Events and technology

My friend Joanne Kelleway has recently started a new blog which focuses on her main area of interest and expertise; events and technology. For those of you who don't know Joanne (shame on you; what remote hole do you live in?), she runs from Australia the Info Salons registration business whose reach now extends to China, Dubai and soon, we're all sure, the rest of the world.

She's already written about one of my pet topics; mobile technology and our business. Today she links to an interesting video interview with technology futurist Mark Pesce. Add Joanne's blog to your blog reader. It will make you a better person...

...that will be one Turkish coffee in Istanbul next week, please Joanne.

Blog of blogs

I'm not sure if that's really the right term and consultants who charge higher fees than me would probably come up with grand phrases like aggregation. However, the Asian blogs which cover our industry have been quite excited by the OpenWeb.Asia initiative. According to Kaiser Kuo, this is an initiative of Gang Lu from the Mobinode blog.

They've added a Facebook Group and seem to be planning a number of other initiatives around this grouping of blogs from China, Korea, Japan, Australia, Vietnam and Singapore. Seems like there should be some Indian input here as well guys.

Gang Lu notes "We are very happy to say that the plan for OpenWeb Asia 08′ - the first pan-Asia conference is to be announced soon". More here or, if you prefer, there: you can link this OPML file (I've not idea what that is by the way) into your RSS Reader (that I do know).

I also notice a post on the Facebook page from Preetam Rai in Thailand who announces the first BarCamp event in Cambodia. That's cool!

Of Asia B2B blogging

A couple of quick snippets on the small world of Asia B2B blogging:

1. Trapp Lewis (we spoke of him just the other day) has launched a new blog, the Trade Media Blog. It's heavily focused on the world he knows very well of the Global Sources/Alibaba space. Recent posts, though cover the all-important quality issue and China overtaking Canada as the top supplier to the US. Trapp has kindly included us in his exclusive blog roll. Thank you!
2. Eddie Choi's Tradedot has been included in the BIGLIST SEO Blogs 'hall of fame'. Take a look at his latest post on the search terms that are driving traffic to his site. Again, the Glob-ibaba combination features large.
   

Good luck with both gentlemen. I welcome both of your contributions to intelligent debate on the business world we cover.

Sourcing source

For those of you who don't follow the comments on earlier posts, I'd direct you to an interesting one which has appeared over the weekend to last Wednesday's piece on LinkedIn Answers and the exchange on 'safe sourcing' in China.

The comment comes from a blog I hadn't seen before, Source Juice. The bloggers describe themselves as "guys and Gals from the US and China in the technology, manufacturing, and supply chain industries" who "believe there is a huge void of information and intelligence about China and Asia in general that needs to be filled". They go on to say that they plan to "adhere to principles of eliminating bullshit and enabling the truth to surface as well as providing as much value to our readers as possible". Worthy goals indeed. Seek truth from facts, eh!

Their comment on our post notes:

This post is important because there are so many small and medium sized enterprises (SME's) getting absolutely burned when purchasing initial orders from Chinese factories.

The reality is that China is a place where you need to work face to face and build trust with parties over time. This is why Trade Shows, as Trapp Lewis pointed out, is a great way to meet potential suppliers.

They also direct readers to their own post 7 Ways to Avoid Getting Scammed by Suppliers in China which is worth a read. Never forget point 7: "7. Use Common Sense! The old adage.. if it’s too good to be true, it probably is!". Why that seems to be forgotten in China by otherwise sensible business people is beyond me.

Asian B2Blogs

An interesting post today from Eddie Choi on CEO blogging in the B2B world in Asia. He lists a number of blogs generated by the major B2B sites, most of which I wasn't previously aware of. So, thanks for this Eddie:

- Alibaba Business Blog, Jack Ma Blog
- Globalsources Blog
- Tootoo Blog
- Dhgate Blog
- HC360 Blog
- NetSun Businessmen Forum

They're worth a look because each of them has a distinct 'signature' look and feel which makes it absolutely clear where they come from. The Global Sources blog unashamedly promotes Global Sources and not much else. DH Gate's blog tries to tell the story of trading online with China while Tootoo's blog is a bit confusing.

The Netsun Forum has more of the feel of a BBS which, while out of favour in many other places, remains very popular in China.

China-focused blogs get more targeted

Back from Spain. Good to catch up with many friends at the UFI meeting in Bilbao.

Working my way now through a lot of e-mails and news updates. That's made harder by the failure of yet another cheap and nasty Dell power block for my nasty (and not so cheap) Dell laptop. Don't buy 'em.

I was interested to see more and more targeted and specific blogs in English about Chinese media. The latest that jumped to my attention is ChinaSearchAds. Of course, all the Baidu-buzz does make this an interesting place to focus.

The Baidu news which caught my attention this morning - and that of the ChinaSearchAds blogger - was the BBC story reporting that Baidu would be keeping its chequebook well hidden and would not be fuelling international expansion through acquisitions. The article quotes CFO Shawn Wang saying "Buying rivals would dilute our rate of growth and create a loss of focus. I do not believe we should go out and make acquisitions just because we have acquisition currency."

Mind you, it was a Wang quote which the Daily Torygraph misinterpreted last week to say they would be expanding in Europe. So who knows?

Record month

Readership of this blog has been increasingly pretty steadily since we started. This month, the first of our third year of blogging I am amazed to see has, however, been particularly striking with a 38% increase month-on-month from April to May. You're still a pretty select crowd and the Google Adwords revenues will buy us one good lunch if we're lucky.

However, with May 2007 up 260% vs. May 2006, there's clearly something here which is interesting you all.

So, thanks for that. It was indeed a merry month of May for this blog. Let's hope for a truly sunny June!

