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China ICT (Info Communications Technology) Industry, Infra, Commerce, Exports: News & Discussions

Can't keep up with the times.:D

I use my phone for

(1) taking and making calls
(2) surfing the net(from time to time) and
(3) wechatting

Yes, I am a laggard no doubt in the era of digital/cyber economy. :smokin:
 
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August 31, 2016, 11:30 AM
A leading investor in China’s Xiaomi and other e-commerce firms talks about global opportunities
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BY FRANK TONG Senior editor, China

GGV Capital’s Hans Tung, who has witnessed highs and lows in internet business financing, talks about recent investments, including a cross-border e-commerce app and Airbnb.

Hans Tung is managing partner at GGV Capital, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that has invested in many e-commerce companies, including China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and India’s Snapdeal. Tung ranks No. 21 in the 2016 top technology investors listed by Forbes magazine as he led the investments in Xiaomi at a very early stage.

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Internet Retailer sat down with Tung during the recent China-U.S. Investment Summit in Silicon Valley to talk about the latest opportunities and trends in cross-border e-commerce. Here is an edited version of that conversation:

What’s your opinion regarding the current fundraising slowdown?

I experienced the internet bubble between 2000 and 2002, and I also went through the financial crisis in 2008. It is definitely a good time to invest or to create a startup when most people say winter is coming.

Great companies always stand out when the winters are going to end. Facebook was founded in 2004 and Xiaomi was created in 2010. Also, Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent all have gained strong momentum after the first dotcom bubble.

In the winter, startups will find that raising money is difficult, but there are fewer competitors as well since poor-performing companies, which often burn money on marketing, find it hard to access financing from VCs.

Can you tells about your recent investments?

The first one is a mobile-based shopping marketplace, Wish, which is based in here San Francisco. They help Chinese merchants sell products to mobile shoppers in the U.S. and Europe. In the beginning, they didn’t have a China team and only sold ads. I suggested they expand into China and start to sell products. Two years ago, Wish’s users could only select from 100,000 products; now 30 million products sell on Wish.

The second one is cross-border e-commerce app RED. Charles Mao, a Stanford graduate, created this app to sell overseas products into China through an online community. When I invested in RED, users could only share shopping experiences and the app didn’t sell any products. I have invested into 10 cross border e-commerce companies, and RED is the most inexperienced in e-commerce operations. But Mao is the smartest founder I’ve ever seen, and he knows how to connect people closely by their interests. Now we all know an online community is very important for e-commerce startups because it acts as an economic moat.

I also invested in music social app musical.ly recently. The lip-sync app has attracted more than 100 million users and followers on social media and even appeared on the popular TV show “Good Morning America.” Musical.ly is a rare example since it is popular in America but the development team was based in Shanghai. They have a cross-border team as one of their founders and are native Chinese who worked in Silicon Valley for many years.

I know you invested recently into Airbnb and online messaging app Slack. Why?

We invested in Airbnb [the online marketplace for vacation property rentals] in the past year because we plan to help them expand into China.

Slack also got our funding. The app has become a popular enterprise communication tool in the U.S. Lots of companies, including Microsoft, eBay, Jet.com, are using this app to transfer messages or information smoothly across different departments. The app also has global users in Japan and Europe. In China, Alibaba has a similar app, Dingding, which is actually learning the business idea from Slack.

Almost all the companies I invested in have become or are close to becoming unicorn companies, which are private companies valued at more than $1 billion.

Why did you invest in so many cross border e-commerce companies?

I believe cross-border e-commerce is a trend in the next 10 years. I was lucky in many ways: I invested in China’s internet companies in 2005 while the broad-band internet was rising. In 2010, after I bet on Xiaomi, smartphone demand was taking off in China. In 2013, I know cross-border e-commerce and globalization of mobile companies would become the largest wave in the near future.

When I went to China in 2005, the value of Alibaba increased to $5 billion, up from $170 million when GGV invested in it earlier. Now Alibaba’s value is $200 billion. Why? Online markets grew dramatically because China lacks an advanced retail system like having Wal-Mart and Target in the U.S. Chinese shoppers like to buy online, although there were fake or counterfeit products on marketplaces. Now people are increasing buying authentic products as living conditions improve in China.

It seems China is tightening its cross-border e-commerce policies for imported products. Your opinion?

