May 19th, 2008 — aggregate, society
How to donate for Sichuan China in the earthquake? All informations below are copied from: CNRviews.com：
photo (h/t ifgogo.com, zuosa.com)
There has been a tremendous outpouring of energy from the blogosphere and on Twitter to determine the best way to help out. This post provides a guide to how you can donate toward China earthquake relief efforts. We’ve now compiled over 35+ ways to give. Please add comments and links and I will keep this post updated. A SlideShare version of this post was also created by Oliver Ding.
I. Red Cross and various conduits
There is widespread consensus that donating to the Red Cross is the most reliable way to provide immediate disaster relief. Tuesday night BJ time, Bill Bishop (Niubi) hosted an auction with 15 mostly Chinese friends, and the consensus was the best way to give is to provide funds directly to the Sichuan provincial Red Cross. The next best option would be to give to the national Red Cross of China.
“With how much media attention is given, [people believe there will be] lot less graft than in the past. This is unprecedented media coverage in China,” said Bill. “We are watching the evolution of the Chinese government before our eyes. Ideally, so much coverage and press will provide less opportunity for graft” and more funds reach the victims.
CNReviews believes that the unprecendented press coverage, including that of the state agencies, is helping people overcome fears that their funds will be misused. There is some discussion that international aid agencies believe the Chinese crisis is being relatively well handled compared to Myanmar such that they should shift their focus to Myanmar.
1. Red Cross Society of China
Details on Shanghaiist, Reuters (h/t @Chinafubar), China Crossroads, and Alibaba (EN):
- RMB wire instructions
- foreign currency wire instructions
- hotline
- Note: many people have reported problems with their Website.
1.5 Chinese Red Cross Foundation (in Chinese)
Details on IfGoGo.com
2. Red Cross Society of China Chengdu City
3. American Red Cross
CNReviews interview with Christy Feig, Director of International Communications, American Red Cross, 5/13.
Post is coming soon. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
Q: Is there a way to make a directed donation toward China specifically?
A: Yes. If you would like to designate your donation to the earthquake please visit our website at www.redcross.org or call 1-800 RED CROSS. If you would prefer to donate to all our international disaster response, the option of giving to the International Response Fund is also available.
Q: Does 100% of funds donated pass to the Red Cross Society of China?
A: The American Red Cross takes donor intent very seriously. As a policy, no more than 9% of donated money is used for management expenses…the rest goes toward the designation.
Based on my interview, I feel comfortable donating to the American Red Cross with a specific designation to China. For more info, go to the American Red Cross website.
4. Canadian Red Cross (h/t China Web 2.0 blog)
A separate fund has been established for the China earthquake, according to China Web 2.0 blog.
4.3 British Red Cross (h/t sichunlam.com)
4.5 Hong Kong Red Cross (h/t IfGoGo.com Donation Guide)
5. Jet Li One Foundation (Outside China)
From China Web 2.0 blog:
You can make donation via Paypal to Jet Li One Foundation, a charity foundation by Kung Fu movie star Jet Li. The donations will goes to Red Cross Society of China. The page is all in Chinese, but I think you can find the Paypal button on the right. But it seems you cannot specify the donation is special for earthquake when paying through Paypal
6. Jet Li One Foundation (Inside China) (h/t China Web 2.0 blog)
- via Taobao with Alipay or Tenpay account
- or via QQ
II. Other Aid Organizations
7. China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) or China Fupin Foundation
中国扶贫基金会 (Beijing)
Donate RMB
* Account Name: 中国扶贫基金会
* Account Number: 8145-11681908091001
* Bank Name and Banch: 中国银行北京科技会展中心支行
Donate Clothes and Food, etc
* Address: Floor 5, South Building, Shuangyuxili, Haidian, Beijing |北京市海淀区双榆树西里36号南楼五层
* Tel: 010-62655199
* Working hour: 8:30am - 9pm
8. Shanghai Charity Foundation
上海慈善基金会
website: http://scf.88547.com/home/
Donate RMB
* Account Name: 上海市慈善基金会
* Account Number: 033351-00043984343
* Bank Name and Banch: 农行黄浦区陆家浜路支行
Donate Clothes and Food, etc
* SCF HQ: Floor 6, 88 Zhiizaoju Rd. 制造局路88号6楼 |62584343、63124091
* SCF Logistics Center (Puxi): No. 164, # 405 Lane, Zhengning Rd.| 镇宁路405弄164号 52394294
* SCF Logistics Center (Pudong): 2795 Middle Yanggao Rd |杨高中路2795号 62124343
* SCF Education Aid Dept: 80 Shanxibei Rd.| 陕西北路80号 62560695
Working hour: 9am - 9pm (Monday - Sunday)
9. China Women Development Foundation (with Sohu.com)
中国妇女发展基金会
Website: http://www.cwdf.org.cn
Donate RMB or foreign currencies via bank transfer。
- Account Name:中国妇女发展基金会
- Bank:中国工商银行北京市分行东四南支行
- Account Number: 0200001009014423956
- Remarks: 抗震救灾捐款 Donate for Sichuan Earthquake Relief
The foundation will mail you the receipt afterwards. And the report (in Chinese) also says the donation is tax-refundable. But the detail process didn’t include.
