China
The9 Bids Farewell To President In China (Fri, 19 Mar 2010)
Chinese online game developer The9 Limited announced that its president will not have her employment contract extended. The company stated that "for personal development reasons", Chen Xiaowei will not have her contract renewed. Chen's employment contract expires on May 16, 2010, and the company's chairman and CEO, Zhu Jun, will assume Chen's duties as president of [...]
>> read more
MSN China Vice President Resigns (Thu, 18 Mar 2010)
Information from an internal meeting of MSN China revealed that Chen Xiao, vice president of sales for MSN China, has resigned and will start his own business in the Chinese Internet sector. According to public files, Chen once worked for the Chinese search engine firm Baidu.com as director of marketing in 2000. In 2004, he oversaw [...]
>> read more
Focus Media Implements Allyes MBO As Digital Advertising Revenue Plummets In China (Wed, 17 Mar 2010)
Chinese digital media group Focus Media has announced that the company and its subsidiary Allyes will implement a management buyout, acquiring a 38% stake in Allyes for USD13.3 million. Focus Media said that a part of Allyes' employees, executives, and directors as well as Focus Media's executives and directors signed an agreement with the two companies [...]
>> read more
Rumor: PayPal To Cooperate With Alibaba For Online Payments In China (Tue, 16 Mar 2010)
EBay's online payment subsidiary PayPal is negotiating with the Chinese B2B e-commerce group Alibaba, aiming to introduce its online payment service in China into Alibaba's worldwide site of AliExpress. According to reports in local Chinese media, if the two parties can reach an agreement, U.S. consumers will be able to remit their money to China via [...]
>> read more
Ctrip.com Promises To Compensate Online Consumers For Price Differences (Mon, 15 Mar 2010)
Chinese online travel service provider Ctrip.com has announced plans to compensate consumers for online booking price differences. Ctrip.com stated that from March 10, all the room rates it provides on its website for hotels in China will be the lowest anywhere online. If any consumers find room rates lower than those on its website, it will [...]
>> read more
Chinese online game developer The9 Limited announced that its president will not have her employment contract extended. The company stated that "for personal development reasons", Chen Xiaowei will not have her contract renewed. Chen's employment contract expires on May 16, 2010, and the company's chairman and CEO, Zhu Jun, will assume Chen's duties as president of [...]
>> read more
MSN China Vice President Resigns (Thu, 18 Mar 2010)
Information from an internal meeting of MSN China revealed that Chen Xiao, vice president of sales for MSN China, has resigned and will start his own business in the Chinese Internet sector. According to public files, Chen once worked for the Chinese search engine firm Baidu.com as director of marketing in 2000. In 2004, he oversaw [...]
>> read more
Focus Media Implements Allyes MBO As Digital Advertising Revenue Plummets In China (Wed, 17 Mar 2010)
Chinese digital media group Focus Media has announced that the company and its subsidiary Allyes will implement a management buyout, acquiring a 38% stake in Allyes for USD13.3 million. Focus Media said that a part of Allyes' employees, executives, and directors as well as Focus Media's executives and directors signed an agreement with the two companies [...]
>> read more
Rumor: PayPal To Cooperate With Alibaba For Online Payments In China (Tue, 16 Mar 2010)
EBay's online payment subsidiary PayPal is negotiating with the Chinese B2B e-commerce group Alibaba, aiming to introduce its online payment service in China into Alibaba's worldwide site of AliExpress. According to reports in local Chinese media, if the two parties can reach an agreement, U.S. consumers will be able to remit their money to China via [...]
>> read more
Ctrip.com Promises To Compensate Online Consumers For Price Differences (Mon, 15 Mar 2010)
Chinese online travel service provider Ctrip.com has announced plans to compensate consumers for online booking price differences. Ctrip.com stated that from March 10, all the room rates it provides on its website for hotels in China will be the lowest anywhere online. If any consumers find room rates lower than those on its website, it will [...]
