After North Korea trip, Google’s Eric Schmidt swings by China to woo Android developers. On his way back from a personal humanitarian trip to North Korea, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt stopped by a conference in Beijing to encourage local developers to choose Android for their applications, as reported by Tencent Tech. Speaking at the Geek Park event to over 1,000 attendees, Schmidt said that developers need to realize that Android is now the top mobile OS and iOS comes second. He also worked to counter the myth that Android developers can’t make money off their products. Schmidt said that Chrome should become China’s number one browser as he reaffirmed Google’s investment in the software. He also provided the reasons for Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility: the first being that Google has always wanted to get into hardware, such as mobile phones, and the second being its rich patent collection.
He revealed that Google leadership has already been installed at Motorola and the first new products from them should arrive later this year. Autonavi's Maps Apps Guide Over 100 Million Users in China. Regular readers will recall that Autonavi (NASDAQ:AMAP) makes the most popular mobile maps apps in China – way ahead of the rather lost Google Maps. Today Autonavi has announced that its maps apps have surpassed 100 million users. That’s just in China. The maps are available for three smartphone platforms: Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. Autonavi CEO Congwu Cheng said of today’s milestone: “The popularity of our map app also reflects the remarkable extent to which location-based solutions have become part of the daily life of China’s mobile internet users.” The mobile maps also give real-time traffic data, 3D views, social integration with Sina Weibo, navigation, and estimated arrival times.
The Autonavi mobile apps have 25.9 percent market share in this sector (see the graph below), ahead of search engine Baidu whose Baidu Maps are at 19.1 percent. Google is down to sixth place in 2012 Q3. Baidu’s Mobile Browser Steps Out Of Asia And Into Africa With Exclusive France Telecom Deal. A big step forward for China’s search giant Baidu as it looks to raise its international profile and credibility in mobile: the company has inked an exclusive deal with mobile carrier France Telecom/Orange to co-brand and pre-load its new Baidu mobile browser on Android smartphones sold in Africa and the Middle East, covering 19 countries where Orange operates in the region.
The deal is important for both companies. For France Telecom, a customized mobile product could be a way to attract new users in a still fast-growing smartphone market. It can also use it to drive higher-margin data services and revenue through advertising on smartphones. For Baidu, it’s a way to demonstrate to investors and the rest of the market that it is serious about growing its mobile business internationally, to shore up its basic domestic web search business. Baidu’s mobile effort has also included a mobile content JV with Docomo and its own forked Android phones. Baidu Invests in Kingsoft, Moves Into Web Security, Qihoo's CEO Calls it a "Big Joke" Tencent Eyes Growing Online Education Market in China -Caijing. If proved to be true, the move will give the website access to hundreds of millions of users on Tencent’s QQ platform. Chinese Internet giant Tencent was reportedly considering investing in an online education platform, making an attempt at China’s booming online education market, according to Chinese media.
Words of Tencent targeting online education started circulating last year when Donews quoted unnamed source as saying that Tencent had invested in C2C (Consumer to Consumer) education website Chuanke. If proved to be true, the move will give the website an access to hundreds of millions of users on Tencent’s QQ platform. Founded in 2011 by former Iciba Chief Technology Officer Wang Haiming and Chief Operating Officer Tong Hexin, Chuanke is a startup which offers one-stop online education solutions. The company received a first-round investment from Bertelsmann in last July and was earlier financially supported by Ameba Capital.
Smartphones: China's next great economic indicator. By Jack D. Hidary, contributor FORTUNE -- China has broken a new global record in smartphone penetration and this will have dramatic effects on content and commerce in 2013 in the world's most populous internet market. Mobile subscribers in China are now using 330 million smartphones—which is a 150% increase over last year. iiMedia, a Chinese research firm, recently released this smartphone data, which has not been widely distributed in English. China's active smartphone now exceeds the total number of all 321 million mobile phones active in the US. Kai-fu Lee, the former lead China researcher at Microsoft (MSFT) and then Google (GOOG), predicts that China will have 500 million smartphones in use by the end of 2013. The implications of such a dramatic flip from dumb-to-smart phones are far-reaching and will ultimately affect the closely watched GDP growth rate in China.
MORE: 2013 is the year social TV takes off Take China's auto market, which sells more cars than any other country. China firm buys naming rights to Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Chinese TV maker TCL pays more than $5 million for the naming rights to the landmark Grauman's Chinese Theatre. An early postcard shows the front of the 85-year-old Grauman's Chinese… After 85 years, the world's most famous movie theater will finally be living up to its name. Chinese TV maker TCL has paid more than $5 million for the naming rights to the venerable Grauman's Chinese Theatre opened in 1927 by showman Sid Grauman.
