The Guardian Editorial 27th November 2013. Japan and China: collision course

Is it Europe before the first world war or the second? Analysts disagree, but all see the escalation of military threats between the two industrial giants China and Japan over disputed islands in the East China Sea with growing alarm. The latest crisis was caused by China's decision to extend its "air defence identification zone" (ADIZ) over a group of uninhabited islands which Japan calls the Senkakus and China knows as the Diaoyutai. Several overflights later, not least by a pair of US B-52 bombers, and nothing much has changed, except that a hairtrigger that originally was to be measured in hours and governed by the speed of boats, has now become a matter of seconds.

Few can say what prompted the latest Chinese move. This is a time when the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, is attempting to drive major economic reform and the announcement may be a sop to the military, when its voice in the national debate could be weakening. It is hard to avoid the conclusion, though, that the declaration was a way of testing the waters for a reaction – which they duly got. The state-run China Daily accused Japan and the US of overreacting, saying that if the world's sole superpower needed multiple ADIZs to fend off perceived threats, China should be allowed theirs. Besides, they claimed the measure was not targeted at any particular country.

This is not how it is seen in Japan, which has witnessed a growing number of confrontations, or "incidents", over islands in which Beijing showed little interest for much of the last decade. For Japan, the dispute over the islands is part of a major naval push to extend China's maritime influence beyond the first island chain of the Pacific. China claims the status quo was changed by Japan's decision to nationalise the islands. What they don't want to admit is that this was done to stop the islands being used by Japanese nationalists on madcap flag waving stunts.

The land to which the islands are closest is neither Japan nor China, but Taiwan – with which Tokyo has few problems. Last year Taiwan showed the way out of these disputes by signing an agreement with Tokyo which sidestepped the issue of sovereignty and divided the fisheries to mutual benefit. This model, first applied in the North Sea, is the only rational way out of these disputes – although it is not one that Britain is particularly keen on applying to the Falklands. China and Japan agreed in 2008 to co-operate on the joint development of the East China Sea. Further talks have never been pursued and, to date, not even a hotline exists between the two powers to avert another incident in the sea or in the air. It is time for people in China and Japan to turn down the volume of simplistic nationalist rhetoric and to pursue pragmatic dialogue.

Is Shinzo Abe's 'new nationalism' a throwback to Japanese imperialism?

The deepening confrontation between Japan and its giant neighbour, China, over a disputed island chain, which this week sucked in US military forces flying B-52 bombers, holds no terrors for Kenji Fujii, captain of the crack Japanese destroyer JS Murasame.

As a battleship-grey drizzle sweeps across Yokosuka harbour, home port to the Japan maritime self-defence force and the US Seventh Fleet, Fujii stands four-square on his helicopter deck, a totemic red Japanese sun-ray ensign flapping at the flagstaff behind him. His stance exudes quiet purposefulness.

The Murasame, armed with advanced missiles, torpedoes, a 76mm rapid-fire turret cannon and a vicious-looking Phalanx close-in-weapons-system (CIWS) Gatling gun, is on the frontline of Japan's escalating standoff with China and its contentious bid to stand up for itself and become a power in the world once again. And Fujii clearly relishes his role in the drama.

Asked whether he will be taking his ship south, to the hotly disputed waters off the Senkaku islands in the East China sea (which China calls the Diaoyu and claims as its own), Fujii smiles and bows. His executive officer, acting as translator, explains that "for security and operational reasons" the captain cannot comment. The situation there is just too sensitive.

The name Murasame means "passing shower". But Japan's decision last year to in effect nationalise some of the privately owned Senkakus - officials prefer to call it a transfer of property rights - triggered a prolonged storm of protest from China, which has been sending ships to challenge the Japanese coastguard ever since.

Source: theguardian

Japan, U.S. conduct joint naval drills near Okinawa

Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force said Thursday it has conducted joint drills with the U.S. Navy in the Western Pacific near Okinawa Prefecture's main island.

The operation-oriented drills were held between Nov. 16 and Thursday with some 15 destroyers and 50 planes from the MSDF taking part, at a time when China's military presence in the East China Sea is growing.

Source:  Jiji Press

Japan to consider stripping Tibor supervision from banks

An advisory panel set up by Japan's financial regulator will consider stripping oversight for setting Tibor, the yen benchmark interest rate, from the banking group now responsible for its administration, said people with knowledge of the potential supervisory overhaul.

The move would bring oversight of the Tokyo interbank offered rate closer into line with that of Libor, following sweeping reforms of the London benchmark triggered by revelations that major banks had manipulated it to profit from related trades or to misrepresent borrowing costs.

Some in financial markets had raised questions as to whether Tibor had also been manipulated since the rates quoted in Tokyo for 3-month borrowing and those quoted for Libor diverged from 2009 after a decade of moving in near lockstep.

But an investigation by the Japan Bankers Association, which has oversight of Tibor, found no evidence that Tibor benchmarks had been manipulated.

Japan's Financial Services Agency, the country's main financial watchdog, announced this week that it had convened a 12-member advisory panel to study Tibor and other financial indicators. The panel, which is headed by Keio University economics professor Kazuhito Ikeo, will meet for the first time on Thursday and aims to complete its review by March.

One of the proposals the advisory panel will study is whether to shift responsibility for oversight of Tibor from the Japan Bankers Association to the FSA, or another independent body, according to people with knowledge of the preparations.

Source: Reuters

Court voids poll in western Japan constituency on vote disparity

The Hiroshima High Court ruled Thursday that the outcome of a western Japan constituency in July's House of Councillors election should be invalidated due to an unconstitutional disparity in the weight of votes.

The decision by the court's Okayama branch is the first ruling among 14 similar lawsuits filed with high courts across Japan by groups of lawyers, who have argued the disparity up to 4.77-fold in the July 21 upper house election is against the equal-protection clause under the Constitution, thus the election should be invalid.The Supreme Court ruled in October last year that the maximum fivefold disparity in the weight of votes in the 2010 upper house election was "in a state of unconstitutionality."

