小树 在 上 海 种 树

By GEORGE CHEN in Shanghai
STAFF WRITER OF TreeBar.net

SHANGHAI, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Shanghai Century Publishing Co Group, the city's top book publisher, is planning to list part of its assets to seek as much as 3 billion yuan ($417.4 million) through a domestic initial public offering of shares this year, people familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

Shanghai Century, which controls more than a dozen publishing houses and a big distribution network for books and media products in eastern China, has hired local underwriters and auditors for its IPO preparations, said the sources, who declined to be identified before an official announcement.

It is not known what kind of assets Shanghai Century will list as Beijing usually does not allow domestic media firms to list content-related assets, such as editorial units, preferring instead business-related assets like print, advertising and distribution.

Shanghai Century's IPO proposal has won support from the city government, which controls the company, and China's publishing industry watchdog, the sources told Reuters.

But the company had not yet formally applied to China's securities regulator in Beijing, the sources said, adding the firm expected to list as early as in the first half of 2008.

A shareholder of state-owned Shanghai Century confirmed the company's IPO plan for this year but declined to comment further, while a representative for Shanghai Century could not immediately be reached for comment.

Beijing has encouraged publishing companies to raise capital from domestic IPOs since last year in a move aimed at boosting domestic players amid increasing foreign competition in China, where media-related industries are still tightly regulated by the ruling Communist Party.

Shanghai Century's smaller rival, Liaoning Publishing and Media Co , listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange late last year after Shanghai-based Xinhua Media listed on the city's bourse earlier in 2007.

"If you said 2007 was a starting year for media IPOs, then I say you will see much more similar IPOs, including Shanghai Century, in 2008," one of the sources said.

"Since the government has shown its support with no doubt, why not do the IPO as soon as you can," he added.

The Shanghai city government controls more than 70 percent of Shanghai Century while its minority shareholders include several local asset managers, the city's news portal Eastday.com, and a local publisher in Zhejiang province near Shanghai.

Shanghai Century may seek foreign investment after its proposed IPO, while it had already been cooperating with many well-known foreign publishing houses on a project basis, the sources said.

Shanghai Century aimed to use part of the IPO proceeds to boost its digital media services, such as Internet-based book database and online subscriptions of Chinese magazines and newspapers, as it was keen to explore new profit streams, the sources said. ($1=7.188 Yuan) (Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)

Also available at iht.com: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/13/business/shanghai.php.

By FU TAO in San Francisco and XU MING in Beijing
STAFF REPORTERS OF Caijing Magazine

“还记得你的初吻吗？”上周，27岁的加州伯克利分校博士研究生Caricia ECV Catalani收到一封电子邮件。她吃惊地发现这来自她12年前的男朋友，自己第一个接吻的对象。

“那不是一个很让人怀念的吻，我们也多年没有联系。”Catalani笑着对《财经》记者说，“不过收到他的信感觉挺不错。”她在信中得知昔日的恋人有了妻子和孩子，也回忆起自己的中学时光。

让Catalni找到老朋友的，是目前风靡北美的社交网站——Facebook（www.facebook.com）。“Facebook”本意为“花名册”，通常为美国大学里发放的印有学校社区人员的名单，以帮助大家互相认识和联络，但现已经成为全美最知名的社交网站品牌。

该网站由美国哈佛大学学生Mark Zuckerberg于2004年2月创办。开始只是用于哈佛大学本科生之间的交流，但之后迅速扩展到美国、加拿大等地学校。现在，任何用户输入有效电子邮件地址和自己的年龄段，即可加入。

在Facebook上，人们不仅能够认识新老朋友，还有很多人像Catalanni一样，找到失散多年的朋友。在短短三年多时间，Facebook迅速崛起为全美浏览量最大的网站之一。根据第三方网站流量排名服务商Alexa的数据，截至2007年7月，Facebook已经在全美网站中排名第七。而仅仅在10个月前，它的排名还只是第60名。

