ChinaWebmasters.org - Commentary and News Feed

We must curb international flows of capital

admin — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:20:18 -0800

Large flows of capital cause imbalances. "Financial globalisation has not generated increased investment or higher growth in emerging markets." Personally, I would disagree with this article's premise.

JP Morgan Forecasts for China Online Ad Market

admin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:11:26 -0800

Coverage from China Web 2.0, Kaiser and Chinalytics.

Estimates are for strong growth, around 50% in 2008, slowing to 30-40% 2009-2011 and the online ad market to increase to more than 10% of the total China advertising market.

Some questions raised over the figures. CTR high, even for Baidu, even for search advertising.

Video Site Regulation in China

Alex — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 03:24:45 -0800

OpenSocial: Three Big Concerns

admin — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 03:10:17 -0800

Some excellent points that although Open Social may be an improvement on a Facebook-only world, it may not be a utopian pancea solution. Big companies tend to like keeping control on things.

Open Social: a new universe of social applications all over the web

admin — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 01:39:49 -0800

This will be huge. It SHOULD be huge. Manage 'friends' between any social network. "...will prevent Facebook from having any kind of long-term proprietary developer lock-in." "This is very, very good for the web."

The Internet is local and Chinese do not link abroad

admin — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:24:48 -0700

Based on a sample of 5 million webpages from 15.000 websites in China with a total of 40 million external hyperlinks (i.e. pointing outside their website), they could built the following model: 6% link abroad, 13% link to another province, 81% link to the

I Hate Alibaba (The Website, Not The Company)

admin — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:07:47 -0700

An article about Alibaba which turns into an amusing argument about dominant players, and perceptions of dominant players, and the reading Chinese can make to understanding the market.

Ten Link Strategies

admin — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:41:16 -0700

n recurring ways to link sites together

Phone cable to link China and US

admin — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:36:25 -0700

Well, directly. From Qingdao to the US due to be completed July next year (2008). Good for bandwidth, but speed problems to remain.

Lets share our adsense tips and tricks

admin — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:25:23 -0700

Some good tips from the pros.

Lets share our adsense tips and tricks

admin — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:25:22 -0700

Some good tips from the pros.

The Structured Web - A Primer

admin — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:50:15 -0700

The future of the web? To get structured. An interesting read about the influence of RSS and XML transforming unstructured information into forms which are easily 'understood' and processed by computers.

Digging Deeper About China's Internet Usage

admin — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:47:14 -0700

China's Internet statistics are impressive on the surface, the the reality may be different. Are China's Internet users an emerging underclass of young males adicted to Internet Cafes? No one really knows. Well worth reading.

Moving from Blogger-Blogspot to Wordpress the right way : 301 redirect

admin — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:45:15 -0700

An excellent write-up on moving from popular free blog providers to an independent domain, without losing readers/search engine ranking. Well worth reading if you host on a free blog account.

Yahoo Wants to Buy Stake in Alibaba

admin — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 23:44:03 -0700

10% stake at that.

Feedburner Workaround: How to set up a Feedsky feed

admin — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 17:19:28 -0700

Rick set up a nice article about how to navigate Feedsky in Chinese, only to find out they have an English language interface at en.feedsky.com

CNNIC Exposes Chinese Domain Name Registration Violators

admin — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 17:14:27 -0700

More dodgy Internet name providers. Tut tut tut.

Web 2.0 in China - a comprehensive list

admin — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 02:37:03 -0700

Literally, a comprehensive list of Web2.0 apps in China. Worth flicking through.

China's Great Firewall turns its attention to RSS feeds

admin — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 02:13:01 -0700

ARS pick up the RSS feed blocking. My experience is a little different from how it's described, but the same general idea.

Flickr Photo Used Without Permission

admin — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 01:55:00 -0700

A nice discussion about using syndicated content.

Life and soul for the party

admin — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 01:49:59 -0700

An excellent write-up of Hi Jin Tao, a man whose personality is elusive and heavily managed when it does appear.

