Free Wi-Fi, covering an area of 100 square kilometers, will be available to Internet users in Beijing during the Olympic Games this summer. Service provider, China Communications, expects to expand the range of the project to cover the whole city and some of the peripheral areas by the year 2010. The service will allow Wi-Fi enabled laptop and mobile phone users to access the internet from any point within range.

According to report in Xinhua, China’s state news agency, the trial version of Beijing’s wireless broadband internet access was launched on 25 June. This version represents the first phase of the project, which will be expanded gradually until reaching its goal in 2010. During the Olympic Games, internet access will be free of charge, but following that, it is likely to be chargeable. Just how much internet users will have to pay for the service is not yet clear.

Users of games consoles, MP3 players and PDA’s will also be able to enjoy free internet connection within the Wi-Fi range. The range of hot spots – access points to the internet, will overlap in the city, creating a continuous wireless network. Similar projects exist in some other cities around the world. Using the momentum created by the games, the Chinese government is forging ahead in many service areas; on the touchy subject of online censorship, the organizing committee of the Beijing Olympics has promised that internet use will be unrestricted by government controls.

Australian telecom giant, Telstra, has expanded even further into the Chinese Internet market, securing a significant share in China’s rapidly growing, online advertising business. Sensis, Telstra’s own online advertising company, already runs SouFun, of which it acquired a 51% stake in 2006. SouFun currently ranks China’s number one real estate website. Now, with the addition of two more Chinese Internet companies to its portfolio, Telstra has secured its position as a leading player in the Chinese Internet industry.

On Friday, 27 June 2008, Telstra’s CEO, Sol Trujillo, announced that Telstra had acquired a 55% share of two leading Chinese internet-advertising businesses dealing with the fast-growing online auto and digital device advertising sectors. Telstra acquired the controlling stakes in the two businesses, Norstar Media and Autohome/PCPop, for an undisclosed amount. However, hinting that the price had been attractive, Sol Trujillo suggested that the price had been 50% lower than what Telstra had paid for SouFun. Online advertising revenues in the Chinese auto segment are predicted to almost triple by 2012, rising from US$230 million this year to more than US$690 million in 2012.

Internet users in China can now join Facebook, the popular American social networking site, as of Friday last week. Facebook has been preparing to enter the Chinese market for some time now and seems set to tackle local competition in a bid to capture a share of China’s enormous online community. Local counterparts include Xiaonei.com, Zhansou.com and 360Quan.com, a teen social network site owned by Koolanoo Group. Myspace, which has been operating in China since 2007, is also likely to put up a fight to continue building up its new local following.

The new Facebook website appears in a simplified version of Chinese, which is used on Mainland China. Facebook also launched two other new sites, one in Russian and one in traditional Chinese. However, Facebook is not alone in joining in the fight to capture a share of the largest online community in the world; Tencent, the Chinese instant messaging company, has also entered the arena. There is some speculation as to whether Facebook will succeed in competing against the, already well-established social networking sites in China.

A new online dating site has been launched in Shanghai, China. The site, yuanlaishini88.com, which caters for both Chinese and English-speaking hopefuls, aims to attract the professional 25+ market from China and abroad. CEO and founder, Eve La Rosa, says the bi-lingual service will offer a safe and user-friendly environment where busy singles will be able to find their match.

To get things off the ground and build up a client base, Yuanlaishini88 is offering free VIP membership to the first 20,000 members; but if current trends in China’s gigantic online community are anything to go by, they should reach that volume very quickly – provided the site delivers, that is. With some 220 million Internet users, the majority of whom are young, China boasts the largest online population on the globe – and figures are still rising. Social network and dating sites are particularly popular in China, so there is good potential for yuanlaishini88.

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Not surprisingly, it turns out that gender also plays a part in determining trends in Internet behavior in China. This is probably true for most countries, but Internet corporations vying for a market share in the biggest Internet community on the globe, are keeping a close watch on China’s 220 million net users for signs of online trends. China’s enormous volume of net users continues to rise, as more and more people gain access to computers and studies into Internet behavior in China have indeed shown the emergence of clear trends. Read the rest of this entry »

The story of Jack Ma is wonderfully inspiring. Ma, 43, founder and CEO of e-commerce giant, Alibaba.com, China’s largest business-to-business website, is packed with energy and has an eagle eye for business opportunities. Brought up in the industrial city of Hangzhou, a couple of hours drive south of Shanghai, Ma had already set himself apart from his peers by the age of 12. It was then that his interest in learning English motivated him to take what can only be described as exceptional action for one so young: Ma offered free tours to western tourists - just so that he could practice his English. This was no mean feat as it meant cycling a considerable distance to and from the hotel where Ma picked up his tourists each day. Even then, Ma’s characteristic drive and determination was phenomenal; in fact, Ma continued with this rigorous routine until he was 20.

