Top China Stories Today

VANCL Losing More Than $95M in 2011? VANCL is said to lose more than US$ 95 million in this year while the online apparel site lost an aggregate of over US$ 39 million in the last three years. Lately a rumor broke that the company incurred a heavy loss worth over US$ 317 million. Chen Nian, founder and CEO disclaimed the rumor in the wake of VANCL’s raising of US$ 232 million in Series F round of funding.

VANCL generated US$ 19 million, US$ 47 million and US$ 190 million in sales in 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively. Earlier this year, Chen once bragged that VANCL will record RMB 10 billion (US$ 1.58 million) in sales.

Douban New Homepage Highlights Recommendation: Douban, the hipsters’ heaven announced today to revamp its homepage in the coming weeks with a  focus on contents recommendation while Duoban Shuo, (豆瓣说 or Douban Talks) as a service will be discontinued.

Douban’s move highlighted the service’s moving closer towards algorithm-based recommendation feature while stepping away from inappropriate noisy-making social features, in a time when everyone is talking about Sina Weibo and social media, the step takes courage.

Sohu Weibo to Sign Users: Sohu Weibo said it will sign contracts with all users to protect their contents posted on the service. Sohu will help promote any book, film and TV series that comes from Sohu Weibo posts. That’s what Charles Zhang said Sohu Weibo would be growing at explosive pace next year?

Saapaa.com Shutting down: After nearly two years in operation, Saapaa.com, the Chinese Swoop announced to close down as of today. Similar to Swoopo, a bidding fee acution site where purchased credits were used to make bids, Saapaa provides items at lower-than-cost price that everyone can bid for.

Lashou Debuts Coupon Program: Lashou, the Chinese group buying service launched its coupon service hui.lashou.com lately, covering Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Dongguan, Shenzhen and Xi’an for the time being and is expected to branch out into more cities.