China ICT (Info Communications Technology) Industry, Infra, Commerce, Exports: News & Discussions

[JSCh]

Wednesday, July 20, 2016, 11:13
Another winner from Hangzhou
By Wang Ying and Shi Xiaofeng In Hangzhou

At JollyChic's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, staff review a presentation on the company's 2015 sales and targets in the the Middle East region. (Liu Weifeng / China Daily)

For consumers in the Middle East, the most widely used online marketplace for cross-border e-commerce is JollyChic. Surprisingly, the rising brand is based in Hangzhou, where Alibaba has its headquarters.

The JollyChic brand is owned by Jolly Information Technology Co Ltd, which was founded in 2012 by Ding Wei and his two partners to serve consumers in Europe, the United States and the Middle East.

"We rely on big data and are able to quickly respond to market demand and prepare for overseas orders," said Ding, executive president of Jolly.

The company has a big data research and development team based in Silicon Valley in the US.

"Big data helps us track each item's consumer feedback, ready-to-pay rates and make simultaneous calculations accordingly," said Ding.

By analyzing big data, Jolly taps the huge market potential in the Middle East, and offers more tailor-made products to the area. About 70 to 80 percent of Jolly's revenue comes from this market," said Ding.

For instance, big data analysis showed that the Middle East consumers shop mostly for clothing, shoes, baby-care items, parenting goods, beauty, household and electronic products.

By catering to such demand, Jolly has emerged as the most influential Chinese mobile app in two years in the Gulf Cooperation Council member-states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates).

Through cooperation with a variety of local suppliers, Jolly expanded its revenue quickly from 10 million yuan (US$1.51 million) in 2013 to 500 million yuan in 2015.

It helped as many as 1,500 Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprises to find markets abroad and establish their brands in public consciousness, a much better option than being original equipment manufacturers or OEMs.

Revenue of Jolly is projected to reach 2 billion yuan this year.

"Jolly provides an example of how information technology is helping develop great cross-border e-commerce along the Belt and Road Initiative countries," said Zhao Yide, Party chief of Hangzhou.

Jolly's success signifies the coming of age of Chinese enterprises. Made-in-China products are offering better quality than before, thus meeting the global demand for such products, he said.

Jolly's story also suggests cross-border e-commerce is more than buying products from overseas markets through agents or directly online - it is a huge business opportunity for international trading that could benefit talented people, local manufacturers, and firms engaged in logistics, financial payments, international law and big data, said Wu Changhong, an official from China (Hangzhou) Cross-Border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Area.

Launched in March 2015, the Area has attracted 1,570 enterprises so far, which accounted for 5.4 percent of Hangzhou's exports in 2015. The figure rose to 11.84 percent in the January-April period this year, said Wang Chong, an Area official.

About 3 percent of the city's GDP is invested in R&D, said Zhao.

 

[TaiShang]

Cross-border Pioneer

Successful innovations piloted in the Nansha New Area are being rolled out nationwide.

20 July 2016

Celebrations to mark the first anniversary of the Nansha New Area
Launched in April 2015, the Nansha New Area, a key cross-border e-commerce hub in the heart of Guangzhou, has successfully piloted a number of reforms and innovations, designed to promote investment and raise trade efficiency. It has also led the way in ensuring compliance with various international investment and trade requirements.

In a sign of its success, the Ministry of Commerce nominated Nansha's cross-border e-commerce supervision model as one of its eight national Cases of Best Practice. In another telling testimony, 25 out of the 27 cross-border trade initiatives currently active in Guangdong were tested in the Nansha New Area. In many cases, they were also the first initiatives of their kind to be implemented anywhere in the country.

Four of these initiatives – Hong Kong Connect, One-stop Processing, Cross-border E-commerce Product Quality Tracking and Smart Inspect – are considered having a particular impact.

Hong Kong Connect
This business platform has led the way in allowing companies in Nansha to fully access Hong Kong's business services. Established by Chong Hing Bank, the Yuexiu Group and Nansha Investment Consulting, the initiative enables Hong Kong companies and individuals to handle all the procedures related to setting up business in Nansha without having to leave Hong Kong.

One-stop Processing
The adoption of this initiative has greatly simplified the licensing and certification needs of most businesses. With the exception of food businesses and enterprise investment-filing certificates, applicants need only log in twice to secure all the 15 licences and certificates required. The entire process can often be completed within a working day. As a result, the Nansha New Area is said to lead the country in processing speed for multiple business permits.

Online Cross-border Product Quality Tracking
The adoption of this facility means that consumers only need to input their order number, ID number or courier checking number to access information related to their cross-border e-commerce goods purchase. The information available includes the commodity name, quantity, item number, declared place of origin, name of manufacturer and the entry port. As of February, more than 140,000 searches had been made using the service.

Smart Inspect
This innovation has cut the clearance time for imports by about 70 per cent, while there is virtually zero waiting time in the case of exports. Under the terms of this new 24-hour, paperless express clearance system, all inspection fees are borne by the government, provided that nothing is found wrong with the goods in question.

