So, I mocked this up. Write English words. Search. Select the proper characters/Chinese words to form your sentence. If words or phases are in the wrong order, drag up or down to correct them. Copy and paste, save, or just read aloud.

Perhaps a later version would have some simple Chinese grammar structures the user could drag in and place words into.

I’ll also say, Chinese dictionaries could benefit from cross referencing their search results with a Chinese character/word frequency lists such as: http://lingua.mtsu.edu/chinese-computing/statistics/char/list.php?Which=MO This way, when I lookup a word I don’t know, the most frequently used corresponding Chinese word appears at the top. (I know this would not work in all cases, but definitely most.) Since cross-referencing would likely decrease search speed, I suggest only showing the top 3 or 4 results and allow the user to press “show more” if need be. I’d also love to be able to mark words with tags, remove them from search results, and add example sentences. All this could even be synced back up to a main source or http://cc-cedict.org to help everyone.

Something else different with this deal is the deal timer, which currently reads 60 hours remaining. Is this a three day deal? This multi-day or week long strategy is what other sites like http://funshare.com (which I learned of bc they tweeted me after my last post) and http://twangoo.com are doing to make up for having a smaller audience. But I’ve heard of another strategy.

When I was in Shanghai a couple months ago for the World Expo I met the founders of another Groupon clone, http://cooltuan.com. With them there was some joking about these clone sites just buying all the coupons themselves and giving them away to their large extended families and friends. There was also some suggesting that other mainland knockoffs were absolutely using this strategy, especially at first.

For all these sites, the real Groupon included, you can’t NOT sell all the coupons. The base number doesn’t function as a real minimum anymore, it just has to be set high enough to encourage early, excited deal seekers to send it to a couple of friends. And, what it’s really about, especially when you’re a clone site hoping to stand out from the other 200 on the block and be purchased for hundreds of millions, is showing off how far ABOVE the minimum you’re selling.

As the plan goes, once you get some press for that, then hopefully the bandwagon effect will have worked and you can slowly phase to over to all genuine buys.

I’m not saying http://ubuyibuy.com is doing this, I think the fact they now have over 40,000 Facebook fans is proof they are legit. Nevertheless, seeing their numbers drop a little bit, and now the extended time makes me think perhaps something is up. Their Taiwan site is also showing 60 hours remaining on it’s current deal.

Anyhow. It’s raining in Seoul.

By looking at sales from the first 9 days since they launched — at that time they had ~20,000 Facebook fans — they’ve sold HKD$299,280 worth of coupons. I believe they take a 20% cut of everything. Not sure how quickly they pay their advertisers, could be Net 30, could be instant. Most coupons save the customer ~50%, e.g. spend 50, get 100. There are also credit card processing fees.

So of that HKD$299,280, 20% is HKD$59,865 or approximately HKD$6651 (~1k USD) per day thus far. Multiplying than times twelve is around HKD$1.7M (~200k USD). I imagine they will likely break into different districts as awareness grows — kowloon, island side, etc. — to try and offer more than one deal per day. Probably good potential to do USD$500k this year just in Hong Kong. They also have Taiwan and Singapore. Taiwan seems to be performing similarly and Singapore is yet to launch.

I can’t tell what their web traffic is since they’ve only been online about a month.

They have been gaining Facebook fans at the rate of 1000 or more per day, which is very impressive. They have nearly 39,000 now — most all of which look to be local, Chinese, Hongkongers, maybe 25 and under (I’m just looking at faces), perhaps the same fan base who listens to MC Jin and Van Ness Wu, their pop-ambassadors. I would suspect these guys are actively telling their fans to go “Like” the Facebook group. Their Facebook page for their Tapai site has 27,000 fans.

The other HK group buying site that I’ve been seeing is Twangoo. It’s up and running, but not with the kind of popularity uBuyiBuy has. They’re offering their second deal this week (they do things by the week) and 7 people have bought in so far, at least the met the deal minimum of 5.

Twangoo has 330 Facebook fans. They mostly look to be Chinese, but with a few more expats mixed in and still all young. Their posts are in English verus uBuyiBuy who posts almost exclusively in Chinese.

With all this said, who is going to win overall in HK? Seems like uBuyiBuy is on it’s way. Thought I’m curious to know their penetration in the expat market. Here’s an interview with ubuyibuy founder on Bloomberg: http://www.executiveinterviews.net/players/mini/default.asp?order=AS04107 He says he was living in the US running a business, used Groupon himself, got a ton of business from it, and decided to head back to Asia to get it started there. We’ll see if he also ends up selling to Groupon. CityDeals from Germany sold for a reported 200M Euro. There are reportedly hundreds of Groupon clones in mainland China.

