The new app, which according to David Liu co-founder and CEO of the Beijing-based startup would be made available in App Store soon, will adopt a new interface design that highlights some new functions like Explore and Food Sharing with an aim to better connect location sharing behaviors and offline consumption, literally, give users a better reason to check in and share their locations.

Jiepang’s 3 million users generated an aggregate of 50 million check-ins globally since its inception two years ago with more than 8.2 million photos uploaded.

It also has established close partnerships with over thousands of brands. More than 9000 local merchants have employed Jiepang’s check-in service to provide people who check into their venue with coupons or discounts. This could be deemed as Jiepang’s ongoing effort to monetize its service, speaking of which, the firm has done some very inspiring exploration in making profit through O2O trend and LBS-based ads. For example, with a huge amount of data generated everyday that contains users’ behaviors, all Jiepang could do is figuring out a way to effectively use the data for target advertising to better match people and locations, not in a intrusive way of course.

Location-based advertising is a rather new concept in China and the market needs to be educated by pioneers like, say, Jiepang and other LBS services such as Shanda’s Qieke.

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“Our brand advertising business got off to a relatively slow start in the first quarter due to the softening of macroeconomic conditions in China,” said Charles Cao, CEO of Sina. He also added that the company had decided to start Weibo brand advertising, which was powered by a social interest graph recommendation engine and Sina expected that this test trial would impact on the advertising business in the second quarter.

Charles revealed in the conference call for its Q1 results that so far they had signed up about 50 clients on Weibo advertising and they were looking forward to more opportunities to explore the platform. Sina Weibo claimed 30m new users in the first quarter, but did not mention how many are active users.

As to the actual investment SINA had put into its social network, the number rose from US$ 110m -120m of last year to 160m this year. As to SINA, most are used for recruitment and facilities.

The piece was written by Charlie Sheng, a nerd born in the 90s with interests in tech, innovation and art.

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KakaoTalk, which supports iOS, Android, Blackberry and of course Samsung’s Bada platform, shares the similar functions that Tencent’s WeChat has, like free text messaging, stranger social networking, group chatting and so on. That’s why some see it as the Korean WeChat.

As of now KakaoTalk boasts more than 42 million registered users.

From last year on KakaoTalk strived to make some revenue through advertising and paid emotions with little yields, the company incurred a loss of more than RMB 80 million since its founding three years ago.

Tencent has a tradition of investing in southeast Asia market, especially in South Korea, while its past deals mainly involved in gaming companies.

The China southern Shenzhen-based company is actively pushing WeChat into overseas market. Formerly known as Weixin in Chinese, Tencent lately rebranded the app to WeChat which makes more sense for English-speaking community, a move highlighted the firm’s determination in internationalizing the service.

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Rumors said that the partner is ZTE (a leading Chinese telecom equipment provider), although Wang Jin, vice-president of Baidu only revealed that they are working with a “global manufacturer”.

Earlier last year, Baidu released a mobile operating system called Baidu Yi, which is modeled on Google’s Android system and later cooperated with Dell’s mobile devices.

According to the performances in the Street, Baidu seems to be faced with a bearish trend. The future growth seems to depend on its attempt to grow business in the mobile space. While facing stiff competition from several well-established companies each specializing in different product and services, it is still uncertain a simple smartphone offering will help the company to increase the market share.

The piece was written by Charlie Sheng, a nerd born in the 90s with interests in tech, innovation and art.

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In operating an online video site that supports thousands of simultaneous videos being watched, two major costs are contentlicensesandbandwidthcosts. According to Bloomberg, Youku incurred a net loss of 49.6 million yuan ($7.9 million) in the fourth quarter of 2011. Bandwidth costs rose to 109.7 million yuan, or 35 percent of sales, from 34 percent a year ago. Content costs were 20 percent of revenue in the quarter, up from 17 percent in the same period of 2010.

