Google Site Open to All

Just a few days ago, Google announced that Google Site is now open to all, and free. This is a typical example of my previous open about business strategy: Startups Are Afraid of Other’s Generosity? Maybe. Though the upload limit of Google Site is there, this is clearly a step consistent with the fundamental business strategy of Google. The competition between these giants is far from over: Ebay, Microsfot, Yahoo, and Google.
When the infrastructure of IT becoming increasingly mature, the focus of competition has changed. There's a shift underway in how people use computers and the Internet. Every day more utility is being delivered over the Web. Full applications can now be run in a browser, accessible from any computer. Data portability prevails. Software? But for the basic softwares, most are becoming redundant and marginalized. Some websites are just softwares of the traditional sense. Software are becoming Webapps China Business Watch has interviewed more than 1,000 startup CEOs. Most are now out of business
So, watch out the trend. It’s the same for traders and industrials. So we think it’s very important to analyze the industry trend. We'll talk more about it. Stay tuned.

Assessing the Impact of Home Solar Systems

Some of the readers of China Business Watch write to tell us that they want to know more about the energy development opportunity in China after reading two of our reports :
Renewable Energy Development Project and
Gansu Province Home Solar System Development.
Here we’d like to assess the impact of home solar systems.
Perceived benefits
Stand-alone home solar systems can meet the growing electricity needs of rural households. Studies of off-grid renewable energy systems in developing countries have shown that these technologies can provide reliable and comparatively low-cost electricity services to rural households and communities. The supply of electricity from such systems brings tangible social and economic benefits to rural populations in developing countries that include the ability to refrigerate food and medicine, lighting for households, power for small electric motors (such as water pumps), and provision of education and communication opportunities for isolated rural populations.
Taking into account social and technical aspects
Home solar systems are not always the most affordable option, and cost of the modules is a very important aspect. Different components have different lifetimes, ranging from 20 years for the module, to three or four years for the battery. In areas where batteries are expensive, a home solar venture may not be viable. There is also a need to improve after-sales services and feedback from consumers, an aspect that the World Bank's Renewable Energy Development Project is attempting to improve. Home solar systems are also not always as environmentally friendly as they first appear. Batteries constitute a major concern for the large-scale implementation of home solar systems.
The principal technical aspect to take into account is that of system losses. Losses usually occur from the PV module through the following:
Orientation. For every location, there is an optimum direction and an optimum angle that results in the greatest amount of annual electricity generation. When the direction is within about 20 degrees of the optimum, and the tilt angle within about 10 degree of the optimum, the electricity generated is within about 5 per cent of the optimum.
Temperature effect. Other than orientation, this is the principal variable.?If the temperature gets too high, the output of the solar module is negatively affected.
Shading of the module. During part of the day the module may be shaded, and over a number of years this have a permanent effect on the module.
Dirt. Modules need to be as clean as possible. Dust can build up on the module, causing energy losses of about 10-15 per cent.
Maintaining quality has also been a problem in many places. The absence of a quality-control process in production and infrastructure has been a serious obstacle to widespread dissemination and use of PV.?Given the urgent need to assure quality processes in all stages of PV systems infrastructure ?design, development, manufacture, testing, installation, and maintenance ?the PV and financial communities have promoted initiatives to establish quality standards and procedures.
If you want more info, write to us or comment below.

More Money for Clean Up

China has earmarked $5.9 billion to fund environmental protection and energy-saving projects this year, the finance ministry said on Monday. In a statement posted on its website, the ministry said the funds would be used to scrap obsolete capacity, improve sewerage in central and western China and clean up several rivers across the country.
It also said that China would consider setting up a “pay to pollute” regime and a trading system for pollution quotas. The investments underscore the growing political emphasis on sustainable development in a country with some of the world’s most polluted air and rivers.