Is group buying a trend that is going to last forever, one that will become engrained in our buying habits?

Passively digesting information can be exhausting. While I’ve recently got back into Twitter and Facebook, it was nice to unplug for a month or so.

That said, there are several downsides to *not* staying connected. For instance I went to this TEDxBeijing event and the whole time I was thinking, “what the hell did I used to talk to people about at things like this.” It really takes practice and being in the social media “flow” (for me at least) to feel like I have fluffy new, current and cool, stuff to talk about.

Another downside. I’ve totally missed out on my friend’s lives recently. I really don’t know what is going on with them. Or, at least not to the level I did before. danah’s talk referenced how your friends can turn into celebrities. You watch (or receive via Twitter) their every move, you wait to hear about how that meeting s/he was stressed about went. Or, if someone’s mother liked that gift they got for her at Wal-Mart. Silly little things like that. People are always surprised that I’ve never seen 24 or MadMen or even Friends, really. That the only TV show I’ve ever watched (almost) all the way through is Battlestar Galactica (thanks to Melissa). Well, who needs all this when I have the lives of my friends to consume and laugh about.

Back when I used to talk about things other than Chinese. Back when I had to evangelize Twitter because no one had never heard of it. I would say that Twitter helps me passively digest the life’s of those I care about.

This is actually very powerful. And still very true, if you use Twitter as I did.

The value occurs in the real world. Face to face. Being “peripherally aware,” as danah calls it, allows for conversations to start at a higher level. Between people and about topics.

There is a vocabulary that is formed. There are black boxes. There is the ability to say one word or phrase and evoke in another person a whole set of feelings, memories, or information. This is the kind of stuff I love.

Minimized backstory. Everyone has less and less time in their day. What do I want from the 30 minutes I get to talk to my friend or loved one per day? I want to talk about something of value, something that I can help with, something that can bring us closer, that we can share. And generally it takes a while to get there. So, I tweet. And I ask my mom to tweet, and my uncle, and my cousins who are off in college, and my college best friend who I want to keep up with because I love that guy. I get these people’s updates to my phone and then when we do have time to chat we can start at a higher level. She/he can reference a meeting, a day when X happened, etc., and I get it. It helps put things in context and it helps accelerate the conversation to one of feelings and emotion (hopefully).

For news or events it’s the same thing. There is a shared vocabulary. Saying one thing like “the situation in China today” gets you on topic because you heard a bit about this already.

For me, there is a macro level to this as well, which I think I fell in love with while taking computer science classes. It’s the black box concept again. Or, the shared vocabulary. The more we can compartmentalize and thus abstract away from a concept, or a thought or a process, the sooner we can move up in scope, up in our thought process, up in what we can envision. And thus create.

I believe when you can do this with multiple people, when you add more processors, you again accelerate your ability to jump scope. This is why computer programmers often code all night or for five days straight or for three months in YCombinator. They don’t want to lose the high-level they are, in that moment, capable of processing at. And this this this is where the greatest things happen. This is what my friend Andrew wanted so badly to recreate with a “startup house.” This is flow.

And I miss it.

Our bodies are programmed to consume fat and sugars because they’re rare in nature. Thus, when they come around, we should grab them. In the same way, were biologically programmed to be attentive to things that stimulate: content that is gross, violent, or sexual and that gossip which is humiliating, embarrassing, or offensive. If were not careful, were going to develop the psychological equivalent of obesity. Well find ourselves consuming content that is least beneficial for ourselves or society as a whole.

…

In a world of networked media, it’s easy to not get access to views from people who think from a different perspective. Information can and does flow in ways that create and reinforce social divides. Democratic philosophy depends on shared informational structures, but the combination of self-segmentation and networked information flow means that we lose the common rhetorical ground through which we can converse.

…

We give power to people when we give them our attention and people gain power when they bridge between different worlds and determine what information can and will flow across the network.

…

To be relevant today requires understanding context, popularity, and reputation.

…

Making content work in a networked era is going to be about living in the streams, consuming and producing alongside “customers.” Consuming to understand, producing to be relevant.

