--★ Award-Winning Chinese Translator ★--: All About China

Microsoft expects bright days in China

Thu, 04 May 2006 18:11:05 GMT

http://english.people.com.cn/

Microsoft Wednesday declared that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with National Development and Reform Commission of China during Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to the company. It is a further commitment on its China strategy which seems to be working better now. An article by China News Service (CNS) Friday gives analysis as the following.

Microsoft has reasons to be particularly proud these days. It hosted the reception for Chinese President Hu Jintao during the latter's visit to the US and won big orders from four major Chinese PC makers. The giant company finally began to see its good days on horizon in China.

The favorable environment in China helps Microsoft's success here. China has been increasingly integrated into and bound by the rules of the international community. The intellectual property rights protection is one of them.

In its 11th Five-year Plan for 2006-2010, China promotes the idea of an innovation-oriented nation. That cannot be achieved without the protection of the Intellectual Property Rights.

Microsoft's operating system has won biddings from the Chinese government procurement which has launched a campaign to make sure authentic software is installed in PCs of government institutions. The efforts on promoting authentic software is under way in the whole society, including publicity and market rectification. Microsoft's benefits are protected more effectively in the process than ever.

The biggest software company in the world was founded in 1975 while China, the largest developing country in the world, has a history of more than 5,000 years. When Microsoft entered China in 1992, it was at a loss about how to deal with a country with such a long history.

In Microsoft's early days in China, its policy of "anti-piracy" and image of monopoly disgruntled the Chinese public. Soon both Bill Gates and Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer realized that something had to be done to appease the public.

That brought about frequent visits between 1999 and 2001 to China by the company's executives. In those talks then Chinese leaders, including President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji and Director of the Planning Commission(former NDRC) Zeng Peiyan, told Microsoft that it can cooperate with the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Information Industry.

Then a series of agreements were signed between Microsoft and the two ministries on investment, personnel training and aid projects to equip rural schools with computers by Microsoft.

Microsoft's cooperation in China proceeded well since then and built up an image of a good corporate citizen. Chinese President Hu Jintao's recent visit to Microsoft during his US tour symbolizes the support of the Chinese government and reflects Microsoft's years of efforts.

China may be the only country in the world which is able to challenge Microsoft's Windows. Thus, Microsoft didn't try to change China as it did before. It's tried to change itself for China. Chen Yongzheng, President of Microsoft Greater China, has strengthened communications with the company's US headquarters to help them develop further understanding about China.

Microsoft has not made profit in China but has firstly invested heavily on cooperative projects in China. As a Chinese saying goes: if you want to take, you must first give.

For Microsoft, the upturn to profits is right in sight.

The articles posted at my blog are only part of my newsletter. Want to read the FULL content in your email, without all the trouble of logging onto the blog? Please become my client and receive free newsletters to get informed of all the things you need to know about your business in China.

Contact me now, and start getting closer to your Chinese market: Jenny.Ying.Lu@gmail.com

Nokia eyes more market share in China

Wed, 03 May 2006 14:38:56 GMT

http://www.ndtvprofit.com/

Nokia Corp., the world's largest maker of cell phones by shipments, said that it expects to gain more market share in China this year through its focus on both the low-end and high-end segments of the market.

"We had over 30 percent market share in the greater China area at the end of last year, and in the first quarter, our market share further strengthened on a pretty healthy product mix," said Colin Giles, senior vice president of China area customer and market operations.

The executive, however, declined to provide specific market share targets in China.

The Finnish mobile handset maker saw its global handset market share rise to 32.8 per cent in the first quarter from 30.9 per cent a year earlier.

Second-ranked Motorola Inc. saw its share rise to 20.1 per cent from 16.5 per cent, while third-ranked Samsung Electronics Co. saw its market share dip to 12.7 per cent from 14.1 per cent a year earlier.

New phones

To further boost its presence, Nokia unveiled three new "N-series" mobile phones, which allow users to take photos, read e-mail, listen to music or watch TV on the move.

Nokia said it has sold more than 5 million N-series multimedia phones since last year and expects the multimedia market to grow to 100 million units in 2006 and exceed more than 250 million units in 2008.

"China has great potential for these converged devices. There are sufficient people in China with enough disposable income who have an interest in these products," Giles added.

While companies such as Samsung have focused on the mid-to-high end segment of the market as they typically yield higher average selling prices, Giles said Nokia's strategy in China is to cover all the product categories.

While consolidation in the mobile handset industry is ongoing, Giles said Nokia has no further plans for acquisitions, especially in China.

