Is the censor winning in China?

When I came to China for a visit, I routinely signed up for a VPN. Using a tool to circumvent China´s internet censorship seemed the most obvious thing to do. But here in Shanghai I discovered that using a VPN is not longer a standard procedure. It never was for Chinese users, but also friends and business people seem to live without one.
So that raises the question, who is winning the information war in China. When I ask the people without VPN why they accept the censorship in China, while it is easy to circumvent, they tell me they are not missing anything.
It sounds bit like the debate on social media. You get the same answer from people who are not using social media (yes, they too exist): they are not missing Twitter, Facebook or Google+. They are perfectly happy without internet tools others cannot survive without.
LinkedIn has boomed in China, partly they are for unknown reasons not blocked: many non-VPN users have the illusion they can surf freely online, because they have LinkedIn as a social network.
I have been trying to find out what number of foreign business people could survive without VPN in China, but even asking the question online does not make since. They are also not reading this weblog, since Blogger is also blocked.
It looks that, compared to the early days of the internet, censorship has become so subtle, people have a life online without using the websites and services that are blocked by the officials filters.
Possibly today´s news the Chinese editions of Reuters and the Wall Street Journal are no longer blocked, fits into that subtle censorship message. As long as enough information is seeping through the filters, people do not seem to bother. And they do no realize what they are missing.

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• China Doubles Down on Web Censorship

The pricing at Alibaba's IPO - Benjamin Joffe

+Benjamin Joffe 

Alibaba's IPO is going to be one of the biggest events of 2014, a listing that will dwarf Twitter's value. The value of Alibaba's shares is a key issue, and angel-investor Benjamin Joffe has a theory on how it will perform, he tells CNBC.

CNBC:

Sometime after Twitter's moment in the Wall Street spotlight,it's expected billionaire Jack Ma will step to the podium in New York to ring the bell heralding his Alibaba Group Holding's listing in New York, the biggest U.S. IPO for a Chinese technology company, and one that dwarfs Twitter in size, revenue—and significance. "Alibaba is a one-time thing," said Benjamin Joffe, an angel investor and founder of Asia-focused consultancy Plus8Star in Beijing. "How often do you list a $100 billion company?"... 

Ultimately, the success of Alibaba's IPO will depend on how the stock is priced, says Joffe. He says IPOs are often judged by the public and the media on whether the price goes up after the IPO. "If the underwriters decide not to optimize the valuation, they can create a 'successful' story," he said. "But the founders leave money on the table." At the scale of this IPO, investors may conclude they can afford it.

More in CNBC.

Benjamin Joffe is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at our meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

China Weekly Hangout 

+Harm Kiezebrink 

China is preparing for a new bout of bird flu. In Zhejiang the first victim was infected with the H7N9 virus, and chicken farms are preparing for the upcoming new year, meaning more risks. The +China Weekly Hangout is on Thursday 24 October discussing with bird flu expert Harm Kiezebink how you can prepare you and your company when the bird flu pandemic hits China. You can register here to participate, or read the full announcement here.

China's internet companies are going global, and were at the agenda of the +China Weekly Hangout on September 5. Should Facebook, Twitter and Google+ worry now Tencent, Baidu, Sina, Alibaba and Xiaomi have plans to expand globally? Not yet, said investor +William Yung, media-expert +Paul Fox and +Tech in Asia editor +Steven Millward. Well, maybe Whatsapp should. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.

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Why Twitter and Facebook are too late in China - Sam Flemming

+Sam Flemming 

Western social media like Twitter and Facebook might get their first official inroads into China at the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, but the market has already been taken by giant and influential domestic players, tells internet watcher Sam Flemming at Reuters.

Reuters:

Access to Facebook and Twitter has been blocked in China since 2009, but will be lifted by the government in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ) which is due to launch this weekend, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday - a move that has been popularly dubbed the "Internet Concession". 

But it may be too late for them to repeat their success elsewhere in one of the world's most promising, yet most restricted, Internet markets - where online advertising revenues soared almost 47 percent last year to $12.3 billion. 

"The Chinese social media landscape is among the most developed, sophisticated landscapes out there," said Sam Flemming, chief executive of China-based social media intelligence firm CIC. "These aren't just niche social networks, these are a major part of the Internet in China."...   

Facebook, valued at $118 billion, said in its IPO prospectus last year that its China market share was almost zero, and recent studies say Twitter has no more than 50,000 active users in China. Access to both is limited to people with Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) that can bypass China's Great Firewall - the colloquial term for Beijing's Internet blocking mechanism. 

