The vice-president of 360Buy, one of China’s leading B2C e-commerce sites, has said that it is currently testing out an e-book service that will launch later this year. Shi Tao claims that 80,000 titles will be ready upon its public debut, and will stock 300,000 e-books by the end of the year. 360Buy’s most direct rival, Dangdang (NYSE:DANG) launched its own e-book platform - a section on its site, plus mobile apps for iPhone and Android - a few weeks ago. It debuted with 50,000 titles, and will presumably expand its ...
Archive | Business
RSS feed for this section
![Groupon is Rocking the Daily Deals in Taiwan, Now Boasts Over 50% Market Share [CHART]](http://www.penn-olson.com/wp-content/themes/penn2/thumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Groupon-Taiwan-group-buying-market-01.jpg&w=250&h=250&zc=1&q=90)
Jan 10 2012
0
1567
How Local Broadband Monopolies Trap Chinese Users in Slow Internet Connections
As 'things' on the internet get bigger, so too have broadband speeds increased to keep up with them. These days, when multiple people in a household might be engaged in high-bandwidth activities like watching videos all at the same time, a fast connection is a necessity. For some people in China, though, it's also an impossibility. Although China's major internet providers -- telecom giants like China Unicom (HKG:762) -- have been steadily increasing their available speed, smaller local broadband providers haven't been following. And with major telcoms's recent and free upgrade ...
Jan 10 2012
1
1722
Openbar App Wants to Go Drinking with You in Hong Kong
I have a bit of a weakness for ‘hyperlocal’ websites and apps that map important information about cities that others can benefit from. In the few years that I lived in Dalian, China, me and some friends put worked on a website that provided mapped restaurant and bar listings as well as other important points of interest. These days, of course, such services very often come in the form of apps. Take for example, Openbar, an iPhone application that provides users with information about bars and clubs all over the ...
Jan 10 2012
1
1623
INDOMOG Aims to Solve Indonesia’s Online Payment Woes
Payment gateways have always been a curse for the Indonesia online ecosystem. We spoke with Wendy Vega, the founder and owner of INDOMOG which has done exceptionally well in terms of revenue, and it has also won the top award from GEPI, the Global Entrepreneurship Program Indonesia . 1. Can you briefly tell us what INDOMOG is? INDOMOG is an abbreviation for Indonesia Multionline Payment Gateway. We are an online payment system which connects merchants to customers. 2. INDOMOG is the big especially for online games payments. Are you guys focusing on ...
Jan 9 2012
2
3223
China Gaming Market Worth $7.1 Billion in 2011, Still Growing Fast
The 2011 China Game Industry Annual Conference is being held in Xi’an in northern China today and tomorrow, and it kicked off with some eye-watering, huge stats for the industry. The entire gaming market in the country was found to be worth 44.6 billion RMB (US$7.1 billion) in the past year which is an increase of 34 percent over 2010. Online game users reached 120 million, up 9.1 percent since 2010. These figures include the PC online gaming market, other standalone PC games, and mobile gaming. Note that game consoles are ...
Jan 9 2012
0
2049
How China’s Smaller Cities Can Be a Sweeter Deal for Startups
We’ve seen recently that Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong are the three main hubs for startups in China. But due to the rising costs of labour and office space, smaller cities - known as second-tier ones - are increasingly attractive to young tech companies. And so 2012 could see a trend in which startups scatter across China to places where rent, wages, and living costs are substantially lower - and yet which still offer plenty of talent to hire and relatively quick broadband speeds. The Chinese site Techweb illustrates this today by ...
Jan 9 2012
2
2415
Groupon is Rocking the Daily Deals in Taiwan, Now Boasts Over 50% Market Share [CHART]
Here’s a sentence we’ve never uttered before: Good news for Groupon in Asia! Yes, the American group-buying service Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) has extended its lead even further in the Taiwanese daily deals sector, and now commands over half of the market share on the island. The last time we looked at the situation in Taiwan back in July 2011, we saw Groupon had 47.7 percent market share there as the entire group-buying industry grew by 8.3 percent. The very latest data, once again from Goodlife.tw, for December shows that the entire sector ...
Jan 6 2012
3
2089
China Unicom Reveals Contract Plans for iPhone 4S, ‘Free’ Comes at a Price
China Unicom (NYSE:CHU; HKG:0762), the country’s second-largest mobile telco, is finally ready to sell the iPhone 4S - next Friday, the 13th - and has revealed its contract plans. Chinese consumers who sign a two-year contract can get a free iPhone 4S 16GB model if they pay up for a minimum of 386 RMB (US$61) per month of 3G data, SMS, and calls. The cheapest monthly plan is for a mere 66 RMB ($10) per month, but that necessitates a much higher deposit for every model. It’s pretty much the same ...
Jan 6 2012
2
1872
Real-Name System Coming to Chinese Online Payment Systems Too
China's internet is quickly becoming real-name only. First there was the news that all microblogs would change to real-name systems (and that it'll cost them). The we saw the expansion of real-name ticketing requirements from high-speed trains to all trains and even some buses. Heck, we've even heard about real-name registration being required for birth control! Anyhow, it's time to add online payment systems (like Alibaba's Alipay) to the list, as the Beijing News is reporting that China's central bank has published a draft of proposed legislation that would require providers ...
Jan 5 2012
0
1872
Japanese Restaurant Site Plagued By Paid Posters
A report from Kyodo today says that Japanese restaurant information and review website Tabelog has had its rankings manipulated by paid review posters. They have found 39 companies which are involved in this practice; the companies promise improved ratings and page views to restaurants through posting fake reviews. According to the report, Kakaku , the company which manages Tabelog, is hoping to suspend the activity of such companies, possibly by taking legal action. Of course, for websites which depend heavily on user reviews, this sort of dilemma is not uncommon. In ...
Jan 29 2012
1
2376
CyberAgent Sets Up Company to Run My365 Photo App, Targets 1.5M Downloads
A couple of months back we told you about a camera app from Japan called My365, which at that time had attracted more than 100,000 downloads over a ten-day span. Since then it has racked up over 300,000 downloads, gaining popularity abroad as well as in Japan. As we mentioned that the time, the organization of this photo app into a well-designed calendar presentation really makes it stand out as a sort of photo journal service. And today CyberAgent (TYO:4751) is announcing that it is establishing a new 100 percent ...
Jan 5 2012
1
2201
Nokia Reorganizes: Asia HQ Moves from Singapore to Beijing
A few days ago we reported that Nokia (HEL:NOK1V, NYSE:NOK) was bringing in Gustavo Eichelmann as its new chief executive in China, in an effort to help its operations in the country. And now the company is announcing that it is also moving its Asia headquarters from Singapore to Beijing as well. Operations at the Singapore office will continue however. A MarketWatch report quotes a Nokia representative as saying that: part of our strategy to adapt our operations to the business environment to ensure our competitiveness. This includes an ...
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