>> read more
3 Reasons Why Tencent’s Qzone, the Largest Social Network in China, is a Failure (Wed, 17 Mar 2010)
（This is a guest post by Kai Lukoff. Kai Lukoff is an analyst at BloggerInsight and an editor on China Social Games. Follow Kai on Twitter @klukoff. You can find more information on China Social Game at the end of this post. ) Qzone, “the largest social network in China,” and Tencent’s other SNS (QQ Campus [...] Related posts: Qzone Recorded Over 200 Million Monthly Users News Roundup: Douban, Qzone, iNeZha and Tianji QQGames Entered US Market
>> read more
Announcing ChinaMode Winners (Tue, 02 Feb 2010)
After two weeks of public vote, ChinaMode Awards 2009 have received 121446 votes. We are now happy to announce the winners of the first ChinaMode Awards in each 7 categories. Best Internet Applications: Taobao, Google, Baidu; Best User-Experience Applications: Google Chinese search service, Sogou Pinyin Chinese Input Method, Alipay; Most Promising Applications: Google Music, Sina [...] Related posts: ChinaMode Awards Now Open to Nominate ChinaMode: A China’s Web Awards Initiated by Bloggers
>> read more
Douban Raised $10M in Series B (Mon, 25 Jan 2010)
Douban, a symbol of web 2.0 services in China, announced its $10 million series B financing today. The new round is led by Trustbridge Partners, and co-invested by its existing investor Ceyuan Ventures, who invested in $2 million in 2006. Douban started from a social networking sites for book lovers, movie lovers and music lovers [...] Related posts: Douban To Add Book Series Douban Launched Blog Recommendation Douban Feeds Reader just get better
>> read more
[Event] Third Digital Future Symposium Beijing (Thu, 21 Jan 2010)
The post is to introduce an event which our readers might be interested in. The post is drafted by the event organizer. The Digital Future Symposium (DFS) is a highly successful event first launched in 2007 by the CENTRE FOR CONTENT PROTECTION (CCP). It has conducted successful events in Japan, Singapore, India and Malaysia. [...] Related posts: Event: Web 2.0 in China: What’s Next? [Event] Geeks On A Plan Events: Barcamp Beijing & New Era, New TV Seminar
>> read more
5 Predictions for China Social Games in 2010 (Thu, 14 Jan 2010)
（This is a guest post by Kai Lukoff. Kai Lukoff is an analyst at BloggerInsight and an editor on China Social Games. Follow Kai on Twitter @klukoff. You can find more information on China Social Game at the end of this post. ) The social game market is still in its infancy, but growing up fast. [...] Related posts: Is SNS+Game the Next Big Thing? Kaixin001 Has Ads on Apps Kaixin001: A New SNS with High Growth
>> read more
（This is a guest post by Kai Lukoff. Kai Lukoff is an analyst at BloggerInsight and an editor on China Social Games. Follow Kai on Twitter @klukoff. You can find more information on China Social Game at the end of this post. ) Qzone, “the largest social network in China,” and Tencent’s other SNS (QQ Campus [...] Related posts: Qzone Recorded Over 200 Million Monthly Users News Roundup: Douban, Qzone, iNeZha and Tianji QQGames Entered US Market
>> read more
Announcing ChinaMode Winners (Tue, 02 Feb 2010)
After two weeks of public vote, ChinaMode Awards 2009 have received 121446 votes. We are now happy to announce the winners of the first ChinaMode Awards in each 7 categories. Best Internet Applications: Taobao, Google, Baidu; Best User-Experience Applications: Google Chinese search service, Sogou Pinyin Chinese Input Method, Alipay; Most Promising Applications: Google Music, Sina [...] Related posts: ChinaMode Awards Now Open to Nominate ChinaMode: A China’s Web Awards Initiated by Bloggers
>> read more
Douban Raised $10M in Series B (Mon, 25 Jan 2010)
Douban, a symbol of web 2.0 services in China, announced its $10 million series B financing today. The new round is led by Trustbridge Partners, and co-invested by its existing investor Ceyuan Ventures, who invested in $2 million in 2006. Douban started from a social networking sites for book lovers, movie lovers and music lovers [...] Related posts: Douban To Add Book Series Douban Launched Blog Recommendation Douban Feeds Reader just get better
>> read more
[Event] Third Digital Future Symposium Beijing (Thu, 21 Jan 2010)
The post is to introduce an event which our readers might be interested in. The post is drafted by the event organizer. The Digital Future Symposium (DFS) is a highly successful event first launched in 2007 by the CENTRE FOR CONTENT PROTECTION (CCP). It has conducted successful events in Japan, Singapore, India and Malaysia. [...] Related posts: Event: Web 2.0 in China: What’s Next? [Event] Geeks On A Plan Events: Barcamp Beijing & New Era, New TV Seminar
>> read more
5 Predictions for China Social Games in 2010 (Thu, 14 Jan 2010)
（This is a guest post by Kai Lukoff. Kai Lukoff is an analyst at BloggerInsight and an editor on China Social Games. Follow Kai on Twitter @klukoff. You can find more information on China Social Game at the end of this post. ) The social game market is still in its infancy, but growing up fast. [...] Related posts: Is SNS+Game the Next Big Thing? Kaixin001 Has Ads on Apps Kaixin001: A New SNS with High Growth
>> read more
New Tag Results, from Technorati and Ingboo (Fri, 05 Mar 2010)
Technorati and Ingboo have partnered together to provide an all new kind of subscription experience for Technorati content, including tagged posts. Look for a blue Ingboo icon for a full range of subscription options. Feeds are also available for: Hottest Blogosphere Posts Latest Original Articles from Technorati The Technorati Blog We also have channel feeds, writer feeds, and editorial tag feeds, which can be found on their respective pages.
>> read more
Technorati and Ingboo have partnered together to provide an all new kind of subscription experience for Technorati content, including tagged posts. Look for a blue Ingboo icon for a full range of subscription options. Feeds are also available for: Hottest Blogosphere Posts Latest Original Articles from Technorati The Technorati Blog We also have channel feeds, writer feeds, and editorial tag feeds, which can be found on their respective pages.
>> read more
NTalks Beijing Event, Come To Access Chinese Microblogging Space (Thu, 18 Mar 2010)
How dose Chinese social media work? What’s the current status of microblogging service in China? These are probably the most concerned questions discussed in foreign Internet space. We’ve understood the importance of Chinese BBS which is still the key representative of Chinese online social media, but we have to see the rising power of Chinese [...]
>> read more
Event – Global Mobile Internet Conference 2010, Beijing (Mon, 15 Mar 2010)
[Editor: It's not easy to see a Global Internet conference to be held in China; Asia is definitely leading the mobile industry and you need come over to see it if you want a piece of the market; "Mobile Internet in Asia" and "West & East in Dialogue" are the two key topics, BO Yiqun, [...]
>> read more
Taobao’s Open Platform Is Unique, It Is For The Real Money (Sun, 14 Mar 2010)
For how long, the Open Platform has being played around in China? Things were quite exciting especially when you read almost all the leading social networks agreed to support open standard such as OpenSocial. Almost two years passed since Sohu launched the first Open Platform, some people finally found it was not that interesting as [...]
