Founder of online bulletin board 2channel, received about ¥350 million in advertising revenue from the site despite selling his management rights to an ...

Hiroyuki Nishimura, 36, founder of online bulletin board 2channel, received about ¥350 million in advertising revenue from the site despite selling his management rights to an overseas firm in 2009, informed sources said.

Nishimura allegedly failed to declare about ¥100 million of the ¥350 million, and has been confronted about this by the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau, according to the sources.

Nishimura posted on his own blog that he had transferred the right to operate 2channel to Packet Monster Inc., a company registered in Singapore, in January 2009.

In a book titled "Boku ga 2channel o Suteta Riyu" (The Reason I Abandoned 2channel), which Nishimura published in June that same year, he wrote, "I no longer serve as an administrator of the Internet forum [after selling it to a Singaporean firm] and I've become an adviser or a mere user [of the forum]."

According to the sources, the advertising revenue from 2channel was originally paid mainly to Tokyo Plus K.K., a Kita Ward, Tokyo-based company that deals in Internet-related business and for which Nishimura serves as chief executive officer.

But then, from 2009 to 2012, the revenue of about ¥350 million was transferred to Packet Monster Inc.

Chinese company has completed construction of 1,750MW nuclear generator

Dongfang Electrical Machinery Co. Ltd (DFEM), a major Chinese power generating equipment manufacturer, has completed construction of a 1,750 MW nuclear generator and started transporting it to a nuclear power plant in south China on Saturday.

The 1,750 MW generator currently has the biggest per-unit installed capacity among the nuclear generators in the world, according to the DFEM,which is based in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The generator is being sent to the Taishan nuclear power plant in south China's Guangdong Province from the company's production base in Deyang City, Sichuan Province.

DFEM will provide two such generators for the nuclear power plant.

DFEM has produced 14 nuclear generators so far with a total installed capacity of 15,790 MW.

The Taishan nuclear power plant is a joint venture of China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Co. Ltd (CGNPC) and Electricite de France.

According to CGNPC, the first-phase project of the nuclear power station got a total investment of 50.2 billion yuan (8.13 billion U.S. dollars), and would include the construction of two units using the Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) technology, with each unit capacity up to 1,750 MW.

The two units of the first-phase project are to be respectively put into commercial operation in 2013 and 2014, and will annually generate 26 billion kilowatt-hours on-grid energy when completed.

Source: Xinhua

Chinese police detained a prominent online commentator

"Chinese authorities are sending a chill through the country's noisy community of online social commentators as police detained a prominent Web user and state media stepped up calls for a crackdown on what it describes as spreading rumors online.
State media said Sunday that Xue Manzi, a well-known social commentator, angel investor and philanthropist, had been detained on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute. It wasn't clear whether Mr. Xue, 60 years old, would face formal charges. A police statement identified a man surnamed Xue as having been detained. Mr. Xue couldn't be reached for comment. 

News of Mr. Xue's detention rocketed through the Chinese web, where he commands an important presence. He has more than 12 million followers on SinaCorp.'s  Weibo microblogging service, where he frequently comments on contemporary social and other issues.

Some online postings said the heavy coverage of the allegations in state media suggested that authorities want to make an example of Mr. Xue, while some wondered if he had been set up. Chinese authorities in the past have used similar charges to discredit and silence political critics.

Mr. Xue's detention follows the arrest in recent weeks of political activists calling for greater government transparency and for officials to disclose their assets. A campaign against the spreading of rumors online has been loudly praised in state media and netted the widely publicized detention of four people in Beijing this past week.

Earlier this month, the head of the State Internet Information Office, which monitors online content, called a group of "big V",(V stands for verified users confirmed by Sina) to a forum and urged them to be more constructive in their social media postings".

Source: WSJ

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Top 15 China's Business to Consumers(B2C) Websites

Top 15 China B2C Websites in March 2013

China's online luxury market

China’s online luxury (e-luxury) market is set for an industry renaissance. China is on track to become the largest e-commerce market based on market share in 2013, and it is already home to the world’s largest online shopper population with 242 million. Furthermore, in addition to everyday purchases like clothing, cosmetics and books, Chinese online shoppers have already demonstrated that they are willing to make “big-ticket” purchases online such as automobiles.
At the same time, China’s traditional luxury market has reached a new level of maturity, which requires a different approach. Western luxury brands have executed well in tier-1 cities like Beijing and Shanghai; however, there is tremendous unmet demand in China’s lower-tier cities. Relying on traditional brick and mortar stores is a costly and time-intensive strategy for inland China expansion.
Thus, the online channel is the only viable way to reach these consumers today.
Western luxury brands will need to take time to understand what Chinese e-luxury consumers care about most – and what might discourage them from making purchases online. The most critical challenge is earning consumers’ trust. Retailers need to guarantee product authenticity and deliver a meaningful customer experience.
Right now, China’s booming e-commerce growth is converging on a luxury market facing an entirely new phase of development. The result is an unprecedented opportunity for e-luxury retailers and luxury brands with the proper business model.

China became the world’s largest consumer of luxury goods in 2012. Likewise, the nation will surpass the US to become the number one e-commerce market by market size later this year.
Retail e-commerce sales reached RMB 1300 billion (about USD $209 billion) in 2012, accounting for 6.1% of China’s total retail sales. The Chinese government views the development of e-commerce as critical to future economic growth. It supports ongoing improvements to China’s online shopping ecosystem, including development of online payment safety and logistics capacity. China’s e-commerce market will continue to grow at double-digit rates over the next 3 years.

