CLIP China syndrome: iPhone closing in on the mainland?

The iPhone has been in China for some time now. That is, if you count Hong Kong and Macau, or unlocked iPhones. But most people realize that a key for Apple is to gain penetration in the mainland Chinese market with the help of a major carrier. And it may be very close to such a deal, if pictures put up by carrier China Unicom are any indication.

It’s hard to know exactly what the presence of iPhone pictures on China Unicom’s site means, as every translation of the Chinese seems to be different. But given the recent reports floating around of Apple negotiating with China Unicom, it would certainly seem possible that the carrier will soon carry the iPhone. What’s more, a Chinese mobile industry source of ours says they hear that May 17, the China Telecom day, may be the day it’s formally announced.

This is the day that China Unicom will launch China’s first Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) 3G network. Earlier reports of the same day have also popped up on the Internet. 3G access was seen as one of the major roadblocks for getting the newest iPhone in China. This led to some speculation that Apple may make a smaller, slower version for the market.

While it might seem unlikely that details about an iPhone launch would leak out, given Apple’s track record of secrecy, “Chinese companies are not the best in keeping a tight lid,” says our source.

China Unicom is China’s second largest carrier, with over 125 million subscribers. It was thought that Apple badly wanted to partner with China’s largest carrier, China Mobile (which has almost a half billion subscribers), but that negotiations stalled.

Kaixin001: China’s Apple of Social Networks

KAI XIN, both pronounced with high tones, means happy. WAN, low tone from deep in your throat, means network. Thus, KAI XIN WAN is the happy network.

XIAO NEI, both with downward tones i.e. start high, finish deep in your throat, means 'school inner' or on-campus network. FYI.

Kaixin001: China’s Apple of Social Networks

by Guest Author on October 16, 2008

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Kaixin001, the latest newcomer to the Facebook clone wars in China, is China’s fastest growing social network having amassed a staggering 7.5 million users in the first 5 months since it launched in May 2008. The site tripled Twitter’s traffic reach in the month of September alone and is currently the 250th most popular site on Alexa worldwide.

Compared with rival incumbent Xiaonei, which targets college students, Kaixin001 appeals to white-collar office workers with a simpler UI that is more intuitive to older audiences. This is a significant detail in China, where one in four college students does not own a computer and can only access Xiaonei by walking to an Internet Cafe and paying by the minute. White-collar office workers by comparison, spend an average of nine hours a day in front of the computer...

Web Audience for Games Soars for NBC and Yahoo

Web Audience for Games Soars for NBC and Yahoo

By BRIAN STELTER

Published: August 24, 2008

A slide show from the Web showed Bryan Clay, the gold medal winner in the men’s decathlon.

Related

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...The ratings for NBC’s television coverage of the Games were record-breaking this month. But the extent to which the Internet served as a supplement to television was unprecedented, and there were two clear winners: NBC’s own Web site and Yahoo’s Olympics section.

Benefiting from the growth in broadband Internet access, NBCOlympics.com served up more than 1.2 billion pages and 72 million video streams through Saturday, more than doubling the combined traffic to its site during the 2004 Games in Athens and the 2006 Games in Turin. The popularity of the site will very likely make digital rights more significant in next year’s bidding for the 2014 and 2016 Games....

NBC, as the holder of United States rights to the Olympics, was the sole source for online video and the only media organization that could use the Olympics logos. But Yahoo, which offered a feature-oriented mix of news stories and slide shows, gave NBC a run for its online advertising money, or at least audience, attracting just as many visitors, according to Nielsen.

“The demand that we’re seeing has far exceeded even our wildest expectations,” said Jimmy Pitaro, the head of sports and entertainment for Yahoo.

Olympics sites operated by AOL, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, the Beijing Organizing Committee, The New York Times, and USA Today also had high levels of traffic, according to Nielsen. They differentiated themselves from the NBC site by offering slice-of-life features and entertainment stories. (The top Olympic story on Yahoo this month was, “Why divers always take showers.”)

NBC cites statistics that show its site had a clear advantage over Yahoo’s. But Nielsen Online’s numbers show that Yahoo drew an average of 4.7 million unique visitors a day through Aug. 18, compared with 4.3 million for NBC. The third-ranked site, AOL’s Olympics section, had 1.3 million visitors a day.

NBC treated the Olympics like a research laboratory, and it says it is gleaning information about how people preferred to consume content from its combination of television, online and mobile offerings. (Critics charge that because the network did not stream the most popular sporting events live, its findings are skewed.) Regardless, the network is using the Olympics to assert that TV is the preferred medium of consumers, with the vast majority of viewing — 93 percent — done via television...

