China's Karaoke King

Forget pubs and clubs. The best place to find a typical Chinese 20-something at 1am on a Saturday morning is at a karaoke palace. Karaoke is only in its infancy here, compared to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Top of the pile, Taiwanese owned Partyworld, runs 15 outlets on the Chinese mainland (six in Shanghai, four in Beijing and two in Shenzhen). The company only has 17 in Taiwan, where the market is more mature, a Partyworld executive told me today. Like many Chinese bosses he's very tight with details and figures. The call was to tell me the company is scouting cities for new clubs. A Partyworld means jobs. Each club hires an average 300 staff though four hundred staff man the company’s largest, spread over a massive 10,000 square metres near Eastern Huixin Bridge. 

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