Walmart Invested 360buy, the Biggest 3C Online Retailer in China

Liu Qiangdong, the chairman of 360buy, the biggest 3C online retailer in Chinese B2C market, today disclosed its series C venture investment, the amount is over $500million.

Liu said this round of investment is not from venture capitals, but also from some strategic investor including Walmart and other six large internet companies. Walmart is starting its own e-commerce in China by launching its online Sam’s Club. The future cooperation between 360buy and Walmart could be quite interesting to watch. The money $300millions is already in the bank and the rest will be wired by next March. The money will be used mainly for building up more 360buy’s logistics centers. It will be company’s last round investment before IPO.

Liu did not tell the exact figure of 360buy’s evaluation. But according to some reports, 360buy’s revenue in 2009 has reached rmb 4billions, this year it could be over rmb 10billions and next year Liu is expecting rmb 24billions-26billions.

We have reported about the price war between 360buy and Dangdang. 360buy’s main business is on 3C products but now it is challenging Dangdang by selling books with big discount. Liu said their original target for book-sell would be at rmb 300millions, but now he is more optimistic and looking at rmb 500millions for 2011.

[source via tech.163.com]

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Facebook Mark Day 4 in China, It Is About E-Commerce With Jack Ma

Facebook recently is reported to ramp up efforts to add e-commerce features. Some people even think Facebook could be the next eBay thing, but the big difference is that the consumers would have more tips from their friends, thanks to 500millioin Facebook users.

Mark’s trip in China has gone rather beyond a Personal visit. In his 4th day in China, he flew from Beijing to Hangzhou and met Jack Ma, another influential figure in Alibaba/Taobao office. So how much can he learn about Chinese e-commerce culture?

The Christmas eve is here, will Mark have time to meet Pony Ma of Tencent?

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Traffic surge crashes top Singapore deals site

As daily deals giant Groupon entered the Singapore market with an acquisition, Singapore’s top daily deals site buckled under the load of surging traffic last week, forcing its owners to quickly upgrade its server.

On Tuesday, Deals.com.sg‘s website went down for at least six hours. This was after a series of shorter downtimes over the previous week.

“Part of this is increased viral growth, the other an exclusive deal with SPH/Stomp.com.sg to power their deals which is effective since about 2 weeks,” said co-founder Patrick Linden, who runs the site and its Malaysian counterpart, Mydeal.com.my, through Dealguru Holdings. Linden said the Alexa metrics on Deals.com.sg were fairly accurate; they show a tripling in traffic in the last three months.

Asian deals sites have been in the spotlight because of Groupon’s November acquisitions of sites in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines. Linden said that Groupon had approached his company, Beeconomic, the company it eventually acquired, and another Singapore site several months ago.

“[Groupon] outlined what a deal could look like. After a discussion amongst all stakeholders, including founders, investors and advisors we decided pretty quickly not to go for it,” he wrote in an email to us.

Singapore broadsheet the Straits Times speculated that Groupon paid roughly US$18 million for Beeconomic and its Singapore and Philippines sites. Linden called the figure “very far from accurate”.

Deals.com.sg is funded by German fund Rebate Networks, which has a portfolio of daily deals sites across Southeast Asia and Europe. Linden said he thought Groupon could become the second or third biggest player by marketshare in Singapore, behind his own site. He echoed Joel Neoh’s sentiment in our recent interview that there will be consolidation of competitors to no more than three large players by the end of next year.

“We have a competitive strategy in place which hasn’t really changed since Groupon bought their way in,” he said.

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Lenovo LePad running Windows 7,revealed on its official microblog

We’ve heard before Lenovo was going to launch its LePad tablet in December. Now we’re at the end of 2010, and Lenovo a few days ago open a microblog on t.sina.com.cn for LePad especially. No doubt needed, this microblog has been verified by t.Sina.com.cn, China’s biggest microblog provider. Today this microblog brought us some surprise with two pitures of this upcoming LePad. One of the picture shows us LePad is running Windows 7, which might be a bit out of expect. Might be there’s also an Android version, but who knows. the other picture shows LePad has a removable keyboard as the ideapad U1.