与此同时，坊间频频传出Facebook将被收购的传闻，竞购者包括雅虎（yahoo）和Google等。而据《华尔街日报》9月24日报道，最新的意向买家——微软意欲以3亿—5亿美元收购Facebook 5%的股份。这意味着Facebook的市场估值将达到60亿—100亿美元。

相对于其他社交网站，Facebook除了拥有大量活跃的用户之外，还有一个很强的优势：真实、精准的用户信息，而这也正是其最受广告商青睐的一点。正因此，以广告收入为主的Facebook在创立不久便走上了良性循环的轨道。据雅虎预测，到2015年，Facebook将年盈利10亿美元，而其在2006年盈利已达5000万美元，约每周100万美元。

加州大学伯克利分校新闻学院的萧强副教授认为，Facebook的成功之道在于，在浩瀚繁杂的网络信息海洋中，提供了更为准确和可靠的用户信息。

“社交网站最大的问题就是信息太杂，所以很多人用了以后觉得很乱而弃之不用了。”萧强说，“Facebook有自己的特色。它在选择链接朋友以及朋友的朋友时，加上了一个核实的功能。”

与其他只需要昵称即可注册的网站不同，Facebook强调用户的真实信息，使得社交网络更为可靠。

正是这种可靠和方便使得在路透社上海分社工作的陈澍爱上了Facebook。陈澍告诉《财经》，他最初对此“不屑一顾”，因为此前他尝试过的许多社交网站感觉并不方便。但他很惊讶地发现，在Facebook上面找到了路透社分布在全球各地的很多同事，“甚至连我们的全球总编辑也很喜欢Facebook，通过它和全球的记者和编辑进行交流。”

尽管Facebook在保证信息的真实性上比其他社交网站更好一些，但一方面仍难以避免用户捏造信息，另一方面又可能因为难以保护用户隐私，而给用户带来伤害。

27岁的Timothy Lesls对此深有感触。他告诉《财经》记者，自己非常喜欢通过Facebook和朋友联络，交换照片，还在Facebook上找到了十年没有见到的中学同学。但是，有些人会把自己的照片放在网上，“有一些是我很不愿意在网站上大面积公开的照片，还有人会不停地添加朋友的链接数量，不管他们是不是自己的真正朋友，”Lesls说，“我不喜欢这种做法。”

“Internet”一词的创造者、著名网络社会学家Howard Rheingold教授分析说，“由于缺少保密措施，Facebook很容易使得个人隐私泄露，不管是政府、商家甚至你爱管闲事的邻居，都可能获得你的隐私信息。那些不喜欢你的人，就可以跟踪、利用甚至伤害你。”

据《华尔街日报》报道，美国纽约首席检察官Andrew Cuomo日前针对Facebook在黄色信息管理方面的调查显示，该网站在对黄色信息的过滤以及用户举报方面存在着严重的过失。调查人员今年8月底曾以虚假信息注册为一个14岁的高中女孩。一周之后，该虚假帐户就收到了黄色信息。目前Facebook已经表示，将制定新的措施，确保在24小时内对用户在黄色信息方面的投诉与举报做出及时处理。

据《华尔街日报》报道，纽约司法部门将对包括Facebook、Myspace等在内的社交网站开展类似的大调查。

而在中国，类似的社交网站也开始涌现，比如校内网（www.xiaonei.com）、底片网（www.dipian.com）、花名册（www.faceren.com）、chinay.com（www.chinay.com）、亿友网（www.yeeyoo.com）、占座网（www.zhanzuo.com）等。

校内网是其中较为知名的一家。该网站创办于2005年12月，于2006年10月被千橡互动公司收购，目前拥有注册用户1200多万。

成立于2002年的千橡互动旗下还经营着猫扑网(mop.com)、UUme.com、DoNews.com、RenRen.com、魔兽世界中国(Wowar.com)等多个以WEB2.0理念为导向的网络品牌。有意思的是，最早投资千橡互动的投资者之一——Accel Partners同时也是美国Facebook最大的投资人。这使得外界对于校内网在中国的发展更多了一些期待。同时，千橡互动首席执行官陈一舟曾于1999年创建“Chinaren”校友录，该网站曾经在国内颇为流行。

