From China Telecom 2008 conference – Vice Minister of Information Industry (Jiang Yaoping) said that over 60% of Chinese Internet users are connected through the broadband Internet – broadband users in China has reached 122 million (ranking first in the world).
Ministry of Information Industry showed that China’s telecommunications industry revenues increased with 30% comparing to 2002 while the main fixed-line operator China Telecom announced that figure has exceeded 38% (1/3 new broadband subscribers from rural areas in 2007). China’s rural demand for broadband Internet services is still very strong. Continue reading ‘China’s broadband users has reached 122 million households’
A) The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama accepted the Congressional Gold Medal, lawmakers’ highest civilian honor, in a formal ceremony in the US Capitol’s ornate Rotunda -> panic in Beijing.
B) Crises management -> local propaganda plan, Internet Censorship, etc
C) Redirecting all Chinese users trying to search on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft websites to a local, safer Chinese search engine.
During my last trip abroad I’ve met a businessman from Shanghai and we had a talk about the new emerging market in China and the local trends. Here is a movie I found today about China’s mid-autumn festival is celebrated with lanterns and “mooncakes”:
They say that the emerging urban middle class in China already redefines the customer base and its sheer complexity brings enormous opportunities and challenges. With a population of 1,321,851,888 (July 2007 est.) and a $10.17 trillion GDP (purchasing power parity 2006 est.), China is the place to be.
The Fourth China Branding Roundtable called “Winning moves for a changing game” will take place in Beijing, China, Tuesday September 18th and Wednesday September 19th 2007.
You already know:
18.6 million Mattel toys recalled world-wide.
436,000 are being pulled off shelves -> high levels of toxic lead paint. Mattel says these toys were manufactured by a contract supplier in China.
Now, you should now:
18.164.000 – the rest of the toys suffer from another problem. They have small magnets that can be swallowed by children. It seems to be the fault of the U.S. engineers who designed the toys.
I don’t think you’ll see this on the news. The PR machine is working too well… but you can read it between the lines
1,000 women aged 25 to 35 were asked for the most appealing sperm donor and here are the results:
1. Andy Lau – is one of the 5 main actors In Hong Kong he is also one of the main 3 Popstars across all Asia.
The first lead role that made his initial popularity was the TVB series HUNTING in 1982. In the same year, Andy Lau started in his first movie in BOAT PEOPLE. The role of YANG GUO in WUXIA TV serial THE RETURN OF THE CONDOR HEROES made him very popular and soon got the leading role in a movie called ON THE WRONG TRACK(“Wai mit hiu dei che” original title).
An interesting fact is that in 1999, due to increasing governmental controls on the arts after the handover of HONG KONG to MAINLAND CHINA (1997), Andy Lau attempted to leave the country and move to Australia, but governmental pressure on his family forced him to return to HONG KONG. Since he is now no.1 in China, my guess is that he has very good relations with the government.
2. Bill Gates – Microsoft is a famous brand even in China and women started to buy licensed copies of Windows Vista.
3. Takeshi Kaneshiro is a Japanese, Taiwanese actor, singer and model (his mother was Chinese of Taiwanese nationality). A smart guy speaking Mandarin, Japanese, Taiwanese, Cantonese and English (I already admire him)
4. Liu Xiang – he is the first sportsman entering the top and my guess is that this is again Chinese propaganda for the Olympic Games. This guy broke the 110 hurdles record last year on the Pontaisetrack, won in 13.01 seconds. Anwar Moore of the United States finished second in 13.12 and Aries Merritt was third clocking 13.18. So this guy is great again because he defeated opponents from the United States
5. David Beckham – is a symbol all over the world. I’m not sure why is he in this top (because of the brand) of because of several commercial interests with Great Britain. My guess is that his presence in the top (along with Brad Pitt) is for PR reasons – this way, the western press is most likely to mention about this pool and find out who is Andy Lau and Liu Xiang
6. Li Ka-shing is one of the most famous businessmen in the world for his wealth and his business charisma (probably more than 25% of Chinese Intelligence works for him). He is the richest person of Chinese descent in the world, the richest and most influential investor in Asia, and the 9th richest man in the world according to Forbes with an estimated wealth of $23 billion. Again his presence in the top is pure propaganda because the guy was born on July 29th, 1928!!! What sane women would like this rich grandpa as a sperm donor??? As a joke, I wonder if he paid for this pool – after all, he is better than Brad Pitt
7. Tony Leung is another famous actor and again I smell propaganda because he is one of the few actors that won in 2000 the Best Actor Award in the Cannes Film Festival
8. Louis Koo – also actor – his Cantonese name is Koo Tin-Lok and his Mandarin name is Gu Tianle. This guy has to be the perfect lover
9. Lee-hom Wang – this guy is huge – four time Golden Melody Award-winning American singer-songwriter and actor who has achieved highly recognized success in Taiwan, Mainland China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia – 25 albums 13,000,000 sales (see clip below)
10. Brad Pitt is strategically positioned in the end (PR reasons) but there is also a symbolic meaning. Brad Pitt was banned from entering China because of his role in Seven Years in Tibet (1997). This is a strong signal that China is changing
I hope you’ve enjoyed my comments on this top and I hope you’ll make it in top 10 in the next years
China has accumulated a large sum of US dollars. Such a big sum, of which a considerable portion is in US treasury bonds, contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency. Russia, Switzerland, and several other countries have reduced the their dollar holdings. China is unlikely to follow suit as long as the yuan’s exchange rate is stable against the dollar. The Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars once the yuan appreciated dramatically, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar.
