SubscribeAnnouncing ChinaMode Winners
After two weeks of public vote, ChinaMode Awards 2009 have received 121446 votes. We are now happy to announce the winners of the first ChinaMode Awards in each 7 categories.
- Best Internet Applications: Taobao, Google, Baidu;
- Best User-Experience Applications: Google Chinese search service, Sogou Pinyin Chinese Input Method, Alipay;
- Most Promising Applications: Google Music, Sina Microblogging, Douban FM;
- Best Mobile Applications: Mobile QQ, UCWeb, Fetion;
- Best Overseas Internet Applications: Twitter, GMail, Youtube; (a detailed analysis on this results on Mobinode）
- Tech Person of the Year: Kaifu Lee, Han Han
- Best BBS/Online Forum: Tianya.cn, Baidu Tieba, Mop
Since ChinaMode Awards are organized by 14 popular tech bloggers in China, it is possible that a high percentage of the voters are regular readers of these blogs, which can not represent the general profile of China’s netizens.
Douban Raised $10M in Series B
Douban, a symbol of web 2.0 services in China, announced its $10 million series B financing today. The new round is led by Trustbridge Partners, and co-invested by its existing investor Ceyuan Ventures, who invested in $2 million in 2006.
Douban started from a social networking sites for book lovers, movie lovers and music lovers in 2005, when hype of web 2.0 just began. When people talked about web 2.0 in China, they will talk Douban. Since its inception, Douban is always one of my most favoriate Chinese websites, and I’m also an active user of Douban. Douban’s newest major product development is the release of Douban Radio, which is an personalized online music streaming service powered by a recommend engine to tailor the music just for you. (You can check our previous reports on Douban here)
Currently, Douban’s main revenue source is online advertising, some big brands are Douban’s advertisers already. For Douban Book, it also gain revenues from affiliation with Dangdang, Amazon Joyo and other book ecommerce sites.
Congratulations to Douban and Bo Yang. I strongly believe that Douban can lead to something bigger.
[Event] Third Digital Future Symposium Beijing
The post is to introduce an event which our readers might be interested in. The post is drafted by the event organizer.
The Digital Future Symposium (DFS) is a highly successful event first launched in 2007 by the CENTRE FOR CONTENT PROTECTION (CCP). It has conducted successful events in Japan, Singapore, India and Malaysia. Every year, it attracts hundreds of key industry players in the field of content distribution and content protection.
Established in 2007, CCP is a consortium committed to shaping Asia Pacific’s digital future through innovative technologies that provide secure ways for consumers to enjoy anywhere, anytime access to their favourite movies and television programs.
This year, the DFS comes to China, Beijing, in a breakthrough event that aims to bring Chimedia content owners and distributors together to explore new business solutions and opportunities for digital distribution in China and the region.
It targets content owners, producers, technologists, content security companies, Internet businesses, academics, and anyone else in the media and technology industry.
The theme for this year’s DFS, to be held on 24th March at Novotel Peace Beijing, is “Technology, Internet and Content Business”. Major topics to be covered include Internet Distribution and New Media Business in China, Technology, Standards, and Content Protection.
All agendas, updates, and registration information are available at CCP’s website.
5 Predictions for China Social Games in 2010
（This is a guest post by Kai Lukoff. Kai Lukoff is an analyst at BloggerInsight and an editor on China Social Games. Follow Kai on Twitter @klukoff. You can find more information on China Social Game at the end of this post. )
The social game market is still in its infancy, but growing up fast. The first smash hits, Friends for Sale! Parking Wars, and Happy Farm are just over a year old in China. Here are 5 predictions for 2010:
1. Social Games Displace Web Games
Social games are reaching unprecedented demographics, including females and middle-aged users. These users are open to casual gaming, but unlikely to seek it out on 3rd party website. Social games go viral by using existing services (social networks) and trusted references (friends). As a result, social games enjoy unprecedented numbers of users. In China, Happy Farm has an estimated 23m daily active users across all platforms. On Facebook, FarmVille has blasted past 27m daily active users in only 6 months. Social games boast a superior distribution model and as in-game content also becomes more social, web games will be left in the dust.