10. China Children & Teenagers Fund (CCTF, 中国少年儿童基金会)
Website: http://www.cctf.org.cn/English/index.htm
CCTF has formed a charity foundation for earthquake relief with with China Merchant Bank (CMB). Source from Sohu.
- Account Number：0582626510001
- Account Name：中国儿童少年基金会
- Bank：招商银行北京分行长安街支行
You might also find regular international donation information to CCTF here with SWIF code.
11. World Vision
Through World Vision, I’ve sponsored one child in Tanzania for 10+ years, and one child in Kenya for 1+ years, so I know World Vision well.
Interviewed Jeff Wright, Sr. Program Officer for Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs, 5/13
Blog post coming soon, but here’s a quick synopsis:
- World Vision has been operating in China since 1962. Operating legally with some kind of government approval
- Primary country office in Beijing, with support office in Hong Kong, and regional offices in Yunnan, Gansu, and Shaanxi provinces
- Has existing national offices with large local Chinese staff
- Staff is not full-time focused on disaster recovery, but serving in other development projects like HIV/AIDS and agriculture, but all have training in disaster response
- World Vision has sought to be effective through “pre-positioning” of three key assets: people, relief supplies/materials, and funding.
- Funds have already been set aside to provide rapid relief
- Clear and stringent operational guidelines for WorldVision volunteers or employees to directly deliver aid to the victim or “end user”
12. Care for Children (CFC)
China consultancy Dezan Shira has been supporting this organization (h/t This is China! blog). On the Dezan Shira blog, China Briefing, they write:
CFC works with the Sichuan and Chengdu Civil Affairs government for disadvantaged children in: Chengdu, Guangyuan, Deyang, Zamtang, Maoxian, Neijiang, Zigong, Bazhong, Mianyang and Yibin in Sichuan Province in addition to Chongqing City.
On this difficult occasion we would like to ask our subscribers, readers, and other members of the China blogging and business community to rally together and show their support of the Chinese children caught up in this disaster by making a donation, no matter how large or small, to CFC in assistance of their regional work. All money raised will be directed to support children and their families affected by the earthquake.
13. PledgeBank challenge (h/t Rconversation)
Rebecca MacKinnon (at Rconversation) is challenging people via Facebook and Twitter to sign her PledgeBank to commit to giving. I signed up for this. Here’s what she recommends:
14. Global Giving (h/t ChristineLu.com)
Global Giving is a 501(c)3 tax-deductable organization that highlights vetted projects.
15. Mercy Corps (listed in Global Giving, IfGoGo.com)
16. Half the Sky Foundation
III. Other Sources
China Crossroads
Richard Brubaker’s China Crossroads blog lists a number of other options. I added links and tried to conform names to the official names (but might have guessed wrong):
17. China Charity Foundation (same as 28 below?)
18. Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)
19. China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF) (wikipedia)
20. Project Hope China (wikipedia) or 21. Project Hope US
- Mercy Corps (see above)
- Habitat 4 Humanity (Only if they announce China program)
22. Donating via China Mobile (Inside China)
According to the Mukokuseki blog (@Papajohn):
One of my coworkers sent a fast and easy way to donate money to the relief efforts ongoing in Sichuan province. If you have a China Mobile phone, just text a number between 1 and 30 to 10699988, and the corresponding amount will be deducted from your China Mobile account balance and donated. I just tried it and got this message in response:
成功捐款30元。感谢您对地震灾区奉献爱心，我们相信爱心将驱走灾难带来的黑暗，使他们迅速从废墟中勇敢地重新站立起来。询01065630527。
It’s nice to see ubiquitous technology put to work for a good cause.