Overall, given these four notable innovations, as well as its general progress, the Nansha New Area has benefited in four key sectors – cross-border e-commerce, shipping logistics, financial innovation and technological innovation.

Cross-border E-commerce
As of the end of February, 774 cross-border e-commerce companies had registered with the Nansha Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau and started operations. Of these, 392 are cross-border e-commerce companies, 299 are e-commerce platforms, 30 are foreign trade comprehensive service companies, 10 are payment companies, 23 are warehousing companies and 20 are logistics/delivery companies.

Cross-border e-commerce operators in Nansha handled online bonded imports worth more than Rmb1.38 billion in 2015, a 45-fold increase over the previous year. Other companies have since started operating in the new area, including Hong Kong's Four Seas Mercantile Holdings Cross-Border E-Commerce Direct Sales Centre and Travelnomall, a business established by Fok Kai Man, Vice-President of the Fok Ying Tung Group.

Travelnomall: a new addition to Nansha

Hong Kong e-commerce goods on show
Shipping Logistics
The Nansha Port had a container throughput of 11.77 million TEUs in 2015, making it among the world’s top 12 ports. One year since the Nansha New Area’s establishment, the port has increased its number of international routes to 74. In addition, 10 dry ports have opened, five shuttle-bus feeder lines have been introduced, and 1,200 new shipping logistics service companies have been established – three times the number in operation prior to the approval of the pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ).

Additionally, a total of 575 ships, worth Rmb1.958 billion, changed hands at the Guangzhou Shipping Exchange. Nansha also completed its first cross-border settlement of capital via a third-party platform.

Financial Innovation
A total of 969 new financial and quasi-financial institutions have been established over the past year. Collectively, they have handled the filing of cross-border renminbi loans worth more than Rmb5.688 billion, most of which were conducted in association with Hong Kong and Macau financial institutions. Hong Kong's Chong Hing Bank has also set up a branch in the Nansha New Area.

Financial Leasing
A total of 103 new financial leasing companies – collectively with a registered capital of some Rmb45 billion – have moved into the New Area. The value of the new contracts subsequently secured amounted to about Rmb30 billion.

Guangzhou has also made considerable progress in the area of aircraft leasing. Three planes have been delivered as part of an initial cross-border aircraft leasing deal with the Guangdong FTZ.

Science and Technological Innovation
Local spending on science and technological research this year saw a 68 per cent year-on-year increase, with the New Area now home to 25 per cent of all new R&D institutions in Guangzhou. The number of high-tech enterprises in the New Area has also increased dramatically, rising by 35.7 per cent year-on-year. This resulted in the production of high-tech products, worth Rmb136.4 billion, some 47.6 per cent of the region's gross industrial output.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), in collaboration with the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has established the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau (International) Youth Entrepreneur Hub. This now operates under the auspices of the HKUST Fok Ying Tung Research Institute.

From a macro point of view, the Nansha New Area registered increases across all of the relevant economic indicators in 2015. Its average economic growth during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, which covers 2011 to 2015, was also the highest in the city. A total of 9,919 new enterprises were established locally, exceeding the number of enterprises that existed before the establishment of the FTZ. Collectively, the registered capital of these new enterprises was about Rmb83.58 billion.

There are now 783 Hong Kong- and Macau-funded enterprises in the New Area, representing a total investment of US$11.57 billion.

Hong Kong Trade Council

 

[Mangus Ortus Novem]

Cross-border Pioneer

Successful innovations piloted in the Nansha New Area are being rolled out nationwide.

20 July 2016

Celebrations to mark the first anniversary of the Nansha New Area
Launched in April 2015, the Nansha New Area, a key cross-border e-commerce hub in the heart of Guangzhou, has successfully piloted a number of reforms and innovations, designed to promote investment and raise trade efficiency. It has also led the way in ensuring compliance with various international investment and trade requirements.

In a sign of its success, the Ministry of Commerce nominated Nansha's cross-border e-commerce supervision model as one of its eight national Cases of Best Practice. In another telling testimony, 25 out of the 27 cross-border trade initiatives currently active in Guangdong were tested in the Nansha New Area. In many cases, they were also the first initiatives of their kind to be implemented anywhere in the country.

Four of these initiatives – Hong Kong Connect, One-stop Processing, Cross-border E-commerce Product Quality Tracking and Smart Inspect – are considered having a particular impact.

Hong Kong Connect
This business platform has led the way in allowing companies in Nansha to fully access Hong Kong's business services. Established by Chong Hing Bank, the Yuexiu Group and Nansha Investment Consulting, the initiative enables Hong Kong companies and individuals to handle all the procedures related to setting up business in Nansha without having to leave Hong Kong.

One-stop Processing
The adoption of this initiative has greatly simplified the licensing and certification needs of most businesses. With the exception of food businesses and enterprise investment-filing certificates, applicants need only log in twice to secure all the 15 licences and certificates required. The entire process can often be completed within a working day. As a result, the Nansha New Area is said to lead the country in processing speed for multiple business permits.