For China’s cross-border e-commerce, export is also important. China has many good products, which can be sold at a higher price. Although Wish mainly helps Chinese merchants export, it also works with JD.com to establish a small business division to sell imported products.

Wish features mostly low-ticket products. Is it a good time for Chinese manufacturers to consider creating their brands in the U.S.?

Branding in the U.S. is not easy. First you need to create great products. Over time, consumers will recognize you. Currently, many Chinese sellers lack a long-term plan. I think their mindset will change and good sellers will focus on meeting consumers’ needs in the future.

The old stereotype for Chinese companies is they often copy the business idea from U.S. tech companies, but now more Chinese internet companies are expanding in the U.S. market.

This is a latest trend in the past three years. The reason behind it is that China’s internet sector has enough development.

From 2000 to 2010, the trend is to copy the ideas from the U.S. to China. However, China is quite different from the U.S. China has many more users and demands from consumers in China are very different. China’s market is much more complicated than the U.S., so localized companies that provide unique online services could win in China.

For example, Didi competes with Uber in China in the same taxi-hailing market, but Didi knows more about China. Uber has a more advanced IT system with only 100 technology workers, while Didi operates a less-competitive IT system with 5,000 workers. The result is clear: Didi can cover 500 Chinese cities, while Uber only operates in 50 cities. That type of know-how allows Chinese internet companies to expand into other markets, especially in developing countries. But the successful cases like Musical.ly are still rare. In the next 10 years, with more Chinese-Americans going back to China and working with local talent, those cross-border teams have huge potential in the global market as they can learn from best practices in the world’s two largest markets: China and the U.S.

Why does China have WeChat, a super app where millions of people can chat and shop in an app, and nothing like it has taken off in the U.S.?

Yelp is a good example [of potential]. If Yelp could allow users to make reservations, it could be a super app like WeChat. But they didn’t do so. Most U.S internet companies would like to direct traffic to a retailer rather than handle the transaction themselves.

Another example is Pinterest. Five years after launching, they started to allow users to buy products from the app. But the timing is a big problem because their users are used to discovering things on the app but not shopping on the app.

What is your focus in the next several years?

I will strengthen investment on cross-order e-commerce and also invest in consumer product brands in a specific category, like Dollar Shave Club.
 
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Unmanned vehicles developed by JD.com to begin trial operation
September 02, 2016
People's Daily

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The vehicle can plan the delivery route and avoid traffic jam.

The first unmanned distribution vehicles independently developed by Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com will began trial operation this October, the company announced on Sept. 1. The statement also said that such vehicles are expected to be in large-scale commercial use in the near future.

At 1 meter long, 0.8 meters wide and 0.6 meters high, the unmanned distribution vehicles are capable of independently planning routes, avoiding congested roads and identifying traffic lights.

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It notifies buyers using APP or text message.

Some netizens commented that the devices will threaten the jobs of delivery people.

Discussing the original intent of the project, Xiao Jun, head of JD.com's intelligent logistics research, explained that Chinese logistics systems in urban areas are entirely dependent on manpower, requiring a large number of employees to make deliveries spanning small distances. According to Xiao, this results in inefficiency.

Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba, another e-commerce giant in China, dismissed JD.com's test of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in June, laughingly stating that the company might as well be attempting to deliver packages to Mars.

Nevertheless, as the first group working toward UAV delivery in China, JD.com is confident that such measures can not only resolve distribution issues in rural areas, but can also reduce operation costs, according to analysts.
 
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Top 10 trends in China's internet development
By Zhu Lingqing (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-09-02 07:15

The number of Chinese using internet rose to 710 million as of June, accounting for 51.7 percent of the country's total population, exceeding the global average by 3.1 percent, according to a report released by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) on August 3.

As internet penetration level keeps rising, some trends in internet development are visible, according to a report by 199it.com. Here are the top 10 trends.

Trend 1: The group of phubbers is expanding

Phubbers are people who engage in phubbing, "the act of snubbing someone in a social setting by looking at a phone instead of paying attention".

The number of people using their mobile phones to surf the internet reached 656 million, increasing from 90.1 percent of the total internet users at the end of last year to 92.5 percent as of June.

In addition, people surfing the internet only via mobile phones account for 24.5 percent of the total internet users.

Trend 2: Video-streaming websites are getting more users

The number of internet users watching video online increased to 514 million as of June, up 10 million from the end of last year, with 440 million using mobile phones to watch videos online.

