Dog Modding

I just love the new trend from China “Dog Modding”. Here you can see a nice “Tiger Dog”.
Don’t you think?

The newest thing amongst dog owners in China seems to have emerged from this understandable fantasy and could be described as something like dog-modding: the color-dying of dogs, to make them look like other animals. Like this retriever, that is painted like a tiger.

Fake or Reality?
Look at this nice Panda Dog.

A more convincing example of dog-modding can be found in Wuhan, capital of the Hubei province, central China. A Chinese man modded his dog into a Panda – and did quite well so. As many will know, the Panda is a threatened animal, but also the national symbol of China. All living Panda’s in zoo’s all over the world are gifts from the Chinese government and are also considered state-property of the People’s Republic of China. The Panda es extremely popular in China – you could speak of a cult almost. But keeping a panda for yourself, of course, is strictly forbidden. So here the simulation comes in handy.

(Via NextNature)

A better Street View comes from China

I just read “A better Street View comes form Canada” at ReadWriteWeb and I had to think back to a meeting I had in Shanghai, China, last year with an innovative StartUp.

City8 offers a much better quality, zoom function and interaction. The StreetView has been created using high resolution photography. City8 has already digitalized most of the big cities in China and is expanding its service rapidly.

The technology and the team surprised right away when we visited them during the Trend Tour for our client. It seems to be even better than the Canadian Street Maps.

See an Shanghai Street View in the streets of Pudong:

Schools - China vs. Germany

Just a moment out of the daily life of a student in China vs. Germany:
Left: Picture of a german school-class.
Right: Picture of a chinese class during entrance exams.

(Via: Buried Under Textbooks Preparing For Entrance Exam)

CCTV Tower in Beijing is Burning, News are censored

The images by citizen reporters from beijing are damatic. The burning CCTV Skyscraper reminds me of New York’s 9/11.
What happened? No News on CNN, NBC etc.?

Via: “Beijing CCTV Building On Fire, News Censored”

Kaiser Kuo’s outlook of digital media in China

Kaiser Kuo is Group Director, Digital Strategy at Ogilvy China, writer of the Blog
“Digital Watch China” and Co-founder of one of China’s most successful rock bands: Tang Dynasty.

I talked with him about the future of digital media in China. Kaiser explains the big growth in Social Networking and Internet Video in China. Over 77% of chinese Internet Users watch Internet Video which is more than in any other country. Tudou is the second biggest Video Website in China, besides Youtube. He mentions that it is the first time that Internet Video is taking away big budgets from traditional TV or print media.

See the full Video Interview here:

Alvin Wang Graylin about Mobile Search in China

Minfo is the leading mobile / wireless search platform in China. Alvin Wang Graylin is the CEO and Co-Founder of Minfo. They started four years ago and have already reached over 13 million users. They have just signed a cooperation with China Telecom to be the exclusive mobile search and mobile advertising provider. This will give Minfo access to over 350 million China Telecom subscribers, over 100 million with mobile internet access.

Alvin told me about the differences to Internet-based search and how the satisfy the mobile users. Mobile Search is not entering one keyword and get a list of links back, it is more about answering one question. Minfo is offering SMS-based and Mobile Internet based services. Searches via mobile web are taking around 50% of all searches (and 50% via SMS), but is increasing rapidly. They developed a semantic search method and support several languages.

Here is the Video Interview filmed at the Monaco Media Forum 2008:

China is getting ready for the Olympic Games

The last hours before the official start of the olympic games in Beijing 2008.

The chinese people are getting ready….

TBWA China produced this amazing Spot for Adidas.

Tianjin - the next chinese Boomtown?

Tianjin can become the third big “boomtown” in China. After Beijing and Shanghai the chinese government is now focusing on Tianjin to create a new hotspot in China. Therefore huge development programs have started and the area will see a dramatic change in the next decade. In Tianjin there are already plans to build an impressive skyline and a modern city, comparable to Pudong in Shanghai.

The Word Economic Forum is organizing the next “Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2008″ to be hold in September 2008 in Tianjin.

Here you find an interesting promotion-video about the “Boomtown Tianjin”:

Sustainable Future of China

China is growing rapidly and expands its influence on a global level. One dramatic side effect is that 16 out of 20 dirties cities, on the World Bank’s list of most polluted cities, are in China. There is a dramatic water shortage in 400 of 668 China’s biggest cities. Environment, water and air pollution are important issues for the future of China.

That’s why China is pushing sustainable concepts and projects. The Green Dragon Media Project is documenting this tough challenge and shows major steps into a greener future for the 1.3 billion inhabitants in China.

Here you can watch the trailer:

Doing Business in China: Documentary

Yesterday I watched a great documentary called “Brits get rich in China”. The Video was recommended by Christine Lu from the ChinaBusinessNetwork.

I think the documentary shows the dynamics and the spirit in China.
As we are preparing our upcoming manager tour in China, the video is a great example of what you can experience in China. Furthermore you get a good feeling of “how to do business in China”.

Have a look….

Blogging Guidelines for the Olympic Games

The IOC annouced the first “Blogging Guidelines” for the olympic games in Beijing. “The IOC considers blogging…as a legitimate form of personal expression and not a form of journalism,” the IOC said.

