DigiCha

China Digital Media Readings for February 21st

bbishop — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 01:42:57 +0000

China’s Tencent Enters U.S. With Twitter Rival, Facebook Games | ClickZ – This is the first in a two-part series. Read part two.
Chinese social media powerhouse Tencent is rapidly moving into the U.S. market, quietly rolling out an English-language version of its Wiebo microblogging platform and assembling a team to launch online social games on Facebook. The company recently opened offices in Palo Alto, CA. in the shadow of Facebook’s headquarters, to take advantage of Silicon Valley’s pool of gaming talent and tech-savvy Mandarin-speaking applicants.
Forget Twitter Fans, China’s Tencent Wants U.S. Brands to Sign Up | ClickZ – China’s Tencent, a multi-pronged Internet company, is trying to stay ahead of its rivals by moving into the U.S. market and offering new opportunities to overseas marketers. The Beijing-based company is rolling out an English-language version of its two-year-old Twitter-like Weibo service and is hiring a team in Silicon Valley to launch new games on Facebook.
Experts say the English-language Tencent Weibo isn’t interested in competing with Twitter for U.S. users. Rather it wants to sell U.S. brands new avenues to tap the growing Chinese consumer base. “There is a far greater opportunity for Tencent in providing Western brands with access to the Chinese market than them investing heavily in Western adoption of their solutions,” says Rick Williams, AKQA creative development director, based in London. The Tencent microblog has already signed up a sizable number of international brands, says Leo Chu, managing director of Tribal DDB Shanghai. Among the companies that advertise on Tencent’s network of messaging, gaming, social media and web portals are Nike, Coca-Cola, KFC and Ford.
Tencent Pivoting From PC to IPhone for Ads – Bloomberg – Tencent Holdings Ltd. (700) is China’s biggest Internet company, with 430 million users. Even so, it is only No. 6 in attracting advertising because its customers are considered students and farmers without much discretionary income.
Enter the smartphone.
China’s online advertising market expanded more than 40 percent to $4.2 billion last year, according to Media Partners Asia. The industry may exceed $10 billion by 2015, it said. Tencent Chief Executive Officer Ma Huateng is wooing that money by shifting his focus from personal computers to mobile devices.
Chinese Computer Games | Foreign Affairs – Assembling an international consensus on norms about cyberspace, however, is a strategy that will probably take a long time to pay off, if it ever does. There is little the United States can do to alter China’s conception of cyberspace, a vision it is actively promoting abroad. With a growing population of 500 million Internet users, it is easy to see why the Chinese believe that the future of cyberspace belongs to them. In the meantime, the most pressing tasks for the United States are to raise the costs incurred by Chinese hackers and to improve the security of networks at home. Yet U.S. officials should be realistic: Chinese-based cyberattacks will not disappear anytime soon.
William Farris – Google+ – Baidu Begins Censoring “Bo Xilai Tenders Resignation” The… -
Yahoo Has No Bearing On Alibaba.com Privatisation, E-commerce Site Says | paidContent -
Apple’s China trademark battle moves to Shanghai | Reuters – Apple Inc’s trademark battle moves to one of China’s richest cities on Wednesday when a Shanghai court will deliberate a request by troubled technology company Proview to halt the sale of iPads across the city.
京东进军电子书刘强东押注“第三条”路 – 产经 – 21世纪网 -

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China Digital Media Readings for February 20th