[Source: Lenovo LePad's microblog]

• Lenovo S800 gets a transparent color display
• Lenovo Lephone clone surfaces in Shenzhen
• Lenovo LePhone hands-on Video
• Lenovo ideapad Z460 notebook unveiled
• Lenovo ideapad Y460 shipped in China
• Lenovo IdeaCentre A305 All-In-One PC
• Lenovo ideapad Y460 spotted, got disassembled
• Lenovo G455A AMD-based notebook launched in China
• Lenovo denies launching Tianji IBook EB-605 ebook reader
• Lenovo EB-605 ebook reader will arrive soon

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BANSEA Network Lunch – 20 Jan

The Business Angel Network (South East Asia) (BANSEA) will be holding a networking lunch cum pitching session on the 20th of January.

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About The Pitching Companies

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Solair – Providing breakthrough Product Lifecycle Management Software-as-a-service (PLMaaS) that enables users manage the product development process and control projects.

LongScale — Its OzoneCentral™ Platform enables product owners at large enterprises such as Banks & Telcos aggregate 3rd party business software and data services into a single platform-as-a-service and deliver innovative new product offerings for their business customers under their own brand.

LambdaMu — Developer of episodic iOS games with low-budget development costs, high product turnover & community-based interactions.

Tribe Studios — Its web-based platform enables application developers & site administrators to integrate web widget components & interactive contents thereby impacting the online promotion of a product or location.

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Event Details

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When: Thursday 20th November 2011
Time: 10:30am – 1:30pm
Where: The Pines, Pines Room (Level 2) 30 Stevens Road

Register here by 14th Jan.

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Kaixin001 Launched Its Groupon and Groupon Aggregation Service

So finally we see something interesting coming out of Chinese group buying market. Kaixin001, one of the most popular social networks today launched its own Groupon-like service. It is not the first one doing so as RenRen and other social sites have been doing that for a while. But, at the same time, Kaixin also launched a groupon aggregation service where you can find many hot deals offered by other group purchase sites in different cities.

Group purchase model is no doubt driven by the social media, so for me even it’s a late-comer in this market, Kaixin001′s groupon aggregation service is smart. It is reported that around 100 group buying sites have agreed on the partnership with Kaixin001. They have their own company profile pages set up on Kaixin001 so that the deals can be easily broadcasted to millions of Kaixin001′s users.

Nuomi is RenRen’s Groupon service launched almost half a year ago. But it seems that RenRen have no sign of launching any Groupon aggregation service, yet.

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Google Voice Search–How Varied Are Indian Accents [Torture Tests]

April 2010, Google shut down its voice search service in India, which essentially relied on speech recognition technology. The biggest challenge with speech recognition, as far as India is concerned is the varied accents Indians have.

Google cited the launch of mobile app as a reason to shut down the voice search service, though in reality the voice search (touted as Justdial competition) never really took off.

Moving on, Google has launched ‘The Great IGoogle Voice Search–How Varied Are Indian Accents [Torture Tests]ndian Accent Test’ to test its new product by giving tongue twisters to people and hear them out.

Some of our favourites are-

Biharish Tongue Twister Test

Bengalish Tongue Twister Test

Malayalish Tongue Twister Test

Unity in diversity!

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Jobs: PHP Developers, Designers, System Architect, CTO, QA [and more]

It’s raining jobs and here are some of the wonderful startup opportunities – across the country and across various technologies.

Hiring developers, Design Experts

Location: Mumbai

Software Engineers :
Interest in hacking , problem solving , building innovative products , evaluating new open source technologies , submitting plugins/addons to the open source community

Skills needed are :

1)Javascript , jquery ,css
2)PHP /python / Java
3)mysql , apache , linux

Software Engineer (Frontend and backend)

Location: Mumbai (or remote).

The ability to be nimble and ramp up on a new programming language / environment is crucial. You need to be a self-starter and highly motivated and be able to deliver with little or no supervision.