"Weibo has similar features to Twitter, but its role in China for the dissemination of news, information and entertainment, that's what's critical," said CIC's Flemming. 

"Weibo is the zeitgeist of China, the water cooler of China."

More at Reuters.

Sam Flemming is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

China Weekly Hangout

While Twitter and Facebook might be getting official access to a small part of China, Chinese internet companies are expanding globally, the +China Weekly Hangout learned on September 5. Should Facebook, Twitter and Google+ worry now Tencent, Baidu, Sina, Alibaba and Xiaomi have plans to expand globally. Not yet, said investor +William Yung, media-expert +Paul Fox and +Tech in Asia editor +Steven Millward. Well, maybe Whatsapp should. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.

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Internet ban hurts Chinese companies - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Story of the day is the Shanghai's new Free Trade Zone might allow Twitter, Facebook and other western social media on the internet. About time, says business analyst Shaun Rein in CNBC as the current limitations hurt the competitiveness of Chinese companies. 

CNBC:

+Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group said lifting a ban on internet access to websites such as Twitter and Facebook is crucial for Chinese companies that are looking to establish a presence globally. 

"It's clear that the lack of internet access is hurting Chinese companies from a competitive standpoint. They don't have a presence on Facebook, Twitter; they don't know how to launch marketing campaigns around the world," Rein said. Facebook and Twitter have been banned on the mainland since 2009. 

Increasing competition in the telecom space will also be positive for the entire country, Rein said. "It will push Chinese telcos to become more market savvy. They haven't had competition to push them to innovation and new services. Internet access is very slow here on mobile phones and in the home." 

"I expect a lot of telecoms companies to invest, it's a good [opportunity to penetrate] the China market," he added.

More in CNBC.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

China Weekly Hangout

China's internet companies are one industry in China trying to go global. Should Facebook, Twitter and Google+ worry now Tencent, Baidu, Sina, Alibaba and Xiaomi have plans to expand globally the +China Weekly Hangout asked on September 5. Not yet, said investor +William Yung, media-expert +Paul Fox and +Tech in Asia editor +Steven Millward. Well, maybe Whatsapp should. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau. What is behind due diligence firms in China, we asked ourselves as one of the leading voices in the industry, Peter Humphrey was arrested last summer for illegal business practices. The +China Weekly Hangout will discuss due diligence of the due diligence firms on September 25. You can read our announcement here, or register for participation at our event page. Joining us from Taiwan is Miguel De Vinci (aka 李洛傑).

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Customer service key for China sales - Ben Cavender

Ben Cavender

Gone are the old queues of eager customers lining up in China's cities, selling to Chinese customers has become a challenge. The quality of your customer' services is going to be key for your sales, explains retail analyst Ben Cavender in CKGSB Knowledge. 

GKGSB Knowledge:

Benjamin Cavender of Shanghai-based China Market Research Group points out that the 18 to 35 age group is driving spending, and tending to be only children. They’re used to being doted upon, “so they are demanding a lot more from companies when they go to shop for products.”... 

As China becomes richer, customers are often buying products for the first time. McKinsey pointed out that first-time buyers account for 60% of auto purchasers in China. With consumer electronics, between 30% and 40% of laptop purchases in China are made by first-time buyers, says the McKinsey report. 

“They’re purchasing products they haven’t bought before and so they are expecting education (from sales staff) to go with that,” says Cavender... 

There are several challenges to delivering better customer service in China, but first and foremost is finding and training the staff. 

Cavender says this is particularly clear with in-store sales. “It’s difficult to train them to really know the products–as they need some level of experience with them–and to know how to interest the customer,” he says. “It is also very difficult to teach someone to cross-sell. Most service staff aren’t able to suggest what will go well with, say, a suit because they haven’t been taught it or received that kind of service themselves. It’s something the customer in China absolutely wants but it is very difficult for them to get.” 

One reason it is so difficult to find the right people is that service jobs are sometimes viewed negatively, with a subconscious belief amongst Chinese people that it is demeaning to serve... 

“We are going to get people filling these roles going forward who will have had some experience with these products and services, but it is going to be a gradual change,” says Cavender.

More in GKGSB Knowledge.

Ben Cavender is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

How to localize your products for the China market? Ben Cavender discusses the cases of four companies who did not get it right: B&Q, Dunkin Donut, Gap and IKEA. Most China-related discussions at the China Weekly Hangout. 

