High-quality online video has been in high demand in China, and Chinese search provider Baidu is hoping to fulfill that need.
Baidu announced on Wednesday that it is creating an independent company to offer premium online videos to Chinese Internet users. The new entity is designed to work with content providers to supply copyrighted material, including movies, TV shows, sports, and animation, and it will generate its revenue through advertisements.
"As China's Internet industry evolves, we have seen increasing demand for high-quality video content on our search platform. By establishing this new company, we will be able to better serve our users and customers with superior content and focused resources," Xuyang Ren, Baidu's vice president of marketing and business development, said in a statement.
"Online video is a rapidly growing sector in China, and I believe Baidu's search platform will provide a solid foundation for the new company to address the increasing demand for premium content," said Yu Gong, former president and chief operating officer of China Mobile's 12580 hotline service, who is set to head the new venture as CEO.
Baidu, which has outshined Google's Chinese search engine to become China's top search provider, has been eager to get into the online-video business.
But video has long been a thorny issue in China, as the country has grappled with video piracy for years. DVDs of pirated movies and TV shows have been a lucrative business in the Chinese market, with obviously no compensation to the studios, networks, and other content providers. Pressure from the United States has pushed the Chinese government to try to crack down on the illegal trade. But the low cost and wide availability of pirated videos have kept it a thriving market.
Piracy has gone more high-tech in recent years. More and more illegal videos, including full-length movies and TV shows, have shown up on popular Chinese video-streaming sites such as Youku and Tudou. A group of content providers filed a lawsuit late last year against some of these Chinese sites, charging them with copyright violation, China.org reported. So far, the case has resulted in a legal judgment against Youku, ordering it to pay a small sum in damages.
TVs with Internet access have also become a new haven for video piracy, as Chinese users can now download illegal videos directly off the Web into their living rooms. The Google-funded service Xunlei, a Chinese peer-to-peer file-sharing service, has been the target of lawsuits, alleging that it distributes copyrighted movies and TV shows without compensating the studios or networks.
Dell and China Mobile on Monday offered up more details about the Dell Mini 3i smartphone, which will be going on sale in China later this month.
The Android-based device, Dell's first smartphone, will support e-mail, instant messaging, and both MMS and SMS messaging. It will include Bluetooth and GPS capabilities and a Mini USB connector, and will accommodate Micro SD cards up to 32GB.
The quadband GSM/EDGE phone weighs 105 grams and includes a 3-megapixel camera with zoom, auto-focus, flash, video capture, and photo-editing capabilities. The touchscreen has a 640x360 resolution. Dell had already confirmed earlier this month that the Mini 3i would have a 3.5-inch high-definition screen.
Under the hood, the device is running China Mobile's OPhone software, a customized version of Google's Android operating system.
Like other Android phones, the Mini 3i will provide access to an online store, in this case, China Mobile's Mobile Market, where people can download apps, games, wallpaper, and ringtones. Users will be able to run different widgets on the home screen to keep on top of the news, weather, stock prices, and sports scores.
Dell said it has been collaborating with China Mobile for about a year on the development of the phone. The two companies teamed up earlier in the year to integrate a 3G data card for Dell's Inspiron Mini 10 netbook for the Chinese market. With more than 500 million customers, China Mobile is the world's largest mobile service provider, according to Dell.
Dell was initially mum on details when it first mentioned the Mini 3i about 10 days ago. But the company did reveal that China Mobile and Brazil's Claro would be the first global providers to carry its new smartphone.
Like China Mobile, Brazil's Claro boasts a huge subscriber base, with 42 million customers in Brazil alone. By selling the Mini 3i through both providers, Dell can potentially capture a much larger mobile audience than it could through any U.S. carriers.
Arriving in China Mobile stores by the end of November, the Mini 3i will shortly thereafter be sold directly from Dell. For those interested in color schemes, the Mini 3i will be available in Red Passion and Oiled Bronze--the image below shows the Red Passion treatment:
Dell Mini 3i smartphone
(Credit: Dell/China Mobile)
U.K. wireless carrier Orange just started selling the iPhone, and it is trumpeting first-day sales numbers for the device.
(Credit:
Apple)
The carrier signed up 30,000 people with a new iPhone contract on Tuesday, its first day selling Apple's smartphone, according to a post on Twitter from a member of Orange's marketing department.
While 30,000 isn't necessarily a lot, compared to the "hundreds of thousands" of iPhones AT&T sold in its first weekend selling the iPhone 3GS in the United States, it's not bad for being the second carrier in a much smaller country, where the iPhone 3GS has been available for four months.
Until Tuesday, wireless provider O2 was the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the United Kingdom. Orange currently has 16 million mobile customers, compared to O2's 22 million. Incidentally, Orange's experience as the second carrier of the device in a country would seem to make a decent case for Apple releasing the iPhone to more than one carrier in many other countries, including the United States.
The numbers were far more impressive than the iPhone's debut on China Unicom's network last week. China's first crack at selling the iPhone was by most accounts disappointing, with 5,000 units sold over the first four-day period.