Source:  NewsOnJapan

Forty percent of Yamato offices violate delivery rules

Japan's Yamato Transport Co. said Thursday that some 40 pct of its parcel delivery footholds have violated handling rules for chilled and frozen parcels.

The major parcel delivery company's in-house investigation found that at least one rule violation was done at a total of 1,522 offices nationwide. Of them, staff at 253 offices were continually breaching the rules, the company said.

To clarify the management team's responsibility, a total 15 top officials were punished, with the president's salaries cut by 10 pct for six months。

Source: NewsOnJapan

Laox opens large duty-free shop in Ginza,Japan.

Electronics retailer Laox has opened a large duty-free store in an upscale shopping district in Tokyo amid a rise in the number of visitors to Japan.
The store in Ginza opened its doors on Thursday. It has a floor space of 880 square meters.
Shoppers can choose from a wide range of electronics and other products popular with tourists.

Among the latest home appliances on offer are rice cookers and air filtration devices.

Traditional Japanese products, such as Nanbu Tekki ironware and Kiyomizu Yaki ceramics, are also available.

Source: NewsOnJapan

U.S. affirms support for Japan in islands dispute with China

The United States pledged support for ally Japan on Wednesday in a growing dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea and senior U.S. administration officials accused Beijing of behavior that had unsettled its neighbors.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel assured his Japanese counterpart in a phone call that the two nations' defense pact covered the small islands where China established a new airspace defense zone last week and commended Tokyo "for exercising appropriate restraint," a Pentagon spokesman said.China's declaration raised the stakes in a territorial standoff between Beijing and Tokyo over the area, which includes the tiny uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.
The United States defied China's demand that airplanes flying near the islands identify themselves to Chinese authorities, flying two unarmed B-52 bombers over the islands on Tuesday without informing Beijing.
It was a sharp reminder to China that the United States still maintains a large military presence in the region despite concerns among U.S. allies that President Barack Obama's "pivot to Asia" strategy has borne little fruit.

Source:NewsOnJapan

Japan's October industrial output up 0.5 pct

Japan's industrial output rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent in October from the previous month for the second straight monthly growth, according to the government on Friday.

The index of output at factories and mines stood at 98.8 against the base of 100 for 2010, said Japan's economy ministry in a preliminary report.

The index of industrial shipments increased by 1.8 percent to 98.6, while that of investors dropped 0.5 percent to 107.8.

Source: Xinhua

Xi underlines morality during Confucius site visits

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for morality to be developed across society, building on what is useful in traditional moral standards and discarding what is unhealthy.

Xi made the remarks on a just-concluded five-day tour of east China's Shandong Province during which he visited Qufu City, which lies near the birthplace of ancient philosopher Confucius, or Kong Zi. His teachings centered on peace and social harmony.

Xi visited the Confucius mansion, the residence of descendants of Confucius, and the Confucius Research Institute as part of a tour which ended on Thursday.

The development and prosperity of Chinese culture is one of the preconditions for China's great rejuvenation. The moral standards passed on by forefathers should be inherited, adapting ancient forms for present-day use and weeding through the old to bring out the new, he said.

The president called for morality to be promoted among the people, cultivating moral judgement and sense of responsibility, and enhancing their abilities to practice morality.

People should be led to pursue lives where moral standards are valued, respected and abided by, he urged.

"Our nation will be full of hope as long as the Chinese pursuit of a beautiful and lofty moral realm continues from generation to generation," according to Xi.
Source: Xinhua

WSJ: China's Credit Levels Echo U.S. Crisis

  According to an article published on the Wall Street Journal,"investors have made billions betting against economies in which debt is rising and home prices are soaring. They have had particular success targeting the banks that fund these booms".

Right now, their target is China. Some compare China to the U.S. in 2007. Others cite Japan before the 1989 real-estate bust. China bulls acknowledge the risks but say the government has the money and expertise to defuse the problems.

"In the Western case, the official response was denial or complete ignorance," says Mr. Magnus a senior independent economic adviser to Swiss bank UBS AG. In China, where the central government controls the economy and policy makers witnessed the U.S. bust, Beijing "will be able to respond in ways we [in the West] weren't capable of. But it doesn't mean it won't be painless," he says.

China's corporate and household credit has risen quickly, from around 120% of gross domestic product in 2008 to more than 170% today, according to Bank for International Settlements data, which does not include debts owed by financial companies.

The U.S. in its credit boom rose from 143% in 2001 to 177% in 2008. Japan had a similar run up in the decade before 1989. Economists say quick jumps in debt—rather than absolute levels—are the determinants of future crises.

One key area of concern is China's banks. As in the U.S., much of their loan growth in recent years has been off-balance-sheet. In China's case, it has been wealth-management products and other devices that allowed banks to keep lending even despite regulators' efforts to slow things down.

Much of this shadow-banking growth is being monitored by regulators. "The shadow-banking thing has been both known and blessed for a time," says Jaspal Bindra, Asia chief executive for U.K.-based, emerging-markets-focused bank Standard Chartered. "Then I think they decided that people have taken it to a point where it's been abused."

In June, a credit crunch hit China's banking system, reviving fears that the kind of credit market paralysis that hit the U.S. in 2008 and 2009 could wreak havoc on the financial system. The squeeze was engineered by the central bank to rein in what it saw as out-of-control credit growth driven by the country's shadow-banking system. While the credit squeeze caused turmoil, it eased once the central bank let the cash flow again. It was also a sign regulators are aware of the problems in the system.

Another difference: America's bubble originated in home mortgages. China's house-buying frenzy has been financed mostly with cash. The big debt growth has been to developers, companies and local governments, some of whom have implicit backing from the state.

