China’s e-commerce market racked up a whopping 1.3 trillion RMB ($ 190 billion USD) worth of transactions in 2012, according to a report by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) (linked article is in Chinese), an increase of 66.5 percent over 2011′s total. Last year, 242 million Internet users purchased goods online, and e-commerce transactions accounted for 6.1 percent of total retail sales of consumer goods. The growth was driven in large part by mobile users: during the last half of 2012, 40.7 percent of online shoppers used a mobile device to browse e-commerce merchandise. More than half–53.6 percent–browsed a merchandiser’s mobile app instead of accessing its main Web site through their device’s Internet browser. 53.3 percent of the respondents who used their mobile devices to shop said they did so while at home, and many stated that their smartphones had begun to replace their home PCs. 26.2 percent said they browsed items on their smartphones while at work or school, and 10.6 percent said they spent their commutes or time waiting in queues to shop. In addition to mobile, social media platforms also drove e-commerce sales. 41.8 percent of shoppers said they had first seen information or promotions for a product on a social media site before deciding to purchase it. Each shopper spent an average of 5,203 RMB (or about $ 843 USD), an increase of 1,302 RMB ($ 211 USD), or 25 percent, from the year before. According to the report, the most frequently purchased items were clothing and shoes, which 81.8 percent of online shoppers bought during the last six months of 2012. General merchandise accounted for 31.6 percent of sales, while consumer electronics made up 29.6 percent of the total. While the latest figures from CNNIC are impressive, China’s e-commerce market still has plenty of room to grow and is set to overtake America’s. As this Economist story notes, the Chinese e-commerce market is currently dominated by Alibaba, which last year handled 1.1 trillion yuan ($ 170 billion USD) in sales through two of its portals, Taobao and Tmall, and is on its way to becoming the first online retail company in the world to handle $ 1 trillion a year in transactions. Taobao is a C2C marketplace with more than 800 million product listings and 500 million registered users, according to Alibaba. B2C platform Tmall counts major international brands like Microsoft, Nike and Unilever among its 50,000 merchants.
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Tag Archives: China’s
China’s Xiaocom finds big success in selling high-end smartphones for less
Xiaocom may be the most successful handset maker you’ve never heard of. The three-year-old company just sold more than 7 million smartphones last year with no ad budget and no retail sales. The CEO speaks at All Things D to explain how. [Read more]
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China’s Broadband Penetration Is Increasingly Lagging Behind Developed Nations, Says MIIT’s Research Head
The research chief of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said yesterday (link via Google Translate) that there is still a significant gap between China’s broadband coverage and that of developed nations, and that the lag is increasing.
Computer Scientists Measure the Speed of Censorship On China’s Twitter
Security Firm Mandiant Says China’s Army Runs Hacking Group APT1
judgecorp writes “The Chinese government has been accused of backing the APT1 hacking group, which appears to be part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), according to the security firm which worked with the New York Times when it fell victim to an attack. The firm, Mandiant, says that APT1 is government sponsored, and seems to operate from the same location as PLA Unit 61398.” Unsurprisingly, this claim is denied by Chinese officials.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
China’s Radical New Space Drive
First time accepted submitter Noctis-Kaban writes “Scientists in China have built and tested a radical new space drive. Although the thrust it produces may not be enough to lift your mobile phone, it looks like it could radically change the satellite industry. Satellites are just the start: with superconducting components, this technology could generate the thrust to drive everything from deep space probes to flying cars. And it all started with a British engineer whose invention was ignored and ridiculed in his home country.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
China’s Challenge
If China wants an innovation-based economy, it will need to make political and institutional changes.
Since 1978, the Chinese economy has seen phenomenal growth. Whether it can be maintained is unclear. The country’s export growth is decelerating quickly, and China already annually invests an amount equivalent to about half its GDP in assets and infrastructure—probably a higher proportion than any other country in peacetime. Now that China has completed its once-in-a-decade leadership transition, its leaders should be preparing to replace the rapid-growth model of the last three decades with one that requires less investment and is less reliant on cheap labor to provide a competitive advantage.