bbishop — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 05:52:12 +0000

Pressures Drive Change at China’s Electronics Giant Foxconn – NYTimes.com – The announcement Saturday that Foxconn Technology — one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers — will sharply raise salaries and reduce overtime at its Chinese factories signals that pressure from workers, international markets and concerns among Western consumers about working conditions is driving a fundamental shift that could accelerate an already rapidly changing Chinese economy.
Looking 4 Chinese Social Media X-pert 4 consult -
Combining Social Media with E-Commerce, New Model of Monetization for Sina Weibo | 八八吧 :: 88 Bar – Sina Weibo (China’s leading microblog platform )and Ctrip (China’s leading online travel service provider) just announced their new collaboration through which you can find good hotel and flight deals from Ctrip by simply posting your travel requests on Sina Weibo (similar to Twits) then @Ctrip. I tried it by using my android phone to post shanghai+hotel@ctrip, within several seconds I got suggestion about hotels and links to webpages on Ctrip where I can read more and make reservation.
Walmart Ups Its Investment In Chinese E-Commerce Giant Yihaodian | TechCrunch – Walmart is announcing this evening that it has upped its investment in Yihaodian, a massive B2C e-commerce company based in China. Wal-mart, which originally funded the retail giant last year, has made another undisclosed investment in Yihaodian to bring Walmart’s total ownership stake to approximately 51 percent.
胡龙飞: 一帖看懂网络广告平台公司——易传媒（i美股讯）北京时间2012年2月18日消…_雪球 – analysis of adchina
Will AdChina break the IPO drought? | China Accounting Blog | Paul Gillis – Another concern over VIEs is the risk that the interests of the VIE shareholder and the public shareholders may not be aligned, providing an economic incentive to the VIE shareholder to ignore the agreements and take the VIE. Interestingly, this is addressed in the financial statement footnotes – a first I think. The company says “the shareholders of the consolidated VIEs are also shareholders of the Company and therefore have no current interest in seeking to act contrary to the contractual arrangements.” That statement is absurd on its face. The key VIE is 100% owned by the founder and his wife, yet they only control 18% of AdChina before the IPO. While the 18% shareholding is significant and mitigates the risk of the shareholders taking the VIE, it is quite an overreach to conclude they have no current economic interest in doing so.
Sina Weibo Trends Manipulated By Fraudulent Accounts? | DigiCha – If correct this research is meaningful for Sina ($SINA), its investors and advertisers. Many claim that Weibo has much more use user engagement than Twitter, and that in fact it is the “Facebook+Twitter of China”. If a material percentage of the engagement turns out to be fraudulent, advertisers and investors may view the product in a different light. Real-name registration could help clarify these issues, as posting and retweeting by fraudulent/spam/zombie accounts should decline significantly, assuming real name registration is actually enforced.
[1202.0327] Artificial Inflation: The True Story of Trends in Sina Weibo – There has been a tremendous rise in the growth of online social networks all over the world in recent years. This has facilitated users to generate a large amount of real-time content at an incessant rate, all competing with each other to attract enough attention and become trends. While Western online social networks such as Twitter have been well studied, characteristics of the popular Chinese microblogging network Sina Weibo have not been. In this paper, we analyze in detail the temporal aspect of trends and trend-setters in Sina Weibo, constrasting it with earlier observations on Twitter. First, we look at the formation, persistence and decay of trends and examine the key topics that trend in Sina Weibo. One of our key findings is that retweets are much more common in Sina Weibo and contribute a lot to creating trends. When we look closer, we observe that a large percentage of trends in Sina Weibo are due to the continuous retweets of a small amount of fraudulent accounts. These fake accounts are set up to artificially inflate certain posts causing them to shoot up into Sina Weibo’s trending list, which are in turn displayed as the most popular topics to users.
White House Gets China To Open Market to U.S. Movies (Updated) | Reuters – China agreed to significantly increase market access for U.S. movies in order to resolve an outstanding trade dispute, The White House announced on Friday.
Foxconn Auditor Finds ‘Tons of Issues’ – Bloomberg – The Fair Labor Association, a watchdog monitoring working conditions at makers of Apple Inc. products, has uncovered “tons of issues” that need to be addressed at a Foxconn Technology Group plant in Shenzhen, China, FLA Chief Executive Officer Auret van Heerden said.
china ecommerce firm vipshot files for us ipo -
Apple’s iPhone loses China market share | Reuters – Apple Inc’s share of China’s booming smartphone market slipped for a second straight quarter in October-December, as it lost ground to cheaper local brands and as some shoppers held off until after the iPhone 4S launch last month.
Review & Outlook: DreamWorks and Chinese Protectionism – WSJ.com – Not quite. This enterprise may well reward its investors. But the fact that a joint venture is the only way for a U.S. industry with a considerable competitive advantage to make further inroads into the Chinese market isn’t fair to the U.S. or healthy for China. The battle for market access in the Middle Kingdom is proving to be more challenging than Po’s quest to defeat Lord Shen in DreamWorks’s “Kung Fu Panda 2.”
Alibaba Said to Plan Privatizing Alibaba.com – Bloomberg -
中共將設黨組織直接監管微博 | 兩岸要聞 | 兩岸台商 | 聯合新聞網- 春節後，中共宣傳部門下令，將在大陸各微博成立共產黨組織，直接監管微博，包括新浪、騰訊、搜狐、網易等主要設有微博的網站都接到相關指令。這是繼網路實名制（登記本名）後，中共新一波加強對網路控制的措施，日後對微博內容的審查和過濾將更嚴格。大陸各大微博在春節後都接到成立黨組織的相關規定。消息稱，未來黨組織將負責各大微博的政策引導和決策，在政策、措施上，堅絕執行中宣部和國務院及省市網路管理辦公室的命令。..
權威人士透露，微博不僅要審查上傳的消息內容，刪除「不良訊息」，及可能影響社會觀感的「敏感訊息」外，未來網路公安部門會對微博後台進行直接管理，並與微博系統對接。

在進一步全面掌控微博的措施方面，一旦面臨社會重大事件，除了設立「字串」，大量進行刪帖，最嚴重的就直接斷網。例如，春節後藏區發生幾起自焚事件，西藏就曾短暫斷網；新疆在「七五事件」後網路也曾被封鎖一年多。

外國社交網站「推特」為進入大陸市場，曾表示會做必要「讓步」。消息稱，這不太可能滿足大陸對微博等社交網站的要求。因外國網站不可能開放製作後台，提供給中共公安部門直接管理並讓系統對接。
How Google Tracked Safari Users – Digits – WSJ – people need 2 go 2 jail 4 this. otherwise it will just keep happening
Baidu Sees Strong Growth in Mobile Search: CEO – Bloomberg – China’s mobile Internet market is growing at an “astonishing pace,” Chief Executive Officer Robin Li said on a conference call today. Baidu will step up efforts in generating sales from mobile services, which make up a small percentage of revenue at present, he said.
Baidu’s stock rose in extended trading after the company yesterday reported net income climbed 77 percent, boosted by a surge in advertising sales. The Beijing-based company plans to generate more sales from social-media services and is seeking “long-term international opportunities,” Li said today.
About 15 percent of the search queries handled by Baidu now come from mobile users, Li said. The chief executive didn’t provide targeted revenue figures for mobile services.
唯冠：苹果曾用欺诈手段获取iPad商标权未索赔百亿元-《财经网》 – 杨荣山表示，虽然唯冠现在处于财务危机，但目前还没有公开要求具体赔偿数字，只是根据中国法律维护权益。“我们要首先保证债权人的权益，网络上流传的索赔100亿元，并不是唯冠的要求，是专业人士的看法。”
Inside the Eastern Rise of Weibo, China’s Twitter | Culture | Vanity Fair- Weibo can be used for frivolous socializing and celebrity watching, but what has caught the world’s attention is the site’s powerful twin forces of subversion and surveillance. “Weibo is a magnifying glass for China’s social issues,” says Bill Bishop, a Beijing-based independent analyst who follows China’s Internet market. “It’s raising the pressure, adding some catalyst into an incredibly volatile mix.”Hung Huang, an outspoken writer and publisher with 3.9 million followers and the nickname “China’s Oprah,” puts it simply: “Freedom of speech was repressed for so long, Weibo is an outburst. People want to express themselves and before social media, they had no way to do it.”
Apple vs. Proview: The Assignment Agreement! | China Hearsay – Bottom line: looking at the Agreement doesn’t fundamentally change my mind on any of this. Proview still broke its promise and Apple still didn’t mandate the best closing procedures. The only surprising bit is the length of the agreement itself. Apple’s best shot here is still the Shenzhen appellate case that will begin on February 29.
Baidu Q4 Earnings, Revenue Beat Wall Street Estimate; Q1 Sales Outlook In Line BIDU – Investors.com- Though Baidu’s revenue nearly doubled, observers still fear an ad slowdown in China. Evidence of that surfaced on Monday, when China Internet portal Sohu.com (SOHU) gave Q1 profit guidance that was only about half what analysts had expected.Of some 5,300 group-buying advertisers active in China as of mid-2011, about 2,000 have shut down, wrote Tian X. Hou, an analyst with T.H. Capital, in a report Monday. Hou rates Baidu a hold.
“Ads are slowing for everyone, except Baidu — or a lot less for Baidu,” Bill Bishop, an independent analyst and blogger in China, said via email.