>> read more
Xianguo, Online RSS Reader Raised $1Million, Chinese RSS Market Is Not Dead (Sun, 07 Mar 2010)
RSS, one of the key and famous technology of web2.0 used to attract lots of attention in web industry. Although services such as Bloglines, Newsgator and Netvibes are still active, it is Google Reader holds the market dominance. RSS is still important, but lacking of reliable business model may let you think if RSS market [...]
>> read more
30%-50% Traffic To Existing Chinese Video Sites Is From Baidu, CEO of Baidu’s Qiyi Said. (Sat, 27 Feb 2010)
Is Chinese online video service getting more complicated or more clear? as Gary Wang, CEO of Tudou predicted, the threat would eventually come from the big guys. Qiyi, Baidu’s online video service is about to launch in March. With $50 millions investment confirmed, the reason for Baidu launching Qiyi is simple, as Gong Yu, director [...]
>> read more
How dose Chinese social media work? What’s the current status of microblogging service in China? These are probably the most concerned questions discussed in foreign Internet space. We’ve understood the importance of Chinese BBS which is still the key representative of Chinese online social media, but we have to see the rising power of Chinese [...]
>> read more
Event – Global Mobile Internet Conference 2010, Beijing (Mon, 15 Mar 2010)
[Editor: It's not easy to see a Global Internet conference to be held in China; Asia is definitely leading the mobile industry and you need come over to see it if you want a piece of the market; "Mobile Internet in Asia" and "West & East in Dialogue" are the two key topics, BO Yiqun, [...]
>> read more
Taobao’s Open Platform Is Unique, It Is For The Real Money (Sun, 14 Mar 2010)
For how long, the Open Platform has being played around in China? Things were quite exciting especially when you read almost all the leading social networks agreed to support open standard such as OpenSocial. Almost two years passed since Sohu launched the first Open Platform, some people finally found it was not that interesting as [...]
>> read more
Xianguo, Online RSS Reader Raised $1Million, Chinese RSS Market Is Not Dead (Sun, 07 Mar 2010)
RSS, one of the key and famous technology of web2.0 used to attract lots of attention in web industry. Although services such as Bloglines, Newsgator and Netvibes are still active, it is Google Reader holds the market dominance. RSS is still important, but lacking of reliable business model may let you think if RSS market [...]
>> read more
30%-50% Traffic To Existing Chinese Video Sites Is From Baidu, CEO of Baidu’s Qiyi Said. (Sat, 27 Feb 2010)
Is Chinese online video service getting more complicated or more clear? as Gary Wang, CEO of Tudou predicted, the threat would eventually come from the big guys. Qiyi, Baidu’s online video service is about to launch in March. With $50 millions investment confirmed, the reason for Baidu launching Qiyi is simple, as Gong Yu, director [...]
>> read more
techblog86: Chinese blogging pioneer @isaac Mao's Twitter account has been unexpectedly "suspended". @Twitter — look into this maybe? (Fri, 03 Jul 2009)
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techblog86: On @techblog86 now: why the "Real Name" system isn't such a big deal... http://bit.ly/146DWv (Wed, 01 Jul 2009)
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techblog86: Main coverage of #CHINICT has wrapped up. Thanks for tuning in! techblog86 update shortly. [DF] (Fri, 22 May 2009)
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techblog86: Day 2 Morning updates at #CHINICT now in. http://bit.ly/179rDU [DF] (Fri, 22 May 2009)
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techblog86: Here's Part Two of Day 1, CHINICT 2009. http://bit.ly/uAqWJ [DF] (Thu, 21 May 2009)
>> read more
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techblog86: On @techblog86 now: why the "Real Name" system isn't such a big deal... http://bit.ly/146DWv (Wed, 01 Jul 2009)
>> read more
techblog86: Main coverage of #CHINICT has wrapped up. Thanks for tuning in! techblog86 update shortly. [DF] (Fri, 22 May 2009)
>> read more
techblog86: Day 2 Morning updates at #CHINICT now in. http://bit.ly/179rDU [DF] (Fri, 22 May 2009)
>> read more
techblog86: Here's Part Two of Day 1, CHINICT 2009. http://bit.ly/uAqWJ [DF] (Thu, 21 May 2009)
>> read more
6waves - Social Gaming Developer Raises $17.5M (Fri, 22 Jan 2010)
6waves, previously highlighted in 2008, has seen their social gaming business expand and become one of the leading developers in the market (Inside Facebook has the details). While their competitors have already raised their series B and C rounds, 6waves has just raised their series A round of $17.5 Million from US based VC, Insight [...] Possible related posts: Skype cofounders to invest in Frenzoo Frenzoo, a Hong Kong 3D social networking company, will be... EditGrid lands Series A funding Team and Concepts Limited, the parent company of EditGrid has... Startup Hong Kong @ Frenzoo Event Recap I wouldn’t call this up to date, but never too...
>> read more
Ankoder - Video Encoding in the Cloud (Wed, 23 Dec 2009)
Ankoder brings video transcoding to users and business everywhere. Ankoder uses Amazon’s S3 and Elastic Cloud to provide a proven and scalable solution to anyone or any business working with video. With video becoming a big part of many businesses, any business looking to incorporate their own video site, cloud encoding is something they could [...] Possible related posts: Vcasmo - Online presentation platform Vcasmo is an online presentation service that users can use... Learn Mandarin, web 2.0 style. There is another new site to learn the Mandarin language,... Zendesk - Serve Your Customers Better Zendesk is a Copenhagen-based startup focused on helping companies put...
