34.6% of iOS Devices in China Are Jailbroken, According to UMeng’s Report

UMeng, the Innovation Works’ portfolio company which offers the solution that helps Chinese mobile developers to gather statistical information about how app users are using their apps, recently a report on the iOS usage in China.

According to this report (in Chinese, download here), by end of March 2011

• iPhone 4 is the most popular iOS device which takes 54% of the market share; iPhone 3GS takes the 2nd with 16.1%;
• Majority of the iOS devices has been upgraded to 4.1 or above;
• In average, 34.6% of iOS devices have been jailbroken. Particularly, the percentage of jailbroken iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 has reached 40%. iOS users are relatively less interested in jaikbreaking iPad, only 27% of iPad are jailbroken;
• Users are willing to use iPhone more in daytime (before 7pm), and after 7pm iPad is a better choice;
• Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Zhejiang, Jiangsu are the major cities/provinces where 52% of iOS users are based.

With Jailbroken iPhone, users are able to install pirate apps from different resource other than App Store. 34.6% is not a small number which again leaves us the question, how difficult to get paid-download model working in Chinese App market? UMeng seems optimistic about this. It published some comment about this report on its official blog which saying the number of jailbroken iOS is not really linked with the number of paid apps, and the more important is to educate the market and convincing users to pay for the good apps.

Related posts:

1. Only 2.1% of Chinese Mobile Developers Plan Working on Symbian Platform, Says 2011 Chinese Mobile App Developers Report
2. Innovation Works Darling – Umeng, Grows Up
3. The Falling of (Some of) Chinese Android App Stores

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Big Fish, Small Fish : Daily Deal Startups Deserve A Pat In the Back For Creating A Category

India is very different from Silicon Valley, especially when it comes to small players turning the tables on bigger ones (a story of Mint competing with Intuit can happen in Silicon Valley, but India will take its own sweet time).

While there are industries like Enterprise software where Industry veteran-run-startups have managed to create a global play, digital consumer industry has mostly been dominated by big companies leaving very little for new players to create a huge opportunity.

Look at the entire online classifieds market – how many startups come closer to leaders like Naukri, Shaadi/Bharatmatrimony etc. Most of the startups in online classified are not even second or third in these markets.  In fact, there are very few examples of startups in consumer space where they have challenged the biggies (none in the online content part).

Maybe, except for few categories( *). And daily deals market is clearly one of those categories (am including group buying loosely as it fits the context).

There are close to 25+ startups in this space (some just for fun, others for real dough, few regional, very few national) and each one of them deserves a pat in the back for creating a category in the Indian Internet space. In fact, more than category, they have created awareness of the sales process in the offline FMCG world (read: Snapdeal Story).

Think of it as a template, which biggies like Rediff and Times Internet are now following. Right from website UI to the sales process, biggies are now following startups’ shoes and we certainly hope that there would be few respectable consolidation in this space.

Most importantly, this space has reached a certain momentum where biggies need this category to stay competitive, but frankly, this category doesn’t need biggies for growth purpose. Tons of startups together have grown this space and as I said earlier, they all deserve a pat in the back.

So kudos to deal startups for creating a category; and now that you have had a good practice match, get ready for some real action where big players like Rediff/Times Internet will play the margin cutter role.

What do you think will be the impact of Rediff/Indiatimes launch on these startups? Will there be consolidation in this space? Or these biggies cannot be considered a serious play at all (they have a herd mentality, after all and the whole story will fizzle out in the long run)?

What’s your opinion?

*  Largely, ecommerce has been ignored by big players, including categories like bus booking etc.

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Weighing in on Singapore Elections 2011

I‘ve watched the events of the Singapore elections eagerly since nomination day via Twitter, Facebook and websites even as I was halfway around the world in New York.  I did not get a chance to vote in the 2006 Elections thanks to a walkover in the Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, when I was still staying with my [...] Related posts:

1. The Tin Pei Ling Incident is a Storm in a Teacup
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3. Early-stage Capital Crunch: Chicken or the Egg?

