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November 30, 2005
Yahoo Gives Ad Reseller Ultimatum
Word just in courtesy of the nice folks at Pacific Epoch:
Yahoo China has told online advertising reseller Splendor Technology, which was recently named a Google AdWords reseller, to choose between Google and Yahoo, reports Beijing Star Daily. Yahoo China small and medium enterprise department general manager Cao Kaijun said that Yahoo China will give Splendor some time to decide but that Yahoo China can not work with Splendor if the company does not end its cooperation with Google. Splendor has been an agent for Yahoo subsidiary 3721's real name service and Yahoo's paid ranking service in China for several years.
Posted by shak at 1:41 PM | Comments (0)
November 28, 2005
a few days in London
OK, so I missed blogging for a few days even after I promised I'd try and blog every day, sorry.
Anyway, it's like 7am Monday morning and I have been up for a few hours, planning my week ahead, which is full of meetings, taxi rides and traffic jams and lunch with some lovely people.
Last few days been kinda interesting, and here are some of the high/low lights...
a, my 4 year old niece asking "Do you eat sushi every day in China" ?
b, home cooked food, and also the best Doner Kebab in London
c, no creases in my Jeans
d, fast internet
e, yob culture seems to be growing on a daily basis
f, a female police officer gunned down (sad world)
g, level of dirt/filth on roads, pavement I walked down the other day was covered in Chewing Gum.
h, people who are very ignorant about China
Some interesting questions that I have been asked lately:
1, do the clubs play like 1980s pop music
2, are you allowed to walk around without a guide
3, do you have a bicycle
All the above aside, It's nice to be back.
Posted by shak at 1:11 PM | Comments (1)
November 24, 2005
Whilst I am away ...
So I made it back to UK in one piece, must say those flat beds on Virgin Atlantic flights ROCK, I managed to get a straight 5 hours of sleep no problem.
Anyway, so what to post about over the next 10 days or so?
tidbits of my life in Shanghai over the last few months
things which seem strange in UK when compared to UK
general chit chat
I'll try and do 1 post a day, I promise ...
and now I am off to Lunch at Nandos
Posted by shak at 12:13 PM | Comments (1)
November 23, 2005
Back to London ...
It's nearly 9am and I have a flight to catch headed for London in 4 hours, no need to panick, just gotta go back and put out some fires and supervise a small project which will take a few days, I will also be having my first few serious business meetings which include some joint venture stuff China/UK and some fund raising required for a project which I have been looking at for 6 months. I hope to be back in China in 10-14 days.
Sod's law though, as a number of people I really wanted to see are coming through over the next 14 days, so my buddies will have to the entertaining on my behalf.
It will be very interesting going back this time, as I am a lot more climatised to China, and landing in London and going home is gonna be a major change.
by the way, the plan is for my flat mate to fire the AYI (maid) in 2 days time saying I sent word from a London that my (non existant) maid from London would be joing us, I am sure she wont mind being fired as she has obviously been chosen to head up the MENSA Shanghai office.
See you in London, Online or Back in China.
Posted by shak at 8:53 AM | Comments (0)
November 22, 2005
65% discount with my broken Mandarin !
A few weeks ago I started buying International Calling cards for my calls to UK, very handy when Skype or Gtalk does NOT work here in China.
The cards come in 100rmb credits, and offer quite good value for money. I recently heard from a local that even though it's a 100rmb card, most locals only pay a 3rd of that.
So yesterday I wandered down the shop and asked for 2 X 100rmb International cards, which were handed to me with a demand for 200rmb.
to this I replied:
Wo bu shi laowai ren, Wo shi zhong guo ren!
At this statement the guy and girl behind the counter fell about laughing and decided I could have the said cards for 35rmb each insted of 100rmb as originally quoted.
This may seem a trvial thing, but made me look at my language learning from a different angle, and I am sure someone will be along to translate the statement above.
Posted by shak at 10:23 PM | Comments (6)
November 21, 2005
Adtech Shanghai follow up ...
Finally caught up on sleep after a hectic week where I was having to get up at 6am every morning and go to the other side of Shanghai for Adtech and associated meetings.
So what took place and what did folks and I learn at Adtech Shanghai, billed as Asia's leading digital marketing event...