Baidu’s advertising in Q4 climbed 7% from Q3 and 82% from the year-earlier quarter.

In Q4 2010, Baidu’s advertising rose 94% year over year and 8.6% from the prior quarter.

Many observers worry that ad growth will continue to be flat throughout 2012, says ThinkEquity analyst Henry Guo.

“The No. 1 thing (will be) the commentary from management on the macroenvironment,” Guo said.
The virtual currency scam from China that’s costing iOS developers real cash- CocoaChina, which hosts the largest iOS developer community in China and raised $14 million from Sequoia China and other investors, discovered a scam that’s giving players deep discounts on virtual currency packs in games like Capcom’s Smurfs’ Village.Basically, sellers go onto the eBay of China, or Taobao, to sell virtual currency at half-price or more. They create an Apple iTunes account attached to a fraudulent credit card number and then give the buyer the log-in and a tutorial on how to recharge their game with currency. Developers will see a discrepancy between their daily revenues with actual payments from Apple at the end of the month, once all of the fraudulent payments are skimmed out of their revenues.
These fake credit card numbers, sometimes called “black cards,” are often created for iTunes account outside of China. So developers won’t necessarily see a discrepancy in their Chinese revenues, but rather their European or North American revenues. The other key point is that this fraud works on legitimate iPhones, not just jailbroken ones.
Not So Fast, Google: China Wants A Look At Your Motorola Deal First | TechCrunch – Google has overcome two big regulatory hurdles in getting its $12.5-billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility approved by both U.S. and European regulators. China has until March 20 to decide whether or not it will wave through the deal, too.
Take a Look at Some of Apple’s Evidence in Proview iPad Dispute – John Paczkowski – News – AllThingsD – if Proview is bankrupt how many judges can they buy, and for how long?
Baidu to Set Up Brazil Office | Marbridge Consulting – The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has announced on its web site that internet company Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) is opening an office in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for the purpose of understanding the Brazilian and Latin American markets and to establish the company’s development strategy in the region
Apple’s Mountain Lion Makes the Mac More Like the iPad – NYTimes.com – • Lots more features for Chinese users, including a character-recognition system that updates the Mac’s Chinese dictionary as new words enter the popular lexicon. The Chinese equivalents of Google, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are now integrated with Share buttons and other spots, just as they are on the American version.
Alibaba’s Taobao at center of failed Yahoo deal: sources – Yahoo! Finance – several people involved in the proceedings said the rapid growth of Taobao caused Yahoo to have second thoughts about the valuation agreed in December when they signed a term sheet.
The situation described by several people involved in the discussions appeared to downplay some analysts’ views that the halt in talks was a negotiating tactic employed by one of the parties involved in the complex transaction.
“Taobao was definitely the main problem causing talks to break off,” said one of the people familiar with the matter…
Several sources noted that some factions within Yahoo were always somewhat hesitant about the prospects of the tax-efficient deal because of its inherent complexity and the uncertainty of satisfying the Internal Revenue Service.
The risk of political fall-out over the deal, which would effectively allow Yahoo to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes after spinning off its stakes in Alibaba and Softbank, could also have contributed to the deal losing some of its appeal, according to the first source familiar with the matter.
传雅虎与阿里巴巴谈判因淘宝估值问题搁浅-搜狐IT – alibaba-yahoo deal fail over taobao valuation?says $yhoo decided dec 11 taobao value now 2 low
微美食—发现、分享美食 – watch out dianping, $sina weibo has launched a good channel in partnership with yazuo http://www.yazuo.com
At Ease with NetEase Earnings | Wall Street Bean -

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Sina Weibo Trends Manipulated By Fraudulent Accounts?

bbishop — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:06:06 +0000

So claims a new research paper written by a trio of researchers from HP Lab’s Social Computing Lab. In “Artificial Inflation: The True Story of Trends in Sina Weibo” Louis Lei Yu, Sitaram Asur and Bernardo A. Huberman write that:

We found that 49% of the retweets in Sina Weibo containing trending keywords were actually associated with fraudulent accounts. We observed that these accounts comprised of a small amount (1.08% of the total users) of users but were responsible for a large percentage of the total retweets for the trending keywords. These fake accounts are responsible for artificially inflating certain posts, thus creating fake trends in Sina Weibo.

We relate our finding to the questions we raised in the introduction. There is a strong competition among content in online social media to become popular and trend and this gives motivation to users to artificially inflate topics to gain a competitive edge. We hypothesize that certain accounts in Sina Weibo employ fake accounts to repeatedly repeat their tweets in order to propel them to the top trending list, thus gaining prominence as top trend setters (and more visible to other users). We found evidence suggesting that the accounts that do so tend to be verified accounts with commercial purposes.

If correct this research is meaningful for Sina ($SINA), its investors and advertisers. Many claim that Weibo has much more use user engagement than Twitter, and that in fact it is the “Facebook+Twitter of China”. If a material percentage of the engagement turns out to be fraudulent, advertisers and investors may view the product in a different light. Real-name registration could help clarify these issues, as posting and retweeting by fraudulent/spam/zombie accounts should decline significantly, assuming real name registration is actually enforced.

It would not be surprising if Tencent, Sohu ($SOHU) and Netease ($NTES) Weibo have similar dynamics.

The full paper:

Artificial Inflation: The True Story of Trends in Sina Weibo

View more documents from Digicha

You can follow me @Niubi on Twitter, @Niubi on Stocktwits and @Billbishop on Sina Weibo.

