EC21 upgrade

Meanwhile, changes over at EC21, the Korean-based Asian sourcing site which sits at #6 in our latest ranking of Asia's top B2B web sites. The site which, along with Global Sources, is the only non-Chinese site in the top 10, has added a variety of new features in a major redesign which became active today.

At the end of September, EC21.com was ranked #929 in the Alexa.com rankings and, by our estimates, generates an audience of around 447,000 regular users. That places it just behind Global Sources (626,000) and ahead of zdnet.com.cn (407,000).

Global Sources focus on transactions

An interesting press release from Global Sources which suggests that they are stepping up their focus on integrating transactions into their sourcing services. This has been on the agenda for everybody in the business since the heady days of 1998 but has taken a long time to take hold in the Asian exports sector.

The company is now talking of two channels, having earlier announced a link-up with eBay:

The first channel is part of Global Sources' strategic alliance with eBay,
which allows eBay PowerSellers around the world to buy direct from China
suppliers through auctions listed under the eBay user ID GlobalSourcesDirect.
The second is through its online store, which offers fixed-price sales at
http://www.GlobalSourcesDirect.com.

Google also in hot water

The big international players sometimes give the impression that they are competing for 1st prize in the China Internet kowtow contest. In imperial times, visitors to the Emperor had to prostrate themselves in front of the great man and press their foreheads to the floor three times to signify their complete subservience to the ultimate power.

Several reports, including this one from the BBC report on protests about Google's apparent insistence on towing the Zhongnanhai line on Taiwan as a renegade province. A search on Google Maps for the word Taiwan, reveals a map of the island and the phrase "Taiwan, Province on China". Hong Kong's South China Morning Post today reports "The search engine once revised the description after a protest from a pro-independence group, but changed it back just days later, apparently under pressure from the mainland".

As any publisher experienced in China will tell you, the Taiwan issue touches on the rawest of nerves in both the mainland and Taiwan. There are, however, generally-accepted alternatives which (while resented a bit on both sides) are deemed mutually acceptable for most media. "Taiwan", all by itself, is OK for all but the extremist and the sycophants. "The Republic of China" is not OK (in the mainland) while Taiwan Province offends many in Taiwan.

And make sure Taiwan appears on any maps you publish of China: my first visit to Beijing in 1985 was memorable for a two hour lecture from our publishing partners of the day on the one China issue because our cover artist (in a very stylised map of China - also a bad idea) had omitted the island. Much has changed in China over 20 years, but sensitivities on Taiwan have not. That doesn't mean, though, that we need to knuckle under to whatever we think Beijing might want us to do.

Hong Kong correspondents hit out at Yahoo

The members of Hong Kong's reknowned Foreign Correspondents' Club have hit out at Yahoo's involvement with the imprisonment of Chinese journalist Shi Tao with letters sent to founder Jerry Yang and the head of marketing in Hong Kong, Pauline Wong.

The letter to Yang goes as follows:

Mr. Jerry Yang

Co-Founder,
Chief Yahoo and Director

Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, California 94089

United States of America

Dear Mr. Yang.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong, is deeply distressed by Yahoo’s compliance with requests from unknown mainland authorities to hand over information regarding the personal emails of our professional colleague, journalist Shi Tao, and we wish to express our displeasure in the strongest terms.

We note with dissatisfaction Yahoo’s attempted explanation, offered through your good offices, that it “must comply with the laws, regulations and customs” of the nation where it does business. This attempt to seek cover beneath compliance with the rule of law is as unworthy as it is unpersuasive, and in no way addresses the questions of professional ethics and corporate conscience that should arise whenever a request for the provision of personal information is made. Yahoo’s effort at self-justification actually worsens matters; not only is no particular law nor regulation cited, but the suggestion that something as indefinable as “customs” is a legitimate basis for becoming a willing accomplice to authoritarian action makes a mockery of Yahoo’s already feeble effort to appear law-abiding.

Handing over information regarding personal data to a government is not an act that Yahoo, or any responsible Internet Service Provider (ISP), should ever engage in without such material having being sought with a proper judicial warrant issued in the jurisdiction where you are legally domiciled. It is certainly not what Yahoo would do in the United States. Moreover, your firm is registered in Hong Kong, a common law jurisdiction where laws, such as the Personal (Data) Privacy Ordinance, clearly spell out the protections to privacy. If it is Yahoo’s desire to abide by local laws, the FCC suggests that it begin by complying with the laws in force where it is licensed to do business.

If it is Yahoo’s position, however, that the laws, regulations and customs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region are inferior to those of mainland China, then it should state so clearly. That way, people will understand what Yahoo’s view is on One Country-Two Systems relationship, and can select an ISP accordingly. We should add here that a number of our members, representing media organizations from around the world, are already discussing among themselves whether a boycott of Yahoo ought to be organized. Some have already given up their personal Yahoo addresses.