The Hollywood Boulevard landmark will now be called the TCL Chinese Theatre, helping the Chinese company raise its profile. The theater is used almost weekly for red-carpet premieres, and draws nearly 4 million visitors a year. "This is one of the landmarks of North America," said Hao Yi, vice president of TCL Group. REEL CHINA: More from the series Indeed, the deal spotlights the growing ties between Hollywood and its most important overseas movie market. At the same time, Chinese investors are acquiring high-profile American entertainment assets. The Chinese Electronics Show: can China's biggest brands buy their way into America? Huawei, Hisense, Changhong. These names are unfamiliar to Americans for now, but in a few years they will be as synonymous with consumer electronics as Sony and Samsung. That’s the party line out of China, at least, where major electronics makers seem to have simultaneously decided that this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas would be their coming-out party.
When Microsoft decided it was too cool for CES and abandoned its anchor booth this year, Chinese megabrand Hisense jumped at the chance to take its place. Hisense’s prominent display easily cost tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, doubling the square footage of last year’s booth and featuring a giant circular stage, a cultural musical performance, and displays of what appeared to be every product and prototype it’s ever made. The Chinese are the underdogs in the electronics industry, and they have a newcomer’s verve.
"Well you know what? We already are a tier one. " "The best smartphone is from Huawei. Now China's WeChat App is Censoring Its Users Globally. We’ve written a lot about the progress of the world’s biggest messaging app, the China-made WeChat, which is fast approaching 300 million registered users and enjoying some level of global success with it. But the the app – made by Tencent (HKG:0700), China’s biggest web company – is now risking all that by apparently being forced by Chinese authorities to censor certain ‘sensitive’ words. [UPDATED 25 hours later: Tencent says this is no longer occurring and has given us a statement]. Right now, the Chinese name of the outspoken magazine caught up in a tense struggle of wills with the government – Southern Weekend in English, 南方周末 (nan fang zhou mo) in Chinese – is censored in Chinese on WeChat.
But it’s not just restricted to users in China (where the app is called Weixin), and typing that name in the Chinese language is now blocked globally. The restriction notice says (pictured): Click to enlarge. The message “南方周末” you sent contains restricted words. China's Sina Weibo Rolls Out Partial English Interface [UPDATE: Sina Confirms] Sina Weibo has over 400 million registered users, though it’s hard to know how many of those are overseas. Nonetheless, we’ve noticed today that the Twitter-esque Weibo has just rolled out a partial English-language interface.
We’ve reached out to Sina (NASDAQ:SINA) to found out what’s happening. [UPDATE 30 minutes after posting: A Sina representative in Beijing tells us: "Countries in Southeast Asia [can] pick English or Chinese – this isn’t opened globally yet.” But in our test, it’s working in America right now]. The Weibo.com frontpage – which has a simpler redesign today – now also has an “English” option in the dropdown menu (access it here), though it doesn’t convert the whole page from Chinese.
Then, once logged in, Sina Weibo now has some English in the menus, but the whole interface is far from transformed. This is how it looks with English, as it appears now for my colleague Charlie in the US. Click to enlarge. You can contrast that with how it looks for me here in China: Foxconn Says Chinese Authorities Probing Bribery Report. Foxconn Technology Group said Chinese authorities are investigating allegations that at least one executive accepted bribes from suppliers.
The statement came after Taipei-based weekly Next Magazine reported that a Foxconn executive was arrested in Shenzhen in September as part of a bribery probe. The group confirmed that authorities were investigating the allegations and said employees and suppliers were awaiting the results. Foxconn denied “most” of the report in Next’s Jan. 10 issue without giving specifics and said in the e-mailed statement yesterday that it’s evaluating internal controls and adjusting purchasing rules.
The Taipei-based group spoke to agents working with Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Corp. (6758) and Panasonic Corp (6752) during an internal probe, Next reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter it didn’t identify. Two Foxconn managers haven’t been at work and are the focus of the internal investigation, Next reported. Close Open. Southern Weekly row won't lead to a loosening of rules on China's media.
The crisis over censorship at continued to roil after its journalists agreed to return to work and reports emerged that Tuo Zhen, the head of Guangdong's propaganda ministry, would eventually be removed. The newspaper will print as normal this week, but editors insisted, among other terms, that a letter to readers be published to explain the incident. has long been regarded as a symbolic publication in mainland China for its outspoken opinions and sharp criticism of the government. Many of its former reporters are now influential editors in China's major media outlets and on websites. In spite of frequent intervention and punishment by the propaganda authorities, the publication has managed to survive, thanks to support from its millions of readers, both inside and outside the bureaucratic system.