Online Cross-border Product Quality Tracking
The adoption of this facility means that consumers only need to input their order number, ID number or courier checking number to access information related to their cross-border e-commerce goods purchase. The information available includes the commodity name, quantity, item number, declared place of origin, name of manufacturer and the entry port. As of February, more than 140,000 searches had been made using the service.

Smart Inspect
This innovation has cut the clearance time for imports by about 70 per cent, while there is virtually zero waiting time in the case of exports. Under the terms of this new 24-hour, paperless express clearance system, all inspection fees are borne by the government, provided that nothing is found wrong with the goods in question.

Overall, given these four notable innovations, as well as its general progress, the Nansha New Area has benefited in four key sectors – cross-border e-commerce, shipping logistics, financial innovation and technological innovation.

Cross-border E-commerce
As of the end of February, 774 cross-border e-commerce companies had registered with the Nansha Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau and started operations. Of these, 392 are cross-border e-commerce companies, 299 are e-commerce platforms, 30 are foreign trade comprehensive service companies, 10 are payment companies, 23 are warehousing companies and 20 are logistics/delivery companies.

Cross-border e-commerce operators in Nansha handled online bonded imports worth more than Rmb1.38 billion in 2015, a 45-fold increase over the previous year. Other companies have since started operating in the new area, including Hong Kong's Four Seas Mercantile Holdings Cross-Border E-Commerce Direct Sales Centre and Travelnomall, a business established by Fok Kai Man, Vice-President of the Fok Ying Tung Group.

Travelnomall: a new addition to Nansha

Hong Kong e-commerce goods on show
Shipping Logistics
The Nansha Port had a container throughput of 11.77 million TEUs in 2015, making it among the world’s top 12 ports. One year since the Nansha New Area’s establishment, the port has increased its number of international routes to 74. In addition, 10 dry ports have opened, five shuttle-bus feeder lines have been introduced, and 1,200 new shipping logistics service companies have been established – three times the number in operation prior to the approval of the pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ).

Additionally, a total of 575 ships, worth Rmb1.958 billion, changed hands at the Guangzhou Shipping Exchange. Nansha also completed its first cross-border settlement of capital via a third-party platform.

Financial Innovation
A total of 969 new financial and quasi-financial institutions have been established over the past year. Collectively, they have handled the filing of cross-border renminbi loans worth more than Rmb5.688 billion, most of which were conducted in association with Hong Kong and Macau financial institutions. Hong Kong's Chong Hing Bank has also set up a branch in the Nansha New Area.

Financial Leasing
A total of 103 new financial leasing companies – collectively with a registered capital of some Rmb45 billion – have moved into the New Area. The value of the new contracts subsequently secured amounted to about Rmb30 billion.

Guangzhou has also made considerable progress in the area of aircraft leasing. Three planes have been delivered as part of an initial cross-border aircraft leasing deal with the Guangdong FTZ.

Science and Technological Innovation
Local spending on science and technological research this year saw a 68 per cent year-on-year increase, with the New Area now home to 25 per cent of all new R&D institutions in Guangzhou. The number of high-tech enterprises in the New Area has also increased dramatically, rising by 35.7 per cent year-on-year. This resulted in the production of high-tech products, worth Rmb136.4 billion, some 47.6 per cent of the region's gross industrial output.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), in collaboration with the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has established the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau (International) Youth Entrepreneur Hub. This now operates under the auspices of the HKUST Fok Ying Tung Research Institute.

From a macro point of view, the Nansha New Area registered increases across all of the relevant economic indicators in 2015. Its average economic growth during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, which covers 2011 to 2015, was also the highest in the city. A total of 9,919 new enterprises were established locally, exceeding the number of enterprises that existed before the establishment of the FTZ. Collectively, the registered capital of these new enterprises was about Rmb83.58 billion.

There are now 783 Hong Kong- and Macau-funded enterprises in the New Area, representing a total investment of US$11.57 billion.

Hong Kong Trade Council

For the second phase of development China needs to replicate such successful models throught the country.

The scope of services sector is just mindboggling.

Good going.

 

[ahojunk]

WeChat Moments 'annoying' to 35.8 percent surveyed
2016-07-26 11:20 | Ecns.cn | Editor: Mo Hong'e

(ECNS) -- Despite the huge popularity of WeChat, China's biggest Internet-based mobile messaging platform, 35.8 percent of those polled want to close its fundamental feature called Moments, according to a survey by China Youth Daily.

Moments looks like a closed social network, allowing users to post text updates, upload up to nine images as well as share videos and article links, just like a Twitter Newsfeed. However, it can be overwhelming if a user agrees to see the updates of all WeChat friends.

The top three most annoying things for Moments users are advertisements (58.1 percent), updates to show off something (44.9 percent), and purchase assistance (38.9 percent). The survey showed that 2.4 percent had already chosen to close it.

The most favored two activities on Moments are forwarding funny posts (21.6 percent) and images (21.2 percent).