Trend 3: The lifestyle of "no cash" becomes popular

People using online payments rose to 455 million as of June, with 64.7 percent of them having the experience of paying via smartphones.

Trend 4: The number of online shoppers keeps rising

A total of 448 million internet users shopped online as of June, with 61 percent of them shopping via smartphones.

Trend 5: Online live broadcast is rocketing

The number of online live broadcast users reached 325 million as of June, accounting for 45.8 percent of internet users.

Trend 6: More than half of internet users play online games

Online game player amounted to 391 million as of June, accounting 55.1 percent of internet users. The number of internet users playing online games via smartphones reached 302 million, up 23 million from the end of last year.

Trend 7: Online travel services are attracting more users

A total of 264 million internet users used online travel services as of June, with the number of people using smartphones to reserve tickets, hotels or tourism products reaching 232 million, a10.7 percent increase from the end of last year.

Trend 8: Online ride-hailing services are getting more customers

As ride-hailing services have been granted legal status in China, it has been used by 159 million users as of June, which means 22.3 percent of internet users have tried the service.

Trend 9: Online food ordering and delivery services are prospering

Food ordering and delivery service apps users increased by 40 percent in the first six months of this year, with 146 million people using their phone to order food.

Trend 10: Internet financing is booming

The number of people purchasing internet financing products reached 101 million as of June, increasing by 11 million from the end of last year.
 
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China's Ministry of Commerce investigating Didi-Uber merger
2016-09-02 16:15 | chinadaily.com.cn | Editor: Feng Shuang

The mega merger between the top two ride-hailing service providers in China may hit a roadblock as the country's antitrust watchdog says it is investigating the case.

The Ministry of Commerce said at a news conference in Beijing on Friday it was investigating whether the merger deal between Didi Chuxing and the China unit of the US-headquartered Uber Technologies Inc suggested a potential monopoly.

Shen Danyang, spokesman for the ministry, said that Didi and Uber China completed the merger deal on August 2; right after the two announced their agreement to tie-up on August 1 without filing any application to the ministry in advance.

"So far the antitrust bureau of the ministry has asked Didi to explain the reason of not filing application and required the company to submit related documents," Shen said.

According to him, the bureau has talked to related government organizations and enterprises to understand the market competition of the ride-hailing industry brought by the deal and will push the investigation forward to make sure the playing field is leveled and the interest of consumers is protected.

The Beijing-based Didi Chuxing was not available to comment on Friday.

Didi announced at the beginning of August its decision to acquire Uber's China operations, creating a ride-sharing titan estimated to take about 90 percent of the market.
 
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Indonesian President Joko Widodo and his wife visit Alibaba Xixi headquarters




Indonesian President Joko Widodo (left) and his wife visit Alibaba Xixi headquarters, accompanied by Jack Ma (center), chair of the B20's SME development taskforce and chairman of Alibaba Group, in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, on September 2, 2016. [Photo by Wei Zhiyang, Zhejiang Daily/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]



Indonesian President Joko Widodo (first from left) and his wife visit Alibaba Xixi headquarters, accompanied by Jack Ma (second from right), chair of the B20's SME development taskforce and chairman of Alibaba Group, in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, on September 2, 2016. [Photo by Wei Zhiyang, Zhejiang Daily/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]


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Wow! I am surprise. I thought Alibaba is bigger, but I was wrong.

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Tencent Is Now the Most Valuable Company in Asia
by David Meyer
SEPTEMBER 5, 2016, 6:59 AM EDT

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It’s also one of the top 10 public corporations in the world by market cap.

The web firm Tencent TCEHY 5.27% has become the most valuable company in Asia, and one of the top 10 in the world by market capitalization.

It wasn’t so long ago that Tencent was racing neck-and-neck with Samsung — their share prices were both up by a third on the year — to overtake state-owned China Mobile and steal the title of the most valuable company in Asia.

Samsung has flagged over the last few days, however, after it had to issue a recall for its flagship Note 7 handset because of reports about battery fires. But stock in Tencent has continued to surge, rising 3.8% in Hong Kong on Monday. That took it to a valuation of HK$1.976 trillion ($255 billion).

That jump takes Tencent narrowly past the market cap of China Mobile, and into the same premier league of public corporations as U.S. tech giants Apple AAPL -0.03% , Alphabet GOOG 1.12% , Microsoft MSFT -0.10% , Amazon AMZN 2.13% and Facebook FB 2.55% .

The Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba BABA 4.56% is not far behind, with a current valuation of around $250 billion.

Tencent is best known for its gaming operation, its QQ and WeChat social networks, and its online ad business, although it also offers services in the realms of payments (a likely growth area), cloud storage, and entertainment.

The company became China’s most valuable tech company last month. So far this year its stock price has risen by more than 40%.

Tencent’s success can largely be attributed to China’s current boom in consumer spending, and the firm has in the last couple years become a major investor in the venture capital scene.
 
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JD.com going into VR battle with Alibaba
China Daily, September 7, 2016

China's second-largest B2C online platform JD.com Inc is gearing up to use virtual reality technology on its online shopping platform in a bid to catch up with its archrival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

On Tuesday, the Nasdaq-listed online retailer announced its ambitious plan to build a virtual reality and augmented reality-enabled online shopping experience that can beat those offered by brick-and-mortar stores.

"We don't want to miss the future development of VR and AR technologies. They could provide better shopping experiences and bring convenience to our lives. At the same time, innovative technologies can drive the development of JD's future business," said Long Yu, chief human resources officer at JD.com.

Together with third parties, the company will launch the AR home decoration product. With the AR shopping app, users can "see" virtual items in a real environment, such as the position of a sofa and the color of the wallpaper. At the same time, users can have a real-time conversation with designers to discuss the interior layout of their home.

Apart from AR, JD currently uses VR technologies on 3C (computer, communications and consumer electronics), home appliances and other fields. Putting on a VR headset, users can pick up the selected product and view it in 360 degrees.

In February, JD's rival Alibaba invested in US-based mixed reality startup Magic Leap. Then it announced the establishment of its own VR research lab, GnomeMagic Lab. And in July, Alibaba provided a preview of its "Buy+" virtual store at the Taobao Maker Festival in Shanghai.

According to a jointly issued VR & AR market analysis report by JD and international data group IDG, as the VR market develops rapidly, the fourth quarter will usher in full-blown competition.

"With JD's key business lying in online shopping malls, VR and AR technologies will help improve the impact of commodity displays, and boost the company's business. As a representative of B2C platforms, JD's main users are people aged between 20 to 35 with medium to high incomes, who are aware of VR and AR technologies," said Zhao Ziming, an analyst at Beijing-based internet consultancy Analysys.

However, James Yan, research director at Counterpoint Technology Market Research, said in an earlier interview that the application of VR in e-commerce would need more time to take off because it is difficult to make people form the habit of using VR technology to shop. "And VR content for shopping is also in desperate need," he said.

On Tuesday, JD also announced its cooperation with domestic VR manufacturer Beijing Baofeng Mojing Technology Co Ltd over the next three years, to sell 15 million VR headsets.
 
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Besides beef and iron ore, we (Oz) also have good quality wine and lots of fresh air!
Tonight, we are opening a bottle of Cab Sav.


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Alibaba Launches Aussie Wine Store
5 SEP 2016 JULIAN THUMM

Alibaba has launched a flagship Australian wine store through its Tmall platform, providing an opportunity for Aussie winemakers to tap into the lucrative Chinese market.

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Australian winemakers are set to benefit from Alibaba’s latest offering — a flagship B2C wine store offering Australian wines through the Tmall.com platform.

The new wine store, which is supported by Wine Australia and operated by Chinese online wine retailer Vinehoo.com, will initially stock 10 brands from eight wine regions. Initial brands include Brokenwood, Coriole, John Duval, Pikes and Voyager Estate.

Vinehoo.com will support the venture, facilitating fulfilment of all orders. It will also provide a platform to build the profile of Australian wines and regions among Chinese consumers. A further 20 brands are to be listed in the coming months.

The store opening will be supported by the inaugural Tmall 9.9 Global Wine and Spirits Festival, an online event aimed at introducing global wine and spirit brands to Chinese consumers.

“The opening of the store is a landmark moment that builds on a year of strong growth for Australian wine in the Chinese export market,” said Andreas Clark, CEO of Wine Australia. “It opens up another commercial opportunity for Australian wineries to tap into China’s growing appreciation for our fine wines.”

Australian wine exports have grown to $2.1 billion per year. The global trend of increased demand for Australia’s finest wines was reflected on the Chinese mainland, with exports priced A$10 or more per litre destined for China, increasing sharply by 71 per cent to $169 million.

