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Chinese Internet Armageddon Not On The Horizon

China’s technology media reports have been awash this week with news that China might soon run out of Internet Protocol addresses, and therefore Chinese Internet users will lose their ability to get online. But now a new wave of reports say this is all exaggeration.

News reports emanating from the 2008 IP Address Resource Seminar held by the China Internet Network Information Center stated that because the current IPv4 addresses were limited and 80% of the final allocation IP addresses had been used, new Chinese netizens may not be able to gain normal access to the Internet by 2010.

However, a representative in charge of Chongqing’s radio and TV broadband services told local media that while it is true that IPv4 address availability is diminishing, it will not lead to an impossibility of gaining Internet access for China’s new netizens. Internet resources are not like natural resources which are non-renewable — they are man’s creation and man has the power to create more IP addresses. Man has dominion over the lowly IP address, and the shortage can be resolved with current technologies.

Other news reports are seeking to quell the potential unrest of bits and bytes which might be upset by the lack of access. These Chinese news reports are saying that the shortage of IP addresses is mere speculation. In recent years, the equipment introduced in China’s telecom industry can both support IPv4 and IPv6. Once the IPv4 addresses are not available, the operators will start to use the IPv6 addresses, so Chinese netizens do not need to worry about Internet access in China. The unfettered access to the Internet that Chinese netizens have always enjoyed should continue long into the future.

As an upgrade version of IPv4, the IPv6, which is the core of the next-generation Internet’s technologies, can provide adequate IP addresses with an estimated allocation number of about one million addresses for each person around the world.(from Chinatechnews.com)

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The Number Of Internet Users Exceeds 162 Million In China

At today’s China Internet Conference 2007 (i-world) in Beijing, Xi Guohua, Vice Minister of Information Industry, said that by the end of June this year the number of Chinese Net-surfers had exceeded 162 million, 122 million of them surf the Internet through broadband and the net-surfers with wireless phone reached 44.3 million.

Currently, the Internet penetration rate between urban and rural areas is different from four times. The Internet penetration rate in rural areas is only 5.1%, while that of cities and towns has reached 21.6%. According to Xi Guohua, The Internet and broadband will be promoted in rural areas from now on.

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Internet Virtual Police In China

The Public Security department of Beijing has deployed the “Capital Network 110 Virtual Police” in 13 portal websites of this city to be on duty for combating internet crime since september 1. The Virtual Police patrol the websites’ pages every half an hour. When the vistors click on the cartoon image of Virtual Police, they can automatically link to the network security alarm service website to report to the police. By the end of the year, there will be Virtual Polices in Beijing’s various websites and forums, according to the Beijing News.

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My Business Reflection of Selling Second-hand Books on Douban.com

Today I have sold two second-hand books on Douban.com whose English website is Douban.net, one of the books is “Technical Analysis of the Futures Markets: A Comprehensive Guide to Trading Methods and Applications” written by John J.Murphy. This book is sold in 80 yuan (more than 11 dollars) at many bookstores and my transfer price on Douban.com is 50 yuan. Apart from selling the books itself, the reason I sold the books is that I want to do an experiment, whose simple purpose is to know if we can sell the books on Douban.com. The following is my thoughts about this experiment.

What is Douban.com in essence?

People generally believe that Douban.com is a Web2.0 website affected deeply by The Long Tail written by Chris Anderson. On Douban.com, the users spontaneously offer the contents for the users themselves. The contents provided by the users include mainly the Books ( Wo Du), the Films ( Wo Kan ), the Music ( Wo Ting ) and the Blogs ( 9 Dian ).To the website team, Douban.com is similar to a “Perpetual Motion Machine”, because they only need take the website’s framework to guide the users and make them finish the rest.

At the Books ( Wo Du ) on Douban.com, the users enrich the website’s contents by to recommend the books which they have read, and more users visit Douban.com to find their favorite books and share them. Due to group effect, more and more users constantly update the Books on Douban.com, and the Books has become a books marketplace or community in a short time.

Why can we sell the books on Douban.com?

Although Douban.com is not Dangdang.com or Joyo.com which can sell the books or else, Douban.com is still a books community, and so It has also the function of selling books as the bookstores. In fact, as Dangdang and Joyo’s sales union, Douban.com in long-term cooperation with them obtains the royalty from its sales revenue. In this cooperation, Douban is equivalent to a salesman or sale agent of Dangdang and Joyo.

Douban acts as the intermediary of B2C in this cooperation with Dangdang and Joyo. And similarly, Douban can act as the intermediary of C2C and become a trade platform between the users and the users. Douban has done so. And It put the commercial site’s sales ( etc. Dangdang and Joyo ) and the personal user’s sales together on its website. Douban treats the commercial websites and the personal users’ sales as equals, although it does not get any intermediary fee from personal transactions.

Well, why did we have sold the books on Douban.com? I think, the first reason is that Douban.com is a books community and this is the relevance between Douban.com and the books. Secondly It is the convenience of selling books, because there are some users who want to buy the books in the visitors of Douban.com. Finally, It is also important that the characteristics of the books including the second-hand books itself. The effect of the product’s characteristics to the sale is attributed to whether the total customer cost that get the product is less than the total customer value.

What is the inspiration to us to sell the books on Douban.com?

The relevance and convenience bring it to realization to sell books on Douban.com, but there are contingency and uncertainty, especially to the personal user. I can’t calculate the quantity that Douban.com sells books for Dangdang and Joyo each month, but the quantity to personal users is very small. Maybe one factor is that the personal users have not lots of books to sell.

In consideration of the strengths and weaknesses to sell books on Douban, I discovered the personal or small websites as Douban can form a kind of direct or terminal sale model, the foundation in existence is their convenience and creditability, and the chance may become an obstacle to the more large sales that they hope.

Link: 在豆瓣卖二手书的商业思考 ( by Bill in Chinese)

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50,000 Chinese Babies Registered CN Domain Names

50,000 Chinese Babies Registered CN Domain Names

Chinese baby education website Yaolan.com started donating CN domain name activity recently, about 50,000 young parents have participated this activity.

Following the reduction of price, CN domain name has been used more and more by not only the enterprises and the organizations but also a lot of persons in many other areas including blog, email and album in China.

Link:中国5万宝宝注册CN域名

The Strategic Business of Ctrip Is on the Decline

Japanese Retailer Rakuten Sold 20.3% Shares of Chinese Online Travel Services Provider Ctrip  (Nasdaq: CTRP) With 575 Million US$ Recently, Reports China Business.

Link: 携程网遭遇产业链压力 战略级种子业务营收下降

Alexa Rank of Some China’s Websites Went Down

Alexa rank of some China’s websites declined quickly recently according to new ranking method. The main reason is some China’ websites cheated in Alexa rank for attracting venture capitals. When the ranking method is changed, they can not keep up with Alexa rapidly.

Link: 中国部分网站Alexa排名骤降：争宠风投作弊盛行

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