23. Isaac Mao
Isaac is working on identifying an NGO to support. More on this later.
24. Douban: 目前为止所有捐助方式汇总
More donor resources here
25. Contribute to Red Cross via Yeepay (inside China)
26. Doron Vermaat of NewChinaCareer.com
We have uploaded several banners to the homepage of NewChinaCareer asking our visitors to support emergency relief efforts to help those affected by this earthquake. We currently link these banners directly to the donation form of the Red Cross website: American Red Cross China Earthquake relief fund.
IfGoGo.com Donation Guide
The blogging team at IfGoGo.com has also listed many other options. I’ve integrated their suggestions above wherever possible. Here are some more suggestions from them:
27. Chinese Consulate in New York (for US givers)
- see Method 1 on IfGoGo for instructions
- method: via US check
- address provided
- phone number provided
- Consulate website (in Chinese)
28. China Charity Foundation
- see Method 4 on IfGoGo for instructions
- also mentioned by China Crossroads (see above)
- wire instructions provided
- China Charity website (in Chinese)
29. OxFam Hong Kong
30. Bullog via PayPal
- see Method 8 on IfGoGo
- IfGoGo: “Bullog, a famous right-wing web forum in China, founded by Yonghao Luo.”
- online donation link
31. MITBBS
- see Method 9 on IfGoGo
- MITBBS website
- PayPal instructions provided on IfGoGo
- Note from IfGoGo on tax deductability: “Note that MITBBS/Bullog are both popular and high-ranked BBSs among Chinese community, they are doing everything they can do to help the victims in the earthquake, but keep in mind that they are not a non-profit/tax free agency. [If you want a tax-exempt receipt. this might not be a good choice]”
32. Silicon Valley Tsinghua Network (on IfGoGo as SVNT)
33. 1kg.org (h/t Web 2.0 Review)
- main website
- CNReviews profile of Andrew Yu and 1kg
- relief special website (Chinese)
- Web 2.0 Review description: “1kg has set up a special site to offer relief efforts, including collecting information about schools in epicenter, organizing relief activities, and helping to provide necessary resource to rebuild schools”
34. Library Project (h/t co-blogger @DavidFeng at CityWeekend’s Beijingologist blog)
- Library Project homepage
- Library Project China Earthquake project page
- description from the project page: “The Library Project has created a program, “Project: Earthquake Relief”, to help rebuild the educational system that was affected as a result of the earthquake. It is projected that hundreds of elementary schools have been damaged in the Sichuan and Shaanxi Provinces. The Library Project will be providing educational resources for the displaced children attending temporary schools.”
35. Samaritan’s Purse
People’s Daily (h/t Shanghaiist) announces Franklin Graham donation:
American evangelist Franklin Graham yesterday donated 2 million yuan ($285,000) to help the victims of the Wenchuan earthquake.The CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, established by and named after his father, and the international Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse, said from Shanghai that in the days and weeks ahead, he and his organizations will do all they can to help.
36. Give2Asia / Committee of 100 Earthquake Relief Fund (h/t Cup of Cha)
37. AmeriCares (h/t @ChrisBrogan)
38. Jackie Chan Charities China Earthquake Fund (h/t shuaijiao.tv)
39. Tzu Chi Foundation (h/t Kevin @ Stanford)
- From Kevin: The Tzu Chi Foundation is an international humanitarian NGO with experience in disaster relief and reconstruction, particularly in Asia. Volunteers are already on the ground in Sichuan distributing aid, including blankets, food and medicine, and it is one of the few groups the PRC government has authorized to bring in outside aid workers (from Taiwan). It coordinated with the Red Cross and others to bring in two planes of relief supplies to Chengdu.
- Tzu Chi Foundation website (English)
- Tzu Chi Foundation website (Chinese)
- credit card hotline, check, and wire transfer instructions on the website
40. Beijing Bookworm donation drive (Jenny Niven)
Chinese Websites helping collect donations online (h/t ChinaVortex)
ChinaVortex highlights the following websites making online donations easy for Chinese:
- Tianya
- Shanda
- The9
- Giant Interactive
IV. SlideShare, Badges and Widgets
Oliver Ding
Oliver created a SlideShare version of this post. See more here.