China’s Controversial Brain Surgery To Cure Drug Addiction
kkleiner writes “A small handful of doctors in China are using a highly controversial procedure to rid people of drug addiction by destroying a part of patients’ brains. The procedure involves drilling small holes into the skulls of patients and inserting long electrodes that destroy a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. This area, often referred to as the “pleasure center” of the brain, is the major nucleus of the brain’s reward circuit. is it worth being cured of addiction if, losing the addiction, we also lose part of who we are? Is it worth being cured of addiction if, losing the addiction, we also lose part of who we are?” The practice has been officially banned, but apparently continues nonetheless.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
China’s ZTE and Huawei Join the German Patent Fray
An anonymous reader writes “Germany has pretty much become the new Eastern District of Texas, the world’s most popular patent battleground. After Apple, Samsung and Motorola, the Chinese are now going to Germany as well to sort out their domestic patent squabbles. Huawei and ZTE, arguably the People’s Republic’s leading wireless tech companies, started suing each other in April last year. On Friday the Mannheim Regional Court held a Huawei vs. ZTE hearing, reports a local patent watcher. Huawei says ZTE infringes a 4G/LTE handover patent and wants its rival’s base stations and USB modem sticks banned in Germany. More clashes between the two are coming up in the same court and in other places in Europe, including France.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Is Xiaomi China’s Apple? Its CEO plays the Steve Jobs role well
The company, which produces smartphones that can rival the iPhone 5, is worth $ 4 billion less than three years after it was founded. [Read more]
CNET News
Baidu buys control of streaming video portal iQiyi, raises stakes in China’s media wars
The merger of China’s video giants Youku and Tudou this August must have struck a nerve over at Baidu: the search engine just bought out equity firm Providence’s controlling stake in iQiyi, an already large video service built solely around streaming professional movies and TV shows. Should the deal wrap up as planned in the fall, Baidu plans to keep its new partner as a separate badge but weave its content throughout mobile sites and search results. The company is unsurprisingly taking a Google-like strategy to make sure it isn’t left on the sidelines as searchers go elsewhere for video. Pragmatism aside, its deal could represent more for China as a whole — when hundreds of millions of people are exposed to commercially-oriented video as a matter of course, it could tip the balance in a way that we didn’t see with YouTube rentals.
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Baidu buys control of streaming video portal iQiyi, raises stakes in China’s media wars originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Nov 2012 01:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
China’s Yearly Budget For High-Speed Rail: $100 Billion
An anonymous reader writes “For all of those wondering about China’s massive high speed rail network, it costs some serious cash. Running high speed lines across the nation is expensive — to the tune of $ 100 billion dollars a year. This covers the cost to maintain the network, build it, and pay all of the staff. The problem is, corruption has reared its ugly head. The network itself has had its share of problems, with people dying as a result. There is also the problem that many of Chinese poor make so little money they can’t afford to ride it. The sad fact is that so much money is being spent, no one can even keep count.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
China’s Alibaba To Outsell Amazon, eBay Combined
hackingbear writes “China’s largest e-commerce firm, Alibaba Group, expects to sell merchandise this year worth more than that sold by Amazon Inc and eBay combined. The company is aiming for 3 trillion yuan ($ 473 billion) in annual transaction value from its Taobao e-commerce units in the next 5 to 7 years, rising from the 1 trillion yuan of sales expected for 2012. ‘From their annual reports we did a rough calculation and we were similar last year but we are growing faster than them this year, so this year we are probably larger than them,’ Zeng Ming, Chief Strategy Officer of Alibaba, said of Amazon and eBay.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
China’s Yangtze River Turns Red
redletterdave writes “The Yangtze River, the third longest river in the world traditionally known as the ‘golden watercourse,’ mysteriously blushed for the first time on Sept. 6. Residents in the surrounding area near the city of Chongqing, where the Yangtze connects to the Jialin River, literally stopped in their tracks when they noticed their once golden river had turned a shocking shade of red. Residents have carefully crept down to the riverbanks for the past few days to save some of the red, tomato juice-like river water in bottles. Early predictions from scientists say the red water was likely a result of pollution, but investigators are still investigating the unknown cause.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Hollywood casts China’s Taobao in antipiracy effort
The Chinese e-commerce giant has joined forces with the Motion Picture Association to curb the sale of counterfeit products.
[Read more]
CNET News
The secret tomb of China’s 1st emperor: Will we ever see inside?