I will provide some of my opinion, and also point to you to a few other places with summaries about the event:
USA companies sending "anyone" who happens to speak Chinese, or even looks Asian is NOT the way too go, I saw and spoke to at least 4 representatives from large USA companies who had no idea what they were doing in China apart from the fact that they happened to be Asian.
Time slots of sessions at 50 minues was way too short, especially as many Chinese when given a microphone and an audience suddenly think they are "President of China" and babble on about god knows what for hours, very frustrating and something no one had planned for.
Audience was quite mixed, and the Chinese wanted to learn about Western marketing tactics, and the Westerners wanted to learn about Chinese skills, unfortunately a few of the speakers ended up being sales pitches for western companies trying to tell the Chinese how good they were in a completely foreign market (NOT the way to go).
MSN party was kinda like their search engine, very nice and exclusive with bells and whistles, amazing venue and food, invites to all the wrong people (we gatecrashed anyway), but unfortunately the event had NO oooommmppphhhhhh....
Wednesday nights Baby Face party by MIxMedia was cancelled at last minute, so everyone ended up in the Grand Hyatt Piano bar courtesy of the Hyatt and Susan's qiuick thinking, however NO party was a bad bad pr move.
Neither Google, Baidu, eBay or AliBaba had booths or stands in the exhibition hall, which was very surprising, although there were staff members from all the major companies, I spent quite a bit of time talking to Google folk on the ground in China, and can say that these guys know their stuff, they are NOT laowai or ABCs just dropped in to China, but movers and shakers who know their stuff and their target audience.
I also realised that my 3 months in Asia this year have NOT been wasted, and I actually know more people in the Chinese web space than I could have imagined in such a short space of time, maybe I should change career and get into the Headhunting/HR space instead, as I made a few potential job introductions and also took a few of the boys to a good old Indian restaurant for a fine meal of Chicken Tikka Masala and Onion Bhajis, not forgetting a night out for some of the west coast boys to some of Shanghais finest bars and clubs.
Hope the above gives you some insight into what I think happened last week, and below you will see views from others, I'll add links as and when I or You find them, many of the attendees are still asleep and no doubt will publish stuff in the next few days.
To sum it up, we have a long way to go, both for the industry, the conference organisation and the attendees, hopefully next year will be better, but as a 1st time event i China, it rocked and will be remembered for a long time to come.
but please please do NOT think that just sending a fine looking Chinese girl straight out of School to represent your Nasdaq listed company complete with Business Card titled "Head of China" will help you enter this market, it won't, I guarantee you that...
Everyone’s talking about the new world in online, but few really understand what’s happening in China. This week, I thought I’d hit the big red country to look under the Chinese interactive marketing hood. There’s a lot of horsepower in China, even if the engine is going to take a year or two to really warm up.
Kevin Ryan's piece
Although there were some disappointments like the BabyFace Networking party being cancelled and the lack of energy and somewhat serious tone of the first day’s keynote (its common Chinese business protocol to have local Chinese government officials give an address and kick things off), things did liven up by Wednesday evening for the adhoc drinks at Jin Mao Tower in the Hyatt Hotel thankfully due to Susan Cendara’s spontaneous corralling!
seerosen's piece
The session was conducted in English at the beginning. COO of Sina and Director of MSN attended the panel. The language barrier was obvious. In which language a conference is presented now is an important decision. English seems to be the usual choice, but it really breaks down the communication this morning. It presents the same problem if the session is completely in Chinese. It is especially hard if English is not the native language for the panelists. I don’t know what about native English speakers; at least I tried very hard to understand.
Wang Jian Shuo's piece
I am not sure what I expected out of ad:tech Shanghai. But one thing for sure, just being here is mind boggling. Urban legend has it that over 70 percent of the building cranes in the world are in Shanghai. That may be close to true. Whatever the number is, this is a boom town. And China is definitely on the fast track to go from the third world to the first world, skipping the second. This is a very sophisticated city. All the best stores, great hotels and restaurants and easy to be in. The organizers went to the trouble to ask each person whether they were presenting in English or Mandarin. Then they rented headsets to everyone. True to form, the greeting was in Mandarin. Then the headsets went away and the translator has not had much business as the whole conference has been in English.
