Mad About Shanghai

The Drivers of eCommerce in Asia Pacific

The Drivers of eCommerce in Asia Pacific by SP eCommerce.

Click to enlarge. 

Smog on Beijing Marathon Day

The Beijing Marathon was held on 19 Oct. It was reported that quite a number of runners have to wear masks for the run due to the smog.  Being an avid runner, I can only say the conditons are unacceptable.

A very good friend of mine who recently moved to Beijing have these photos to share. I think these are taken on marathon day just before the race.

Factory Floor

These photos are taken by a friend of mine, B when he visited a factory somewhere in South China.

Look at the appalling conditions the workers have to work in without any safety gear for protection against potential burns or glare for the eyes ! Nothing but a flimsy mask and not even a industrial standard jacket.

One wrong move and there are potential for serious injuries and burms.

The female worker, in order to put food on the table did it.

Insurance? Dont even mention it.

 

Cities Liveability Index 2014

Check out this Cities Liveability Index by the Economic Intelligence Unit. Apparently, Australia is still the most liveable place in the world with Melbourne and Adelaide securing their places amongst the top ten.

Guest Post: 12 Reasons Teaching English in China is Frustrating

A Guest Post by Justin Tiessen

After 4 years of ESL teaching experience, I found that despite many of the perks that come with teaching English, there are also many downfalls. Here is a list I came up with of a few of the day-to-day frustrations. 

If you are living in China and teaching or looking for a tutor, please visit our website www.soufudao.com. 

1) Kids and parents, the "customers", are always right. If little Johnny wants to eat potato chips in the classroom...little Johnny can.

 2) Teachers are more like clowns than teachers. Who wants to be Santa???

 3) School management doesn't know how to… manage.  Have you ever been completely confused as to what they are doing?

 4) Tutoring agencies are taking wayyyyy too much off the top.

 5) Anyone who can speak English can be hired as a "teacher". Experience doesn't have a whole lot to do with it…

 6) Commuting from job to job can be a real drag.   Taxi anyone?

 7) Schools HATE giving you a real working visa. "Permanent tourist” status means you get to go to Hong Kong again...and again.  Who doesn't love Spring Airlines?

8) "Holiday" really means "work extra days later."

 9) Lack of transparency and communication between teachers, schools, and students.

 10) For many of the schools, it is profit before education!

 11) If you are sick, you get to pay the school. Win-win for the school.  Lose-lose for you!

 12) Last buy not least: working on weekends sure ain't fun! 

If you have taught or are teaching in China, you have probably discovered more than one of these to be true. Whether you are teaching at a private school or doing the tutoring hustle, you most likely have experienced the ins and outs and ups and downs.

In an attempt to address some of these frustrations, we created Sou Fudao. It is an online marketplace for tutors and students to connect, and it is free to use!

Check out www.soufudao.com to sign up as a tutor or a student, and say goodbye to some of these unnecessary frustrations!!!

The Showdown: Amazon vs Alibaba

Alibaba's IPO and Ecosystem

Finally Alibaba has IPOed at US$68 a piece. Overnight, the stocks rocketed 38% and it became a company with a market value of US$167 billion.

Pretty close to IBM's US$193 billion market cap at the time of writing. Thats really not too bad at all.

Let us take a look at how Alibaba's ecosystem works:

Source: US Securities and Exchange Commission and Forrester

China Digital Stats 2014

The population of China is estimated to be 1.36 billion, with 53% living in urban areas.
(SOURCE: WE ARE SOCIAL)

The country has 618 million internet users with an internet penetration rate of 45%.
(SOURCE: WE ARE SOCIAL)

Among Chinese who went online for the first time in 2013, 73.3% did so from a smartphone, making
smartphone users the driving force behind growth in internet use in this market.
(SOURCE: CHINA INTERNET NETWORK INFORMATION CENTRE)

Broadband coverage in rural areas expanded to 91% at the end of 2013 from 88% earlier in the
year.
(SOURCE: PEOPLE’S POSTS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS NEWS)

The number of households with fixed-line broadband increased by 19 million to 189 million in 2013.
(SOURCE: PEOPLE’S POSTS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS NEWS)

China had 400 million 3G users at the end of 2013, having added 169 million subscribers during the year.
(SOURCE: PEOPLE’S POSTS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS NEWS)

The number of 4G smartphones shipped to the Chinese market in 2014 is forecast to rise to 72.4 million, nearly 16 times the number the year before. 4G phone shipments are forecast to make up 19% of the smartphone market in 2014.
(SOURCE: IHS TECHNOLOGY)

The proportion of China’s internet users who went online with a mobile device rose to 81% in 2013 from 74.5% the year before.
(SOURCE: CHINA INTERNET NETWORK INFORMATION CENTRE)

The proportion of users that accessed the internet with a desktop fell by 0.8 percentage point to 69.7% in 2013.The proportion that accessedthe internet from a laptop fell by 1.8 percentage points to 44.1%.
(SOURCE: CHINA INTERNET NETWORK INFORMATION CENTRE)

China’s search engine market was worth RMB11.16 billion in the first quarter of 2014. Excluding channel revenue, Baidu had 79% of the market, Google China had 12.8% and Sogou 5.4%.
(SOURCE: ENFODESK)

Including channel revenue, Baidu had 77.1% of the country’s search engine market in the first quarter of 2014, Google China had 11% and Sogou 8.1%.
(SOURCE: ENFODESK)

Baidu remained the search engine market leader in China in the first quarter of 2014 as Chinese advertisers continued to give keyword advertising priority and mobile search helped support revenue.
(SOURCE: ENFODESK)

Google’s share of the country’s search engine market kept shrinking in the first quarter of 2014,but its main revenue – from helping Chinese advertisers reach markets abroad – was steady.
(SOURCE: ENFODESK)

Crowded Shanghai

Spotted this article in Singapore's Sunday Times last week.

And I have always thought Beijing is more populous than Shanghai!

Office Space in Shanghai

Walking around where Renee's office is located at Guang Tong Road, I spotted quite a few nice offices in the area. I was told the area is essentially a creative park with offices catering to design and architechtural firms.

I even saw one with a resident Golden Retriever there as an in house mascot. The Golden Retriever, came to greet us immediately when he spotted Lisa who always played with him when she is in the area.