Hong Kong-based startup 8 Securities has recently closed a round of funding worth US$8 million, according to co-founder and CEO Mikaal Abdulla, in conversation with PO. The company’s service is a a socially-engaged “trading portal” that makes it easy for anyone to invest in financial markets using its app-ified dashboard - as we saw when Mikaal and his team made it through to the TC Disrupt Beijing Startup Battlefield which we live-blogged back in November. Since then, 8 Securities has been in private beta. But now it’s ready for primetime having ...
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![Online Shopping in China in 2011 [INFOGRAPHIC]](http://www.penn-olson.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Revised-CHINAONLINESHOPPING2011INFOGRA-JULIA-250x250.jpg)
Jan 4 2012
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JiaThis Social Sharing Platform Acquires Startup, Will Soon Feature Comments
The Chinese startup behind the social sharing platform JiaThis has revealed that it has acquired the very young social commenting service Uyan in a bid to consolidate its lead as the biggest indie service of this kind. Websites that use JiaThis - which range from Yahoo China to state news agency Xinhua, among over half a million other mostly Chinese websites - can put an array of social buttons or ‘share counters’ on their sites (or just the signature JiaThis green-and-white cross) to allow readers to quickly share an article on ...
Jan 4 2012
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Is Sony Ericsson Hinting at a Windows Phone?
Sony Ericsson, which in 2011 became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE), just teased on their Facebook site that there will be “some interesting news next week.” The statement was accompanied by an unusual picture which could be a hint that a Windows phone is in the works. Over on WPcentral.com, they point out the tiled motif in the picture (see cup, chess board on table, and sofa cover), and guess that this could be a reference to Windows Phone’s tiled user interface. While this is qualified as ‘wild ...
Jan 3 2012
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Chinese Internet Giant Tencent Opens Cyberlaw Center, Invests in Research
Chinese internet giant Tencent (HKG:0700) has today announced the opening up of its Tencent Cyberlaw Research Center and accompanying website. It boasts a team of experienced legal practitioners and researchers - of whom more than half have doctorates - who will write, lecture, and co-operate on national and global issues relating to e-commerce, online gaming, IP law, security and hacking, and internet-related competition law. The site, at law.tencent.com, features a mix of legal cases, professional advice on cyberlaw, and a series of video lectures. As the site quietly soft-launched a month ...
Jan 3 2012
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Rumor: Amazon’s Kindle Coming to China
Perhaps those government talks we reported on back in October went well, because it looks like Amazon's Kindle product line may finally be coming to China. The rumor, which is being passed around in tech circles on Chinese microblogs, suggests that Amazon's Kindle product line should be hitting China soonish. Amazon China spokesmen told reporters that while the company certainly wants to officially introduce the Kindle to China (there are plenty of sketchy Kindles available on the gray market), there is no official timetable as yet. The rumor has been ...
Jan 4 2012
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Online Shopping in China in 2011 [INFOGRAPHIC]
The Infographic of the Day series visually expresses important stories from Asia and the world of technology. Over the past few weeks we’ve been taking a look back on 2011 and the major stories and trends that stood out. In China, this was an especially big year for online shopping and ecommerce. For a few key facts and figures about how this corner of China’s internet industry is growing, check out the following graphic that I’ve put together on the subject. Update January 4: RMB amount spent online updated from 7,000,000,000,000 ...
Jan 2 2012
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Nokia China Hopes for Better Year Under New Leader, Starting Today
Nokia China employees going back to work this week, after a short break for the new year, will find they have a new chief executive in the form of Gustavo Eichelmann (pictured right). Based in Beijing, he will have the formidable task of turning round Nokia’s (HEL:NOK1V; NYSE:NOK) sinking business in China, where tens of millions of Android devices and iPhones are now dominating smartphone usage. Eichelmann has had plenty of time to prepare for the role, having been officially appointed months ago. It came after the shocking departure of Liang ...
Jan 2 2012
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‘Lucky Bags’ a Popular Apple Store Tradition in Japan
In Japan, ‘lucky bags’ are a New Year’s Day shopping tradition that offers up a mystery bag of items usually at a discounted price. And perhaps one of the most sought-after lucky bags comes from the country’s Apple Stores. I always considered myself a pretty big Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) fan, but this event seems to bring out the most hard-core fanboys. Back in 2010 I tried to queue for a lucky bag, arriving at the store at 5am only to find that overnight campers had filled all the spots. This year ...
Dec 30 2011
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Amid Widespread Data Breaches in China, E-Commerce Companies Reassure Users
This week has been absolutely filled with hacking news from China as CSDN, Tianya, Netease, and 360Buy were among the major internet entities which we learned have fallen victim to data breaches. And there were more reports swirling last night that two of China’s e-commerce giants had experienced data leaks as well. It was reported that Alibaba’s online payment system Alipay reportedly experienced a leak that affected 15 to 25 million user accounts. To find out more, we got in touch with a representative who conveyed the company's statement on the ...
Dec 29 2011
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Netease’s Luxury E-Commerce Mall Falls Out of Fashion, Closes This Week
E-commerce in China is such a boom industry that virtually every story on the subject on our site this year has been about growth, profits, and potential. But there’s no such luck for Netease (NASDAQ:NTES), which has announced that its high-end fashion store, Luxury163, will not survive into 2012, vanishing off of the web just before midnight on December 31st. Netease is better known for its 163Mail service or its online gaming titles - but success remained elusive for its Luxury163 site, despite rising incomes in China and growing demand for ...
Dec 29 2011
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360Buy Hiring Over 25,000 New Staffers in 2012, Not Planning to Acquire Vancl
The CEO of 360Buy, China’s second-biggest e-commerce site, has announced that his company will create “over 25,000” new jobs next year. That public Weibo message from Liu Qiang-dong (pictured right) led to speculation that 360Buy might be about to buy its rival Vancl, which specializes in only clothing - but 360Buy representatives moved quickly to quash that rumor. It’s not the first time we’ve heard of hiring plans at 360Buy - also known as Jingdong Mall - as the company said it would hire 20,000 new staffers for 2012 back in ...
Dec 29 2011
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Hacktivism Spreads to China? Mengniu Hacked in Protest of 2nd Milk Scandal
2011 was the year that we saw ‘hacktivism’ make headline after headline in the west, with organizations like Anonymous and Lolsec leading the way. Will 2012 be the year that we see similar activity springing up in China? It’s looking more and more possible. We recently looked at the high-profile hacks of CDSN and Tianya, and some think such activity could be a challenge to real-name registration on services like microblogging sites. And while that notion is still just speculation, last night’s hack of Chinese milk company Mengniu’s (HKG:2319) website was ...
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