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March 30, 2006
Red , Amber or Green
Considering I have been here nearly 6 months, you would think I would have worked out how to cross the road.
For the life of me, every day is a challenge crossing the road, so I am hoping someone out there can possibly give an explanation of
RED
AMBER
GREEN
Seems to me the rule here is a bit strange, especially when it comes to Green, now you'd imagine, it' nice and safe to cross right ?
NO, it ain't, as I find there is always either a Taxi Driver or an Electric Cycle (silent death) trying to aim exactly for my beloved life, and if that wasn't bad enough, there is also a guy with a piano or 9 million cardboard boxes on his trolley trying his luck in achieving the goal at the same time.
For those of you living here, I am sure you know exactly what I mean, and for those who haven't been, the only advice I can give is "when you see a green light, maybe you can cross, maybe you can not"
end of rant ...
Posted by shak at 12:37 PM | Comments (1)
China's search engine industry faces a sharp slowdown in the coming 18 months
An interesting article by Analysis International.
"China's search engine industry will face a sharp slowdown in the coming 18 months." said Edward Yu, CEO of Analysys International, at the Search Engine Symposium held in Nanjing, China, on March 17, 2006. "The actual performance of search engines is far from people's high expectations. Poor user experience, unstable advertising effects, and some irregular channel operations make the small and midsize enterprise customers of search engines suspicious of this new kind of advertising, which will lead to a slowdown in the growth of the search engine industry." explained Yu.
Well worth a read, sums it up nicely in a few hundred words.
Posted by shak at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)
March 28, 2006
Return of the 100 RMB
About 3 weeks ago, 3 friends of mine (all self made guys) arrived in Shanghai for a long weekend of partying, debauchery and basically to see how I was getting along.
Now these 3 guys are pretty smart and I have known 2 of them for about 10 years and done many a deal with them.
On their first day after pick up at Airport and settling them into their hotel, I ask them to meet me in Downtown Puxi at 7pm for dinner and advise them to take a Taxi and that the fare should be about 32 rmb from their hotel.
At 7.30pm they finally arrive and settle down, and when I ask how was the Taxi ride, they comment very nice and the fare was 35 RMB, BUT, as I had only give them 100 RMB notes, and the Driver had NO change, they decided to give him the whole 100 RMB.
In other words, on their first day in China, they got Shanghai'd :)
So basically I have spent the last 20 days or so, reclaiming this 65 RMB from taxi drivers around town, whenever my fare has been say 11 or 12 RMB, by making up excuses like I have NO change or only have 10 RMB master etc etc, and finally this morning I hit it big by getting the last 4 RMB back in 1 hit.
I can now safely get on with my life knowing that I have now reclaimed what was rightfully mine from day 1.
Moral of the story ? Who Knows (just thought you might want to read about it)
Posted by shak at 8:58 AM | Comments (4)
March 27, 2006
The best Blog in China
I know I have said it before, but I will say it again.
TalkTalkChina is by far the best blog in China that tells it as it is, as far as I am concerned.
Go Take a look
(btw guys, next time in Shanghai, please allow me to treat you to a drink)
Posted by shak at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2006
Ask Matsume
Now this is something I have to share.
My lovely hairdresser Miss Matsume has started her very own "Ask Matsume" column on one of Shanghai's most famous expat/entertainment websites, it's kinda an agony aunt thing on the web, and a great read if you ask me.
Go take a look, not for the faint hearted!
Posted by shak at 6:11 AM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2006
Google Dance in China
Just returned from the 1st ever Google Dance which has held as the only official party for SES Nanjing.
Must say it was very impressive, lots of Googlers and Googlettes there to answer questions, lots of people and plenty of food and good music.
It's amazing that if it weren't for the nationalities being different, Google staff all around the world are real cool people and kinda come from the same family.
