About ResearchInChina

ResearchInChina

ResearchInChina, operated by Beijing Waterwood Technologies Co., Ltd. from Haidian District, Beijing, is an independent provider of China business intelligence. It sells multi-user industry market reports, custom research and company search services to businesses, institutions and investors worldwide, describing itself in its own report boilerplate as "a leading independent provider of China business intelligence" and its website as "the vertical portal for China business intelligence." Its catalogue, published in English and Chinese, has covered hundreds of Chinese industries since the 2000s, and its reports are distributed internationally through global market-report resellers as well as directly.

The company and its model

ResearchInChina's model is that of a specialised research house serving foreign and domestic clients who need structured knowledge about Chinese industries that are difficult to observe from outside. Its own descriptions state that the data quoted in its reports are collected from public sources, and its reports carry a property-rights statement asserting copyright in the charts, tables and text for ResearchInChina (Beijing Waterwood), with original publishers retaining rights in material marketed from other sources. The firm offered, in its report boilerplate, research products alongside subscription products — including market weekly and market intelligence services — and stated in those materials that it had over 600 clients worldwide, including major commercial and investment banks. Those self-descriptions come from the company's own published report samples of the late 2000s and are the firm's account of its market position at that time.

The multi-user licence model matters to how the reports are used: a single industry report is bought by a company or institution and shared internally among its analysts and decision-makers, making ResearchInChina part of the background infrastructure of China market-entry, investment and competitive-analysis work in the period when foreign participation in Chinese industries was expanding fastest.

The report catalogue: electronics and technology

The surviving sample reports show where the firm's catalogue was deepest in its formative years: electronics and information technology. Its 2008–2009 list included a Global & China Netbook Industry Report, a China Digital TV Industry Report (second edition), a China Digital TV Transmitter Market Report, a Global and China Digital Set-Top Box Market Report, a China PMP Industry and Market Report, IC card and smart card reports, an IC Advanced Packaging Industry Report, TFT-LCD and flexible printed circuit reports, touch screen and LED industry reports, and a semiconductor equipment industry report in 2009. The breadth is itself informative: ResearchInChina tracked the Chinese electronics supply chain component by component, at the moment China was becoming the world's electronics factory.

The semiconductor equipment sample shows the analytical template: global order-to-shipment ratios tracked from the 1990s, global market scale series, capital expenditure history, regional distribution of production, and company-level analysis — global context first, then China's position within it, then the players.

The report catalogue: automotive, energy and consumer industries

Automotive coverage was a second pillar: a Global and China Automotive Glass Industry Report analysing output and sales through the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers' statistics, plus reports on car navigation, automotive aluminium wheels, auto body electronic controls, car air-conditioning, automotive finance and heavy trucks. Energy and materials titles included China solar polysilicon, nuclear power, clean energy, wind power, power transmission and distribution equipment, rare earth and rare earth permanent magnet reports, organic silicon, refractory materials and cement. Consumer and services coverage ranged over supermarkets, sporting goods, toys, golf, TV shopping, luxury goods, logistics and pharmaceutical chains.

This cross-industry spread distinguishes a general China-intelligence house from a sector boutique: the same client — a bank, a multinational, an investor — could source automotive glass and solar polysilicon from one provider using one methodology. The annual and edition-based updating visible in the catalogue (second editions, year-on-year sequels) reflects the subscription logic of the business: industries change, and last year's report is a reason to sell this year's.

Anatomy of a ResearchInChina report

The free samples the company published reveal a consistent anatomy. A report opens with industry definition and environment — policy, macroeconomic setting and industry chain position — then measures the market: scale, output, sales, imports and exports, regional distribution and demand by segment. Company chapters profile major producers with operating data, drawing on sources the samples cite openly, such as industry associations, the National Development and Reform Commission and IEEE for technical industries. Charts and tables are credited "Source: ResearchInChina" where the firm compiled them, and forecasts are marked as estimates. The netbook report, for example, traces a component assembler's revenue and gross margin across a decade with forecast years, and its shipment share globally — company financial history used as an industry lens.

For buyers, the consistent structure is the product: whatever the industry, the reader knows where market size, competition and company data will appear, and can compare across sectors and years.

RICDB and data services

Alongside documents, ResearchInChina built data products. Its RICDB database presents macroeconomic, industry and company data in map and chart form and has included nearly 500,000 time-series indices, according to the firm's descriptions. Time-series data of that kind serves a different workflow from narrative reports: analysts pull the series into their own models rather than reading a finished analysis. The company's service list also includes company search — helping clients identify and check Chinese companies — and custom research for questions the catalogue does not answer. Together, reports, database and bespoke work form the standard three-layer offer of a business-intelligence provider.

International distribution

ResearchInChina's reports reached foreign buyers through the international market-research distribution system: global resellers of syndicated research list and sell its titles alongside those of other regional providers. That distribution is why a Beijing research house's samples sit in the catalogues of report marketplaces read on several continents. English-language publication was the enabling choice: the reports were written to be bought in New York, London and Singapore, not only in Beijing, and their subjects — "Global and China" is the recurring title formula — frame China inside world markets for an international readership.

Users and uses

The firm's stated users are businesses, institutions and investors worldwide. In practice its products serve market-entry assessment, investment screening, competitor monitoring and procurement of industry baselines: how big the market is, who the producers are, how supply and demand have moved and what the credible sources say comes next. Its claim of hundreds of clients including leading banks reflects the period's demand: in the 2000s, reliable English-language industry data on China was scarce enough that a specialised Beijing provider could build an international business supplying it.

Position in China's research industry

ResearchInChina represents the first generation of independent Chinese market-research exporters — firms that converted domestic data access and public-source research into English-language intelligence products for the world. It is neither a state statistics body nor a global consultancy's local office, but an independent intermediary, and its longevity across hundreds of industry titles is its credential. Within this directory it is classified as a research and information agency: its product is verified, structured knowledge about Chinese industry.

Access and official website

ResearchInChina's official website is researchinchina.com, where its report catalogue, database products and custom research services are presented. Reports are sold in multi-user formats through the site and through international research resellers. For this directory, ResearchInChina is recorded as a Beijing, China business intelligence and market research agency.