NBCOlympics Wins Lead Medal: Only $6 Million In Olympic Video Ad Revenue

Two drawbacks of doing everything possible to protect your broadcast franchise:

1. Infuriate sports fans who want to watch events live.
2. Leave money on the table.

NBC only made $6 million in online video ad revenue, estimates eMarketer. This is a far cry from the $23 million CBS is said to have made from this year's March Madness.

Time For China's Web Advertising Industry To Grow Up?

China SPAC Goes Operational: Alyst Acquisition Corp. (AYA)

There was a release this morning showing that a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC, or blank check company) called Alyst Acquisition Corp. (AMEX: AYA) has signed an agreement to acquire all of the shares of China Networks Media Ltd., a British Virgin Islands company which owns and is in the process of acquiring television station operating assets in the People's Republic of China.  

Alyst will redomesticate to the British Virgin Islands by merging with China Networks Holdings immediately prior to consummating its transaction with China Networks.  Chardan Capital Markets, LLC is acting as exclusive advisor to the transaction.

China Networks' Advertising Networks Limited has positioned itself as a fast growing television advertising network in China.  China Networks provides local, national and international advertisers with direct access to China's rising audience of consumers.  Through long-term contracts, it also operates as the exclusive advertising arm for stations within its network.

China Networks was established in October 2007 and has completed the consolidation of two television advertising companies to date with additional negotiations in progress with other Chinese stations.

Combined "audited carve-out revenue" for Kunming Taishi Information Cartoon Co., Ltd and Shanxi Yellow River and Advertising Networks Cartoon Technology Co., Ltd for the year ending 2007 was approximately $21.0 million, with net income of approximately $14.7 million.  China Networks' consolidation of each
yields revenue of approximately $21.0 million and net income of approximately $7.4 million.  As a combined entity, China Networks' pro forma two-year CAGR was 15%.

Jon C. Ogg
August 18, 2008

Time For China's Web Advertising Industry To Grow Up?

Ad dollars are pouring into China this year, courtesy of the Beijing Olympics. Yet even though the nation boasts more Web users than any other, only 4% of the country's ad dollars ($1.4 billion) are spent online, compared to 17% in the US.

And while advanced ad-targeting technologies from companies like Tacoda and Blue Lithium are de rigeur in the U.S., and a key component in the strategies of AOL (TWX) and Yahoo (YHOO), it doesn't exist in China.

That may soon change. Kaiser Kuo, editor of Ogilvy Digital Watch, interviewed Grace Huang, an ex-McKinsey consultant who launched PinYou, which is building a behavioral targeting ad network in China. Until now, she says, advertisers are still relatively unsophisticated in China, and aren't yet demanding more precision. So no one's really trying to tackle behavioral targeting yet.

But she thinks behavioral targeting will take hold for two reasons: "(1) we have the demonstrated success from the US, and (2) the Chinese have proven to be quicker to adopt now advertising techniques, as was evidenced with search marketing."

Not surprisingly, the Chinese don't really obsess over their online privacy in the way Americans and their elected representatives do. But Huang says her company will take the issue seriously, and says PinYou is "thinking of various ways for consumers to opt-in and opt-out."

The bigger hurdle in front of behavioral targeting is the same one in front of all Chinese advertising: the lack of reliable third-party measurement. Much online advertising in China is still sold on a "cost-per-time" basis, rather than a CPM, or cost per thousand impressions. Why? Because buyers don't reliably know how many impressions they're getting, or paying for.

As Victor Koo, founder of video-sharing site YouKu points out, comScore and Shanghai-based iResearch don't yet measure Internet cafes, where 30% to 40% of China's 250 million Internet users log on. Getting those kinds of problems solved will do a lot more for China's online ad business than sharper targeting will accomplish.

China Ad Market Growth Slowing, Still Expected To Become The World's Second-Largest Ad Market Next Year

China Ad Market Growth Slowing, Still Expected To Become The World's Second-Largest Ad Market Next Year

Michael Learmonth 

Olympics hype aside, ad growth is slowing down in China. But it's still on track to become the second-largest ad market in the world next year, according to WPP media buying unit GroupM.

Overall ad growth in China is drop from 22% in 2008 to 19.5% in 2009, a fall-off from the 29% compounded annual growth between 2001 and 2007. Total ad spending in China is expected to total $35 billion in 2008, and GroupM says online advertising will account for 7.3% of spending or $2.5 billion. That's more bullish than eMarketer's $1.4 billion 2008 estimate made earlier this year...