China’s Civil Aviation Industry

This is another post of our industry analysis series at China Business Watch, and you can read our trend analysis post 6 Industry Trends of 2008 in China for a better understating of the big picture.
Today China may present the greatest civil aviation market opportunity in history. In 2006, CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) transported 160 million passengers. In the first half of this year, growth was 19.6% over the same period last year, and cargo traffic grew over 15%. By 2010, the number of airplanes is expected to nearly double over the 2006 level – just 5 years.
In 1980, just at the beginning of her great “opening up” to the outside world, China’s civil aviation industry comprised only about 140 airplanes and ranked 35th in the world in tons-per-kilometer. With average annual growth of some 17% since then, China has jumped all the way to the number
Today China may present the greatest civil aviation market opportunity in history. In 006, CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) transported 160 million passengers in the first half of this year.
Further, China expects to see a total of between 2,300 to 3,000 total civil aircraft in operation by 2025. This, in turn, means airport expansions, new airports, growing maintenance centers, more skilled workers, and so on.
Just between now and 2010, China will train some 6,500 new pilots. China’s airports are overtaxed – she has only500, compared with about 20,000 in the US, and 2,500 in Brazil, for example. And aircraft maintenance and refurbishment has been moving to China fast,
In an attempt to pick up market share, Airbus recently began construction in Tianjin of a complete assembly plant for its A320, with an estimated total investment of over a billion dollars. The project is a joint venture between Airbus and a company formed by China’s two big aviation companies – AVIC 1 and AVIC 2. Airbus will hold a 51 percent majority stake in the JV, although the final joint venture contract has not yet been signed. The intent is to begin production in 2009 and manufacture a total of 300 planes by 2016 – all to be purchased by China. Airbus’s decision has already attracted nearly a dozen other aircraft companies to locate nearby.

China’s Burgeoning Power Industry

China presents the greatest energy market opportunity that has ever existed. As a result of the country’s incredible growth over the past ten years, its installed power generation capacity and output are now second only to the US.
Moreover, experts estimate that with average GDP growth of only 6.5%, China will need 48GW of new capacity each year though 2020 – that is, each year China will build the equivalent of two thirds of the UK’s total installed capacity today (Capgemini, China Electricity Market 2006). Yet even with this growth, China’s per capita consumption of electricity in 2020 will only reach the level of the US in the 1950s. This means growth is going to continue for a long time.

China’s Drinking Amazingly More Beer

Its’a good news for Chinese brewers.
Chinese brewer’s profits sparkle .
Tsingtao, China’s most famous brewer, has seen its half-year profits soar by 77%. China’s beer market is the largest in the world by consumption, and grew by about 15% last year, according to Anheuser-Busch.
The company, 27% owned by US giant Anheuser Busch, made a net profit of 235.1m yuan ($30.5m; £15.2m) in the last six months of 2006. That compares with 132.9m yuan for the same half-year period in 2005.

SMS Spam on a Grand Scale

China had a large number of mobile phone users, 565 million mobile phone users by the end of last month, making China a good market for mobile search advertising . Google mobile search is taking its time.
Yet, 200 Million mobile users in China have been bombarded with unwanted text messages from advertisers. Text messages were sent through China Mobile and its smaller rival China Unicom.
China Mobile apologised for loopholes that allowed the spread of spam text messages. It has vowed to block text messages originating from seven online advertising firms, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
China’s authorities said the spammers must “correct their wrongdoing.” “We urge parties concerned to beef up self-scrutiny to correct their wrongdoing, which is profit driven in defiance of public interests,” said deputy head of the State Council Office for Rectifying Malpractice, Liu Yue.

Tiger Ethanol International Enters Into China Supply Agreement

Tiger Ethanol International says that Xinjiang Yajia Distillate Company Limited, a Chinese entity of which the company owns 90%, has entered into an agreement with Xinjiang Yili Agricultural Division Supply and Sales Company for supplies of corn to be used in the company's planned ethanol manufacturing plant in Hami District.

The company says this agreement reduces the potential for uncertainty in the company's bio-mass supply chain. In addition, the company will benefit from having "grandfathered" operating license within China's evolving ethanol market. The terms of the agreement provide that during the first period of five years that Xinjiang Yili Company will supply all the corn kernels necessary for its initial production level of 20 to 30 thousand tons of ethanol "at a formula price that results in a discount to the commodity market price".

