Southeast Asia has more than 190 million internet users

"Southeast Asia is one of the most diverse and fast changing regions in the world. It’s home to over 600 million people spread across eleven different countries. Startups from across the region are not only competing in their own local markets but also looking to the region to do battle. It’s thus more important than ever to get a good overview of the market and understand where each country is".

"Singapore, is the leader in internet penetration, but Indonesia is far and away the regional leader in number of internet users. The regional average internet penetration is 34.7 percent but the differences are so drastic that it’s not a particularly useful statistic. After all, East Timor and Myanmar’s internet penetration sit far below even the 10 percent that Laos enjoys and Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia are above 50 percent.

Given the stats below, it’s pretty clear that Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand are Southeast Asia’s most promising large internet markets, so if you’re a startup looking to attack your neighbors, look to these key markets'.

"All data for this infographic is from projections from 2012 and can be found in our Data Series tag, Wikipedia, and from Internet World Stats" .

  By

Anh-Minh Do

By 2020 we predict Internet world wide Penetration will be in the range of 75-85%, E. Argaez IWS

Only seven years from now it will be 2020, a very intertesting year because it will be the end of the twenty-tens and the start of the twenty-twenties. The big question is how many people will be online at that time?

 Eric Schmidt has boldly predicted that everyone in the world will be online by 2020. This has already caused an uproar of neysayers. I agree with Eric Schmidt, in part. He should have added the word nearly, making the frase: nearly everyone will be online in 2020. But maybe Eric Schmidt is right because he is better informed and has reasons we ignore, to back-up his bold statement.

Internet users are growing in Africa and Latin America at a fast pace with support from the local governments. Already in Colombia Internet Penetration in the larger cities (with over 200,000 population) has reached 80%.InternetWorldStats  data shows 34.3% penetration worldwide for mid-year 2012. For mid-year 2020, we predict Internet world penetration will be in the range of 75-85%. For the majority of developed countries, our forecast is a 90% Internet user penetration rate.

 by Enrique Argaez, Editor of Internet World Stats

Fluentlee: Disenchanted with web advertising, ex-Googler starts real-time language learning site Fluentlee

"For years,David Bebko, a lifetime marketer, harbored the dream of starting his own company. Yet in 2011, he ended up joining Google as the head of business marketing for Asia-Pacific, believing that if there’s one big company with an entrepreneurial spirit, it’s the search giant.

But everyone knows that in Google, engineers are king, and they do all the really fun stuff. Everyone else is secondary:

In my particular role, I came to realize that my dreams weren’t going to be fulfilled at Google. Great company, great people, but not for me.

David has a strong desire to build. As a marketer at IBM, he worked hand-in-hand with engineers to create a product roadmap. At the same time, he has also grown disenchanted with internet advertising, which has begun to dominate search engine results pages and social networks.

“I started caring more about making a difference, and I started caring less about advertising. Yes, I believe marketing has a role to play in the economy, but I wanted to do something noble,” he says.

So David left Google in 2012 to start Crowdworks, a Singapore- and Boston-based company with the long term vision of enabling real-time connections between learners and experts. Their first product isFluentlee, a pay-to-play language learning site that’s like Craigslist and Skype combined.

David picked language learning through a mix of practicality and passion. For crowdsourced, real-time video lessons to work, a platform will need to keep out the creeps and ensure users feel secure. Unfortunately, that means fewer males.

Language learning, David finds, caters to both male and female audiences, with a slant towards the latter. Other skillsets, like plumbing or changing a flat tire (insert engineering here), are more likely to be dominated by male experts.

And since learners often prefer to seek out native language speakers, that means almost all the transactions are cross-border in nature, which minimizes the harm creeps can cause.

David himself is an avid language learner. A Singapore Permanent Resident whose family resides in the island state, he is getting his two daughters to learn Mandarin. Yet, he finds the lack of opportunities to have a conversation on everyday topics is a big obstacle to language learning.

While there’s an obscene amount of language learning tools online, Fluentlee’s conversational aspect sets it apart from the field. It aims to replicate the experience of immersing oneself in a village in China or going to a foreign supermarket to purchase groceries.