陈一舟告诉《财经》，尽管校内网模仿了Facebook，但他们也根据中国的网民特点做出了相关调整。比如校内网针对中国特点强调“班级”的概念。“在美国没有‘班级’的概念，他们所谓的‘class’实际上是一个年级，是同年入学的校友，而中国的概念更为特定，分为更小的群体。”此外，校内网推出了“校内通”等即时通讯工具，并打通了所有的高校群体，使他们不限于一个校园。

五季互联网咨询服务公司合伙人、互联网分析专家洪波分析说，Facebook针对的是平时有一定联系，但缺乏深层次了解的用户。而在中国，校内网其实是根植在已经有很深的人际交往的基础上的。因此，中国的社交网络其实是一种变种的BBS、扩大化的BBS或者说丰富化了的BBS。

尽管形式不同的社交网站在中国已经兴起，但远未到Facebook那样的成熟和火爆。“现在还是‘烧钱’的阶段，还远没有达到‘数钱’的时候。”洪波说。

那么，Facebbok 能够在中国移植成功吗？

“尽管形式上可以仿制，但是能否成功复制模式很难说。因为一个网站有特定的生存与发展的环境。”萧强举例说，韩国的社交网站ohmynews之所以成功而难以复制，正是在于韩国人习惯于填写自己的身份证号码，这样使得该网站的信息提供者的身份能够得到确认。

中国的“Facebook们”依然在艰难创业。而在美国，即便是对如日中天的Facebook，也有很多人怀疑其商业价值。对于微软等大公司的收购报价，怀疑者更将其视为新一轮网络泡沫的信号。

Howard Rheingold就认为Facebook的价值已经被大大高估了。“作为社交网站，Facebook主要功能在于进行社交信息的传递，却并不能很好地实现群组交流。这对青少年的重要性要大于那些年纪更大的人，因为青少年正在形成自己的个性并寻找自己认同的圈子。”

随着Facebook的进一步扩大，其用户已扩展到成年人。那么Facebook是否还能够保证拥有同样比例的活跃用户呢？

“你一天内会多少次用到facebook？你可以从中找到答案。”Howard Rheingold说。

Source: http://www.caijing.com.cn/newcn/zmb/syyjs/2007-10-19/34283.shtml

By GEORGE CHEN in Shanghai
Thu Sep 20, 2007 1:54am EDT

SHANGHAI, Sept 20 (Reuters) - China Film Group is reviving a plan to list part of its assets on one of the domestic stock markets as early as 2008 after it failed to win approval for a Hong Kong IPO two years ago, sources familiar with the situation said on Thursday.

China Film Group, the country's biggest film producer and distributor, also expects to bring in new partners from home or abroad through the sale of an equity stake, which could occur before or after its initial public offering, the sources told Reuters.

A China Film Group official declined to comment on the matter.

The company, based in Beijing, recently sent its IPO proposal to the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT), the country's media watchdog, for feedback and approval, the sources said.

"Before it talks to the China Securities Regulatory Commission, it has to win support from SARFT," said one of the sources, who asked not to be identified. "That's common practice in China's media sector."

The China Securities Regulatory Commission, the country's securities watchdog, is in charge of IPO approvals.

It is not known how much capital China Film Group wants to raise from the IPO as it is still in talks with potential underwriters and no decision has been made, the sources said.

China Film Group was established in 1999 after the State Council, China's cabinet, decided to merge several state-owned film companies, including Beijing Film Studio and China Film Equipment Corp, into one group.

China Film Group also owns CCTV 6, a nationwide movie broadcaster sometimes referred to as China's HBO, which is likely to be included in the assets for the group IPO, the sources said.

