Yesterday, we told you about the RedPad, an Android tablet aimed at China's government officials and priced at an incredible 9,999 RMB ($1,580). Yesterday, the Southern Metropolis Daily spoke to an official RedPad rep and got the full scoop on the device, and also heard the company's official response to many of the cynical questions raised by Chinese net users after the device went viral yesterday. The biggest question, of course, is why the device costs so much. After all, the thing is running Android and boasts modest tech specs; why ...
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Jan 17 2012
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Kantar Media Acquires CIC, Wants to Hear More Word-of-Mouth Insights From China
CIC, the Chinese social business analysts, has been acquired by a British market research company called Kantar Media. It’s a significant investment in the Chinese social media intelligence ecosystem, as well as a big day for Sam Flemming, the founder and chairman of CIC. With China now having over half a billion people online and many of them engaged in microblogging, there’s even more demand from brands to get more consumer insights from this kind of ‘internet word of mouth’ (IWOM) analysis - a term coined by none other than ...
Jan 17 2012
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Chinese Travel Site Qunar Considering US IPO
Chinese travel site Qunar had a good year last year. It broke even -- not a small accomplishment considering how rough things were for some Chinese startups in 2011 -- and this year, things are looking even better. How much better? Double better. Qunar expects to double its earnings from last year, which should result in profits of "hundreds of millions of RMB," according to CEO Zhuang Chenchao. (Perhaps that's why Baidu invested $300 million in Qunar last year). So what's next for Qunar? An IPO in the US, according to ...
Jan 16 2012
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E-Commerce Sites Bracing For 2-Week Shutdown as Chinese New Year Nears
Remember all that stuff about 750 billion RMB being spent online in China last year, and how Alipay sees 2.1 million RMB in transactions every 60 seconds? Well, all that pretty much comes to a standstill when it’s Chinese New Year, the most important of the annual festivals here. That’s because all the couriers - those low-paid, scooter-riding, traffic-weaving frontline soldiers of home deliveries - tend to be migrant workers who need longer than the mandated week-long holiday in order to travel back to their hometowns in other provinces. So even ...
Jan 16 2012
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China’s The9 Lands Anelka, Shanghai Shenhua in Endorsement Deal
Back in December we told you about Chinese gaming company, The9 (NASDAQ:NCTY), and its efforts to bring Firefall (from subsidiary Red 5 Studios) to Southeast Asia. At the time Tony Park, head of The9’s Korea branch, noted that there was not any marketing strategy for bigger countries like China or Korea. But yesterday all that changed, as The9 announced that it has entered into an endorsement deal with football star Nicolas Anelka and his new team, Shanghai Shenhua, with whom he signed a few weeks back. The agreement with Anelka ...
Jan 13 2012
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Chinese PC Maker Lenovo Showed Most Growth in Shipments in Q4
Gartner has released its estimates of worldwide PC shipments for the fourth quarter of 2011, and Chinese maker Lenovo (HKG:0992) posted the best growth among the top vendors, with 23 percent more shipments in the quarter. With 14 percent market share, Lenovo still ranks second in global PC shipments just behind market leader HP (NYSE:HPQ), having leapfrogged Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) earlier in the year. HP retains a 16 percent market share despite a 16 percent shipment decline on the previous year. The afore-mentioned Dell sits behind in the third spot ...
Jan 13 2012
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Baidu Wants to Help You Waste More Time Watching TV
In good news for square-eyed fans of TV shows, the web apps on the front page of Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), China’s biggest search engine, now alert users to when a new episode of their favourite show is available online. Just add a TV series into the bookmarks section of the site (as pictured above) and it’ll give out alerts on a daily or weekly basis, depending on when the show airs. According to the Baidu blog today, among its claimed 500 million users, “roughly 20 percent of all searches are for TV ...
Jan 13 2012
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Foxconn’s Child Robots Go to Work
If you're reading this post using an electronic device of some kind, there's a decent chance you're holding something right now that was made by Foxconn, in whole or in part. The Taiwanese manufacturing giant with plants all over China has been in the news recently for more dire reasons, but now the legion of robot workers it announced plans to implement last year have taken the field, and apparently, they're like children. Sort of. They're like children in the sense that apparently their "IQ" is equivalent to that of a ...
Jan 13 2012
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Youku’s Video Search Engine is Blocked by Several Rivals
In a sign of growing hostility amongst video-streaming services in China, three such sites have reportedly blocked access to a video search engine owned by the market leader, Youku (NYSE:YOKU). Its Soku.com search feature indexes and lists videos from across the Chinese web, including those of its rivals. But Tudou (NASDAQ:TUDO), LeTV, and Sohu’s (NASDAQ:SOHU) video portal have all teamed up to tackle Youku over what they claim to be unfair search results on Soku. And so the Tudou, LeTV, and Sohu TV sites have blocked Soku from indexing its content, ...
Jan 13 2012
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Scalper Fights Cause One Beijing Apple Store to Cancel iPhone 4S Launch
Today, Apple's iPhone 4S is finally on sale in China. It's been a long time coming, and fans of the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) device are clearly excited, as gigantic lines had already formed last night. Sadly, all the fans scalpers who waited outside Beijing's Sanlitun Apple Store waited in vain, as the store has decided not to sell the 4S, at least for today. The decision was reached after last night scalpers in the huge line outside the store got into fights with each other. Likely, it reminded the store's managers of ...
Jan 12 2012
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Docomo Gains Most Mobile Subscribers in December in Japan
Japan’s Telecommunications Carriers Association updated its monthly mobile subscriber data this week, with NTT Docomo making the biggest gains among the ‘big three’ mobile carriers. According to a report by Mainichi Shinbun, this marks the first time in 21 months that Docomo (NYSE:DCM), Japan’s leading carrier in terms of subscribers, had the largest net gain. The report attributes part of Docomo’s gain to the launch of the PlayStation Vita which has Docomo as its official 3G provider. After the iPhone 4S arrived on both Softbank’s (TYO:9984) and KDDI’s au (TYO:9433) networks, ...
Jan 12 2012
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Letao’s 4th Round of Funding Brings in Another $30 Million
Letao.com, the Chinese e-commerce site that specializes in footwear, has raised a fourth round of funding worth US$30 million. It was completed in December but only announced today. It was not revealed who led this financing, but the same three groups that participated in the previous one - Ceyuan Ventures, DT Capital Partners, and Tiger Management - also took part here. The specialist B2C site raised the same amount almost exactly a year ago. According to the company, it ended 2011 having generated 400 million RMB ($63.3 million) in turnover. But last ...
All Japan’s Earthquakes in 2011, Visualized in One Startling Video
Feb 9, 2012
VCotton Wants to Knock Your Socks Off. And Sell You New Ones
Feb 8, 2012
Taiwan’s EZTABLE Raises $1.5 Million in Series A Round, Heads to Mainland China
Feb 9, 2012
Agate Studio Wants to Make the World Happier With Games
Feb 8, 2012
CyberAgent Ventures Invests in Vietnamese Music Service
Feb 7, 2012