   Source: TECHINASIA

EU Inflation Data behind the last cut of ECB benchmark interest rate

   According to an article published on the Wall Street Journal today,"the EU's official statistics agency said Friday consumer prices rose 0.9% in the 12 months to October, a lower annual rate of inflation than the 1.3% recorded in September, and the lowest since October 2009".

Eurostat also confirmed that the annual rate of inflation in the 17 countries that share the euro was 0.7% in October, the lowest level since November 2009. Eurostat's preliminary estimate, released Oct. 31, prompted a quick response from the European Central Bank, which cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low of 0.25% last week.

The latest figures indicate that falling inflation rates are a broader issue for economies throughout Europe, many of which are struggling to return to growth. Eurostat reported Thursday that the combined gross domestic product of the 17 euro-zone members grew by just 0.1% in the third quarter, while the combined GDP of the EU's 28 members grew by just 0.2%.

Eurostat's figures show that four EU members experienced deflation in October: Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Ireland. But three other members were on the cusp, with prices flat on the year in Spain, Latvia and Portugal. Only two EU nations had an inflation rate in touching distance of the 2.0% mark that many central banks consider healthy, those being Estonia and the U.K.

The slowdown in inflation is a mixed blessing. While it should help boost real incomes at a time of weak wage growth, it also raises the specter of deflation—a sustained fall in prices that can play havoc with public and private efforts to repay debts and risks bringing consumer spending to a halt.

When prices start to fall, consumers can postpone purchases in the expectation that they will get better value for their money in the future. That can in turn weaken economic activity, and create further deflationary pressures. Following the difficulties Japan has experienced in getting out of its long period of deflation, other central banks are anxious to avoid a similar struggle.

Released Thursday, the minutes of the Czech central bank's policy meeting held last week show how concerned policy makers in many parts of Europe are about the threat of deflation. On the same day the ECB cut its benchmark rate, the Czech central bank announced it would intervene in currency markets to weaken the koruna and boost prices of imports.

"The opinion was expressed that it was necessary to react preventively and not wait until deflation occurred, and thus prevent losses in [gross domestic product] and employment," the minutes said.

How Indonesia’s PicMix grew from zero to 15 million users

"Indonesia is famously known for being one of the world’s biggest users of social networks Facebook, Twitter, and now Path. While Indonesia is definitely a huge market for anyone to be in, it’s about time that the country starts to shift away from just being users and starts being makers.

At Start-up Asia Jakarta next week, I’ll be interviewing the founder of photo social network Pic Mix, Calvin Kizana, which has become one of Indonesia’s biggest social networking apps to date. The app has impressively garnered 15 million users worldwide, with over 225 million photos posted so far. And get this: the startup has not reached its second birthday yet".

By Enricco Lukman

Source:  TECHINASIA

Tencent: WeChat now has 271.9 million monthly active users around the world

Chinese web giant Tencent revealed its Q3 2013 earnings report this evening. The figure that everyone is looking for pertains to WeChat: it now has 271.9 million monthly active users in Q3. That’s up 15.3 percent from Q2, and up 124.3 percent from the same time a year ago. That combines its Chinese and overseas users. The messaging app has 100 million registerd users outside of China, the company said in August, but most of its user-base is in mainland China. Whatsapp has a more global spread among its 350 million active users.

Tencent hailed the WeChat growth as due to games and online payments being added to the app – though only for Chinese users – earlier this summer.

Here are the main financial numbers from Tencent:

• Total revenues of $2.53 billion in Q3 this year, up 34.3 percent from same period last year.
• Revenues from value-added services and advertising were also up strongly, hitting $1.89 billion and $226 million respectively.
• Q3 profit is $630.5 million, up 19.6 percent year-on-year.
• E-commerce revenues have more than doubled in the past year as Tencent finally gets into the swing of online shopping. It hit $383.8 million in Q3.
• Source: TECHINASIA

What has been seen can be unseen: a catalog of photos censored by China’s Sina Weibo

There’s a lot that cannot be said on China’s internet. And there’s much that cannot be shown as well. That’s why US-based non-profit Pro Publica has created a catalog  of images and photos that have been censored by and removed from Sina Weibao, the country’s equivalent of Twitter.

It creates a hectic yet somehow moving mosaic of social issues, disaffection, and utterly bizarre Orwellian hyper-vigilance. Sina Weibo, being a real-time social network, is at the fore front of people's pushback against what cannot be said, shown, or shared in China.

