Imad Naffa (imadnaffa) Twitter tweets related to: Asia, Rise, Tedindia, Hans, Rosling and more. China’s Ghost Cities. The following video is the first of the great series on China’s ghost cities that Bloomberg is running this week. Getting China right is key to your P&L and the direction of many markets, including emerging equities and commodities. We’re grappling with who financed these cities, who is holding the paper, and how were they financed. Recall China’s massive money supply growth and credit expansion which funded the country’s stimulus after the 2007-8 financial collapse.
Our basic assumptions may be wrong, such as time horizon and holding period, and Adam Johnson does a good job covering these, but this is one issue that keeps us up at night and we won’t rest until we’re comfortable with a good working understanding of what is going “over there.” The renowned hedge fund manager, Jim Chanos, has and we suggest you do the same. Our good friend Deano Williams reminds us of the cheerleading mantra of the real estate industry , “they ain’t building anymore real estate.” Category: Think Tank. China 2.0 Innovation Dilemma.
By Michael Schrage | 11:10 AM March 1, 2011 In the wake of uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, China briefly shut down LinkedIn access. Someone had apparently tried to organize an online discussion on a topic that offended the authorities. The social medium doesn’t matter. Don’t mess with the Great Firewall of China. But political unrest enabled by social media has virtually all of Asia atwitter. Hence China’s innovation dilemma. But education only represents the most politically correct theme for China’s intensifying internet struggle. Chinese industries don’t just need to become more productive; they want to be more innovative. China’s efforts to retain authoritarian control over its internet evolution increasingly — and inherently — conflict with its professed business, economic and educational need to raise living standards and grow. After all, economic concerns weren’t afterthoughts or irrelevant to toppling a Mubarak or a Qaddafi. Social Media Landscape In China [Infographic]
Ogilvy has released an infographic detailing the major social media players and their Chinese counter parts. Although the infographic was first published six months back, the rise of services like Groupon and Quora in the west and Tencent in China rendered the previous infographic some what irrelevant. According to the new infographic, the online trade segment is competed by eBay, Taobao and 360 buy.
In the social networking segment LinkedIn is pitted against Welink and Uchi.cn, and Facebook against Renren and Douban. Twitter is competing with Sohu and QQ in the microblogging category, with Youtube facing competition from Youku.com in online video sharing. All in all the infographic does a pretty good job of showing the fact that every Social Media segment is being fiercely contested by local and global players in China. Note: You can click on the infographic to enlarge it.
It's Scary How Much Cheaper America Is Than China.