This week was crazy. Seriously. A lot of stuff happened. Picking one news story this week was hard. Do you go with the departure of a tech industry giant? The online war between several e-commerce giants? The blatant instances of copying? Let’s see where everyone came down this week:
Steven’s pick: CEO Gary Wang announces retirement as Tudou officially delists
The massive merger between China’s top two video sites is now complete. $TUDO is dead; long like $YOKU. Yes, Tudou is now delisted from NASDAQ as it is absorbed into its larger rival, Youku. But there was a shocker on Friday morning as Tudou’s CEO “retired” from the company, apparently to pursue other ventures. Next stop for the new Youku Tudou Inc. is, I reckon, for the two separate sites it runs to tidy up its various conflicts of interest, especially in terms of licensed TV shows and movies.
Charlie’s pick: Chinese copycats, copycats everywhere
This week I looked at two examples of Chinese ‘developers’ blatantly stealing intellectual property and then being tacitly supported by major companies (Tencent and Softlayer). While there were bigger hard news items this week (see Steven’s pick above), I choose these because of something one of the victims told me in an email interview: “stuff like that makes it hard for me to see China as a viable country to do business in.” That attitude is pretty widespread because of how common copying incidents like these are, and that should concern China’s tech industry.
Rick’s pick: Chinese copycats
Did I just copy Charlie’s choice? I think I did. As much as I’d like to choose another story in the interests of adding some variety, I think these are both important stories. While a lot of Chinese game developers have stepped up with original and interesting games, its a shame to see punks like these soil the progress that others in the industry have made.
Okay, okay, I can do another pick…I confess I was a little taken aback to find that about 60 percent of South Koreans have smartphones. Considering that Japan only has 25 percent smartphone adoption, it makes for an interesting contrast of mobile powerhouses.
Willis’ pick: China’s Search War, Again
Qihoo’s entry into search is fun and has caused quite a stir in the market. I’m quite a fan of Baidu because like Google, it helps me get things done in China. Qihoo’s search has about 10 percent market share but I’m not certain if that will stick because these users are “forced” users. For example, search results have been automatically switched from Google’s to Qihoo on its hao.360.cn site which may or may not be the best experience for users. Anyway, it’s still early in the search war, so we shall see. Elsewhere, Momo app’s $40 million funding has caused a lot of discussion among local entrepreneurs I met. Alibaba, who declined to comment, could be one of the investors. I’m also hearing that Matrix Partners could also be one of the folks backing the Chinese startup.
Joshua’s pick: It’s War in China
The title simply explains it all. Although I’m not in China and I have never been in China, being involved with Tech in Asia helps me with some knowledge of its tech scene. The post by Willis really summarizes what has been happening there, not even a competition, it sounds more like a war, which is good from the consumers’ point of view. Ranging from e-commerce war to search engine war – this can, one way or another, prove how developed the market is there and I’m definitely hoping that startups in Indonesia will compete more and challenge one another to be even better for the whole ecosystem.
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