David Smith's piece
Later, I am greeted by the man, the myth, the internet node otherwise known as Shakil Khan. Although only a recent arrival to Shanghai just a few months prior, he’s on a mission in China to help VCs scout the China opportunity while identifying a piece for himself along the way. As the man who brought or “bought” search first in the UK back in 2000, the man seems to know everybody, developing relationships with Google, Yahoo, MSN, Commission Junction and leading internet advertising players the world around.
True to his calling as a master networker, after making me a quick introduction to the Allyes.com CEO, David Zhu, Shak is off again no doubt to connect another constellation of internet stars in China. I’m telling you that it’s only a matter of time befor his entrepreneural story adds another chapter in China, either by his connections or another self-started venture.
TR Harrington's piece (TR >>> $20 is on it's way)
Posted by shak at 1:18 PM | Comments (2)
Socks in Bed !
It's bloody freezing here, not that I am not used to it having lived in the UK for most of my life, but there are 2 major differences:
NO Central Heating
Bad Insulation in Buildings
So the only option is warm/hot air from the aircon unit, which can not be good for the health, judging by the state of my throat this morning, or maybe time to buy some electric heaters.
In the meantime, looks like Socks in Bed (very classy indeed).
Posted by shak at 10:09 AM | Comments (1)
The average Chinese net user
NEW YORK (AP) -- A typical Chinese Internet user is a young male who prefers instant messaging to e-mail, rarely makes online purchases and favors news, music and games sites, according to a new study.
Another day and another survey on the net in China, 1 of these days I hope someone takes time to cross check all the surveys, facts and figures and try and come up with a suitable balance of what's really happening over here.
Statistics, Surveys and Spin ;)
Yahoo finance article
Thanks to China Perspective for the tip
Posted by shak at 9:35 AM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2005
RED is the new BLACK
Me being up with the latest fashions and trends (not).
I would like to publicly say that in my opinion Red is the new Black, and take that further by saying that a brand such as Shanghai Tang will within 5 years be up there with the best of the best and NOT far off from brands such as Louis Vuitton, GUCCI, Prada and the like.
Mark my uneducated words ...
Posted by shak at 4:10 PM | Comments (1)
November 17, 2005
Google adds 5th reseller in China
Pacific Epoch have a breaking story on Google adding a 5th reseller in China.
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) named its fifth Chinese advertising reseller on Thursday, reports Sina. The new agent will be Beijing based Splendor Technology, which has been an agent for 3721's real name service and Yahoo China's paid ranking service. Splendor will be responsible for selling Google's AdWords service in Beijing, and the license is effective for one year starting on October 1.
So here's some facts and info you may NOT know about Google and it's Chinese reseller model.
Google already has 4 resellers
Search Resellers in China typically work on anything between 20% > 45% agency/reseller comission (3721/Yahoo/Baidu have been heard to pay this much in the past)
Google resellers are regionally based if I am correct, so a reseller in Beijing can only pitch Chinese clients in their regional area, so a client in Shanghai could NOT work with a reseller in Beijing.
These resellers are typically very aggresive outbound call centres and NOT search specialists from my limited exposure.
Resellers in China like to sell CPC ads, on a CPM basis or even on a monthly tenancy model as Online advertising here is still very much NON measured and therefore similar to tradional media along the lines of fixed term placement in a magazine or portal home page.
Baidu are currently working aggresively on their Self service model such as Google's adwords to tackle global clients, whilst Google are headed down reseller route to get local clients.
Posted by shak at 4:39 PM | Comments (1)
Cars in China
Ever since I was a little boy, I have been very passionate about cars, and luckily I have managed to own or drive some lovely machines in my time. So coming to China was quite a shock when the only Car I get to sit in over the last few months is a VW Santana which kinda looks like a 1980s Audi gone wrong and is the most uncomfortable car to 1) sit in and 2) try and get in or out of ...
So yesterday morning at 7.30am on my way to Adtech Shanghai, I managed to hail 1 of the few VW Passat taxis around (probably a 1.9 diesel), however sitting in this car I honestly felt like a king or lord of the manor, it could have been a Rolls Royce, Bentley or a Mercedes S600 for all I cared.
