Menu

The New Digital Age: Book Warns of a Dangerous Future China

By
February 5, 2013

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt has a book due in April, The New Digital Age, whichexplores the changing technology landscape and how authoritarian governments will seek greater control over Web content in the future. The book criticizes China as “the world’s most active and enthusiastic filterer of information” and mentions China’s state-led efforts to use hacking as a tool against other nations or corporations. Continue reading The New Digital Age: Book Warns of a Dangerous Future China

Tim Cook Goes To China Again, Seems To Be Making Progress

By
January 15, 2013

Apple CEO Tim Cook said he believes China will become Apple’s most important market. He was optimistic about his latest talk with China Mobile, although he wouldn’t go into detail about it — and he recently met with Miao Wei, minister of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which is responsible for approving Apple products before they’re launched in China. Continue reading Tim Cook Goes To China Again, Seems To Be Making Progress

Android Devices On the Rise in China, But Stripped of Google Play Store

By
December 19, 2012

As China continues to expand its smartphone market, edging past the U.S. for the title of world’s largest, “the rise of the Android mobile operating system should be a huge success story for Google, which developed and maintains Android,” writes Technology Review. However, even as shipments of the more affordable Android devices are on the rise in China, it’s often overlooked “how little Google itself is benefiting from Android’s growth in China,” according to the article. Continue reading Android Devices On the Rise in China, But Stripped of Google Play Store

Xiaomi Takes a Slice of the Smartphone Pie

By
December 13, 2012
  • Just three years into its existence, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi Technology has a $4 billion valuation and has garnered “Apple-like adoration” from loyal fans, reports Reuters.
  • Founder Lei Jun, 42, helped shape China’s Internet revolution when he co-founded and sold Joyo.cn to Amazon before moving on to Xiaomi Technology. At Xiaomi, Lei has become a Steve Jobs-like figure, as he has marketed his product simply, but in a way that generates “an aura of exclusivity around its products,” notes the article.
  • When addressing comparisons to Jobs, Lei says, “I will take this as a compliment but such kind of comparison brings us huge pressure.”
  • “Xiaomi and Apple are two totally different companies,” he continues. “Xiaomi’s based on the Internet. We are not doing the same thing as Apple.”
  • The company released its second phone in October and has sold 300,000 units. The phone is comparable to Samsung’s Galaxy S3 and Apple’s iPhone 5, but sells for only $370.
  • “Unlike the big domestic smartphone players, such as Lenovo Group, ZTE Corp and Huawei Technologies, which work with telecom carriers to sell a large volume of smartphones, Xiaomi sells most of its phones online and in small batches,” writes Reuters. By limiting quantity and selling in small batches, Xiaomi creates buzz. This demand led to Xiaomi selling its entire batch of 50,000 smartphones in less than two minutes in October.
  • China is expected to pass the United States as the number one smartphone market within the year, but some people still believe the market will be controlled by market leaders ZTE and Huawei, and that Xiaomi’s small scale strategy will hurt its long term outlook.

After Years of Offshore Production, U.S. Generates Insourcing Boom

By
December 13, 2012

General Electric’s Appliance Park, a place where manufacturing jobs once boomed in America in the from the 1950’s to the 70’s, saw most of its business shipped overseas in the 2000’s. It wasn’t just there. Throughout the country, factory jobs were lost seven times faster between 2000 and 2010 than between 1980 and 2000. Continue reading After Years of Offshore Production, U.S. Generates Insourcing Boom

Reel China: Hollywood Seeks Workarounds for Import Restrictions

By
August 25, 2011
  • Hollywood continues its frustration with the Chinese government’s limits on how many imported movies can play in its theaters in addition to how box office receipts are shared. Now, prominent American film producers are seeking change through ambitious deals that provide alternative routes into China’s market.
  • Success with the Chinese may prove crucial. With traditional distribution models such as DVD sales presently slumping, China could become a much-needed revenue source.
  • “It’s not about détente, it’s about making money,” suggests the Los Angeles Times. “The partnerships give the American firms better access to the country’s growing movie market.”
  • According to the LA Times report: “China’s box-office receipts surged 64 percent last year to a record $1.5 billion, and they will likely bring in about $2 billion in ticket sales this year. By the end of the decade, industry experts predict China will grow from the world’s No. 5 movie market to No. 1.”
  • Although lobbyists and the World Trade Organization have been unsuccessful in getting the Chinese to relax import restrictions, smaller American film companies such as Legendary and Relativity are partnering with Chinese-based companies in co-production and exhibition deals. Through the partnerships, companies are not subject to restrictions and find they can dramatically improve upon percentage of box office receipts.
  • Major Hollywood studios have not formed long-term partnerships to co-produce with Chinese firms, but have discovered other alternatives, such as making Mandarin-language productions in China and pushing digital product, including 3D: “To boost the rollout of high-tech projectors in the country’s theaters, China in 2007 began allowing several pictures per year into the country on a revenue-share basis if they played only in digital theaters.”
  • The ultimate goal is to eliminate the restrictions, but for the time being Hollywood is finding ways to work around them.

Time for Change: MPAA Chief Reaches Out to Chinese Film Community

By
August 18, 2011
  • Speaking at the Shanghai International Film Festival, MPAA president Christopher Dodd urged China’s film community to broaden its engagement with Hollywood.
  • Dodd called China’s movie market a “success story in the making,” with a growing capacity to create films, as well as a considerable appetite for consuming them, with more than 6,200 screens.
  • U.S. studios have historically been frustrated by distribution restrictions in China, which only allows about 20 foreign films into the country each year, and returns less than 20 percent of revenue to the studios.
  • Dodd and other officials from the MPAA have been assisting U.S. trade officials in efforts to persuade China to ease these restrictions.

McAfee Researchers Claim to Discover Massive Hacking Attack

By
August 4, 2011
  • McAfee researchers say they have uncovered the biggest hacker attack ever, involving 72 governments and organizations around the world, including the U.S., Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, Canada and India — some dating back as far as 2006. Data compromised amounts to several petabytes of information.
  • The attack uses compromised remote access tools, or RATs, which allow system administrators to access systems from around the world and would allow an attacker to view and download confidential information. Some of those organizations and companies compromised still do not know it.
  • The attacker was not a hacker group but likely a “state actor” with very high skill levels (China is the “leading candidate”).
  • According to a blog post from Dmitri Alperovitch, McAfee’s VP Threat Research: “I am convinced that every company in every conceivable industry with significant size and valuable intellectual property and trade secrets has been compromised (or will be shortly), with the great majority of the victims rarely discovering the intrusion or its impact.”

Top Stories
More News