China already leads the world in online shoppers with 242 million—equivalent to roughly 73% of the US population. This consumer population will continue to increase rapidly in conjunction with the overall increase in Chinese internet users.
E-commerce has already changed the traditional retail industry in China and the ways consumers prefer to shop. Luxury brands and retailers should consider e-commerce a vital component of their China expansion plans.

Jack Ma: Vision and values at Alibaba.com

Jack Ma is one of the first entrepreneurs to
develop e-commerce in China. He and his team
have achieved many ‘firsts’ in the area of Chinese
Internet Trade. He founded the first internet
commercial website in China, and created a B2B
marketplace platform to all small and
medium-sized enterprises in Asia and around the
world. He promoted the “Trust Pass” plan on the
website, which created the world’s first on-line
credit platform for companies.
Under Jack Ma’s leadership, the Alibaba B2B
websites have attracted more than 17 million
registered members in 220 countries globally,
with daily postings exceeding 35 million, making
Alibaba.com the most active Internet market
place and B2B community worldwide.

 Jack Ma vision and values in Alibaba:

The company will remain a ‘start-up’ no matter how long it has been in existence. What ever has 

been stable, I will disrupt that stability. The company needs to continue to innovate and grow. I 

want the employees to believe that we are a small company, no matter how big we get. I believe 

we can create a system and culture to perpetuate this culture of entrepreneurial and start-up spirit. To fuel the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit, along with a service attitude, Jack Ma is 

looking for people with the following characteristics: 

1) People with a dream. “Don’t let your colleagues work for you. They need to 

work for their dreams!” If people don’t believe in the dream and join the company 

purely for money, they won’t stay long .

2) People with shared values. “The value system is very important at Alibaba. We 

are crazy for it! In China, we might be the only crazy company who so strongly 

maintains our value system. People who don’t fit our values cannot survive in 

the company.” (Alibaba’s six core values are customer comes first, teamwork and 

cooperation, embracing change, integrity, passion, and honoring your job). 

3) People with a smile. “When we hire people, we look for people who are naturally 

optimistic and happy. In the start-up process we will meet with difficulties and 

challenges. Optimistic and happy people can better deal with these challenges 

and succeed. It’s hard to make a happy person unhappy, but it’s even harder to 

make an unhappy person happy. I am able to tell whether a person is on our 

staff by their smile.” 

4) People who enjoy work and can turn stress and challenges into 

innovation. ”Employees must be able to handle pressure and challenges, and 

turn them into positive energy for innovation, not negative energy for depression.” 

5) People who work together. “We don’t welcome people who think they are smart because they may think they are above others. This industry is so new that it 

really doesn’t have any real talents. The people who are real talents probably
don’t know they are talents. Everyone has tremendous potential. We all use
other people’s strengths to overcome our weaknesses …. We are all ordinary
people, but our goals are extraordinary.”

. 

China's surging online shopping

China saw surging online shopping in the second quarter of 2013 with transactions totaling   437.13 billion yuan (about 70.8 billion US dollars), showed new data on Sunday.

The figure was a 24.2-percent quarter-to-quarter increase, and a 45.3 percent year-on-yearincrease, according to a research report released by iResearch, China's leading Internet industry   research company.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, total retail sales of consumer goods amounted to 6.03   trillion yuan nationwide in the period.

This indicates that online shopping now accounts for about 7.3 percent of consumer retail inChina.

In the second quarter, China's E-commerce giants initiated several rounds of collective pricewars to stimulate consumption.

According to the iResearch report, the price war has developed from a means of competition  into a market tool used by E-commerce companies to tap and stimulate customers' purchasing  desire.

Source:China Daily

China's economic reform balance between Government and the market.

Li Wei, head of the Development Research Center at the State Council, thinks the core issue for the economic reforms is to balance the relationship between the government and the market. To achieve this, better allocation of resources in the market is needed.

"China must accelerate the transformation of government functions, improve administrative efficiency and reduce intervention in the market. The government should allow the market to play its role and alleviate itself of tasks which can be better handled by society," he said.

The May 6 State Council executive meeting decided to delegate power to lower levels concerning 62 items that were previously subject to central government approval, a move Li Wei backs. The most urgent task for China's economic reforms is to accelerate the building of a resource-saving and environment-friendly society and speed up pricing schemes for land, water, power, oil and natural gas so that their prices can truly reflect market demand and supply, he said.

Wang Dongjin, former Vice Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said whether the government can properly recognize and balance its relationship with the market will decide the success of the new round of economic reforms.

Wang said the number of items subject to government approval is reducing, but the government still frequently participates in microeconomic activities, which will only exacerbate unrestrained administrative power, the waste of resources, environmental pollution, redundant construction and a surplus of production capacity, and also cause corruption. The root cause for such a situation is that there is no effective restraint mechanism on government interventions and the power to allocate resources.

According to Wang, current economic reforms should focus on "reforming" the government: It should return the power once monopolized by the government during the planned economy to the market, companies and society. Reforms should reduce the government's hand in microeconomic activities. In the meantime, the government should stick to strengthening education, health care, employment, social security and public services.

Source:  Beijing Review