Knowing that bandwidth costs make up a large and growing proportion of costs, how do video sites reduce it?  One young ambitious Beijing start-up called CloudAcc has the answer. In fact, they have proven that their technology can reduce bandwidth costs by 50%; a dramatic saving that can push video sites towards profitability. This reduction in bandwidth expenditure, allows companies to re-invest the money into more value added services like buying popular content.

Traditionally, individual viewers watching an online video receive data from only one server at a time in the Content Delivery Network (CDN), paid for by the video site. When millions of videos are being watched daily, this often puts high demand on the CDN servers, resulting in lag and poor user experience for the viewers. The sheer quantity of videos being streamed from the CND server is also expensive for the video sites.

CloudAcc’s unique technology changes that by using in-browser P2P or Peer to Peer technology. Similar to BitTorrent where an individual file is broken up into parts and made available for simultaneous download from separate peers, CloudAcc’s technology enables a viewer to simultaneously download parts of the video file that she is viewing from multiple sources, such as the server and other people watching the same video within the network. The benefits are twofold, for the video sites and the viewers. For video sites, there is an overall decrease in the amount of data streamed from CDN servers, hence, video sites get to save money. For viewers, since there are more sources for the video, they get a more stable download. Also, instead of being stuck with progressive download, where a video must be downloaded linearly from second to second, CloudAcc’s in-browser P2P technology also enables parallel downloads, hence reducing the instances where viewers experience buffer or lag.

To illustrate this with an example, if I started watching Big Bang Theory on tv.sohu.com at 10 p.m. and another viewer opens her browser to watch the same clip at 10.05 p.m., part of the data in my five minutes of video will become available to her. Effectively, she now can get data for her video from Sohu’s servers and me. Should I decide to stop watching and close my browser, she’s unaffected since she can still receive data from the server, or some other peer in the network who  is also watching the same video on his internet browser. As a feature of parallel downloading, even if the viewer is currently watching the second minute of the video, she could be downloading the third or tenth minute, or any video segments that she has yet to see.

The graph below illustrates the difference between the amount of streaming that is supported by CloudAcc’s in-browser P2P compared to normal CDN.

The concept is simple but brilliant! CloudAcc has totally flipped the relationship between the number of simultaneous viewing and bandwidth on its head. Traditionally, the more people watching, the more bandwidth needed. But now, with the in-browser P2P technology, the more people watching the same video, the less bandwidth is needed.

Barely over a year old, CloudAcc has achieved impressive success. Understanding the value of cutting bandwidth costs in half, many of China’s top video streaming sites have already adopted CloudAcc technology. In one case they saved a company US$1.4 million in monthly bandwidth costs, while also lowering the instances where viewers experience buffering from 10% down to 5-7%.

The revenue model is to charge for bandwidth and CloudAcc offer is 50% cheaper than other CDN providers like Dnion and China Cache. For companies like Youtube or Hulu wanting to use CloudAcc, it only requires one week and two engineers to set up the service.

CloudAcc also has a classic start-up story that makes them more interesting. The two co-founders, Xuan and Sen were both top computer science graduates from China’s top universities, Tsinghua and the University of Science and Technology China. While both studying for their PhD at Yale University, they began hacking in their dorm rooms just to experiment if they could make in-browser P2P streaming work. After six months they cracked the code and built a P2P technology that can be realized in-browser without any additional installations other than a Flash player. Stumbling upon a huge commercial opportunity, they quit Yale, turned down lucrative offers from Google and Facebook and came back to Beijing to start CloudAcc in January 2011. After much resistance from their parents, they have now raised US$2Million from IDG and have built a fifty person team of the best Chinese computer engineers.

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We reported that Weixin’s to launch its open API. About 1 hour ago, the official site for Weixin’s open platform has been launched. The introduction, the documentation and the SDK (for iOS) are all available on the site. With current API, content from third-party services can be shared to users’ Weixin contacts and Weixin Circle (group). So Tencent wants Weixin to be the No.1 distribution channel for any content on the mobile.

I might be wrong, but my understanding of the ultimate goal for Weixin on the open platform is that any third party can integrate their service into Weixin (like Plugins), i.e. Weixin’s users can play with various third-party service without leaving Weixin. Think about you playing FarmVille on Facebook. I don’t see that feature, yet, but no doubt Weixin is growing fast with a hugh ambition.