FROM BEIJING TO HOLLYWOOD

China's first public film showing was in Shanghai in 1896. Its film industry boomed in the 1920s and 1930s, gaining popularity around Asia, but declined in the decades after the Communists won the Chinese civil war and took power in 1949.

In the past two decades, Chinese filmmakers have struggled to compete against Hollywood blockbusters, despite government controls on the number of foreign films entering China.

Recent global award-winning movies produced or distributed by the group include "The Promise" by Chinese director Chen Kaige and "Curse of the Golden Flower" by Zhang Yimou.

"China Film Group, as an industry leader, has become an important way for Chinese movies to expand in overseas markets," said Han Sanping, the group's chairman, in a June speech posted on the company's Web site (www.chinafilm.com).

"The door is now open for Sino-foreign cooperation and fund-raising and we need to be innovative and to keep pace with the times," Han said, citing China's rapid economic growth and globalisation as factors driving those changes.

The group applied to SARFT with a plan to float shares in Hong Kong in 2005 but failed to win Beijing's support, mainly because the government was keen to keep tight control over the media sector at the time, the sources said.

They added, however, that Han told a recent internal staff meeting that the top management of the group had put an IPO plan on the priority list of its working agenda for next year, and it had already been in discussions with some potential foreign investors for a tie-up.

"It is likely that foreign investors may have the opportunity to take a minority or symbolic stake in the firm, which will still be tightly controlled by the government, before or after the IPO," said another of the sources.

China Film Group is also the country's biggest movie importer. Its current foreign partners, usually in movie production or importing, include Time Warner Inc, Viacom Inc and Walt Disney Co.

By GEORGE CHEN in Shanghai
STAFF WRITER OF TreeBar.net

SHANGHAI, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Shanghai Media Group, China's second-largest media group by revenue, plans to launch a 24-hour English TV news channel in China this year as it seeks to expand to reach a global audience.

Shanghai Media has been in talks with regulators in charge of the media and culture sectors for at least one year and is likely to win approval for launching the new channel by the end of the year, government and industry sources familar with the situation said.

Shanghai Media's plan has already won strong support from the Shanghai city government, which owns the firm, and is now subject to approval from top regulators in Beijing, they said.

If successful, it would become China's second 24-hour TV channel to be broadcast nationwide and completely in English.

China Central Television, Shanghai Media's bigger rival and controlled by the central government, now operates an international channel in English which targets a foreign audience.

Shanghai Media also aims to broadcast the planned English news channel to several foreign countries in Asia, Europe and North America through satellite transmission or cooperation with local broadcasters, the sources said.

"Shanghai Media has been lobbying Beijing very hard and now they feel very hopeful, partly because Shanghai will host the World Expo soon," said one of the sources, who declined to be identified.

"Shanghai needs an English-language TV channel to serve the increasing number of expatriates living and working in the city and you can imagine how many foreigners will travel to Shanghai during the World Expo in 2010," the source added.

Shanghai Media declined to comment.

FOREIGN COOPERATION

The English news channel is also expected to bring in advertising revenue from global brands that want to reach an English-speaking audience, the sources said.

Shanghai Media currently operates about 20 television and radio channels, including 24-hour Chinese-language news and entertainment broadcaster Dragon TV, which can be accessed by audiences outside China through satellite services.

"Dragon TV targets a well-educated Chinese-speaking audience, including overseas Chinese who live outside China," said another of the sources. "The new English channel can cover a larger audience in the global markets."

Although it has yet to receive final regulatory approval, Shanghai Media has already begun hiring English-speaking presenters, editors and reporters, including foreigners, for the new service, the sources said.

Shanghai Media, whose existing broadcast channels already have content partnerships with foreign firms such as CNBC, owned by General Electric Co , and the Discovery Channel, part-owned by Discovery Holding Co. , is in talks with other foreign financial and entertainment media firms for cooperation with its new English channel.

However, equity deals with foreign firms are unlikely, due to Beijing's tight control of the domestic media sector.