Flexible hours of work and workplace and the opportunity to work with industry leading engineers is on the table. Our team is comprised of senior engineers with experience working in Silicon Valley tech companies like Google, Facebook, Yahoo and more

Senior Systems Architect

Location: Hyderabad

Experience & Skills
-5 years of SDLC experience at a top-tier IT Company/Investment Bank
-MVP/MCPD
-ASP.NET, C#, JQuery, AJAX, MS SQL Server
-Expert in Design Patterns and Application Lifecycle Management
-Reasonable knowledge of IIS 7 and Deployment issues
-Knowledge of Cloud Computing is a plus

CTO

Location: Ahmedabad

From all Baaju team members we looking for passionate individuals who are innovative and think outside the box. If you like to do the same thing everyday Baaju is NOT the company for you! If you like to dream solve problems and make things happen Baaju IS the place for you!

Passionate geeks needed for proven Mobile Startup,

Location: Bangalore

What we will offer you

1. Exciting work in bleeding edge technologies such as Mobile web (HTML5/ Javascript), Symbian C++, QT, Objective C, Android Java etc. You will never be short of work which challenges your technical abilities every step of the way.

2. Cool working environment. We do not have set working hours and you will hear more laughs over beers in office than coffee counter gossips

Open Source PHP Developer

Location: Bhubaneswar, Orissa

Must Have Skills:

PHP, MySQL, CSS, HTML, Java Script, Open Source Exp in Joomla, WordPress, Facebook API, Twitter API

Desired Skills:

Virtuemart, x-cart pro, Magento, Media Wiki

PHP Web Developer

Location: Pune

- Custom web application development, programming and testing

- Knowledge and experience of working with frameworks like Codeigniter, Zend or jQuery is a BIG plus.

UI designer

Location: Mumbai/Pune

We are building a web 2.0 company and need a UI designer with HTML5 experience. The company is founded my Alumni of MIT and Stanford.

QA Engineer

Location: Pune

Sokrati is looking for ardent hackers + QA engineers in delivering a highly secured, fully tested platform. The individuals would be responsible for leading, building and architecting a team.

- Atleast 6 yrs of experience in building automated testing suites.
- Atleast a B.Tech/B.E in Computer Science from reputed schools
- Java/Rails/Ruby/Linux/Apache is a plus

Software Development – Web 2.0

Location: Pune

Sokrati is looking for ardent UI designers passionate about delivering a highly intuitive, highly scalable Web portal with the ability to handle 100,000 requests an hour.

- Atleast 3 years of experience in programming/developing UI
- Atleast a Bachelors in Computers from reputed schools
- Rails/Ruby/Linux/Java/Apache is a plus

Mobile Developer, (Sr.) Web Developer and UI Designers

Location: Bangalore

TringMe is expanding its technical team in Bangalore and has immediate job openings in mobile and web development areas:

Sr. Web Developer (Required: PHP, MySQL, AJAX)

Experience: 3+ years in design and development of web applications

Web Developer (Required: PHP, Javascript, CSS, HTML).

Experience: 0-3 years. Freshers willing to learn and adapt will definitely be considered.

Mobile Developers (Required: J2ME, Blackberry OR Android experience preferred).

Experience: 1-4 years. Freshers willing to learn and adapt will definitely be considered.

UI Designers (Required: Photoshop, Flash, Actionscript).

To apply, send your resume to techjobs@tringme.com.

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[To reach out to India’s most awesome early adopter community, submit your job requirement here]

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Rockchip revealed thin iPad style tablet

Rockchip company revealed  a very fashionable tablet to us. The tablet with obvious resemblance to iPad, but much thinner. It’s got compared to the Lenovo O1 in the picture. It’s said it’s thinnest part is just 5.3mm, and the thickest part is 8mm. Not much details have been disclosed yet, we are just told it’s powered by Rochip’s RK2818 chip and of curse has Android as its OS. Other specs stay unknown. It’s said Rockchip will bring it to the upcoming CES event.