The company's future plan is to increase production to 100,000 tons of ethanol per year and Xinjiang Yili Company's commitment to deliver the bio-mass supply needs for this higher production level will help Tiger to reach that goal.

This agreement is particularly important as it guarantees biomass supply to Tiger's venture which enjoys grandfathered status because the Chinese Central government recently passed an edict limiting the use of corn for ethanol production by stopping the granting of additional licenses for such purpose. Tiger is in an advantaged position because its permits and licenses all pre-date the adoption of this new restrictive national policy and are therefore 'grandfathered' by the terms of the new government regulations.

Tiger says its intentions have always been to produce ethanol from corn while at the same time provide itself with the ability to adapt its manufacturing process to other biomass forms in order to take advantage of opportunities and respond to regulatory changes. These other possible biomass forms include, but are not limited to, sorghum, casava and sugar cane.

For the same reasons the company is closely watching technological development in the area of cellulose based biomass for ethanol production. Further, the company's intention after completing construction of its first manufacturing facility is to raise the production capacity of such facility to 100,000 tons per year. Thereafter the company intends to proceed with the development of other manufacturing plants in other districts of China incorporating biomass choices reflecting the most efficient technologies that are also the least intrusive on China's food supply markets.

Tiger Ethanol International is a development stage company which owns 90% of Xinjiang Yajia Distillate Company Limited, a Chinese entity which plans to construct a facility to produce ethanol in China. The remaining 10% of Xinjiang Yajia Distillate Company Limited is owned by Xinjiang Wangye Brewing Company and Guangdong Kecheng Trading Company. The company intends to produce ethanol from agricultural products.

GOME Becomes Microsoft's China Sales Partner

Wang Junzhou, standing vice president of GOME, and Kevin Turner, COO of Microsoft, have signed a memorandum of understanding on a strategic partnership to make the Chinese electronics retailer the top sales partner for Microsoft's newly released Vista operating system.
Following the signing of the agreement, GOME has started carrying out sales promotions of Windows Vista at all its key sales outlets across China.
Before Windows Vista was released, Microsoft sent some trainers to train GOME's salespeople and provide expert consulting to them to learn about Vista's performance and functions.
Wang Junzhou says that GOME will set up 400 Vista Experience Centers and 2000 Vista Experience Areas in 1000 cities all over China to have users experience the various Vista applications for the first time.

Patent applications exceed 268,000 in H1

China received 268,926 patent applications in the first six months of 2007, up 7.3 percent from the corresponding period last year, according to China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT).
These patent applications involved inventions, utility models and designs, according to the CCPIT.
According to official statistics, China's patent applications had exceeded 3 million by the end of June, 2006.
China had received more than 4.98 million applications for registering trade marks by the end of 2006, with the number of registered trade marks exceeding 2.77 million.
Currently, China has more than 600 patent agent organizations. The Patent and Trademark Law Office under the CCPIT remains the largest agency authorized to manage overseas-related intellectual property.

Tour prices drop as holiday winds down

Major travel agencies had cut prices of domestic group tours by an average 30 percent as of yesterday, as the weeklong National Day holiday approaches its conclusion.
The discount trips cover some top attractions, including Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan Province, Lijiang in Yunnan Province, Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province and some spots in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Costs for outbound tours have also been cut.
The prices of tours to Japan and the Republic of Korea have fallen by as much as 1,000 yuan ($133), according to www.ctrip.com, a travel service company.
The country's tourism market saw a peak yesterday, the National Holiday Office said in a statement.
More than 90 percent of the hotel rooms in most tourist destinations were booked, the statement said.
The office said the 119 scenic spots in its nationwide monitoring system had received 3.28 million tourists on Wednesday and 3.07 million yesterday.
Beijing's mass transit railway system carried 3.74 million people during the first two days of the weeklong holiday, according to municipal metro authorities.
The number was almost double the amount on a normal day.
An official with the Beijing environmental sanitation group said tourists had left about a third of the garbage at Tian'anmen Square each day that they did last year.
Sanitation workers cleared 26.6 tons of garbage from the square in the first two days of the holiday, compared with 80 tons last year.