Where real business meets the media

We write a lot about the B2B companies servicing the consumer merchandise sourcing world. It was with some interest then, that we noticed a post on the China Law Blog directing us to a company which services the sourcing world and is blogging about it.

Asthon Udall's Product Global blog looks interesting and we shall follow it. The challenges he describes in the work of his company, Global Sourcing Specialists in the Bay Area, should direct the types of services and information that the likes of Alibaba, Global Sources and tootoo.com are developing.

In today's post, Udall touches on some of the issues that keep driving buyers back to China. He comments:

Many people have read or heard that lower prices can be found in other countries, such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc. We judge where to source for a given project based on not only what that project needs, but also what a country's manufacturing base has to offer. China, as we all know, has quite a bit to offer these days. For the small business beginning offshore sourcing, China offers a lot more than just low prices.

Blog use

You really are an international bunch. I just looked at the last 50 users. You were from 14 countries with the largest group (15) coming from the USA, followed by Hong Kong (8), the rest of China (7), Singapore (4) and India (4).

Best town name of the day award among our readers goes to Lost Nation, Iowa.

Click on the chart to make it large enough to read. A few obvious missing locations including the UK. Was there the wrong kind of snow on the tracks to stop rail commuters getting to their desks today? In France, I assume everybody is waiting for the new government-sanctioned after lunch nap before logging on.

10 Commandments for China business

The China Law Blog could be really dull but, thankfully, is one of the more interesting sites that I look at on a regular basis. Today's piece on Ten Commandments for Doing Business in China is typical of what I mean. Not only has Dan Harris pointed us to a really interesting post on another blog (ChinaSolved in this case), but I also agree with his reservations about it.

China auto blog

Automotive is one of those sectors like IT where industry publications and web sites can straddle a B2B and consumer interest. We stumbled across the China Car Times over the weekend and that seems to fall right into this category.

Their current lead story talks about (and pictures) a car from Shuang Huan (bet most of you haven't heard of that brand yet) which bears a striking resemblance to the Daimler-Chrysler group's Smart.

Blog influence in Asia

The thought of PR companies trying to master the world of blogging is one that makes me a bit nervous. And, as this is the second time in recent weeks that we have mentioned Edelman's blog-related activities, they clearly are having a serious run at it.

Rebecca MacKinnon, newly-arrived in Hong Kong (welcome!), points to this study of global blog readership published by the company. She was not surprised by the extent to which decision-makers (I'd have to read the study properly to find out what they mean by that) rank blogs as important in Japan, Korea and China compared to the US and Europe. I have to confess that I was very surprised, particularly to see that as many as 91% in Japan said they were reading blogs.

This study is linked to Edelman's tie-up with Technorati about which we wrote on 31st December. I have my suspicions that the audience being polled were mainly bloggers and thus the oddly high results. I don't believe that a truly random selection of Japanese decision-makers would generate a number anything like as high as 91%. But, maybe I'm wrong. What do you think?

Biggest VC funding in Chinese blog co

China Web 2.0 Review reports on a $3 - 5 million Series-A funding of Blogbus. The piece suggests that this is the "this is the largest series A funding among Chinese BSPs (blog service provider)".

The piece also reports on a Rmb120 million (US$15 million) investment in classified provider Sosoko (is this a CSP?).

Blogging in Japan

Steve Rubel on his Micro Persuasion blog points to an interesting tool for outsiders wanting to search the Japanese Blogosphere. He suggests that there are millions of Japanese blogs.

Given that, for most forms of media, Japan is a bigger market than the rest of Asia put together (including China and India), we will need to return to this to see just how things are developing there.

FEER Travellers' Tales becomes a blog

One of the favourite features of the Far Eastern Economic Review for many years has been its Travellers' Tales column. Featuring wacky facts about Asia, often involving a horrible mangling of the English language, the column reached its peak popularity under the late-editor Derek Davies in the 1980s and his successor Nury Vittachi in the 1990s. We discover that, in the magazine's new iteration as a worthy journal, this column has been turned by the new-look Review's new editor, Hugo Restall into a blog.

He invites contributions by e-mail.

Over 24 million blogs in Asia

The Blog Herald reports that there are now over 60 million blogs. Of these, it claims, some 24.35 million are in Asia.

Asia
Japan: 3.35 million blogs
confirmed here first through a Japan Today report and now by Steve Rubel 3 days later.

China: 4 million
NY Times 24 May

South Korea: 15 million
new reports are still difficult to get out of South Korea, so I’m using the same figure as last month. Give how high it is a can’t see a huge amount of growth left in South Korea for blogs.

Other Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Phillipines): approx 1 million
mixed reports and no firm figures so again I’ve stuck with last months figures. What I have managed to stumble on to is some really good blogs coming out of these countries and vibrant blogging communities, but alas no figure.

India/ Pakistan: approx 1 million
no firm figures however I’ve noticed a significant rise out of India recently, and certainly the Indian press is also reporting on the emergence of Indian blogs, which is a sure sign that there must be a reasonable number there.

Blog bubble talk...before Asia even starts

It has happened awfully fast and we're beginning to wonder whether this is 2000 all over again. The talk today is all of the blog bubble. Will it burst before Asia even really gets starts? Kevin Maney evokes Monty Python in his USA Today colum Once blogs 'change everything,' fascination with them will chill.

Heather Green picks up on Maney comments in a thoughtful post on her Business Week blog.

The main difference with 2000, it seems is that there isn't a whole lot of silly money in blogs yet. So, what's to burst other than a few journalistic egos?

Welcome

Business media in Asia is evolving very quickly. Many interesting things are happening around the region. My company, Business Strategies Group, follows this every day and this BLOG is designed for those of you who want more regular updates on what is happening than our weekly newsletter (sign up on the web site) allows.

Contact me directly whenever you wish. We welcome your comments.