>> read more
Thumbdive down but not out - focuses on the enterprise (Tue, 01 Sep 2009)
Less than a year and still in private beta, Thumbdive will be shutting down their service. We first profiled their service back in January and found their privacy control approach and a different UI a good change from the other services in the market. I had hope to see it go further, but apparently [...] Possible related posts: Thumbdive - Privately share your lifestreams Thumbdive, currently in private beta, is a microblogging/lifestreaming app that... Harbork - Make Money with this Content Driven Community Harbork is a new social network from Hong Kong. It... 3 Hong Kong Doubles the Price of 3G iPhones We all know the 3G iPhone will be a hit,...
>> read more
The iPhone 3GS with something special (Sat, 18 Jul 2009)
So I finally got my Apple iPhone 3GS, but to my surprise it came with something extra. I unpacked it and found a hair stuck in the packaging, appears to be nose hair. This maybe a minor issue to all but I find it kind of disgusting. What do you guys think? Does that [...] Possible related posts: iPhone 3GS available now in Hong Kong The news is out! The new iPhone 3GS will be... iPhone 3G Available without Contracts Now that the hype has died down a bit. Apple... Hong Kong web 2.0 startup meetup Couple days back, I had the opportunity to meet with...
>> read more
iPhone 3GS available now in Hong Kong (Thu, 09 Jul 2009)
The news is out! The new iPhone 3GS will be available come this Friday, July 10th, at 3 HK stores. I’m not sure if we’ll see the Apple online store and authorized Apple resellers across Hong Kong carry the new phone on that date (it’s not out now at midnight) Now available online. [...] Possible related posts: iPhone 3G Available without Contracts Now that the hype has died down a bit. Apple... 3 Hong Kong Doubles the Price of 3G iPhones We all know the 3G iPhone will be a hit,... Forget the web, onto the iPhone It appears there’s less and less noise about local startups...
>> read more
6waves, previously highlighted in 2008, has seen their social gaming business expand and become one of the leading developers in the market (Inside Facebook has the details). While their competitors have already raised their series B and C rounds, 6waves has just raised their series A round of $17.5 Million from US based VC, Insight [...] Possible related posts: Skype cofounders to invest in Frenzoo Frenzoo, a Hong Kong 3D social networking company, will be... EditGrid lands Series A funding Team and Concepts Limited, the parent company of EditGrid has... Startup Hong Kong @ Frenzoo Event Recap I wouldn’t call this up to date, but never too...
>> read more
Ankoder - Video Encoding in the Cloud (Wed, 23 Dec 2009)
Ankoder brings video transcoding to users and business everywhere. Ankoder uses Amazon’s S3 and Elastic Cloud to provide a proven and scalable solution to anyone or any business working with video. With video becoming a big part of many businesses, any business looking to incorporate their own video site, cloud encoding is something they could [...] Possible related posts: Vcasmo - Online presentation platform Vcasmo is an online presentation service that users can use... Learn Mandarin, web 2.0 style. There is another new site to learn the Mandarin language,... Zendesk - Serve Your Customers Better Zendesk is a Copenhagen-based startup focused on helping companies put...
>> read more
Thumbdive down but not out - focuses on the enterprise (Tue, 01 Sep 2009)
Less than a year and still in private beta, Thumbdive will be shutting down their service. We first profiled their service back in January and found their privacy control approach and a different UI a good change from the other services in the market. I had hope to see it go further, but apparently [...] Possible related posts: Thumbdive - Privately share your lifestreams Thumbdive, currently in private beta, is a microblogging/lifestreaming app that... Harbork - Make Money with this Content Driven Community Harbork is a new social network from Hong Kong. It... 3 Hong Kong Doubles the Price of 3G iPhones We all know the 3G iPhone will be a hit,...
>> read more
The iPhone 3GS with something special (Sat, 18 Jul 2009)
So I finally got my Apple iPhone 3GS, but to my surprise it came with something extra. I unpacked it and found a hair stuck in the packaging, appears to be nose hair. This maybe a minor issue to all but I find it kind of disgusting. What do you guys think? Does that [...] Possible related posts: iPhone 3GS available now in Hong Kong The news is out! The new iPhone 3GS will be... iPhone 3G Available without Contracts Now that the hype has died down a bit. Apple... Hong Kong web 2.0 startup meetup Couple days back, I had the opportunity to meet with...
>> read more
iPhone 3GS available now in Hong Kong (Thu, 09 Jul 2009)
The news is out! The new iPhone 3GS will be available come this Friday, July 10th, at 3 HK stores. I’m not sure if we’ll see the Apple online store and authorized Apple resellers across Hong Kong carry the new phone on that date (it’s not out now at midnight) Now available online. [...] Possible related posts: iPhone 3G Available without Contracts Now that the hype has died down a bit. Apple... 3 Hong Kong Doubles the Price of 3G iPhones We all know the 3G iPhone will be a hit,... Forget the web, onto the iPhone It appears there’s less and less noise about local startups...