Here is the full news at ZDNet:
The International Olympic Committee on Friday gave the green light to allow blogging at the Olympics for the first time, issuing guidelines for this August’s Beijing Games.
Athletes have long demanded they be allowed to write their blogs–online journals of personal opinion or reflection–during the Games but the IOC was concerned these could potentially infringe on copyright agreements and private information.

In a series of guidelines, the IOC said blogging would be allowed during the Beijing 2008 Olympics as long as individuals writing the journals keep within the IOC format.
Continue reading Blogging Guidelines for the Olympic Games…

Baidu beats Google in China

Our Team in China just published a great Trend-Abstract about Baidu and Google in China:
China Search Engine Snapshot.

“…According to online market research company iResearch, Baidu now aacounts for nearly 61% of search engine traffic in China, followed by Google with nearly 24% and Yahoo China just over 10%. Quarter after quarter, Google and Baidu have both been exceeding their China-based earnings targets, sending analysts scrambling to predict new ones. Over the past three months, Baidu’s 2008 forecast has gone up from USD 3.60 to USD 4.02 a share. Google’s 2008 consensus has risen from USD 19.49 to USD 20.59 a share….”

Leaving to Shanghai

Leaving to Shanghai - with me my new german iphone. During the 3 day trend tour we will have many interesting meetings focused on web 2.0 and mobile media. I will write a short summary for you.

I was lucky to get an upgrade. This nice person from Lufthansa helped me…

We want the Transrapid!

In Munich there is a big discussion these days about the Maglev-Train from the airport to Munich-Downtown. I don’t understand the issue. It is a german technology and the train is much more cost- and energy efficient than any other train.

The german ICE is much more expensive due to the high repair and maintenance cost, but the big cooperations want to make money and do not want to kill their own money machine.

Due to the lack of physical contact between the track and the vehicle, there is no rolling friction, leaving only air resistance.

The Transrapid technology is already many years old and it the best example how slow Germany can be. So don’t discuss about it - we want the Transrapid!

The Shanghai maglev cost 9.93 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) to build. This total includes infrastructure capital costs such as manufacturing and construction facilities, and operational training. While high-speed maglevs are expensive to build, they are less expensive to operate and maintain than traditional high-speed trains, planes or intercity buses.

As Marcel Reichart also described on his latest trip to china: “Germany is slow, China is the future.”

Do you already know the chinese Second Life?

My collegue Daniel in Beijing did a great interview with Hui Xu, the founder of HiPiHi.
HiPiHi is a 3D Virtual World similar to Second Life with focus of chinese users.

Here is the interview - see also our China Blog.

CScout recently China paid a visit to the office of HiPiHi in Beijing’s Haidian District, for an interview with Hui Xu. Hui, founder and CEO of HiPiHi, was the general manager of MyWeb China, and was nominated as one of the “Top Ten China Internet Heroes” in 1999. Hui was also the chairman and CEO of JingQi XiShu Co. Ltd, which became one of the most successful e-commerce sites in 2000. Together with Xinhua Liu, he co-founded HiPiHi in 2005.

Interview

Can you briefly introduce HiPiHi?
“We founded HiPiHi nearly two years ago, and the site is currently in beta testing mode with about 10,000 users – about 15 percent are from overseas. Our public test will happen in August, and the full commercial launch will hopefully be sometime in the autumn. HiPiHi is currently the only Chinese virtual world, and probably only the second company worldwide after Second Life (SL) to offer a totally interactive, immersive and open-ended experience for users to create, inhabit and govern a new world of their own design.”

Why did you start HiPiHi? Is the Chinese market ready and who are your target audience?
Continue reading Do you already know the chinese Second Life?…

Video: Urban Planning Museum Beijing

Here is a Video I produced during my last trip to Beijing. I now found some time to cut the whole Video and put it online.

At the Urban Planning Museum of Beijing you can see some futurist buildings (which are still in construction) and get a great overview of the city.

Travel-Overview

After an inspiring travel to China and Thailand we arrived back in Munich yesterday evening.
Here you can see an overview of my journey of the last weeks.

The main time we spent in Beijing to work at the CScout office. At Shanghai I met many interesting people including Birgitte Wolff of China.de. On the way back we spent a few days in Bangkok and Koh Samui to reflect the strategy for CScout’s China Expansion.

Locations:
- Beijing, China
- Shanghai, China
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Koh Samui, Thailand

Business Foot Massage

During my stay in Beijing I met Andreas Weigend who is Professor at the Tsinghua University in Beijing for the Executive MBA Program.

He organized a great “Foot Massage” next to his Hotel so we could relax and talk about Business opportunities.
Our discussion has been on current projects but also on the development of the chinese market.
His newest project is called “imagelooop” - he is supporting the german startup during the expansion period.

Andreas, thanks for your time and hope to see you soon again.

Best view on the Olympic Green in Beijing

For the best view onto the Olympic Green you definetily have to book a room at the Morgan 7 Star Plaza in Beijing.
The building is just on the other side of the National Stadium and will be very high.

We visited the constructions site and produced a short video to give you an impression:

Here you can see a picture of the finished building:

Link: Movie - China Trend: Morgan 7 Star Plaza, Beijing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCGT012fglQ

Beijing is getting ready for 2008

I visited the Olympic Green, especially the Olympic Stadium and the Swimming Center. There are still many constructions going on but the buildings are getting in shape for the Olympics.

Here is a short video-clip we produced in front of the stadiums.

Link: Movie - China Trend: Olympic Stadium Beijing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBQQ2xpPHTE