“The food and wine culture in China continues to evolve, and there is increased demand from Chinese consumers for premium quality products online. Our support of Tmall’s flagship Australian wine store helps us capitalise on this growing interest in Australian wine and gives us the opportunity to further reinforce the message with consumers that wines of Australian provenance are of the highest quality,” said Clark.

Maggie Zhou, Managing Director of Australia and New Zealand markets for Alibaba said: “The partnership between Tmall and Wine Australia will allow local winemakers to access the 434 million active consumers across our China retail marketplaces. As the domestic wine sector in China is yet to reach maturity and Australian wines are considered world-class and come at varied price points, the opportunity to sell to China’s burgeoning middle class is significant.

“Beyond established, well-recognised Australian wine brands, there is also strong potential for smaller producers to gain traction internationally. With the opening of Alibaba’s Australian office in late 2016, our local team will be helping winemakers of all sizes effectively market their products, navigate distribution channels and align to overseas preferences,” Zhou said.

Late last year Alibaba partnered with Australia Post to help Australian businesses sell wholesale into China through the company’s 1688.com platform, with a range of Australian winemaker getting on board.
 
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Alibaba to expand investment in ASEAN
Xinhua, September 11, 2016

Alibaba will boost investment and development in ASEAN, according to founder and chairman Jack Ma on Sunday.

The e-commerce giant will "participate in the development of local small- and medium-sized enterprises and young people," said Ma at the opening ceremony of the 13th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, which runs from Sunday to Wednesday.

He did not, however, elaborate or share any specific plans.

China-ASEAN trade has exploded, it is now 58 times larger than when the two sides established dialogue relations 25 years ago, which translates into great business opportunities and social development, according to Ma.

If hundreds of millions of young people and small businesses participate in globalization, the world economy and trade will be changed in a greater way, he said, adding that the Belt and Road Initiative is the start of inclusive globalization.

***

Get on the development train, folks!
 
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Alibaba opens its first self-built data center
China Daily, September 13, 2016


An aerial view of Alibaba's data center in Zhangbei County, Hebei Province, Sept. 11, 2016. [Photo by Chen Weisong/China.org.cn]

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd launched on Monday its very first self-designed, self-built data centers in Hebei Province, beefing up its cloud computing capability to better serve online shoppers and entrepreneurs in northern China.

The two newly launched data centers in Zhangbei County in Zhangjiakou are expected to become Alibaba's key computing infrastructure in northern China, providing services to the giant's core businesses in cloud computing, big data and e-commerce.

Jeff Zhang, chief technology officer of Alibaba Group, said that the e-commerce giant had previously teamed up with telecom operators in building data centers.

"The two centers in Zhangbei are the first centers we have exclusively designed and built to support our business," he said, adding that he estimates the centers will shoulder about half of the computing tasks of the company in the future.

According to Zhang, the new centers will soon provide services during Alibaba's upcoming Nov 11 shopping festival, the biggest annual online shopping event in China. The centers are also expected to provide clouding computing and big data services to 2 million small and medium-sized companies.

"Alibaba has become one of the world's leading big data companies. We are fully committed to building our platform, at the heart of which are efficient data centers that are highly available and robust, of large enough scale to match our growth and make use of a reproducible IT infrastructure," said Zhang, adding that the company may build another data center in the future.

The launch of the new data center is in line with Alibaba's "going North" strategy.

The move is aimed to help Alibaba gain an increased market share in northern regions in the intense competition with its biggest online shopping rival, Beijing-based JD.com Inc.

Lu, an e-commerce expert, said "computing infrastructure is important for Alibaba to enable users in north China to enjoy more and better services".


An engineer examines equipments at Alibaba's data center in Zhangbei County, Hebei Province, Sept. 11, 2016. [Photo by Chen Weisong/China.org.cn]
 
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Digital economy to be new engine of growth
By He Yini (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2016-09-09 15:22


Digital technologies are changing the game of doing business by increasingly penetrating into consumer markets, business models and decision-making in large and small companies alike across the world.

It begs a question for young entrepreneurs, though, of how to survive and scale up their businesses in a disruptive age, as they are often lack funds and experience, among others.

This is especially true in China. Statistics show more than 30,000 startups are emerging on a daily basis in the country, a number that's expected to grow with the massive push for policies to support innovation and economic transformation.