Is China’s Space Race An Opportunity For the US?
Hugh Pickens writes writes “Lieutenant General Frank Klotz (ret.), the former vice commander of Air Force Space Command, writes that it’s worth considering whether aspects of the U.S.-Russian experience with space cooperation can be pursued with China to serve long-term American interests. “China has in many respects already reached the top tier of spacefaring nations — with profound implications for America’s own interests in space,” writes Klotz. While initially starting well behind the two original space powers, China has slowly but steadily added accomplishments to its space portfolio,conducting nineteen space launches in 2011 — twelve less than Russia but one more than the United States. It’s worth recalling that even in the darkest days of the Cold War, the United States and its archrival at the time–the Soviet Union–embarked upon cooperative efforts in space, most famously with the joint Apollo-Soyuz docking mission in 1975 and today the first stage of one of the rockets that currently lofts U.S. national-security satellites into orbit–United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V booster–uses the powerful RD-180 rocket engine, which is made in Russia. Washington has called for enhanced dialogue with Beijing on strategic issues and for military-to-military exchanges to help reduce uncertainty and potential misunderstandings, however, in May of last year, the House inserted a provision into the NASA appropriations bill prohibiting the US from spending any funds “to participate, collaborate, or coordinate bilaterally in any way with China or any Chinese-owned company” and blocking the hosting of official Chinese visitors at facilities belonging to or used by NASA. “This legislative action reportedly reflected deeply held concerns about protecting American intellectual property and sensitive technologies in the face of aggressive Chinese attempts to glean scientific and technical information from abroad,” writes Klotz. “However, in the process, it foreclosed one possible avenue for gaining greater insight into China’s intentions with respect to space.”"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Liu Yang Becomes China’s First Female Astronaut
China launched Saturday a rocket bearing three astronauts and an experimental orbiting module intended to presage a full-fledged space station at the end of this decade. While that’s big news in itself, the launch also marks the first trip for a female Chinese astronaut. The BBC has a brief video, including part of a pre-launch press conference introducing 33-year-old astronaut Liu Yang, as well as her crewmates.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A Peek Behind China’s ‘Great Firewall’
New research shows the primary aim of Internet censors is to suppress collective action.
A study by researchers at Harvard University offers an intriguing look behind the veil of China’s extensive Internet censorship effort, and suggests that censorship behavior around specific topics could serve as a predictor of government action. The group found, for example, that censors began removing a higher-than-normal percentage of comments referring to outspoken artist and political activist Ai Weiwei several days before his surprise arrest in 2011.
China’s government takes on microblogs, blogs, online forums
With ever-increasing restrictions on online activity, Chinese authorities are trying to make Internet service providers act as Web police for the government.
[Read more]
CNET News
China’s Sina Weibo creates ‘user contract,’ increasing censorship
After government criticism and a temporary shutdown of Web comments, China’s biggest microblogging site plans to introduce a “user contract” that could impede the free flow of information.
[Read more]
CNET News
Restoring China’s Forbidden City With 3-D Printing
First time accepted submitter jcho5 writes “China’s 600-year-old Forbidden City is looking less forbidding these days. As part of a major restoration, the Chinese Palace museum will use 3D-Printers to re-manufacture and replicate many of the city’s most precious and unique objects. From the article: ‘PhD student Fangjin Zhang—along with her colleagues at Loughborough Design School in the East Midlands of England—had, for a number of years, been looking into the use of 3D printing as means to restore sculptures and archaeological relics. According to a Loughborough press release, Zhang developed a “formalized approach tailored specifically to the restoration of historic artifacts.” After reviewing Zhang’s techniques, the Palace Museum then invited Loughborough researchers to repair several Forbidden City artifacts, including the ceiling and enclosure of a pavilion in the Emperor Chanlong Garden.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
China’s Mystery Internet Blackout
Internet access blacked out across China this week – was it a test of the government’s “kill switch”?
Between 11am and 1pm yesterday many – perhaps even most – Internet users in China were suddenly unable to access overseas web sites. The telecommunications providers that together handle all of China’s Internet traffic, China Telecom and China Unicom, have officially stated their infrastructure was not to blame, leading some observers to suggest the outage was a test of a government “kill switch”. In recent weeks the Chinese government has been actively punishing websites and users that spread “rumors”. The state-owned China Daily reported on that “crackdown” today, saying that online actions can result in “criminal punishment” and suggesting that users of Twitter-style microblogging sites self-censor to avoid trouble.