This week the China Weekly Hangout will focus on US-China relations after the revealed hacking cases from a PLA-unit in Shanghai. Here is our announcement, and you can still register here. If you cannot get access to the hangout, you can also send your messages via Twitter and Google+, with hash tag #CWHCWH during the event.

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My China news radar: the target (1)

News Media At The Obama Event (Photo credit: MarkGregory007)

Can you set up a Twitter account for me? That is the most asked question when companies, organizations or people set up their social media operation. And you can replace Twitter with Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Weibo or whatever the person who asks the question is fascinated with at the moment.
But they often forget to ask the most important questions: what is it you want to achieve? Is it a feasible target? So, before I set off to explain how my China radar screen is working, I want to tell you what I want to achieve. 
In short, I want to set up a meaningful selection filter of news on China.

The basis of my digital radar screen was a report by some of the better US journalism schools on how those schools should prepare for their digital future. At the time, I still called myself a journalist, so I took note. The report was written five, six years ago (forgive me, no link anymore) and drew two major conclusions.
First, the number of journalists was too large, and schools had to reduce the intake of students.
Second, journalists had to focus on managing online information, rather then collecting it themselves. They had to become human filters.

I do not think many journalism schools took that advice serious. Intake of students has gone up since the report was discussed, despite a dismal job market; even the number of journalism schools has gone up. And despite a drop in media resources, when you go to major events like the Olympic Games, the Oscars or any other popular event, the number of journalists there seems to grow, despite the falling number of jobs, and the lack of real news at those events.
I looked at the time at my online operation, and saw that I had already started to behave like a human online filter, in my case regarding China. And as a human filter, what I pass on is important, but the garbage that does not pass my filter, might even be more important. This report on US journalism schools I had in mind, when I started to organize my filtering activities in a more sophisticated way.

Now, by running the China Speakers Bureau, I have transformed my human filter activities also into a support activity for this commercial venture. Where applicable, I will mention this, since I believe becoming a human filter is a useful new activity for current and former journalists, also outside the traditional media companies.

So, after looking at the report, I started to make a few drastic decisions. My key business as a foreign correspondent in Shanghai was to make sense out of China for people living outside the country. I have never been in the business of telling the Chinese how they country is working. That meant a strong focus on English-language sources. Not in my mother tongue Dutch, since there would be too little to filter. And not in Chinese, although I greatly appreciate the efforts of so-called "bridge-bloggers", who translate increasingly Chinese sources into English. I can help myself in more languages, but in my function as a human filter, displaying all my language capabilities is only confusing for my audience, certainly as long as online translations services are not perfect, to put it mildly.
Second, it had to be news. What makes any online operation better than the traditional media is that they can be faster and more comprehensive than the traditional media. So, when an event has already been reported by dozens of news media, I mostly ignore it, unless I can dig up some sources with new angles.
Third, it had to be relevant news, again, from my perspective. Strikes, accidents, floodings, mining deaths and other mass incidents - as they are called in China - are only interesting for me, if they have a mean that is larger than the incident itself. It Tibetan no 102 setting himself ablaze news? I do not think so, although it could be different if you would be working for a human rights organization.
Fourth, they have come come from trustworthy sources. While what is trustworthy might vary from case to case (and we will dive deeper into this later), but quoting just anything interesting is not what a human filter should do. I'm far from perfect, but a split-second decision on the trustworthiness of a source is always a consideration, before I pass on links.

I never counted it scientifically, but I estimate that only one percent of all the stories and links I see pass my filter. That sounds like very little, but it is rather similar to journalists at news desks scanning the incoming news from press agencies for what is relevant to them. By doing it a lot, you become more efficient.

My filter is set up into two different larger operations. To illustrate that (and they will be separate postings later on) can I take you back for a second to some of the old theories about mass media? Those theories might be losing their usefulness, together with the diminishing value of mass media, but one concept I still like.
You might remember the differences between ‘senders’ and ‘receivers’ of mass communication? The mass media were sending their information to us, suckers, the receivers of that information. Now, that rather strict divide has been eroded as we are both ‘sending’ and ‘receiving’ through the same social media tools at the same time.
Still, for analyzing your own activities, that old concept is still useful, for example when you are building up your own social network, as an individual, a company, an organization, government agency or otherwise. And for me as a human filter, making that distinction is extra useful.
First, on receiving, the subject of the next posting. You have to learn how make a selection among your potential friends, followers, information and other news items. You have to ask yourself what the purpose is of accepting a friend, or looking at a certain website, or opening up a new stream of feeds.
A part of that information you receive, you decide to pass on into your own network of friends, followers, or whatever they are called. That ‘sending’ process is the subject of the third posting. receiving part.

