a journal on software, mobile, marketing
Victor Koo, one of China’s best-known Internet industry figures, said Monday he has founded a new company that will focus on investing in early stage Chinese Internet businesses.
The new firm, called 1Verge Internet Technology, will be based in Beijing, said Koo, who in March stepped down as president of Nasdaq-listed Chinese portal Sohu.com after six years with the company.
Skype in US retail distribution pact – Yahoo! News
Beginning Monday, Fort Worth, Texas-based RadioShack will feature Skype products in a special kiosk, including a new Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT – news) headset that uses short-range wireless Bluetooth technology to make calls via Skype, priced at $100. It will sell a $40 headset from Logitech (LOGN.S) and a $129 cordless phone from Cisco Systems Inc.’s (Nasdaq:CSCO – news) Linksys unit.
eBay is challenging all you developers there to develop cool applications using their now free web services API.
The ideas listed by ebay looked pretty interesting:
Category/vertical search (re-mix eBay to help people find things more efficiently)
drag & drop UI components for search results page: Offer eBay user the ability to customize their UI for the features they want to use
item ticker/screensaver for eBay
search for eBay items widget
widgets or gadgets
toolbar-like mini-apps
calendar view of members’ eBay activities
auto-Add to Watch List: Allow members to specify advanced search criteria that automatically adds items to their Watch List
low-priced items portal that allows free listing
search personalization
search for eBay items over IM
seller tool to add streaming video to their listings
taxation invoicing tool for eBay sellers
eBay Motors: Find vehicles locally
eBay Motors: Find similar types of vehicle (search for Accord, also show Camry; search for one minivan, see others with more listings)
eBay Motors: Show vehicles and their corresponding Parts & Accessories in compelling layout
Web mash-up (re-mix eBay with another Web service)eBay Motors: historical pricing data (e.g. show Kelly Blue Book prices along with listings pricing)
eBay Motors: Show consumer reports or government safety ratings along with vehicle listings
Search across multiple shopping sites (Froogle/Yahoo Shopping/Amazon, etc.)
Multi-platform (integrate eBay with PayPal, Skype, Outlook, GNOME, TiVo, etc.) applicationsintegrate with POS systems to deliver full inventory tracking for our seller’s online and offline world
VoIP enabled Ask Seller a Question
accounting package plug-ins: Quicken/Quickbooks for eBay sellers
Firefox plug-ins
demographics targeter: sellers can enter in target buyer demographics and receive recommendations on start and end time/auction duration, etc.
Apple Dashboard widget
lister application written on Mozilla in XUL and AJAX
eBay Affiliate Editor Kit Flash Ad module
eBay Alerts enabled on Skype
Well, that’s an easy thing, if you have the high status of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California.
The news media had extensive reports on how Arnold and his supporters financed the trip. The tax-exempt California Protocol Foundation, which is affiliated with California Chamber of Commerce, solicited contributions of up to $50,000 from business donors. Jim Hawley, California director and general counsel of TechNet, a prominent Silicon Valley advocacy group, sent direct email to high-tech companies to ask for donation to the Foundation. Allan Zaremberg, president of the chamber and the Protocol Foundation.
Margita Thompson, Schwarzenegger’s press secretary, said that the Protocol Foundation will underwrite most of the trip cost, while business members of the delegation will have to pay for their own expense, which is peanut if you consider that meeting with Chinese state official will coup big returns in the future.
Members of the California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth have donated about $665,000 over the past year for economic development efforts such as the Japan and China trade missions, according to Mark Mosher, its executive director.
Do you have ties to anyone mentioned above?
The Economists magazine (Oct. 29, 2005) has a data filled article on the biggest banks in China and how these banks compare to those of other countries.
While I don’t quite understand many financial terms (e.g. capital-adequacy ratio, in case you are curious) in the article, there are some plain English and numbers that I do understand.
For instance, it cited a Merrill Lynch number saying that in the last eight (8) years, Chinese banks in aggregate lended more than $250 billion to consumers, a growth of 123 (one hundred twenty three!) times in that short eight years. You may have heard of the real estate boom in China, which contributed a large portion of the growth in consumer loans, i.e. mortgage.
The only publicly traded bank of the four largest banks in China, i.e. China Construction Bank, boasts a market capitalization of about $66 billion, following its successful IPO in Hong Kong. This is bigger than American Express and is only about 1/4th of the size of the world’s largest bank, the Citigroup. (Note: a smart investment of $4 billion by BofA before CCB’s IPO has since seen its value doubled.)
The artical also points out that the Chinese banks have a heavy reliance on loan interests for their profit, with only 13% of total revenue coming from commissions and credit card fees. With a failed bond and stock market, and a consumer body loath of carrying credit card debts, where do you find those commissions and fees?