BoingBoing goes Chinese

admin — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:33:37 -0700

Can't think of anything to write? Translate a website into Chinese!

Making This Blog China-Proof: Feedburner Edition

admin — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:03:36 -0700

Easy to understand description of Feedburner blocking going on, and what to d about it.

My Site Remains Illegal in China

admin — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:55:04 -0700

Amusing article about Internet registration. Not much has changed despite this being written in 2002.

My Site Remains Illegal in China

admin — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:55:03 -0700

Amusing article about Internet registration. Not much has changed despite this being written in 2002.

SCMP.com chief quits because bosses won't let him make site free

admin — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:11:09 -0700

While there are a few English language papers covering the Asia region, SCMP is the most mainstream and yet they expect someone to buy a subscription.

No Bloggers in China, Please

admin — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 05:08:02 -0700

WSJ picks up on the recent website and data centre crack-down. Add no info, but brings the story into the mainstream.

Slashdot | Is China's "Great Firewall" a Fraud?

admin — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:52:02 -0700

Some interesting findings, which come as no surprise: the GFW is not a single entity, filtering is done once inside China, perhaps at the provincial level, keywords are not always filtered, especially at peak network load times.

Davos Dalian: A final word and I'm done

admin — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:49:18 -0700

A wrap-up of the points missed at the recent Davos meeting.

Tudou Served 360 Million Videos A Week

admin — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 08:54:39 -0700

About 30 of them were watched by me, and China's internet population is almost 180 million, meaning they can probably do better... much much better. Not that they've done badly yet... Bring into the question of users vs time online and what they're actu

World Economic Forum in Dalian China--Can you spell irony?

admin — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 08:49:38 -0700

The WEF's recent meeting was all about entrepreneurism and growth, while the Chinese Government is following the exact opposite policy in regard to the Internet.

Slashdot | Beijing Police To Launch Animated Web Patrols

admin — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 04:22:55 -0700

Visiting a website with an ICP license? Get ready for animated policemen walking across the screen. Bizarre and potentially very annoying.

Supply to dry up for print on demand

admin — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:22:15 -0700

Up until now, things could be printed without a license, or at least it was a grey area. Now the grey area may be closing: printers will be punished unless they have a copy of the publisher's license. Unless they print it on a T-shirt, lighter or mug!

Google Rolls Out Laiba, Competing With Baidu Postbar

admin — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:03:13 -0700

Competing with Postbar and much more too. Think forums, Facebook permissions/networks, blogs, friend/post recommendations and a Google Maps mashup too.

Google gets social behind Great Firewall of China

admin — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:56:10 -0700

Kind of significant. Google has acquired some share of Tianyu. Tianyu is one of the largest forum providers in mainland China.

The secret of internet ceeen5orship in China

admin — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 23:20:28 -0700

"According to the Section Five of the Act provides that no individual may use the Internet to create, replicate, retrieve, or spread the following kinds of information:"

Anti-Cybersquatting in China: A Judicial Overview

admin — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:36:09 -0700

Basic principal - make sure your trademark is registered in China, or get it deemed 'famous' elsewhere. If you're thinking of a China presence, buy the Chinese domain name now, it's not expensive and could save much hassle.

Alimama: The Ad Exchanges Service From Alibaba : China Web2.0 Review

admin — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 04:55:02 -0700

Alibaba. Online ad market. Amlmama. Are China's advertisers ready?

Pacific Epoch - Blog Site Shut Down For Breaking Censorship Laws

admin — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:52:12 -0700

It's not just enough to get a blog-provider license, you have to abide by it too. AnyP.cn may have not, and they've been shut down.

EastSouthWestNorth: The Patriotic Bar Busters of China

admin — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 22:33:59 -0700

About Baidu's forums. Well worth a read to get a glimpse into the psyche of someone withh nothing better to do than waste time on the Internet.