These banished images show that what can be seen can be unseen – at least in the minds of the censors, if not in the visual cortex of the nation’s netizens.

Source: TECHINASIA

As powers push for talks, Syria balance tilts towards Assad

More than two and a half years into the civil war devastating Syria, the United States and Russia are pushing the combatants to the negotiating table in Geneva, but on terms that mark a shift in favor of Bashar al-Assad against the increasingly fragmented rebels seeking to oust him.

Since the August 21 nerve gas attacks on rebel suburbs ringing Damascus, which brought the U.S. to the brink of a missile assault on Assad's forces, the diplomatic tide has turned against the opposition, which briefly believed external intervention would enable its forces to launch a final offensive.

Instead, the combination of hesitation by President Barack Obama's administration and an 11th hour deal brokered by Russia, a key Assad ally, to decommission Syria's chemical arsenal, has wrong-footed the rebels, now under intense U.S. and European pressure to attend talks in Geneva with a vague agenda.

Syrian opposition advisers and independent analysts fear this could channel the Syrian conflict - like other intractable regional problems such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - into a lengthy and fruitless process.

The only diplomatic landmark in this conflict, last June's U.N.-brokered statement known as Geneva I, was vague enough.

It called for a transitional government in a way that many assumed precluded any role for the Assad family, which has ruled Syria with an iron fist since President Assad's late father, Hafez, seized absolute power in 1970.

There has been barely a flicker of agreement within Syria about its future since the country erupted in initially peaceful protests in March 2011.

A source close to the internationally recognized political opposition, the National Coalition, says it fears the U.S.-Russia deal to dismantle Syria's chemical arsenal has restored the Assad administration's legitimacy, even as it uses tactics such as the starvation of rebel areas to try to regain control.

Source: Reuters

Aircraft: Hybrid ESTOLAS aircraft combines aspects of a plane, helicopter, hovercraft and airship

As evidenced by ongoing efforts in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, getting aid and support personnel in and victims out of disaster-stricken areas is a major problem when infrastructure such as runways has been rendered unusable. A new aircraft concept combining features of an airship, plane, helicopter and hovercraft that is being developed as part of the European Commission's Extremely Short Take Off and Landing On any Surface (ESTOLAS) project could help address the problem.

The hybrid ESTOLAS aircraft features a short, squat design with propeller engines mounted at the rear of a disc-shaped main body that houses a rotor like a helicopter's. The aircraft is composed almost entirely of lightweight composite materials and the body and can also be filled with helium to further reduce the aircraft's weight and provide additional lifting power. This would allow it to take off and land at lower speeds on short runways and, if no conventional runways are available, it can use its air-cushioned skirt and wheel-skis to take off and land on any natural surface, such as fields, marshes, water or snow.

The project team is examining four different ESTOLAS sizes, including small, medium, heavy and superheavy with maximum payloads ranging from under 3 tonnes (3.3 tons) to over 400 tonnes (440 tons). Project Coordinator Alexander Gamaleyev of Riga Technical University in Latvia says the superheavy ESTOLAS model would be able to take off and land at distances of 175 m (574 ft), while the small version could do so within just 75 m (246 ft).

Load ratios would also be 1.5 to 2 times higher than conventional jet or propeller planes, with reduced fuel consumption giving the aircraft the ability to deliver cargo anywhere on Earth without refueling. Gamaleyev claims the hybrid aircraft's lower fuel consumption would put it on a par with rail transport in terms of cost, while the reduced CO2 emissions should make it the world's most ecologically efficient form of air transport.

In addition to disaster relief operations, the team envisages the ESTOLAS having a wide variety of applications, including defense, business, tourism and support for the building and operation of remote oil and gas fields. It also has the potential to offer cheaper and more efficient air transport between cities with existing runways and airfields and smaller towns lacking such facilities.

Designs unveiled for proposed new London airport on artificial island

Sometimes, success brings its own problems. London’s airports may have managed to grab a considerable chunk of the passenger air market, but the result has been congestion over the south of England and a desperate clamor for new runways. This week, the Thames Estuary Research and Development Company (Testrad) consortium unveiled details of a scheme designed to take the pressure off. Its London Britannia Airport proposal involves building an artificial island in the Thames Estuary near the Isle of Sheppey to provide the capital with a larger airport, which would replace Heathrow.