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Ushi – the making Chinese Linkedin

Recently, I talked to Dominic Penaloza, CEO of Ushi, whom my partner, Technode’s Lu Gang, interviewed in February.  (See the earlier post: How to Run the Professional Social Network in China, Interview with Co-founders of UShi.cn)

Within three months, Ushi has progressed quite a lot.  It doubled its number of members, to 200,000.  These includes 12,000 CEO and 5,000 CTO.  75% of VC active in China are also in Ushi’s network. (Entrepreneurs looking for funding probably should get a Ushi account, too.  But you better have a friend who is a Ushi member, as it is still invitation-only at the moment.)

Ushi wants to be Linkedin in China.  Dominic said they had the idea in March 2010 and it was officially launched in October 2010.   Apart from Dominic, the other founder is Quentin Zhang, a former Tianji product manager.

It is about one year since they started, I wonder whether 200,000 members seems rather low.  With close to 400 million Chinese internet users, many startups has over a million users in a year.  Just as another of my friend suggested, “in China, anything less than a million is just rounding error.”

Dominic did not think so.  ”The failure of Tianji was because it grew too fast,” he said.  Tianji, another Linkedin want-to-be, once had over 3 million users in China, but it did not patrol their network very well.  Many of the high level users, the executives and CEOs, got feed up as they received too many requests for connection from people they did not know or have no interest in knowing.

“In our system, we classify multiple level of users.  Some can do more than the others.  For example, a newly joined member will not be able to send 100 connection request in a day. If your request got turn down frequently, you will get more difficult to send new requests,” said Dominic, “This is what Linkedin is doing, too.”

Dominic might have a point.  But, I still think a social network has to big to be useful.  I have had my Linkedin account for many many years.  It is only recently I found it useful, as more and more of my friends are on the network.   Also, it is not banned in China, making it even more useful, as I spend most of my time in Beijing right now.

 

 

 

Related posts:

1. How to Run the Professional Social Network in China, Interview with Co-founders of UShi.cn
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3. LinkedIn 100 Million Users Later (Infographics)

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Firefox China Calling Developers, Getting More Energy to Inspire Chinese Web

The last piece about Firefox China was written a long while ago in November 2007. It’s been 3.5 years, we know they have spend lots of effort on educating the local community, developing local addons etc. Last time I visited its office was 1.5 years ago when they have left that spacial office. I was told by Dr. Gong Li, the CEO of Mozilla China, the biggest issue Firefox’s facing is the online banking as most of online banking system does not support Firefox as e-commerce is super hot in China. Since then, I seldom saw the name of Firefox/Mozilla China appear on Chinese media.

Furthermore, as mobile Internet attracts everyone’s eyeballs, we almost forgot that the war in web browser market still exists. How’s Firefox China doing recently? It seems for me it should be doing well in terms of user base and localization, but the latest result on Chinese web browser market share released by Baidu Analysis does not say so. 1.6% only goes for Firefox, I am surprised by the figure. But at least, it tells Firefox China is not growing faster than others, including the late comer Google Chrome.

Now we have Firefox 4 which is really a big hit into the global browser market, and Firefox mobile is also out, which should give Firefox China some fresh energy to heat the local market. The 2011 Mozilla Developer Conference is set to be held in Beijing at 10th May. We’ve been hearing too much about the bubble in mobile industry recently, maybe it’s time to take some break and get our web inspired a bit more.

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1. Mozilla China – A Spacious Office, A Fresh New Start
2. Firefox和Maxthon – The Next Operation System
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Can I Get The Menu Please? – Of Product Communication And Lost Customers

I was with my friends at the UB City Mall in Bangalore last weekend. The only time I had been more uncomfortable was when I visited the Nepal’s Royal Palace, 10 yrs back. Just so many luxury and high end brands at one place, nothing in Delhi or Mumbai matches this. The most low end and affordable store there was Apple’s Imagine(Sorry all the fanboys). We crossed an open wall chocolate lounge. Whatever I saw in the display section was just too tempting. There was no price mentioned but the Baniya in me believed that something that sits between a Gucci and a luxury diamond store will be equally
unaffordable and insisted not to even look at it again. I looked around and my chocolate crazy friend was already ordering something. I asked him, “Do you even know how much that small piece of costs? We could order pizzas for all of us for that price.” He said “Then lets skip pizza for a month“. Just to not leave my friend alone and get a free bite, I decided to join him, with my heart still pounding. I showed some courage and asked the waiter if he had more flavors and if he could get me the menu? That was the most un-embarrassing way to ask for the price. He brought the menu and I was surprised with what I saw. The price was only a little more, if not equal to, than any regular place like Barista/Mongini’s etc.