Lost Laowai
Get the embed code to add a badge like this:
Lost Laowai embed code here
POPOEVER
See POPOEVER Flickr set “Help China Earth Quake Refugees”
More to come…last updated 5/15 10:35 pm BJ time
Tags:
charity,
donation,
earthquake
May 17th, 2008 — aggregate, society, users
From Tangos:
Regarding tsunami of late 2004, Richard MacManus of Read/Write Web has summarized three ways that people used the Web in response to the disaster:
1) as a constantly updated source of news about the disaster;
2) as a way for ordinary people to respond emotionally;
3) and probably most importantly, to organize aid efforts.
In this post, we try to collect the ways how Chinese Internet users take the web to provide news updates and offer relief efforts.
Source of news. At the beginning of the earthquake, we can only rely on main stream media and web portals to get news about the quake. But when more and more rescuers and volunteers reached the epicenter to offer help, much more user generated content can be found online, which enable us to know more about the aftermath.
You can easily find many photos and text reports by users in Sichuan Province in various BBS, such as Tianya, Xici.net and Baidu Tieba. Especially, since Baidu Tieba is a keyword-based BBS, that’s Baidu Tieba has a board for each keyword, so you can use the name of the county in epicenter to enter a dedicated discuss board on that county, such as Wenchuan and Beichuan, to get information.
Besides general BBS, people also discuss and exchange info in SNS, such as Douban, and in IM groups, both QQ and Baidu Hi has dedicated groups for earthquake; they use blogs, and microblogging tools, such as Twitter, Fanfou to share information; and they upload videos. Besides video uploaded by users, PPLive, a p2p video streaming site, partners with various TV channel to bring live TV reports about earthquake online.
Pray and bless. People in China express their prayers and blessings to victims of earthquake in BBS, widgets and IM. Almost all main web portals have message board for users to express their prayers and blessings; Feedsky has a blessing widget ready to be add to blogs.
MSN China initiated an MSN Messenger campaign called Rainbow, you can add “(R)” before your MSN Messenger screen-name, which will display a rainbow icon, to express your blessings. (via Danwei). Actually, it is not only a blessing, for each signature, MSN China and Guangzhou Toyota will donate 0.1 yuan separately to a fund for rebuilding the school destroyed by the quake.
In additional to news source and blessing, it is more important to use web to provide aid and relief efforts.
People Finder: Though Baidu Tieba and QQ both have a message board dedicated for users to find people and seek help, it is more convenient to use people finder tool of Sina and Netease. Google China just launched a useful tool which enables users to search people information in various BBS, so you need not to check each main BBS to find people.
Online donation: Almost all sites call for donations. Users of Taobao.com and QQ can use Alipay and Tenpay to donate online. When I write this post, QQ users have donated over 10 million yuan. Some other third-party online payment solution providers also support online donations, such as 99Bill and Yeepay.
Taobao launch a campaign, call for sellers of Taobao to join and sell goods, then donate at least 50% of their proceeds.
Alimama encourage its users, most are webmaster of their website, to replace ads on their websites into an images ad to call for donation. By May 15, over 500k donation ads have been online on Alimama’s affiliated website.
If you want to donate, check this post to find the best way for you.
Organize aids: Web is also effective in spreading information and organizing aids efforts among users. Alibaba encourages its users, almost all of them are manufacturers or service providers, to donate not only cash, but also various goods needed in disaster zone. Blogbus let users to register their information for blood donation when needed. On many BBS, you can also easily find posts which people are planning various kinds of aid initiatives.
NGO is a very important force for disaster aid. NGO Aid blog keeps updating latest news of aids efforts by NGO across China. 1kg, a grassroot NPO in China which is dedicated to build a volunteer network to help kids in remote area to have better education, (CNReviews.com has a good profile about 1kg), has set up a special site to offer relief and aids efforts, including collecting information about schools in epicenter, organizing relief activities, and helping to provide necessary resource to rebuild schools.
Collaborative translation: Immediately after the earthquake, users of Yeeyan.com, the collaborative translation community, started to translate related earthquake guides from FEMA, they’ve finished Earthquake Search Strategy and Tactics, and Earthquake Safety Checklist, and are working on Epidemics After Natural Disasters. After the translation, many users distributed the guide through various BBS and website.