>> read more
Japan
Millions drawn to 'tweeting' / Crucial to confirm authorship as even politicians use Twitter service (Thu, 18 Mar 2010)
Twitter, a free microblogging service that lets users send and read "tweets"--messages up to 140 characters long--around the world, is quickly becoming popular in Japan. Some people, however, are using the system under false names, and the question of how to confirm authorship has become a crucial issue. Since the Japanese version of Twitter was launched in April 2008, more than 4.7 million people have registered with the service. Twitter first appeared in May 2006 in the United States. Even politicians are using Twitter. Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi, for example, once posted as many as 70 tweets over two days after a major earthquake in Chile late last month. (Yomiuri)
>> read more
Police to crack down on Web site administrators who fail to delete illegal info (Thu, 18 Mar 2010)
Police have decided to crack down on Web site administrators who fail to comply with requests to delete illegal information online, and hold them criminally responsible for aiding crimes, it has been learned. It has emerged that roughly 60 percent of the information targeted by the National Police Agency (NPA) is being carried on bulletin board pages operated by a single administrator. The NPA plans to step up its fight against the illegal material, such as information on the illicit sale of mobile phones, and work to eliminate such information from the Web. (Mainichi)
>> read more
Japan may separate NTT's fiber-optic businesses (Mon, 15 Mar 2010)
The Japanese government may separate fiber-optic businesses of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. to create a new company, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information. The move is part of an effort spread the use of high-speed broadband. About 30 percent of Japanese households now have access to broadband. The government plans to increase the ratio to 100 percent by 2015, the newspaper said. (Bloomberg)
>> read more
More about going wireless on the move (Mon, 08 Mar 2010)
In reply to a computer user seeking advice on "Going wireless on the move" (Lifelines, Jan. 5), M.H. wonders why Bic Camera ( www.biccamera.com ) and Emobile ( www.emobile.jp/en ) were mentioned, but not UQ WiMAX ( www.uqwimax.jp/service/trywimax/ ). UQ WiMAX has two payment plans: a flat rate of about ¥4,500 a month and a "per packet" rate with a ¥380-minimum, ¥4,900-maximum monthly fee. (Japan Times)
>> read more
Japan's top web forum an outlet for free speech -- and hate (Mon, 08 Mar 2010)
Japan's biggest Internet
forum, where anonymous netizens trade anything from cooking tips to death threats, has long been an anarchic zone of uninhibited free speech and a magnet for controversy. This week the raw commentary
on 2channel - which with 10 million visits a month is one of the world's largest online bulletin boards - saw tempers flare anew. A massive hacker attack from South Korea crippled the site in
retaliation for users' online slights against Olympic skater Kim Yu-Na, after she beat Japanese rival Mao Asada to take gold at the Vancouver Winter Games. The site was attacked on Monday, the
anniversary of a 1919 uprising in Korea against Japanese colonial rule, and shut down for two days. (independent.co.uk)
>> read more
Twitter, a free microblogging service that lets users send and read "tweets"--messages up to 140 characters long--around the world, is quickly becoming popular in Japan. Some people, however, are using the system under false names, and the question of how to confirm authorship has become a crucial issue. Since the Japanese version of Twitter was launched in April 2008, more than 4.7 million people have registered with the service. Twitter first appeared in May 2006 in the United States. Even politicians are using Twitter. Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi, for example, once posted as many as 70 tweets over two days after a major earthquake in Chile late last month. (Yomiuri)
>> read more
Police to crack down on Web site administrators who fail to delete illegal info (Thu, 18 Mar 2010)
Police have decided to crack down on Web site administrators who fail to comply with requests to delete illegal information online, and hold them criminally responsible for aiding crimes, it has been learned. It has emerged that roughly 60 percent of the information targeted by the National Police Agency (NPA) is being carried on bulletin board pages operated by a single administrator. The NPA plans to step up its fight against the illegal material, such as information on the illicit sale of mobile phones, and work to eliminate such information from the Web. (Mainichi)
>> read more
Japan may separate NTT's fiber-optic businesses (Mon, 15 Mar 2010)
The Japanese government may separate fiber-optic businesses of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. to create a new company, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information. The move is part of an effort spread the use of high-speed broadband. About 30 percent of Japanese households now have access to broadband. The government plans to increase the ratio to 100 percent by 2015, the newspaper said. (Bloomberg)
>> read more
More about going wireless on the move (Mon, 08 Mar 2010)
In reply to a computer user seeking advice on "Going wireless on the move" (Lifelines, Jan. 5), M.H. wonders why Bic Camera ( www.biccamera.com ) and Emobile ( www.emobile.jp/en ) were mentioned, but not UQ WiMAX ( www.uqwimax.jp/service/trywimax/ ). UQ WiMAX has two payment plans: a flat rate of about ¥4,500 a month and a "per packet" rate with a ¥380-minimum, ¥4,900-maximum monthly fee. (Japan Times)
>> read more
Japan's top web forum an outlet for free speech -- and hate (Mon, 08 Mar 2010)
Japan's biggest Internet
forum, where anonymous netizens trade anything from cooking tips to death threats, has long been an anarchic zone of uninhibited free speech and a magnet for controversy. This week the raw commentary
on 2channel - which with 10 million visits a month is one of the world's largest online bulletin boards - saw tempers flare anew. A massive hacker attack from South Korea crippled the site in
retaliation for users' online slights against Olympic skater Kim Yu-Na, after she beat Japanese rival Mao Asada to take gold at the Vancouver Winter Games. The site was attacked on Monday, the
anniversary of a 1919 uprising in Korea against Japanese colonial rule, and shut down for two days. (independent.co.uk)>> read more
New Tag Results, from Technorati and Ingboo (Fri, 05 Mar 2010)
Technorati and Ingboo have partnered together to provide an all new kind of subscription experience for Technorati content, including tagged posts. Look for a blue Ingboo icon for a full range of subscription options. Feeds are also available for: Hottest Blogosphere Posts Latest Original Articles from Technorati The Technorati Blog We also have channel feeds, writer feeds, and editorial tag feeds, which can be found on their respective pages.