News Corp , Time Warner Inc and Viacom Inc have English-language TV channels in China launched over the last few years, but each has been limited to mass-broadcasting rights in south China's affluent Guangdong province, bordering Hong Kong.

The Walt Disney Co applied for its own limited broadcasting rights about four years ago but has yet to receive permission for a Chinese version of the Disney channel.

By GEORGE CHEN in Shanghai
STAFF WRITER OF TreeBar.net

This week I was always thinking of a question after I had some brief talks with my colleagues and ex-colleagues who once worked as journalist.

We talked about the typical journalism based on Chinese standard such as what you can learn from the official news agency like Xinhua or what Shanghai's Fudan University can teach you at class, i.e., Fudan has the top journalism school in China, or referred to the international standard -- Reuters or our respected rivals.

Personally, I am somehow worried about the future of the journalism in China. Most of the top positions in media world in China such as editor-in-chief for "mainstream media" such as Shanghai's Jiefang Daily or the country's only national English-language newspaper China Daily, are in face held by journalists who believe in the Chinese standard of journalism -- in their words -- for the sake of world peace and state security.

Meanwhile, many of my friends who worked for Chinese media have eventually decided to leave the media world for richer jobs like investment bankers or PR managers in the past few years or just months, making me even more concerned about the future of the journalism in China.

On the other hand, global news organisations such as Reuters and Bloomberg are becoming more and more influential in China. For instance, Reuters recently revamped its Chinese-language online service Reuters.com.cn and the company also hired more young Chinese for its domestic services based on international standard. However, some of them are willing to learn but don't want to learn too deeply as they may think of international journlism just as shortcut to richer career in the near future.

More and more Chinese journalists who once had ambition for news career from global perspective left the media world and there is no wonder that they can really do a good job for big international companies such as General Motor or Citigroup for PR or marketing roles, while Fudan continues to educate the next generation of Chinese journalists based on the Chinese standard for mainstream media. That's the way that how journalism works in China nowadays.

What can we do with it? Someone believes there is life, then we have hope.

(This article was based on online communications between the author and his Reuters colleagues. It was edited when published to the blog. All rights reserved and reproduction in whole or in part without permission from the author is prohibited.)

By SOPHIE TAYLOR in Shanghai

SHANGHAI, Aug 31 (Reuters) - The Chinese worker driving the export-led boom in the world's fourth-largest economy is fast becoming the Chinese spender.

Foreign and local firms -- from HSBC Holdings to Wal-Mart Stores Inc and China Yurun Food Group -- are thinking local as they tap rising spending power from a 1.3 billion-strong potential consumer market.

Overseas banks, now able to gain access to China's retail market as Beijing opens up the sector under WTO obligations, are queuing up to incorporate locally. Sino-foreign fund management joint ventures, meanwhile, are mushrooming.

"As Chinese people become richer and richer, the demand for professional wealth management services is also becoming higher," said Chen Yikang, deputy CEO of AXA SPDB Investment Managers, a fund venture between Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co and French insurer AXA .

Nearly five years of roaring economic growth of 10 percent or more a year has put China on track to overtake Germany as the world's third-biggest economy.

That has fed China's booming domestic stock market -- up more than 90 percent this year after gains of 130 percent last year -- which, in turn, has minted a growing class of millionaires and helped China's middle class balloon.

Urban disposable incomes in China have risen 87 percent since 2000, to 11,759 yuan (US$1,559) per person last year. Insurance premiums over the same period have risen more than threefold, to 564.1 billion yuan.

At the luxury end of the consumer market, China -- now the world's third-largest consumer of luxury goods after Japan and the United States -- is expected to grow 10 percent annually between 2008 and 2015, when sales will exceed US$11.5 billion, a recent KPMG survey estimated.

Executives speaking at the Reuters China Century Summit, from Sept. 4-6, will outline the potential opportunities and pitfalls in expanding their services to win the business of China's burgeoning consumer class.

Beijing is also eager for China to rely less on exports and investment for growth to defuse trade tensions with the United States and Europe.

