This was a pretty intense week, as you’re about to find out from our weekly picks. So before we get into that, let’s mellow out a little bit with some classical Chinese poetry. “Climbing Stork Tower” is a classic written by Wang Zhihuan way back in the eighth century. It paints a pretty picture, but there’s also an inspiring message that entrepreneurs might take to heart working as a metaphor here:
The sun sinks behind the mountains,
The Yellow River snakes into the sea,
[But] if you want to see for a thousand miles,
Climb up to the next level.
There, wasn’t that relaxing? Now you’re ready to dive into some intense news.
Steven’s pick: China’s Taobao and Tmall Top 1 Trillion RMB ($159 Billion) in Sales So Far This Year
Alibaba founder Jack Ma said last year that he wanted to see “one trillion RMB in sales transactions” on his two largest online malls in 2012 – and that’s precisely what has happened. And it even arrived one whole month early.
Willis’ pick: Trials and Tribulations of a Young VC in Southeast Asia
It’s a refreshingly honest post from James Tan of Neoteny Labs, who also very recently became a Venture Partner at Global Brains Corporation (congrats!) that will see him scouting for potential startups across the Southeast Asia region (which he is already doing it anyways).
Rick’s pick: How Huawei Helped Iran Spy on Citizens and Why Brand China is Poison
This doesn’t bode well for Huawei’s recent campaign to shake off the stank of a brand gone bad. A Reuters report that emerged this morning indicated that a Huawei partner may have sold a Huawei-developed spy system to an Iranian wireless provider, who is said to now have the DPI equipment. Huawei’s PR folks probably wish they could go inspect a very deep hole right now…
Charlie’s pick: How Huawei Helped Iran Spy on Citizens and Why Brand China is Poison
Yes, Rick already chose this one, but I’m choosing it again because there simply isn’t anything bigger than this. It has immense ramifications for Huawei, but even beyond that, it will impact Chinese tech companies trying to gain traction in western markets for years to come.
Andrew’s pick: Google Looks to Asia for the “Next Billion” Web Users
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