That place left me wondering as to how many like me would not have shown courage to ask for the price or to face the embarrassment of finding it unaffordable. The chocolate lounge would have so many more customers if there was more information available without asking.

Every evening while returning from office I pass by a street side Pakoda stall. The smell of Pakodas always tempt me to grab a hot plate but I never did so. I am a vegetarian and most places in my neighborhood are ‘pure’ non-vegetarian. The few vegetarian places, write ‘pure vegetarian’ in big bold letters. More so, there is a butcher center just next to this Pakoda stall. I have always been complaining of not getting good north Indian snacks in Bangalore and even tried MoMos with Ketchup in the same quest but never tried those Pakodas. Today my Kannada friend brought a little surprise for me, some hot Pakodas. I enquired and it was the same place that I pass by everyday. I was disgusted for once but then he told me that the vendor was a Brahmin, he can’t even talk non-veg, forget about selling non-veg.

Well, the fact that he was a Brahmin wasn’t written on his face. Although the prices were written on a board along the stall but apart from numbers everything was in Kannada. I wonder if he has lost many customers like me just because they couldn’t figure out what he was selling.

Very recently I was hunting for a good deal on group buying sites for a nice eat out. I saw a very attractive deal at one of the more popular sites. A good 50% off on a-la-carte but the menu was not available on the site. I googled for the restaurant and to my surprise another competing but less popular site had a deal for the same restaurant but it was 30% off on buffet. The menu was mentioned and looked sumptuous, nothing less than what I would have ordered with a-la-carte. I bought the deal immediately.

Thinking of it later I felt that the more popular site lost a customer just because it did not have enough information on the site. Although saying a-la-carte shouldn’t have required mentioning the menu but still it helps me make a more informed decision. It reduces my risk. Although live chat support was available on the site but I did not bother asking someone without googling for it.

Your product perception will always be influenced by your surrounding and the presumptions that your customer carries. It helps to be explicit and upfront. Not everyone would invest in asking for more information before making a decision. In the world of web and organised businesses the first thing you would want to do for your customer is help him take an informed decision.

Almost every time you go to a new place, the ease you feel is much to do with how much information is available. If you have traveled in Mumbai local trains and Delhi Metro, you will know how much of a user experience changes just by having enough information.

Go change your product page. Put all the information upfront, be honest. More information helps me consider your product while making a decision. You won’t even know how many customers you are losing just because they don’t find your communication informative enough. Keep iterating the communication as the market conditions change.

What’s your opinion?

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China UnionPay Is Working On a Square-like Mobile Payment Solution

Square, the mobile payment startup which uses a dongle that attaches to a smartphone to let merchants accept credit card payments via phones, has recently generated lots of buzz. Certainly it has the potential to change the dynamics of mobile payment systems. Apple online store has started selling its readers and it’s also reported that Visa has invested big money into Square.

I recently tweeted about Square on weibo and the tweet has quickly been retweeted and commented by a couple of times. One trusted follower pinged me saying,

My China UnionPay friends has started working on a Square-like project, to bring the similar mobile solution to iPhone 4 users.

For readers who don’t know about China UnionPay (aka, UnionPay or CUP), it is the only domestic bank card organization in China. Founded in March 2002, UnionPay is an association for China’s banking card industry, operating under the approval of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC, central bank of China). It is also the only interbank network in China excluding Hong Kong and Macau, linking the ATMs of some fourteen major banks and many more smaller banks throughout mainland China. (via wikipedia). Basically, it plays a critical role in Chinese banking card industry. Visa’s investment into Square obviously has inspired UnionPay on the new project.

UnionPay is now very active in all sectors of mobile payment industry. Reported by Sina, China UnionPay’s NFC mobile payment solution (13.56MHz) will most likely be adopted as the standard solution across China. And last week, TCL just released its first NFC enabled mobile phone integrated with UnionPay’s solution.

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3. Chinese Central Bank Announce Details for Third Party Payment Licence

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