The Reuters Summit will feature about 20 exclusive interviews with executives from companies including HSBC's local fund management joint venture and private Swedish home furnishings retailer IKEA as well as officials from the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

Executives will discuss their strategies for carving out profits across a range of sectors in China, and the legal and regulatory changes that are transforming China's economy.

Other topics will also highlight the risks associated with operating in an emerging economy where evolving legal and financial structures race to keep pace with GDP.

"We see huge market potential, but there are also many things for us to do, as the market is not mature enough," said Cartier Lam, executive vice president of Bank of East Asia (China) Ltd.

One example of this is rampant speculation in the stock market, which the government is trying to tame, he added. (US$=7.5445 yuan)

(Additional reporting by George Chen in Shanghai)

By SOPHIE TAYLOR in Shanghai

SHANGHAI, June 12 (Reuters) - Flickr.com, one of the world's most popular online photo-sharing sites and owned by Yahoo Inc., is likely being blocked by the Chinese government, Yahoo's Hong Kong unit said on Tuesday.

Flickr -- popular among a growing class of digital photo enthusiasts in the world's second-largest Internet market -- has not shown photos to users in mainland China since last week, amid rumours Beijing took action after images of the Tiananmen massacre in early June 1989 were posted.

"It is our understanding that Flickr users in China are not able to see images on Flickr, and we have confirmed that this is not a technical issue on our end," a spokeswoman for Yahoo Hong Kong said in an email in response to a Reuters inquiry.

"It appears that the Chinese government is restricting access to Flickr, although we have not received confirmation from them," the spokeswoman said in the email.

"We are currently investigating this issue and hope that it is only a temporary one," she added.

Officials from China's Ministry of Information Industry could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

The Communist Party has banned references to the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in state media, the Internet and books as part of a whitewash campaign, meaning most young Chinese are ignorant of the events.

Public discussion of the massacre is still taboo in China and the government has rejected calls to overturn the verdict that the student-led protests were subversive. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were killed when the army crushed the democracy movement.

A newspaper in southwest China sacked three of its editors over an advertisement saluting mothers of protesters killed in the crackdown, sources told Reuters last week.

Yahoo is also no stranger to challenges while operating in China, which has over 140 million Web users.

Press watchdogs accused Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. two years ago of providing details about e-mail communications that helped identify, and were used as evidence against, Shi Tao, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets abroad.

Yahoo Inc. defended itself at the time by saying it had to abide by local Chinese laws.

Flickr also said on Monday it is moving to further internationalise its service by creating versions in seven major languages besides English, including Chinese.

Yahoo China -- which was absorbed by e-commerce company Alibaba in 2005 -- had a nine percent share of China's online photo-sharing market last year, according to IT consultancy iResearch.

Online services such as Flickr, Shutterfly Inc., Eastman Kodak's EasyShare Gallery and Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Snapfish let users load digital pictures online, where they can be edited, shared with others, printed and mailed.

By GEORGE CHEN and SOPHIE TAYLOR in Shanghai

SHANGHAI, May 23 (Reuters) - Shanghai Media Group, China's second-largest media group by revenue, is expected to launch next week the country's first TV service broadcast directly to mobile phones, sources close to the situation said on Wednesday.

The company is readying itself for China's eventual rollout of third-generation wireless services -- expected ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics -- which would greatly enhance the speed and quality of the mobile TV service, the sources said.

Dragon New Media, a unit of SMG, has formed partnerships with China Mobile Group and China Unicom Group, the country's two wireless carriers, to focus on mobile TV services.

Other investors in Shanghai-based Dragon New Media Co. include a foreign venture capital fund and Shanghai Oriental Pearl Co., which operates the city's Oriental Pearl TV Tower, the sources said.

SMG and larger rival China Central Television (CCTV) have both won nationwide mobile TV permits from regulators, although CCTV's mobile TV service is undergoing trials and only offers videos on demand for the time being, the sources said.

