tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70484028758104568782010-02-08T01:50:16.994-08:00Maria Tromblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17986688121266319555noreply@blogger.comBlogger504125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048402875810456878.post-32370233131996967802010-02-08T01:50:00.001-08:002010-02-08T01:50:17.001-08:00

Jeremy Goldkorn by Fantake via FlickrGetting it right when it concerns China and the internet is not easy, but media-watcher Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei gives it a good shot. Yes, there are unprecedented constraints on the internet in China, but they were triggered of when the close to 400 million internet users in the country took equally unprecedented freedom, he tells Sfgate.   "In the last year

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Shaun Rein by Fantake via FlickrThe story that China will collapse sells books and magazines, but according to Shaun Rein the bubble in the real estate is not going to be that trigger. In Forbes he tells why some of the doomsday sayers are wrong: Why? Because China's underground economy is far bigger than the 10% to 20% of the total economy that most economists estimate when they do their

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The book 'A Changing China', written by a selection of the speakers at the China Speakers Bureau is now available for purchase. Not yet in a bookstore nearby, but most certainly at Amazon. In the book more than a dozen China veterans tell how they have seen China change. With contributions of Kaiser Kuo, Shaun Rein, Janet Carmosky, Zhang Lijia and many others. A historical overview from many

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Image by Fantake via FlickrBest-selling author Zhang Lijia of the book "Socialism Is Great!": A Worker's Memoir of the New China  has been touring Europe, including Italy, France and the first reports on her book tour are coming in. Here Zhang Lijia is in Milan, explaining Italian media how China is changing, how it needs stability for the entrepreneurial drive to flourish. Commercial Zhang

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Image by Getty Images via Daylife Google threatened to leave China, Goldman Sachs is having its own affair with a state-owned company and the European Chamber of Commerce in China challenged in September the country's trade barriers. Is protectionism rising in China, wonders Shaun Rein in his latest column in Forbes. While acknowledging some of the problems, Rein asks for a reality check: Is the

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Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr Famous Chinese brands have not yet reached many European or American stores, but that is going to change, writes Shaun Rein in BusinessWeek, although not overnight. He disagrees with the US journalist James Fallows who says that unlike US companies, Chinese firms have been unable to create themselves a global market. Fallows' argument: China is not yet a leading

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Victor Shih by Fantake via Flickr Real estate are the main source for local governments to get money, and the lingering crisis because of excessive spending might be hard to solve, says Victor Shih in NPR. China is having a property crisis of its own, much different from that in the United States, but no less severe, he argues: "The entities that are doing the leveraging in China are not

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James Farrer by Fantake via Flickr Online dating in China is becoming very competitive, tells James Farrer of the Sophia University in Tokyo in a CNN article on online dating for the rich, both for men and women. "Men at the bottom of the social hierarchy are going to have very few chances to meet women," said James Farrer, author of "Opening Up: Youth Sex Culture and Market Reform in Shanghai."

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Image via Wikipedia The failure of Barbie in Shanghai, costing toy producer Mattel, has been told very often. Shaun Rein explains in Forbes why the strategy was good, but failed in the execution,. With its retail sales growing by 15% in China in 2009 Mattel was right to look there for revenue growth for its Barbie brand. It targeted the right age and socioeconomic group. Middle-class Chinese

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Sam Flemming by Fantake via Flickr For newcomers in China group purchasing or tuangou is a revelation, depending whether you are buying or selling. Flash mobs of buyers, organized by the internet, appear in groups at stores and demand hefty discounts in exchange for quantity. Sam Flemming of CIC, who is analyzing the buzz on the internet, tells Scott Tong of Market Radio, this great concept might

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Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr Despite a larger number of setbacks, China will continue its expansion abroad, tells Shaun Rein the Reuters Insider. China still has an enormous ability to expand, says Rein: "They are cash rich and very agressive." He expects China could do very well in the high-end goods market and in clean technology, two industries that have also high potential in China itself

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Arthur Kroeber by Fantake via Flickr Most countries might be happy these days with double-digit growth of its GDP, in Beijing alarm bells when off when the government figures indicated a growth of 10.7 percent over the fourth quarter of 2009 while inflation is picking up. "There is too much money in the system," tells Arthur Kroeber the LA Times. He warns that the central bank might pull back

