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Posts from the ‘Internet and media’ Category

Apr 10

The Danwei Bulletin Image

The Danwei Bulletin

The Danwei Bulletin is a new weekly report produced by Danwei and published on the FT’s China Confidential website and sent to premium subscribers. The Danwei Bulletin is a briefing of company and market news collected from the Chinese news and social media before the information appears in English language reporting.

A brief summary of each week’s report can be viewed on the China Confidential website, and the full edition is available on subscription. For more information on The Danwei Bulletin or about our custom media monitoring and research services, please contact jeremy@danwei.com.

Stay ahead of the news
The examples below illustrate how the Danwei Bulletin readers get the scoop on business stories long before they hit the international media.

Gold Price
April 25 – Danwei Bulletin
Despite gold prices dropping in the last week, demand in China remains strong
Chinese social media websites were buzzing with reports of mainland Chinese visiting Hong Kong to buy gold. One photo that was widely shared shows a branch of the jeweler Chow Tai Fook with shelves completely empty after a visit by goldbug mainlanders.

May 3 – South China Morning Post
Chinese mothers beat Wall Street to force gold price rebound
Attempts by Wall Street funds to drive down bullion value through short selling thwarted by Asian mothers swooping in to buy for weddings.

May 9 – Bloomberg
At least 30 tons of gold were sold between April 29 and May 2 in Hong Kong, up more than 50 percent from last year, according to estimates by the city’s Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society.

Nongfu Bottled Water – major bottled water and beverage brand
April 3 – Danwei Bulletin
Bottled Water – Scandals continue
Wang Hai, a veteran Chinese anti-fraud activist, has suggested that there may be quality problems with Nongfu Spring tea beverages… Nongfu… has been on the defense recently, fending off charges that its water sources are polluted

May 3 – CCTV English – China Central Television News
Via Twitter
Nongfu Spring, China’s leading bottled water, pulled from shelves in Beijing as it failed national standards.

May 4 – Shanghai Daily
Industry body seeking Beijing ban for Nongfu Spring water
The Bottled Water Sales Association of Beijing published a notice yesterday saying that Nongfu Spring water was not only in violation of national standards but also guilty of false advertising and misleading customers.

Mar 22

Apple in CCTV's crosshairs

Taking the shine off Apple’s China prospects?

Apple in the crosshairs, and the shadow of Google’s misadventures in China

On March 15 — World Consumer Rights Day — China Central Television (CCTV) broadcast its annual investigative program that seeks to expose companies that harm or mistreat Chinese consumers. Several companies, both foreign and domestic came under the spotlight, and the program rehashed familiar accusations of Chinese consumers being treated unfairly by multinationals. Specifically, CCTV accused Apple of discriminating against Chinese customers by offering lower levels of service and charging fees for replacing back covers of faulty iPhones, which is done for free in other countries. Read more

Mar 7

Master Kong Stock Chart

Master Kong: How Internet rumors can affect share prices

The chart above illustrates how Internet rumors can ravage a company’s stock price. The company in question is Master Kong (康师傅), China’s best-loved brand of instant noodles. Read more

Mar 7

China Media Montage

Intelligence from the Chinese Media and Internet

Danwei tracks companies, brands, investments, topics and people on the Chinese Internet and in the media. Read more

Mar 5

Dongguan Shibao5Mar

The elegant new spokesperson vs. the steadfast old cultural icon

Today is Lei Feng Day, but there’s an elegant and amiable woman who stole his thunder on China’s newspaper front pages today.

Who would you put on your front page today? There’s the elegant, amiable, humble, eloquent and female new spokesperson of the Two Sessions who held her first news conference yesterday…

 

And then there’s this guy who turns fifty today….


Read more

Mar 1

Dongnan Shangbao 1March

Did you lose something? Micro Lei Feng can help

Is there no end to the multifarious usefulness of the paragon of selflessness and virtue that is Lei Feng? A little early for Lei Feng Day on March 5, but the front page of the South-East Business Daily (东南商报) from Zhejiang province today tells us that, in order to encourage the study of the spirit of Lei Feng and of volunteerism, we present: “Ningbo Micro Lei Feng!” (宁波微雷锋) Read more

Feb 25

Shenyang Wanbao 25Feb v2

Welcome to Black Dragon River (a.k.a the Stinking Sewer)

There is a little stretch of river in the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province where black water meets an endless stream of human filth. The place apparently doesn’t have a name, but some online commentators have referred to it as Black Dragon River (黑龙江), substituting the name of one of China’s provinces to highlight the overwhelmingly black color of the river. The local people who endure living in this place have simply taken to calling it the Stinking Sewer (臭水沟). Located right next to a number of factories as well as an electronic wholesaler and resident blocks – all of whom disgorge their garbage straight into the river – Black Dragon River is already for years now a black, stinking hole.

