The9 Limited has begun to focus on business opportunities in mobile internet, by introducing and localizing OpenFeint, the world’s largest mobile social gaming platform for iPhone and Android phone users. OpenFeint allows game publishers to introduce services which enable mobile social gaming, and provide smartphone users with a space to share gaming experiences. The 18-month-old platform boasts more than 50 million registered users on both iOS and Android systems, provides access to about 3,800 mobile games and also has more than 13,000 registered developers. California-based Aurora Feint, the company behind OpenFeint, reached an agreement with The9. It issued a five-year license for the Chinese company to use OpenFeint’s mobile social gaming network software in China. In July, The9 made a strategic minority equity investment in Aurora Feint. Initially, OpenFeint will only be available on Android, but soon will also support Apple’s iOS. OpenFeint will support all major online stores, including China Mobile’s Mobile Market, China Unicom’s Wostore and China Telecom’s 189store.com. The9 is suffering losses since it failed to renew its license for the online game World of Warcraft. Chairman and CEO Zhu Jun believes there may be far greater opportunities in the mobile internet market than in the traditional online market.

Hardware

• Hewlett-Packard will build one of its biggest service centers and continue investing in the Chinese market, Ruey-bin Kao, the company’s new chief in China, said in Beijing. Kao is a former President of Motorola China. “The very first thing I will do after joining HP is to find two offices which are larger than 10,000 square meters for HP’s expansion in China,” said Kao.
• Lenovo, the world’s No 4 PC maker, expects its operating profit margin to trend upwards, helped by easing component shortages and an appreciating Chinese currency, its Chief Financial Officer Wong Wai-ming said at the Reuters China Investment Summit in Beijing. He added that the company will launch its LePad tablet PC in China soon and is planning to have a smartphone that will run on China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA 3G network.
• Huawei Technologies aims to invest more than USD2 billion in India over the next five years. The company will build a new research and development (R&D) park in  Bangalore and increase the number of engineers engaged in research to a total of 3,000. The company recently started the first phase of its manufacturing in Chennai. Huawei has cooperated with local telecom operators to provide services to more than 600 million Indian customers.
• China said it hopes the European Union will end investigations into a complaint that it is dumping wireless modems into EU markets. Chinese and European companies had reached a basic agreement on the dispute and submitted it to the European Commission, Commerce Minister Chen Deming said on the sidelines of the annual China-EU trade talks in Beijing.

Operators

• China Mobile aims to double its 3G network capacity usage to 20% by the end of next year, through a nationwide network upgrade and increased variety of 3G models. China Mobile said its 3G network coverage would be better than that of 2G in nine major cities, including Shanghai, in 2011 because the carrier will upgrade its 3G network. The operator plans to have a total of 300,000 3G base stations in China in 2011, compared with 220,000 now.
• China Telecom has cut overseas roaming fees by up to 81% starting from this month as it seeks to improve its competitiveness in the domestic mobile market. The operator launched a new package for roaming users that cuts fees by 50% on average from the previous level. The new package supports overseas CDMA networks in 17 countries or regions as well as GSM networks in 258 countries via cooperation with Vodafone.
• China may start the commercial use of its homegrown fourth-generation telecommunication technology TD-LTE in 2012, and large-scale commercial trials will begin next year, Bill Huang, General Manager of the China Mobile Research Institute, said on the sidelines of the 2010 International Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing.
• Hong Kong’s three listed telecommunications network operators – PCCW, SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings and Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings – are all on their way to generating significant earnings next year, according to Macquarie Securities.
• China Mobile has launched a technology similar to Apple’s AirPlay, which allows people to transmit high quality images, video or 3D games from a mobile phone to other electronic appliances, such as computers and TVs. The technology, which is called Wireless Mobile Multi-media Transmission Protocol, or “WiMo”, may kick-start a new era of cell phone applications, said Bill Huang, General Manager of China Mobile’s Research Institute, adding that the technology achieves the convergence of three screens (mobile phone, TV and PC).

Software

• China has invested CNY15 billion to build the first national-level Geographic Information Industrial Park, which covers a total area of about 66.7 hectares in Beijing. It is scheduled to be operational by 2013. More than 100 companies in the geographic information industry will have entered the park by then. Revenue from China’s geographic information industry reached CNY75 billion in 2009.
• China’s software industry revenue is expected to grow more than 20% annually over the next five years. In the first 10 months of this year, revenue in the sector grew 29.9% year on year to hit CNY1.09 trillion, accounting for 18% of total revenue in the information technology sector, compared with 6% in 2001. By 2015, China is expected to have 10 software companies with an annual revenue of more than CNY10 billion.
• The piracy rate of China’s personal computer software reached 79% last year, 1 percentage point down from 2008, but the estimated losses to the industry hit USD7.6 billion, doubling the figure from four years ago, according to research by International Data Corporation (IDC) and the Business Software Alliance (BSA).