Baidu Claims Innocence On Wikipedia Clone

admin — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:50:12 -0700

Baidu say the Baike entries are submitted and edited by Internet users, not Baidu. The same problem Wikipedia has with copyrighted works. Trouble is, in China the Internet is not a level playing field - zh.wikipedia.org is blocked.

CNNIC Exposes 'Illegal' Domain Name Registrars

admin — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 06:10:10 -0700

Recently some domain name companies joined CNNIC in a best-practice policy, collaborating to 'help the user'. Now CNNIC is going after some that did not join. Note these are not 'illegal domain name registrars' and it's not yet clear if it's collusion.

Wikipedia Attacks Chinese Search Engine

admin — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:10:49 -0700

Wikipedia says Baidu's Baike (essentially a wiki-style encyclopedia) copies it's contents. Gives a warning but says it will not sue. Web2.0: it's hard to sue on behalf of many thousands of contributors who themselves own the copyright.

Global Voices Online " China: Blogger goes to court

admin — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 06:32:32 -0700

The case of a blogger who couldn't access his website and took China Telecom to court. The case is still on-going, and should be resolved quickly, or within six months.

Global Voices Online " China: Blogger goes to court

admin — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 06:32:32 -0700

The case of a blogger who couldn't access his website and took China Telecom to court. The case is still on-going, and should be resolved quickly, or within six months.

Alipay Not Support Firefox Browser After 15 August

admin — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 19:06:16 -0700

A step back? Or Yahoo using it's branches to impose it's customised version of IE? Which is still a step back. Of course, in China Firefox use isn't near the levels in North America or Europe. Here Maxthon is the #2 browser, itself an IE clone.

Alipay Not Support Firefox Browser After 15 August

admin — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 19:06:16 -0700

The Internet Marketing Situation In China

admin — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 07:24:37 -0700

An unusually in-depth article by China Tech News. The article is about Internet Marketing in China, and while not necessarily answering any questions, it is a nice summary of one person's thoughts about the Internet and, essentially, people using it.

Slashdot | China's Open Document Format Fight

admin — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 19:53:56 -0700

To choose ODF or OOXML? One of the sticking points against OOXML is a feeling it shouldn't be ISO certified, in part because it doesn't support RFC 3987 - UTF-8 Internet addresses (and the ability to type Internet addresses in Chinese characters).

Baidu Launches People Powered Search

admin — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 19:46:54 -0700

Call a telephone number and receive an answer. Not clear whether they use Baidu exclusively to get search results, or if they're using 3rd party search/directories.

Newbie Dictionary of SEO/Webmaster Terms

admin — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:44:37 -0700

A useful glossary of terms, for those that have the time to read it.

Towards the Attention Economy: Will Attention Silos Ever Open Up?

admin — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:08:01 -0700

An excellent article explaining how inefficient it is (from the user's perspective) to have individual information distributed across many websites. If there was a system to integrate them...

Baidu IM Soon To Be Released

admin — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 06:52:00 -0700

Baidu IM. Of course vs. QQ IM. This could be interesting.

Ron Paul: A Distributed Web 2.0 Campaign

admin — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 01:11:38 -0700

An interesting use of Web2.0 tools, and how they put power into the hands of those that use and contribute to them. [And my tack - why such sites are so heavily regulated in China.]

Website Hosting

skyline5k — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 17:17:43 -0700

TeraScape is a recent start-up based in Shanghai, with a growing client list. We offer a few different website packages, as well as customized set-ups. Our servers are linux-based, and are based out of Hong Kong. Check out http://www.terascape.net for more info.

Windows Live Email Accounts Soon To Be Deleted in China

admin — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 04:18:36 -0700

All Windows Live Hotmail users in China may have their accounts deleted within 3 weeks. Despite the global rollout of Windows Live Hotmail, and users being able to transfer their Hotmail accounts, they're only considered test accounts in China. Serious?

Entertainment tops China’s Net users’ lists

admin — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 04:18:59 -0700

Entertainment is important for Chinese Internet users, vastly more use the Internet of entertainment than use it for banking and electronic transactions.