Obviously it was in no way as big as the San Jose bash every year at the plex, but for a city like nanjing, job well done.
and b4 you ask, NO, I did not take the wrong bus, fall asleep and end up in the wrong city 100km's away ;)
Posted by shak at 10:42 PM | Comments (2)
Keynote Speeches and Day 1 at SES
The morning went along smoothly with 2 keynotes, 1 by Johnny Chou (president of Google China) and 1 by Jack Ma (Ceo of Alibaba and Yahoo China), these 2 guys along with Robin Li (Ceo of Baidu, and not present) are probably the 3 most powerful in Search in China in 2006.
Johnny Chou did his session in English and came across as another Googler, very passionate about the company and his 0000s of co workers around the world, he outlined Googles vision for China as part of their global strategy along with the huge opportunity offered here in an emerging search marketplace where Paid Listings is still in its infancy.
Jack Ma was a pleasure to watch (and started of by saying he was going to speak in Chinese which recieved a round of applause), he made some interesting comments, especially involving a story where he said "on my first visit to the USA, I got kidnapped", this is a new 1 for me as I had never heard of this event before, unfortunatley as is common in China, the questions being asked by Chris Sherman were not necessarily the 1s being answered here if you get my drift, a lot of the session involved mentions of Google, eBay and Baidu, and specifically Jack's view that the WEB and Search in China is NOT the same as in the West when it comes to user behaviour and expections. I must say that Jack Ma carries enormous respect amongst the Chinese people and especially the folks involved in the web industry, no wonder these guys can get stuff done here and probably why Yahoo made the move to team up with Jack last year.
Posted by shak at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)
The Journey to SES in Nanjing
Well I finally made it to Nanjing for the 1st ever SES in China.
3 hours of standing in a cabin with hard seats is certainly an experience which I had never expected on this trip, that said, the hotel is pretty cool even though it's a local Chinese place rather than a main chain like Hilton or Hyatt,
Speaking a bit of broken chinese sure makes life easier these days, requests or demands which a few months would have drawn blank faces, now are resolved in a speedy manner most of the time, and even the impossible is no longer impossible, a joke here and a cigarette there can make all the difference in China in my opinion.
a few of the usual suspects from SES have made the journey, namely Mike Grehan and Bill Hunt, along with a lot of people who I also met at Adtech Shanghai in autumn of 2005.
A nite out in Nanjing was sure fun, and we managed to make it back in 1 piece to our hotel after visiting some bars and clubs in downtown Nanjing, it sure ain't Shanghai however it's a lot more advanced then what I assumed, and this is enhanced by the fact that there are no way as many foreigners here, and you sure stand out.
So far so good, apart from the normal hiccups of any event being organised in China.
Posted by shak at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)
March 6, 2006
Cuctomer Service
Who says Customer Service is non-existant in China ?
probably guys like Me and every other foreigner who has experienced some level of CS in their life, even if it's the word SORRY when they get things wrong, or PLEASE when asking for something.
However this Weekend all that changed.
I got back home Saturday Night / Sunday Morning at around 2.30am and decided that since body clock was still on UK time, that maybe I should surf the web and look for some apartments since our lease is up for renewal in a few weeks.
So I spend about 30 minutes on Craigslist Shanghai and ShanghaiExpat looking at classified ads, a few took my fancy but 1 company kept having nice properties shown along with correct English spelling and descriptions. I decide at 3am to submit a query form with my needs (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms etc) and hit the submit button.
At 3.15am my cellphone rings with a not known Shanghai number, so I am thinking it must either be A) a friend who is so drunk that he has lost his money or his mind OR B) a member of the opposite sex wondering where I am ?
To my shock it's the Real Estate agent from the company who I had just submitted my query to for an apartment.
Folks, this is 3.15am on a Sunday Morning that the guy calls me, so after a few strong explicit lyrics from me, his defense is "We are a true 24 hour service company".
Now strange things happen here everyday, but even the most hardened expats and crazy Chinese can't believe this could take place.
Only in China eh !
Posted by shak at 10:39 PM | Comments (2)