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The Google debate on China has opened the debate on how the country censors the internet again, but Shaun Rein asks in Forbes for a reality check: the internet in China is freer than ever, he says. Seven years ago Chinese citizens couldn't access The New York Times. A year ago Wikipedia, the Huffington Post and WordPress were all blocked. All are accessible now. China's government fears content

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Jeremy Goldkorn by Fantake via Flickr Yes, says Jeremy Goldkorn, owner of the blocked website Danwei, although it ain't easy. Google is often quoted as the latest casualty of Chinese protectionism, where foreign media can only work in the country, until get a certain level of success. Goldkorn tells The Guardian he disagrees and gives first an assessment of his own media operation. "I don't think

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Branding is high on the agenda of many companies in China, but its works mostly with the top-layer of rich Chinese, says Hurun-founder Rupert Hoogewerf to Bloomberg. In the Hurun magazine Hoogewerf lists their preferences: holidays in the US, watches from Cartier and Philippe Paket, they smoke Chunghwa and flight Air China. Hurun interviewed 383 Chinese with at least 10 million Renminbi (1

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Image via CrunchBase Google committed an act of war against China, says Shaun Rein in Forbes in the third day after the US firm announced it would leave China after its Gmail service got attacked by what other says would be Chinese forces. The media upheaval still shows no sign of abating. Let's listen first to the astute Shaun Rein in Forbes. Google is threatening China with chaos and

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We are in the second day after Google announced it might withdraw from China after massive attacks on email account of human rights activists. While not much more information has come to the surface, the main question that was posed yesterday did not get an answer: Is Google packing its bags for commercial reasons and only uses moral indignation to hide its failure in China? A rather murky - and

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Image by Getty Images via Daylife The decision by Google to leave China, after hackers had tried to enter email account from Chinese human rights activists is still very fresh, but our speakers are out in force to discuss the consequences. Was is all a carefully planned PR-move by Google, just waiting for the right moment to pull out? Or was this genuine moral indignation about a vicious act?

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Image via Wikipedia China's internet censors might have blocked microblogging service Twitter, but since domestic services have taken over, the ghost is out of the bottle, tells internet watcher Jeremy Goldkorn USA Today China's Sina is offering a partly curtailed and closely monitored twitter-service, but it has not stopped its popularity. USA Today: China shut down Twitter access after it was

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Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr Famous economists take very different positions on the questions whether China's economy is a bubble or not. In Forbes Shaun Rein explains James Chanos China has no bubble. Making some bucks on telling the world about China's demise, economically or otherwise, has been part of China's upsurge. In the year 2000 the best-selling author Gordon Chang predicted in his

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Shanghai Fantake via Flickr Going against the comments of many fellow economic analysts, Arthur Kroeber simply does not believe China is even close to a real estate bubble, he tells the Washington Post. There is still too much room to grow, he says. The Washington Post: Arthur Kroeber, a Beijing-based analyst and managing director of Dragonomics, said China's economy is "not even close" to

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Image via Wikipedia Chinese are getting wealthier and fatter, visitors of the country can see. Retail analyst Paul French just finished a major report on "Fat China" and tells Shanghai Urbanatomy about his study into Chinese obesity. Famine has definitely become a feature in the country's history. “In the West, obesity has become a problem of the poor,” he says. “In the US and UK, places like

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Large companies are only spending a fraction of their marketing budget on digital initiatives, while most of the Chinese consumers can be found behind their computer screen or on their mobile, says Shaun Rein in an article describing three major consumer trends for Forbes. "Through the first nine months of 2009, China's 380 million netizens spent $25 billion online, twice as much as a year

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Image via Wikipedia After a relative freewheeling 2009, internet watcher Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei expects more tightening of the rules in the year to come including the booming gaming industry, he tells The Guardian. "2010 will be an interesting year," says Jeremy Goldkorn, the founder of danwei.org, which covers media and internet issues and is a Guardian partner. He argues that 2009 saw

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Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr Should China revaluate its currency or not? No, says business analyst Shaun Rein in a publication of the International Institute for Trade in India. American business would be better off without at this stage with a firmer Renminbi: Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of the China Market Research Group, a strategic market intelligence firm, mentioned that

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