Archive for December, 2009
Micro-blogs in China: Tweeting through the ‘Great Firewall’
CNN
A handful of homegrown micro-blogging sites emerged about the same time Twitter started to gain a small, yet steadily growing, share of Chinese Internet users, beginning about 2007, around a year after Twitter was launched in the U.S. in 2006.
While almost all of the early Chinese micro-blogging pioneers faced the same fate as Twitter, most [...]
You Stole My Vegetables! Toucai – The Latest Addictive Game Application on China’s Social Networks
“你今天偷菜了吗？” “Have you stolen vegetables today?” From middle school students, to white collar workers, and even retirees – Chinese netizens of all ages are obsessed with 偷菜 toucai, the latest online gaming application sprouting up all across China’s social network sites (SNS). Players own a virtual farm where they plant fruits and vegetables. They purchase [...]
Huawei Technologies: The Exception, Not the Rule
My friend in New York sent me an email last week asking for information about a Beijing-based financial firm that just offered him a job at their newly established international headquarters in New York. It made me recall a China Tech News article I read earlier this month about Huawei Technologies signing a letter of [...]
China Site Youku.com Raises $40 Million
WSJ
BEIJING—Youku.com, one of China’s largest video Web sites, raised $40 million in new funding, a nod of confidence that the medium will continue to grow in China as companies shift further away from the user-generated videos for which they were once known.
Youku Chief Executive Victor Koo said the new funds will go toward expanding its [...]
Taobao captivates Chinese e-tycoons, big and small
AP
Ge Hongjun started a shop on Taobao.com — China’s answer to eBay — as a class project but he now sees it as his ticket to becoming a retail magnate after graduation.
Taobao’s growing popularity has captured the imagination of students like Ge, but also giants like Dell, Uniqlo, Procter and Gamble, and Chinese firms seeking [...]
Female Consumer Culture in China | Iron Girls to Luxury Shoppers
I just read an old blog post on The China Beat Blog by Hongmei Li, entitled “From Iron Girls to Oriental Beauties.” Li does an excellent job of documenting the evolution of the perception of women in Chinese society from the post Mao era through the present day. Li writes, “During the three decades that [...]
Smart Grids: China’s Edge over India
BusinessWeek
On the eve of the Copenhagen conference was a two-day meeting in Beijing about the smart grid in China. Check out the Cleaner, Greener China blog for some interesting analysis of the event, which included speakers from companies like IBM, ABB, Alcatel-Lucent and Enel.
Estimates vary on how much the Chinese are going to be spending [...]
GM, SAIC Reshape Partnership
WSJ.com
General Motors Co. announced plans Friday to cede control of its key Chinese joint venture to partner SAIC Motor Corp. alongside a push by the partners into India and other emerging markets.
SAIC’s stake in Shanghai General Motors Corp. will rise to 51% from 50% at a time when China is overtaking the U.S. as the [...]
