06.17.08
Posted in Industry, Law and Order, Media/Internet at 13:31 by ODB
I just finished reading a fantastic piece in BusinessWeek - Inside the War Against China’s Blogs.
The article describes how a new market has emerged for companies who help monitor China’s blogosphere and help fight negative and potentially brand damaging remarks before they turn into a PR crisis. These services cost anywhere between USD 500 and USD 25,000 a month, as the article quotes, and major clients of such firms include Toyota, Nike, Carrefour, McDonald’s, and many others.
What caught my eye was this :
Plenty of companies are willing to pay for positive spin. PR outfits hire students to write postings that boost certain brands and criticize the competition, says a staffer at a Western PR firm in Beijing.
Chinese Web Union is candid about doing this. It pays thousands of people to write nice things about clients, and it compensates forum leaders who spread positive information and quash bad publicity.
So basically, some companies are paying for a positive spin… and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are companies paying for a negative spin…
Heck, for USD 25,000 a month, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some “PR companies” that are doing both at the very same time…
“War is good for business” — The 34th rule of acquisition.
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05.13.08
Posted in Beijing, Law and Order at 12:48 by ODB
I saw Nator’s post on the Wisdom of Crowds in China, and have a few things to add.
Nator understates how dangerous it actually was. There was a constant push of people who were trying to enter the under-passage from four different entrances. Nobody outside could actually see what was going on underground (there were no cameras then, there are now, however). It was very dangerous and very crowded as more and more people were trying to get in, making it very difficult to get out. Although we got out safely, it could have ended just like it did on that bridge in Miyun.
Chinese police, true to their form, were less interested in the potential danger and seemed to be more worried about me taking pictures of the situation, that’s why the officer there is charging me…
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Posted in Awesome at 09:56 by ODB
If you are using Outlook then you must download this plugin.
Xobni is the Outlook plug-in that helps you organize your flooded inbox.
Go to www.xobni.com and download it now.
SHTig Adds: ODB, what’s up with spamming your own site?
ODB: It’s my website and I can spam if I want to.
NATOR adds: It’s worth mentioning that ODB is a statistics junkie and would spend the entire day playing with Google Analytics and other stat generators if he could.
ODB: Nator also downloaded it and knows it rocks!
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05.07.08
Posted in Chinese Nationalism, Industry, Technology at 14:20 by ODB
An interesting article by the Indian Defense Research Wing (click here if you are surfing from China) comments on the threat that China may or may not be posing to the Russian aircraft industry by a copied Sukhoi-27, now manufactured in China.
The article goes on to describe the history of China’s military aircraft industry and how it lags behind the west by some 15 years.
Chinese leaders eventually resolved to rectify the situation by purchasing up-to-date aircraft production technologies. In 1988, China bought production forms and records for Israel’s Lavi multi-role fighter. Sixteen years later, in 2004, China mastered production of the Chengdu J-10 - an essentially Israeli warplane featuring Russian avionics.
As reported last November, J-10 Fighters, based on the Lavi, were sold by China to Iran.
The sale of the J-10 to Iran would constitute a betrayal of Israel’s extensive aid to China’s military modernization efforts during the 1980s and 1990s. Originally encouraged by the Carter Administration in the late 1970s, in the effort to encourage China’s strategic tilt toward the West and against the Soviet Union, Israel sold China a wide range of army, electronic, naval and aerospace technology.
… when the U.S. and Europe placed arms embargoes on China, Israel refused to follow suit. Many Israeli officials supported continued military technical sales to China not just to make profits necessary to fund future military products, but also because they felt that such sales would persuade China not to sell advanced weapons to Israel’s enemies.
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04.09.08
Posted in Awesome, Industry, Law and Order at 14:02 by ODB
Just wanted to share a not-so-recent discovery of mine, fake Chinese products are not limited to the offline world only.
See if you can spot the differences between Pacific Epoch and Market Avenue.
Pacific Epoch is one of the best English financial news sites in China. I strongly recommend subscribing to their daily news summary (you can do so from their home page).
Market Avenue provides a very similar service–in fact, almost identical. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, these guys are extremely sincere. Even better, they have provided a graphical representation of their “sincerity” in the above chart, which comes from this page. As best as I can tell, the “H” in the chart is Market Avenue, and the “Exemplar” is Pacific Epoch. At least they’re honest that they’re weaker in every single area.
If you have come across similar “sincerity” on the web please share it with us.
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04.04.08
Posted in Beijing, Food at 17:28 by ODB
Huajiayiyuan was one of those restaurants that was always on my list of places to take visiting friends, colleagues, and clients. When I first “discovered” it, based on a recommendation by Nator, I had a fabulous time. I took visiting relatives and it was a huge success. The restaurant is located at Guijie and used to offer a wonderful atmosphere, good food, and excellent service. However, every time I visited after that I was more and more disappointed. Here is a list of reasons why you will likely never see me there again.
- The place is always packed and there is always a line. If you want to go there on a weekend you need to book weeks in advance. I went there on a Tuesday, I was told a table is to free up withing 10 minutes, there was no line. I ended waiting at the door for 53 minutes.
- Service is getting worse. I am not sure why this is, but my guess is because they just can’t deal with the sheer amount of people trying to order food. Food came to the table very very slowly.
- They no longer serve their owned brewed beers. I thought their green beers were a nice touch, you’ll have to settle for Tsingtaos now.
- A few of my favorite dishes have disappeared off the menu, others seem to have gone up in price.
- Frankly, the food is not that great for the price they are asking for right now. The duck was bad, the duck soup was awful. The heizhao niuliu was uneatable.
There are over 100 restaurants within walking distance (after all it is Guijie) serving anything from huoguo to shaokao. I suggest you stop at one of those instead.
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04.01.08
Posted in Awesome at 13:42 by ODB
Our friends at 3030Press have just launched another book - New Graphic Design in China.
Thirty of China’s best young graphic designers around 30 contribute to the first ever survey of new graphic art in China, from poster, print and logo design to packing and illustration. 3030: New Graphic Design in China presents a fascinating look at the dramatic changes that have transformed the practice of design in the country over the past few years and has helped to transform it into a dynamic new centre for creative innovation in Asia.
Their last book, New Photography in China, was fantastic so I am sure this one is too. My copy is currently being shipped.
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01.20.08
Posted in Law and Order at 09:59 by ODB
According to a report by China Daily:
Three young people in China’s southern Yunnan Province have been arrested over the gruesome murder of a middle-aged man whose death by dismemberment was captured on digital video camera in the tourist town of Lijiang.
The Guangzhou-based South Metropolitan Daily reported on Friday the case of Zhang Chao, a 19-year-old college student who was the mistress of the victim, Mu Hongzhang, a 39-year-old married road construction engineer, in Lijiang. The two were having a sexual affair and Mu gave her money.
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01.10.08
Posted in Health at 11:11 by ODB
According to Guangzhou Daily, the world’s largest tumor, weighting 45kg, was removed from a patient in Guangzhou. The tumor, in addition to being the largest ever recorded, was actually heavier than the patient itself…
Ananova offers some more information on this story.
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Posted in Health at 09:30 by ODB
A recent article on Shanghai Daily, titled City Surgeons Come in Handy, reports on a Jiangsu native with the largest hand in the world (with a 26cm left thumb…).
To view the original article, which contains a very shocking picture, and not recommended for the faint hearted (seriously, you don’t want to see this), click here.
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