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China Digital Media Readings for February 16th

bbishop — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:30:09 +0000

In A WSJ Op-Ed Mitt Romney Confronts The China Fantasy, Ignores His Own Hypocrisy? | Sinocism – Bain and Youku $yoku//
I use Youku, have friends who work there (or did before this post), and think they have one of the best management teams of all the Chinese Internet companies. The company is now a staunch defender of foreign and Chinese copyrights and a partner to many American video rights holders.However, in its early days Youky was a pirate’s den of copyright infringement (of both foreign and Chinese content) and had it not ignored intellectual property rights it is unlikely it would be as successful as it is today. Remember, in his WSJ op-ed Romney writes “we must directly counter abusive Chinese practices in the areas of trade, intellectual property, and currency valuation.”

Youku, like all Chinese Internet companies, has to obey China’s laws and regulations, which include censoring content and limiting free speech. In the op-ed Romney also emphasizes “the character of the Chinese government—one that marries aspects of the free market with suppression of political and personal freedom.”

So tell us Mr. Romney, did you profit from Bain Capital’s investment in Youku?

I have investments in China and have no fundamental problems with investing money here. But I am also not running for president and bashing China to pander for political points.

Mitt Romney should itemize all the China investments he currently holds or once held, directly or through any funds, Bain Capital or otherwise, and he should disclose how much he has made from them.

I realize that calling a presidential candidate a hypocrite is about as insightful as saying dogs slobber, but we can always hope for better, right?
Baidu’s New Browser – how compare with chrome?//
We’re happy to announce today the release of the Baidu Browser 2.0, preview edition. The new version represents a significant upgrade from our first release, which came out in July of last year. The Baidu Browser 2.0 now offers even more personalization, a more user-friendly interface, and beefed-up online security to the user.
Assignment: China – “The Week That Changed The World” – YouTube -
广电组建新媒体监管平台：全国有线网互联互通_通讯与电讯_科技时代_新浪网 -
SARFT Establishing Platform For Regulating Internet TV | Tech in Asia- According to SARFT vice-chief Zhang Haitao, the administration will regulate IPTV streaming services, mobile video services, and traditional internet television services like Youku (NYSE:YOKU) and Tudou (NASDAQ:TUDO).The move is part of a larger push by SARFT to regulate the “three networks:” telecom networks, computer networks, and cable television networks. The regulatory bureau already has a tight grip on television, but until now, internet television and mobile video have been allowed to develop relatively free of SARFT’s interference er, regulation.
The China Labyrinth – NYTimes.com- would not bet against them in short to medium term//The upshot is that the authorities now find themselves trapped in a constant tug-of-war between their will to control, negotiated change, public resistance and unresolved confusion. They may pride themselves on building a regime which seems calculating, flexible and dynamic, willing to change its ways in order to remain the dominant guiding power. Yet they also know well the new Chinese proverb: Ruling used to be like hammering a nail into wood, now it is much more like balancing on a slippery egg.
Whether the authorities can sustain their present balancing act, so proving Madison wrong, seems doubtful. Within the China labyrinth the spirit of monitory democracy is alive and well. Whether and how it will prevail against the crafty forces of surveillance is among the global political questions of our time.
LinkedIn reportedly in talks to enter China – ZDNet Asia News -
Panda Live Stream Hopes You’ll Fall in Love With the Planet- Wildlife enthusiasts, nature buffs and, most importantly, puppy cam lovers are in for a treat when they see the latest in furry live streams: the 24-hour-a-day panda stream.Philanthropic media organization Explore.org has launched the first HD video live stream of pandas, from the world’s largest panda reserve in Ya’an City, China. The stream, which went live in early February, tracks some of the young pandas living at the facility, which works on species preservation and reintegration into the wild. The stream broadcasts live during the daytime and runs highlights at night (local time).
Apple iPad plant conditions better than the norm: agency | Reuters – Working conditions at Chinese manufacturing plants where Apple Inc’s iPads and iPhones are made are far better than those at garment factories or other facilities elsewhere in the country, according to the head of a non-profit agency investigating the plants.
The Fair Labor Association (FLA) is beginning a study of the working conditions of Apple’s top eight suppliers in China, following reports of worker suicides, a plant explosion and slave-like conditions at one of those suppliers, Foxconn Technology Group.
FLA chief calls Foxconn facilities ‘first class’ | Apple – CNET News – Head of organization inspecting Apple’s supplier plants tells Reuters that an uptick in worker suicides may be related to boredom.
Xiaomi’s Amazon Tack to IPhone Fight May Mean 3 Years of Losses – Businessweek- Xiaomi Corp., a Chinese smartphone vendor that counts Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte as an investor, is ready to post losses for years as it battles Apple Inc. to attract high-end users to its software.“We are not looking to make any money, or to make Xiaomi profitable, for the next two or three years,” President Bin Lin said in a Feb. 7 interview in Beijing. “We will be able to look at profitability from software and services after we have the user base.”
U.S. Insider Probe on Asia, Banks Said to Be Intensifying – Businessweek- he multiyear insider trading probe that has implicated U.S. hedge funds, technology company employees and consultants is intensifying its focus on banks and Taiwan as federal officials investigate a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. technology analyst, a person familiar with the matter said.The investigation of Henry King, the Goldman Sachs analyst covering Taiwan, shows federal authorities are expanding the insider-trading probe by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan and the FBI in New York, said the person, who didn’t want to be identified because the matter isn’t public.
Censorship in China | The Stream – Al Jazeera English- Users of Sina Weibo, China’s most popular micro-blogging website, will soon have to register under their real names. Critics of the law say this is further increasing the government’s control over online freedom. Yet despite pouring more and more resources into policing the web, the country’s netizens are finding ways to beat the system.In this episode of The Stream, we speak to Eva Galperin (@evacide), an activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Michael Anti (@mranti), a journalist and blogger.
Beyond Censorship in China’s Media and Cyberspace | Asia Pacific Memo – Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, media debates, often triggered by sensational media coverage of scandals, have played an instrumental role in shaping China’s reform path. With the explosion of the Internet and social media, the scope, ferocity, and stakes of these debates have intensified, creating intricate dynamics between elite, intellectual, and popular politics. Western media portrayals of Chinese media and Internet as plagued by “censorship” still ring true, and we will see more crackdowns. But one-dimensional portrayals miss much of what is going on inside China’s increasingly diverse, dynamic, and perhaps even decisive, media and cyberspace.
Cowen Group, Inc. Announces Investment Banking Hires in its Asia and Technology Groups | Business Wire- Cowen building up China team with folks from Rodman & Renshaw?//Mr. Lu joins Cowen from Rodman & Renshaw where he served as Managing Director and Head of China Investment Banking. Prior to this, Mr. Lu served as Managing Director and Chief Representative at Piper Jaffray’s Shanghai-based office, where he successfully built a strong investment banking coverage and execution team. Mr. Lu holds a M.B.A. and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Western Ontario.
Ms. Mi joins Cowen from Rodman & Renshaw where she served as a Director in the company’s China Investment Banking group based in Beijing. Prior to this, Ms. Mi served as a Vice President in Piper Jaffray’s China Investment Banking team in Shanghai. Ms. Mi holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economic from Cornell University.