Naturally online commentators have offered various amounts of money for the head of the local environment protection bureau to take a swim in Black Dragon River. Yet as one journalist from Shenzhen Evening News went to see for himself, people do live there, and have been doing so for years. All this time, Black Dragon River has been black and filthy. Read more

Jan 4

Understanding China through Comics Volume Two

Liu Jing and his comic book history of China, Volume Two

In November 2011 Danwei published a brief excerpt and short Q&A with Liu Jing, a Beijing-based entrepreneur and comic book artist. Our post showcased Liu’s Understanding China through Comics, Volume One, a comic book on Chinese history for iPad and Kindle (Amazon and iTunes). The first volume in the series focused on the Yellow Emperor through the Han Dynasty (ca. 2697 BC – 220 AD).

In 2012 Liu released Understanding China through Comics, Volume 2 (Amazon and iTunes), focusing on the Three Kingdoms through the Tang Dynasty (220 – 907). As Liu himself put it, “To the Chinese, China’s rise to world power in the 21st century is called ‘the great restoration.’ But we learn from history that this rise is the result of embracing other cultures, not isolation or prejudice.” In Volume 2 Liu illustrates a key driving force in Chinese history, namely the evolution of Chinese philosophy. Thus he notes that without adopting Buddhism, which originated in India, the Tang Dynasty China would not have reached the heights it did.

There are still two forthcoming volumes in the series, namely Volume Three: The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms through the Yuan Dynasty (907 – 1368), and Volume Four: The Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368 – 1911). Read more

Dec 24

Jinchen Liu Dian 24 Dec

China’s hottest “styles” of 2012

The Six O’Clock This Morning (今晨六点) from Shandong province today has a special feature rounding up the newspaper’s selection of the hottest “styles” of 2012, using an English word that has been popularized in China this year because of the global pop song hit ‘Gangnam Style’. Intending to capture some of the humor and pedantic banality of our social media-obsessed world, the special round-up of 2012 is divided into six categories:

  1. “Funny (幽默) Style”
  2. “Strong (实力) Style”
  3. “Emotional (感情) Style”
  4. “Surprising (惊诧) Style”
  5. “Lateral Thinking (偏锋) Style”, and
  6. “Controversial (争论) Style”

To put the whole section in its proper context, the newspaper prefaces it with the following quip:

In this year of 2012 sports and entertainment stars performed all kinds of remarkable deeds; they accomplished acts of great strength; they made some unconventional winning gambits (剑走偏锋); they got a lot of attention by means of marriage and divorce; and they swaggered around endlessly leaving you dazed and confused. No matter what kind of Style, these were all hot in 2012. They fully deserve the right to be called hot, and yet we are still mystified at why they became hot.

Read more

Dec 20

北京发布

The Chinese government and social media

Sina Weibo claims to have more than 400 million users, and its influence and power are without doubt. Yet the Chinese government and all its myriad bodies and institutions are likewise getting in on the act, not just by means of regulation or censorship but by active participation.

A report was published this month that outlined statistics and new trends in government use of social media in China. The 2012 Sina Government Weibo Report (2012年新浪政务微博报告), released by the People Online Public Monitoring Office (人民网舆情监测室), describes in detail what types of government organizations are using Weibo accounts, ranks the most popular ones, discusses new trends, and forecasts three main trends for 2013. Read more

Oct 30

Huaihai Wanbao 30 Oct 12

Real estate billionaire Wang Shi’s divorce and new girlfriend

Having a mistress in China would not normally be front page news. But when you are a 61-year-old famous real estate mogul and renowned entrepreneur and when your new mistress is a pretty, 31-year-old actress – that’s front page front and centre. Hence all over various front pages in China today are revelations that Wang Shi (王石) has divorced his wife for his girlfriend Tian Pujun (田扑珺). The Internet in China is well and truly abuzz with the news that the “old rich and handsome” (老富帅) has a “new joy” (新欢). Read more

Sep 27

China ereader mashup X

Everything under heaven is in chaos: China’s digital publishing market

Digital publishing has been around since the early days of the Internet in China: literary websites first appeared in the late 1990s. First accessed via desktop computers, users are now more likely to use mobile phones, e-readers and tablets.

Today, around 200 million Chinese people read digital publications, and serving the market is a wide range of mostly Chinese companies with a similarly wide range of e-readers, formats and platforms. With an as yet incomplete regulatory environment, the market resembles a formless, chaotic mass with endemic copyright infringement. Yet as the various competitors strive to produce the one device and one platform that will outshine the rest, the digital publishing market in China has a lot of business and publishing potential, even if its not currently clear when the market will sort itself out properly. Read more

Sep 26

CCTV Building

Two Billion Eyes, the Story of CCTV: Q&A with author Ying Zhu

Ying Zhu is the author of a new book on China’s state-owned television network, China Central Television or CCTV. Two Billion Eyes – The Story of China Central Television is the story of CCTV as the personal stories of the people of CCTV which the author engaged with via extensive interviews. Yet it also paints a complex picture of the network that has become an archetype of the Chinese model. Two Billion Eyes is published by The New Press and will be available on 2 October 2012. Read more

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