In Japan, "no systemic financial crisis occurred, but financial stress was hidden," writes Haibin Zhu, J.P. Morgan's chief China economist. Banks refinanced loans even though there was little prospect the beleaguered corporate borrowers would pay them off in the end. This led to "zombie companies and zombie banks" and little new investment in the economy.

He worries that without reforming the banking and corporate sector, China could put off a restructuring of debts needed to cleanse the economy. "The consequences could be more severe for China," he says. "China is not as wealthy as Japan was and so would not be able to sustain as much stress."

China. Designer: moon rover uses cutting-edge technology

China's third lunar probe, the Chang'E Three is set to launch in early December.

In recent years, China has made considerable progress in its space program. In June, three Chinese astronauts spent 15 days in orbit. And this time the country will send a rover to the moon.

A monumental project like the Chang'E Three requires time, money, and people. Han Bin, the Deputy Chief Designer of China's first lunar Rover, says the moon rover marks another breakthrough for China's space exploration.

Noting can hide Jia Yang's pride.

He's the deputy Chief designer of China's first lunar rover, named the "Jade Rabbit". He's been working on it for some ten years.

The moon rover is China's most advanced robot with complete automatic navigation and operation. For Jia Yang, China's third lunar probe is a great leap forward in space exploration.

"China started four decades late in the lunar project, yet the rover design is not a simple copy of advanced nations. It combines an integration of modern technologies of electronics, machinery, and thermal control," Jia says.

The dream of flying to the moon has deep roots in Chinese culture. According to legend, the fairy Chang'E drank a magic potion that gave her the ability to fly there. The dream has already come true for US and Russian astronauts. But it might take China at least another decade.

China has a moon rock at the Beijing Planetarium, a gift from former US President Jimmy Carter. The Chang'E lunar project is also aimed at bringing back materials from the moon in the future.

"China's lunar project will help accumulate experience and technology, which will be crucial for future projects. Making a soft landing and moon rover is a practical step for the long journey of China's space exploration," Jia says.

This is just a mini model of the rover. If all goes well, Jia Yang and the world will see the real rover on the moon, from the pictures taken and sent back from the Lander.

Jia Yang's dream is to see the "Jade Rabbit" running on the moon. He also believes the country will go beyond the moon, to Mars and other celestial bodies.

This mission shows China's resolve to bridge the gap with other space going nations. The Chang’e-3 is just one more example of the country's increasing technological capabilities. For scientists, like Jia Yang, the next part of the space dream could be clear, sending astronauts to the moon.

Droni e supercannoni, l’arsenale della Cina

Giovedì ha volato per la prima volta un drone con motore a getto e tecnologia stealth made in China. Si chiama Lijian: Spada affilata. Verrà usato in operazioni antiterrorismo, ricognizione, combattimento, dice la stampa cinese. La tecnologia stealth (furtiva o invisibile) permette di sfuggire ai radar.
Un apparecchio senza pilota che secondo gli esperti occidentali somiglia nel disegno alle ali a forma di pipistrello dell’RQ-170 Sentinel, prodotto dalla Lockheed Martin e impiegato dagli americani fin dal 2007. La tecnologia bellica cinese è all’inseguimento. Ma si è avvicinata: l’Esercito popolare di liberazione ha già sviluppato piccoli droni per uso tattico e corto raggio e altri apparecchi senza pilota che somigliano in modo impressionante agli americani Reaper e Predator, usati nella caccia ai terroristi di Al Qaeda dal Medio Oriente al Pakistan e all’Afghanistan.
Anche i cinesi sono in grado di armare i loro droni: recentemente un alto ufficiale dell’ufficio antidroga ha detto al Quotidiano del Popolo che l’uso di un drone è stato preso in considerazione per eliminare un trafficante birmano che si nascondeva nella foresta di Myanmar ed era ricercato per l’uccisione di 13 marinai di un peschereccio cinese. Il narcotrafficante fu poi arrestato e giustiziato dopo un processo.
Un altro impiego dei droni è la ricognizione aerea e Pechino potrebbe inviarli anche a pattugliare la zona delle isole Diaoyu/Senkaku, controllate dal Giappone. Tokyo, che chiama le isole Senkaku, minaccia di aprire il fuoco sugli apparecchi che violano lo spazio aereo. Pechino, che le chiama Diaoyu, replica che l’abbattimento di un velivolo, anche senza pilota come un drone, «sarebbe un atto di guerra».
L’intelligence occidentale ha appena scoperto un altro progetto cinese. Le foto di un satellite mostrano due super-cannoni con canne lunghe 24 e 33 metri nel poligono di Baotou, nel deserto della Mongolia. L’interesse degli analisti militari occidentali era stato destato dalle grandi piazzuole in cemento individuate nel 2011: di fronte erano stati collocati dei bersagli. In seguito ci sono stati montati i due supercannoni. Nome in codice Xianfeng: Pioniere.
La Cina ha lavorato a pezzi d’artiglieria di grande calibro e lunga gittata dagli anni Settanta. Poi apparentemente abbandonò il progetto. Per riprenderlo negli anni Novanta, contemporaneamente all’Iraq di Saddam Hussein. E i due Paesi, secondo l’intelligence, avevano in comune anche l’ingegnere: Gerald Bull.
Il supercannone iracheno di Bull, chiamato Progetto Babilonia, era lungo 45 metri e teoricamente avrebbe potuto fare un fuoco di sbarramento sui satelliti.
Secondo gli analisti di Jane’s Defence, non è probabile che i cinesi pensino ai satelliti come bersaglio del loro Pioniere: hanno missili balistici per questo. Potrebbe trattarsi di un supercannone ferroviario, sul tipo della Grande Berta dei tedeschi. O di un congegno per sperimentare nuovi proiettili d’artiglieria.
Questa ricerca militare estrema si inserisce nella corsa al riarmo cinese, nel confronto con il Giappone per le Diaoyu/Senkaku, e con la Settima Flotta americana per le rotte del Mar della Cina. Per sconsigliare la US Navy dall’avvicinarsi troppo, l’Esercito popolare di liberazione ha anche provato un nuovo missile ammazza-portaerei: si chiama Dongfeng: Vento dell’Est. Duemila chilometri di gittata. Lo hanno provato nel deserto del Gobi su un bersaglio disegnato nella sabbia che simulava la sagoma di una portaerei americana. Con successo, come provano i grandi fori nella sabbia all’interno della sagoma.
Corriere della Sera

