This week’s China tech scene saw a high-profile e-commerce failure, an upstart social commerce success, some free wifi news, and a fascinating infographic on the rise of the Chinese language on the web. And, as ever, there were more mysteries and shenanigans on Sina Weibo, the country’s hottest Twitter-like site.
1. Rakuten to close its China e-commerce venture with Baidu
In a major embarrassment to Chinese search engine Baidu, its joint-venture e-commerce effort with Japan’s Rakuten has officially failed. It has been announced that the ‘Lekutian’ site will be shuttered in a few days’ time.
2. Mogujie: China’s biggest Pinterest clone is a social commerce money machine
The Chinese startup Mogujie this week claimed that its users are making 60,000 purchases every single day on the e-commerce site Taobao.
3. The average Chinese smartphone user makes $12,698 per year
Some interesting insights from a new ProsperChina survey on China’s “middle-income” iPhone buyers.
4. Free wi-fi coming to Beijing buses
Who here likes good news? Everyone? Good news, everyone! You’ll soon be able to access free wi-fi on Beijing’s city buses, presuming your arms aren’t pinned to your sides.
5. Rumor: Baidu in talks with Foxconn, perhaps for a Baidu-branded smartphone
Getting back on the subject of Baidu, we heard that it’s tapping Foxconn, the OEM assemblers of the iPad and hundreds of other gadgets, to make a Baidu-branded phone that’s almost certainly running its Android-based ‘Yi’ OS.
6. Did Sina just introduce – and then kill – an anonymous news reporting platform
Chinese authorities are not fans of real-time info or activism, so it was a surprise when Sina seemed to launch a platform for citizen journalists that had both those qualities. But the plot thickened when the new service very quickly vanished, likely never to be seen again.
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