Like most publications in China, had been under strict control this the past year, as the Communist Party prepared for its 18th congress. This is a sad start for the new Chinese government. What Tencent Executive Says about Weixin O2O Business. A Weixin Membership Card (img:tech.qq.com) Dai Zhikang became the head of Tencent’s lifestyle e-commerce division after Comsenz, a startup he founded, was acquired by Tencent in 2010. His team released Weixin membership card in mid-2012, a loyalty program for users to subscribe to merchants’ Weixin accounts and for businesses to do CRM. Unlike other low-key Tencent executives, Dai occasionally accepted interviews. On the latest one, he talked about the online-to-offline service, or O2O, his team was building on top of Weixin. It doesn’t feel it’s such a big deal as expected, for Tencent’s senior management didn’t give orders about it, if what Dai said is true.
Weixin evolves too fast that it’s hard to say what businesses would match it. Dai agrees that there are business opportunities on Weixin platform, but it’s still at early stage and cannot be mined at scale. It’s a fresh new business for Dai and his team. Closed Loop for Consumption Behavior Data The earlier, the better. Web users attack press censorship. The Southern Weekly story continues to develop rapidly in China. With no response yet from the Party leadership, the stakes are rising. How will China’s leaders balance the impact this crisis could have on Xi Jinping’s (not-so-carefully crafted) image as a reformer against the Party’s essential priority of maintaining public opinion controls? If it is true, as Berkeley’s China Digital Times (CDT) reports, that media have been issued a propaganda directive on the Southern Weekly incident that deflects blame from Guangdong propaganda officials toward foreign “hostile forces,” that is not an encouraging sign.
The tone of the directive as reported by CDT is extremely hardline, reaffirming that “Party operation of the media is an unshakeable basic principle (党管媒体是不可动摇的基本原则).” As the Southern Weekly crisis develops, we should bear in mind that this did not begin as a face-off between pro-reform voices and status-quo Party conservatives. Gougou, Notorious Chinese Pirate Search Engine, Shuts Down. The Gougou.com page right now with its closure notice. It was just a few weeks ago that Gougou.com, China’s most notorious pirate content search engine, was added to the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) report on major copyright offenders. And now the service has finally shut down. Visitors to the site right now will see that the search box has vanished, and there’s just a bilingual notice; in English it says: Gougou.com has been closed down.
The Gougou site is run by the Chinese web company Xunlei, whose plans for a US IPO were blown apart last year due to the rampant piracy both on its Gougou search service and via its Xunlei P2P sharing platform. In the past, there were versions of Gougou for searching for pirated movies, music, software, games, and e-books. But, proving that a many-headed hydra is hard to kill, many imitators, using the distinctive “Gougou” name remain online, such as gougousousou.com (“sou” means “search” in Chinese).
Southern Weekly Editorial Staff Goes On Strike (Updated) An internal standoff has escalated into a full-blown crisis at Southern Weekly (formerly known as Southern Weekend), where Guangdong’s propaganda chief meddled in the publication’s annual “New Year’s Greeting” last week and prompted calls for his resignation. The South China Morning Post reported today that the tussle has taken to the microblogosphere and Southern Weekly’s editorial staff have decided to strike: It is the first time in more than two decades that the editorial staff of a major newspaper has openly staged a strike against government censorship.The decision was made after the newspaper management took over the department’s official microblog account, and issued a statement claiming that a controversial front-page New Year editorial had been written by its staff and was not a last-minute alteration by Guangdong propaganda officials.
The New York Times’ Ian Johnson writes that the unrest at Southern Weekly “is posing an early challenge” to new Chinese leader Xi Jinping: Blocked on Weibo - There are NOT millions of Twitter users in China: Supporting @ooof's result and refuting GWI's conclusion. MIIT: China's Internet User Base to Hit 800 Mln by 2015. China's ‘weibo’ accounts shuttered as part of Internet crackdown. China, the American Press, and the State Department. A New Year’s greeting gets the axe in China. Freedom not at odds with online regulation. Ministry of Truth: Net Safety and the Safety Net. Apple adopted https in App Store. China threatens to censor apps. Fei Chang Dao: Baidu's New Censorship Policies for Leaders' Names After the 18th Party Congress.
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