"SMG's mobile TV service will be launched next week for full commercial use," said one source close to SMG, adding it will charge subscribers 10 yuan ($1.31) per month.

"SMG hopes that mobile TV will become a new profit stream for the group. We all know China's 3G market has huge potential."

SMG declined comment.

Leading telecoms equipment makers such as Ericsson and Nokia are eyeing a potential $10 billion of network gear orders to build China's 3G network.

Beijing has extended pre-commercial trials for its homegrown TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access) standard, but said last week it would deploy globally accepted standards WCDMA and CDMA2000 alongside TD-SCDMA.

China, which hopes to offer high-quality broadband Web access for visitors to the 2008 Olympics, is not expected to roll out 3G until later this year, or even next year, analysts have said.

Until China launches 3G, cellphone users will only be able to access the mobile TV service via the existing second-generation GPRS wireless services, the sources said.

SMG plans to hire presenters and producers to make original programming for the mobile TV service, which will also carry around 10 traditional TV channels, the sources said.

"Actually, it's almost an independent TV station exclusively for subscribers to the mobile TV service," said another source.

SMG has also signed up with several 3G gear makers -- including Datang Telecom Technology Co. -- to jointly develop multimedia technology, the sources said. ($1=7.65 Yuan)

By SOPHIE TAYLOR
Reuters Published: April 11, 2007

SHANGHAI: Venture capital heavyweights have placed high-profile bets on China's YouTube-inspired video-sharing Web sites, but now appear to be moving on to online companies with more traditional business models.

China's video-sharing sites, which blossomed last year after Google bought the top online video-sharing site YouTube for $1.65 billion, are struggling to build convincing business models, since the more popular they become, the more bandwidth costs tend to balloon as traffic gets heavier.

Some private equity houses also say too much venture capital money is chasing too few deals in China, especially in the technology sector, driving up project prices and prompting investors to broaden their horizons in search of higher returns.

"We recently invested in non-IT sectors, where the prices can be much more reasonable," Chen Hao, a managing director at Legend Capital, told a forum recently.

Compared to YouTube, Chinese video-sharing sites such as Tudou.com, Yoqoo and Rox.com.cn command only slivers of the country's vast online market. They also face yawning gaps between their large inventories and low ad revenues.

"The entire consumer Internet category has received a huge amount of funding, and everyone is struggling to get revenue," said an entrepreneur with a decade of China experience in the consumer Internet field, who has worked with a major portal.

"What you're seeing now is companies who normally invest in tech, Internet concepts, they're also trying to get into the offline space," he added.

Most small firms risk extinction unless they diversify or join forces with other online firms in China.

"If video-sharing sites rely on their own resources and capabilities, I don't see much prospect for profit," said Liu Bin, chief analyst at the Beijing research firm BDA China.

Funds are starting to favor online companies with more traditional business models such as online payment, e-commerce and digital music, as well as traditional businesses such as retail, health care and medical devices, market watchers said.

Investors, spurred on by the Google-YouTube deal, have made big bets on China, the world's second-largest Internet market after the United States with about 137 million Web users.

Last year, 11 online video firms received a combined $52.7 million in venture capital funding, up almost 40 percent over 2005, according to the data firm iResearch.

Revenue from online video in China totaled about 500 million yuan, or $64.7 million, in 2006 and is expected to rise to 3.4 billion yuan by 2010, it added.

But while there have been some successful video-sharing projects in China - such as the bandana-wearing Back Dorm Boys, who became famous via video sites - about 90 percent of the 400 to 500 online video firms in China are expected to wither away as they struggle to turn traffic into cash, analysts said.

"A very important success factor for video-sharing services in China is the magnitude in penetrating video sharing into other Web 2.0 services like blogging, social networking or social bookmarking," said Andy Fan, chief executive of Mofile.com.

Established Web companies like Tom Online, SINA, Sohu.com and Netease.com, which market watchers believe are considering expansion into video sharing, have a bigger chance of success in the online video business, as they already command a high level of traffic and have deeper pockets, analysts said.