Absolutely amazing how the mind gets adjusted and climatised to something so quickly, and how just a little change can make all the difference.
Posted by shak at 6:18 AM | Comments (2)
November 14, 2005
Comparison Shopping comes to China
The launch makes Smarter.com the first US comparison-shopping search engine to be available in the world's three largest Internet markets by user numbers, Japan, China and the US, the company said in a statement.
'We believe Asia represents a huge growth opportunity for Smarter.com, and we are prepared to invest substantial resources to become market leaders in both China and Japan,' said the company's co-founder, Harry Tsao.
This is gonna be very interesting to watch indeed.
I met up for lunch with Harry Tsao 2 weeks ago and was also shown their control centre in Shanghai, pretty impressive stuff, Harry is also speaking at Adtech Shanghai tomorrow on the paid search panel which I am hosting.
Posted by shak at 4:41 PM | Comments (0)
The Chinese Dream
The Foreigners want to learn Chinese, whilst the Chinese want to learn English.
The Foreigners want to get Chinese boyfriends/girlfriends, whilst the Chinese want to have Western boyfriends/girlfreinds.
The Foreigners want to sample local cuisine, whils the Chinese want to go to McDonalds or Pizza Hut.
The $1 a day rural labourer wants to go London or New York, whilst the Foreigner wants to go to the rural workers village to experience real China.
The Foreigner wants to go dancing in a Chinese disco/club/ktv, whilst the Chinese want to go to where they play Mylo, Moby and Michael Jackson.
The Foreigner wants the local tailor made shirt or suit with no label or brand, the Chinese want the most expensive one with the biggest LOGO showing POLO, NIKE, Puma, Lacoste etc etc.
...
All I want is a Mars Bar
Posted by shak at 9:52 AM | Comments (3)
November 11, 2005
AdTech Shanghai Tip Sheet
Adtech Shanghai takes place (15th/16th and 17th November)
Sitting here and thinking of ways to kill my maid, I thought I should do something useful instead such as a little tip sheet for the folks flying into Shanghai and the Peoples Republic of China for the first time...
Arrival at Airport:
Make Sure you have a VISA (quite obvious) but many people forget they need a Visa to enter China.
Go to the ATM in customs clearance hall (basically the 1st machine you see) and get your Chinese Currency (RMB) as the machines outside in Arrivals and Departures have very long queues (always).
Have the name of you Hotel in Chinese ready to give to the Taxi driver, He/She will NOT speak English, not even if you speak real slow like (H I L T O N - H O T E L), alternatively dial the Hotel and when they answer ask them to explain to the Taxi driver where he needs to go.
Getting Around:
Always have a business card for your hotel to show Taxi drivers, always always always ...
Only your Chinese currency is any good here (they do not accept $ or £ or any other money)
Keep away from dodgy looking guys offering "DVD, Rolex and Massageeeee".
Places/Things you should try and see (ask Concierge for help)
Shanghai Museum
Shanghai Urban Planning Museum
Jinmao Tower Observation point on 88th floor (i think)
Shanghai Old Town
Xintiandi
French Concession Area
Maglev (bullet train)
Bund Pedestrian Tunnel (best done whilst high on LSD)
Fabric Market
XiangYang Market (fake items galore)
Starbucks
Things to remember:
Carry lots and lots of Business Cards at all times.
China is quite safe, but use common sense at all times (if it sounds too god to be true, it usually is)
Register for www.chinahelpline.com it may save you many headaches.
Don't talk about politics with the locals please.
Do NOT use SMS from you international cellphone to send a message to a local phone, it simply won't work, always do voice calls, repeat do NOT use SMS in China, very unreliable for international > local.
Entertainment/Nightlife:
Face Bar in Ruijin Park (bar)
881 South Beauty (restaurant and bar)
Shintori (Japapnese food)
Azul (Spanish Tapas)
Sachas (bar where lots of foreigners hang out)
People 7 (kick axx bar next to Shintori)
MINT (Nightclub playing House music)
Bar Rouge (Best club in Shanghai)
Dragon Club (after hours club for when you leave MINT or Bar Rouge)
Element Fresh (best healthy lunch)
Check Smart Shanghai website listed below for latest in Food, Drink and Dancing, it's the ultimate guide to Shanghai.