Tags:
activity,
earthquake,
internet,
users
May 16th, 2008 — aggregate, culture, users
From Kaiser Kuo:
CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center ) issued the report last month. That’s not surprising given that all the data were drawn from the research for that report. But it does drill down a bit into the under-25 set’s behavior. Reading through it I highlighted a few items that are worth pondering, for sure:
- Internet Cafe use: Though this isn’t news to people who’ve spent time in China, and especially in lower-tier cities, the CNNIC report puts some numbers to the importance of Internet Cafes as an Internet access point for younger Chinese people. 33.5% of primary and middle school Internet users report accessing the Web from i-cafes, and 47.8% of Chinese netizens under-25 do so. Internet cafes are the primary point of access for 59.5% of rural Netizens, compared with 43.5% o urban users. (The higher proportion of urban to rural Netizens puts the overall average much closer to the urban average).
- Time spent online: While the average Chinese netizen spends 16.2 hours per week online, non-students in the under-25 set are far above this, with an average of 20.8 hours per week. College students average 14.8 hours per week, while primary through high school students average 6.4 hours a week.
- Importance of Online Games: CNNIC reports that 73.7% of the Chinese youth Internet users under 18 play online games, and primary through middle school students are playing games for an average of 3.3 hours a week. Just among middle school students, 5.5% are spending more than 10 hours a week on online games.
- Prevalence of Internet Addiction: Again, no surprises here: The report claims that almost 27.1% of youth Netizens have “an inclination toward Internet addiction.” Non-students in the under-25 age group have higher rates of addictive propensity, with about 36.5% exhibiting “withdrawal symptoms” within days or even mere hours of their last Internet fix — agitation, an irrepressible urge to get online, fear that they’re missing something. Somewhat surprisingly, youth Net junkies represent a smaller proportion of their age group than junkies in the overall population, where 40% are addicted or something close. (38.3% respond agree that “If I don’t go online for 1 day, I feel like I’ve missed something.”) Sign me up for treatment, then, because I can barely go the 6 or 7 hours of sleep I usually allow myself.
- Mobile Internet Access Higher Among Youth: 31% of youth Netizens report having used mobile phones to access the Internet in the six months prior to the survey, significantly above the 24% reported nationally. College students are the heaviest mobile Internet users, with 40.2% having accessed the Internet during that period.
- Youth are Heaviest IM Users: No duh, but penetration is at 91.3% for the under-25 set — almost 10 percentage points higher than the national average of 81.4%. The differential in usage rates of online games (9.5% higher) and online movies (6% higher) are also significant but not surprising.
- BBS Use Much Higher: Finally, no one who watches the Chinese Internet will be shocked to learn that youth are the heavies users of BBS. CNNIC reports that over 60% of college students report having posted messages on BBSs — a whopping 26.6 percentage points above the same figure for overall Chinese Internet users.
Tags:
2007,
bbs,
CNNIC,
IM,
internet,
mobile,
online game,
users,
youth
May 3rd, 2008 — industry
From Yahoo,
BEIJING, China–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Oak Pacific Interactive (OPI), the leading provider of Web 2.0 communities in China, announced today that SOFTBANK Corp. has agreed to lead an investment totaling $430 million for approximately 35% of the company. The investment will be used to augment the market leadership of Oak Pacific’s Xiaonei.com, China’s largest social-networking site. SBI and JOHO Capital also participated in the funding.
Xiaonei.com is a full-featured community and social networking destination that provides an immersive experience for its users. Features of the site include multiplayer gaming and wireless value-added services for mobile users. In the college market, Xiaonei.com has a dominating market share. OPI also owns and operates Mop.com, the largest entertainment portal, and Donews.com, one of the leading IT blogging services in China.
Oak Pacific also announced that Masayoshi Son, President and CEO of SOFTBANK Corp. will join its Board of Directors.
Joseph Chen, Chairman and CEO of Oak Pacific, said, “We are honored to welcome SOFTBANK as an investor and to have Mr. Son join our Board of Directors. SOFTBANK’s commitment reinforces our mission to develop world-class, scalable businesses that leverage the tremendous growth potential of consumer internet market China. We will use this capital to further our aggressive growth strategy for Xiaonei.com and ensure that it sustains its leadership and innovative spirit for many years to come.”
Existing investors of OPI include General Atlantic, DCM, Technology Crossover Ventures, Accel Partners, and Legend Capital.
Related comments can be found from the links below:
Techcrunch,
VentureBeat
DigitalWatch
Tangos
plus8star
Tags:
internet,
investment,
Oak Pacific Interactive,
SNS,
softbank,
xiaonei.com
April 1st, 2008 — aggregate, policy
According Xinhua,
BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhua) — The Chinese government is to crack down on illegal online map and geographical information websites, claiming they threaten state security, said an official of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (SBSM) on Tuesday.
