We build AI software, run our own products, and sell in China.
The whole group is AI native. We write our software with it, our products run on it, and the teams selling brands in China use it every day. There is no AI department here, because nothing here works without it.
Three businesses on one stack, run from Shanghai.
AI is changing everything in our industry.
Building software used to take a big team and a long runway. Launching a product took a budget most companies couldn’t risk. Both got cheaper, and fast.
A large engineering team and a year of runwayA few senior people working with AI, shipping in weeks
A big budget committed before the first customerSmall launches, measured early, stopped early if they don’t work
One market, one languageSeveral markets and languages, from the same team
Making things got cheap. Judgment didn’t. Which market to enter, what to charge, which partner to trust in China: we keep those calls with people.
It all moved in two years.
Marketing teams took up generative AI almost across the board, and China took it up even faster. The cost of running the models fell along the way.
of marketers use generative AI as of Q1 2026, up from 51% two years earlier
cut in advertising production time and cost at Nestlé, scaling AI digital twins
generative AI users in China by December 2025, up 141.7% in one year
the discount open Chinese models can run at, compared with leading Western ones
Unilever now produces brand imagery twice as fast at half the cost using AI and digital twins.
We built the group AI native.
AI sits at the core of everything we run. We use it to write our software, to operate our own products, and to sell brands on Tmall, JD, Douyin, and RED. The founder has been building online businesses in China since 2003. He has seen new technology arrive before, and he has seen who it leaves behind.
We build software with it.
BearingBridge AI and HubStudio are written and shipped with AI, from the first commit.
We run our products on it.
ChinaTalentDesk, BBChien, DeuceLadder, and Visit Moganshan run on the same stack, with our own money at stake.
We sell with it in China.
TheChinaPath runs stores and social commerce for brands on Tmall, JD, Douyin, and RED, with AI in the daily work.
We learn from every run.
What works in one business moves to the others, so nobody pays for the same lesson twice.
Three businesses, one stack.
Each one stands on its own, and each one runs on the same AI tools.
AI Services
BearingBridge AI, the AI platform for small and mid-size companies, and HubStudio, the app where teams make content and run their social media.
Open AI Services
Cross-Border Marketing
TheChinaPath gets brands selling on Tmall, JD, Douyin, and RED, with sister teams for web and social. BeyondBridge takes Chinese brands the other way.
Open Cross-Border Marketing
Products
ChinaTalentDesk, BBChien, DeuceLadder, and Visit Moganshan. Four live businesses we own and run with our own money.
Open ProductsAn engineer who spent two decades building commerce in China.
Cyril Drouin started out writing code. In 2003 he moved to Shanghai and opened an eCommerce agency. Publicis Groupe bought it in 2015, and he spent the next seven years running Publicis Commerce across North Asia.
Before China, he wrote web software in Seoul, ran information systems for the French trade commissions across Asia Pacific from Hong Kong, and served as CTO of Hub2Asia, a B2B trade platform IBM named technology of the year in 2001.
He’s been through every platform shift since the late 1990s. Each time, the companies that waited paid for it. So when AI showed up, he went back to building. Software first, then products, then a new way to sell in China.
- 1995
Master’s in math and IT from ESIEA, then his first job writing software for document management and data exchange.
- 2003
Founds BysoftChina, an agency that built, marketed, and ran online stores for brands selling in China.
- 2015
Publicis buys BysoftChina. Cyril becomes CEO of Publicis Commerce China and Chief Commerce Officer for North Asia.
- 2022
250 people, $35 million in fees, and better than 25% growth a year for six straight years. Greater China eCommerce agency of the year: silver in 2021, gold in 2022.
- Now
Beyond Border Group: AI software, owned products, and commerce in China.
These days he also teaches strategy and business consulting at ESSCA. For five years he chaired the European Chamber’s marketing and communication forum in China. French is his native language. English is fluent, and his Chinese is good enough for a working meeting.
- Adjunct professor, ESSCA
- Guest lecturer, Shanghai Jiao Tong EMBA
- Guest lecturer, HEC Paris EMBA
- Guest lecturer, ESCP EMBA
- European Chamber in China
Five offices, one working day.
We also keep in-market reps in the US, the UK, Germany, and France. Here’s the time in each office right now.
Hours when both offices are at their desks, on Shanghai time
- English
- French
- Spanish
- German
- Chinese
Start with a call.
Thirty minutes is usually enough. Tell us what you’re building or selling, and we’ll put you with the right team. On pricing: BearingBridge AI has no subscription and no seat fee, and you see the price before every run. TheChinaPath earns a commission on what sells. You’ll hear back within one working day, Shanghai or Paris time.
Book a call