Problems of building and expanding Heathrow have been around since it was expanded from a small airfield into an RAF base in 1944 and then into the main London air terminal in later decades.

As Heathrow grew into one of the busiest airports in the world, the need for expansion and renovation became paramount, but its location in the heavily built up region west of London made each proposal a hard fought contest against environmentalists, local residents, the National Trust, and even the major political parties. However, the continuing increase in air passenger travel raised the question of expanding London’s air capacity or seeing business going to French, Dutch and German competitor airports.

In 2010, Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “As the world economy changes and global power shifts to the east, the constrictions of London’s hub airport are becoming ever more apparent and ever more damaging ... to do nothing would lead to economic stagnation … it is vital that a location for extra runway capacity is found for London to remain one of the leading world cities.”

According to the BBC, Johnson, is so outspoken an advocate in favor of an Estuary airport as opposed to expanding Heathrow that the proposed artificial island was dubbed “Boris Island.” It’s a name that has been reinforced by his founding of Testrad to prepare a feasibility of such an airport in the Thames Estuary.

Testrad funds research into the advantages and trade offs of such an airport and was established by Doug Oakervee, former chairman of Crossrail Ltd and Bridget Rosewell, former Chief Economic Adviser to the GLA at the Mayor’s behest. 

It’s part of an overall strategy to develop the Estuary and move the economic center of London eastward, which would include improvements in flood defense, the application of wind and tidal power, the development of more extensive crossings of the Estuary by road and rail, and the improvement of shipping and airport facilities.

Built behind a belt of polders to control against flooding, the London Britannia Airport would consist of six runways spreading out from an island of reclaimed land in the shallows of the Estuary. According to Testrad, it would cost £47 billion to build at £7.83 billion per runway, as opposed to £14 to 18 billion to build another runway at Heathrow, and would take seven years to construct.

Once in operation, the airport would provide 24-hour service to 172 million passengers per year, who would go through a check-in in central London before their 30-minute journey to the airport via high-speed rail lines. There would also be rail connections to Gatwick, Stansted, and Heathrow, as well as docking facilities for international and domestic ferry lines.

Inside the airport would be a multi-use terminal with conference facilities, museum outposts, sleeping pods and shopping. In addition, there would be lounges on all passenger tiers, and views of the Thames Estuary for a “resonant and memorable interior terminal environment.”

The proposal lays out the advantages of the airport as providing better connections to Europe, British regional cities, and London itself. In addition to shifting the economic center of the metropolis to the less developed east, Testrad says that it would create 200,000 new jobs through direct and indirect new employment, and service and engineering industry spin-offs.

As to the the airport itself, Testrad claims that the Estuary location would have low environmental impact as a “blue-greenfield site” that would require no land assembly, would not be subject to planning delays, would have minimal impact on birds, and wouldn't need industries or homes to move. In addition, the shift in air traffic would mean no more noisy flyovers of London or the Southeast.

Source: Gizmag

Norway should invest a fraction of its Sovereing Wealth Fund in Africa and Asia, Bill Gates.

Philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates called on Norway's $800 billion Oil Sovereign fund, one of the biggest investors in the world, to spend more in the poorest countries, gaining the prime minister's support with his proposal.

Gates, who runs the $37 billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said Norway should set aside a portion of the fund to invest in infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, and buy equity in small enterprises that alleviate agricultural and medical problems.

Norway is working on a complete review of the fund, including its investment strategy. Critics say it has become too big and needs to diversify away from stocks, bonds and real estate, and may even need to be broken up into specialized vehicles.

"It is part of our platform that the oil fund should invest more in developing markets," Prime Minister Erna Solberg, who took power last month, said after meeting Gates.

Norway has amassed the world's biggest wealth fund, saving up its surplus oil revenues, and operates it as a sort of endowment, spending only its returns. It is expected to exceed $1 trillion this decade and already owns about 1.25 percent of all global equities, a huge amount for a country of 5.1 million.

Although the review may result in a new investment strategy, Norway's consensus based politics means changes are slow and often take several years.

