Archive for October, 2009

Taobao.com to launch Wireless SMS Price Comparison Service

Posted under China on Wednesday, 28 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
Taobao, the internet shopping portal for B2B e-commerce group Alibaba has announced that they will launch a short message-based price comparison service. The new service will allow mobile phone users to inquire about products available on Taobao, when they are shopping in traditional stores. By...

Long Shanghai summers, Ultracapacitors and picnics

Posted under China on Wednesday, 28 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
A few things that come to mind regarding pollution, climate and China: I've received an email telling that Chinese smog is threatening economy and health in Hong Kong, which is a terrible thing. After living in clean, clean Sweden, I do notice the effects that smog can have. At the time of writing,...

Boat trip, Leifeng Pagoda and Yakitori in Hangzhou, China

Posted under China, travel on Monday, 26 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
This weekend we made a small trip of 180km out of Shanghai to see the West lake in Hangzhou China, with 6.5 million people not a small town, but due to the beautiful scenery of the lake and the hillside, it's a favorite destination for many Shanghainese. For me, it was a trip down memory lane,...

Special visitor from Netherlands

Posted under asides on Monday, 26 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
I've got a special vistior from the Netherlands over this week. Giel Talsma is a former neighbor of mine and we've known each other for over ten years. I ran into him when I was in Holland during the summer and I invited him to China, he was excited immediately. After picking him up at the...

Baidu signs China Carrier search deal for Next Generation Phones

Posted under Technology on Tuesday, 20 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
Previously, Google signed a contact with China's biggest carrier to gain footprint in China, however, their number one competitor in this nation signed a deal that will add their search pre-installed on many of the next generation phones, starting with a side-by-side display on the launch of the...

Company using facebook to scam children

Posted under Technology on Sunday, 18 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
We all know there are plenty of games on Facebook, like recent hits Farmville, Mafia wars and Texas HoldEm poker, all created by game company Zynga. Zynga's revenue model is entirely based on players buying virtual goods - like gaining quick access to more land in farm-game Farmville - to...

Company using facebook to scam children

Posted under Technology on Sunday, 18 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
We all know there are plenty of games on Facebook, like recent hits Farmville, Mafia wars and Texas HoldEm poker, all created by game company Zynga. Zynga's revenue model is entirely based on players buying virtual goods - like gaining quick access to more land in farm-game Farmville - to...

Gathered influential writers to bring you Asian tech news

Posted under China, Entrepreneurship, Japan, Korea, Media / In The News on Wednesday, 14 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
I'd like to tell you about a new blog we have launched yesterday. First, let me tell you why we went through all the effort: Personally, I have kept a close eye on developments in countries like South-Korea, Taiwan and Japan over the last years, but have start to observe that India, Bangladesh,...

Here comes China

Posted under China, United States on Monday, 12 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
Interesting discussion on the latest NPR planet money episode. "Here comes China"; In line with the 60th anniversary of the people's republic. The hosts, Alex Bloomberg and Adam Davidson ask their guests if China still needs the US more then the US needs China. After all, China needs US dollars to...

Tribute to the potato

Posted under China, travel on Saturday, 10 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
When people enquire about typical Dutch cuisine, the first thing that pops to my mind is the "potato eaters" painting by Vincent Van Gogh. To me, this 'cozy setting' visualizes how Dutch peasants have been eating potato's every day for at least 400 years, in a typical Dutch way. Besides the...

S. Korea web companies prepping for iPhone, nation going wireless

Posted under asides on Friday, 9 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
I bet that we can expect heaps of great Korean developed games and apps from Korea from 2010. The iPhone is will be introduced in South Korea in November. While South Korea is arguably miles ahead in tech, the iPhone has been absent from store shelves ever since its first launch in 2007. Web...

How Chinese men searching for “village of hot lesbians” broke the Internet in Sweden

Posted under China on Friday, 9 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
It all started when a news agency Xinhua reported (made up) the existence of a city in the northern Swedish woods with 25,000 inhabitants, all hot women living together to satisfy their Scandinavian sexual desires. The city, called Chako Paul was founded in 1820 by a rich widow and is guarded by...

20 cent gym part 2: bench press

Posted under China, sports on Wednesday, 7 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
Remember the 20 cent gym I blogged about? It was about the Chinese ‘muscle beach’:, a bunch of people assembling in a Shanghai park to work out every day. Frankly, the Chinese men pulling heavy weights while looking angry can be quite impressive (but why do they take their shirts off?), I...

China has 30% more Internet users than the US, time for global web dialogue

Posted under Internet, Technology on Friday, 2 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
Let's talk translation. Remember Babel fish? Good at the time, but they lost their place in the market due to the quality of human powered Google translation with an API. Today, we have another player in the market, Facebook connect. Once you've integrated Facebook connect into your site, you can...

PRC’s 60th anniversary, funniest remarks of the day

Posted under China on Thursday, 1 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
Today, almost all Chinese have a day off to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Just like most Shanghainese, we stayed indoor to watch the parade on tv. NY Times called the parade "a precision display of military bravado and a confident prediction by President Hu...

Gamers in Qiandaohu – Spilgames outing at 1000 islands

Posted under China on Thursday, 1 October 2009 by Joop Dorresteijn
Last week, the entire Spilgames Asia team assembled on a Thursday morning 7 AM in front of our office. The Chinese, Polish, American, Korean and Dutch colleagues got up early for good reason; Spilgames organized a company outing to Qiandaohu - favorite holiday destination for many Shanghainese -...