Monthly Archives: November 2007

The cost of living in Shanghai is catching up with more expensive locations in the region such as Hong Kong and Taipei, according to the latest global cost of living survey. The ECA cost of living survey listed Shanghai in 100th place among the top 300-plus most expensive cities in the world, up 23 spots from last year. Shanghai was also one position higher than Singapore among Asian cities, which ranked at 122nd place globally, according to the report.

A range of new payment services through mobile phones has put a virtual withdrawal machine in consumers’ hands, enabling 8 million mobile users in China to pay bills, buy insurance or book tickets. Jointly launched among China UnionPay, commercial banks and the service operators, users had their mobile phone numbers joined with that of their bank accounts, allowing them to fulfill payment for various services, like their gas fee and air ticket booking.

An energy structure with a low utilization rate, and an economic growth mode with serious, hazardous emissions have posed stark challenges for the sustained growth of Chinese economic society. Faced with such a grave situation in energy saving and emission reduction, more than 6,000 science, technology workers, as well as scientist-turned-entrepreneurs on met recently to discuss issues such as energy saving and environmental protection. Among them were more than 100 members from Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), the highest palaces for scientific research achievements and engineering progress [...]

As the number of millionaires continues to grow in China, the country attracks more and more events targeted for the rich and famous: the annual Top Marques luxury fair returned to the Shanghai International Convention Center in Pudong yesterday with nearly 300 rare exhibits including roadsters, yachts, works of art and antiques. The four-day event is expected to attract more than 30,000 visitors, mostly customers invited by the exhibitors and senior staff from wealthy companies in banking, energy resources and IT, according to Sheng Lei, the general manager of the event organizer, Borrison Expo [...]

Alibaba.com, the largest business-to-business portal in China underwent its first day of public share trading in Honk Kong, and the results exceeded all expectations, as the price tripled, raising $1.5 billion. The public offering is expected to raise nearly $2 billion in Hong Kong, making its debut offering as large as Google’s 2004 I.P.O. in the United States. ‘We are pleased to welcome investors from Hong Kong and around the world to join us in building a world-class e-commerce company,’ said Jack Ma, non-executive chairman of the company and chairman and chief executive officer of Alibaba Group…

Culminating a 13-year drafting process, on August 30 the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress enacted China’s first competition law, the Anti-Monopoly Law ( [Fan Longduan Fa] ). It prohibits discriminatory and anti-competitive practices by local administrative and public bodies against products, business operators and investors from other parts of China, and Fines for monopoly agreements and abuses of dominant position may range as high as one to ten percent of the wrongdoing company’s total sales volume in the relevant market during the previous year…

China’s industry and commerce authorities have handled more than 60,000 intellectual property rights infringement cases amid stepped-up efforts in IPR protection after its entry into the World Trade Organization, according to a senior official. From 2002 through the first half of this year, the country’s industry and commerce departments at all levels have dealt with 60,203 IPR infringement cases valued at 1.4 billion yuan (186 million U.S. dollars), said Li Wenzhang, deputy director of the fair trade bureau of the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC)…

China’s Internet industry continues to be in a state of rapid development. In 2006, the number of Chinese Internet users exceeded 150 million, with 50% of these users between the ages of 18 and 35. China’s Internet market is also transitioning from a narrowband to a broadband market with over 30 million of the 57 million total connected users having broadband access. As an emerging service market, China’s Web 2.0 has shown great development potential and in 2006 the market size reached US$62.8 million. According to IDC’s forecasts, Chinese Web 2.0 market is predicated to reach US$645.8 million by 2011.

Taobao, the leader in Chinese C2C market, released a report on shopping at Taobao in the first half of 2007. Since Taobao has gained about 72% market share in first quarter of 2007, according to iResearch, Taobao’s report would help us to know the general picture of Chinese online shopping market.