TC Cribs: Inside SoundCloud, The Berlin-Based Startup Fueled By Music

Berlin is buzzing with entrepreneurial energy at the moment, and SoundCloud is one of the companies that has emerged as an anchor to the city's growing tech startup scene. 

SoundCloud has grown significantly since its debut in 2007, and now its service boasts more than 250 million active listeners around the world. Its staff has grown quite a bit too, as you'll see by the density at its current headquarters (the company, which has satellite offices in San Francisco, New York, London, and Bulgaria, is set to move to a new larger Berlin office next year.) For now, though, the close quarters make for an exciting collaborative vibe - and being that most SoundCloud staffers are music buffs or musicians themselves, there's a lot of creativity in the air in addition to the tech.

Source: techcrunch

Immobili, torna di moda la nuda proprietà Annunci di vendita su del 22% in 3anni

Un tempo era una formula di vendita a cui pochi pensavano, magari per godersi in serenità gli anni della pensione. Oggi invece la nuda proprietà è una realtà importante nel mercato immobiliare, arrivata nel 2013 a rappresentare nelle grandi città lo 0,7% dell’offerta totale: una crescita che arriva fino al 21,9% in 36 mesi. Secondo l’analisi svolta dall’ Ufficio Studi di Immobiliare.It Torino è il capoluogo in cui questo fenomeno è aumentato maggiormente, ma l’incremento è a doppia cifra in tutte le città prese a campione. «Senza alcun dubbio la crisi di liquidità è una delle ragioni principali di questo fenomeno - spiega Carlo Giordano, amministratore delegato di Immobiliare.It - e la prova è che l’offerta di nuda proprietà, vale a dire la vendita dell’immobile disgiunta dalla possibilità di usufrutto dello stesso, è presente anche al di fuori delle grandi città, in modo equivalente rispetto all’offerta di vendita». Scorrendo i numeri dell’indagine si evidenzia come, dal 2010 ad oggi, l’offerta sia aumentata del 20,3% a Roma, del 18,7% a Milano, del 17,4% a Firenze e del 15,5% a Genova. Solo a Napoli la percentuale supera appena il 10% attestandosi all’ 11,1% ed evidenziando come nel meridione, dove la casa ha una centralità maggiore nella vita degli individui, la vendita in nuda proprietà sia ancora un tabù difficile da far tramontare.

LA TIPOLOGIA - La tipologia di immobile venduto in nuda proprietà si trova, solitamente, in stabili di tipo economico e in zone semi centrali o di prima periferia, e il valore della proprietà ceduta oscilla tra i 142.000 di Napoli e i 228.000 euro di Roma; la diminuzione generale dei valori di mercato ha avuto un effetto anche su queste vendite, rendendo più esiguo, rispetto al passato, per l’acquirente il vantaggio rispetto all’acquisto di un immobile equivalente in vendita con formula classica. Gli sconti, comunque, rimangono importanti e se chi compra una nuda proprietà a Milano risparmia circa il 24% del prezzo di mercato, chi fa lo stesso acquisto a Napoli riesce a spendere quasi il 35% in meno. Si trovano nel mezzo i risparmi di Roma (24,7%), Genova (25,6%), Torino (26,6%) e Firenze (31,1%). In un confronto con il 2010 la domanda, che essendo guidata principalmente da un’ottica ottica di investimento si concentra pressoché esclusivamente (97%) nelle grandi città, è rimasta stabile, a causa del bilanciamento fra l’aumento dell’offerta, e quindi dell’opportunità di acquisto, e la ridotta intenzione all’investimento in Italia. Infine una curiosità: se esiste un mercato dove la nuda proprietà gode ottima salute è quello delle Costa Azzurra. In questa area, dove l’investimento ha già dimostrato la propria redditività, le vendite con la formula della nuda proprietà rappresentano il 3,5% del totale e, a parità di offerta, la domanda è aumentata dell’11% in tre anni.

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IBM Thanksgiving Day U.S. Sales Data Shows 22% Of Online Transactions Made On Mobile, With Average Order $132

It's Thanksgiving, and IBM, is once again tracking how U.S. consumers are taking to the web to kick off holiday season shopping. Early indications are that this year once again shows growth, but less than in 2012. Overall, Thanksgiving online sales are up 9% over last year. On the same day in 2012, they were up by over 14%. The average value of an online order is down slightly, too. IBM tells me it is $132.13 so far for today; in 2012, it was $132.57.

IBM says its numbers come from tracking millions of transactions from 800 retailers online in real time.

IBM's results indicate that newer platforms like mobile are getting ever more popular: mobile accounted for over 35% of all online traffic, up almost 30% compared to 2012.

Source: techcrunch

From 1BN To 2BN Users: Mobile Messaging Apps To Get “Mass Adoption” In 2014, Says Ovum

If you thought the hype around mobile messaging apps had reached some pretty crazy heights already - what with SnapChat apparently snubbing cash acquisition offers of $3bn and even $4bn, from Facebook and Google respectively - expect even more craziness next year. A lot more, as usage of over-the-top messaging services reaches an “inflection point”, as analyst Ovum puts it in a new report .