2. Consolidation of Game Developers
The days of a few friends developing a hit from the dorm room are over. The Facebook market has already seen consolidation on a colossal scale, with huge paydays: Playfish (300m USD merger with EA), Zynga (180m USD funding), RockYou! (70m USD funding), and Playdom (43m USD funding). Production values are rising in China too, with RenRen Restaurants (copy of Playfish’s Restaurant City) and Happy Pet (copy of Playfish’s Pet Society). Developers will need more resources, serious teams and finances, to develop the next hit game.
China’s consolidation will be on a miniature scale compared to Facebook though. In fact, it has already begun: Five Minutes, developers of Happy Farm, scored 3.5m USD from Draper Fisher Jurvetson on December 1. And Rekoo, developers of Sunshine Farm, received 1.5m USD from Infinity Venture Partners. Expect more consolidation in 2010.
3. Entry of Western Game Developers
Western social game developers are knocking on the door. RockYou! launched a game on RenRen in June, 2009. PopCap Games followed up with with Bejeweled Blitz 2 on RenRen on November, 2009. China Social Games has spoken to several other players scouting the market.
The themes and mechanics of Facebook games tend to play well in China. The real challenge for foreign developers is managing relations with powerful social networks and the government.
4. Chinese Networks Open Up Their API
The games on RenRen (mostly-open API) blow away those on Kaixin001 and Qzone (closed APIs). RenRen has seen a proliferation of 3rd party developers whose are games are innovative, sticky, and popular. The other networks, especially Kaixin001, did a decent job of copying games in-house at the start. But as social games become more sophisticated and difficult to copy, their offerings look increasingly anemic.
Superior games will slowly drive users to spend more time on RenRen, at the expense of Kaixin001 and Qzone. As these networks realize that they can’t keep up with only in-house developers, they’ll open up their API. Qzone is already experimenting with licensing, starting with Five Minute’s Happy Farm). Expect this, in turn, to increase the leverage of game developers, who will demand greater than the maximum 56% revenue share RenRen currently offers. Chinese game developers are struggling to monetize, but if Kaixin001 and Qzone open up their API it’ll create more opportunities.
5. Family Friendly!
The rules are still being written, but expect social games to be harmonized in 2010. Mafia games are already gone. Happy Farmers are now picking—not stealing—crops. Expect developers, especially foreign ones, to err on the side of caution. All social games will be family friendly!
Bonus: What Will NOT Happen In 2010
1. Social Glue for the Chinese Internet!
While Facebook and Google compete to become of the social glue of the internet (via Connect features), Chinese networks are determined to defend their islands. RenRen, the closest copy of Facebook, is the best contender here, but its efforts (links with Dianping, etc.) all appear to be directed at keeping traffic on its site rather than connecting the internet.
2. Facebook Unblocked!
Dream on. But more and more Facebook games will be ported over to Chinese networks, though its unclear whether it’ll be Western developers or copycats who do it.
About The China Social Games Blog
China Social Games (@CNsocialgames) is a blog dedicated to tracking the hottest games, networks, and trends. It recently released a report for sale (590 USD) on the Top 10 Social Games in China. Though already wildly popular in China (and on Facebook), social gaming is still in its infancy, so the market is evolving, innovative, and competitive. China Social Games offers up-to-the-minute coverage. China Social Games is run by the BloggerInsight team (@BloggerInsight).
Four Years of Google In China
No matter Google will finally withdraw all business from China or not, I think it is time to review Google’s four-year operations in China. So I made the following list, if I omitted anything important or made any mistake, feel free to leave your comments.