"Online user-generated content in China is facing a crossroads," said Li Zhu, chief executive of UUSee, an online video venture with funding from Sequoia Capital.

He added that a heavier regulatory environment for online content also overshadows the development of genuine online user-driven content in China.

But while several video sites hope to cooperate with wireless service firms, analysts said current wireless data transmission speeds in China were too sluggish to make video-sharing via cellphone appealing to consumers. The country has yet to roll out high-speed third-generation wireless after years of delays.

Source: International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/11/business/venture.php

By GEORGE CHEN in Shanghai
STAFF WRITER OF TreeBar.net

最近媒体圈有传闻说上海的市委机关报《解放日报》（Jiefang Daily）打算远赴英国伦敦上市，消息不仅被英国老牌报纸《泰晤士报》（The Times）独家捅破，事后还“出口转内销”，消息回到国内继续在各大媒体间盛传。很多朋友私下向我打听这一传闻的准确性，经多方调查，现将大致情况介绍如下。

首先，稍微有一些“政治头脑”的中国媒体人士都知道一张党报上市需要经过多少道坎（先不要说到底国内还是国外上市），从政治层面而言，其操作难度已是可想而知。当然，通常上海的媒体圈传闻向来不会空穴来风，所以我们调查下来的情况是《解放日报》本身不会上市，但解放集团投资的广告公司将整体赴伦敦上市。

解放旗下的重要报刊包括《新闻晨报》和《申江服务导报》在内广告经营向来是交给一家叫中润（MediaSky）的广告公司代理的。中润和解放的关系可谓鱼水情深，当年《申江》刚刚创刊，没有人敢接手一张新报纸的全年广告代理，中润的老板二话没说，硬是啃下这块骨头，后来的发展当然可以用喜出望外来形容，掘到第一桶金的中润于是自然和解放结下了不解之缘。

再后来解放也换了几任领导，新领导不愿意中润一家独大，于是提出合资，新的“解放中润”广告公司便在一年前正式成立了，据说其中还有一部分汇丰银行（HSBC Holdings Plc）风险投资的股份，在资本运作高手的一路推动下，加上汇丰的英国背景，整个“解放中润”去伦敦上市的故事也算是说的八九不离十了。

解放集团的“一把手”尹社长在今年中国春节前后带了一队去英国考察，也“顺便”去伦敦证券交易所转了一下，这个消息可是经随行人员核实，可谓千真万确的。尹社长回国之后，解放又忙着入股已经在上海证券交易所上市的“新华传媒”，这只股票因为解放入股的事情停牌了，据说政府层面现在有想法将“解放中润”的资产整体注入“新华传媒”，如果真的是这样，那么解放的“英国上市梦”看来又得等下一届领导的下一种方案来实现了。

值得注意的是，自从“新华传媒”作为上海的媒体旗舰股成功借壳（华联股份）上市以来，上海政府层面似乎突然对媒体产业的资本运作大有兴趣，有迹象显示因为解放入股而停牌的“新华传媒”在复牌以后还将有很多媒体整合的大动作，好戏肯定才刚开始。

也有解放的老员工抱怨说，现在的领导思路太“前卫”，报纸内容每况愈下，资本运作倒是越来越复杂。现在《晨报》（Shanghai Morning Post）和《申江》（Shanghai Times）两张报纸加起来每年向解放集团贡献近9成的收入，没有了这两张报纸（如果都被注入“新华传媒”），解放集团的员工福利将来也就可想而知了。这个故事很像当年上海的新民晚报（Xinmin Evening News）和文汇报（Wen Hui Bao）合并组建文汇新民联合报业集团（Wenhui Xinmin United Press Group）一样，老“新民”的福利在合并后被亏损的《文汇报》给拖了后腿。

如上传闻调查仅供参考，真要说“魄力”，还是《北京青年报》（Beijing Youth Daily）比较牛，敢做敢当，尽管事后有一批资本运作高手都还是“进去”了。