…

…the tools that consumers need are those that allow them to get into flow, that allow them to live inside information structures wherever they are, whatever they’re doing. The tools that allow them to easily grab what they need and stay peripherally aware without feeling overwhelmed.

via “Streams of Content, Limited Attention: The Flow of Information through Social Media”. Citation: boyd, danah. 2009. “Streams of Content, Limited Attention: The Flow of Information through Social Media.” Web2.0 Expo. New York, NY: November 17.

I highly suggest reading danah’s entire talk. Something I didn’t paste because it would have been a bit long, was her reference to (one of my favorite guys) Csikszentmihalyi’s “flow” and how “Those who are most enamored with services like Twitter talk passionately about feeling as though they are living and breathing with the world around them, peripherally aware and in-tune, adding content to the stream and grabbing it when appropriate.” When explaining this feeling to others I’ve often used the phrase “passively digesting.” Passively digesting and therefore keeping up the things you care about.

Those danah describe live in a world where 140 character updates from close friends, possibly family, maybe bits of news and a celebrity or two are delivered to our phones, via SMS, as they happen. I can see the flow metaphor for sure.

That said, danah’s talk reinforces that “Prejudice, intolerance, bigotry, and power are all baked into our networks. In a world of networked media, it’s easy to not get access to views from people who think from a different perspective. Information can and does flow in ways that create and reinforce social divides.”

Here’s another one to think about.

“All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.”
- Bill Bernbach

I have 16 days left on my original one year hardware warranty from Apple, but since that’s only valid in the America (*fail*) I guess what I’m going to do is buy AppleCare to extend my warranty… and take the dumb thing to the Apple Store in Austin when I get to town.

This is basically my situation: “i tried the power/home combo, tried the home/up-volume/power combo, each done multiple times, none worked. i knew the phone was working because i could play songs, it rang / vibrate when i used another phone to call it, and itunes detected it, i even could back it up. the only problem is, the whole screen is white and i cant see anything else.

so, i decided to restore it on itunes. now, restore is done. and the screen is still white. ”

I really wish I could get this thing fixed myself. From this post I thought it was just a connector that finally rattled loose from me dropping my phone all the time, but, after taking the thing apart, I think it’s a busted LCD.

I could try taking the LCD off to check more connections, but doing requires breaking a sticker that will for sure void my warranty. I could also ship it to American before my one year warranty expires and beg one of my friends to take it to the Apple Store, but that would cost prob 50 bucks and I would just get it from them when I got there myself. Might as well just buy the AppleCare. Alas. What will I do without an iPhone?

In other news, I dropped my iPhone face first onto the tiled bathroom floor and now the screen shows only white. I think it’s probably a loose wire inside. I took it to the Apple store here in Beijing but they said they couldn’t help because my phone was purchased in America. I’m a little confused as to why that would be the case. I think I’m going to go back tomorrow and talk to them again. Otherwise I’ll just take the phone apart myself, and void the warranty.

I’ll be using it to keep up my Chinese skills while I’m back in the US for a month or so. Seems like a very cool service.

Here’s the minimum viable product:

7. You can now copy and paste your new sentence into a text message or email. Or, just say it.

Haobuhao?

]]> http://blog.think27.com/2009/11/i-really-want-to-make-an-iphone-app-that/feed/ 3 http://blog.think27.com/2009/11/its-so-much-cooler-to-get-comments-on/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=its-so-much-cooler-to-get-comments-on http://blog.think27.com/2009/11/its-so-much-cooler-to-get-comments-on/#comments Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:35:57 +0000 John Erik http://blog.think27.com/2009/11/its-so-much-cooler-to-get-comments-on/ It’s so much cooler to get comments on my blog than on things in Facebook. Feels more special, I think.

]]> http://blog.think27.com/2009/11/its-so-much-cooler-to-get-comments-on/feed/ 1 http://blog.think27.com/2009/11/clouds-are-rolling-back-in/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=clouds-are-rolling-back-in http://blog.think27.com/2009/11/clouds-are-rolling-back-in/#comments Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:17:31 +0000 John Erik http://blog.think27.com/2009/11/clouds-are-rolling-back-in/

]]> http://blog.think27.com/2009/11/clouds-are-rolling-back-in/feed/ 4 http://blog.think27.com/2009/11/here-goes-trying-to-use-my-blog-like-a-l/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=here-goes-trying-to-use-my-blog-like-a-l http://blog.think27.com/2009/11/here-goes-trying-to-use-my-blog-like-a-l/#comments Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:22:08 +0000 John Erik http://blog.think27.com/here-goes-trying-to-use-my-blog-like-a-l/ Here goes trying to use my blog like a longer version of Twitter. I really like this P2 WordPress theme.

