Sinobytes

Navigating the bamboo scaffolding of China's rapid-rising tower of technology

China's 3G handset market set for 600 percent boost in 2010

Feb 8, 2010 23:57

A model/booth-babe shows a 3G handset on a street in China

Chinese consumers look set to buy 43 million 3G handsets throughout this year, a 600 percent increase over last year's 7.2 million, coaxed by aggressive subsidies from mainland China's three mobile telcos.

That's the finding of tech-oriented market-research firm iSuppli, which stressed that subsidies will be key to pushing 3G and smartphone adoption. The largest mobile telco, China Mobile, is alone in expecting to "increase its total subsidies to consumers to 30 billion yuan [US$4.4 billion] in 2010", with the total amount of deal-sweetening among all the telcos amounting to "RMB 50 billion, or U$7.3 billion".
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How Gays.com came to fruition in China

Feb 4, 2010 15:09

You may be surprised to learn that the new social-networking site that has been dubbed the "gay Facebook" was made in China, and based in Shanghai. Gays.com is run by a small, multinational team who are keen to put the "Web 2.0" into the gay Webosphere in order to make the site more real name and sociable.
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Wi-Fi for China Unicom's iPhone thankfully, finally coming...

Jan 29, 2010 23:58

China Unicom's iPhone may seen get WAPI wi-fi

Apple's iPhone got its official China launch on October 1 last year, arriving at China Unicom with its Wi-Fi chip ripped out, leaving its customers reliant on 3G for getting online. This looks set to be fixed quite soon, as reports are emerging this week that a China-only update to the iPhone hardware will bring with it WAPI, China's own Wi-Fi standard.
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2010 in China: It'll be all about the apps, and going mobile

Jan 26, 2010 22:42

China gets into apps on iPhone and Android

3G appeared in China only in the summer of 2009, and more entertaining and extendable smartphones--not including BlackBerry and Windows Mobile--are just becoming mainstream. So it makes sense that 2010 in China will be all about the apps.

But what kind of apps exactly? Well, look to what has been a hit on Chinese desktops for the past couple of years, and that gives a big clue, i.e. apps which bring social games--such as the hugely popular Happy Farm and Tencent's QQ Farm version for its Q-Zone--to the mobile will undoubtedly take off soon. But it's debatable on what platform, on grounds of cost...
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Chinese video-sharing sites launch huge attack on piracy

Jan 23, 2010 19:02

China's top video-sharing Web sites, such as Youku and Tudou, have joined together in a massive assault on Web piracy, and starting this month, Youku will be the first to begin removing TV shows, movies and music videos.

Youku this week launched its "copyright identification management platform"--similar to YouTube's--which can track down and disable pirated material that users have uploaded. Visitors to Youku's Web site from Europe and the US will be the first to notice such takedowns, and in the coming months, will hit viewers in China too.
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About Steven Millward

Six years after arriving in China to 'check it out', Steven Millward has decided to stay put, and is hooked on the fast-changing dynamic of mainland China. He's not too intimidated that his current city of residence has a greater population than his entire homeland of Wales. A freelance editor, lifestyle magazine writer, English teacher, and enthusiastic blogger, he can also be found on twitter (as @SirSteven) discussing media, tech and music. You can email him with any tips, queries or feedback.