Story_Datang Power

Power Plant push by Datang-Amy

P.S. the management in Datang Power is experienced in dealing investor relations and media enquiries. The spokeman is also knowledgeable on the financial knowledge, which is not common in the mainland companies listed in Hong Kong. Just rememer some company I saw weeks ago, when all Chinese managements sit in the front, hearding a Cantonese-speaking CFO bluh-bluh-bluh, without any idea what he is saying about, neither dialect nor the words.

Media_newspaper provide RSS feeds

hoho, if you are the newspaper's fun, you should not miss this. But as Fons said, I definitely suggest dividing it into different categories in the future.

RSS: http://www.thestandard.com.hk/newsfeed.asp?d_str=20050831

myself_My five weird habits

Lily, my classmate, invited me to write my weird habits coz she though I should have to write more about myself in the blog. Asianpan, an online friend, also asked me to do that. Seems I have to post them before they are upset, hhhh...

My five weird habits:

(1) watch Korean TV series for the the whole weekend, without moving. (except going to the washing room)

(2) hang around on the street without any idea where to go. (If I have time)

(3) like watching handsome guys(hoho, the habit for all girls, maybe)

(4) watching movie alone (coz it is better to get a good position)

(5) speaking different languages in the dreams (I have dreams in English, Cantonese, and maybe Korean)

Chain rule: 1) write five of your weird habits2) invite five other bloggers

My invited bloggers include:

Fons (don't always report on China, report on yourself, too)

Marc (your habits must be interesting)

Leaffe(You never update your blog, but please update yourself, haha)

Andrea(haha, you must be busy without posting for weeks, right?)

Isaac(Am I crazy to invite such a famous blogger? hmmmm.... I am)

Myself_feeling so bad, the first time in a week

Amy, a business reporter, felt so bad today. She commited a stupid mistake on the term in a company's report. Though nobody blamed her, she felt so bad this evening.

Amy even didn't realize the mistake after the editor noticed her the first time. Today must be a bad-luck day for Amy, when she misunderstood "Tax credit" on the profit and loss reporter to"Reversal on the value added tax".

She felt so ashamed....

Media_online ads hot, newspapers suffer

China business network newspaper, or the first business news translated from Chinese, will lay off employee soon and reduce the remain's salary as far as 50 percent. SMG, the biggest shareholder, may let Beijing Youth Daily Group to manager the newspaper to reduce the cost, reported Singapare United Times, forwarded by a friend.

The advertising money of newspapers only grow by 5.77% in the recent four months, the lowest rist in the recent years. In May, the eight big newspaper in Beijing got a decrease of 29.92% in the advertising, which is 175 million yuan.

Compared with Baidu's fat advertising fee, newspaper, in its bad time, will definitely suffer. Though the media is still partly supported by the goverment, it will not last forever. Will they disappear at last??

Sorry, guys, too busy these days

Hi, all my lovely readers, sorry for not updating for four days. I've already got a job in the Hong Kong Standard. It is exciting, though I don't have enough time to write my blogs now. Working for almost 12 hours a day is not terrible, but I have to write in English, my second language, all day.

Hoho, but it is really fun, fun, fun.

Media_My new media lecture in an old media room

It is always interesting to meet editorial team in the traditional media to see their attitude towards the new media.

This friday, I met with the editorial team in Yazhou Zhoukan, a Hong Kong-based Chinese magazine famous for its politics analysis. The magazine's editor asked me to give a lecture on the new media and Internet, especially their development in China. It is not difficult in fact, but it is hard to change those technical words such as peer-to-peer and folksonomies into easily-understood words. Not anyone has the computer background as me, so I have to try to make things as easy as possible. For example, when the editor asked me what Internet Protocol address is, I said it is kind of like the mail address in the real society.

With a basic introduction on the Internet's hot topics these years, Amy found many reporter and editors are still staying in the period four or five years ago. They could use Internet to look for information and exchange emails, but they never know popular fashions such as Flickr.com, bloglines.com and even blog. Some may consider blog as the place for only rumors, while some others are worried that their blogger account may be stolen before the thieves publish faked stories. To me, it is the common attitude in the news room, some of them are funs of new media, while others are afraid the power of technology.

We even talk about the reading habit and the life of print magazines. Some reporter argue that people are still used to reading paper, instead of LCD screen; I agree, but the fact is that technology is also developing. Maybe one day LCD screen will just look like the paper, bringing same experience to the readers.

The website of Yazhou Zhoukan is still the kind of magazine style; weekly issue and content divisions are uniform with the print one. The editor is kind of worried why they have a strong brand, but make few money from that. It is also the problem for all editors. Some of the media own great content, but don't know how to set up a business model; Others know how to get revenue from various communication ways, but don't have valuable content. But if they could cooperate, things will be easier.

Internet, is just a new platform; it still needs good content, as well as useful business model. Many companies are still on their way; successful businessmen should know how to focus on the core business. It is funny to see editorial team talking about advertising, while advertising people write content.

IT_are you following your heart?

Are you following your heart right now? Lee Kaifu, the now Chairman of Google China and former Vice President of Microsoft, did that. The fourty-something scientist is known for writing ecouraging pieces to young college students. He give a formula for google's success:
youth + freedom + transparency + new model + the general public’s benefit + belief in trust = The Miracle of Google


Hoho, when Microsoft first developed, its success formula seems not that different, right?

Media_who's buying who?

After an hour, Yahoo will take a 35 percent stake in Hangzhou, China-based Alibaba for $1 billion, including cash and the total asset of Yahoo China, reported Red Herring. Friend Marc also reported here.