Eight departments, including the SBSM, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Security, said they would tighten supervision over online map and geographical information service websites.
Min Yiren, deputy director of the SBSM, said almost 10,000 online map websites operated in China, most of them showing maps without approval.
“Some websites publish sensitive or confidential geographical information, which might leak state secrets and threaten national security,” Min said.
He said those websites would be closed down.
Foreign organizations and individuals engaging in making and publishing online maps in China would also be stopped.
The campaign would also target websites that made mistakes such as labeling Taiwan a “country”, wrongly drawing national boundaries, or omitting important islands including the South China Islands, Diaoyu Islands and Chiwei Island, said Min.
These websites would be punished and required to make corrections, he said.
A hotline has been set up for the public to report illegal websites.
The SBSM put 418 Chinese and world maps on its website for the public to check and download.
Last year, China issued a regulation restricting surveying and mapping by foreigners to protect national security.
It stipulated foreign organizations and individuals who intend to engage in surveying and mapping must obtain approval from the central government and accept supervision from local governments.
Editor: Yan Liang
Tags:
internet,
map,
regulation
March 24th, 2008 — aggregate, industry
There are some numbers you should notice. All of them are about Tencent’s QQ, China’s leading online community (270 million accounts, 400 million USD in revenues in 2007).
Here is the pdf version of TENCENT ANNOUNCES 2007 FOURTH QUARTER AND ANNUAL RESULTS from it’s offcial site.
From plus8star.com:
QQ’s 2007 figures
- Active accounts: 300 million
- This is 50% more than the number of Internet users in China (many have multiple accounts)
- This is about the size of the US population
- Revenues: 523 million USD
- This is close to 4x Facebook, at 150 million USD
- This is real money from IM/SNS. Something even serious companies like The Economist who just wrote an article titled “Everywhere and nowhere” seem to not believe is possible. We hope they will look outside of Silicon Valley next time.
- Operating profit: 224 million USD
- Facebook recorded a 50 million loss last year. How sad.
Though this should already be enough to raise a bit of interest, the most interesting is the split of revenues:
- Internet services (digital goods, games…): 344 million USD (66%)
- Mobile services: 110 million USD (21%)
- Online ads: 67 million USD (13%)
Yes, ladies and gentlemen: QQ gets only 13% of its revenues from online ads! (vs. close to 100% for MySpace, Facebook and the like). All the rest is Internet and mobile digital goods (we stopped calling them “virtual goods” as they are as real as the money in your bank account: digital).
Some interesting conclusions on those figures
- QQ is big and still growing. Notably, the ad market is largely untapped - mostly due to the misunderstanding of IM and SNS by ad agencies and brands. Lots of work to convince those folks that a service that attracts so many millions is - maybe - a media in its own right! QQ has been beefing up its ad team and is preparing a roadshow for its new MIND platform - maybe some good news in a quarter or two?
- Facebook / MySpace and others also have a largely untapped market: digital goods. We estimate that with the US strong GDP/capita, Facebook could generate 5 times more revenues per user than QQ, which has 5 times more users. So about 300~400 million USD per year. And this only on Internet.
- On mobile, QQ is underdelivering due to terrible market conditions in China - with tough policies from operators. Facebook could generate easily 100 MUSD with mobile thanks to various personalization services (please, do not mention messaging, this is so 2003… right, 2003 in Europe, not in US).
Tags:
facebook,
internet,
QQ,
statistics,
tencent
March 20th, 2008 — aggregate, policy
From Danwei:
Update: Tudou is back up, 00:05 Beijing Time, 15 March.
The story about online video site Tudou, recently censured by SARFT takes another twist.
Since early this morning, the site has been offline, offering only the following message in explanation:
Potatoes:
To provide you all with better service, we are migrating and expanding Tudou’s central servers.
Our service will be suspended from 0:00 to 24:00 on 14 March.
At 0:00 on 15 March, our migration will be complete and Tudou will promptly return home.
Nobody in the industry believes the explanation of the server move: see for example this article on Enorth.com.cn which says that the server moving explanation is “suspicious” and also says that this may be the “most serious case” of a website shutting down in the history of the Chinese Internet.
For their part, Tudou seem to be confident that they will restore services at midnight tonight: Tudou videos embedded in other websites currently show a clock counting down the seconds until midnight (see screenshot above).