Gansu Province Home Solar System Development

Gansu, a western province featuring a land area of 455,000 km², faces an acute shortage of water resources, sparse vegetation, and serious water and soil loss. Given these circumstances, hydropower options are limited to the large-scale plants built on the vast Yangtze River (also known as the Yellow River). For small, remote communities gaining access to the electricity generated by these large-scale plants is problematic because of a lack of infrastructure and low income levels. Therefore, the World Bank's Renewable Energy Development Project has focused on the area in the development of household solar systems.
A home solar system can be defined as a small, self-sustaining photovoltaic system that consists of one or more solar modules, a battery and several 12-volt direct current (dc) appliances. During daylight, the battery is charged. The stored energy can be used for generating light and running appliances such as radios and televisions. When the battery is fully charged, the regulator disconnects the module in order to prevent the battery from becoming damaged. This is called 'high voltage disconnect' (HVD). Below a certain level of discharge, the battery can also be damaged. To prevent this, 'low voltage disconnect' (LVD) occurs before the battery is completely drained.

Asia Pacific Travel to reach $4.6T in 2010

Travel and tourism are expected to bring $4.6 trillion a year to the Asia Pacific region by 2010 despite the threat of a U.S. recession, according to a study released Wednesday by the Pacific Asia Travel Association.
PATA’s study, which covers 40 destinations that include the U.S., Canada, Chile, Mexico and the Pacific islands, says total arrival numbers to the Asia Pacific are projected to exceed 460 million by 2010, up from 347 million in 2006.
The study places mainland China as the region’s top destination by 2010, with 35.3 percent of the market share and 160 million international arrivals, followed by the U.S. at 56 million arrivals, Macau at 38 million and Hong Kong at 35 million.
John Koldowski, director of PATA’s Strategic Intelligence Center said hotel and resort development across the region also contributes to future tourism growth. Chinese-ruled Macau, a former Portuguese colony, overtook the Las Vegas Strip as the world’s top gambling center in 2006.

GobiMin Aims To Churn Earth In Xinjiang

GobiMin's wholly-owned subsidiary has entered into agreements to form two joint ventures in China to participate in resource exploration on Xinjiang's Xinyuan Yuximolegai Copper Deposit and Xinjiang's Nileke Alasitan Copper Deposit.
The company says both joint ventures will apply for mining permits on the respective deposit upon formation, which is expected to take four to six months. GobiMin shall acquire an approximate 40% equity interest in each of the joint ventures by contributing a total of about RMB10,000,000 in cash, which will be fully settled through its internal resources. The other shareholders of the joint ventures are subsidiaries of the Xinjiang Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, who discovered the deposits and provided the related geophysics information. GobiMin will delegate geologists and management to operate and manage the joint ventures.
The company has not yet released data on either how it plans to lessen environmental damage to the surrounding mine areas, or how it plans to implement safe mining activity with its laborers.
"GobiMin has been working for some time on completing these joint venture opportunities with the Xinjiang Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources and we hope that this is the first in a series of joint ventures with this group", said Felipe Tan, President and CEO.
The XY Deposit is located in the Yuximolegai area, 110 kms away from the city of Xinyuan, Xinjiang, China and is accessible by the national highway. At an altitude above 3,200 meters, the XY Deposit is located in a high mountain area with a deep degree of dissection.
The Alasitan Deposit is 140 kms west of the city of Xinyuan County, 200 kms from the city of Nileke County and 16 kms away from the national highway. It is located mostly at an altitude above 3,000 metres.

China Huadian Corporation Sets Up New Energy Company

China Huadian Corporation has announced plans to set up a new renewable energy company.
CHC will invest RMB102 million in the new company, China Huadian Group New Energy Development Co., Ltd. for 51% of its total stake, with the remainder owned by a consortium of four other businesses. It will also gradually inject its hydropower, pumped storage and wind power business in Zhejiang, Hubei, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang to the new company in the coming three years, according to development demand.
According to China's new energy industry policy, power operators with more than 5 million KW capacity must have new energy account for over 8% of their total capacity by 2020.
Set up in 2002, CHC is a wholly state-owned enterprise approved by the State Council and established on the basis of institutions formerly owned by State Power Corporation of China as a pilot entity. Its approved main businesses include production and supply of electricity and heat, development of power-related primary energy such as coal and supply of pertinent technological service.