WASHINGTON – Swiss police who closely monitor the circulation of counterfeit currency have challenged the Bush administration’s assertions that North Korea is manufacturing fake American $100 bills.
The Swiss federal criminal police, in a report released Monday, expresses serious doubt that North Korea is capable of manufacturing the fake bills, which it said were superior to real ones.
EXCERPT FROM THE REPORT:
“According to the US Secret Service, $50 million worth of `super-fakes’ were confiscated worldwide over the past 16 years, only a small portion of them within the United States. Measured against the US annual counterfeit damage of $200 million, the damage from $50 million worth of `super-fakes’ is not that significant. The Federal Reserve Bank produces genuine $100 dollar bills mainly for the foreign market. On their return to the U.S., the issuing bank after examination can easily distinguish the `supernotes’ from originals using banknote testing equipment, due to altered infrared characteristics. For this reason, the United States over the years has hardly suffered economic damage due to the `super dollar.’
“A (banknote) printing press like the one in North Korea can produce $50 million worth of bills in a few hours. Using its printing presses dating back to the 1970’s, North Korea is today printing its own currency in such poor quality that one automatically wonders whether this country would even be in a position to manufacture the high-quality `supernotes.’ The enormous effort put into the making of the 19 different `super-fakes’ that we know of is unusual. Only a (criminal) governmental organization can afford such an effort. What defies logic is the limited or even controlled amount of `exclusive’ fakes that have appeared over the years. The organization could easily circulate tenfold that amount without raising suspicions.”
Here is a breaking news for the 100$ laptop fans. As you probably already found out, Negroponte’s machine, now seem to cost $175 per unit.
The breaking news comes from INDIA – HRD hopes to make $10 laptops. The government of India wants to produce this $10 laptop and indeed, the amazing part is that they are on their way to building the gadget.
The technical details of their laptop is secret as we speak and I wonder if the Chinese have plans (maybe a 5$ dollar laptop).
China is not the only country targeted by the wine producers. After Romania joined the E.U., more and more wine producers seem to be interested in promoting their brands on Vinul.ro – after Chile, this week we received requests from Hungary and Australia.
After more than a quarter-century of market-oriented economic policies and record-setting growth, China on Friday enacted its first law to protect private property explicitly.
The measure, which was delayed a year ago amid vocal opposition from resurgent socialist intellectuals and old-line, left-leaning members of the ruling Communist Party, is viewed by its supporters as building a new and more secure legal foundation for private entrepreneurs and the country’s urban middle-class home and car owners…
A new section on my blog is available for all my asian friends and not only – “Eyes on China” will be first of all a learning experience for me and hopefully, beginning of a beautiful friendship
India, China and Russia Experience Highest Audience Growth Rates Year-over-Year; Canada, Israel, and Korea Log the Most Time Online
London, U.K., March 6, 2007 – comScore Networks, a leader in measuring the digital age, today announced that 747 million people, age 15+, used the Internet worldwide in January 2007, a 10-percent increase versus January 2006. Among the top 15 countries (ranked by penetration), Internet audiences in India, the Russian Federation and China increased the most in 2006, growing 33, 21 and 20 percent, respectively. China now represents the second-largest Internet population in the world, with 86.8 million users, after the U.S., which rose 2 percent year-over-year to 153.4 million users age 15 or older in January 2007.
“The importance of the worldwide Internet population continues to grow,” said Bob Ivins, managing director, comScore Europe. “Internet users outside the U.S. now account for 80 percent of the world’s online population, with rapidly developing countries experiencing double-digit growth rates year-over-year.”
Canada, Israel, and South Korea Lead the World in Online Engagement
As a measure of engagement, comScore also analyzed the top 10 countries ranked by average hours online per visitor for January 2007. Canada led the list, with the average user spending 39.6 hours (and 41.3 hours/ month among broadband users) online during the month. Rounding out the top 5 were Israel, South Korea, the U.S. and the U.K. – all countries with high broadband penetration. In fact, in each of the top 10 countries, the time spent online by users with a broadband connection was substantially greater than the time spent by users with a narrowband connection.
Now I read that the Chinese Premier calls for new image for Communist China as “peaceful, democratic, and progressive country”. When the premier Wen Jiabao said this today many dots connected in my head. I guess that the PR strategy is ready an this is just the beginning. In 2006 I saw a very good media coverage from China (CNN had a whole week called “Eyes on China”) but I think that this year they’ll really hit the mainstream media.
