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Hong Kong, Beijing, Milan, London, São Paulo, Brussels, Sydney, Shanghai, San Francisco, Hangzhou, Paris, Taipei, Barcelona, Bali, Shenzhen, Prague, Singapore, Manila, Cape Town, Antwerp, Siem Reap, Bangkok, Dublin, Dalian, Tianjin, Copenhagen, Calgary, Phuket, Edmonton, Qingdao, Chiang Mai, Seoul, Chengdu, Tallinn, Chongqing, Xi’an, Guangzhou, Kortrijk, Hua Hin, Curitiba

Matthew is a speaker and writer focusing on Chinese mobile technology and innovation. In particular, he’s known for analysis of social ecommerce and WeChat, China’s famous super app and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. His opinions are often featured in global media (Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, BBC, The Financial Times, TechCrunch, Forbes, Quartz, TechinAsia, Wired, Harvard Political Review). He delivers presentations for executive teams seeking to gain insight into Chinese tech innovation.

Matthew delivers a combination of inspiration and insight into the new wave of Chinese digital innovation. He has delivered presentations for companies including Google, Tencent, DHL, NBC Universal, Boston Consulting Group, LinkedIn, Schneider Electric and L’Oréal Group as well as for a large number of industry association conferences.

He is also co-host of the China Tech Talk podcast produced together with China’s largest English language tech media, Technode & TechCrunch China. The podcast unpacks Chinese tech innovation and features guests from companies such as Tencent, JD, Xiaomi, Wall Street Journal, The Information and Mobike. His company China Channel organizes China’s largest WeChat marketing conference series for international companies.

“an essential read” – TechCrunch

In 2012, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance was just a handful of geeks working out of a scrappy four-bedroom apartment in Beijing. Today, it is the world’s fastest-growing tech behemoth worth in excess of $150 billion, unrecognizable from its humble beginnings.

Thousands of articles have been written about TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance, but no one has told the complete story. Until now. Brennan’s book documents for the first time the ascendancy and missteps of a company that has forever changed the way we think about China and Chinese technology.

A creative blend of storytelling and analysis, interwoven with captivating anecdotes of TikTok, rare photos of ByteDance’s original team, incisive analysis and telling infographics, “Attention Factory” is an essential read for those looking to understand how ideas in the American and Chinese internet worlds collided, coincided and converged throughout the past decade. Discover how recommendation engines, content operations, and good old China-style growth hacking hold the key to this company’s success.

Brennan draws upon interviews with current and former employees and competitors, together with extensive research in both Chinese and English. The book’s sources number in the multiple hundreds, forging a sweeping narrative packed with original insight and analysis that simply cannot be found elsewhere.