Chinese Domain Name Registrars Sign Agreement

admin — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 04:14:56 -0700

Domain name pact to protect users' interests. Not sure on this one - if it was an agreement between the solely between domain name companies, then I'd suspect collusion, but the CNIIC is involved, so perhaps it's related to government intervention?

How to run a standalone blog, legally

admin — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:02:05 -0700

Excellent advice and insight into registration for websites, and interactive websites, in mainland China.

China Economic Review

admin — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 09:15:55 -0700

sohu want to own the Olympics news. How about the many copied stories on their forums and blogs?

Slashdot | The Real Problem With Alexa

admin — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:02:53 -0700

Alexa. Bad.

China Post Offers E-Payment Service

admin — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 21:58:30 -0700

Hotting up in China eCommerce payment systems, China Post launching a card (a couple already exist) purchased for cash and accepted by some online games/retailers.

Ya,I Yee: Individual Domains Blogs are All Illegal

admin — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 18:41:05 -0700

This is nothing new, an ICP license is required, and a different ICP license applies for 'interactive' webpages than it does for static content. The conversation with the Shanghai Communication Administration is hilarious and troubling.

China Construction Bank Launches Mobile Phone Financial Service

admin — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 18:11:55 -0700

Another step in the move towards a mobile phone based e-payment system for China.

China Web2.0 Review on Linkist

admin — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 07:04:45 -0700

From the write-up. it seems to be less on wasting time, more on utilising social networks to share/ger stuff done.

Netcafe or Internet cafe development to be guided

admin — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:20:29 -0700

The beginning of the oligopoly on netcafes?

Netcafe or Internet cafe development to be guided

admin — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:20:29 -0700

The beginning of the oligopoly on netcafes?

Financial Times Tech Blog

admin — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 05:40:50 -0700

FT.com gets blocked. Which is a shame. They think it's just their tech blog, but none of the site loads for me. Blocking FT.com isn't going to do the leaders much credability in financial markets.

China's 162m netizens boost new media growth

admin — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 05:37:28 -0700

Various statistics about growth of Internet users in China. Up 31.7% in a year.

China's 162m netizens boost new media growth

admin — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 05:37:28 -0700

Various statistics about growth of Internet users in China. Up 31.7% in a year.

Sohu Does Video Sharing : China Web2.0 Review

admin — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:46:26 -0700

Sohu launches a video sharing service, operated closely with it's blog provision.

Top Web Apps in China

admin — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:17:13 -0700

A nice round-up by Read/Write Web. Thanks to fiLi for the link.

Censortive | Dao By Design Blog

admin — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 23:31:21 -0700

Ryan has a handy Wordpress plugin here, for removing sensitive words from your blog posts and replacing them with image equivalents.

Fraudulent ad by angry American lawyer in China

admin — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:49:33 -0700

Using Google Ads to get at a competitor. Crafty, but not unique, there have been several cases of bloggers going after each other like this too.

An Inside Look At China's Internet Population

admin — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:27:31 -0700

Quite verbose, but a nice list of figures and more interesting, a summary of why rural Chinese don't use the Internet - we know it's a lack of infrastructure but there seems to be an interest in the Internet equivalent to urban users.

Can Small Businesses Really Afford SEO?

admin — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:09:20 -0700

First, there is DIY SEO. That's stuff which modules for popular CMSs can do themselves - auto meta tags, clean URLs, loading content in the most specific order. Then there are SEO consultants which can be expensive. Do you have a clear ROI target?

Google Registered 44 Google-Like Domain Names in China

admin — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:43:11 -0700

Preventing domain name hijacking in China requires the additional dimension of Chinese characters. See here.

IT Giants Enter Alliance To Promote Netcafe Development

admin — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:37:08 -0700

Big companies get behind net-cafes - great chance to make net cafes an oligopoly with regulation preventing all but the most savvy from operating smoothly.

