seem more of a 'lifestyle'


I would agree with that notion. I drive a Niu; it's very much fun to drive and I enjoy it, but I have a rather utalitarian view of it. Meanwhile, my girlfriend tried and liked it, but ultimately settled on a Vespa and loves it dearly.

It's probably a matter of time. I would be surprised if this were not to change as soon as a generation or two grew up having on of these in their teens.


I have seen reviews and Vespas always get preferred as build and ride quality is so much better plus ABS and Traction control.


No doubt about it, the Vespa wins hands down when it comes to build quality and resale value. The build quality comes at a significant cost in weight, though.

Ride quality - both have their strengths. In the end I'd still choose the Niu for its agility, directness and, most importantly, silence.

ABS would be a real boon, but her LX50 doesn't have that either. Definitely something I'd like to see on my next one.


Vespa will only release the first electric scooter in October next year though? how can they be so late to the market with their "Elettrica"?


Er you haven't heard of mods and the "northern" soul scene in the UK.

I have a former MD I used to work with who has some lovely restored classic scooters and I think he enjoyed them more than say his lexus.


I certainly have, my sister and brother in law were also Portland Scooter rats. Lot of my friends are also motorcycle rats. Thing about scooters and motorcycles is the maintence is heavy. One of the two reasons I've stayed away from them. (The other is an intense dislike for noise)

Electric Scooters seem like they should be quiet and just work.


Man is downvoted unjustly. The point is quite legit.

>Chinese companies are making a mad dash to get as much money as they can before investors finally catch onto them.

Well, better to say that Chinese companies were and are making mad dashes to get their MONEY OUT of China with some very inventive ways for decades.

Just before those were gold bars smuggled in the underwear, now those are things like financial instruments IPOs and such.

In a another news today, there was a note about Chinese company called Bytedance claiming bizarre valuation for its NASDAQ IPO, and the whole thread had not a single mention of rather substantiated and spoken about in China notion that Bytedance is another pump and dump scheme riding the ongoing O2O frenzy, and that their ownership structure suggest that the few other crazy rich Chinese people on board simply looking for a way to get their money out of China through that IPO.


Whats the evidence for this being a pump and dump or boiler room operation? They are legitimate companies in China and Asia that have a huge userbase. I would doubt other companies but a simple search on Youtube for TikTok shows that an average video has millions of views. They could be just IPOing like other tech companies and raising capital through an IPO.


Can you expand on the actual mechanism of how going public in the US helps one funnel money out of China?

The way I understand it, going public gives you liquidity, but I don't fully understand how this is a method of getting money out in a subversive way.


That is a very simple variation of pump and dump scheme. Basically, the same old pump and dump, but the "pump" and "dump" are split, and are done in different countries:

1. A rich guy in China goes and makes a back room deal with a new wiz kid on the block with a promise to prop up his hot startup, thus initiating a "pump" part in a pump and dump. Usually the capital is injected through legal shells and one day funds to obscure the origin.

2. PR companies are hired to hype up the co as the next big thing since sliced bread

3. More back room deals are made with institutional players, to have them add more seemed legitimacy to the operation: investment funds, big name underwriters, 3rd tier American VCs, all kinds of other big name boys.

4. Then, a complex shell structure - VIE is built around the company in an offshore heaven country. That is to give the co. a material constitution outside of China's legal reach.

5. The co. goes for IPO in USA

6. The original Chinese rich guy dumps his stock of a VIE in USA, cash gets sent to his US account, completing the "dump" part of the scheme. Whatever happens next with the company, does no longer matter.


I don't have any experience with passing the SEC's muster for going public, but if this was a scam, attracting the SEC's scrutiny would not be in their interest, because it may trigger the interest of other agencies (FBI/CIA?)

Are there examples of when the SEC cleared a company to go public, that was really in hindsight an elaborate money laundering and/or pump-and-dump sham? Because it seems to me like that would be exactly why the SEC exists: to protect the avg non-sophisticated non-professional retail investor from such things.

I guess it's hard to tease apart a pure pump and dump from a money laundering operation from one another.


Am by no means an expert, but I believe it's something like:

Invest in company in china -> company builds in valuation (pump) -> company IPO in america -> sell ownership share in america for american dollars (dump)

I imagine there are rules to prevent this, but I also imagine that there are loopholes...




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