In the survey, 40.8 percent said they have more than 100 WeChat friends, 100-200, 35.0 percent, and 200-300, 16.1 percent. About 1.3 percent said they have more than 500 friends on WeChat.

There are 57.1 percent who said the first thing they do in the morning is check for updates on Moments.

Deng Chunyang, a teacher in charge of a first-grade class at the Donggaodi No. 3 Elementary School, said WeChat has become a key communication tool for parents of students.

"The first thing for me everyday is to check Moments and WeChat groups, so I will know what parents are discussing or if they are unsatisfied with their children's school life," said the teacher.

Zhang Xue, who works for a dot-com company, said she felt more at peace with her life after closing the Moments feature more than a month ago, because she feels less pressure to follow or participate in activities.

Kuang Wenbo, a professor of mass communication with the Renmin University of China, said younger users of WeChat may need guidance to help judge unfiltered content on Moments generated by users.

WeChat was developed by Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent and has more than 700 million monthly active users.

 

[TaiShang]

Baidu delivers more bad news to investors
China Daily, July 30, 2016

Robin Li, founder of Baidu Inc, meets the media at an IT summit in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

Baidu Inc warned that curbs on online advertising will hurt revenue growth for the next two to three quarters, delivering the latest dose of bad news to investors in China's largest internet search service.

The company forecast lower-than-expected sales of 18.04 billion yuan ($2.7 billion) to 18.58 billion yuan this quarter, hit by government limits on the amount of ads it can show users.

The bottom of that range translates to a decline of 1.9 percent, which would be the first drop at the search giant founded by Robin Li since at least 2007.

"The implementation of new regulations and the stricter standards that we proactively imposed to make our platform more robust will likely suppress revenue for the next two to three quarters," Li said. "This period of uncertainty will pass."

The company, which has endured a number of setbacks to the business since the start of the year, is now looking beyond the next few quarters.

Li described how Netflix-like iQiyi will be an "important pillar" as the company ventures outside of search and into areas from media to artificial intelligence and the cloud.

But it would likely be another 12 months before revenue and profits could start returning to their normal pace of growth, said Kirk Boodry, an analyst at New Street Research.

"You can get past the regulatory hurdles but then people have to make a decision on whether the advertising revenue growth by that point is going to be spread among a lot more players," he said.

"It's hard to draw a direct line between artificial intelligence and revenue growth outside of search."

Baidu sounded its cautionary note after also posting a 34 percent plunge in second-quarter net income, it largest since at least 2007.

Customer growth will continue to slow as it adapts to the new government guidelines, Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Li told analysts on a conference call.

"Because we're having higher entry requirements for new customers I would expect that the overall customer accounts would not be exponentially growing as you would typically see in the past," she said.

**

Baidu is moving into new fields such as AI and driverless cars; so, traditional revenue streams have to be regulated to create a cleaner internet environment.

 

[ahojunk]

'Insight economy' to fight hackers, cyber attacks
2016-07-29 13:46 | CCTV | Editor: Feng Shuang

Industry professionals and geeks from around the world are attending The Big Data World Forum 2016 in Beijing to discuss the sector's latest technology, including cyber attacks and other security issues. While the threat of data breaches worries some, it also opens up business opportunities for others.

Big Data- A buzz word still buzzing. Now in its 6th year, the Big Data World Forum that's in session today (Thursday) and Friday gathers some of the industry's most influential business decision makers, strategists, architects, and developers.

What the experts have in common is that they collect, analyze, and manipulate data from across financial services, healthcare, oil & gas, government, and other sectors.

Mobile internet player Cheetah is going big on big data. It mainly collects data on gender and age, and the type of mobile apps and news information.

Hadoop - an open-source software framework for storing data - as well as the data processing engine Spark are the latest talk of the town here.

New regulations on capital markets also require better reporting of hedges and trades. That requires more and more number crunching and analytic tools.

You might ask yourself - is big data still a big deal? The answer: yes it is. With the rise in cyber attacks, online pirates, and hacked email and bank accounts around the globe, Big Data has also become an increasingly big ticket item.

Recent cases of data breaches and hacking scandals have pushed companies, governments as well as individuals to cash in and protect their information.

That's why industry experts have come up with a new term: the "insight economy".

The International Data Corporation forecasts that worldwide revenues for big data and business analytics will grow from 122 billion US dollars in 2015 to more than $187 billion in 2019, a jump of more than 60%.

Anti-virus software company McAfee estimates that cyber crime costs the global economy $500 billion every year. But, those figures are based on known data only, the real amount is likely much higher.

 

[ahojunk]

China should levy taxes on digital economy: Finance Minister
2016-07-25 08:35 | Global Times | Editor: Li Yan

China should levy taxes on the digital economy to ensure taxation fairness is not compromised in its push for innovation, China's Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said on Saturday.

The digital economy, an emerging economy which includes e-commerce, digital sharing, and services, demands a change in current policy, as a large portion of the sector remains untaxed, Lou said at a meeting between G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Chengdu.