Useful websites:
www.shanghaiexpat.com
www.shanghaiist.com
www.smartshanghai.com
www.chinahelpline.com
www.chinasnippets.com
www.chinabloglist.org
www.wangjianshuo.com
--------------------
Hope the above is of some use, I'll keep comments open in case anyone wants to share some knowledge or you have any specific questions re Shanghai and Adtech
UPDATE:
Do NOT tip anyone, yes my American cousins, TIP NObody please.
Buffet Lunch at the Yi Cafe @ Shangri-La in Pudong takes a lot of beating in my opinion, especially as you can sample from 10 different kitchens all for 198 rmb per person.
For advice on places NOT listed above, feel free to pass a 100 rmb note in my hand followed by a wink and I'll be glad to help out with any information you need ;)
UPDATE 2:
If you do get lost, bear the following in mind "Your hotel is 3-4 minutes away from the following: Telecom Tower, Shangri-La and Jinmao Tower", by getting to any of these places you will nearly be home safe and sound.
Shanghai Tang is a must for a gift for a loved one, they have a number of branches in Shanghai, but the closest is inside the Shangri-La Hotel.
Posted by shak at 7:52 AM | Comments (9)
November 9, 2005
AliBaba launch Yahoo China as a search brand
China's largest e-commerce company, announced today the re-launch of Yahoo! China, with a new home page and business model focused on search. As part of the re-launch, Yahoo! China's search brands, including Yisou.com, have been consolidated and rebranded as "Yahoo! Search".
"Yahoo! China's new direction can be summed up in one key word --
'search'," said Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba.com, which in October acquired the China business of Yahoo! Inc. and became the exclusive licensee to the Yahoo! brand and search technology in China.
Looks like the fun in China is about to begin, Jack Ma and his team don't mess about when it to comes to the web in China, in fact Mr Jack is known as the Father of the internet in the PRC.
UPDATE:
"Yahoo has eight months to become a better search engine than Baidu or Yahoo will have a hard time surviving in China, said Alibaba CEO Jack Ma, whose company took over all of Yahoo's China-based assets in August.
"Honestly, when we took Yahoo search, it was not good, and today it's not good. This is why we are here, to make it better," said Ma. If we don't move fast, within 8-10 months, we won't have any chance."
Posted by shak at 4:29 PM
Book Review: One Billion Customers
Nearly 3 weeks after attending the book signing of One Billion Customers by James McGregor, I have finally completed the book cover to cover.
The book is a MUST read for anyone even remotely considering doing business in China, everything from Governments to Gangsters, Cover up's to Corruption and Shanghai to Stock Prices is covered in the book.
There are many books on the market today talking about doing business in China, and I suppose they all have a unique angle, this one however goes a lot further to give a clear picture of how China is where it's at in 2005 for foreigners looking to make a $ or two here.
Go get it I say.
One Billion Customers
Amazon Book Page
Posted by shak at 12:47 PM
November 8, 2005
Baidu is NOT for sale !!!
Lately I have been meeting many people who are active in the Chinese web space in terms of having had a number of start-ups or holding senior positions (CEOs, CFOs) of large Internet companies here.
Naturally the topic turns to Google / Baidu and the small revenue generated by Baidu to justify their huge market cap and this being based on the predicted growth of paid search in China.
My own view up until now has been that Google should acquire Baidu, as Baidu has end user reach and Google has the advertisers, so it's a match made in heaven in my book, and so far Baidu has made NO effort to target NON Chinese speaking advertisers let alone NON chinese speaking users, and a lot of their advertisrs come from the chinese reseller route.
I am however hearing the same message over and over again in China.
Baidu is NOT for sale !
I let you work out your own reasons why this is the case, the clue is in the fact that 1 company is Chinese and 1 isn't!
Posted by shak at 11:36 AM | Comments (3)
November 7, 2005
A day out visiting Factories ouside Shanghai
So what's a guy involved in the online marketing space doing visiting factories 2 hours away in what you could large villages with very little communication or web access.
The answer is simple, "why not"
As a foreigner in China for business reasons, I see NO reason why I should limit my learning of chinese culture, business and industry strictly to the Online sector.
So last week at 8am My self and 2 friends in a hired car with driver for the day headed out to visit 4 factories where they make a certain product/s for an industry which is booming back in the west.