Ovum says it expects the number of messages to be “transacted” on social messaging apps like WhatsApp and Line to grow from 27.5 trillion in 2013 to 71.5 trillion by the end of 2014. So that's more than 2.5x in messaging volumes. If one such service, SnapChat grows at a similar rate it could mean its users are receiving more than a billion Snaps daily by the end of next year, up from the 400 million daily they're currently getting. Which (maybe) makes a $3 billion cash offer for an ephemeral messaging app seem a little less crazy. Or not.

The drivers for “social messaging”, as Ovum terms these mobile-first platforms, include the growth of affordable smartphones and access to mobile broadband (in emerging markets), plus large-scale marketing campaigns (Japan's Line does high profile TV advertising campaigns in its priority markets, for instance).

All of which will lead to the “mass adoption” of social messaging services next year, it predicts.

So if you thought the user numbers being bandied around by the likes of WhatsApp (which now hasmorethan350M monthly active users); WeChat (more than  270M MAUs); and Line (300M registered users ) were already pretty impressive, think again. There's still apparently room for growth - a lot of room for a lot more growth, according to Ovum.

The analyst notes that the “cumulative strength of the social messaging industry” has long since crossed the billion-user mark - and it's predicting that, given the current speed of adoption, “we can expect it to cross the 2-billion mark by the end of 2014″.

“Even though social messaging players have been around since 2011, only in 2014 will they become a force to be reckoned with,” the report adds.

Source: techcrunch

Snapchat Gets Its Own Timeline With Snapchat Stories, 24-Hour Photo & Video Tales

A new update for Snapchat that just rolled out adds an option to create Snapchat Stories, a new type of sharing for the temporary social network which allows users to build chains of shared content that can be viewed an unlimited number of times over a 24-hour period. The Stories are shared to all your friends at once, and each piece of content added itself lasts for a full day before disappearing.

This is probably the sort of ‘timeline' equivalent Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel hinted at when he was discussing Snapchat's future .

 It manages to build a more lasting narrative, which provides much better opportunities for brand use in terms of doing things like advertisements, offers and marketing campaigns, too.

To introduce the new Stories feature, Snapchat has also debuted a number of new commercials that advertise the feature, in partnership with bands and musicians. These represent an effort on the part of the company to do more direct marketing, something it hasn't really embraced in the past.

Source: techcrunch

Snapchat: It's a platform where (Kids) can communicate and have fun without any anxiety about the permanence.

Kids are in a petri dish, where their every social post can be scrutinized and used against them. That's why disappearing media startup Snapchat is important, says its investor,Benchmark‘s Bill Gurley. Teens don't want their daily lives permanently recorded. Gurley said at TechCrunch Disrupt Europe in Berlin that Snapchat board member Mitch Lasky's kids tell him they view Facebook like adults view LinkedIn.

It's the lack of this understanding that's led many people to discountSnapchat and deride it as  merely a sexting service. The app lets you send one or a few friends a photo or video that disappears within 10 seconds, making it great for sharing silly shots or a current window into your world.

The kids get it. Founder Evan Spiegel said onstage in September at Disrupt SF that Snapchat now sees 350 million "snaps" (photos and videos) sent every day. That's stunning, especially considering 350 million is the same number of photos Facebook sees uploaded daily.

Gurley went deep to explain why ephemeral messaging is on the rise:

“For kids, the Internet is increasingly becoming a place that you can't share, that you can't have fun, that you can't socialize in the way you want to. I think that's really the essence of Snapchat. It's a platform where they can communicate and have fun without any anxiety about the permanence. You hear about kids not getting jobs because of what's on their Facebook page.”

If you're an adult, you might not want to post your vacation photos to LinkedIn because it could make you look like a slacker. And that's the way some kids feel about sharing photos on Facebook. They'd rather privately share photos that self-destruct so they don't get judged.

Kids want to be kids just like they always have, but now they live in a world of social media. Yes, they can get into trouble by sending inappropriate snaps, like they can get into trouble doing anything on the web. But at least Snapchat affords them a degree of privacy during their formative years when they're expected to make mistakes.

Ephemeral messaging more accurately digitizes many of the ways we interact, like in-person conversation.

Ephemerality Is Here To Stay

This overarching perspective of teens is key to understanding why Snapchat isn't just a feature that Facebook can clone like it tried to with Poke. Its independence and the fact that the whole service is ephemeral is core to its success, and supports Spiegel's decision to refuse acquisition offers from Facebook.

“You Can Beat Global(IT) American Companies,” Says VKontakte Founder Pavel Durov

International startups shouldn't call it quits just because a big American competitor tries to muscle into their homeland, said Pavel Durov on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin.

His company, VKontakte, is the top social networking destination in Russia - even bigger than Facebook there. He believes by focusing on “speed, ease of use, and functionality,” you can defeat bloated apps that don't understand how to localize well.

“I think that when you're small, you can be faster,” he said, giving the example of how VKontakte developed its Android app. It was developed by just one guy, who was 17 years old when Durov hired him. That's against a team of hundreds of developers behind Facebook's Android app.

Indeed, even Zuckerberg said, “VKontakte are the international Olympiad computing champions. It's a small team and they did an awesome job of cloning Facebook.” Zuckerberg said VKontakte's home-turf advantages included “less strict content laws” and allowing illegal file downloads.

The Facebook CEO went on, “We have not been able to beat them. We have linear growth there and I'm pretty sure we'll pass them eventually. But it's been almost 10 years and we still have not beat them in Russia.”

Today, Durov said he believes that other European Facebook rivals could have kept up if they didn't lose faith. He said the German rival StudiVZ just sold too early.

Durov said the recent NSA scandals around privacy could give international startups some extra ammunition to fight off American invaders. He argued that the United States' far-reaching surveillance programs could scare people into thinking their data isn't safe with U.S. companies.

Durov explained “These scandals are just another opportunity we have to promote ourselves as a decent alternative.”