It is absolutely necessary to levy taxes on the digital sector because many of these companies are in traditional sectors, and have merely expanded onto the Internet and are not an innovation of core technology, but rather represent just a change in business models, Gao Liankui, research program director of China and World Economic Governance at the Department of Economics of Renmin University of China told the Global Times.

China needs to develop new sources of tax revenue because the country's interest payments for public debt have exceeded public expenditure on science and technology, and besides individuals and entities in the digital economy should pay taxes as they also enjoy public resources and services, Gao said.

Taxation in the digital economy can be rolled out on trial basis and tax immunity mechanism can be in place to waive taxes for some new firms or firms whose business revenue is below a certain level.

Meanwhile, Lou said on Saturday that China would move forward in its long-delayed reforms on income tax and property tax.

 

[ahojunk]

Ecommerce is progressing along nicely in China.

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Chinese O2O giant sets up e-commerce training college
(Xinhua)Updated: 2016-08-01 08:00

BEIJING - Chinese online-to-offline (O2O) giant Meituan & Dazhongdianping has announced it will set up a college to train e-commerce personnel.

The college, named Internet Plus University (IPU), is the first of its kind in the e-commerce sector to focus on developing business models, technology and skills to promote China's "Internet Plus" strategy.

It will integrate the company's training departments to establish several schools to train internal staff and business partners on upgrading e-commerce, the company announced Saturday evening.

E-commerce platforms should not only focus on marketing and transactions, but also expand to other upstream services, according to Wang Xing, CEO of the company, noting that the essence of China's "Internet Plus" strategy is improving efficiency and reducing costs across all sectors by integrating the Internet with more industries.

Formed by the merger of group-buying platform meituan.com and review service dazhongdianping.com in October 2015, Meituan & Dazhongdianping offers a range of O2O services, from food delivery to movie tickets.

The company has established partnerships with about 4.32 million vendors. Including their separate pre-merger customer counts, the company boasted about 220 million active customers in the last 12 months, with about 180 million using its mobile app to order services, according to an early statement.

China's online retail volume reached 2.24 trillion yuan ($335.3 billion) in the first half of 2016, up 28.2 percent year on year, data of the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

 

[TaiShang]

Hope nobody got to be listed in here

**

China launches website for bankruptcy cases
(Xinhua) 19:13, August 01, 2016

BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Information Website for National Bankrupt Enterprises Recombinational Cases went live Monday, according to the Supreme People's Court (SPC).

The new site provides services to investors, including debtor company information, investment requirement posting and communication channels with bankruptcy administrators.

Through the website, creditors, debtors, investors and other related parties can exercise their legal rights online, including filing cases, reporting claims, filing objections, attending creditors' meetings and voting.

The website will expedite bankruptcy proceedings and support legal procedures in bankruptcy cases, the SPC said.

 

[ahojunk]

In smartphone technology, China is ahead of USA.

--------
China, Not Silicon Valley, Is Cutting Edge in Mobile Tech
By PAUL MOZUR AUG. 2, 2016

A cellphone user in Shenzhen, China. China’s tech industry has popularized some technologies that are just getting started in the United States. Credit An Rong Xu

HONG KONG — Snapchat and Kik, the messaging services, use bar codes that look like drunken checkerboards to connect people and share information with a snap of their smartphone cameras. Facebook is working on adding the ability to hail rides and make payments within its Messenger app. Facebook and Twitter have begun live-streaming video.

All of these developments have something in common: The technology was first popularized in China.

WeChat and Alipay, two Chinese apps, have long used the bar-codelike symbols — called QR codes — to let people pay for purchases and transfer money. Both let users hail a taxi or order a pizza without switching to another app. The video-streaming service YY.com has for years made online stars of young Chinese people posing, chatting and singing in front of video cameras at home.

Silicon Valley has long been the world’s tech capital: It birthed social networking and iPhones and spread those tech products across the globe. The rap on China has been that it always followed in the Valley’s footsteps as government censorship abetted the rise of local versions of Google, YouTube and Twitter.

But China’s tech industry — particularly its mobile businesses — has in some ways pulled ahead of the United States. Some Western tech companies, even the behemoths, are turning to Chinese firms for ideas.

“We just see China as further ahead,” said Ted Livingston, the founder of Kik, which is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario.

The shift suggests that China could have a greater say in the global tech industry’s direction. Already in China, more people use their mobile devices to pay their bills, order services, watch videos and find dates than anywhere else in the world. Mobile payments in the country last year surpassed those in the United States. By some estimates, loans from a new breed of informal online banks called peer-to-peer lenders did too.

China’s largest internet companies are the only ones in the world that rival America’s in scale. The purchase this week of Uber China by Didi Chuxing after a protracted competition shows that at least domestically, Chinese players can take on the most sophisticated and largest start-ups coming out of America.

The future of online payments and engagements can be found at Liu Zheng’s noodle shop in central Beijing. Liu Xiu’e, 60, and her neighbor, Zhang Lixin, 55, read about the noodle shop on WeChat. Then they ordered and paid for their lunches and took and posted selfies of themselves outside the restaurant, all using the same app.