Web

• Tencent Holdings said it will open its platform of Tencent communities within six months, following Facebook’s example. Chairman Ma Huateng also said his company is considering opening its instant messaging service QQ to developers and small- and medium-sized websites. He suggested they may also use Tencent’s online payment system. The developers can also put applications on QQ. Tencent purchased Google-invested Chinese forum software company Comsenz for between USD40 million and USD50 million in August, in order to gain community product technology.
• Data Center of China Internet, an independent third-party researcher, estimates that the number of individual micro-blogging users in China will reach 100 million by the end of next year, climb to 168 million in 2012 and reach 253 million in 2013.
• Sohu.com is seeking CNY100,000 in compensation from competitor Tudou.com, accusing Tudou of violating its exclusive rights to broadcast the popular TV play “A Story of Lala’s Promotion” online. Tudou denied having infringed Sohu’s copyright and said Sohu had broadcast another popular TV play whose online copyright belonged to Tudou.
• A clone of micro-blog site Twitter that was shut down last year amid fears it was fanning unrest has re-emerged. Fanfou was restored at the end of November. It had more than a million users before it was forced offline in July last year following riots in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang. The Chinese government claimed the unrest was  organized through the web and mobile phone messages. Fanfou’s website crashed after it became available as large numbers of visitors tried to log on.
• China may accelerate the pace of regulation in the country’s booming third-party payment market, as the media reported that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) may implement a license system. Companies will be eligible for a license as long as they fulfill the PBOC’s requirements, and there would be no limit on the number of licenses available. Alipay, the online payment arm of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, is the biggest player in the market.
• According to a study by business consultancy Eguan.cn, the number of micro-bloggers on the mainland had increased ninefold in the past year – from 8 million to 75 million. That is a sizable market, compared with U.S. media estimates that Twitter has about 200 million users worldwide.
• Micro-blogs are set to become the next battlefield in China’s online advertising market as it is quickly becoming the new marketing tool for multinational companies, such as Nokia, Dell and Lenovo, to promote their brands and products.
• Google China’s revenue is still growing “quarter on quarter” although it has lost market share since redirecting its mainland home page to its Hong Kong website in March, said Liu Yun, Google’s Vice President who is in charge of China’s marketing and sales, during the Google Innovation Forum.
• Chinese social networking portal Oak Pacific Interactive is reportedly going to sell shares in the United States in the first half of next year. Oak Pacific is the operator of Facebook-styled Renren, group-buying platform Nuomi and online community Mop. Japan’s Softbank Corp paid USD384 million for a 40% stake in the company in 2008.
• Online book seller 360Buy.com started offering price discounts of up to 20% compared to major rivals including Dangdang.com and Joyo, the China division of Amazon.com. 360Buy is well known for its extensive product line and low prices of home appliances and consumer electronics. It started selling books in November.
• Shanghai plans to establish a government fund to support the development of cloud computing, officials said at the Shanghai Cloud Computing Application Forum. Output of the local cloud computing sector will hit USD15 billion by the end of 2015. The new technology will first be used for smart grid and urban transportation systems in China, said Li Deyi of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
• Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings, a unit of conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, launched what it says is Hong Kong’s largest English-language electronic book archive through its integrated communications brand, 3ree Broadband. More than 2.2 million e-books are now available to 3ree Broadband subscribers through a partnership with Kobo, a Toronto-based e-reading service provider in which Li Ka-shing’s Cheung Kong (Holdings) is a major shareholder.
• The Ministry of Culture has ordered 237 websites to halt operations immediately for illegally offering music. Those qualified can register with cultural market departments, while those who fail would be shut down. There will be further actions to strike out copyright infringement, an official at the Ministry said.
• Export Today, a company founded by Frank Lavin, a former U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, plans to establish a partnership with Alibaba Group Holding to enable small- and medium sized businesses in the United States to sell goods in China through Alibaba’s Taobao Mall, the largest Chinese business-to-customer shopping site.
• Search engine Baidu plans to invest up to CNY100 million to fight illegal web content. It has launched a project with the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center to identify and remove illegal content on websites after it received complaints that it did not filter links of counterfeit companies. Baidu said 200 people are currently employed to monitor information and deal with complaints.
• Home appliance retailer Gome Electrical Appliances is set to launch a new online-trading platform in March next year after acquiring an 80% stake in coo8.com,an online home-appliances seller in China, at a cost of CNY48 million last month. The new website would focus on sales of mobile phones, computers, and digital products. According to iResearch, more than 42 million Chinese consumers bought CNY11.37 billion worth of electrical products from domestic shopping websites last year, more than double online sales in 2008.
• Online monitoring firm Data Center of China Internet has forecast the number of active micro-blog accounts in China to surpass 100 million next year from an estimated 65 million this year.
• Sina Corp was forced to delete the micro-blog of Fang Binxing, President of the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, who is considered to be “the father of the Great Firewall of China” for his role in building a sophisticated system of blocking access to certain websites. His blog was targeted by internet users opposed to censorship.
• Qihoo 360 has been ordered by the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court to pay Baidu CNY385,000 as compensation for unfair competition after Qihoo’s security tool identified Baidu’s Tool Bar and Address Bar as “malicious plug-ins.”
• The People’s Daily has launched Goso.cn, a news search engine. It is the first search engine in China backed by a national media outlet. It can also analyze the popularity of certain news topics. Plans to expand Goso’s service to mobile phone users are on the agenda. Goso and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) also set up a joint laboratory.