Perhaps Tudou will return so harmoniously that their troubles will be over, but it is probably going to take some work. On Tuesday this week, research and consulting firm Marbridge released this bit of information:
42 Online Video Sites to Sign “Self-Discipline Agreement”
After 8 companies signed the “Self-Discipline Agreement for Chinese Internet Audiovisual Programming”, another 42 online video sites have applied to join them. Among them, some of the better-known names include: Netmovie, Jeboo, Vodone, Sina, PPStream, Youku, Quacor, UUsee, 6Rooms (6.cn), Hupo.tv, UiTV, QQ.com, and PPLive.
Editor’s note: Tudou, which recently saw its cooperation with CCTV.com put on hold and is now awaiting possible punishment from the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) for alleged violations of rules on banned content, is not listed among either the first 8 or current round of 42 existing/applying signatories of the Self Discipline Agreement.
An expensive omission, perhaps?
*****
In other SARFT news, Normandy Madden of Advertising Age has an article about the crazy media regulator’s ban on actress Tang Wei (reported on Danwei here), that looks at at affair from the point of view of Unilever, whose Ponds brand has been using Tang as a celebrity endorser:
[Unilever] recently selected Ms. Tang as the face of Pond’s in the mainland, a major skin-care market, as part of an effort that began last month to lift Pond’s into the mid- to high-end category. Ms. Tang’s celebrity endorsement deal with Unilever is reportedly worth $845,000…
In a statement given to Advertising Age by Unilever in China, the company said: “The advertising itself was produced and distributed in accordance with Chinese rules and regulations. Government approval was received before distribution and airing. We have not received any official notice for the ban and we are currently trying to ascertain what lies at the root of the issue. The Pond’s contract with Tang Wei remains intact.”
The agencies handling Pond’s creative and media in China, Ogilvy & Mather and WPP sibling MindShare, respectively, declined to comment.
Tags:
regulation,
SARFT,
Tangwei,
Tudou.com
March 8th, 2008 — aggregate, policy
Source: Danwei
Last night Chinese language portal Netease published an article saying that SARFT had made use of the new online video regulations and ordered popular Chinese video sharing website Tudou to cease operations. The story has been picked up by several bloggers and made its way into English on Fons Tuinstra’s blog and on Pacific Epoch, an investment information service.
According to yet another blog post on TechBlog86, the news was also published on Sohu.com.
The article on Netease seems to have been deleted, but Sohu still has the story (in Chinese).
Tudou.com is still working, as you can see from the Danwei TV video above. One Danwei source says that the shutdown story is a vicious rumor started by a competitor website.
Update: Beijing Business Today (via Hexun) reports that Tudou is denying the entire thing: “Tudou has received no such document,” said one source with the company. And in regard to the CCTV deal, another source said, “It’s not convenient to discuss this now; we will make a public announcement in a while.”
Update 2: The Chinese language report is still online at CE.cn, whilst consulting firm Marbridge yesterday reported the following in its daily newsletter:
Sources say that the direct cause of the breakdown between Tudou and CCTV.com is the Shutdown Order Regarding Punishment of Tudou for Illegal Online Video Broadcasting issued by the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) to Shanghai broadcasting authorities on February 24.
The order states that Tudou is suspected of transmitting pornographic and other clearly proscribed content, and of continuing to be lax in its monitoring of content following the promulgation of SARFT’s new regulations on online broadcasting. Tudou was ordered to shut down for an unlimited duration to reorganize its content. On February 26, word of the order, which had circulated throughout all levels of the broadcasting authorities, reached CCTV. An inside source revealed that Wang Wenbin, head of CCTV.com, saw the letter on that day - one day before the CCTV.com, MySpace China, and Tudou press conference. The next day Tudou CEO Wang Wei’s speech was dropped from the press conference, and media at the press conference were told not to report this.
When contacted, Tudou’s public relations department said that they had not received a Shutdown Order targeted at the company.
Editor’s note: In a telephone interview with Marbridge, relevant authorities confirmed that such an injunction had been issued against Tudou. However, no confirmation was given concerning the details outlined in the article above. A check of Tudou’s site (www.tudou.com) as of the close of business today found it still functioning normally.
Your correspondent is inclined to think this is just a shake down for penalty fees, and a shot across the bows of all the video sites to warn them that big brother SARFT is watching.
The accusations of pornographic content are absurd: Tudou is one of the least salacious video hosts out there. Lots of the smaller ones seem to be trying to compete by pushing the boundaries of what’s permitted, but Tudou and the other big ones don’t have the same sexy, sexy movies. Copyright infringement’s a different story, but there again, Tudou is no worse than any of the others.
