CINGS (China Institute x Next Gen Serica) is our joint next-generation leadership community with the China Institute, a global network of young professionals who are committed to building people-to-people relations between the United States and China.

We're excited to launch our monthly CINGS Member Spotlight: each month, we'll be sitting down with one of 130+ CINGS members to learn more about the young leaders shaping the future of cross-border social & environmental impact. Keep reading to learn about our very first featured guest, Sirui Hua!

Head of Audience & Analytics 

NOWTHIS Media

CINGS Member 2+ Years

Location: NYC, Originally from Jiangsu

Favorite NYC Restaurant: August Gatherings

This interview was completed by Michelle Maiuri and assisted by CINGS programming chair, Ivy Yang.

SERICA:  Can you share the journey that led you to your work with NOWTHIS media? 

I joined the company in 2015, while I was in grad school at Fordham's business school. I had taken a social media marketing course there, and the professor happened to be a VP at NowThis. One day he said, "We want some Chinese students who can help us run Weibo," so I stepped up. A few of us started as interns, but I treated it like a full-time job from day one. As an immigrant, I needed sponsorship to stay in the country, so I hustled to outwork everyone. (It helped that I happen to be addicted to social media, too!) The internship turned into a fellowship, and then a full-time staff role.

I started as an associate social producer, cutting and editing videos, that kind of thing. After two or three years, I realized that path wasn't for me. I'm not the best storyteller in the world, and I didn't want to be a creator, especially on camera. I wanted to support the creators. I'd always been drawn to the data side, so I pivoted into insights and analytics. From there I kept moving up, first to director, and now I run social media, audience strategy, and analytics.

SERICA: Did you take any courses or just do learning on the job to get to your position now? 

I took some Coursera courses and watched a lot of YouTube videos, but it was mostly learning on the job. I am working in a lot of Google Analytics and social platforms' native analytics tools, and I know some SQL and Python, though these days it's mostly vibe coding with AI agents: describing what I want and letting the AI write the code.

SERICA: How does your firm be a trendsetter? 

We had mainly been covering news and politics, and we were debating doing more cultural and entertainment content. At the same time, we made an early bet on vertical video. We called the trend in our industry "pivot-to-video 2.0." Do you remember the original pivot-to-video? About ten years ago, Facebook convinced the whole industry that video was the future. It paid publishers to produce shows and live streams, and newsrooms everywhere laid off writers to hire video producers. NowThis was actually born in that first wave. We were one of the original social video publishers, known for getting rid of our homepage entirely and publishing straight to social feeds. Then the bubble burst. Facebook's video metrics turned out to be inflated, the advertising money never materialized, and "pivot to video" became an industry punchline.

I think this second wave is real, and I say that as the data person. The first pivot was propped up by Facebook money. This one is driven by actual audience behavior. People genuinely spend hours a day watching TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. So this time we went all in.

We also noticed that people love street interviews, especially in New York City. It's such a unique city for this. In LA, everybody is driving and nobody is walking down the street getting interviewed by creators. Here, you can jump out at random people and they will absolutely give hot takes on camera. So we leaned into that format and hit our big break. We tried a lot of formats, followed the data, and doubled down on what worked. That validated the bet. We built multiple hit shows (Are You Okay?, Judgy, Standup Desk, Crosswalk Crush) and acquired Salary Transparent Street earlier this year. Now we're working on scaling it. We're excited about everything that's happened.

SERICA: What is your hot take on how US content differs from China content? 

My hot take is that the U.S. content ecosystem is actually lagging behind what's happening in China. Masayoshi Son, the founder of SoftBank, had a famous concept called "time machine management." In the early internet days, the U.S. was years ahead of everyone else. If you took a business model that had already worked in America and launched it in Japan, like he did with Yahoo Japan, it was like stepping out of a time machine. You'd seen the future, so you knew exactly what was coming. Investors applied the same logic across Asia: whatever happened in the U.S. would happen in Japan about five years later, then in China and other Asian countries. If there was a Facebook in the U.S., there would eventually be a Facebook copy in China.

Now the time machine is running in reverse. Whatever happens in China gets exported here. Douyin came first, then TikTok arrived in the U.S. Same with vertical video, micro-drama, and now AI-generated micro-drama. That's how we can sometimes predict the trends that will land here. I just watch what's already happening in China.

SERICA: What are your thoughts on Media takeovers and leadership? Is traditional media dead? 

I mean, it's definitely in decline. I would not say it's dead, and I don't think all of them will die. There will be some institutions, like, the New York Times. They will always be there. People need something reliable. 

SERICA: Even with Trump's attacks on these traditional media sources? 

Yes. It's an institution, so it will survive. Although, after this week's news, I'm not sure I'd say the same about 60 Minutes. It might end up being 60 Seconds.

SERICA: What inspired you to apply to CINGS?

Ivy, of course! She encouraged me to apply! And I wanted to expand beyond my usual circle. Almost everyone I know is in media, either journalism, entertainment, or PR, and there aren't many Asian or Chinese people in this industry. CINGS lets me meet people from completely different fields, learn from them, and expand my perspective.

SERICA: What does philanthropy mean to you? 

I think it's just all about giving back to the community. It's not just money, especially as most of us are mid-career, right? So we haven’t accumulated enough wealth, but still, when we give back our skills, our knowledge, or our connection, for structured talks, or get togethers, it feels like we are building that community together and giving something back to the world.

Thank you, Sirui for your amazing insights!!

More spotlights to come! To learn more about CINGS and their work and upcoming programming, check out their website www.cings.org and follow them on LinkedIn.