China Challenges

QQ Crazy

The NY Times reports:

No other Internet company in the world — not even Google — has achieved the kind of dominance in its home market that Tencent commands in China, where its all-in-one packaging of entertainment offerings and a mobile instant-messaging service, “QQ,” has reached more than 100 million users, or nearly 80 percent of the market.

“Everyone talks about eyeballs,” said William Bao Bean, an Internet analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities. “Well, they’ve got all the eyeballs in China. And now they’re beginning to cash in on that.”

To read more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/world/asia/05virtual.html?_r=1&ref=asia&oref=slogin

The Media War Over Copyright

Howard French writes in the IHT:

A lawsuit that has been filed by one of China's largest newspapers against one of the country's leading Internet portals over the issue of massive copyright violations is being described here as the opening salvo in a media war.

In the suit, which was filed in October and is expected to go to court soon, The Beijing News is seeking $400,000 in damages from a popular Internet site called Tom.com for having copied and republished more than 25,000 articles and photographs without authorization since 2003.

To read more:

http://iht.com/articles/2007/01/03/business/copyright.php

China Blogs Must Use Real Names

The China Economic Review reports:

The Internet Society of China says bloggers should be required to use their real names when they register blogs, AP reported, citing state media. The society, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Information Industry, said no decision has been made but that a 'real name system' is inevitable. "A real name system will be an unavoidable choice if China wants to standardize and develop its blog industry," the Internet Society's secretary general, Huang Chengqing, told state media. Under the proposed rule, users would be required to register under their real name to open a blog but would still be allowed to write under a pseudonym.

To read more:

http://chinaeconomicreview.com/subscriber/newsdetail/8035.html

Biggest Broadband Market in 2007?

ITWire reports:

According to research company, Ovum, China will next year overtake the US to become the world's largest broadband market in 2007and  by 2010 will have 139 million broadband subscribers.

To read more:

http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/5490/127/

Not Bowing to Beijing

Raymond Ma wrote in the SCMP on August 27:

Jimmy Wales, founder of the open-forum internet encyclopedia Wikipedia, vowed yesterday he would not go down the same path as search engine Google by bowing to pressure from Beijing to censor sensitive articles.

Wikipedia, whose open invitation to write and edit articles has become increasingly popular in China, has been blocked by mainland censors since October. Mainland internet users have had to rely on a similar, but heavily censored clone, put together by Chinese Web portal Baidu, which puts a positive spin on events politically sensitive to Beijing such as the Tiananmen crackdown of 1989.

To read more:

http://asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-eastasia.asp?parentid=51805

Millions of Blogs, Little Profit

A Reuters news story says the number of Chinese bloggers is expected to hit 60 million by the end of this year.  Zhang Xiaorong, strategy development director of "Bokee," which was set up in 2002 and claims the biggest share of China's blogging market, said his company adds about 100,000 blogs a day.

"The expected 60 million bloggers would account for more than half of China's 110 million netizens," Xinhua quoted Zhang as saying.

The university report forecast the number of bloggers in China would hit 100 million by 2007. Xinhua did not elaborate. Although the industry has invested heavily in blogs, none of the blog service providers are making profits, the report said.

To read more:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060506/wr_nm/china_blogs_dc

The Internet and Government Control

Does the Internet of the future strenghten the hand of Beijing to control its hugh population?  The IHT reports:

Billed as the next generation of the Internet, a new technical standard enthusiastically embraced by China will allow greater traceability of Internet users, potentially endangering those expressing views counter to the government's.

The standard, known as IPv6, solves technical problems faced by the Internet around the world, but Internet freedom advocates outside China warn that the internationally developed norm would also allow Beijing authorities - or any government or company for that matter - to have a better idea of what individuals are doing on the Internet.

To read more:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/19/business/chinet20.php

Google: An Imperfect Contribution in China

The Phoenix News makes some interesting points about the recent Google uproar on Capital Hill.

From their public testimony, at least, some Internet companies working in China indicated they are genuinely conflicted about their roles. Not surprisingly, though, they ultimately concluded that conducting business is a better option than withdrawal.

Google vice-president Elliot Schrage was honest enough to acknowledge that “there is no question that, as a matter of business, we want to be active in China. It is a huge, rapidly growing, and enormous market.”

“The requirements of doing business in China include self-censorship, something that runs counter to Google’s most basic values and commitments as a company,” Schrage continued in his testimony.

“Our decision was based on a judgment that Google.cn will make a meaningful — though imperfect — contribution to the overall access of information in China.” In order to bolster his company’s contention that its services were beneficial on “human rights and freedom of expression” grounds, Microsoft associate general counsel Jack Krumholtz cited a survey in which 60 percent of Chinese Internet users said that they believed the Internet would allow them more opportunities to criticize the government.

To read more:

http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid6072.aspx

Congressional Intervention

Mr. Jacob Wiesberg at Slate offers some advice to the Western Internet giants.  He writes:

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Bill Gates dropped an interesting idea about how the U.S. government might help businesses avoid becoming accessories to political repression in China: "I think something like the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a resounding success in terms of very clearly outlining what companies can't do," the Microsoft chairman said, referring to the law that bars American corporations from paying bribes overseas.