Summary
As imports from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have surged in recent years, posing a threat to some U.S. industries and manufacturing employment, Congress has begun to focus on not only access to the Chinese market and intellectual property rights (IPO) protection, but also the mounting U.S. trade deficit with China as well as allegations that China is selling its products on the international market at below cost (dumping), engaging in “currency manipulation,” and exploiting its workers for economic gain. Members of the 109th Congress introduced several bills that would impose trade sanctions on China for intervening in the currency market or for engaging in other acts of unfair trade, while the Bush Administration has imposed anti-dumping duties and safeguards against some PRC products and pressured China to further revalue its currency and remove non-tariff trade barriers.
China runs a trade surplus with the world’s three major economic centers — the United States, the European Union, and Japan. Since 2000, the United States has incurred its largest bilateral trade deficit with China ($201 billion in 2005, a 25% rise over 2004). In 2003, China replaced Mexico as the second largest source of imports for the United States. China’s share of U.S. imports was 14.6% in 2005, although this proportion still falls short of Japan’s 18% of the early 1990s. The United States is China’s largest overseas market and second largest source of foreign direct investment on a cumulative basis. U.S. exports to China have been growing rapidly as well, although from a low base. In 2004, China replaced Germany and the United Kingdom to become the fourth largest market for U.S. goods and remains the fastest
growing major U.S. export market. China is purchasing heavily from its Asian trading partners — particularly precision machinery, electronic components, and raw materials for manufacturing. China is running trade deficits with Taiwan and South Korea and has become a major buyer of goods from Japan and Southeast Asia.
In the past decade, the most dramatic increases in U.S. imports from China have been not in labor-intensive sectors but in some advanced technology sectors, such as office and data processing machines, telecommunications and sound equipment, and electrical machinery and appliances. China’s exports to the United States are taking market share from other Pacific Rim countries, particularly the East Asian newly industrialized countries (NICS), which have moved most of their low-end production facilities to China.
This report provides a quantitative framework for policy considerations dealing with U.S. trade with China. It provides basic data and analysis of China’s international trade with the United States and other countries. Since Chinese data differ considerably from those of its trading partners (because of how entrepot trade through Hong Kong is counted), data from both PRC sources and those of its trading partners are presented. Charts showing import trends by sector for the United States highlight China’s growing market shares in many industries and also show import shares for Japan, Canada, Mexico, the European Union, and the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This report will be updated bi-annually.
As we speak, China has over 137 million Internet users (China Internet Network Information Center).
The Latest Statistics (By June 30, 2006) showed 123,000,000 Internet Users and over 54,500,000 Computer Hosts.
An impressive web community of 788,400 WWW Websites and a 214,175 Mbit/s International Bandwidth is also shaping their community.
I guess these numbers can make Sorin and his company to think of new businesses in China also (not only Russia ). Btw, I hear that the investments in Canada, Spain or New Zealand are not a hit (yet)… Sorin?
I must say that in China they are up to date and there is no outrageous censorship. They don’t talk about politics and that’s a good thing because they can carry on with their business. I don’t speak Chinese but thanks to the language tools I have installed on my laptop, I can easily surf Chinese websites and I read the daily news.
For example, Romania made the front page today in many newspapers:
Chinese workers strike in Romania protect their rights investigation
Xinhuanet Capitol Hill : September 7, 2006 publication of the “workers in Romania” have been prisoners, “to investigate the incident,” a text Romania reported Bacau city “WEAR garment factory” Chinese workers hailed by manufacturers imprisoned; Recently, This Chinese garment factory workers to strike in order to safeguard its own interests. China has again aroused the concern of various parties to import workers from Romania, the first city Bacau Italy (Italy) – WEAR garment factory in the recent labor dispute Chinese factory workers on fixed unilaterally raise expressed dissatisfaction and lowering overtime. The two sides failed to reach agreement in the case declared a strike. At present, both employers and employees are still in a stalemate, the management claims that Chinese workers continue to strike, and will repatriate them all. Chinese Ambassador to Romania attaches great importance to the embassy, through a variety of channels to urge the owners to resolve the dispute as soon as possible.
My latest passion is to surf the Chinese websites and I find only interesting facts. For example the Chinese Yahoo Mail has 3.5 GB free storage. The news covers everything from sports to women lifestyle articles but there are some details missing when talking about the Chinese governmental issues. But maybe this is for the best and they can focus on the really important stuff (like leading the world economy and stuff).
Another interesting fact is that China encounters a boom in blogging. Xinhua News Agency reported over 17 million Chinese having blogs and over 75 million page views. On the other hand the “eyes wide open” at Reuters reported that only 30% of the blogs are edited on monthly bases.
We all see potential business opportunities to the advertising market in China as probably Yahoo and Google did some years ago – I also see the Russian market as an opportunity but that’s another discussion. Maybe we’ll also see some romanian companies aiming these markets in the near future.
NOTE: I’m not speaking Chinese and I use the Google translating services when I surf the net.
DISCLAIMER: this is a personal blog. The contents of this site does not necessarily represent the expressed opinions of my employer, my endorsers or my partners.