Source: techcrunch

The Best And Brightest Startups From Around The World Come Out For Our First Disrupt Europe

The first TechCrunch Disrupt Europe is now in the can. The energy was electric. Every seat was filled. Startup Alley was packed. Pavel Durov stopped by for an unscheduled Fireside Chat with TechCrunch Co-Editor Alexia Tsotsis. Benchmark's Bill Gurley explained Snapchat. And one lucky TechCrunch fan even talked Michael Arrington into an impromptu interview and pitch - an event that has never happened before.

Fifteen startups launched on the Disrupt Europe stage. From enterprise data companies to consumer electronics, the mix ably represented the best of Europe's exploding startup scene. But Germany-based Lock8 won it all and will keep the Disrupt Cup here in Berlin.

If nothing else, Disrupt Europe was a great melting pot of entrepreneurial spirit. Startups from more than 80 countries exhibited their products in front of the international crowd. 

Source: techcrunch

ResearchGate: “Forget About Revenue Until The Network Is Valuable Enough To Command It”

ResearchGate's Ijad Madisch's lifelong ambition of winning a Nobel Prize for changing the way scientific research is undertaken piqued the interest of Valley investors several years ago.

Now with more than $35 million in funding from investors like Bill Gates, Benchmark, Founders Fund and Accel, he's running one of Berlin's flagship startups with 3 million scientists using the site.

It wasn't such an obvious journey. Madisch had been working as a medical doctor in Boston several years ago. He asked for permission to go half-time on being a doctor, so that he could spend the other part of his time working on what would become ResearchGate, a LinkedIn-like social network for scientific researchers.

His manager told him it was a “birdshit” idea and that scientists by nature weren't very social.

“I always was convinced that ResearchGate can change the world,” Madisch said. “The World Wide Web was created to exchange knowledge and now you can buy shoes online, but science is still the same.”

Cohler, who sits on the board, brought experience from his days as an early team member at LinkedIn and Facebook.

One of Cohler's early pieces of advice to Madisch was to forget about revenue until the network was valuable enough to command it.

“We need to really create value for the scientists first. If we succeed with this, then we can start worrying about making money,” Madisch said. “You have to be very brave and experienced to give this advice. I wouldn't have gotten it from any East Coast or German VC investor. And it was the best thing we could have done.”

Madisch said the site, which attracts 1.4 million uploads of papers per month and 1,300 data sets uploaded every few days, had led to a few breakthroughs.

Cohler said that Berlin has many of the right ingredients to be a strong startup hub, with a decent pool of technical talent, a low cost of living and a place at the intersection of technology and many other industries and cultures.

Source: Techcrunch

“The purpose of East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone, is to safeguard territorial and airspace security.

China’s defense ministry has been addressing the international reaction to the new East China Sea air defense identification zone.

The ministry says the zone does not signify an expansion of China’s territorial air space but rather it helps to improve effective safeguarding of the area.

The Ministry of National Defense held a press conference on Thursday, in the wake of some strong reaction to the zone from outside China.

More exercises in the East China Sea. More training missions for China’s first aircraft carrier — the Liaoning.

And now, in a bid to strengthen control and monitoring of the area, the People’s Liberation Army is shifting its focus from sea to air.

“The purpose of East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone, is to safeguard territorial and airspace security. It’s also a necessary measure to effectively exercise China’s right of self defense,” said Yang Yujun, Spokesman of Chinese Defense Ministry.

China announced its new Air Defense Identification Zone on Saturday. But it overlaps with a similar zone operated by Japan for several decades.

And crucially, both zones cover the disputed Diaoyu islands. The army says the key purpose of the zone is purely to identify foreign aircraft.

“The identification zone is not a territorial airspace. It’s an area demarcated outside territorial airspace, and to establish an early warning mechanism and ensure our air security. It does not mean the expansion of territorial air space; it helps to improve the effectiveness of safeguarding China’s territorial airspace,” said Yang.

The ministry says the new zone is designed to identify, monitor, control and react, based on each situation and any potential threat.

But it IS believed that the new zone provides a legal basis for military activities around the Diaoyu Islands.

The situation over the Diaoyu islands worsened when the Mayor of Tokyo wanted to purchase the islands and unilaterally change the status quo a year ago.

The air defense zone is yet another counter measure taken by China to get better control over the territory. The consequence of this new measure is closely watched by all sides, and tension in the East China Sea could continue to rise in the future.

Source: Xinhua

S. Korean vice defense minister meets senior Chinese military officer

 Third bilateral strategic talks between China and South Korea, in Seoul, capital of South Korea. Wang Guanzhong, deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, invited by South Korea's Vice Defense Minister Baek Seung- joo, paid a five-day visit to Seoul and attended the third bilateral strategic talks between the two sides.

Source: Xinhua

Escalating Bravado from Japanese Hawks?

China's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the East China Sea is completely justified and legitimate, Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said on Thursday.

Yang's comments were in response to a question about Japanese media reports that China had altered the status quo unilaterally by announcing the ADIZ on Saturday.

"Japan has always accused or tarnished other countries without reflecting on their own deeds," Yang said at a regular news briefing.

Japan announced in September 2012 that it would "purchase" the Diaoyu Islands despite strong opposition from China. It has frequently sent vessels and planes to detect Chinese ships and planes in regular navigation or training, which has severely hampered the freedom of navigation and overflight, Yang said.

Japanese Coastguard warships intruded into the drill area of the Chinese navy on the high seas and interfered in their normal military exercise, Yang said.

Japan also boosted its military capacity under various disguises, attempting to change the post World War II international order. Japanese authorities play up the so-called China threat through the media and openly create confrontations, Yang said.

"Who is changing the status quo, accelerating regional tension, confrontation and jeopardizing regional security? I think the international community will make a fair judgement," the spokesman said.