When Congress held hearings on the China issue last week, Yahoo!'s top lawyer more or less begged for some sort of legislative intervention. Of course, technology executives are trying to duck responsibility for their own decisions to cooperate with Chinese censorship.

To read more:

http://www.slate.com/id/2136777/

How the Chinese Use a Keyboard

With many Internet firms like Yahoo and Google in the hot seat over their decisions on the mainland,  Slate explains to its Western readers how Chinese people type on a computer:

You use a piece of software called an "input method editor," which allows conventional-looking keyboards to produce the thousands of characters used in written Chinese. There's no standard system, though, so two Chinese keyboards may not look exactly the same and they may not function in the same way.

In the Peoples' Republic of China, most computer users type out their Chinese in transliteration, using the standard Roman alphabet keys on a QWERTY keyboard. To generate a character, you type out its sound according to the same spelling system—called Pinyin—that represents the name of China's capital with the word "Beijing." The computer automatically converts the Pinyin spelling to the correct Chinese characters on the screen.

To learn more:

http://www.slate.com/id/2136726/

Google Needs a License

Google has more problems in China.  An IPI story says:

Google faces new obstacles in China after a local newspaper reported it does not have the required license to operate its Chinese-language platform.  The Beijing News reported Tuesday that the recently launched Chinese search engine Google.cn did not have the proper ICP, or Internet content provider, license, and that the Ministry of Information Industry was investigating the company.

To read more:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20060221-122525-9445r.htm

Chinese Blogs: The New Mainstream Media

Newsweek International reports:

The success of blogs is changing Chinese expectations. The controversial reports found on the Web—and the vibrant, individualistic, often emotional style in which they're written—have underscored how hollow the state-run press is.

Indeed, whereas in the West bloggers tout themselves as an alternative to the mainstream media, in China they in many ways are the new mainstream: rather than, say, watching bland programs on state-owned CCTV, many urban Chinese turn to Web sites such as Sohu.com, Sina.com and Baidu.com for breaking news—and then disseminate that information via e-mail and mobile-phone text messages.

To read more:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11437105/site/newsweek/

The Conservative Divide

The Christian Science Monitor explains how China's "c" of the Internet is dividing the GOP.  Mr. Jeffrey MacDonald writes:

On one side of the conservative divide are true believers in the problem-solving potential of markets. They want to give American firms maximum leeway in providing communication-enhancing tools to restrictive regimes. They argue that these tools can help bring the citizens of those regimes out of isolation.

But other conservatives are seething that China is repressing its people with help from US business.

To read more:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0217/p10s01-usfp.html?s=hns

Sickening Collaboration

Sometimes members of Congress can't control themselves.  The IHT reports:

In a crowded congressional hearing room, Representative Christopher Smith, Republican of New Jersey, on Wednesday unleashed a scathing condemnation of four U.S. technology companies - Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco Systems - for a "sickening collaboration" with the Chinese government and for "decapitating the voice of the dissidents" there.

To read more:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/15/business/internet.php

A Chinese Web Officer

Many Western firms like Yahoo and Microsoft have faced intense criticism over their actions in China.  BusinessWeek says:

Few are advocating that U.S. Internet companies turn their backs on China. By offering everything from Internet searches to e-mail and blogs, these companies are contributing to an increased flow of information and communication, which even critics admit could have a positive effect on China's society. Moreover, these are for-profit corporations that have an obligation to pursue China's huge and expanding market, with its population of 110 million Internet users growing at 18% a year.

But these companies need to strike a much more careful balance between tapping Chinese profits and looking out for their users' need for open and unbiased information. Often, it comes down to nitty-gritty issues such as the location of a server. Placing a server inside China's borders can mean speedier performance for users there, but it also puts that server within easy reach of China's government. Companies have an obligation to be straightforward with their users about the risks involved.

To read more: 

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2006/tc20060215_060300.htm?campaign_id=topStories_ssi_5

The EastSouthWestNorth blog has the story  A Day In The Life Of A Chinese Internet Police Officer.

Read the story here:   http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060208_1.htm

Google and the Great Firewall

Google is taking a a lot of heat for its decision to "c" here in China. 

See Slate for more details:

http://www.slate.com/id/2134899/

The View from Ground Zero

Are some Westerners pushing the "c" word too much against Beijing?  Some Internet insiders say yes.  BusinessWeek reports:

Gary Wang doesn't quite see what all the fuss is about. Wang is the founder of Toodou, a Shanghai startup that lets Chinese post podcasts and video blogs.

While free-speech advocates in the U.S. attack Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, and others, Wang says the situation doesn't appear nearly so grim at Ground Zero of the "c" battle.

Limits on expression are "getting more and more relaxed," he says. "The trend is becoming more open, more tolerant."

To read more:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2006/tc20060123_908885.htm