Any thoughts, additions, questions or remarks? Let me know.

Related articles

• My China news radar, and other stories

China Weekly Hangout: hashtag #CWHCWH

Hashtag  

Tomorrow we will use the China Weekly Hangout to try a new commenting feature. You can leave questions and comments at Twitter, Google+; make sure you use the hashtag  (You do not have to try it now :-))
Also comments on our YouTube channel will be monitored real time. Relevant messages will to displayed during the hangout. If you are not participating in the hangout (you can register here), you can still share you messages with us.
Participants in the hangout will get instructions on how to use this tool, if they want to. You can ping me at +Fons Tuinstra for more instructions.
The original invitation you can read here. 

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Blocking US consulate's weibo account "no technical glitch" Jeremy Goldkorn

Jeremy Goldkorn

When earlier in the week the Sina Weibo account of the US consulate in Shanghai was blocked, theories varied. Was it a mistake by Sina? Was it a political provocation by the Chinese authorities? It was certainly not technical glitch, says internet watcher Jeremy Goldkorn in VOA.

VOA:

Consulate officials say they do not know why the account has been removed and that they are working to find out how the service can be restored. 

But Jeremy Goldkorn, the editor of Danwei.com – a website about Chinese media and Internet – told VOA the incident is “almost certainly” more than just a technical glitch. 

“This is very common. Sina, sometimes at the request of governments, and sometimes on their own initiative, to avoid getting in trouble with the government, shuts down accounts and deletes tweets (posts) – they do all kinds of censorship. So almost certainly this is what happened.” 

It would not be the first dispute between American embassy or consular officials and the government of China, which employs a massive team of web censors to remove material deemed objectionable. 

Last month, a senior Chinese environmental official slammed the U.S. Embassy in Beijing's Twitter account for regularly posting air quality readings that are much worse than the government's official figures. 

Goldkorn says Beijing is likely even more unhappy with posts that appear in the Chinese language on locally hosted services, such as Weibo. But he says he does not know of any instances of government censors completely shutting down a U.S. government-controlled account. 

“They have deleted tweets from the U.S. government's Weibo accounts in the past, so in that sense it's not new. But I think this may be the first time that they have completely removed or disabled an account, on Weibo at least.”

More in VOA

Jeremy Goldkorn is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Weibo: Twitter on crack - Tricia Wang

Tricia Wang

Twitter should have a thorough look at their Chinese Weibo competitors, says tech ethnographer Tricia Wang in an interview with FastCompany. Being picture-based is just one lesson they can learn, she argues.

Tricia Wang:

The two most important apps are Renren, essentially a copycat of Facebook, and Weibo, which is like Twitter--but like Twitter on crack. We often don’t think we have a lot to learn from tech companies outside of the U.S., but Twitter should look to Weibo for inspiration for what can be done. It’s like a mashup of Tumblr, Zynga, Facebook, and Twitter. It’s very picture-based, whereas Twitter is still very text-based. In Weibo, the pictures are right under each post, so you don’t have to make an extra click to view them. And people are using this in subversive ways. Whether you’re using algorithms to search text or actual people--and China has the largest cyber police force in the world—it’s much easier to censor text than images. So people are very subversive in hiding messages in pictures. These pictures are sometimes very different than what people are texting, or will often say a lot more than the actual text itself. 

A big turning point in China was the train crash last year. Everyone in China takes the train, and it’s a state-run enterprise. So after this big crash there was essentially a large government cover-up. But people were taking pictures and sending out messages on Weibo up until the last minute when the crash happened, and even though it was censored, the news got out because all these pictures were forwarded through social media. As much as the government tries to control information through censorship, there are all these user strategies to overcome it, too. There’s a new thing called “long Weibo,” which allows you to paste in a whole essay, and it converts it to a JPEG. It’s small, but you can click on it and it fills your screen so you can actually read the whole essay right there. It’s something small but critical in understanding how social media operates in China. Likewise, in the U.S., I like observing how users hack around social-media platforms, because ultimately these behaviors are rooted in culture.

 More at FastCompany.

Tricia Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

More about Tricia Wang and her investigation of China's economic underbelly at Storify. 

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