Tianya’s Topic Advertising Platform : China Web2.0 Review

admin — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:34:56 -0700

Tianya trying to commercialise on forums. A hard thing to do, but with their user-base they may have thick-enough content. An advertiser has an individual (self admin'd) blog, from which ads can be targetted at various discussion boards.

Beilabs.com: Microsoft vs. Linux

admin — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:29:54 -0700

Jonathan does some thinking about Microsoft's recent positive press releases r.e. the Chinese market: In effect, Windows is widespread because it is pirated, and Microsoft has it all to lose if the government stop loving Gates and MS so much.

Tudou Testing New Video Player, Advertising Style

admin — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 05:54:32 -0700

More info on Tudou's commercialisation of it's service.

Abbao.cn: Reading Newspapers In Original Composition

admin — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 03:42:26 -0700

Read scanned copies of newspapers, retaining the newspaper feel and ignoring the annoying adverts Chinese newspaper sites often annoy with

Sina Rolls Out Photo Sharing Service

admin — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 03:25:24 -0700

Sina does Flickr.

Pacific Epoch - Tudou Launches New Ad System

admin — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 05:15:14 -0700

Tudou top strap-on ads at the end of viewing videos, around 3 seconds long and based on user registration and view history.

Xiamen to kill off anonymous posting

admin — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 21:20:42 -0700

"We are the first in the entire country to do this," new measures conspiciously following the Xiamen PX protests, actually planned on 18th June. Not a responce to the protests?

The 88s :: Meet Your Internet Censor

admin — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 20:37:41 -0700

Meet your Internet Consor. An interesting encounter with a censor who is otherwise quite normal, even liberal, and is not sure of the government's policy - and what line of the law to lay down.

MySpace China to Merge with MSN Live Spaces China

admin — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 07:45:11 -0700

MySpace gets a foot-up by merging with MSN Live Spaces (China). MySpace probably to have a somewhat independent development from MySpace in general. Not least, and interesting team-up between Murdoch and Microsoft.

Class divisions in Myspace and FaceBook - Why a FaceBook idea will work in China

admin — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 16:10:35 -0700

Facebook allows a network to remain segregated, to allow one to choose one's friends, and stops the unwashed masses encroaching on one's 'own space'. Social climbers are not given an automatic pass therefore the 'haves' feel more comfortable.

Global Voices Online » Korea: Internet and Anonymity

admin — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 05:57:27 -0700

Some Korean Bloggers' responces to Korean portals implementing real-name comment systems: abuse hasn't really fallen/why do people do it anyway? Are abusive comments a result of a defective social system and therefore is this just treating the symptom?

Baidu in the music business?

admin — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 05:45:13 -0700

Baidu (MP3 search core business) + Music Company + (perhaps) China Mobile Billing System (although slated as free for now) = A very interesting opportunity.

EastSouthWestNorth: Daily Brief Comments June 2007

admin — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 06:15:44 -0700

Hilarious!

Baidu: China’s Search

admin — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:46:41 -0700

Some Baidu SEO tips

Google Gets Internet Content License In China

admin — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:56:44 -0700

Google gets their ICP license, at last

China and Web 2.0 - eMarketer

admin — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:54:43 -0700

A write-up on Web 2.0 adoption in China, and what could be in store.

China Opens Anti-Spam Website

admin — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:53:41 -0700

Published blacklists and whitelists of spammers and non-spammers.

Virtual China: Chinese and English language website design

admin — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 19:48:40 -0700

Differences of Chinese and English web design with some examples.

F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content

admin — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 19:46:39 -0700

More background on eye-tracking

Outlook for Search in China

admin — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 19:46:37 -0700

Good write-up of search in China

Google China Removed Cache Feature

admin — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 03:42:36 -0700

Google removes 'cache' link from google.cn. Spin this removal of a link to a nearly useless feature how you want.

Microsoft Buy Stake in Chinese TV Maker

admin — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 03:35:35 -0700

MS put a further toe into the media market, further hoping to impose their software upon it.