After many months of planning and countless flights to the other side of the world, our first ever international TechCrunch Disrupt event has come to a close. 15 companies have launched new products to the world for the very first time in our Startup Battlefield, an on-stage, high stress battle for riches (50 grand!), glory …

Ben Huh presented his views on Internet culture at Disrupt Beijing, bringing a bit of the funny to the stage in our last presentation. Ben started out by describing how he bought ICANHASCHEEZBURGER, a site, that I’m led to understand, features critiques on the dissertations of linguistics graduate students at Harvard. He then described the …

ShoeDazzle monetizes by subscription, with users paying $39.95 a month for shoes that have been curated by Hollywood stylists and master stylist and co-founder Kim Kardashian. Lacy pounced on the Kardashian thing immediately (she’s apparently been in the news today), referring to the fact that Silicon Valley goes through cycles of “celebrity du-jour” – this …

The VC market is still strong in China, despite indications to the contrary. The old saying goes, here, that 99% of the returns come from 5% of the firms. This means big bucks for the winners – and some interesting investment opportunities for VCs in Asia and the US. Sarah Lacy sat down with Steve …

I’ll admit it right off the bat: Phil Libin (CEO of Evernote) is one of my favorite entrepreneurs. I consider myself an actual “fan” of very few living business men, but he’s one of them. Phil joined Sarah Lacy on stage today at Disrupt Beijing for a quick fireside chat, and, along with explaining why …

The latest session at TechCrunch Disrupt was a fireside chat between Sarah Lacy and accomplished entrepreneur Fritz Demopoulos — an expat who arrived in China in the late 90s while he was working at News Corp and went on to start (and sell) two very successful companies. The conversation, which you’ll find a recording of …

Ecommerce in China is ready to take off and, more important, it’s ready to reach great heights on its own terms. Lu Dong of La Mui, Haifeng Ye of Mbaobao, and Fangfang Wu of Greenbox are three ecommerce pioneers who are, as we speak, redefining online sales in China. “China is ready for ecommerce,” said …

At this point, it’s no secret: Gaopeng (Groupon’s nascent effort in China) is a train wreck. By September of this year, the seven-month old endeavor had already accumulated $46.4 million in net losses with just $2.1 million in revenue. Meanwhile, a number of competitors in the region are predicting profitability within months. In today’s “Attack …

Memo to Chinese startups: You made for a late night of deliberations. We typically pick five finalists. There were a few companies that were clear picks, captivating everyone– from the judges to the staff to people we talked to in the hallways. Then there was another group that each had passionate advocates on staff, making …

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom took the stage today at TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing to talk about the photosharing startup’s international efforts and how it plans to deal with the onslaught of clones, including over ten Chinese copycats. During the talk Systrom revealed that the startup has now hit the 12 million user milestone, with 100K weekly …