Indeed, if there are political pressures – beyond corporate competition and cupidity – that have driven Yahoo into an action that appears to be a surrender of conscience, then Yahoo – as well as any other ISP’s faced with the same threat – should step forward and make that fact known.

Accordingly, the FCC sincerely extends to executives of Yahoo an invitation to explain any difficulties directly to our members. We would be happy to schedule a speaking engagement. If you are willing to take up this offer, and we hope that you are, please let us know as soon as possible so that appropriate arrangements can be made.

Sincerely,

Ilaria Maria Sala, President

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong

Francis Moriarty, Chairman

FCC Press Freedom Committee

China stock top performers

China Stock Blog produces a weekly listing of the performance of the shares it tracks. Top 10 last week were:

1. CDC Corporation (CHINA) +12.7%
2. Tom Online (TOMO) +10.8%
3. KongZhong (KONG) +9.4%
4. Yanzhou Coal Mining (YZC) +9.1%
5. NetEase (NTES) +8.7%
6. Hurray! (HRAY) +8.4%
7. Focus Media (FMCN) +7.0%
8. Sinopec (SNP) +6.0%
9. eLong (LONG) +5.0%
10. Sina (SINA) +4.7%

Of these, by my count, at least five of the 10 are media-related while eLong is an online travel site.

Of those which fell (5 last week), Baidu was the worst performer, down 19.1%. The rest of the list look more like 'old school' tech stocks although 51Job, an online recruitment site, is obviously feeling the pressure from a number of serious competitors:

Shanda Interactive (SNDA) -0.2%
51Job (JOBS) -0.4%
Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMI) -7.8%
China Techfaith Wireless (CNTF) -9.5%
Baidu (BIDU) -19.1%

They'll never make it in time

Our suspicions that India's B2B print sector will never make it anywhere close to critical mass before being commercially overwhelmed by much more effective online alternatives are fuelled by news that Google is gearing up its Adwords operation in the sub-continent. It looks as though a sales push with real, live sales people may be at the heart of the launch strategy.

ContentSutra posts an Indiatimes article which reports "Search giant Google has started visiting Indian campuses to recruit staff for their fledgling sales office in Hyderabad...Google is ramping up their sales operations in India and is finally looking at the country as a market...".

VNU Business for sale?

Having speculated back in July that VNU's $7 billion acquisition of IMS might give the Asian management team room to breathe as they develop their business media activities, Crain's Bt2B Online and the Wall Street Journal report that the whole VNU Business division may be up for sale.

The Journal says:

VNU NV is considering some radical measures to win the support of institutional shareholders who are skeptical about its $7 billion deal to buy IMS Health Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

and goes on to suggest:

To appease unhappy investors, VNU could seek to sell its business-information unit, which publishes trade magazines such as Hollywood Reporter and Billboard and organizes trade fairs, according to people familiar with the situation. The division could fetch more than €1 billion ($1.2 billion), these people say.

B2B's Sean Callaghan adds:

Industry observers have long speculated that VNU Business Media did not fit in with VNU’s overall effort to limit its exposure to cyclical ad revenues.

Just what they need: investment bankers crawling all over them.

Update: More on this Steven Ennen's post on ABM's Media Pace and from David Shaw who points out (shame on us for not reading more carefully) that this has been in the air for some while.

Waning influence?

Fons Tuinstra posts a very interesting piece on how the influence of Shanghai and Guangzhou appear to be waning, no longer the only and obvious target for foreign investment activity, particularly in the industrial sector. I had been noticing this for some time in my own business activities with a distinct lessening of the pace with which my clients are engaging themselves with Shanghai. I hadn't noticed it with Guangdong although things there are at a different stage of development to Shanghai in the industries I cover and competition among the western companies remains less fierce at this point.

I had also noticed the Financial Times piece which he quotes on Shanghai. Some quite hard hitting stuff there:

Within China, however, Shanghai is quietly losing its lustre as its economic drivers run out of steam and new leaders in Beijing look askance on the privileges bestowed on the city by the previous administration.

Japanese technology insights

Colin Crawford of IDG points us towards this interesting new site from IDG Japan. There is so much going on in the Japanese technology sector that barely makes a ripple in the rest of the world that this has to be a great initiative.

Digital World Tokyo: "IDG Japan has launched a new weblog reporting on the latest news on local consumer technology to the English-speaking world. The site, www.digitalworldtokyo.com is now live. The site will feature news, views, reviews and features not just from Japan, but..

(Via Colin Crawford.)

SEEC Media deals looming

SEEC Media (HKSE: 0205), the Hong Kong business arm of China's leading, crusading financial title Caijing, is stepping out. Shortly after announcing that it would work with Ziff Davis to re-launch PC Magazine in China, the company is rumoured to be close to a deal with Time Inc. to publish Chinese editions of People and Sports Illustrated.

To add to the Alice in Wonderland elements which seem ever present in Chinese publishing, the SEEC Media titles which report on the financial derring do of China's listed companies are ultimately owned in Beijing by the Stock Exchange Council.