- July 19, 2005, Kaifu Lee joined Google, which was also a big thing in tech sector at that time
- January 26, 2006, Google launched Google.cn in China, which filtered search results to obey China’s law and regulations
- March 2, 2006, Tencent launched its search engine service Soso.com, which was powered by Google’s technology. Actually Tencent partnered with Google on search service and search ads on Feb 4, 2005
- April 12, 2006, Eric Schmidt announced Google’s Chinese name 谷歌
- June 26, 2006, Google sold its 2.6% stakes in Baidu
- January 4, 2007, partnership with China Mobile
- January 5, 2007, announced investment in Xunlei, a mega-file downloader
- March 2007, acquired 265.com, the acquisition was announced on May 23, 2008
- March 12, 2007, launched Daohang service, which is a hot sites directory in one page. Daohang is a simple but very China-oriented service
- April 2, 2007, announced its investment in Tianya.cn, one of the biggest BBS in China
- April 4, 2007, launched its Chinese Input software, however which was found to copy the code from Sohu’s Chinese Input software. Later Google acknowledged it and apologized to Sohu
- May 24, 2007, launched China’s life search service, you can search information on housing, jobs, train tickets, restaurants and so on
- June 11, 2007, announced its strategic partnership with Sina, largest online portal in China, on search and adsense service.
- July 1, 2007, Netease announced Yodao, its own search engine, and it will not renew its partnership with Google.
- August 20, 2007, Google announced its new products on Tianya.cn, these two services, Tianya Laiba and Tianya Answer, intended to compete with Baidu’s popular service, Baidu Tieba and Baidu Zhidao.
- September 27, 2007, Google finally got the ICP licence which is required by China’s regulators to operate website in China
- January 30, 2008, Google released a Google map mashup, Spring Festival Mass Transportation Map, which was regarded as a product to show the innovative culture of Google.
- March 26, 2008, announced its $1m investment in Comsenz, a social software developer.
- May 8, 2008, launched its dictionary software which is a partner with Kingsoft
- August 5, 2008, announced its partnership with Top100.cn to operate music search service in China
- March 30, 2009, launched its music mp3 download service in China
- June 18, 2009, China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre (CIIRC) published a report in its frontage condemning Google.cn for spreading obscene contents. The report, titled as “Strongly condem google for spreading indecent and obscene information”. CCTV also made series reports on the issues, which made Google to suspend its Google Suggest and overseas web page search temporarily.
- September 3, 2009, Tencent announced it will start to use its own search technology on Soso.com to replace Google’s search technology.
- September 4, 2009, Kaifu Lee resigned from Google to run his incubator
- October, 13, 2009, Two Chinese writers’ groups claim that Google has scanned Chinese works into an electronic database in violation of international copyright standards.
- January 13, 2010, Google announced its new China approach, and stop filtering search results, and it may pull out of China.
(Image copyright REUTERS/Jason Lee)
keep looking »Follow us on Twitter
- Douban Raised $10M in Series B http://goo.gl/fb/HvCC
- RT @samflemming: videos of @ajschokora, @brycewhitwam, @cwr and others; what China marketers say abt social media http://tinyurl.com/yb2hd4h
- China’s Strange Fixation on IE6 http://goo.gl/fb/x5PL
- Google In China Is Better Than No Google In China http://goo.gl/fb/SC64
- [Event] Third Digital Future Symposium Beijing http://goo.gl/fb/2vkB
- PopCap Games China: Widely Pirated, But Still Hunting for Treasure http://goo.gl/fb/cQPd
- RT @ganglu: KUUKIE is launched. http://www.kuukie.com, print your unique personal/business cards #kuukie
- RT @KaiserKuo: Announcement from Youku. Launched system 4 preventing copyright infringement. Sorry to fans of US TV shows! http://ow.ly/YtMw
- How Google’s Exit From China Could Affect Android http://goo.gl/fb/lqK0
- RT @mranti: CAING: Google Cancels 3G Gphone plan in China. RT @breakingnewscn: 财新传媒报道:谷歌单方面取消Gphone在华合作计划. http://3.ly/eoM #googlecn
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