Japan established its own ADIZ in 1969, therefore it has no right at all to make irresponsible remarks on China's ADIZ over the East China Sea, said Yang.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday that Japan was seriously concerned over the "unilateral" setup of the ADIZ and urged China to "retract the decision."

"Should the decision be retracted, we ask the Japanese side to revoke its ADIZ first, we will then consider their demand 44 years later," Yang said.

EU imposes provisional duties up to 42.1% on Chinese solar glass

The European Union (EU) on Wednesday imposed tariffs of up to 42.1 percent on solar glass imports from China, which would come into force Thursday.

Chinese manufacturers had been allegedly selling the product, which is used for producing solar panels, in the EU at prices below cost, thus causing "material injury" to EU producers, the European Commission said in its Official Journal.

The provisional levies, resulting from an anti-dumping investigation that the Commission launched in February, would range from 17.1 percent to 42.1 percent, said the Commission.

The decision came months after the EU and China solved their solar panel trade disputes through "an amicable solution" in August.

The duties would be effective for six months, but would be prolonged for five years if the EU's 28 member states make a final ruling by May 27 next year to do so, the Commission said.

Source: Xinhua

Senate-ejected Berlusconi vows to stay in Italian politics

- Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday was stripped of his seat in parliament for immediate effect of a Senate-ejection vote over his conviction for tax fraud, but he pledged to remain in politics.

Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso declared the media tycoon ineligible for a seat after a seven-hour heated debate with rival senators nearly coming to blows.

Paola Taverna of the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S), which backed the ejection along with Prime Minister Enrico Letta's center-left Democratic Party (PD), called Berlusconi a "habitual offender."

"Your only aim is to eliminate him," shouted Manuela Repetti of Berlusconi's revived center-right Forza Italia (FI) party.

The vote marked the end of a process which established that Berlusconi cannot sit in parliament nor hold a task in government for six years under an anti-corruption law adopted in 2012 before Italy's highest court upheld a guilty verdict against him in August.

Berlusconi was given a four-year jail term, commuted to a year because of an amnesty, for tax fraud in buying film rights for his television network. It was the first definitive conviction in two decades of his legal battles, which still continue as he is appealing other prison sentences.

Yet, due to his advanced age, the 77-year-old will not go to jail and has requested to serve the year by doing social service rather than under house arrest. A Milan court is set to start consultation in April to assign him a place to serve the term.

Berlusconi, who has been a big protagonist of Italy's politics for some 20 years, promised however that his "fight for the good of Italy" will continue.

"We must stay on the field, we must not despair if the leader of the center-right is not a senator anymore," he told hundreds of supporters gathered outside his Rome residence shortly before the start of voting.

He said he would lead FI, that has considerable electoral support, outside parliament.

"No political leader has suffered a persecution such as I have lived through," added Berlusconi, who has always claimed to be the victim of left-wing magistrates.

Local observers confirmed that the three-time premier still has the power to continue to do politics, and they considered unlikely the possibility that he is arrested over other criminal charges as he has lost his parliamentarian immunity from prosecution.

"Though in a day of defeat, Berlusconi made the wise choice to combine his anger with the enthusiasm of his supporters, and showed his resolution to remain on stage," said Paolo Mieli, a senior political commentator and former head editor of national newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Giulio Anselmi, president of ANSA news agency, stressed that "Berlusconi is no longer a senator but is still leader of the center-right."

Antonio Padellaro, head editor of national newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, agreed that though Berlusconi was assumed to be dead politically many times in the past, "he has always returned."

The Senate vote came a day after FI announced its break with the left-right government and sided with the opposition to embrace a position of clash with the fragile coalition.

Led by Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, a new party made up of moderates splitting from FI was against Berlusconi being ejected but disagreed at withdrawing support from the government. The new party holds that recession-mired Italy cannot afford more political instability.

Source: Xinhua

PetroChina acquires 25% interest in Iraq oil field

PetroChina Company Limited (PetroChina) announced on Thursday that it had acquired a 25 percent interest in the Technical Service Contract (TSC) for the West Qurna-1 (WQ1) oil field in Iraq.

PetroChina made formal delivery for the acquisition through its wholly-owned subsidiary, according to Thursday's announcement. The stake had previously been held by a subsidiary of ExxonMobil.

The WQ1 oil field is located about 50 km northwest of Basra, and is close to the north end of the Rumaila field, where PetroChina is currently operating in Iraq.

According to a statement released by PetroChina, entry into the WQ1 project will be beneficial for PetroChina to work together efficiently with other projects in Iraq and can help the company develop a larger and stronger presence in upstream operations in the Middle East, as well as drive cooperation with other international oil companies in high-end oil markets.

Source: Xinhua

Turkey set to reap political, economic benefits from Iran nuclear deal

Turkey, a neighbor and trading partner of Iran, hopes to benefit economically and diplomatically from the latter's recent deal with some world powers on its nuclear program, which will ease the economic sanctions it faces, analysts say. "Turkey will benefit economically from a deal that, in the short run, diminishes tensions and helps revive trade in the region, and also promises a future boom in the Turkish-Iranian economic relations," Joost lagendijk, a senior advisor at the Istanbul Policy Center, said.

Following Sunday's deal between Iran and permanent members of the United Nation (UN) Security Council plus Germany, Turkish stocks have hit a three-week high while the local currency lira went up against the U.S. dollar.

Turkish officials are also upbeat on the positive windfall from the deal, saying that they intend to make most of it in the next six months. "I hope that Turkey will be able to export its goods to Iran once again, after the easing of the sanctions," said Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan, whose portfolio covers exports.

"Turkey is exporting more than 20,000 products to Iran at the moment. I hope we are going to make the most of these next six months," he added.

Caglayan lamented that Turkey lost 6 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of this year, compared to the same period of last year, due to trade embargoes on Iran.