Liu Zheng, who is not related to Liu Xiu’e, said the automated ordering and payments meant he could cut down on wages for waiters. “In the future, we will only need one waiter to help in the restaurant and one to help with seating,” Mr. Liu said.

Industry leaders point to a number of areas where China jumped first. Before the online dating app Tinder, people in China used an app called Momo to flirt with nearby singles. Before the Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos discussed using drones to deliver products, Chinese media reported that a local delivery company, S.F. Express, was experimenting with the idea. WeChat offered speedier in-app news articles long before Facebook, developed a walkie-talkie function before WhatsApp, and made major use of QR codes well before Snapchat.

Before Venmo became the app for millennials to transfer money in the United States, both young and old in China were investing, reimbursing each other, paying bills,and buying products from stores with smartphone-based digital wallets.

“Quite frankly, the trope that China copies the U.S. hasn’t been true for years, and in mobile it’s the opposite: The U.S. often copies China,” said Ben Thompson, the founder of the tech research firm Stratechery. “For the Facebook Messenger app, for example, the best way to understand their road map is to look at WeChat.”

A Facebook spokesman declined to comment. Tencent did not respond to requests for comment.

Executives from companies like Facebook and smaller rivals like Kik are trying to replicate what has emerged in China: dominant online platforms where users will spend much of their time. Much of that effort is focused on chat.

“The cool thing about chat is it becomes an operating system for your daily life,” Mr. Livingston said. “Going up to a vending machine, ordering food, getting a cab: Chat can power those interactions, and that’s what we’re seeing with WeChat.”

China still lags in important areas. Its most powerful, high-end servers and supercomputers often rely in part on American technology. Virtual-reality start-ups trail foreign counterparts, and Google has a jump on Baidu in driverless car technology. Many of China’s products also lack the polish of their American counterparts.

The biggest advantage for China’s tech industry, according to many analysts, is that it was able to fill a vacuum after the country essentially created much of its economy from scratch following the end of the Cultural Revolution, in 1976. Unlike in the United States, where banks and retailers already have strong holds on customers, China’s state-run lenders are inefficient, and retailers never expanded broadly enough to serve a fast-growing middle class.

Many Chinese also never bought a personal computer, meaning smartphones are the primary — and often first — computing device for the more than 600 million who have them in China.

“The U.S. was first to credit cards, and everyone there has a personal computer. But China, where everyone is on their phones all the time, is now ahead in mobile commerce and mobile payments by virtue of leapfrogging the PC and credit cards,” Mr. Thompson said.

Chinese companies also approach the internet in a different way. In the United States, tech firms emphasize simplicity in their apps. But in China, its three major internet companies — Alibaba, Baidu and the WeChat parent Tencent — compete to create a single app with as many functions as they can stuff into it.

On Alibaba’s Taobao shopping app, people can also buy groceries, buy credits for online games, scan coupons and find deals at stores nearby. Baidu’s mapping app lets users order an Uber, reserve a restaurant or hotel, order in food, buy movie tickets and find just about any type of store nearby.

Tencent has opened up WeChat to other companies, allowing them to create apps within WeChat. Ebaoyang — a start-up that enables people to order oil changes for their cars directly on smartphones — was at first almost totally reliant on WeChat to attract business. Gao Feng, one of Ebaoyang’s founders, said the company still relied on the app for 50 percent of its payments and 20 percent of new customers.

“We started from WeChat. So it was our main, original source for getting customers,” he said.

Between fees for its services and money it makes through online games, WeChat manages to generate $7 in revenue per user each year, according to Nomura. The app has roughly 700 million users, more than the total number of smartphone users in China, in part because some users are outside the country and in part because people have multiple accounts.

Much of that comes not from ads, as it might in the United States, but from spending on games, services and goods sold on the app. Those models may not translate from one market to the other, but the two can still borrow from each other, said Carmen Chang, a partner at the venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates.

“China was able to develop a lot of innovative business models, which arose in a different kind of economy,” said Ms. Chang, who spends time in both China and in Menlo Park, Calif. “Whether or not we admit it here in Silicon Valley, it’s had an impact on us and our thinking.”

 

[TaiShang]

World's first Tibetan language search engine in trial operation
By Chen Xia
China.org.cn, August 3, 2016

Cloud Tibet, the world's first search engine dedicated specially to Tibetan-speaking people, has been launched for trial operation, the China News Service reported on Tuesday.

Developed by a Tibetan language research center in Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province, Cloud Tibet will help Tibetan-speaking people access a variety of information in text, graphic and video formats, said Tselo, head of the development team.

Also, the search engine will provide users with encyclopedia information, archive data and a Q&A service in Tibetan, Tselo said.

Search capabilities in Tibetan are not available on China's largest search engines, such as Baidu and Sogou, while foreign search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing only offer simple search results.

"The databases of Google, Yahoo and other foreign search engines are based overseas, so their search results are limited both in terms of quantity and quality," Tselo said. "They fail to provide users with effective, up-to-date news on Tibet, and their search results relating to Tibetan culture are not precise and extensive."