WSJ: China to Ease One-Child Policy

    According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"China's leaders agreed to loosen the nation's one-child policy and to give market forces a greater role in the world's No. 2 economy, according to new details of a blueprint for reform released on Friday".
"While a preliminary summary of the meeting released on Tuesday was vague, the more-detailed document released on Friday sketches an ambitious reform program designed to address problems that China faces: maturing growth, rising worries about a wide wealth gap and endemic pollution, and increasingly vocal criticism of Beijing's handling of a number of social issues.

"More attention also needs to be paid to employment, income levels, social security and people's health," the document said.

The test now for Mr. Xi and China's leaders will be how to implement many of its goals, including whether they will be introduced in coming months or will be introduced more gradually. The leadership is likely to face resistance ranging from state enterprises and the bureaucracies that oversee them to local governments, which have been frustrated by attempts at piecemeal reforms in recent years. A special leadership committee to oversee reform, which was announced previously, is supposed to address possible resistance, though the document provides few details on how it will do so.

The document said China would significantly ease its one-child policy, allowing couples to have two children if one of the parents is an only child. Currently, Chinese couples are restricted to one child except under some circumstances, such as rural dwellers, pilot programs in a number of areas and among ethnic minorities.

On economic matters, Chinese leaders said they would establish a system for insuring bank deposits, prepare a mechanism for financial bankruptcy and ease controls on prices for energy, water, telecommunications and other services. 

It also said it would ease curbs on offshore securities investments and mergers and acquisitions, without providing details.

China also plans to abolish a controversial labor camp system in what Xinhua described as "part of efforts to improve human rights and judicial procedures".

LONDON CLOSE: FED'S YELLEN SPARKS GAINS ON HOPES OF CONTINUED STIMULUS

Markets were able to shrug off some disappointing economic data on Thursday as hopes over a continuation of monetary easing by the US Federal Reserve lifted stocks.

Speaking this afternoon to the Senate Banking Committee, soon-to-be Fed Chair Janet Yellen argued that the central bank's quantitative easing (QE) programme, which has been in place since late 2008, has made a "meaningful contribution to economic growth". 

However, she said that the labour market and wider economy are still performing "far short of their potential" with unemployment still too high. As such, she assured that Fed policy is "not on a set course", raising hopes that the central bank could put off a tapering of QE until next year.

The FTSE 100 finished 36.13 points higher at 6,666.13, rebounding after hitting its lowest level in nearly four weeks on Wednesday (6,630).

Financial Sales Trader Alex Conroy from Spreadex said that Yellen's "vigorous defence of QE" led to a strong finish for markets "as investors who may have been cautious about getting into equities just before tapering occurred, get the encouragement they need". 

Stocks had pared gains this morning after a series of gloomy economic figures from this side of the Atlantic. 

UK retail sales fell by 0.7% in October, compared with a 0.6% gain the month before, disappointing analysts who had pencilled in no change month-on-month. 

Meanwhile, Eurozone gross domestic product growth eased to 0.1% in the third quarter, in line with analysts' estimates but down from the 0.3% expansion seen in the second quarter. German GDP growth slowed from 0.7% to 0.3%, as expected, while French economic activity contracted by 0.1% from 0.5% growth in the second quarter, worse than forecasts.

Source: LiveCharts

ASIA: STOCKS FINISH HIGHER ON HOPES OF CHINA REFORMS

Asian stocks rallied on expectations that China would release wide ranging reforms to boost the world's second largest economy.

Communist Party newspaper the People's Daily today cited a senior government official who said that China's reforms will be "unprecedented".

A document issued late Tuesday by the party was absent of concree reform policies following the Third Plenum, a meeting of Chinese leaders.

"Expectations for reforms have been heightened again, prompting investors to snap up stocks," Zeng Xianzhao, an analyst at Everbright Securities, told The Wall Street Journal.

The Shanghai Composite Index ended up 1.68% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.69%.

Bolstering stocks in Japan was a weaker yen which supported exports. The Japanese currency weakened against the US dollar as Fed Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen said the US economy needs to improve before the central bank ends its $85bn-a-month bond-buying programme. 

Japanese finance minister Taro Aso on Thursday indicated that government would push back against strengthening of the yen.

Japan's Nikkei finished up 1.95%

Source: LiveCharts

China's CPCC far Reaching Reform on Tenure of Land

According to some market reports Beijing has just released some further details on the Communist Party Central Committee´s reform plans, as per the results of its meetings last week. 