China Online Advertising, independent online advertising representation ...

We are an independent online advertising representation company specializing in China website portals. We are dedicated to help advertisers worldwide select the ...

chinaonlineadvertising.com/index.htm 




China Advertising Agency - Home

Advertising Services. Request A Free Quote. Chinese Language Services. News and ... Continue reading "Winning the China Tender: The Power of Local Advertising" ...

www.chinaadagency.com




China advertising

China's advertising industry has sprung from nothing in little more than a quarter of a century. ... is Greater China CEO of advertising giant J. Walter ...

hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?... 




Chinatoday.com Advertising Information

chinatoday.com, china general informtion, china advertising, china information, advertisinginformation page ... of making advertising banner and text ...

www.chinatoday.com/advertising/adinfo.htm




Furniture Manufacturer Advertising | Furnishings China

Our advertising is not only for Chinese furniture manufacturers; any furniture ... China Market Studies. Advertising. Join Now. Login. Latin America ...

www.furnishingschina.com/advertise/index.asp?lang=es




Doing Business In China: News Information Podcasts Trade Shows ...

Doing Business in China: China Business Network for online business information ... Advice From Debby Cheung, Managing Director, Ogilvy PR China. Advertising and PR ...

thechinabusinessnetwork.com/Advertising-and-PR




China's Advertising Sector: Reflecting The Cultural And Soci

TOPICS: CHINA, ADVERTISING. PRINT Published Version of This Article ... China. Advertising... Du: China's advertising market is the largest in Asia excluding Japan. ...

metrocorpcounsel.com/current.php?artType=view&...&EntryNo=5982




advertising - ChinaTechNews.com - The Technology Source for the Latest ...

advertising Tags: Mobile Social Networking Service Embedded In China August 6th, 2008. OnlineAdvertising In China Reached CNY2.8 Billion In Q2 2008 July 29th, 2008 ...

www.chinatechnews.com/tag/advertising




China Advertising Manufacturers & Suppliers

Find Advertising - Advertisement Material, Advertising Stand and more. Manufacturers and Suppliers in China and around the world.

www.alibaba.com/countrysearch/CN-suppliers/Advertising.html

Beijing Olympics - Who's Capitalizing on the online Games?

Hitwise Intelligence - Sandra Hanchard - Asia Pacific

August 09, 2008

Beijing Olympics - Who's Capitalizing on the online Games?

There is no doubt that the Olympics represents a major online media opportunity. As this article in ZDNet Asia points out, search engines have been geared up to distribute the heightened sports-related terms within their respective advertising networks. My colleague, Alan Long has written about the traction of consumer interest in the Olympics across global markets. I'll focus on paid search activity for the Games in Australia.

Our Hitwise Search data demonstrates that 'bejing olympics' sent the most clicks to the Sports – Olympics category, accounting for 6.32% volume, with a 'paid rate' of 1.24% for the 4 weeks ending 2 August, 2008*.

It's interesting to note that other leading terms to the Olympics category in the top 30, such as 'beijing olympics mascots' and 'australian olympians' attracted significantly higher paid rates of 8.59% and 10.12% respectively, indicating where advertisers are seeking out niche search opportunities.

Live and Yahoo! Search Australia - Strong Paid Rates

In a Hitwise Search Portfolio of 100 leading search variations on 'olympics', Google Australia was by far the dominant search engine distributing 75.67% of clicks, with a paid rate of 2.24% for the 4 weeks ending 2 August 2008. Live and Yahoo! Search Australia sent lower overall volumes of clicks, but sent higher rates of paid traffic; 10.3% and 8% respectively.

Yahoo!7 Sport, ninemsn, Telstra and SMH - Leveraging PPC

A Hitwise Search Intelligence report indicates that the official Beijing 2008 (English language) site was the main beneficiary of downstream traffic from Olympic searches, receiving more than 1 in 4 clicks, for the 4 weeks ending 2 August, 2008. Yahoo!7 Sport, ninemsn, Telstra and SMH all received paid traffic off Olympic search terms to their respective websites, with paid rates widely ranging between 3% and 66%. As the games progress, it'll be interesting to see if media players adapt their paid search campaigns to correspond with the success of Australian athletes or otherwise.

Korea Tourism Organization - Seeking to benefit from Olympic Travel

Sports and News and Media industries as you'd expect received significant volumes of clicks from Olympic searches. Interesting to note that Education – Reference was also up there, receiving 6.82% of clicks (driven primarily to Wikipedia). The Travel industry had high rates of paid search traffic off Olympics searches, with the Korea Tourism Organization website aggressively leveraging PPC for Australian interest in the Games.