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China Digital Media Readings for February 15th

bbishop — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:23:08 +0000

Exclusive: Proview says any ban of iPad exports hard to impose | Reuters- Proview Technology, the Chinese company embroiled in a legal battle with Apple Inc over the iPad name, said on Wednesday that customs authorities had told it that the sheer size of the market and the popularity of iPads would make it difficult to impose a ban.”The customs have told us that it will be difficult to implement a ban because many Chinese consumers love Apple products. The sheer size of the market is very big,” Yang Long-san, chief of Proview Technology (Shenzhen), told Reuters in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
“We have applied to some local customs for the ban and they’ll report to the headquarters in Beijing.”
DreamWorks Animation to Unveil Landmark Joint Venture in China (Report) – The Hollywood Reporter – DreamWorks Animation and two state-owned Chinese media companies, Shanghai Media Group and China Media Capital, will unveil a landmark joint venture on Friday, the Financial Times reported.
The partners will construct a studio facility in Shanghai to develop film, TV and live stage productions for the Chinese market, according to the report.
Renren Issues Q4 Warning; So Much For The Facebook Bounce – Forbes – The China-based social-networking company said that revenues for the quarter will be within the previous guidance range of $31 million to $33 million, so no issues there. But the company said it now sees a non-GAAP operating loss for the quarter of $15 million to $17 million, due to “increased investments across the company’s business lines,” as well as the consolidation of 56.com, a video-sharing site acquired in October.
“网恋”背后陷阱重重-搜狐IT -
The hollow emptiness in social media numbers – most accounts are fake or empty | ZDNet – Summary: Increasing numbers of studies of social networks point to much smaller numbers of real and active users — sharply reducing the value of the platforms, and social media marketing.
Analysis & Opinion | Reuters-Dreamworks’ China deal won’t be access all areas- The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her ownDreamworks may soon get an exclusive ticket to China’s closely guarded film industry. The U.S. studio is likely to announce a joint venture with China-based investors during Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit to California on Feb. 17, a person familiar with the situation has told Breakingviews. It should be a good deal for the creators of “Kung Fu Panda”, but does little to lower the Great Wall around film distribution in the People’s Republic.
Television Regulations: New Bottle, Same Wine- There is some new content in the regulations issued yesterday, but contrary to the NYT headline, the major issues addressed vis-a-vis foreign content are not new: indeed, they harken back to regulations that have been in force since 1995. From the unpublished manuscript of a guidebook on Chinese television that I co-authored with William Soileau and Jeane-Marie Gescher in 1998, according to regulations then in force:Foreign programming must not be distributed between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., although actual enforcement varies according to the broadcaster.
and

Foreign programming must not take up more than 25% of total broadcasting time on a station basis. In reality, while the rule is nominally honoured, many networks apply the quota on a channel by channel basis. Unofficial figures indicate that foreign programming may account for as much as 50% of programming.

The rules governing television are not increasing, as the Times suggests. What seems to be increasing is the degree to which they are openly flaunted by broadcasters. Let me explain.
Amazon China and Suning Quit Selling iPads in Ongoing Trademark Battle | Tech in Asia – Two Chinese B2C e-commerce sites, Amazon China and Suning.com (SHE:002024), have removed the iPad from sale in an apparent move to avoid implication in the Apple versus Proview legal battle over the use of the iPad name in mainland China. Today, a search for ‘iPad’ or ‘iPad 2’ or any relevant permutation yields results only for accessories for (or rivals of) Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iconic tablet on both those sites (pictured above).
China unable to silence Internet buzz on police chief – USATODAY.com – “Political intrigue is a part of life here; it’s like living in Washington, D.C., but in the Internet age … all of a sudden it’s instantaneous and accessible to millions,” says Bill Bishop, a Beijing-based independent analyst and Internet expert from Washington. “This is China political intrigue 2.0, the first major political succession in the Internet age, and it’s a real challenge to the government.”
China’s traditional media are managed by the Communist Party’s propaganda department, while new media, mostly privately funded, enjoy more freedom, says Hu Yong, an Internet and new media expert at Peking University.
“The Internet is both a challenge and an opportunity for the Chinese government. On the one hand, they use this new form of public space as a kind of measurement of Chinese public opinion,” he says. “On the other hand, the democratization of information makes the government very afraid of losing the whole control of information.”
Tim Cook: Sales In China Were $13B Last Year | TechCrunch – If one takes China as an example, Cook said, Mac sales grew over 100 percent year-over-year. While objectively that may not seem like much, the entire market itself only grew 10 percent year-over-year. Not only that, but a few years China was “only” producing sales in the hundreds of millions for Apple, whereas last year, sales in China had grown to $13 billion. Cook said that this, among other things, is just further evidence of the explosive potential of Asian markets, specifically China.
Business Insider: Yahoo’s New CEO Just Made His First Excellent Move, And Boy Are Shareholders Angry – Yahoo shareholders are angry at Thompson right now, and they’re taking it out on the company’s stock price.
Good for Thompson for ignoring them. It is to their benefit.
(The big winners in the cash-rich split were never going to be Yahoo shareholders, anyway. It was going to be the PE firms orchestrating the deal. They were going to lend Alibaba the money, and then, if the rumors were true, convince Alibaba and Yahoo to use that money to buy companies from their own portfolios! )
Yahoo’s Talks With Alibaba and Softbank Said to Have Collapsed – NYTimes.com- The talks to put together a tax-free transaction — known as a cash-rich split — ended on Monday after several days of negotiations in Hong Kong, said these people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. According to one of these people, Alibaba’s chief financial officer and lead negotiator, Joe Tsai, indicated to his Yahoo counterpart, Timothy Morse, that the two sides might need to seek an alternative deal.It was unclear why the talks fell apart, although the pace of negotiations had been exceedingly slow. The two sides were still weeks away from being able to announce a deal, and Yahoo still needed to obtain formal assurances from the Internal Revenue Service that such a transaction would be tax-free.
Director Client Services/GM E-Commerce Consultancy & Digital Agency China at Web2Asia in Shanghai – Job | LinkedIn – Director Client Services/GM E-Commerce Consultancy & Digital Agency China at Web2Asia in Shanghai – Job | LinkedIn