Interestingly, Sina's headline about the story is "Alibaba will buy the whole Yahoo China this afternoon".

Wow, Amy wonder what the word "buy" means in the Wall Street. Without spending a cent, you could buy something, right?

Needing help?

Does anyone know some foreign expatriates in Hangzhou or Suzhou who bought villas or aparments there? I am writing a story on that and it will be a great help to find someone who
would like to share his/her experience and some photos in the new house?

Media_Search Engine Strategy Conference

When Baidu's price is still skyrocketing, giant search engines such as Google and Yahoo are holding the Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose from Monday to Thursday.

Just wonder how they will talk about Baidu.... Do you think it is the competitor or meat?

Media_Baidu, mix concept between China and Google

Chinese, especially IT enterpreneur, are excited about Baidu's skyrocketing price. Someone even praised it as the beginning of China to grow up. But see how market commentator in U.S. say about Baidu's price, you will get a conclusion on what is really happening now.

Mixed between the hot "China" and "Google", Baidu should know where its position is. This is not the era of Internet bubble, or maybe the second one.


The most cute one is this:

"This is a `son-of-Google' investor mentality. Everyone remembers they could have had Google at $85 and don't want to let it happen again."

---David Menlow, president of IPO Financial

Media_where's China's own idea?

China's Internet users has now reached 100 million. When the world is cheerful on the huge number, China's Internet business idea is still leaded by others, say, Eachnet after Ebay, bokee after blogger(the concept of blo), now, Baidu after Google. The search engine in China created another miracle listed in Nasdaq.
CNN reported: Baidu.com shares surged about 195 percent, to about $78, from their initial public offering price of $27 per American depositary share, nearly tripled.


All those good Interent business model seems applied to China. I call it good "localization". China is the world's largest manufacturing factory, which is also a good example of "localization", too. But the advantage is only based on cheap labor. If it disappears, the money flowing in will disappear in a few seconds, too.

The latest edition of businessweek told Americans that they should be more and more creative and innovative to maintain the advantage, after China and India becoming the world's factories. But could China keep the advantage forever with the growing property and labor prices, I wonder? How long should China's economy, including Internet economy, grow fast following others' ideas?

Media_the seminar of "blog in China"

My department held a seminar today, inviting Hu Yong, a official CCTV producer, to tell about "blog in China". As I myself did some research on the Chinese blogs in the last half year, I am more curious to know what kind of people will be interested in this kind of seminar.

The first type is the local media people. They are interested to know if blog will help the news freedom in China. I saw people from local newspaper and radio, even news wires. Not sure if they will report on this, but they seems interested. I even met a reporter from Hong Kong Business, and she said her editor is interested to see the blog business's development in China.

The second type is academics and students, most of them from mainland . They are enthusiastic about new media's effect to China's politics. A student from Tsinghua university asked if China will be more and more strict on people's speeches.

The third one is foreigners who could speak Chinese, to say exactly, Mandarin. I am not sure why they are interested. Maybe because blog is so hot these days.

As a Chinese blogger, it is amazing to see how many people still don't understand blogs in China, or even just blog itself. Sometimes, I always assume others know what I have already known, but unfortunately they don't know at all. Maybe other people have the same problem like me.

Media_guess what is it?

Media_mobile weblogging

Charlene Li, an Asian-American woman who expertises in technology and blog business, suggested two moblogging website in her story, Rabble and Winksite.

The two blogging website believes that the integration between blog and mobile will make the similar success as one between mobile and camera. But the disadvantage in the first one is that the blogging websites don't have the direct access to users; they have to cooperate with certain mobile carriers to fully provide the service. Think about MMS: it is not that popular because different handsets couldn't support with each other; things will be same here, when different carriers couldn't support with each other, too, or charges huge.

Oil_CNOOC gave up the bidding for Unocal

When governor Zhou Xiaochuan announced the yuan's revaluation, people speculated that it should be for promoting the CNOOC's bid.

But now CNOOC gave up. People begin to speculate if China will do more oil deal with Sudan or Iran. My goodness, is it just business? or politics tricky.....

Blog business Summit

In the latest edition of Business Week, it predicted that the most successful company in the U.S. will be the most innovative and creative company when manufacturing industries are outsourcing to India, China and Eastern Europe.

I totally agree. Just see how blog develops. It is in the U.S. where innovative business ideas come, while other countries only follow, or has to follow. In August 17-19, San Francisco, a Blog Business Summit will be held there. Seems already a big discussion before its opening.

Media_News Corp. aim to buy web site in Australia

News Corp.'s Australian business unit planned to buy realestate.com.au, the biggest property web site in Australia, for 120.9 million Australian dollars(622 million Hong Kong dollars) to expand its online business.

Amy's question is if traditional media could handle online business properly, to say, I haven't seen a good example now. There's only new brand online, to say, yahoo, google, and...

Fund house Jianyi take over bankrupt Southern Securites

China Jianyin Investment Ltd., an investment vehicle of China's central bank, will take over bankrupt China Southern Securities, part of a plan to revive the nation's fifth-biggest brokerage, reported Bloomberg.

The government invest 8 billion yuan for Jianyin to take over the investment banking unit and 74 branches of China Southern Securities.

The bankrupty was shut down last year due to the misusing of client funds and manipulated stocks. The central bank has already injected 8 billion yuan at that time to maintain its normal operation.

"Company suffers, then government will pay". The rule is now more and more popular. It applies to China Aviation Oil(Singapore) when it suffered from the $550 million deal; then the big four banks prepare for the IPO; Then the revitalization of stock market; and now securites house, and then what?