Perhaps it was this exposure to foreign cultures at such a formative stage in his life that shaped his global vision. It was this global vision, together with his sharp talent for recognizing market potential that led Ma to found “China pages”, after his very first encounter with the Internet in 1995, when he spotted that Chinese manufacturers were not on the Internet. China Pages was one of China’s first Internet companies and was largely instrumental putting Chinese businesses on the global map. Since then, Ma, widely regarded as a Pioneer of the Internet in China, carried on to establish Alibaba.com, and Taobao.com – which competes with eBay in China.

Whilst Ma’s wealth and power are quite phenomenal, it is actually his ethos, which is most impressive, and a part of that ethos is even reflected in his choice of the name ‘Alibaba’. The allusion to the ‘Tales of Arabian Nights’ is clear – and not to the forty thieves, of course, but rather to “open sesame” – the password that opened the treasure- trove to the outside world.

See My “Old School” Chinese MLM OPP

China has surpassed the United States as the largest user of the worldwide web. This is due to a massive jump of over 60% of the Chinese getting online in the last 12 months.

By March 2008, there were in excess of 200 million users online, which is equivalent to the number is US users, but experts predict that the growth in China is rising month on month.

Despite these huge figures, China still follows behind other countries when it comes to overall users compared to the total population. The global average of users to population is roughly 19%, whilst China falls below this mark. Currently many Chinese workers are low paid but who will see an increase in wages over the next few years, giving them the ability to get online, which should see the country match the global average. It is even estimated that the total number of Internet users in China, in the next few years, will surpass the total population of the USA.

Due to trading restrictions on landline telecom companies - who cannot sell mobile phones, they have been forced to generate business by offering low-cost broadband deals. This is another reason for the increase in users.

Like many users in the west, the Chinese are increasingly turning to the Internet for entertainment purposes. Video sharing sites are amongst the most popular in the country and some even have estimated audiences greater than US TV stations.

One aspect of the Internet that Chinese users cannot experience is freedom of information. The Government monitor user searches and block many western websites that they see as corrupt propaganda. The government also prohibit sites which promote pornography, violence or is seen as a threat to the country’s security.

The Chinese are starting to embrace the power of the Internet by organising a countrywide boycott of a supermarket that supports the Dalai Lama.

Internet Marketing Coaching – Top 4 Things to Avoid When Choosing a Coach

Internet marketing coaching is almost a necessary thing in today’s fast moving internet environment. It is necessary to move as fast as you want to when you first get online. You see, when you get started, you know…nothing. And how do you learn the fastest? By learning from people who have done it already.

That is the bottom line – you need internet marketing coaching.

But there is good coaching and bad coaching.

This article is about bad coaching, which you want to avoid at all costs.

So what is bad coaching?

1) Getting coaching from someone who makes less than you do. Look, if they are not already doing what you want to do – or at least better than you are not – how do you think they will be able to teach you?

2) Getting coaching from someone who cannot effectively communicate. Make sure you can communicate with them via the communication type that you will be using for the coaching. If it is telephone coaching, spend 5 minutes on the phone with them before you buy. If it is email coaching (most popular) ask them a question via email and see how well they answer you. Can you learn from this person?

3) Getting coaching if you are not willing to listen. Look, they make $10,000 per month, you make $500 per month. Do what they say! When you are making $10,000 per month, you can do it your own way!

4) Getting coaching if you have no time to follow directions. If you are going to pay $500 per month for coaching – you need to have time to apply everything they teach you each month – and that generally means at least 15 – 20 hours per week of your time, working online.

The number of young kids under the age of 14 and infant, toddler and preschool in China is over 300,000,000, accounting for 25 per year in the following years, and the consumption of Chinese toy market will hopefully exceed 13,000,000,000 dollars.

In recent years, it appears some characteristics for toy sales in mainland of China:

1. Model Toys

Electric model toys attract both children and adults, such as tank cars, cars installed with alarm whistle and so on. Though these toys are not cheap in price, especially the electric toys, commonly between 8-10 dollars, some even as high as 80-100 dollars, but they have a strong footing in the market.

2. RC Toys

Appeared with high technology, for instance, electronic toys that can sound or shine, rc toys and interactive toys that can speak or perform a series of actions are salable goods. Presently, various rc toys on sale in the market reach about 1 hundred kinds, mainly are variety of rc toys (remote control toys) and hobby items, such as rc car, rc helicopter, nitro rc car, rc gas boat, remote control helicopter, remote control car etc., each rc car(remote control car) costs about 20-65 dollars，rc gas boat(remote control gas boat) is about 20-50 dollars，and the price of rc helicopter differs between 450 - 2,000 dollars.

3. Plastic Toys

Plastic has taken the place of metal, wood and have become the main material for toys making, because it costs low, easily deals with, safer and light.

4. Adult Toys

Besides the children toys, adult toys in mainland of China are also have large market. According to the latest investigation of China Social Investigation Office, 33 of the whole year consumption for Chinese citizens to buy toys, and with the toy development of top grade, brightness and series, in particular, rc toys (remote control toys) and hobby items, such as rc car, rc helicopter, nitro rc car, rc gas boat, remote control helicopter, remote control car etc., the toy consumption will be in the status of advancing.