Still, Giles said he expects competition in the China market to remain tough. (AP)

President Hu Jintao and Bill Gates to Discuss Microsoft's Commitment to the Chinese Software Industry

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 10:12:37 GMT

http://www.redorbit.com/

Microsoft Corp. is pleased to welcome Chinese President Hu Jintao to its Redmond campus today as part of the Chinese delegation's initial stop in the president's first official visit to Seattle. The president and a delegation of government and industry leaders will arrive in Seattle today to meet with Washington state and local government officials, as well as local business and community leaders.

"It's a pleasure to welcome President Hu to the state of Washington and to Microsoft," said Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft. "During the last 10 years, China's information technology industry has emerged as a global center for growth and innovation. We're encouraged by China's efforts to strengthen intellectual property protection, which will provide the foundation for continued expansion of the IT industry in China. We look forward to working with the Chinese government and partner companies in China to create new opportunities for growth."

During his visit to the campus, President Hu and senior government officials will meet with Gates and other Microsoft executives. Among the expected topics of discussion will be Microsoft's commitment to helping further the development of a strong software industry in China, continued cooperation with Chinese universities and schools, support for China-based research and development, and training and alliances with Chinese companies. The president will also tour the Microsoft(R) Home of the Future.

"Microsoft is committed to growing together with China's IT industry, helping local Chinese customers develop strong, sustainable IT infrastructures and a clear road map for future development," said Tim Chen, corporate vice president and chief executive officer of Microsoft Greater China Region. "With the recently announced cooperative engagement agreements with computer manufacturers to pre-load genuine Windows(R) operating systems, we see even greater opportunities in China and the chance to build long-lasting relationships with customers and partners in China."

Microsoft has a full range of operations in China, including research and development, basic research, technical support, and sales and marketing organizations. Microsoft has established an extensive network of partners in China with over 3,000 partners, including authorized distributors, dealers, retailers, and solution and service providers.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire will host President Hu and his delegation at an official dinner Tuesday evening, at Bill and Melinda Gates' private residence. They will be joined by other elected officials and civic and business leaders from Washington state.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

NOTE: Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Hu urges US companies to invest in China

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 15:56:09 GMT

http://www.newkerala.com/

Chinese President Hu Jintao urged US companies to step up investment in China, holding out high hopes of rising consumer demand in his country as Beijing pushes economic development plans.

Fresh from a White House summit with US President George W. Bush, Hu portrayed Thursday China's poor rural regions as a future economic powerhouse that will help reduce a Chinese trade surplus with the US that reached a record $202 billion last year.

"We welcome more American businesses to China to make investments and transfer their technology," Hu told an audience of hundreds of top US business executives, civic and political leaders gathered at a Washington hotel.

He cited telecommunications, environmental protection technology and energy as areas for expanded trade and cooperation between the two countries.

Hu and Bush kept frictions over the US trade gap with China well in check at a joint news conference earlier Thursday.

However, at the business gathering, Hu acknowledged that incomes in China's rural farming areas - home to 750 million of the country's 1.3 billion people - lag far behind those in urban areas like Beijing and Shanghai and that rural poverty is impairing domestic demand.

"The gap is too obvious to be overseen," noted Hu.

He said government economic development plans are focussed on the impoverished regions. China's decision to invest in poorer regions will "vigorously boost" domestic demand in China and open up business opportunities for US and other foreign investors, Hu said.

Since arriving Tuesday in the US on a four-day visit, he has met Microsoft chief Bill Gates and toured a Boeing aircraft assembly plant, both in the Seattle area of the US Pacific northwest.

China's "remarkable period of economic reform and progress has produced substantial benefits" for Americans and Chinese and has the potential to deliver even more, Thomas Donohue, president of the US Chamber of Commerce, said at Thursday night's event.

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, who helped spearhead the opening of US-Chinese diplomatic relations in the early 1970s, told the audience that good US-Chinese relations are vital to global peace and prosperity in a broader sense.

"There is no more important relationship than that between China and the US," he said.

"There are some who think that the rise of China may produce long-range tensions. But we in this room have a different vision."

China says imports have helped create 10 million jobs abroad since 2001

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 09:16:42 GMT

http://news.yahoo.com/

China has helped to create some 10 million jobs worldwide since 2001 when it joined the World Trade Organization, thanks to its massive imports, Vice President Zeng Qinghong has said.

"Since it joined the WTO, China has imported close to 500 billion US dollars of goods annually, creating about 10 million jobs for other countries and regions," Zeng said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

He also underlined that China's imports from other Asian countries had risen to 440 billion dollars in 2005, a climb of 20 percent on the previous year that meant they now accounted for 67 percent of China's total imports.

Overseas investment by Chinese companies has increased 20 percent in the past year, 80 percent of that in Asia, he added.