"Policy can play a critical role in turning digital disruption into a powerful opportunity for young entrepreneurs," said Rohan Malik, strategic growth leader of global industry in Ernst & Young, on Thursday.

It's very important to create an entrepreneurial environment that encourages young people to establish, grow and scale their businesses, he said during a news release of the company's latest report on digital economy.

Meanwhile, access to funds and mentorship on management, among other factors, are crucial for a new company to survive and maintain a business, but also the biggest challenge in the first year or two, said Malik, citing the report.

According to the report, for high-performing young Chinese entrepreneurs, their approaches to operations management are shifting – from relying on personal experiences to adopting innovative management models that focus on digital technologies, big data analytics and applications.

China has rolled out a slew of measures to boost mass entrepreneurship and innovation, a program initiated in 2014, to reinvigorate the slowing economy by encouraging more people to start their own businesses and unleash their innovation potential.

The latest guidelines were issued on Sept 1 at the State Council's executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang, in a bid to ensure the healthier and more sustainable development of venture capital that underpins the growth of small businesses and new innovation-driven engines, including the digital economy.

"Venture capital can finance small business startups that have promising markets. Promoting the form can boost economic vitality and help create more opportunities for employment," Huang Qunhui, director of the Institute of Industrial Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted as saying in an earlier China Daily report.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, the number of newly registered enterprises exceeded 2.62 million in the first half of 2016, up 28.6 percent from last year.

"Start-ups need to improve their own comprehensive competitiveness in order to reduce the risks for investors. Good projects and good companies will see no shortage of funding," said Benson Ng, an advisory partner of Ernst &Young Advisory Services Ltd.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), enterprises in China and around the world will see more strategic opportunities arising from the implementation of policies to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, he said.

Digital, which equals inclusive growth, is the new way the government should do business, said Malik. "The future is bright. Young entrepreneurs should seize the time and take the initiative to innovate."
 
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China's top 5 internet ecosystems
chinadaily.com.cn, September 14, 2016

Competition in China's internet market has turned into a fierce contest among ecosystems, market research firm International Data Corporation wrote (IDC) in a report released on Thursday.

IDC analyzed the strong growth of internet giants Alibaba and Tencent in the second quarter, saying the two "have formed complete and solid ecosystems, thus helping startups achieve rapid growth and enhance their own competitive advantages."

According to the IDC, Alibaba's ecosystem is based on its core business - ecommerce, while that of Tencent's centers on social networking and online gaming.

An internet ecosystem is a concept that has gained increasing popularity in the industry. As defined by economist Song Qinghui, an internet ecosystem is a brand new system evolved from the internet, enabling a comprehensive restructuring of value chains across industries.

Xue Yu, an analyst with IDC, endorsed the idea in a note, saying an internet ecosystem featured openness, innovation and win-win solutions and that there would be many more such systems across different industries in the future.

Currently, Baidu Inc, Xiaomi Corp and Le Holdings Co Ltd have all made headway in building their ecosystems.

Tencent and Alibaba's ecosystems are more developed in comparison with other companies Baidu and Xiaomi, who lag behind in user interactivity because their core businesses, namely search and mobile phones respectively, serve more as tools, Xue said.

Le Holdings' ecosystem is not built on a certain core business, but on a combination of platforms that seek to satisfy customers' various demand including TV, films, sports, among others, he noted.

Besides these companies, JD.com and Didi Chuxing also have the tendency to build their ecosystems based on their strengths, he said.

Let's take a look at the top five most influential internet ecosystems in China.


5. LeEco

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Le Holdings Co Ltd unveils its Internet electric battery driverless concept car called LeSEE during a launch event in Beijing, capital of China, April 20, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]


4. Xiaomi

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Reporters visit the first Xiaomi store opened in Taipei, China's Taiwan, Aug 6, 2015.[Photo/Xinhua]


3. Baidu

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Sign of Baidu forum seen at an exhibition in Shanghai on May 28, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]


2. Alibaba

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Logo of Alibaba Group. [Photo/Xinhua]


1. Tencent

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Photo taken on Jan. 14, 2013 shows the headquarters of Internet firm Tencent in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. [Photo/Xinhua]
 
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China launches cyber security talent training nationwide
2016-09-20 08:32 | Global Times Editor: Li Yan


Authorities from Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province on Monday pledged to increase the number of scholarships to attract students pursuing cyber security, and run special recruitment for "maverick geniuses," which constitutes a part of nationwide efforts to train cyber security talent.