At first glance these do indeed seem to be quite far-reaching and appear to touch upon several of the "command economy" elements remaining in China. 

In that regard, it is apparently Beijing´s intention to give collectively-owned land the same rights status as state land, for example. That is quite a far reaching reform in a country where heretofor private ownership of land was a reserve of the State. 

As well, China is to loosen its one-child policy and scrap residence restrictions in small cities. The latter measure may allow for a freer movement of labour, which has both economic and political implications in a Communist State. 

More on the financial side of things, local goverments will reportedly be allowed to broaden their financing channels and overseas investment by individuals and companies is to be encouraged. 

Price reforms in resource sectors will be pushed forward and capital account convertibility accelerated. 

Source: LiveCharts

EUROZONE PUBLIC DEBT TO STABILIZE; FIVE MEMBERS RISK NON-COMPLIANCE

The European Commission published its opinion on the 2014 draft budgetary plans for the Eurozone and though the region's public debt is expected to stabilize, five member states are in danger of non-compliance. 

The Commission provided its opinion on individual member's draft budgetary plans and started its report off by saying that it is "reassuring that no draft budgetary plan is found in serious non-compliance". In fact, the Commission noted that public debt is expected to stabilize in the euro area as a whole.

However, the report also warned that only Germany and Estonia have attained their mid-term budgetary objective (MTO), "implying that further consolidation is necessary". 

The Commission signaled Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta and Finland as the five countries whose plans pose a risk of non-compliance. More specifically, it pointed out that Spain and Malta risk not complying with the recommendations of the Excessive Deficit Procedure. The danger with Italy appears to be even more grave as the report indicated that "there is a risk that on current plans the debt reduction rule would be breached in 2014". For Luxembourg and Finland, the Commission highlighted a "risk of significant deviation" from the adjustment path set out to obtain their MTOs. 

In a less dangerous manner, Belgium, Austria and Slovakia were found to be "broadly compliant", meaning there could be some deviation in achieving MTOs. 

France, the Netherlands and Slovenia scraped by. The Commission considered them to be compliant but "without any margin for possible slippage". Any deviation would put the correction of excessive deficits at risk, the report read.

Source:  LiveCharts

BERKSHIRE DISCLOSES 3.45BN-DOLLAR STAKE IN EXXON MOBIL

Berkshire Hathaway has disclosed a new 3.45bn-dollar stake in Exxon Mobil Corp. after buying 40.1m shares in the oil company, according to reports.

The investment by the company, headed by Warren Buffett, represents 0.9% of Exxon's share capital. Analysts said the deal showed a vote of confidence in the company by the second most wealthiest American.

"When Warren Buffett gives his seal of approval to any company, that is never a bad thing," Pavel Molchanov, energy analyst at Raymond James & Associates, told Reuters.

Molchanov rated Exxon shares a 'strong buy'.

Berkshire also owns energy and utilities businesses, including MidAmerican Energy, which is buying Nevada utility NV Energy Inc for $5.6bn.

The firm also revealed its stake in in drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline fell while reporting higher stakes in Bank of New York Mellon Corp, dialysis clinic operator DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc, satellite TV provider DIRECTV, Suncor Energy Co , US Bancorp and Verisign Inc.

Shares in Exxon were up 0.68% to $93.22 in morning trading and Berkshire was also up 0.68% to $173,320.

Source: LiveCharts

Nikkei soars 2 pct to 6-month peak, marks best week in 4 years

A slide in the yen spurred Tokyo's
Nikkei share average 2 percent higher on Friday to above 15,000
for the first time in six months, helping the benchmark post its
best weekly rise in four years. 
    Gains in financial companies on strong quarterly earnings
also boosted the Nikkei, which rose 289.51 to end at
15,165.92 and was up 7.7 percent for the week. 
    The break in major chart resistance around 15,000 opened the
way for a return to the May peak at 15,942.60, but the benchmark
was sitting way above the upper band of the Bollinger Bands -- a
bearish signal.
    The Nikkei is up 46 percent this year. If the gains were to
hold for the rest of the year, it would mark the index's best
yearly performance since 1972.
    Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co Ltd surged 6.6 percent
on Friday after it lifted its net profit guidance for the year
ending March 2014 by 54 percent.
    Investors also went after shares of brokerages, with Nomura
Holdings up 4.8 percent.
    The broader Topix index closed up 1.7 percent at
1,239.04, with 3.21 billion shares changing hands, hitting a
two-week high.
    The yen hit a two-month low of 100.315 yen to the dollar
, driven by a risk-on mode in the global markets and
comments from Finance Minister Taro Aso that Tokyo should retain
currency intervention as a policy tool.