Zeng was speaking at the opening of the Boao forum on the southern island of Hainan, a regional meeting of politicians, business leaders and academics.

Google launches Chinese name

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 08:15:01 GMT

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/

When Google Inc formally opened its engineering centre in Beijing yesterday, the Internet search giant also gave itself a Chinese name.

Trying to make it easier for Chinese people to use its services, and in turn capture more users, US-based Google said it would also go by the name Gu Ge, which means "song of the harvest of grain."

It is the first time Google, which lags behind in China's Web search market, has given itself a new name in another language.

"Our No 1 goal here by far is to serve Chinese users, who want useful information on the Internet," said Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive officer.

China overtook the United States as the world's largest Internet market in terms of users last week and will "continue to lead the world for many, many, many years," Schmidt said.

Schmidt is visiting China with about half of Google's senior executives to have a closer look at the market, after the US giant last September announced its plan for the engineering centre in Beijing.

The centre has recruited about 80 engineering graduates in China, 15 from Google's headquarters in the Silicon Valley, California and five top search scientists from around the world, according to Kai-fu Lee, corporate vice-president and president of Google China.

"Most of our investment is in people," said Schmidt, adding the number of employees will soon grow to "a few thousand" in coming several years.

Google already has another engineering institute in Taipei, but it aims to have increased, larger research facilities in Beijing, Shanghai, and other cities in China.

The CEO of the world's most frequently used search engine said the next goal is to have a data centre in China in order to serve local customers more quickly. It will then work with local libraries to bring more information from books to the Internet.

"Our business in China is not about revenue, but about serving end users," said Schmidt in an interview.

Google's major local competitor Baidu, which is listed on the NASDAQ with Google as a small investor, also got its name from a traditional Chinese poem.

The idea behind using a Chinese name helps the company reach more Chinese users, many of whom do not know English and have difficulties pronouncing the name, which prevents them from knowing and using the search engine.

According to the professional Internet research firm Shanghai iResearch, revenue of the Web search market in 2005 was 1.04 billion yuan (US$129 million), 82 per cent higher than in 2004.

Web search engine Yahoo! led the market with a combination of search services on three websites operating in China. Baidu ranked second with 26 per cent of the pie and Google was the third with 14 per cent.

Schmidt acknowledged it was "our mistake" not to come to China earlier, which has given Baidu a chance to surge ahead in the market.

All major research houses focusing on the Chinese market rank Baidu the largest single search engine in China.

A March survey by China Popular Computer Weekly involving 120,000 users shows that more than 60 per cent of Internet users use Baidu, while 28 per cent choose Google.

Schmidt said that although some other Internet giants from the United States, such as Yahoo!, AOL, Amazon and eBay, have difficulties exporting their dominance to China because of tough local competition and slow progress to meet local demands, it may not be a problem for his business.

"We are often not the first in the market, but we often grow more quickly," he said.

Google sees substantial revenue growth in China

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 16:40:31 GMT

http://news.yahoo.com/

Google Inc. expects substantial revenue growth in China, a market the Internet giant sees among its most promising but one in which censorship laws run counter to some of the firm's core values.

"I don't know where (Chinese) revenue growth will be, but it will obviously be large," Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive officer, told Reuters on the sidelines of a news conference on Wednesday.

Supporting that growth will be more than 100 software engineers that the company plans to have working by this summer at a new research and development center in China, a number that will grow to "eventually thousands," Schmidt said.

"You have an enormous number of computer science and smart people here who are Chinese and want to stay in China," he said.

"But there are relatively few companies that are trying to build worldwide R&D centers here, so we have been able to attract the top people."

Google came under fire in February from U.S. legislators and Chinese dissidents for agreeing to block links about sensitive topics, such as the 1989 anti-government protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

But Schmidt said Google had a responsibility to abide by the law in every country in which it does business.

"It is important to operate Google's worldwide service based on local law and local custom," he told the news conference.

"It is not an option for us to broadly make information available that is illegal or inappropriate or immoral," he said.

Google executives have said that opting for self-censorship was a tough decision but the lesser of two evils for the firm.

Schmidt said Google saw China not only as a market for its Web search services but also as a global research center.

"We believe the engineers that are working here will be building products not just for China but in fact for the world as a whole," he said. "There is such a large amount of technical talent that wants to play at the world stage."

Google is developing partnerships for advertising and other businesses but is awaiting licences and regulatory approval before launching any new ventures, executives said.

Earlier this year, Google denied local media reports that it was operating illegally because it had not obtained the proper Internet content provider license needed for China.

Regulators never took any action against Google, which has license arrangements similar to those of rivals Yahoo Inc.