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China Digital Media Readings for February 14th

bbishop — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:52:45 +0000

实地采访深圳唯冠：厂址满目疮痍债主纷纷讨债_业界_科技时代_新浪网 – $aapl a look at decrepit Proview facilities. bankrupt, Apple think can wait them out?
情人节销售数据：避孕用品增长四成广东人最开放_原创_DoNews-IT门户-移动互联网新闻-电子商务新闻-游戏新闻-风险投资新闻-IT社交网络社区 – Data says: Sales of birth control products jump 40% on around valentine’s day, cantonese are the most “open”
传湖南卫视金牌制片张一蓓出走或加盟搜狐视频_原创_DoNews-IT门户-移动互联网新闻-电子商务新闻-游戏新闻-风险投资新闻-IT社交网络社区 – Has Sohu $sohu video hired away a top producer from Hunan TV? Sohu a serious competitor to youku $yoku and tudou $tudo
工商局约谈团宝网负责人消费者退款仍未解决_互联网_DoNews-IT门户-移动互联网新闻-电子商务新闻-游戏新闻-风险投资新闻-IT社交网络社区 – Groupon.cn (not related to Groupon) is running out of money, can’t pay its bills, customers complaining, administration of industry and commerce have called them in for a chat. Wont end well, nor will be first group buying implosion here, VC money dried up, ad buying way off, hitting all the digital media firms like sohu $sohu sina $sina baidu $bidu focus media $fmcn et al
淘宝医药馆本月底或正式重启药监局签字放行_互联网_DoNews-IT门户-移动互联网新闻-电子商务新闻-游戏新闻-风险投资新闻-IT社交网络社区 – Taobao (Tianmao) launching an online pharmacy. Why does this seem like a bad idea?
杨锦麟的微博新浪微博-随时随地分享身边的新鲜事儿 – 丁亥年岁尾，平西王就封，召俊臣掌刑部。臣至，兴大狱，杀旧吏，剿豪强，禁丝竹，囚讼棍，恃学广而闻多，事王侯，人皆以为华，多褒贬，谤平西王。王忌其骄而祸己，欲弃之。臣怒，壬辰年初，夜遁入蜀，投西番之门而不入。事泄，上震怒！急召校尉无数，循车辙围而擒之，天下震动，仕人围而哂之。
CH55BN Quote – China-US 55 Index – Bloomberg -
EA and Tencent to take The Sims Social game to China | VentureBeat -
Today’s iPad Trademark News – What Happens if Proview Goes to Customs? | China Hearsay -
广电总局：引进剧不得超50集不得黄金时段播出_新闻_腾讯网 – China’s Film/TV regulator SARFT: no foreign movies/TV shows during prime time
Chinese Press Reporting Proview Will Request That PRC Customs Ban Import And Export Of iPads | DigiCha -
Chinese City Seizes Apple Ipads in Name Dispute-Caijing – Currently, business administrations in cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen and Xuzhou have investigated into the issue, and a national ban is likely, a local newspaper in Hebei Province reported.
iPads removed from shelves after trademark ruling|Economy|chinadaily.com.cn – The tablets have been confiscated from shelves in many retail shops and electronic stores due to a Chinese company’s lawsuit against the Apple Inc over the trademark infringement, in Shijiazhuang city, capital of North China’s Hebei province.
Some retailers have removed the iPad tablets to back storerooms, fearing that local Administration of Industry and Commerce will confiscate them.
An inspection squad of the Xinhua District’s Administration of Industry and Commerce in Shijiazhuang city, launched a campaign to crack down the sale of the tablets on Feb 9 after receiving Proview Technology (Shenzhen)’s complaint. A total of 45 iPad tablets were confiscated by the authority in the district over two days.
Down Goes iPad! Proview vs. Apple Fight Gets Serious | China Hearsay- if this is accurate, it’s big news. Some of the details are a bit unclear at this point, but I suppose we will get more information in the days ahead. Remember that we have one court case in Shenzhen over the trademark purchase contract between Proview and Apple. Proview won at the Intermediate Court and Apple has filed an appeal. There is also a second civil suit, this one a trademark infringement case, pending in Shanghai.The first part of this article suggests that an application has been filed by Proview in Shijiazhuang and that the AIC there has responded with several enforcement actions. I say “suggests” because it would be a bit strange for AIC to run around snatching up iPads in the absence of a Proview complaint. Possible, but it usually doesn’t work that way.So the AIC there has confiscated some iPads and scared some retailers into taking the product off the shelves, at least temporarily. If that sentiment spreads to other retailers, that’s horrible news for Apple, which is reportedly gearing up for a big launch of the iPad 3 next month. Talk about bad timing.
As to the Shijiazhuang actions, this all makes sense. The AIC definitely has the power and the evidence to legally confiscate iPads. Same scenario I talked about last week with respect to Beijing AIC, but in this case, it may actually be happening.
腾讯视频开门红 2012大剧春晚得佳绩 _资讯频道_计世网 – Tencent Video catching up to youku and tudou, at least 4 certain shows? $tudo $yoku
LinkedIn创始人约见中国互联网公司或将入华-搜狐IT -
Authorities Removing Apple iPads From Chinese Store Shelves? | DigiCha- So says this report (Chinese) from Hebei Youth Daily.Apparently as a result of the Proview iPad trademark infringement verdict, some local Administrations of Industry and Commerce (AIC) have started to confiscate Apple ($AAPL) iPads they find on sale. The article claims that many stores and resellers have taken the products off their shelves to avoid discovery by authorities, but if you ask for an iPad you can still buy one. It is not clear if this is going to happen nationwide or if this is just the action of a handful of local authorities, but Apple has a lot of risk in this case.
Opt Out From Online Behavioral Advertising By Participating Companies (BETA)- Welcome to the consumer opt out page for the Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. Our participating companies are committed to transparency and choice.Some of the ads you receive on Web pages are customized based on predictions about your interests generated from your visits over time and across different Web sites. This type of ad customization — sometimes called “online behavioral” or “interest-based” advertising — is enabled through your computer browser and browser cookies. Such online advertising helps support the free content, products and services you get online.Using the tools on this page, you can opt out from receiving interest-based advertising from some or all of our participating companies.
JeremyLin林书豪的微博新浪微博-随时随地分享身边的新鲜事儿 – jeremy lin has 780,000 followers on sina weibo
团宝折戟启示录：失效的互联网“三段论” – 产经 – 21世纪网 – 团宝网资金链出现危机，无法正常结算合作商家的欠款，并开始大规模裁员。
苹果商店刷票调查：“360下架”引爆的灰色产业链 – 产经 – 21世纪网 -
政务微博评估报告发布新浪政务微博数量领先 _新浪（SINA） _i美股 – 2012年2月，国家行政学院电子政务研究中心权威发布《2011年中国政务微博客评估》报告。报告显示，在新浪网认证的党政机构微博12103 个，党政干部微博10652 个，政务微博总数22755个，位居全国第一。在排名前100名的党政机构微博中，96个在新浪网开通，标志着新浪微博成为全国最大的官民互动平台。其中，北京市公安局新浪官方微博@平安北京位列全国党政机构微博客综合排名第一。新浪政务微博引领中国政务微博发展潮流。
Chinese Regime Intensifies Censorship of Sina Weibo — NTDTV.com- In addition to saying goodbye to anonymity, Sina and other microblog companies are also to soon have Chinese Communist Party monitoring units established in their corporate structures.[Ma Xiaoming, Former TV News Anchor]: [Male, Mandarin]
“The Party’s creation of these units is an attempt to strengthen its control and to bolster its position by keeping close watch over the exchange of information.”
效仿亚马逊阿里巴巴“云”计划 – 产经 – 21世纪网 -
Going dark | China Accounting Blog | Paul Gillis – There are three notable trends right now in China concept stocks. First, the IPO market has been dead in the water for six months, since Tudou listed last August. There are many companies in the pipeline, but the market appears to be shut down tight. The other trends, privatizing and going dark, relate to companies exiting the U.S. markets after facing regulatory hostility and disappointing valuations. Over twenty companies have announced plans to privatize and delist. Most long term shareholders of these companies will incur a significant loss on these transactions, but they will likely fare far better than shareholders of companies that go dark.
Sina wrestles with microblog revenue plan – FT.com – When the chief executive of Sina Corp presents 2011 earnings this month, investors will be eager to hear when the Chinese internet company will finally start generating revenues from Sina Weibo, its wildly popular microblog.
But they are likely to be disappointed by Charles Chao’s presentation.。。Sina staff say the government’s requirement that all Weibo users must register with their real identities will probably delay the company’s revenue-generating plan to the second half of this year.
“That will create a lot of negative sentiment with investors,” says Alicia Yap, an analyst at Barclays Capital. “The post-New Year rally will not be sustainable.”
India: LinkedIn goes local | beyondbrics | News and views on emerging markets from the Financial Times – FT.com- Most brands catch on quickly that Indians can be picky, whether it’s with signature saris or spiced-up fast foods. Now, social networking sites like LinkedIn are also going native to tap into a growing market of over 100m internet users and an even larger population of young job-seekers.Analysts told beyondbrics the professional networking site’s strategy to localize its services was natural, if not inevitable, in India, which can otherwise be an unforgiving market – as evidenced by KFC’s faltering launch here in the mid-1990s.
Beijing’s micro blog policy unclear for overseas users|Nation|chinadaily.com.cn -