China urban incomes rise 70 times in 35 years

Urban Chinese income jumped 70 times in the past 35 years. Average disposable income in Chinese cities reached an average of about 25 thousand yuan, or about 4 thousand U.S dollars in 2012. That means annual growth of 13.4 percent. If we take out inflation, it's 7.4 percent.

Residents in Shanghai top the rich list, having earned over 40 thousand yuan in disposable income last year. This is more than 60 percent higher than the national average. Beijingers rank second, with 36 thousand yuan in their pockets. Zhejiang Province in east China comes in third. Eight cities and provinces out of a total 31 monitored regions are above the national average level, mostly along the east coast.

But average disposable income in rural areas is just below 8 thousand yuan, a third of their urban peers. Rural income growth rate is a little less than 13 percent per year, also lagging behind the urban areas.

Source: CCTV

The Silk Road

The Silk Routes (collectively known as the 'Silk Road') were not only conduits for silk, but also for many other products. They were very important paths for cultural and technological transmission that linked traders, merchants, pilgrims, missionaries, soldiers, nomads and urban dwellers among China, India, Persia and Mediterranean countries for almost 3,000 years.

Extending over 4,000 miles, the routes enabled people to transport trade goods, especially luxuries such as slaves, silk, satins and other fine fabrics, musk, other perfumes, spices and medicines, jewels, glassware and even rhubarb, while simultaneously serving as a conduit for the spread of knowledge, ideas, cultures, and diseases[2] between different parts of the world (China, India, Asia Minor and the Mediterranean). Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the great civilizations of China, India, Egypt, Persia, Arabia, and Rome, and in several respects helped lay the foundations for the modern world. Although the term the Silk Road implies a continuous journey, very few who traveled the route traversed it from end to end. For the most part, goods were transported by a series of agents on varying routes and were traded in the bustling mercantile markets of the oasis towns.

The central Asian sections of the trade routes was expanded around 114 BCE by the Han Dynasty, largely through the missions and explorations of Zhang Qian, but earlier trade routes across the continents already existed. In the late Middle Ages, transcontinental trade over the land routes of the Silk Road declined as sea trade increased.

Though silk was certainly the major trade item from China, many other products were traded, and various technologies, religions and philosophies as well as the bubonic plague (the so-called 'Black Death') also traveled along the Silk Routes.

Source:  CCTV

EnQuest plans to invest £4 billion in North Sea Kraken field - report

British independent oil producer EnQuest Plc is expected to announce on Friday it will invest 4 billion pounds ($6.4 billion) to extend development of the Kraken field in the North Sea, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The project at the field, east of the Shetland Islands, could create 20,000 jobs during its construction  phase, the newspaper said.

Enquest will spend 1.12 billion pounds by the time it supplies the first oil from the new development in 2016-2017, according to the report. The rest of the investment will be spread over the 25-year lifetime of the project.

EnQuest, which specialises in extending the life of old oil fields, produces all of its oil in the North Sea.

Britain launched a review of the North Sea earlier this year as it attempts to stem recent big falls in production from output which has been in decline since 1999.

Source: Reuters

Chinese Developers Move Beyond Shopping

  The Wall Street Journal Reports,"To make a big profit as a Chinese property developer, it used to be that all you needed to do was build a mall and stuff it with luxury brands".

But as Chinese get richer and have more time for leisure, they want more than just shopping, and developers are moving to meet the demand, providing venues for horse riding, rafting, skiing and more.

Adventurous business types in China enjoy the thrill of sports like polo. Travel has developed their tastes for activities such as scuba diving. Chinese parents want to expose their children to pursuits that are healthy, stimulating, exciting and new.

In Tianjin, 30 minutes by train from Beijing, Goldin Properties Holdings has built China's biggest and most lavish polo club, with the aim of luring horse enthusiasts like Ms. Guo. The development—a business district, a five-star hotel and high-end apartments and villas with polo-club views—is set on 80 hectares of rolling lawns and manicured gardens.