>> read more
Technorati and Ingboo have partnered together to provide an all new kind of subscription experience for Technorati content, including tagged posts. Look for a blue Ingboo icon for a full range of subscription options. Feeds are also available for: Hottest Blogosphere Posts Latest Original Articles from Technorati The Technorati Blog We also have channel feeds, writer feeds, and editorial tag feeds, which can be found on their respective pages.
>> read more
ハックで車100台以上が運転不能に：Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely - Wired (Thu, 18 Mar 2010)
>> read more
今日はローレンス・オーツ大尉の命日：I am just going outside - 98 Years Ago Today (Tue, 16 Mar 2010)
>> read more
サンディエゴのプリウス急加速は狂言？：San Diego Runaway Prius Hoax? (Mon, 15 Mar 2010)
>> read more
プリウスを走行中ニュートラルにする、アクセルとブレーキを同時に踏むデモ：2008 Prius demo - shift into neutral; gas & break at the same time (Mon, 15 Mar 2010)
>> read more
負の数の「-」は英語で「ネガティブ」：-1 is called Minus One, not Negative One, in Japan (Sat, 13 Mar 2010)
>> read more
>> read more
今日はローレンス・オーツ大尉の命日：I am just going outside - 98 Years Ago Today (Tue, 16 Mar 2010)
>> read more
サンディエゴのプリウス急加速は狂言？：San Diego Runaway Prius Hoax? (Mon, 15 Mar 2010)
>> read more
プリウスを走行中ニュートラルにする、アクセルとブレーキを同時に踏むデモ：2008 Prius demo - shift into neutral; gas & break at the same time (Mon, 15 Mar 2010)
>> read more
負の数の「-」は英語で「ネガティブ」：-1 is called Minus One, not Negative One, in Japan (Sat, 13 Mar 2010)
>> read more
Korea
Are You Kidding Me? A Bizarre Story About Online Gaming (Thu, 04 Mar 2010)
A bizarre, sad story related to online games. A married couple in Suwon, Korea has been arrested by the police for negligence of their parental duties. The couple left their three month old baby starve to death, because they were "too obsessed with online gaming." Ironically enough, it turned out that the online game they were playing to their baby's death was themed around, well guess what, raising a virtual avatar. So in short, the couple were too busy taking care of their "virtual baby" that they kept their "real baby" completely unattended and starved to death. The game is called "Prius Online" and the players can adopt an avatar and grow it. Game players can also buy the avatars virtual items such as clothes, or even write a blog about their avatars, much resembling a parenting diary. The parents in charge are said to have been under great parenting stress, presumably due to their financial difficulties, and as their parenting stresses mounted, they became more and more obsessed with the game -- their "escape" from the real world. This is really unheard of, but I'm afraid the world might see more incidents like this as games become more real and blur the lines between the real world and the virtual world. Unlike packaged games, online games and MMORPGs often do not have a clear ending, forcing users to put in endless amount of time and energy into the game. Some players become seriously obsessed with the game and play it for days straight without a wink of sleep. After days of immersive gaming, they might get to confuse the real world and the virtual world, like the way the characters in the movie Avatar gradually became more familiar with the virtual world.
>> read more
1forME is Korea's Etsy (Tue, 23 Feb 2010)
1forME is a newly launched Korean e-commerce site that sells hand-made, artists-produced goods. That's quite a mouthful, but long story short: 1forME is Etsy of Korea.
Etsy saw a gross merchandise sales of about
US$ 180M last year, showing some 105% year-over-year growth. This shows that the handmade goods e-commerce is a proven business model, and for every proven business model there's always an Asia
opportunity, especially if the model is culture-neutral. Well, both e-commerce and the love for handmade goods seem to be pretty universal concept, I guess.
But according to the company's heatmap, Etsy doesn't seem to have a big Asia presence. This
leaves plenty of room for Asian startups to grab the opportunity. 1forME has just thrown hat in the ring, a move that's expected to be followed by many others in the region.
>> read more
fanatic.fm Allows Fans To Sponsor Musicians (Mon, 08 Feb 2010)
With the rise of internet advertising, there were lots of promises for free music, supported entirely by advertisement. (Remember Spiral Frog, anyone?) But the problem of such free, ads-supported music service was that the ads revenue was never enough to cover the licensing and other costs. Meanwhile, paid streaming services like Spotify (or Korea's Melon et al) seem to be gaining ground fast. A new service called fanatic.fm tries to rethink ads-supported free music streaming service. Taking the same old text ads or banner ads and slapping them onto music streaming service is like trying to put a round peg into a square hole, fanatic.fm says. It's just not the best way to combine the ads and music consuming experience, they say. Instead, fanatic.fm built a better ads system for music streaming service. It's more like a sponsorship system, where individuals or brands can "sponsor" artists so that the sponsors' brands or messages can be presented to their visitors in a more powerful way, fully blended with the right music. For example, Red Bull could strategically sponsor certain rockbands popular among X-gamers. Then people can enjoy the rockbands' songs for free, with "sponsored by Red Bull" messages. This would potentially be a better way to present Red Bull brand than simply placing textual ads next to the rock bands' music videos. Also, the sponsor doesn't have to be a corporate brand -- it could be a group of dedicated fans who would do anything that might help the artists they love, certainly including some sponsorship and donation.
Looking at the website, fanatic.fm doesn't seem to be fully launched yet, but they
had already been mentioned in
the MIDEM, the big music industry event held in Cannes, France, as "a company to pay attention to". fanatic.fm is the brain child of a Korean team (the same folks who did QBox), but as hinted on their website, the service is very much eyeing for the global audience.