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Chinese Press Reporting Proview Will Request That PRC Customs Ban Import And Export Of iPads

bbishop — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:17:03 +0000

In what appears to be an escalation of Proview’s battle with Apple ($AAPL) over the iPad trademark, Sina Tech News is reporting that Proview is preparing to request that the General Administration of China Customs ban the import and export of iPads.

Earlier today we learned that authorities in at least one city in Hebei Province had already started confiscating iPads from stores-Authorities Removing Apple iPads From Chinese Store Shelves? | DigiCha. The Sina Tech News article reports that Administration of Industry and Commerce in nearly 20 municipalities are investigating the sale of iPads, with several telling merchants to stop selling them openly.

Apple, how much are you going to pay Proview to make this go away?

[UPDATE: Stan Abrams at ChinaHearsay examines the possible Proview request to China Customs:

an action with the General Administration of Customs could be the nuclear option for Proview, and the Sina article suggests this might be in the works. This is a relatively simple procedure whereby an IP owner, in this case trademark owner Proview, files their trademark certificate with GAC, which is then “on notice” regarding Proview’s ownership rights.

Even before such a filing, GAC has the authority to stop any import/export of goods suspected of infringing intellectual property. Yes, that includes shipments of China-made iPads exported to overseas markets. Customs could go after those at any time if it so desired...

So the news here is that Proview may file their IP with Customs. This would be step one, and a big shot across Apple’s bow. Would they then go after iPad exports? That remains to be seen, but as with the infringement suits and AIC actions, Proview also has the law on its side when it comes to a Customs action.