During the trial operation, Cloud Tibet will further improve its search and matching function and expand its database, Tselo said.

It is estimated that Cloud Tibet will attract some 2 million users in Qinghai, Tibet, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, which are home to the largest number of Tibetan-speaking people.

The project was launched in April 2013. Of the 150-plus developers, 87 percent are ethnic Tibetans.

 

[艹艹艹]

CNNIC released the thirty-eighth "China Internet development statistics report"

August 3rd at 10 am, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) in the national network information office issued a press release issued the thirty-eighth "China Internet network development status statistical report" (hereinafter referred to as the "report"). "Report" shows that as of June 2016, the size of China's Internet users reached 710 million, Internet penetration rate reached 3.1, more than the global average of 51.7% percentage points. At the same time, shaping the mobile Internet social life further strengthened, "Internet plus" action plan to promote the development of enterprise diversification, mobile service.

Internet users exceeded 700 million, the popularity of the Internet growth steady

As of June 2016, the size of China's Internet users reached 710 million, the first half of 21 million 320 thousand new Internet users, an increase of 3.1%. China's Internet penetration rate reached 51.7%, compared with the end of 1.3 increased by 2015 percentage points, more than the global average of 3.1 percentage points over the Asian average of 8.1 percentage points.

CN domain name is still the number of domestic registered mainstream domain name

As of June 2016, the total number of domain names in China increased to 36 million 980 thousand. China national domain name ".CN" registered 19 million 500 thousand (accounting for 52.7% of the total number of Chinese domain name), the annual growth rate of 19.2%, continued to maintain the country's largest registered top-level domain. With the enhancement of China's Internet culture, the influence of economy, Chinese users are more interested to register and use the ".CN" domain.

Mobile phone Internet users reached 656 million, the dominant position of mobile Internet

As of June 2016, the scale of China's mobile phone users reached 6.56 billion, the use of mobile Internet users in the crowd for than that by the end of 2015 90.1% up to 92.5%, only through the mobile Internet users accounted for ratio reached 24.5%, Internet access equipment further to the mobile terminal. With the continuous improvement of mobile communication network environment as well as the further popularization of smart phones, mobile Internet applications to users of all kinds of life needs in-depth penetration, and promote the growth of mobile Internet usage.

Rural Internet penetration rate remained stable, the difference between urban and rural areas is still relatively large

Rural Internet penetration rate remained stable, as of June 2016 was 31.7%. However, the Internet penetration rate in urban areas is more than 35.6 percentage points in rural areas, the gap between urban and rural areas is still larger. "Won't get to the Internet" and "unwilling to surf the Internet" Internet rural population is still a major obstacle, 68.0% of the rural non users because do not understand computer / network "is not the Internet, that" don't need / no sense of interest "in the rural non internet users accounted for 10.9%.

Online payment under the line scene continues to enrich, the public online financial habits gradually develop

Internet banking applications in the first half of 2016 to maintain growth momentum, online payment, Internet banking user scale growth rates were 9.3% and 12.3%. The rapid development of the electronic commerce application, online payment manufacturers continue to expand and enrich line consumer payment scenarios, and implementation of open chain of social relationship marketing strategy, driven by non payment network user conversion; Internet banking users continues to expand the scale, financial products more and more, product user experience continued to improve, driven by popular online banking habits gradually develop. Platform, scene, intelligent Internet banking has become a new direction of development.

Online education, online government services develop rapidly, the Internet to promote the development of the public service industry

First half of 2016, all kinds of Internet public service applications are to achieve the user scale growth, online education, online booking a taxi, online government services subscribers exceeded 1 billion, diversified and mobile characteristics significantly. Continue to refine the field of online education, expanding the boundaries of user service toward the direction of diversification, and mobile education to provide personalized learning scene and mobile device touch, voice output function advantage, make it become the mainstream of the online education; network about the car in the field, based on the huge market demand and increasingly sophisticated technology, industry continues to expand the scale; the field of online government, government websites and government micro blog, micro channel, combination of client, give full play to the carrier function of the Internet and information technology, to optimize the user experience of government services.

 

[ahojunk]

Didi draws concern over monopoly, discount halt after merger with Uber
2016-08-02 16:19 | Ecns.cn | Editor: Mo Hong'e

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Didi Chuxing and Uber China announced merger on Aug. 1, 2016. (Photo/Chinanews.com)​

(ECNS) -- Following its merger with Uber China, homegrown ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing is well poised to command further domination of the market in the world's second-largest economy, drawing concerns over its abuse of the position, warned an opinion piece by the Beijing Times.

In exchange for its China business, Uber will receive a stake of almost 18 percent in Didi to become its largest shareholder, while Didi will hold a minority stake in Uber.

Cheng Wei, founder and CEO of Didi Chuxing, said the ride-hailing service will continue providing discounts to users who benefited during previous price wars between these fierce competitors.

Although Chen promised the user discounts will exist for a long time, the opinion piece is concerned that the deal may mean Didi Chuxing is now in a better position to adjust its marketing, including raising prices to make up for its heavy spending in the past.