New Guangzhou Airport IT Company Forms

China Southern Airlines has announced a new agreement with Guangdong Airport Management Corporation and TravelSky Technology Limited for a new joint venture company focused on departure service called Guangzhou Airport Airspan Information Technology Company Limited.
The new venture will open Baiyun International Airport to new technologies and resources from the airport authority, China Southern and TravelSky's aviation information service company. The new company will jointly develop and operate the airport departure system.
The current departure system at Baiyun International Airport was launched on August 5, 2004 with the opening of the US$3 billion aviation complex. The system uses a state-of-the-art joint-platform departure system, supporting operations of multiple background host computers, jointly sharing all the foreground departure work stations and peripheral equipment.
The new joint-venture company will work to build a safer, smoother and quicker departure service at Baiyun International Airport. The new company plans to build on the current technological and customer service advantages and work to build up Baiyun International Airport as one of the best airports in the world.

China Everbright Bank Deploys Kalignite Multivendor ATM Software

Kalignite says that China Everbright Bank has successfully completed the deployment of Kalignite multivendor automated teller machine software across its entire system.
In 2006 CEB decided to select an ATM multivendor software solution. It chose Kaligniteand the CEB ATM software project took just eight months from start to finish and was completely rolled out by November 2006.
CEB has over 1250 ATMs now deployed running Windows XP and Kalignite. It plans to deploy 250 more by the end of 2007. CEB's estate includes 17 different models of ATMs made by six different manufacturers. As a result of the ATM software project, all of the ATMs run the same Kalignite-based application.
KAL's development partner in China, Shenzen Zijin, is the supplier of the ATM application, which is built on the Kalignite Platform.

Huaneng Unveils New Energy Company In Xinjiang

Huaneng Xinjiang Energy Development Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Huaneng Group, has been formally unveiled in Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Following the establishment of the new company, Huaneng will speed up the group's development of coal, coal chemical and coal power integrated projects in the east part of Junggar Basin in Xinjiang and the development of water power and wind power projects in Kergez Autonomous Prefecture of Kizilesu.
Xinjiang is an important part of China's West Development initiative. The region's petroleum and natural gas reserve accounts for more than 30% of China's total and coal mine resource takes up China's 40%. Besides, it also has rich water and wind resources.
Huaneng Group is an incorporated business entity that primarily focuses on the development of power with a diversified business portfolio, including information, environment protection, transportation and trade.

PAY88 Expanding Products To Shanghai

Pay88 says they on target for their sales expansion project of their online multiplayer game card products in China.
"I am very excited to say that we are set to expand into Shanghai. We have developed some very strong relationships with game providers and retail card distributors and feel that we are ready to move forward in the Shanghai market," said Guo Fan, president and CEO of Pay88. "We feel that we have been very successful in penetrating the market in Chongqing and we are ready to serve another large metropolitan city like Shanghai."
The Shanghai market provides significant potential for Pay88 to continue developing relationships with major online game providers and other key participants in the online game market. Pay88 says its success in Chongqing will serve as the template for a strategy in penetrating the market in Shanghai and facilitate further expansion into other areas through both new and established relationships.
Pay88 says it remains committed to continuing to ramp up sales through its expansion throughout China focusing on the online multiplayer game cards and forging strong relationships with the big game company providers.

Huawei Wins HSPA Contract From France Telecom's Orange

Following the winning of an HSPA contract with Japan's eMobile, Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei has won another UMTS/HSPA contract from PTK Centertel, an affiliate of France Telecom's Orange in Poland.

Huawei will undertake 50% of the UMTS/HSPA project.

According to the contract, Huawei will deploy thousands of HSPA distribution base stations for PTK Centertel in major cities in Poland in the coming three years to meet the latter's demand.

Xu Wenwei, president of Huawei in Europe, says that Huawei's cooperation with FT/Orange in the mobile communications field in deepening and Huawei is glad to cooperate with Orange in Poland and will be engaged in providing fast and high quality service for the latter.