Apple CEO meets with China’s vice premier
China’s Proview takes Apple iPad fight to US court
Does China’s ‘cat-eyed’ boy have natural night vision?
According to a news reel from China, a young boy there possesses the ability to see in the dark. Like a Siamese cat’s, his sky-blue eyes flash neon green when illuminated by a flashlight, and his night vision is good enough to enable him to fill out questionnaires while sitting in a pitch black room — or so say the reporters who visited Nong Yousui in his hometown of Dahua three years ago.
Blog – Energy This Week: Pipeline Abandoned, EPA Gas Data, and China’s CO2 Plans
A roundup of the most important energy stories from the past week.
As Kevin Bullis mentioned on Wednesday, the Obama administration declined to issue a permit to TransCanada for the construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline would carry crude made from oil sands from Alberta to multiple destinations in the U.S., ending at the Gulf of Mexico. The president left the door open for the company to refile the proposal, one of many reasons to think that this story is far from over. (Read more at The Hill’s E2 Wire and Bloomberg.)
China’s Green Data Center Plans
itwbennett writes “It’s no surprise that China’s internet-using population is growing fast. And so it’s also no surprise that the country is planning to build new data centers by the dozen. What is surprising, at least to those of us who expect to read stories about widespread pollution in China, is that China is working with both The Green Grid and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to develop standards for energy performance.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
China’s Solar Industry
Blog – China’s Isn’t Building a Traveling Wave Nuclear Plant (Yet)
Rumors of a partnership between TerraPower and China aren’t true.
The word is that TerraPower, a company backed by Bill Gates that’s developing a new kind of nuclear power plant, is going to develop the reactor in cooperation with the Chinese government. But that word is wrong.
Advance Could Challenge China’s Solar Dominance
New technology could tip the balance back in favor of some solar-panel manufacturers outside China.
Chinese solar-panel manufacturers dominate the industry, but a new way of making an exotic type of crystalline silicon might benefit solar companies outside of China that have designs that take advantage of the material.
China’s Sina will not force users to register with real names
One of China's most popular Twitter-like services, Sina Weibo, said it needs better systems to stop harmful rumors on the site, but doesn't intend to force its users to register with their real names.
Computerworld News
One Tenth of China’s Farmland Polluted With Heavy Metals
eldavojohn writes “A report form China’s Environmental Ministry reveals that one tenth of China’s 1.22 million square kilometers of farmland are polluted with heavy metals and other toxins. The AFP lists ‘lead, mercury and cancer-causing cadmium’ and points to the rapid pace of China’s industrialization as well as factories and their operators flouting regulations and laws. Cheap batteries and lead refineries are slowly turning China into a land where whole villages are poisoned (11 incidents so far this year). According to Human Rights Watch the government’s response to this scourge is laughable. The poisoned are denied treatment and China’s Environmental Ministry offers no possible help: ‘The report documents how local authorities in contaminated areas have imposed arbitrary limits on access to blood lead testing, for example by permitting only people living within a small radius of a factory to be tested. When tests are conducted, results have often been contradictory or have been withheld from victims and their families. And children with elevated blood lead levels who require treatment according to national guidelines have been denied care or told simply to eat certain foods, including apples, garlic, milk, and eggs.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
China’s Internet firms vow to tighten regulation of Web
China's top IT firms have pledged to step up the regulation of their services as government authorities have intensified calls to control the development of the nation's Internet.
Computerworld News
China’s Cyber-Warfare Capabilities Overstated
An anonymous reader writes “A new paper argues that China’s cyber-warfare capability is actually pretty poor. ‘[China has] evinced little proficiency with more sophisticated hacking techniques. The viruses and Trojan Horses they have used have been fairly easy to detect and remove before any damage has been done or data stolen. There is no evidence that China’s cyber-warriors can penetrate highly secure networks or covertly steal or falsify critical data,’ the paper reads (PDF). ‘They would be unable to systematically cripple selected command and control, air defense and intelligence networks and databases of advanced adversaries, or to conduct deception operations by secretly manipulating the data in these networks.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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