Of course, China Unicom is dealing with factors Orange is not. Besides having to sell the iPhone without Wi-Fi connectivity, China has to contend with something U.K. and U.S. carriers largely do not: a vast market for iPhone knockoffs, or gray-market phones.
A saleswoman introduces Apple's iPhone to customers in Chengdu in southwest China's Sichuan province on Saturday.
(Credit: Zheng Duo/ColorChinaPhoto)It could be the Year of the iPhone in China, as Apple officially started selling its iconic smartphone in the world's largest mobile market Friday night.
While China saw nothing near the frenzy of the first iPhone launch day here in the U.S., crowds there did honor the tradition of lining up for the phone many hours in advance at several locations. A few hundred people queued up in the rain and cold outside The Place shopping center in Beijing, for example. There, Zhi Xianzhong became the first person to get the iPhone from Apple partner China Unicom after waiting 7 hours and 40 minutes, according to China Daily.
As expected, China Unicom, the country's second largest telecom operator after China Mobile, is selling two versions of the iPhone in China under a three-year deal with Apple. But cost could prove to be a deterrent. Prices range from 4,999 yuan (about $732) for the 8GB 3G model to 6,999 yuan (about $1,025) for the 32GB 3GS phone (sans contract).
Consumers can get cheaper, cracked, gray-market iPhone models at local electronics stores or bring them in from other markets. But price isn't the only potential obstacle here. In accordance with Chinese government regulations, the handsets also lack a key feature--Wi-Fi capability, though reports say China Unicom hopes to offer Wi-Fi-enabled iPhones within a few months.
China Unicom is starting off by selling the iPhone in 285 cities. The carrier hopes to sell 5 million devices in three years, according to Chinese news reports, but the company wouldn't confirm that figure.
Apple is wasting little time in expanding the reach of the iPhone in China.
Just two weeks after signing a deal with China Unicom, Apple is once again in talks with rival China Mobile to offer the iPhone as well.
China Mobile Chairman Wang Jianzhou confirmed that his company is in talks with Apple to offer the iPhone, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Monday. Unlike in some countries, like the United States, where carrier agreements tend to be exclusive, the deal with China Unicom is nonexclusive.
This leaves Apple open to negotiate with as many carriers as it wants in that market. This is both good and bad for Apple.
China Mobile, China's No.1 carrier, has 141 million subscribers, the Journal reported. That's more than triple the subscribers of No. 2 carrier China Unicom. Obviously, getting the iPhone into the hands of China Mobile customers would have great economic and market-share benefits for Apple.
However, as the Journal points out, Apple would need to make some changes to the iPhone in order for it to work on China Mobile's TD-SCDMA wireless platform. The other option is to leave the iPhone as is and let it run on the carrier's slower 2G platform.
The Symbian Foundation and China Mobile have joined forces to promote the development of Symbian-based software for the Chinese operator's app store.
The partners will also promote the uptake of TD-SCDMA, the 3G standard developed in China as an alternative to WCDMA and other wireless interface technology. The collaboration agreement was announced Wednesday.
"The Symbian platform holds a strong position in China's mobile market, and we welcome the opportunity to build our relationship with the Symbian Foundation," Lu Xiang Dong, a vice president at China Mobile, said in a statement.
China Mobile, which is China's largest carrier with about 497 million subscribers, launched its Mobile Market app store in July. The alliance with the Symbian Foundation, the industry organization behind the Symbian open-source mobile operating system, aims to increase the number of Symbian developers contributing to the app store and broaden the range of software in it.
The first part of the program will involve the foundation streamlining its Symbian Signed accreditation process for mobile applications, Symbian Foundation founding director David Wood said.
"Symbian Signed will be simplified to make it easier for developers, by clarifying exactly what the tests will involve," Wood said. "Some of the tests were a bit subjective, in that (the same) apps could be submitted and pass or fail, which was frustrating for developers. We're moving away from style questions to address core functionality."
The Symbian Signed process will be added to China Mobile's submission process for Mobile Market, meaning that developers will be able to have their software tested, signed and approved in one go.
The signing process will also be more closely linked to Symbian's Horizon program, which assists developers in building applications for the mobile OS and helps them submit the software to app stores.
In addition, the foundation plans to launch a Chinese-language Symbian site, reflecting its user base. In August, 60 percent of developers submitting applications to be accredited by Symbian were Chinese, according to Wood.
Western operators are increasingly collaborating with Chinese companies. Telefonica, the international telecoms company behind O2 in the U.K., announced Monday a $1 billion share swap with China's No. 2 carrier, China Unicom.
Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.
Telefonica, one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, has announced a $1 billion share swap with Chinese operator China Unicom.
Under the agreement, announced Monday, each company will buy $1 billion in shares in the other company. In addition, the partners will cooperate in business areas. For example, they will jointly acquire infrastructure and equipment and jointly develop wireless service platforms.
"We are looking forward to enhancing the partnership and achieving a win-win situation for both parties," Chang Xiaobing, China Unicom's chief executive, said in a joint statement from the companies. "We believe that the partnership will help improve our capacities to provide extensive telecommunication and information application services."