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So either you have a smartphone in the plate or at least in the plan. Otherwise it’s not convincible enough that you’re a mainstream Chinese Internet company.

Joke aside, so what’s the fuss with Qihoo 360’s phone, since there’re already a swath of similar offerings in the market.

At the company’s media conference held yesterday, Zhou Hongyi, CEO and chairman of Qihoo said that the firm’s smartphone will be priced at up to RMB 1999 (US$ 316) whereas it’ll be worth between RMB 3000 and 4000 (US$ 475 ~ 633). The phone’s specification will be read as: 4 inches (if not bigger) high-def display, 1GHz (if not higher) CPU and high-def camera.

It seemed that Zhou didn’t held his peers in high regard, according to him, Qihoo phone would be totally differ from Alibaba phone or Xiaomi phone. “We’re not competing on the same level, we want to create a new forefront”, said Zhou.

Qihoo phone will be OEMed by Huawei, the giant Chinese telecom equipment maker.

Fancy hardware, might not be what Qihoo really bank on to combat its rivals or make money. The company’s software offerings including widely-adopted 360 Phone Protecter and 360 Phone Assistant could help amass users that eventually could be translated into mobile Internet traffic. And traffic means real money. Basically, Qihoo is hoping to tell the same profit-making story on mobile front with its proprietary phone.

Zhou exemplified his point with Amazon Kindle. Amazon reaped in big amount of revenue by value-added service, namely Kindle Store rather than by selling e-reader.

He said that the high-end Qihoo phone’s specification will definitely be better than Xiaomi phone while it’s price will on a par with or even lower than the latter. Watch out Xiaomi, game on now.

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This is part of the broad strategy of the search giant to expand its business into cloud forefronts. According to Wang Jing, the vice president of its engineering division and head of mobile, “We have a few partnerships coming up and will announce it in a week.” Two months ago, Baidu just released its cloud storage service Baidu Netdisk.

The new service is still in beta testing and looks similar to Baidu Netdisk for they both provide the service of storing files and pictures on a cloud platform. However it is said that Xiangce will differ in its ability to manage and edit pictures. SNS features are also added to it and users can share their favorite pictures with friends.

In general, Baidu Xiangce offers these core functions: a)uploading pictures without surrendering to compression, b)sharing without scarifying privacy with privacy control, c) cloud-based back-up technology to make sure the pictures won’t get lost, d) apps for PC and mobile devices.

In the future, Xiangce will have open access to Motu (an InnovationWorks incubated mobile app focusing on picture-processing, acquired by Baidu earlier last year), and Baidu Netdisk (offering a free space of 15G).

The piece was written by Charlie Sheng, a nerd born in the 90s with interests in tech, innovation and art.

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For example, Mr. Lei claims that traditional business logic does not apply to the Internet. There is certainly some truth to that. Focusing on monetization instead of product and growth is almost certainly the best way to stop the momentum.

However, to lose money in the beginning is nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, Silicon Valley’s recent failed bid to disrupt the energy sector shows that, if anything, it’s the technology people that usually expect to spend a little in the beginning and make a lot  (think Google), whereas traditional businesses know that they have to spend money to make money.

This doesn’t mean losing money a good sign. In his definitive account of the Internet Bubble in the 1990s, John Cassidy, one of America’s leading financial journalists and a staff writer at the New Yorker, showed that the primary folly of many startup companies of that era was to believe that losing money is always a good thing, since it foretells the fortunes to come. Of course, what these naïve (and cynical) people did not realize or say is that sometimes losing money is sheer bad business, plain and simple.

Of course, one of the companies that Cassidy once disparaged is Amazon, a company that not only survived its early losses but also went on to become one of the greatest technology firms of our generation and the future. Though in its early days it bled a huge amount of money due to Jeff Bezos’ insistence on take massive amount of losses to gain market share. Founded in 1995, Amazon didn’t make a profit till 2002.

