Last week I posted about Android in China. I explained that I’m interested in mobile technology, and when that coincides with topics about China business, I get really excited. So… along these lines, I read articles in Engadget and GSMArena about HTC’s decision to sell phones in China under its own brand name. Then I read this post in WSJ China Realtime Reports about this news article.. The article has several areas of ambiguity which should have been made more clear, so that readers can understand the significance of this business development. Just a sample… Luckily for the Taiwanese company, Apple has been slow to launch its hot new products here, and has a relatively small presence with a 7.1% share of smartphone sales in the second quarter, according to Analysys International. Only a non-Wi-Fi version of the iPhone 3GS is officially available in China so far, and Apple hasn’t [Read more...]
This is going to seem ridiculous to my readers (all 6 of the non-robot readers). Today I have read three minor news articles which give me hope. These news articles are not related to each other and not really related to business. But for some reason, these give me hope that China is progressing in the right direction. 1. Chongqing passes a law banning adults from snooping on kid’s computers and phones (h/t Shanghaiist). 2. China is exporting a domestically produced graphic novel (h/t Jing Daily) 3. Ministry of Public Security bans public shaming of prostitutes (again h/t Shanghaiist) BTW, of point #1 and #3 above, they will probably not be enforced, and they merely expand on existing laws. These items have nothing to do with each other. As I said above, this is ridiculous. But to me, these are all evidence of China’s growing civil society. Exporting original artistic [Read more...]
China Law Blog (aka Best “Chinese Business Blog”) offered 3 posts recently about Chinese companies doing business in America: “Ten Reasons Chinese Companies Fail In The United States“, Why United States Lawsuits Against Chinese Companies Are Trending Up. Just Follow The Money, Why China Companies Are A Litigation Mark (As In Sucker), Part II. To summarize my take-aways, Dan basically is saying that Chinese companies in the US face problems because: Chinese companies purchase sub-standard consultation services on the cheap, which leads them to make many bad decisions. Chinese companies often do everything cheaply- including the hiring of employees – and with a short-term mindset. (More on this point, I recommend Bill Dodson’s article, “China’s Casino Economy“) Chinese companies are not marketing oriented, and hence don’t develop brands, don’t do good industrial design, don’t listen to customers, etc. Chinese companies are being sued more often, in part because they don’t [Read more...]
Stan Abrams at China Hearsay wrote a tongue-and-cheek article about conspicuous consumption in China: justifying yatch ownership. This is an awesome post because it has pictures of hot swimsuit girls on boats. The post is about a China Daily article about how boat-ownership can be considered a business expense. Stan’s common-sense point is basically how stupid and hypocritical can people be to think that yacht ownership is anything other than an ostentatious display of wealth. Furthermore, how can people have the balls to claim a boat as a business expense. I used to spend every weekend at a Western built-and-managed marina near Suzhou because my previous company used the facilities to host corporate off-sites for customers. At the marina, we got to see the local richy-rich guys drive up in Porsche SUVs, wearing popped-collars, a purse on one arm, and really nice eye-candy on the other arm. They would spend [Read more...]
Danwei translated an article in China Computer World called “F–king Tencent” . The article is about how Tencent’s competitors are mad at Tencent for being the King of Shanzhai internet companies: Beginning with its first product, OICQ (the former incarnation of Tencent QQ), which copied ICQ, Tencent has never been able to bury its “copying gene.” First it brought in QQ Show and a line of value-added products from Korea, then it imitated Sina by building a portal website. In online gaming, it copied Ourgame (联众) by developing a platform, and then like Shanda brought in international players, started in-house development (like Netease). Then there was the C2C e-commerce site Paipai, and the third-party payment service TenPay (财付通). Without exception, these were “shanzhai” products, which lies at the root of the hatred for Tencent. I agree with the sentiment. However, all of this were first copied from US high-tech companies. [Read more...]
Sometimes as I start to read a post or news article, I come up with major objections, then as I read through, I notice that I’m not the only one to come up with the objections. Today I read that China’s middle class will reach 700 million by 2020, according to Euromonitor. … 700 million out of the estimated 1.45 billion people of 2020 will have an income of roughly between 80,000RMB (11,800USD) to 120,000RMB (17,700USD) a year.. The obvious silliness of this figure is the definition of Middle Class. At the high-end, that’s 10,000 RMB / month. Which means that they are earning between 25% to 50% more than they are paying for rent. Assume ownership, its still only 60-70% more than mortgage payment in Shanghai. I specifically say Shanghai because if someone is making this salary level, chances are they live in a 1st tier city, which has [Read more...]
The headline is “Summer Intern is the Latest to Fall out“. I don’t need to go into details about what company’s dormitory the intern fell out off. Noted in the article was that the worker didn’t show up for work, was then fired, and the company was trying to arrange transport to the interns home town. I have said this before on my blog and several others: if a young person decides to extinguish his light that shine for just a small moment in time in the void which is this universe, then the fault of the tragedy lies with himself. I’m not defending a really stupid company BTW. I just think that if we MUST place blame somewhere (and I don’t think this type of thing needs blame placement), then it must be with the individual who did this to himself. In the Shanghaiist post, they point out to [Read more...]