END UPDATE]

You can follow me @Niubi on Twitter, @Niubi on Stocktwits and @Billbishop on Sina Weibo.

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Authorities Removing Apple iPads From Chinese Store Shelves? (Updated)

bbishop — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 03:30:38 +0000

[UPDATE: Chinese Press Now Reporting Proview Will Also Request That PRC Customs Ban Imports And Exports Of iPads | DigiCha END UPDATE]

So says this report (Chinese) from Hebei Youth Daily.

Apparently as a result of the Proview iPad trademark infringement verdict, some local Administrations of Industry and Commerce (AIC) have started to confiscate Apple ($AAPL) iPads they find on sale. The article claims that many stores and resellers have taken the products off their shelves to avoid discovery by authorities, but if you ask for an iPad you can still buy one. It is not clear if this is going to happen nationwide or if this is just the action of a handful of local authorities, but Apple has a lot of risk in this case.

Stan Abrams predicted this possibility a few days ago:

What can the AIC do? It can raid premises, seize documents, equipment, products and counterfeit marks, and it can halt activity and lock down businesses. Once AIC makes a decision about infringement, it can order fines (these go to the government, not the trademark owner), revoke business licenses, and mandate a public apology.

Note that an AIC raid is often used by trademark owners as Step 1, with a civil lawsuit as Step 2. It would be interesting to know if Proview and its lawyers filed the AIC application in Beijing before filing the civil suit in Shanghai, and whether they have approached other AICs.

OK, so once again, in addition to the contract action in Guangdong, we have an infringement suit in Shanghai, and a pending AIC application in Beijing. According to the Beijing Evening News, which apparently talked to AIC, the authorities are sitting on this for the time being. Why is this happening?

I can only speculate that it’s political. Look, Beijing AIC can certainly claim that since this case involves a pending civil suit, they feel obligated to step back and wait for a resolution from the court in Guangdong. Maybe.

But AIC could act if it wanted to, and the court action is Guangdong is now an appeal that most folks expect Apple to lose. Proview is the owner of record of the trademark, and the infringement is crystal clear. No reason at all that AIC could not raid all the Apple stores and resellers in Xicheng District and effectively shut down all iPad sales there.

No, really. They could do so tomorrow if the political will was there.

So why are they sitting on this? My guess is that this one is just too high profile, Apple has too much clout (Proview who?), and AIC is worried about blowback. The pending court action is great cover behind which AIC can hide until, hopefully, a settlement is cobbled together by the parties.

Has Apple fired the employees and lawyers who screwed up the Proview deal?

[UPDATE: Xinhua has more on the iPad confiscations in Hebei:

The tablets have been confiscated from shelves in many retail shops and electronic stores due to a Chinese company's lawsuit against the Apple Inc over the trademark infringement, in Shijiazhuang city, capital of North China's Hebei province.

Some retailers have removed the iPad tablets to back storerooms, fearing that local Administration of Industry and Commerce will confiscate them.

An inspection squad of the Xinhua District's Administration of Industry and Commerce in Shijiazhuang city, launched a campaign to crack down the sale of the tablets on Feb 9 after receiving Proview Technology (Shenzhen)'s complaint. A total of 45 iPad tablets were confiscated by the authority in the district over two days.

Proview Technology (Shenzhen) claimed in early 2011 that Apple Inc had been infringing on its iPad trademark and launched court proceedings, said Xie Xianghui, a lawyer for Proview Shenzhen.

The company has extended its complaint to the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce and appealed to three courts in other places: Shenzhen Futian District People's Court, Huizhou Municipal Intermediate People's Court and Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court.

Apple has a problem in China, and not just because it can not launch a product without an iRiot. END UPDATE]

You can follow me @Niubi on Twitter, @Niubi on Stocktwits and @Billbishop on Sina Weibo.

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New Registrations For Sina Weibo Appear To Have Fallen Off A Cliff

bbishop — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:01:27 +0000

At one point in 2011 Sina ($SINA) Weibo was seeing 20 million or so new registrations per month.

Today we learned that the government will require real name registration for all Weibo users on March 16. Currently only new users need to register with real names. Chinese news reports about the March 16 deadline state that since January 1 Sina has had approximately 3 million real name registrations. If that is accurate then the monthly run rate for new Weibo registrations would appear to have dropped precipitously to 2.5 million or so.

Assuming the 3 million number is correct, I can think of at least three possible reasons for the drop:

1. Sina Weibo has tens of millions of zombie/spam accounts and under real name registration the creation of new junk accounts has ceased;

2. Sina Weibo has already reached the vast majority of potential users and so user growth will slow dramatically as the company shifts to monetizing the existing user base;

3. Potential users are turned off by real name registration and so are avoiding Weibo.

Regardless of the reasons, Sina now needs to start delivering revenue and profit in Weibo. The stock trades at less than half of its 2011 high but is up 50% in a month or so. My understanding is that the company has been working on a Facebook-like ad targeting system. Sina is hosting an industry event in March, and investors should hope the company announces this new system and an impressive roster of advertisers.

You can follow me @Niubi on Twitter, @Niubi on Stocktwits and @Billbishop on Sina Weibo.

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Chinese Press Reports Say Google China Maps May Be Facing Shutdown (UPDATED)

bbishop — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:53:11 +0000

Grim if not unexpected. Chinese press reports say Google ($GOOG) has not met the deadline to apply for a mapping license and so is likely to have to shutdown.

[UPDATE: Reuters reported last June that Google China had applied for a mapping license, but as of today, when the new rules are supposed to take effect, there has no been no update on the status of the application, prompting the speculation in the Chinese press that Google China Maps will soon terminate all services. Perhaps today's report is just speculation fueled by competitors. Penn Olsen writes that the rumors of Google China Maps' demise are exaggerated. END UPDATE.]

We have heard this before though this time it appears to be more likely.

Story in Chinese here.

Regardless, Baidu ($BIDU) Maps is already a better product for China than is Google Maps. Google Maps was once the best here and had dominant market share.

You can follow me @Niubi on Twitter, @Niubi on Stocktwits and @Billbishop on Sina Weibo.

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