Trading Up in China

Sat, 08 Apr 2006 11:44:54 GMT

http://www.nytimes.com/

Whoever thought it could happen? The world's most populous country, with what seemed like a bottomless pool of low-skilled workers, is experiencing a labor shortage in its big manufacturing regions. David Barboza of The Times reports a shortage of workers at hundreds of Chinese factories, particularly in Guangdong and Fujian, the two provinces at the heart of China's export-driven economy.

At first glance, the result looks like a union leader's dream come true: wages are going up, and workers are demanding — and getting — better working conditions and benefits. Minimum wages, which averaged $58 to $74 a month, excluding benefits, in 2004, have climbed about 25 percent over the last three years in Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai. Wages at larger factories operated by multinationals, which are typically $100 to $200 a month, are also rising.

But it is a far more complicated story than that, a textbook case of how the global economy has developed. During the last 100 years of industrialization, low-paying manufacturing jobs, primarily in the textile and apparel industries, have been the first rung on the ladder to development. America, Britain and other rich countries all went through an inevitable — but painful — process as their economies grew. When wages in the lower-rung factories increased, manufacturing companies looked for cheaper labor. In America, that meant moving from the Northeast to Southern states like the Carolinas.

Then along came China, which jumped into the textile market with a bang: a seemingly endless supply of workers ready, willing and able to make T-shirts, bras and other underwear for much less money than workers in South Carolina. Simply put, South Carolina was no longer poor enough.

China's move up the textile ladder will produce the same difficult changes that other countries have experienced — among them the persistent problem of what do with the workers whose jobs leave. But workers in China are seeing their wages and benefits increase, and China's progress bodes well for workers in poorer places like Cambodia, Bangladesh and Madagascar. Factory owners may be complaining that they can't find workers in China, but that means they will do what they have always done in such cases: look for cheap labor elsewhere.

These jobs are no picnic. The women and men put in 10 hours a day, six days a week, churning out one garment after another. Much of the time, they have to move far from their families to get work. To make ends meet, most live with five or six others in rooms that have no electricity or running water. Sometimes it's a fight just to get paid. Factory owners and managers in poor countries sometimes delay salaries through incompetence. Such delays are particularly painful because the workers are often paid only once a month.

But the alternative is far worse. In the developing world, there is too often little work to be found. In Cambodia, young men spend their days leaning against their rickety moped taxis, hoping for passengers. In Ghana, young girls run up to cars at Accra's few stoplights, selling oranges for nearly nothing. For all the toiling and monotony, factory jobs in these countries can mean survival for a family of six, supported by the monthly paycheck from one sister who sews shirts for the Gap.

All this speaks to how woefully misguided it is for members of Congress to respond to these pressures by trying to stop the flow of goods from China. The better off China is, the better off the rest of the world is — poor countries because they will get a shot at the jobs that leave China; rich countries because many more people over in China may finally be able to afford the expensive goods that are made in America.

China's Currency Strengthens as Beijing Readies for Key Meetings With U.S. Officials

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:34:01 GMT

http://www.moneysense.ca/

China's currency is surging to new highs against the U.S. dollar as President Hu Jintao prepares for his first state visit to Washington, and while two of the harshest critics in the U.S. Senate are heading to Beijing.

At least some of the yuan's gains this week are likely a diplomatic gesture in advance of a big month for oft-strained U.S.-China relations, analysts say.

Chinese officials insist that Beijing's foreign exchange policy is set with domestic needs in mind, but analysts say it makes good political sense to let the yuan gain within the current narrow limits.

The yuan trades within a narrow band that is linked to a group of world currencies. The government dropped its direct link to the dollar on July 21 and raised its officially set exchange rate by about 2 percent.

The dollar opened at 8.0305 yuan on China's automatic price matching system Friday morning, its lowest level since the revaluation. The previous low was 8.0348, set Thursday.

Researchers say further appreciation is on the way. Bank of America, for example, forecasts that the dollar could fall to as low as 8.0200 by the end of March.

The greenback's decline Friday caps two weeks of unprecedented volatility in China's tightly controled exchange system.

On Wednesday, the dollar posted its single biggest one-day drop against the yuan, falling by 0.0096 to 8.0377. That followed a sharp rise against the yuan last week.

Not that the moves are large by the standards of other, freely traded currencies.

"I'm surprised it hasn't happened earlier," said Stephen Green, senior economist at Standard Chartered Bank. "This kind of volatility is hardly earth shattering."

Wednesday's record shift still only amounted to a 0.12 percent gain by the yuan against the dollar, he said.

Contact me now, and start getting closer to your Chinese market: Jenny.Ying.Lu@gmail.com