NBC Olympics: We Don't Care If You Hate Us, You're Watching USA-China Basketball On Tape Delay

Henry Blodget

NBC actually showed Michael Phelps live on the east coast last night as he shattered his own world record in the 400 IM. We watched--and, suddenly, the Olympics were as awesome as, well, the Olympics. If you live on the west coast, of course, thanks to another absurd decision by NBC, you only got to watch the race after reading about Phelps' victory online, when it was about as exciting as 1970s Superbowls.

(And as if this weren't enough, NBC is doing the same thing this morning, with USA-China basketball).

Why is NBC making decisions guaranteed to alienate and outrage much of the country? Money, of course. The network apparently believes it stands a better chance of earning back its $894 milllion plus programming costs if it infuriates viewers across the country.

And maybe the network is right. But it's still a dumb decision...

August 8, 2008,  12:07 am

Brush Up on the Mandarin for ‘Table Tennis’ and ‘Triathlon’

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

Ken Carroll, who runs the popular Chinese-lesson podcast ChinesePod, is taking advantage of the world’s sudden need to know how to say “gold medal,” “100-meter backstroke” or “Where is the basketball arena?” in Mandarin, the official language of China. He has started ChinesePod-Olympics, a specialized version of his popular podcast...

Mr. Carroll started ChinesePod in 2005. Today, it has 200,000 regular users and 300,000 monthly visitors who come to learn Mandarin vocabulary, tones and characters along with tips on how to deal with Chinese telemarketers, politely greet elders or get a new phone number upon arrival in the country. Some users listen to the lessons on the go in China, whipping out their iPod in a taxi for the tutorial on how to interact with a cab driver.

China Mobile Phone Subscribers Pass 600 Million Mark

Baidu Second-quarter Profit Grows 87 Percent

from PC World: Latest Technology News

Baidu, China's most popular search engine, saw year-on-year profit for the second quarter of 2008 grow by almost 87 percent.

China Mobile Phone Subscribers Pass 600 Million Mark

from PC World: Latest Technology News

The number of Chinese mobile phone subscribers topped 600 million in June.

Why Apple and China are Simply Incompatible

from AllThingsDigital -- WSJ by Mike Elgan

The Beijing Olympics begin in two weeks. But for Apple, the China games have already begun. The company opened a shiny new Apple store in Beijing Saturday — the “first of many” in China, according to an Apple official. The race is on. But is this an event Apple can win? 

Ultrasonic frogs discovered in China

Posted by Charles Cooper

When I was a kid, my mother would complain that I'd tune her out whenever it came to taking out the garbage or mowing the lawn. In other words, when it came to all the stuff I didn't want to do.

"You have your own radio frequency in your head," she would say in mock--and sometimes, real annoyance.

Odorrana tormota lives in a noisy environment on the brushy edge of streams in the Huangshan Hot Springs, in central China, where waterfalls and rushing water create a steady din.

(Credit: Albert S. Feng, University of Illinois.)

Turns out I wasn't so special after all. Researchers from the University of Illinois and the University of California, Los Angeles have turned up a frog in central China whose ears can shift to different sound frequencies. The analogy offered by the researchers, who also included scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (at Harvard Medical School), is that of a radio tuner.

Their work appears this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

What is the frequency, Kenneth?

(Credit: Albert S. Feng, University of Illinois)

The findings appear this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The University of Illinois and the University of California, Los Angeles spearheaded the research team, which also included scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (at Harvard Medical School)...

Publicis Buys Third Asian Digital Shop, South Korea's Portfolio

from paidContent.org by David Kaplan

French ad holding company Publicis Groupe has bought South Korea's Portfolio, which describes itself as a full-service digital agency. In keeping with last year's formation of its network of international digital agencies, Publicis Modem, the latest acquisition will be rebranded as Portfolio Modem. The "Modem" brand is related to Publicis' $1.3 billion Dec. 2006 purchase of Digitas and its subsidiary Modem Media. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition of Portfolio is Publicis' third Asian buyout. In May, Publicis bought Shanghai-based digital marketer EmporioAsia and last July, Publicis bought China's Communication Central Group, one of the country's largest online marketing agencies.