One-line news

• Canadian smartphone maker Research In Motion (RIM) said its consumer business is expected to overtake its corporate element in China during the next three to four years, as the company plans to launch individual business services early next year in the country. Gregory Shea, President of RIM in China, said he was very optimistic about non-business Chinese consumers purchasing the Blackberry handset.
• China successfully launched the seventh satellite for its Beidou navigation network. The launch marked the 136th flight for the country’s Long March series of rockets. The network will eventually comprise more than 30 satellites.

Group T is organizing a conference on “Asia and Europe: perceptions and understanding”. The lecture is part of MONSOON, the intercultural platform for Asian and European artists at the art center STUK. The event will tajke place on 21 December 2010 at 19.30 h. at Campus Vesalius, Andreas Vesaliusstraat 13, 3000 Leuven. Following the lecture, the Confucius Institute at Group T will offer a free drink. For more info: tel. 016-301123 or cultuur@groept.be.

The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce (FCCC) organized a meeting with leaders from the Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area (TEDA). The meeting took place on 14 December at the seat of the Province of East Flanders.

The delegation was led by Mr Ni Xiangyu, Vice Chairman of the Administrative Commission of Tianjin Economic & Technological Development Area/Tianjin Binhai New Area. Mr Ni Xianyu was accompanied by the chief and project manager of the investment promotion bureau. Several of our member companies are among the list of clients of TEDA and have selected this very dynamic zone as a location for further expansion. During the meeting Mr Ni Xiangyu briefed the participants on the opportunities and preferential policies for investment in TEDA. Members can obtain an investment guide of Tianjin Economic Development Area by sending an e-mail to: info@flanders-china.be.

The Provincial Development Agency (POM) Antwerp, the Port of Antwerp and the Customs Administration are launching the first “green trade lane” by rail. Rail transport is now a viable alternative to maritime links between Asia and Europe. As POM Antwerp and the municipality of Chongqing have excellent relations, the green trade lane by rail will link Antwerp and Chongqing and also offer the opportunity to open the inland port of Chongqing to intercontinental traffic. Chongqing is located about 1,500 km to the west of Shanghai. It is the center of economic growth and development in China’s interior. As one of the four centrally administered municipalities, Chongqing also enjoys strong support from the central authorities. With a population of 32 million, its inland harbor and strong industrial sectors including chemicals, motorcycles, IT, equipment and machinery, the area has a tremendous growth potential. The Province of Antwerp is also recognizing this fact and has signed a friendship agreement with Chongqing in November. More information is available at
http://www.pomantwerpen.be/pers/vriendschapsverdrag-bindt-antwerpen-met-chongqing/

At present there are already a few rail links between Europe and China, requiring a transit time of at least 19 days compared to the maritime link between Shanghai and Europe of about 30 days. Antwerp and Chongqing want to offer an overland green trade lane, reducing the traveling time to 12 days. The advantage is a fast, secure connection with minimal checks and customs formalities. Discussions with several rail operators are now ongoing. The organizers of the trade lane are trying to get a better understanding of market demand. Interested companies may submit this form by e-mail before January 16, 2011 to  international@pomantwerpen.be.

The project team is ready to provide more information: Gemeentelijk Havenbedrijf Antwerpen – Helen De Wachter, Helen.DeWachter@haven.Antwerpen.be,+32 3 205 22 47; Administratie Douane & Accijnzen – Michael Van Giel, michael.vangiel@minfin.fed.be,+32 2 577 43 69; POM Antwerpen – Peter Druyts, peter.druyts@pomantwerpen.be,+32 3 240 68 77 and Liesbeth Fransen, liesbeth.fransen@pomantwerpen.be, +32 240 68 74.