I just got back from shopping at YaShow or YaXiu. I’ve been going there, and to other markets, quite often. Two reasons. One, I can practice my Chinese with the little shop girls. Two, well, I’ve been in Beijing for about two months now and I just washed clothes for the first time yesterday. I’ve just been buy new stuff to wear. Some of my friends in American will later be very happy that I’ve been doing this instead of washing, as I’ll probably hand over a ton of clothes to them. Gucci pants anyone?

]]> http://blog.think27.com/2009/11/here-goes-trying-to-use-my-blog-like-a-l/feed/ 6 http://blog.think27.com/2009/10/should-i-use-tumblr-more-or-treat-my-wordpress-powered-blog-like-tumblr/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=should-i-use-tumblr-more-or-treat-my-wordpress-powered-blog-like-tumblr http://blog.think27.com/2009/10/should-i-use-tumblr-more-or-treat-my-wordpress-powered-blog-like-tumblr/#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:24:53 +0000 John Erik http://blog.think27.com/should-i-use-tumblr-more-or-treat-my-wordpress-powered-blog-like-tumblr/ Feedburner says there about 200 folks subscribed to this blog (that’s excluding 460 from FriendFeed, I thought they fixed that).

While I’ve been in China I’ve been creating videos and uploading ‘em to YouTube. From there they get auto posted to Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter. I’m considering pushing the videos to this blog or at least including them in the RSS.

Maybe these are the two scenarios:

1.) Blog and blog feed stay the same and are used to post only longer form content. Have a sidebar with a couple recent videos.

2.) Basically turn my blog into a Tumblr. Make it more active and live. Have a sidebar with a link list of writings/essays.

I’m going to sleep on it. But, btw, I’m just used the QuickPress box in WordPress for this post and I’m loving it.

]]> http://blog.think27.com/2009/10/should-i-use-tumblr-more-or-treat-my-wordpress-powered-blog-like-tumblr/feed/ 2 http://blog.think27.com/2009/10/hotspot-shield-on-download-com-blocked-from-china-ip/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hotspot-shield-on-download-com-blocked-from-china-ip http://blog.think27.com/2009/10/hotspot-shield-on-download-com-blocked-from-china-ip/#comments Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:17:23 +0000 John Erik http://blog.think27.com/?p=209 The Great Firewall of China is really killing me today.

I’ve been using HotSpot Shield for the last couple weeks, but a few days before Chinese National Day (Sept 1) things went kaput.

I heard about http://www.ninjacloak.com/ from a buddy here and have use that to look at Facebook a couple times, but it’s kinda of a pain in the ass. I’m using http://dabr.co.uk/ to look at twitter, but, without TweetDeck, what’s the point?

I Googled Hotspot Shield the other day and I swear my Internet went out until I released and renewed my IP. I’ve heard the same thing from other students here. So this time I went right to http://download.com/ and searched Hotspot Shield. When I got to the page I clicked this link to download version 0.942-2 for Mac and… what do you know, “The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.”

After clicking the link about six more times, finally used NinjaCloak.com and pasted the address. (Using a proxy to download a proxy, that’s almost meta.)

The download was successful via NinjaCloak, but Hotspot Shield still doesn’t work (I now think it’s because I was watching too many videos and HotSpot decided I wasn’t worth helping because of all the bandwidth I was taking up.)

Admittedly, I haven’t given much effort to getting connected. I suppose I could do all kinds of stuff to get this working …like setting up my own proxy. Or, I don’t know, asking my cool tech friends about what they do. But, you know, I’m realizing I kinda like not worrying about what the world is doing. I kinda like that I don’t have the ability to Tweet from my iPhone every time something cool happens.

I like to boast about not owning a TV. And, I take pride in having no clue what 24 is about, or MadMen, or any other show like that. But, really, Facebook and Twitter are the same damn thing. Just stories. Things for us to keep up with.

It’s nice being disconnected. Who knew. Everything in moderation.

UPDATE: HotSpot Shield seems to be working fine from China now. You can download it by clicking the link above. If HotSpot still doesn’t work for you, and it did before, they (HotSpot) might have blocked your computer because you’ve been streaming too many videos or some other bandwidth intensive task. You might try uninstalling HotSpot, resetting your browser (google it), and then reinstalling. Or, if you’re there for any length of time, get a VPN, it’s simple and only cost like 50 bucks. I use Witopia. Cheers.

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