Tags:
GAPP,
online video,
regulation,
SARFT,
Tudou.com
March 4th, 2008 — aggregate, industry
China’s national television broadcaster, CCTV, is teaming up with two Internet ventures to exploit the Beijing Olympics’ status as the first Summer Games expected to attract droves of online viewers, reports the Wall Street Journal.
CCTV announced yesterday that it is working with the MySpace China social-networking site and online-video site Tudou.com to run an interactive website for the August games.
CCTV’s Olympics website will be a dedicated one within CCTV.com, with a video channel supported by Tudou.com and a social-networking section supported by MySpace China, which was launched last April in a joint venture with News Corp.
The CCTV site will offer streaming video broadcasts of events, which will be viewable only in China, and web profiles through which users can contact Olympic athletes.
The Olympics video site - to go live on 8 August, the first day of the Games - will include live video, playbacks from the Games, commentary and user-generated content.
“We want to make full use of the interactive characteristics of the Internet,” said Wang Wenbin, General Manager of CCTV.com.
The Games are “the best opportunity to help MySpace China build its brand”, said Luo Chuan, Chief Executive of MySpace China.
Although details like which languages will be used on the website are still being worked out, Mr Luo expects the site to be open to users worldwide for social networking.
(Source:ABU)
Tags:
cctv,
myspace,
olympic games,
Tudou.com
March 4th, 2008 — aggregate, society, users
Note: It is an article from Nature, a little bit old but still worth reading.
China bows to public over chemical plant
Environmental protesters score landmark victory.
Jane Qiu
BEJING
Marchers on the streets of Xiamen protest against plans for a chemical plant in the region.Marchers on the streets of Xiamen protest against plans for a chemical plant in the region.AP/COLOR CHINA PHOTO
In an unusual capitulation to public pressure, Beijing is to relocate a controversial billion-dollar chemical plant away from the picturesque seaport of Xiamen in southeast China.
The decision, hailed as a milestone for China’s environmental and democratic movements, follows the release of an environmental-impact assessment of the project at a public hearing in December. The relocation is even more surprising given that sources close to central government reveal the plant had been given the go-ahead because of the special relationship between Chen Youhao — the plant’s Taiwanese investor and a fugitive of Taiwan — and some of China’s top party leaders.
“This is the first time public opinion was properly expressed through official channels and had an impact on government policies,” says Liu Jianqiang, a Beijing-based environment writer who is a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. Some commentators regard the orchestrated incident as the most significant public event in China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square student demonstration that was so brutally suppressed.
Construction of the plant, owned by Dragon Aromatics, part of Chen’s Xianglu and Dragon Group, began in November 2006 in Xiamen’s Haicang district, which has a population of 100,000. It is set to produce 800,000 tonnes of paraxylene annually, used to make plastics and polyester.
The plant’s health and environmental dangers were made public last March when Zhao Yufen, a researcher at the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Xiamen University, led a petition to the Beijing parliament calling for the plant to be relocated away from residential areas. “Paraxylene is highly toxic and could cause cancer and birth defects,” said Zhao in an interview with the Chinese newspaper China Business .
Lian Yue, a prominent writer living near Xiamen, posted the article on his blog, prompting fervent national debate. On 1 June, tens of thousands Xiamenese protested peacefully against the ‘Xiamen PX Project’ and the company’s pollution records in the region.
This development alarmed officials in Beijing. A few days later, deputy environment minister Pan Yue called for an independent environmental-impact assessment of the plant as well as of Xiamen’s urban development plans. Pan also suggested that the relevant parties should comply with recently announced regulations on environmental-impact assessments that require a public-consultation process and the release of relevant information to the public.
On 5 December, a 14-page version of the strategic environmental-impact assessment report, conducted by the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, was released on Xiamen Net, the government’s official website. The report criticized the Xianglu and Dragon Group’s repeated emissions breaches and their disregard of requests since 2003 from the local environmental protection bureau to tackle the problems. Although it was less concerned about the environmental effects of the plant, the report pointed out serious flaws in a development scheme for Haicang that was pursuing the conflicting goals of industrialization and urbanization in such a small region. The plant may now be moved to Zhangzhou.
The relocation is the latest incident in which China’s environmental problems have catalysed a democratic movement where the public has challenged the collusion between big business and local governments in their pursuit of economic growth at any cost.
Tags:
environment,
grassroot,
social movement,
xiamen