It was a very interesting and informative day, and visiting "Chinese factories" is an amazing experience, Health and Saefty guidelines are outta the window, staff get around $100 a month for 12 hour / 6 day working weeks, and the bosses get drive round in Porsche Cayennes and Range Rovers.
Some of the scenes kinda hinted at what I assume UK factories must have been like 30/40 years ago bfore manufacturing took a back seat or started getting outsourced to foreign lands with cheap labour and no union issues.
What was quite interesting is summarised below:
a, the prices quoted in the factories for the respective products were at least 50% off the prices we had been quoted about 8 weeks ago when we first started researching this industry via sources at trade show exhibitions.
b, there was NO way we as foreigners we would have even found that these factories existed or been able to make appointments in the first place without our OWN chinese guy who is a friend from back in the UK, and getting to these remote villages etc took a lot of hard work with directions such "turn right at the big tree, where the old lady used to sell Fish in the mornings etc etc", so Joe Public who comes to Shanghai for a trade show will never make it out this far unless he has very very good contacts who want him tio make money.
c, we had been meeting some so called factory owners in Shanghai and had even been to their workshops, only to discover they were in fact trading companies using these factories and just acting as a front man/woman and adding their 20/30% mark up for the privilige of speaking a tiny bit of EngRish and a nicer office.
d, contrary to popular belief and what I call "China syndrome", every thing does NOT cost $1 or £1, and price varies on the quality you want, everythins is available in "High, Medium and Low" quality.
e, Chinese companies could even make more money, attract more western clients and maybe become cheaper if they implemented western methods such as better inventory control, work flow systems, English speaking secretaries etc etc
f, the confrence room had a washroom attached, however it had 2 squat down toilets side by side with NO partition, and this still puzzles me as to their purpose ...
and that was my day out visiting factories...
Posted by shak at 12:51 PM
November 5, 2005
Chinese Blogger Conference '05
It's 7.16am on a cold rainy Saturday morning in Shanghai and after having slept for just 2 hours, I am showered, shaved ready to go attend the 1st ever Chinese Blogger Conference.
Should be fun ... wll report back...
Chinese Blogger Conference '05
UPDATE:
a great conference round up and summary by Micah
Posted by shak at 7:16 AM | Comments (2)
November 4, 2005
Targeted Taxi Advertising
Sitting in a Taxi on the Elevated Highway of Shanghai yesterday afternoon and looking at the LCD screen in the headrest in front of me blasting Chinese advertisements got me thinking...
"Imagine if these ads could be targeted to just Foreigners (laowais), it would be the perfect tool to promote a product or service to the 1/2 million or so Foreigners living here, perfectly targeted and no waste of inventory if your product/service was generic such as a restaurant or legal service etc etc"
Over the next 15 minutes I got very excited about this as I have been thinking about a project for the foreigners in Shanghai, and this would be the PERFECT way to market the product, make my millions and go retire, and as I was keen to get moving on this ASAP I decided to call Aidan Sullivan, CEO of i-level Media Group www.i-levelmedia.com a company who are leaders in this kind of digital media advertising...
Me = Aidan, I have this idea and wanted to run it past you, can I target ads in the taxis you control to Foreigners, non chinese aka white people (no racism intended)
Aidan = You want to target ads to JUST foreigners ?
Me = Yes, simple, when a foreigner gets in the Taxi the driver just flicks a switch and the ad is targeted at the Western/Foreign person.
Aidan = Feasible, yes but highly unlikely that you could persuade the taxi drivers to do so in China or elsewhere.
Me = Oh ok, not as easy as I thought then, so what ya reckon, we a few
months/years away from this ?
Aidan = Interactivity will be the first step whereby the ADU (Advertising Display Unit) can recognize inputs from the passenger by means of input prompts and then analyzing the findings to generate advertising/content based on those findings. This will allow targeting down to a group level. Interactivity is possible now by means of touch screen technology and other user interfaces however it is yet to be economically viable in China yet but we are only a few years away.
At the end of the day it will all be determined by simple economics ie when the revenue can cover the cost associated with the addition of the added functions.