Not only interested in “China Business”, I am also interested in mobile technology. Before I moved to China, I was a Product Manager in charge of some mobile software solutions for “PDAs”. However, my interest in mobile technology is not an extension of my previous career choices, but rather an expectation of the day when petaflop-speed computing becomes a permanent augmentation of to my central nervous system. Until that day comes, I’ll settle for the coolest greatest smartphone on the market. So, this article in TechCrunch by Mr. Richard Yu about the future Android Market in China is really something for me to get excited about. (h/t Shanghaiist) Richard’s main points are: 1. There are a lot of mobile internet users in China 2. In spite of the Google-China thang, which should have killed Android in China, Android – [actually OPhone] – is being adopted by the Chinese carriers 3. [Read more...]
Over time, I have learned to channel my frequently occuring negative emotions from my “issues” into areas that can give me strength in my professional and personal life. But, I’m still a fairly unstable person. I have a big ego and I have big mood swings. Also, I can be extremely insecure and I am constantly worried that something bad is going to happen to my children. Although I have “issues”, I feel that I should never take “medicine” for my problems, in part because doing so would reinforce the concept that I am a pre-programed biological robot living in a highly mechanical universe. Some of my friends say “of course you are a robot! We all are! Your often depressed because you don’t want to face reality, but you can still see what’s in front of you!”. Anyway, I prefer to have the illusion that I have free will, [Read more...]
Dan at China Law Blog made a commentary about an article in Forbes called “Five Reasons China Will Rule Tech”. Dan’s criticism of the Forbes article focuses whats wrong with the article. I will summarize the post to say that the Forbes article says five things that don’t stand up to logical scrutiny. I’m adding my comments to both articles here. Dan says: [according to Forbes article] China’s leadership understands engineering [because] In China, eight of the nine members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, including the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, have engineering degrees…So what? Running a country is running a country and there is no evidence that those who are better able to design a television are any better at running a country than those who are not. Of course Dan is correct. Jimmy Carter was (at least until George Bush), indisputably the worst American President since [Read more...]
I believe this interactive graphic from Caixin Online adds neccessary data to my earlier post, “Taikongren’s definitive “What’s happening with Chinese Labor” (updated) (h/t to Talent in China). I don’t have anything else to say about this, except I’m thankful to Frank Mulligan of Talent in China for pointing out this to me.
I think I already said I am not going to talk about Google anymore. That is in-part because everyone else has already talked about them. Also, my moral arguments about this topic make some people think that I’m some sort of “China apologist”. Then came the news that China renewed Google’s Google.cn internet ICP license. Cool, I think. China avoids bad press. Google gets to provide some services on Google.cn, and Google maintains the ridiculous picture-link to Google.com.hk. The world is a little happier. And I don’t need to post about it. Or so I thought. I’m just not the type of guy who lets things go. One of my favorite bloggers, Kai Pan, ofchine/divide, recently posted about Mr. Henry Blodget , a media-analyst, getting the Google story wrong.1 At first, I was not interested in his post (sorry Kai Pan) because I now realize that there are many highly [Read more...]
My favorite online columnist Andrew Leonard wrote a post about GM selling their steering unit Nexteer Automotive to a Chinese SOE Pacific Century Motors, right after GM worked out a salary reduction deal with the union for this plant. One commenter on the article noted her fury for all the management waste, greed, and incompetence which led to the fall of Nexter, which (from the commenter) used to be a Delphi company. Now I wonder, what will the new company be like with a Chinese SOE owner? Here are my predictions: 1. As the management team of Nexter will not change, they will be just as improperly mismanaged as before, only now the workers will make less money and be more pissed-off. PCM said it planned to leave intact Nexteer’s management team, led by Bob Remenar, its president, and respect the company’s five-year labour agreement with the United Auto Workers [Read more...]
First things first. Before I get into talking about issues with Project Management in China, and issues with getting Chinese workers to adopted productivity tools, I would first like to share my nifty comparison chart. I just completed an analysis of various mid-range online Project Management “group-ware” tools. I’m going to recommend the usage of one of these tools in my client’s China-based small start-up animation and game creation company. The company is based in Suzhou, but has contract employees all over the world. Anyone interested in shopping for one of these tools can read the comparison chart directly below without having to be exposed to my anecdotal ruminations about business in China. The above chart is based on the needs of a small company, currently with 10 employees, who is looking for a free or cheap solution to use until the company grows up a bit. The employees can [Read more...]
The HQ is the core. It is Trantor. It is Coruscant. It is where corporate culture is envisioned. It is where titles are defined. It is where the Core model of the ERP program is designed. It is where the Finance Department counts the money and plans what can be spent in the next year. For most managers who work in China who I have talk with, the Core is source of policies which mess up their China business. It is the source of hiring freezes…which do not work well for China units with hot expanding markets. It is the home of R&D departments which refuse to recognize even modest Engineering changes made by the factory’s industrialization departments. It is the birthplace of matrix-management systems which limit local General Managers from making the best decisions for their factories. What if there is more than one “Core”? This is a problem [Read more...]
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