The partners, which handle both fixed-line and mobile business, will jointly provide services to multinational enterprises. They also plan to cooperate on providing roaming coverage, conducting research and development, and mapping out best practices for management.
The deal will give the two companies a combined 550 million customers, according to the statement.
China Unicom, which was granted the license to operate 3G WCDMA technology by the Chinese government in January, has fixed-line and mobile operations in 31 provinces of China. The company is the second-largest mobile operator in China.
Madrid-based Telefonica, which owns U.K. operator O2, conducts the majority of its business in Europe and Latin America.
Both companies have 3G mobile businesses that use WCDMA technology.
Independent telecommunications analyst Dean Bubley said the deal will benefit both companies, giving them a foothold in each other's respective markets.
"China Unicom will be (especially) interested in Telefonica's reach into Latin America," he said.
"This (deal) will increase Telefonica's footprint in the Chinese market," Ovum analyst Charice Wang said. She noted that Telefonica had expressed an interest in China Netcom before that company merged with China Unicom in 2008.
Before the deal, Telefonica owned 5.38 percent of China Unicom's shares. After the transaction is completed, Telefonica will own about 8 percent of China Unicom's shares, while China Unicom will own around 0.88 percent of Telefonica's shares.
Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.
The iPhone now has an official ticket to China.
Mobile phone operator China Unicom plans to start selling two versions of the iPhone in China in the fourth quarter of 2009, under a three-year deal, an Apple representative confirmed Friday morning.
China Unicom didn't say what it will charge for the iPhones or what the service plan will include, but it does plan to keep the price modest by offering subsidies to customers, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the deal earlier Friday. The agreement does not include revenue sharing, the newspaper said.
In accordance with Chinese regulations, the iPhones will be sold with their Wi-Fi function disabled, the Journal reported.
The news was, by and large, expected. Reports of an impending deal had been circulating for some time now. And at least as far back as March, China Unicom--the country's second largest mobile operator--had been posting iPhone photos and specifications on its Web site. Apple had also been in on-again, off-again talks with the country's largest carrier, China Mobile.
Apple's iPhone has been in widespread use in China for a number of years as people brought the gadget into the country from markets where it was available.
China Unicom also said Friday that its 3G network will launch commercially at the end of September, according to the Journal.
UBS analyst Maynard Um said in a research note Friday that the "formal announcement with specific timing of a launch may be viewed as a modest positive," although it's "still difficult to gauge the level of potential demand." For Apple, Um said, international expansion and partnerships with new wireless operators are central to the company maintaining its iPhone and earnings momentum.
CNET News contributor Jim Dalrymple provided reporting for this story.
China Mobile introduced a new mobile platform Monday, and one of the presenting partners on hand has raised a few eyebrows.
Details of a Dell phone, reportedly called the Mini 3i, began to circulate on the Web almost immediately after being presented at the event, but Dell says it has not yet announced any smartphone for the China market.
A prototype of a Dell smartphone seen at a China Mobile event.
(Credit: Mobile.163.com)"Dell was there supporting China Mobile as a development partner. We did not confirm or announce anything," said Dell spokesman Matt Parretta.
There was, however, a "proof of concept mobile device prototype" shown off at the event, Parretta said. That explains the photos, which depict a black, candybar-style handset that had a touch screen and was stamped with the Dell logo on the back.
Reports from the China Mobile event, which introduced the wireless operator's Android-based Open Mobile System, or OMS, say the Mini 3i was confined to operate on a 2G GSM network--no Wi-Fi access--but had a 3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and a slot for a microSD card.
Industry observers and market analysts have been largely underwhelmed both by the idea of a Dell smartphone, and according to some who saw early prototypes, the execution of it as well.
Foxconn, the company that manufactures Apple's iPhone and iPods, has agreed to compensate the family of a Chinese worker who apparently committed suicide over a missing prototype.
A Foxconn official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Tuesday the company will give Sun Danyong's parents a one-time payment of 360,000 yuan ($52,600), according to an Associated Press report. The company also agreed to pay an additional 30,000 yuan ($4,385) for each year either of the parents is alive, the AP said.
That figure is higher than that reported Monday by The New York Times, which stated that the family was receiving 300,000 Chinese renminbi, or about $44,000, and that his girlfriend was getting an Apple laptop.
Sun, who was 25, apparently jumped to his death on July 16 after allegedly losing a fourth-generation iPhone prototype that he was responsible for.
Apple expressed regret over Sun's death and said last week that it was "awaiting results of the investigations into his death."
Foxconn apparently suspended a security official after Sun's death, and the case was turned over to Chinese authorities to investigate. The security officer denied beating Sun but did acknowledge that he became "a little angry," according to The New York Times.
Foxconn General Manager James Lee said this wasn't the first time products given to Sun had gone missing, the New York Times reported. "Several times he had some products missing, then he got them back," Lee said. "We don't know who took the product, but it was at his stop."
Foxconn reportedly has not been able to locate the missing prototype.