>> read more
NHN Posts All-time High Profits, Yet "Future Isn't All That Rosy," Analysts Say (Wed, 03 Feb 2010)
NHN, the company behind Naver.com, recently announced 2009 financial results. The company posted annual profit of KRW 540 billion (roughly US$ 540mm) on the revenue of KRW 1.3 trillion (about US$ 1.3
billion). Both figures are all-time high, according to NHN.
NHN's profit rates, about 40% of the revenue, again proves that NHN is one giant cash generating machine. NHN is actually one of the most profitable companies in the whole Korean stock market, across
all industries. The biggest contributor of this financial success is of course Naver's dominating market share in the web ads. Fueled by Naver's 60-70% search market share, Naver also sees a healthy
market share of 65-70% in the nation's internet ads market.
However, apparently there are some concerns over the company's long term growth potential too. About 1/3 of NHN's profit comes from Hangame's gaming business (Hangame is the online gaming arm of NHN
corporation). This is a pretty unique revenue mix; Imagine 1/3 of Google's profits are being generated by games, though clearly Google and NHN are different companies as apples and oranges are. In
and of itself, generating huge profits from a gaming business would be perfectly fine; However, the problem is that much of Hangame's profit gets generated from what's called "web board games", or
things like Korean poker ("Go-stop"). There are increased social concerns towards these games: As people can exchange virtual currency into real money, these games can become too addictive and
potentially become borderline gamling.
Also generating investors' concerns is the under-performance of Naver's overseas operations. Naver has always been criticized as a service that achieved its greatness by monopolizing the Korean
market, not by building technological unfair advantage that can also work in other countries. To overcome these concerns, Naver has been trying hard to venture into new markets and move the needles
there; However, Naver's current progress in other markets can best be described as "still trying".
Naver is a great company: after all, it's the world's 7th largest internet search provider, a remarkable position given that the majority of its users are only Koreans. But without meaningful signals
coming from overseas market, and less dependency of its gaming business on the poker-like games, at least Naver's stock price could stall for a while.
>> read more
MBC finally gives in and embraces P2P sharing (Thu, 28 Jan 2010)
MBC, a major Korean broadcasting company, announced (link in Korean) it will make nearly all of its content available to anyone
for sharing. This means any individual or company can freely grab MBC's original content and put it up on their server without any restrictions.
MBC says they are doing this as they are confident they will be able to monetize successfully. End customers who want to download MBC content should pay around KRW 500 per episode (= about half a
buck). MBC will collect the revenues from P2P service providers, and has signed agreement with 40 P2P companies. As a way to make sure there is no loophole, MBC will use the technologies that can
detect free-riders -- content downloaders who do not pay for the content. There are startup companies, such as Enswer, that can filter out illegally downloaded content.
MBC's new policy can be summed up as: Encourage more sharing/uploading, and monetize at the point of downloading. To me this seems to be a better strategy than what MBC (and all other content
owners) have been trying so hard to do in the past, only in vain: Putting heavy penalties to content uploaders, in a hope such measure will scare people away. But the problem is, many of the
content uploaders turn out to be 16-year highschool students, who may not be aware of all the laws and regulations, nor are easily scared in general.
MBC says they are giving the new system a try until March this year.
>> read more
A bizarre, sad story related to online games. A married couple in Suwon, Korea has been arrested by the police for negligence of their parental duties. The couple left their three month old baby starve to death, because they were "too obsessed with online gaming." Ironically enough, it turned out that the online game they were playing to their baby's death was themed around, well guess what, raising a virtual avatar. So in short, the couple were too busy taking care of their "virtual baby" that they kept their "real baby" completely unattended and starved to death. The game is called "Prius Online" and the players can adopt an avatar and grow it. Game players can also buy the avatars virtual items such as clothes, or even write a blog about their avatars, much resembling a parenting diary. The parents in charge are said to have been under great parenting stress, presumably due to their financial difficulties, and as their parenting stresses mounted, they became more and more obsessed with the game -- their "escape" from the real world. This is really unheard of, but I'm afraid the world might see more incidents like this as games become more real and blur the lines between the real world and the virtual world. Unlike packaged games, online games and MMORPGs often do not have a clear ending, forcing users to put in endless amount of time and energy into the game. Some players become seriously obsessed with the game and play it for days straight without a wink of sleep. After days of immersive gaming, they might get to confuse the real world and the virtual world, like the way the characters in the movie Avatar gradually became more familiar with the virtual world.
>> read more
1forME is Korea's Etsy (Tue, 23 Feb 2010)
1forME is a newly launched Korean e-commerce site that sells hand-made, artists-produced goods. That's quite a mouthful, but long story short: 1forME is Etsy of Korea.
Etsy saw a gross merchandise sales of about
US$ 180M last year, showing some 105% year-over-year growth. This shows that the handmade goods e-commerce is a proven business model, and for every proven business model there's always an Asia
opportunity, especially if the model is culture-neutral. Well, both e-commerce and the love for handmade goods seem to be pretty universal concept, I guess.
But according to the company's heatmap, Etsy doesn't seem to have a big Asia presence. This
leaves plenty of room for Asian startups to grab the opportunity. 1forME has just thrown hat in the ring, a move that's expected to be followed by many others in the region.