The trade volume between the two countries was 21.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, surging mostly on gold sales to Iran because of financial sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union.

In the first nine months of 2013, the volume was down to 11.9 billion U.S. dollars, a decrease of 58 percent over the same period last year.

Turkey sells gold, gold-plated silver, iron, steel, textile yarn, fabrics, land transportation vehicles, electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances to Iran and buys mostly oil and gas from Iran.

Sunday's agreement can also help Turkey navigate more comfortably with Iran on gas and oil deals, which are under sanctions by the UN, the United States and the EU.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Ankara can increase oil imports from Iran after the sanctions are eased.

"We have reduced our imports to around 105,000 barrels per day (bpd) due to the sanctions. Once these sanctions are no longer in effect, I believe the amount we buy will increase," he noted.

Cemil Ertem, a Turkish economist, believes the reduction in the level of risk perceived by the global community is important, saying that it will have a positive effect on the tradable sectors in the stock markets and the expectations that there would be a recovery from the crisis.

"This positive effect will be more intense in southern Europe and Turkey," he said.

The business community in Turkey is also cheerful for the breakthrough between the world powers and Iran.

"Even though the nuclear deal with Iran is an interim agreement, it is about a renewal of confidence between the West and Iran," Turkish-Iranian Business Council Vice President Bilgin Aygul said.

In addition to the economic benefits Turkey may gain from the deal, analysts also point out that this would give clout to Turkey 's diplomacy that has been advocating the normalization of Iran's relations with the West.

Turkey and Brazil convinced Iran to sign a uranium swap deal in 2010 as a confidence-building measure toward the settlement of the nuclear dispute, but the deal fell through when the U.S.-led bloc slapped another round of sanctions on Iran at the UN Security Council.

The easing of the sanctions would relieve the pressure on Turkey, Sami Kohen, a foreign policy analyst, said, stressing that the Turkish government may find a new balance in the Middle East where it has trouble in maintaining relationships with some countries.

Turkey is at odds with its southern neighbor Syria because of Ankara's support for the uprising against President Bashar al- Assad. It has also been repairing its chilly ties with Iraq in recent weeks. "This (deal) would help Turkey to develop its relations with Iran more comfortably. They (Turkish officials) have already established close ties with Iranian President Hasan Rohani," Kohen said.

Source: Xinhua

China Sends Fighter Jets to New Air-Defense Zone

    According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, "China said it sent some of its most advanced fighter jets and an early warning aircraft into its new air-defense zone on Thursday, after Japan and South Korea said they had dispatched military planes to the area over the past few days without notifying Beijing".

'A defense ministry spokesman said China had "identified" all foreign aircraft entering the ADIZ, at the center of a fierce territorial dispute between Tokyo and Beijing.

But Col. Yang Yujun, a defense ministry spokesman, told a monthly news conference that the ADIZ wasn't a no-fly zone or an extension of China's airspace. He said it was "incorrect" to suggest China could shoot down planes in the zone.

China's declaration of the new zone has sparked protests from the U.S. and several of its allies, many of whom see it as an escalatory move that could increase the risk of a military confrontation in the region.

At the same time, Chinese leaders are facing pressure from a nationalistic public at home, with many social-media users asking why the military didn't respond to the Japanese or South Korean incursions, or one by two U.S. B-52 bombers on Tuesday.

Col. Yang also provided a slight elaboration of the zone's rules, which state that all aircraft there must identify themselves and their flight plans and obey instructions from the Chinese military or face unspecified "defensive emergency measures."

He said the measures would include identifying, monitoring, supervising and "dealing with" hostile or unidentified aircraft in the zone. "As to what kind of specific measures will be taken, that will be decided based on the specific situation and the extent of the threat being faced at the time," he said".

"The Chinese side has carried out prompt identification of every country's aircraft that has entered the East China Sea ADIZ, and we have a firm grasp of the situation regarding relevant aircraft," Col. Yang said

Startups in Europe

LONDON and Berlin  are  "competing to become the continent’s leading metropolis for digital start-ups. This week’s issue features one article about Tech City, east London’s burgeoning start-up cluster, and another on barriers to the creation of new companies in Germany". 

"The leading firms in each city are thus in different stages of development. Berlin-basedSoundCloud (a service to share self-produced songs with more than 200m users per month), ResearchGate (the “Facebook for academics” with 3m registered users),6Wunderkinder (the maker of a list and task management service with 5m users) and Zalando (an e-commerce site with more than €1 billion ($1.3 billion) in annual revenues) can easily be called “start-ups”: each is less than five years old. The label fits less well for the firms leading the pack in London: King and Mind Candy, two online gaming firms with tens of millions of players each, have both been around for a decade. Wonga, a lender that uses algorithms to make decisions about who to give money to, is six years old.

Age difference notwithstanding, the hubs have much in common. They are now comparable in size. Estimates of the number of start-ups in Tech City differ widely, but if online maps showing their location are right, the cluster is now home to about 600 tech firms. This does not put London much ahead of Berlin.

Berlin now also has a similar support infrastructure to London: co-working spaces, accelerators (a start-up school of sorts), cafés and other places to meet. In London start-ups like to rent desks in Google’s Campus or in Warner Yard; in Berlin the places to be are the Betahaus and the Factory, which when it opens in a few months will be SoundCloud’s new home. In London the accelerator of choice is TechStars; in Berlin it isStartupbootcamp. And in London overworked entrepreneurs sip their latte at Ozone Coffee Roasters; in Berlin they gather at the Sankt Oberholz (although the latter seems more of a place to work than to talk: at a recent visit to the Oberholz, of the some 100 customers most stared into their laptops or other devices). 

Both places are also decidedly international".

"Yet there are big differences in the urban environment in which both ecosystems exist. London is cramped, expensive and fast-moving. Berlin offers lots of open space, good value for money and an almost Mediterranean speed of life".

Source: The Economist