2011 Jan 08 Hot Links: Chinese Technology News
From Chinatechnews.com China's Ministry of Culture to Clear Illegal Music Websites
For those who love using Baidu, Sogou and other websites for free music downloads, act fast. China's Ministry of Culture has published a notice stating that it will further clear the Chinese online music market and shut down irregular and illegal music websites. In the notice, 237 irregular music websites in China were listed and one-third of these websites have already been suspended.
From Chinatechnews.com China's Baidu to Invest CNY 100 Million To Eliminate Bad Info
Chinese search engine Baidu.com is apparently showing that it is fully committed to working with the Chinese government to enhance the government's ability to rid the Internet of "bad"information. Robin Li, chief executive officer of Baidu, reportedly told local media that since its founding, Baidu has been committed to providing Chinese netizens with an easy way to gain information. With the development of the Internet, it is more important to provide the netizens with "correct information".
CNreviews From Entrepreneurs Personal Update: Joining Google in China
An interesting blog by Elliot Ng indicating that Google are still quite interested in the Chinese market. An excerpt from his personal blog says it best: I’ll be leading a small, very-talented team of product managers who are doing two things: (1) launching products and supporting global R&D projects focused on Google’s global markets, and (2) driving a product roadmap serving the domestic Chinese market. I’ll be commuting to China from Mountain View until June or July, at which point my wife, our 3 boys, and some subset of our accumulated “stuff” will lift off from our home near Mountain View and land in a new home somewhere in Beijing. In the meantime, I’ll have plenty of time to rack up frequent flier miles, become “Googly” (aka programmed in the Google global culture) and build important relationships in the global R&D organization at Google which is Mountain-View centric.
Gadgets Republic, Microblogging is the Way of the Future, Didn't you get the memo?
The Shanghai Jiaotong University Public Opinion Research Laboratory’s Annual Report of Chinese Microblogging was released at the end of December 2010, and rendered a pretty astonishing statistic. The report shows that as of October 2010, Chinese micro-blogging services subscribers number at around 125,521,700! Just to put that in perspective for you…that’s more than 1/3 the population of the United States (~307 Million). Crazy thing is, that number does not even include the number of twitter accounts in the country, which many Chinese have even though it’s technically banned.
Ars Technica (via China Digital Times): US Offers $30 Million to Scale the Great Firewall
"Need to get around a Chinese government firewall? Burning to smuggle your samizdat writings past Iranian Internet censorship? Hoping to blog with impunity in Burma? Uncle Sam wants to help. The US government has a $30 million pot of money to spend on “Internet freedom” programs around the world, and it’s not afraid to make a few enemies ... China and Iran can probably look forward to some US-funded encryption and circumvention tools coming their way in the near future." We smell a trade way looming ...
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All Mapped Out: China launches its own online map service
A report this week in the China Daily (spotted via the English People's Daily website) says officials with the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping have announced “more than 100 domestic and overseas companies that provide online mapping services have received licenses to continue doing business in China, while another 100 [are] still applying for a license.”Nokia’s Alliance Internet Services (a joint venture between the Finnish handset maker and a Shanghai company) was among those on the list of approved companies, but mention of Google’s online mapping service was conspicuously absent from the article, which could spell bad news for the online giant and its users in China -- when asked about Google’s status, officials reportedly sidestepped the question, merely stating “China's Internet market is open and free and those who conduct online mapping services in China should abide by Chinese law.”
News You Might Have Missed: Roads, Rodeos, and Imitation
Beijing's roads are being crushed while rodeo dreams are not. Meanwhile Apple and Google are being copied in China, like it or not.
Google, Google, Gone
Google is steadily losing its grasp on China. Last year it was the search engine and this summer Google Maps may be moving out as well.
Search Engine Update: Google “Officially” Still Here, Baidu Under Fire
The tribulations of China’s search engine providers continued this week – and Google wasn't the only one making news. The Chinese government finally acknowledged on Tuesday night that Google China has had its Internet Content Provider (ICP) license renewed (although Google itself announced the renewal a fortnight ago), and Baidu is under investigation for accepting payments for search result rankings.
Playfish’s David Fallarme on Leading the Way in Social Gaming
Back when games like Pacman and Frogger ruled the arcade, game geeks spent long hours trying to beat the “high score” that was usually displayed on a static screen between bouts. Nowadays social gaming connects players across the planet bringing the action to real time – technology that makes console-based games seem as arcane as Pong. Agenda interviewed David Fallarme, Marketing Manager of Playfish, a leading social gaming company owned by Electronic Arts with a development studio in Beijing, about how his company is leading the charge in this dynamic industry.
Read the full interview with David on gaming in China and who's the average gamer now at Agendabeijing.com.