As the man at the helm of Amazon, Jeff Bezos has always emphasized the long game. From early e-commerce to the cloud computing, Bezos has always maintained his focus on market share and long term benefit instead of instant profit.

This is the point that Mr. Lei also raises. He points out that Sina, Sohu, and Netease thrived after burning through cash in their early stages. It is Lei’s view that this is the unique character of the Internet era, and this is also how things will turn out in China’s e-commerce war, as whoever has the deepest pocket will be the last one standing and reap the benefit accordingly.

What Lei forgets, though, is that Amazon is the exception rather than the rule. Jeff Bezos may be the premier technologist in America. Like Steve Jobs, another technological visionary, Jeff Bezos has view of where we are headed that is both profound and nuanced.

For example, while Lei believes Amazon’s main strength is its monopolistic position in e-commerce, which allows the company to set prices higher and have higher margins, which is fundamentally different from Bezos’ vision.

The Amazon CEO believes that “there are two ways to build a successful company. One is to work very, very hard to convince customers to pay high margins. The other is to work very, very hard to be able to afford to offer customers low margins.” As such, Amazon prefers “a very large customer base and low margins than a smaller customer base and higher margins”. Therefore, Amazon’s size is an advantage because it allows the company to be more efficient instead of charge a higher price.

I don’t think Mr. Lei or any of China’s e-commerce CEOs has Bezos’ version. Therefore, even Amazon succeeded by following the “if you spend it, they will come” strategy, it may not work as well for those lacking in similar vision, value, and execution.

At this point, it should also be pointed out that Sina, Sohu, and Netease’s “spend and build” strategy almost didn’t work except for the fortuitous turn of event that saved them. Even today, some of them make most of their money as game providers instead of as news portals. Like having Bezos’ skills, this is also something you shouldn’t count on.

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Here’s how it works: Users play a game that challenges people to grow a virtual tree. Firstly people must dig a hole in the ground, plant seeds, pat your tree to encourage it, defend it from loggers and sheep and take care of it with water and fertilizer. When the tree grows in the game, a team of people will actually plant a real life tree in the desert.  They will even send you email notifications with updates on how the trees are growing.

Simple idea, big difference! Beyond planting trees, water pumps will be delivered to African children who suffer from water shortages. Tree Planet plants trees in Mongolia, Indonesia, Africa and South Korea with plans to expand to six continents. They have already planted 300,00 trees worldwide!

In collaboration with the United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and Unicef, World Vision, Tree Planet finds corporate sponsors like Hanwha, ING to fund the tree and planting costs. Virtual items such as water and fertilizer have company logos on them which also pay for forest building initiatives. This obviously gives good corporate responsibility reputation to sponsoring companies. Members or volunteers from NGO’s will be organized to go and physically plant the trees.

Tree Planet of course has a big vision to save the planet. In an effort to curb the effects of climate change more trees need to soak up carbon dioxide and regurgitate it as oxygen. Moreover, 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihood, through farming fruits, vegetables, medicines etc. I believe trees also have a calming effect on the mind. Coming from Sydney which has an abundance of trees, to Beijing which feels like concrete city, I wish there were more trees here.

Tree Planet was established in September 2010 and has gone on to receive global recognition for its innovative social enterprise efforts. In 2011 it won a Korea Mobile Award targeted at advertisers.

Tree Planet has an ambitious goal to reach 50K users by 2012 and raise 1 Billion Korean Won to help 10,000 local resident’s plan 100K trees in the Amazon and Africa. By 2020, they are targeting 100 Million users and 100 Billion Korean Won to help 1 million residents to plant 100 Million trees across six continents.

Looking at the leader board, ksu0251 is winning with having planted an amazing 282 real trees. I just started planting my tree called Koombah and so far it looks quite happy. I’m aiming to have it planted in Mongolia.

More mobile apps should be made like this. They not only keep entertain people but make them feel good about contributing to making a greener world and that feeling is worth more than any virtual currency.

You can download it here and check out their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/treeplanet.

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