As China finally approved qualified private cars and drivers to provide services in the booming ride-hailing sector, incentives to attract drivers or passengers have declined. Other players in the sector, including Shenzhou Zhuanche and Yidao Yongche, also pose little threat to the market dominance of Didi Chuxing.

From a policy perspective, if Didi Chuxing and its old rival exchange data on Chinese users in future and explore the overseas market by using this massive data set, it's possible that the market leader would face more regulation, the article added.

The opinion piece called for supervisors to be cautious of potential risks following market change and prevent a monopoly, while ensuring public interests are well protected.

 

[JSCh]

Thursday, August 4, 2016, 09:45
325 million lured by live streaming apps
By Meng Jing

The number of live streaming app users in China topped 325 million by the end of June, according to a government-backed industry body.

It attributes this to better internet technology, a greater willingness among young people to share their personal lives online and increased demand for short, real-time entertainment.

These users accounted for 45.8 percent of all internet users, which stood at nearly 710 million, an increase of more than 21 million from six months ago, according to a report on Wednesday by the China Internet Network Information Center.

The apps are mainly used to broadcast sports events, reality shows, online games and concerts, according to the report, which showcases the latest developments in China's internet industry.

Feng Yousheng, chief executive officer of Inke, a widely used live streaming app in China, said more young people are enjoying such "fragmented entertainment" with the help of faster internet connections.

"Rather than spending a lot of money and time on going to the movies, the post-1990 generation watches broadcasts in real time on phones, interacts with show hosts and has a good time during a lunch break or while waiting at bus stations," he said.

Spurred by venture capital investment, the live streaming industry only started to take off at the start of this year. But its strong growth momentum has put it ahead of other emerging internet apps, such as online food deliveries and travel reservations.

A total of 106 live streaming apps secured funding of 2.37 billion yuan (US$350 million) last year. Tan Shufen, an analyst at the Beijing-based center, said the rise of such apps is in line with the growing popularity of video streaming in China.

"For the first time, video streaming overtook online music as the top internet entertainment service at the end of last year. The number of online video users has maintained strong growth in the first half of this year, with 85.7 percent of 514 million online video viewers preferring to look at the small screens on their smartphones to watch videos," Tan said.

With the increasing popularity of live streaming, the Ministry of Public Security has stepped up efforts to tighten control of the sector by carrying out a nationwide campaign to clean up pornographic and vulgar content in cyberspace.

 

[ahojunk]

I hope that Yongche can give Didi competition, which will benefit the consumers.

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Yongche steps up drive to do battle with Didi
2016-08-03 08:48 | China Daily | Editor: Feng Shuang

Didi Chuxing and Uber China may not have an easy victory in China, even though their newly announced merger is expected by analysts to create a dominant player in the country's rapidly growing ride-hailing market.

Under the deal, Didi will acquire Uber China while Uber Technologies Inc and Uber China's other shareholders will receive a 20 percent shareholding in the combined company.

Yongche Inc, which has immediately become the No 2 ride-hailing player in China after the tie-up between Didi and Uber, said on Tuesday that it will soon launch a very lucrative incentive program to gear up the competition in attracting users.

Without revealing how much it is going to invest in the program, Yongche, which is majority-owned by the Beijing-based internet major LeEco, said the incentive investment will be "record high".

"The ride-sharing industry doesn't need a monopoly and there will be no place for monopolists to stand in the industry," said LeEco in a Weibo post.

Many industry observers said the main reason for the truce between Didi and Uber China was that the two wanted to end their costly competition. Uber has spent at least $1 billion a year to gain ground in China, while Didi has been offering its own subsidies to drivers and riders to build its business.

Wang Xiaofeng, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc, said the merger of Didi and Uber China could provide more opportunities to second-tier players in the market.

"Because consumers will always want more options and it will never be a monopoly. For example, the Didi-Kuaidi merger gave room for the third player Uber to grow, and this merger will likewise do the same for smaller players," she said.

However, Zhang Xu, analyst with Analysys International, said that with Didi and Uber China joining hands, it would be more difficult for smaller players to gain more market share.

Statistics from internet consultancy Analysys International showed that Didi had 127 million active users by the end of second quarter of the year, while Uber China had 31.07 million and Yongche had 10.5 million in same period.

But the Didi and Uber China merger still needs the authorities' approval.

The Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday it hasn't received a business declaration from Didi and Uber though both companies announced their merger on Monday.

All businesses with a large scale of operations that may monopolize a market must submit a business declaration to the Ministry of Commerce, as well as wait for an antitrust investigation.

Companies without such clearance will not be allowed to carry out a merger and acquisition in China.

Shen Danyang, the ministry's spokesman, said as these two companies haven't submitted a business declaration to the ministry, their merger will not become effective and legal.

Didi Chuxing and its previous rival Kuaidi also didn't submit business declaration to the ministry when they merged last year, according to the ministry.

Didi was not available for comment on Tuesday.