As the general ad market in the U.S. and Europe becomes increasingly constricted amid a wider economic downturn, the continued rise of Asian economies makes a strong presence their critical, Publicis Modem CEO Martin Reidy said in a statement. South Korea's ad market, in particular, has been thriving over the past year. According to ZenithOptimedia, online ad spend grew nearly 40 percent in 2007 to take a 13.7 percent share of total ad spend of $10 billion. The buyout of Portfolio is also meant to complement existing Publicis agencies in Korea, including Publicis Welcomm and Publicis Dialog, Leo Burnett, Publicis Events Worldwide (Emotion), Saatchi & Saatchi and Starcom MediaVest Group (SC Seoul). Release (PDF)

Converged CE Products Will Be Popular ‘Net Devices In China

When keyboards, or virtual keyboards via a touch screen, are added to most PMPs and game consoles, converged Consumer Electronics (CE) devices will be widely adopted as Internet devices in China due to to their reasonable price and large screens. In-Stat consumer research in China shows that potential users have enough discretionary income and are willing to buy higher-priced CE devices that feature their favorite functions, such as Wi-Fi or mobile TV.

In-Stat also found the following:

• Wireless Internet via Wi-Fi is the most important trend in the converged CE market, and multimedia playback is now a basic function. Mobile TV reception and GPS functionality will be increasingly integrated into CE devices in the very near future.
• Potential users have strong purchasing power with regard to converged CE and favor mid-range or high-end devices that feature their favorite functions, such as Wi-Fi or GPS. More than half of the converged CEs currently on the market cost less than US$286, but 31.8% of potential users said they were willing to buy devices costing between US$286 and US$428.
• Current users have varying brand preferences in this market. Among potential users, Apple(38.6%), Aigo (20.5%), Sony (17.4%), and Newman (9.1%) are the most popular brands.

More Information > 

WAP Ads Will Lead Mobile Advertising Growth In China

Chinese consumer acceptance of mobile advertising is lower than with other advertising methods; however, ads that are related to topics of interest to consumers are likely to be very successful. Spam and traffic costs are the primary barriers for consumer acceptance of mobile advertising. Currently, short message services (SMS) advertising is the most widely used, and in 2007, represented an estimated 40%–50% of mobile advertising revenue. These ads, however, are widely regarded as spam, and both the government and China’s mobile carriers have begun to take actions to forbid them. As such, SMS advertising will likely decline significantly in the next several years, but will not disappear.

In-Stat also found the following:

• In 2007, China’s mobile advertising market grew 97% over the previous year, and the total market size reached US$92 million.
• Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) advertising, especially sales-oriented WAP advertising, will lead market growth.
• Revenue for China’s mobile advertising market will reach US$478 million in 2012, representing a CAGR of 38.7% between 2008 and 2012.

More Information > 

Mobile Linux Will Grab Significant Market Share In China

Google’s Linux-based Android, TD-SCDMA, and mobile Linux's open-source features will be big drivers to mobile Linux in China. Compared with Symbian and Windows Mobile, Mobile Linux has some key advantages. Because Linux is an open source platform, non-recurring engineering (NRE) and royalty costs are low. Mobile Linux can offer more flexibility to design houses and handset vendors to achieve product differentiation. However, lack of applicable third-party applications and competition from Symbian, Windows Mobile, and Apple’s OS X are barriers to mobile Linux in China. The popularity of the iPhone in China may also hamper the growth of mobile Linux in China.

In-Stat also found the following:

• In 2007, Symbian commanded a market share of 66.7% of the Chinese smartphone market; the market share for Linux and Windows Mobile was 19.4% and 10.3% respectively.
• Google’s Android and TD-SCDMA will be big drivers for mobile Linux in China.
• In 2012, total shipments of mobile Linux smartphones in China will reach 8.4 million with a 21.9% CAGR from 2008 to 2012 and will account for about 25.4% of total shipments of smartphones in China.

More Information > 

TD-SCDMA Will Hit Turning Point In 2009 In China

The development of TD-SCDMA in China will remain in its infancy throughout 2008. In 2009, following a possible network expansion to tier-two and tier-three cities, the Chinese Mobile market will move in TD-SCDMA's favor, and 2009 will be the turning point for TD-SCDMA's growth rate, which will reach 617% that year. However, the number of subscribers will not pass 10 million until 2010.

In-Stat also found the following:

• Total TD-SCDMA subscribers will reach 600,000 in 2008 and then increase rapidly to 4.3 million in 2009 and 15.7 million in 2010.
• The process of telecom restructuring and TD-HSDPA maturity are the most important factors affecting the progress of TD-SCDMA commercialization.
• Total capex on TD-SCDMA network equipment will peak at US$5.3 billion in 2008.

More Information >