Li Shuyong, Wuhan government publicity department head, told the Cybersecurity Technology Summit during China Cybersecurity Week that the city government will cooperate with companies to cultivate the world's top cyber security talent.

Li said the local government will double the number of scholarships for cyber security majors and recruit top cyber security graduates in Chinese and overseas schools as well as from competitors at cyber security contests. She added it will also open a class for minors and run special recruitment for "maverick geniuses."

She also said the city government will establish an innovative evaluation system. Instead of taking exams, cyber security majors will be evaluated based on their performance and given priority to practical and entrepreneurship training.

The Wuhan government will also offer twice the salary and research funds to the best cyber security experts than those from other fields. They will also receive 2 million yuan ($299,823) in subsidies and a high of 100 million yuan in funding if they have typical technologies and can create a significant impact on the economy. China needs at least 500,000 cyber security talents, but only about 8,000 such majors graduate each year, said an education official at the 4th China Internet Security Conference in August.

In January, a training center for cyber security and communication talent was established in Sichuan Province, aiming to provide training for students and faculty in Sichuan and Hong Kong.

In February, China launched its first special fund for cyber security with an initial capital of 300 million yuan. The fund will be used to provide financial assistance to experts and teachers who specialize in cyber security.
 
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Why China is the next proving ground for open source software

China is starting to adopt and contribute to open source projects, especially around big data infrastructure, and tech companies should pay attention.

By Matt Asay | September 20, 2016, 4:00 AM PST

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Image: iStockphoto/William_Potter

Western entrepreneurs still haven't figured out China. For most, the problem is getting China to pay for software. The harder problem, however, is building software that can handle China's tremendous scale.

There are scattered examples of success, though. One is Alluxio (formerly Tachyon), which I detailed recently in its efforts to help China's leading online travel site, Qunar, boost HDFS performance by 15X. Alluxio CEO and founder, Haoyuan Li, recently returned from China, and I caught up with him to better understand the big data infrastructure market there, as China looks to spend $370 million to double its data center capacity in order to serve 710 million internet users.

This could get loud.

Open sourcing China

One of the most interesting things about big data is that all of the best data infrastructure is open source. As Cloudera co-founder Mike Olson has made clear, "No dominant platform-level software infrastructure has emerged in the last ten years in closed-source, proprietary form." This is particularly true in the world of data infrastructure.

Historically, China would have benefited from such bounty but in the area of big data, China is not merely consuming the West's best software: It's open sourcing its own. Baidu, for example, has just announced the open sourcing of its machine learning platform, PaddlePaddle, under an Apache license. According to Li, "This is as significant as when Google open sourced its machine learning platform, Tensorflow."

Baidu's action suggests a shift in how China thinks about software. In December 2014, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) declared its support for OpenStack for state-owned enterprises. Not long after, Tencent embraced the Open Daylight Foundation's SDN instead of developing its own proprietary distributed cluster SDN controller, as Neela Jacques uncovered. Across China, similar efforts to use, and increasingly contribute, open source code have flourished.

This is critical because, as Li told me, China's scale puts all software to the ultimate test.

Hitting China scale

As Li stressed, "Many of our largest production deployments are in China, and that's on purpose." That "purpose" is to stress-test Alluxio's software under the most demanding situations.

For example, Baidu has started speaking publicly about the open source infrastructure powering their driverless car initiative. Huawei, for its part, actively promotes its FusionInsight product, which heavily depends on a variety of open source technologies (to which it increasingly contributes).Tencent offers a range of open source infrastructure projects, covering everything from data warehousing to mobile network acceleration.

These represent China's efforts to open up. But as my conversation with Li makes clear, Western companies (and the open source projects they back) need to be promoting their code in China, too—not only for potential commercial gain, but also to encourage China's best enterprises to stress-test one's code, even as we encourage China's best developers to adopt it. That's a big reason MongoDB has worked closely with a variety of organizations in China, winning plaudits from China's largest car-hailing service, Kuaidi, among others.

Because, if you can meet China's scale demands, everything else is easy.

About Matt Asay
Matt Asay is a veteran technology columnist who has written for CNET, ReadWrite, and other tech media. Asay has also held a variety of executive roles with leading mobile and big data software companies.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/why-china-is-the-next-proving-ground-for-open-source-software/
 
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