[Source:newpad.cn]

• W7001 Android Tablet Powered by Rockchip RK2818
• Video: Rockchip’s Android Multi-Media Telephone set
• Rockchip launches Android-enable chip RK2818 that supports Android 2.1
• Rockchip Supernova X1 naked-eye 3D portable media player caught in video
• Rockchip RK2816 Android-enable chip for PMP
• Nokia N8 clone iZiNN CJ-3 Runs Android 2.1
• Rockchip shows new Android prototype MID that runs Android 2.1
• Rockchip Android prototype phone debuted at HKEF
• Rockchip Smart Phone Android prototype handset spotted in the wild
• HOTT MD500 Android MID with an unbelievably cheap price

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Why Do We Contribute to Online Community/Discussion? [Anticipated Reciprocity]

Why is it that few communities are so active, while many aren’t?

Online communities are difficult to build. Everybody wants one, but very few succeed in creating one. Instead of asking what’s the trick (of a successful community), lets ask a very fundamental question – why do people contribute to online communities? What drives them?

Researcher Peter Kollock has published a paper titled ‘Economics of Online Cooperation’ citing several interesting reasons behind community discussions:

Anticipated Reciprocity

One possibility is that a person is motivated to contribute valuable information to the group in the expectation that one will receive useful help and information in return; that is, the motivation is an anticipated reciprocity. This kind of network-wide accounting system creates a kind of credit, in that one can draw upon the contributions of others without needing to immediately reciprocate.

If each person shares freely, the groups as a whole is better off, having access to information and advice that no single person might match. A loose accounting system can also serve as a kind of insurance, in that one can draw from the resources of the group when in need, without need to immediately repay each person.

Members may eventually shun those who never give or conversely make an effort to help those who have contributed in the past (helping the “good citizens” of the group).

Reputation

High quality information, impressive technical details in one’s answers, a willingness to help others, and elegant writing can all work to increase one’s prestige in the community. To the extent this is the concern of an individual, contributions will likely be increased to the degree that the contribution is visible to the community as a whole and to the extent there is some recognition of the person’s contributions. The inherent nature of online interaction already means that helpful acts are more likely to be seen by the group as a whole.

Sense of Efficacy

That is, a sense that he/she has some effect on this environment. Making regular and high-quality contribution to the group can help a person believe she has an impact on the group and support her own self-image as an efficacious person.

If a sense of efficacy is what is motivating someone, then contributions are likely to be increased to the extent that people can observe changes in the community attributable to their actions. It may also be the case that as the size of the group increases, one will be more motivated to contribute because the increasing size provides a larger audience and a potentially greater impact for one’s actions.

Recommended Read: Understanding User Needs – The Fundamental Motivation Theory

Altruism/Need

One may produce and contribute a public good for the simple reason that a person or the groups as a whole has a need for it. If someone’s or some group’s needs are what motivates an individual, then their contributions will likely be increased to the extent that the needs of the group are clearly known and communicated.

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The key behind building (online) communities is to understand the latent need (of users) and convert them to tangible goods [point system/badges etc]. It ain’t easy and even though you have created an active community, the most challenging part is to keep the top users engaged (even Wikipedia has been facing issues of editor exodus).

What’s your take? Which online communities are you part of? If you have built a successful community, what has worked for you? Why do YOU participate in any discussion forum?

[Image credit:jeffmcneill]

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Hyderabad Based BuyThePrice Secures First Round of Funding

Hyderabad based portal for deals on Consumer Electronics and Appliances,BuyThePrice, has raised its first round of funding from Rajan Anandan, Rehan Yar Khan, Sunil Kalra and several other investors. The funds will be utilized in creating technology differentiators, marketing, human capital and setting up new offices.

BuyThePrice - Differential Pricing Slab

BuyThePrice.com collates real time demand and maps it against the supply prices and drops the price as the number of buyers increase. BuyThePrice.com lines-up deals across  verticals of Mobile Phones, Cameras & Accessories, Computers & Accessories, Music and & Video Players, Lifestyle Accessories, LED/LCD Televsions and Home & Kitchen appliances.

We earlier profiled BuyThePrice and found the Hyderabad based startup to have a compelling UI and a definite value proposition – no tall claims and realistic approach towards merging social with ecommerce.

And as we earlier said, 2010 is ‘The’ Dabangg Year for Indian Internet Startups!

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