So with this in mind I phone another contact of mine in Beijing and run the idea past him, and his answer (in bold for impact and level of decibels through my cellphone"
"In a country of 1.3 billion customers, why are you even thinking about limiting your whole business model to just 500,000 ( 0.0005% ) of the population?"
I am sure there is a lesson in the above, but as I am sure you can imagine Living in China and thinking like you are back in UK and USA just dont work. I am not sure where I am going with this post, but thought I'd share it anyhow
Posted by shak at 12:07 PM
Some data on who visits this site.
A few sites I visit every once in a while publish data from their stats package, so I thought why not copy them and see what the result for Chinawhite is:
a, 5 interesting keywords used to find this site
Alibaba IPO
Why ebay must win china
Pictures of chinese girls dancing in nightclub
Johnny Chou
Chinese housewife blog
b, 5 random countries/Ip ranges showing where visitors were
Kazakhstan
US Government
Bolivia
Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Seychelles
NOT quite sure what to make of this, but hey, any data is better than NO data right ?
Posted by shak at 6:32 AM | Comments (1)
November 3, 2005
Diet Coke sir or Coke Light ?
Just so you know, it's just NOT me who thinks some of the stuff here is just plain crazy
She is the Dopey Crew Member, you know the one who takes orders a lot slower than everybody else, and looks like she chows down on far too many leftover cheeseburgers after work so she is pretty chunky.
(make sure you read the comments to get a clearer perspective)
Posted by shak at 9:55 PM
November 2, 2005
China gears up for e-commerce boom
For e-commerce execs, this place looks like the mother lode, but there is just one hitch -- China has a notoriously fragmented banking system.
China's top three banks currently do not meet the recently released online payment requirements.
Posted by shak at 4:57 PM
"Space Ibiza / Shanghai" real or fake ?
Weekend gone saw the grand opening of "Space Disco Shanghai" on the back of the legendary "Space Ibiza" which is regarded as 1 of the top 10 clubs in the world (I just made that figure up, but it reads good).
So at 3am after having visited 7 other clubs, I finally decided to go take a look for research purposes, and here is what I have to report:
Venue is Huge, but very far from Downtown Shanghai, a 30 minute cab ride is the quickest way to get there.
Interesting crowd of local chinese getting jigEEE with it, foreigners pretending they are in Ibiza, and Chinese Businessmen types smoking cigars and wondering what the hell is this.
Personally speaking I doubt this club will be a success, as its not promoted well, and way too distant for most folks to travel to.
One very important thing that I do want to mention:
Is this actually a RIPoff from the Club in Ibiza or the real deal ?
the way it has been promoted makes it look like the spanish are involved, however part of me thinks that some local chinese ended up in Ibiza and thought, this looks good, let's rip it.
Apologies if I have got it wrong, and I'd be keen to hear views from others, because if my theory is correct, then you gotta love this place :)
Space Shanghai
Smart Shanghai Review
Space Ibiza Website
I see no mention of the Shanghai club on their main site and have emailed them asking for clarification.
Posted by shak at 10:48 AM | Comments (1)
An Interesting few days
Last Friday I decided to head into Rural China and go visit some factories with some friends of mine, a very interesting experience indeed, and I shall do a post when they send me the pictures over.
That aside, I have been laid up with a very bad case of the FLU for the last few days, and nearly got on a plane to London to go recover in homely surroundings, but then decided I should stop being a little girl and act like a man.
However imagine how you'd feel if you finally make it to the Hospital where the clinic is, only to find that there are 100s of people waiting to use the lift, so I thought, screw it, I'll walk the 15 floors to the clinic, and when I arrive there 10 minutes later, I am told that I am in the wrong building (aaarrrggghhh).
Staying at home has revealed some interesting things, Our AYI (maid) obviously uses this place as her own little penthouse, as today I saw her come out of the bathroom with her hair wet, so am assuming she uses it to bathe every day, just aswell we are moving or I would have words in my broken Chinese, but a far more suitable punishment is being unemployed in my book, talk about taking the XXXX . I'd say My flatmate and I are the most laidback guys around and never demand anything of her that we would not do ourself, and this is how you get rewarded. mistaking kindness for weakness ...
Ranting Over, now i know what people mean when they say "I am having a China Day"
Posted by shak at 8:30 AM