>> read more
fanatic.fm Allows Fans To Sponsor Musicians (Mon, 08 Feb 2010)
With the rise of internet advertising, there were lots of promises for free music, supported entirely by advertisement. (Remember Spiral Frog, anyone?) But the problem of such free, ads-supported music service was that the ads revenue was never enough to cover the licensing and other costs. Meanwhile, paid streaming services like Spotify (or Korea's Melon et al) seem to be gaining ground fast. A new service called fanatic.fm tries to rethink ads-supported free music streaming service. Taking the same old text ads or banner ads and slapping them onto music streaming service is like trying to put a round peg into a square hole, fanatic.fm says. It's just not the best way to combine the ads and music consuming experience, they say. Instead, fanatic.fm built a better ads system for music streaming service. It's more like a sponsorship system, where individuals or brands can "sponsor" artists so that the sponsors' brands or messages can be presented to their visitors in a more powerful way, fully blended with the right music. For example, Red Bull could strategically sponsor certain rockbands popular among X-gamers. Then people can enjoy the rockbands' songs for free, with "sponsored by Red Bull" messages. This would potentially be a better way to present Red Bull brand than simply placing textual ads next to the rock bands' music videos. Also, the sponsor doesn't have to be a corporate brand -- it could be a group of dedicated fans who would do anything that might help the artists they love, certainly including some sponsorship and donation.
Looking at the website, fanatic.fm doesn't seem to be fully launched yet, but they
had already been mentioned in
the MIDEM, the big music industry event held in Cannes, France, as "a company to pay attention to". fanatic.fm is the brain child of a Korean team (the same folks who did QBox), but as hinted on their website, the service is very much eyeing for the global audience.
>> read more
NHN Posts All-time High Profits, Yet "Future Isn't All That Rosy," Analysts Say (Wed, 03 Feb 2010)
NHN, the company behind Naver.com, recently announced 2009 financial results. The company posted annual profit of KRW 540 billion (roughly US$ 540mm) on the revenue of KRW 1.3 trillion (about US$ 1.3
billion). Both figures are all-time high, according to NHN.
NHN's profit rates, about 40% of the revenue, again proves that NHN is one giant cash generating machine. NHN is actually one of the most profitable companies in the whole Korean stock market, across
all industries. The biggest contributor of this financial success is of course Naver's dominating market share in the web ads. Fueled by Naver's 60-70% search market share, Naver also sees a healthy
market share of 65-70% in the nation's internet ads market.
However, apparently there are some concerns over the company's long term growth potential too. About 1/3 of NHN's profit comes from Hangame's gaming business (Hangame is the online gaming arm of NHN
corporation). This is a pretty unique revenue mix; Imagine 1/3 of Google's profits are being generated by games, though clearly Google and NHN are different companies as apples and oranges are. In
and of itself, generating huge profits from a gaming business would be perfectly fine; However, the problem is that much of Hangame's profit gets generated from what's called "web board games", or
things like Korean poker ("Go-stop"). There are increased social concerns towards these games: As people can exchange virtual currency into real money, these games can become too addictive and
potentially become borderline gamling.
Also generating investors' concerns is the under-performance of Naver's overseas operations. Naver has always been criticized as a service that achieved its greatness by monopolizing the Korean
market, not by building technological unfair advantage that can also work in other countries. To overcome these concerns, Naver has been trying hard to venture into new markets and move the needles
there; However, Naver's current progress in other markets can best be described as "still trying".
Naver is a great company: after all, it's the world's 7th largest internet search provider, a remarkable position given that the majority of its users are only Koreans. But without meaningful signals
coming from overseas market, and less dependency of its gaming business on the poker-like games, at least Naver's stock price could stall for a while.
>> read more
MBC finally gives in and embraces P2P sharing (Thu, 28 Jan 2010)
MBC, a major Korean broadcasting company, announced (link in Korean) it will make nearly all of its content available to anyone
for sharing. This means any individual or company can freely grab MBC's original content and put it up on their server without any restrictions.
MBC says they are doing this as they are confident they will be able to monetize successfully. End customers who want to download MBC content should pay around KRW 500 per episode (= about half a
buck). MBC will collect the revenues from P2P service providers, and has signed agreement with 40 P2P companies. As a way to make sure there is no loophole, MBC will use the technologies that can
detect free-riders -- content downloaders who do not pay for the content. There are startup companies, such as Enswer, that can filter out illegally downloaded content.
MBC's new policy can be summed up as: Encourage more sharing/uploading, and monetize at the point of downloading. To me this seems to be a better strategy than what MBC (and all other content
owners) have been trying so hard to do in the past, only in vain: Putting heavy penalties to content uploaders, in a hope such measure will scare people away. But the problem is, many of the
content uploaders turn out to be 16-year highschool students, who may not be aware of all the laws and regulations, nor are easily scared in general.
MBC says they are giving the new system a try until March this year.
>> read more
New Tag Results, from Technorati and Ingboo (Fri, 05 Mar 2010)
Technorati and Ingboo have partnered together to provide an all new kind of subscription experience for Technorati content, including tagged posts. Look for a blue Ingboo icon for a full range of subscription options. Feeds are also available for: Hottest Blogosphere Posts Latest Original Articles from Technorati The Technorati Blog We also have channel feeds, writer feeds, and editorial tag feeds, which can be found on their respective pages.
>> read more
Technorati and Ingboo have partnered together to provide an all new kind of subscription experience for Technorati content, including tagged posts. Look for a blue Ingboo icon for a full range of subscription options. Feeds are also available for: Hottest Blogosphere Posts Latest Original Articles from Technorati The Technorati Blog We also have channel feeds, writer feeds, and editorial tag feeds, which can be found on their respective pages.
>> read more
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