 Sporting facilities can be expensive to build and maintain, but some developers see them as a necessary investment.

Consumer demand has led hotels and resorts to quickly ramp up developments of leisure-themed projects, said Sebastian Skiff, executive director of CBRE Retail Services in China.

Skiing is one area of growth. In Zhangjiakou, Malaysia's Genting Bhd. has built China's largest ski resort, with 87 ski runs and 22 lifts. About 160 kilometers northwest of Beijing, Zhangjikou is angling to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. WandaCommercialProperties(Group),  China's largest commercial developer, has a resort development in Changbaishan, on the border with North Korea.

Both have large numbers of residential properties for sale. These ski towns are easily accessible from Beijing and cater to locals, offering hot-pot restaurants and hot springs. 

Other developers are sinking money into water sports. In Sanya, on Hainan Island off China's southeast coast, Fosun is investing $1.5 billion in the world's third Atlantis hotel, following ones in Dubai and the Bahamas. The Atlantis Sanya will have an aquarium, 20 restaurants, and promises "revolutionary water play" in its water park. "We want to bring concepts that have proven to be successful globally to China," said Mr. Qian. "Chinese consumers are open-minded and welcome new ideas."

The Atlantis Sanya, scheduled to open in 2016, will have 1,300 guest rooms. It is hardly the biggest development for Hainan, which already has about 200 hotels with more on the way. Agile Property Holdings  and Morgan Stanley Real Estate are building six five-star hotels and a marina, and have already sold 10,000 apartments at Sanya's Clear Water Bay. The development will offer golf and water sports.

An S&P energy index of U.S. shale oil explorers PXD has jumped about 28%.

An S&P energy index of U.S. shale oil explorers such as Pioneer natural Resources(PXD) has jumped about 28%.They're riding the explosion of new wells and rail links to refineries that's bolstering revenue after crude traded in New York traded a 27-month high in August.

  The shale boom will propell the U.S. past Russia as the world's top oil producer by 2015, the International Energy Agency said two days ago,bringing its estimates forward by two years.

Oil explorers are tapping deeper layers of oil-soaked rock in shale formations,bringing them "a lot of success this year,even outside the rise in the oil price,in the form of increasing production,analysts said.
 Source: WSJ

Political Turmoil cost Lybia US$ 6 billion and affects food and power supplies

Protests at oil ports have cost Lybia more than $6 billion (3 billion pounds) and started hitting power supplies in the North African country, where political chaos is also affecting funding for wheat imports, officials said on Thursday.

Tribes, armed militias and members of the Berber minority have seized most oil ports and fields since August to demand more rights or better pay, adding to chaos in Libya two years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

The government of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has been unable to rein in armed groups who helped topple Gaddafi but kept their weapons and now control much of the vast OPEC producer.

Libya has lost almost 8 billion Libyan dinars ($6.43 billion) in oil sales due to the port and oilfield protests,Economy Minister Mustafa Abu Fanas told reporters.

Output is down to a fraction of capacity of 1.25 million barrels a day, industry sources say. Officials have not provided any update this week.

"If these blockages continue, it will have a big negative impact," Abu Fanas said. He added that the government would be able to pay salaries by drawing on other sources. Libya has built up foreign exchange reserves from times of high oil prices.

The state power company said a protest by members of the Amazigh, or Berber, minority at the Mellitah oil and gas complex in western Libya had cut gas supplies, hitting its electricity network, state news agency Lana said.

 National Oil Corp this week cut oil output at the El Feel oilfield feeding Mellitah to 18,000 barrels a day, down from its 130,000 bpd capacity, as port tanks were running full.
In  another sign of turmoil, Abu Fanas said Libya needed to pay debts of wheat importers that have been piling up for more than a year to ensure future flour supplies.

He said the government had asked parliament several times to approve payments for wheat purchases to private companies backed by the state but no debate had been scheduled yet because it had been busy with more pressing issues.

He said he was not worried about flour shortages in the next couple of months.

Zeidan has accused Islamist opponents in parliament of blocking the budget to bring down the government.

There was no indication that the oil protests were winding down, though some Libyan news websites said a group of Mellitah workers had asked the Amazigh to end their blockade to ensure gas supplies.

Many Libyans are fed up with the militias, which often protest not for political demands but simply for higher pay.

Source: Reuters