6 Must-Read Tech Stories in China This Week

Welcome to the second (here’s the first) edition of our new weekly roundup of top tech stories in China.

1. China Breaks 500,000,000 Net Users

We all knew this was coming sooner or later, but it’s still pretty incredible, especially whey you consider that that’s a 15 million user increase since this past June. At that rate, don’t expect it to take too much longer to reach 600 million users. Until then, check out our article, which comes with a sweet chart.

1. Tencent Weibo Launches English Version, Goes Bilingual Faster than Sina

We started off the week with some good news, as we spotted that Tencent Weibo has launched English-language support. Pretty big news for China’s biggest microblogging platform. It means that Tencent beat Sina in this little race.

1. China’s Most Audacious Groupon Clone on the Brink, 80% of Staff Fired

The real Groupon has been having a tough enough go of it in China, but the copycat service that stole the groupon.cn domain name is apparently doing even worse, having laid off more than 80 percent of its staff. Yikes! I guess no matter which “Groupon” you work for, the only thing you can be sure of is that your job is never safe.

1. Subway Crashes in Shanghai, Weibo Explodes

Sina’s uber-popular microblogging service exploded in anger again this week when a Shanghai subway power failure and signaling system malfunction led to a crash that injured nearly 300 people. Weibo users were also the principal reporters of the incident for a time, with people on the subway flooding the service with photos and updates.

1. Four New Reforms Revealed in Chinese Clampdown on VIEs, Overseas IPOs

Chinese stocks have been all over the map the past couple months, in part because of rumors the Chinese government was seeking to shut down companies structured as VIEs, which would include almost every Chinese internet company listed overseas (Baidu, Renren, Sina, Youku, etc.). This week we learned no such ban was coming, but there will be reforms, and listing companies need to seek permission from authorities from now on. Companies that already listed are grandfathered-in, though, so the great culling of the Chinese internet feared by some analysts shall not come to pass.

1. 360 Loses Web War to QQ, Court Rules

Software giants Qihoo 360 and QQ made headlines last year when they took their rivalry to users’ computers while slugging it out in the mainstream press. This week, a court finally ruled that Qihoo 360 owes Tencent an apology — and 400,000 RMB in damages — for slander and unfair competition because 360 used its virus-blocking software to block Tencent’s QQ messaging app after QQ added a virus-scanning feature that made it a direct competitor to 360.