We’ve done more on the ground short video interviews with teams that launched or pitched, investors looking to find the next big thing here at DEMO Asia. We are still in the midst of uploading all, but here are some more:
Kristine with Noddon
Kristine with Brand Karma
Kristine with DropMyEmail
Kristine with LobangClub
Witness the new products that hope to define the mobile landscape. In this session, Asial Corporation, Evvolution Technologies, Mobilewalla, Flexiroam, 2359 Media, VitalTRAKS, GClue, Thatz International, SecQMe, and George Mobile will be launching new products.
Gwen and I caught up with Dr Jeff Chi of Vickers Venture Partners (VVP) at the sidelines of DEMO Asia to catch his views on the startup scene here in Asia. Jeff is currently based out of both Singapore and China and he is always looking for “young talented entrepreneurs with a dream to change the world”.
VVP is an early stage investment focused on the IDM space. We got Jeff to clarify his definition of early stage since they sound more like a private equity fund and Jeff described basically to date, all companies they’ve invested in have no profits. Up to half have no revenues at time of investment. Jeff described VVP as having three main criteria for investing:
Jeff feels that entrepreneurs in Singapore are exposed and more plugged into the West. Making a comparison to Chinese startups, Jeff’s opinion is that Chinese startups have an advantage in that a lot of services are closed to Chinese consumers which has enabled local players in China to compete. This has given Chinese startups a shield and opportunity to nurture from a younger stage.
Singapore startups on the other hand doesn’t have that luxury. Our startups do see and catch on to trends a little more quickly and are able to penetrate due to language strengths. The main disadvantage for Singapore startups is the market size and Jeff strongly encourages entrepreneurs to start with the right mindset and think outside Singapore.
In fact, Jeff’s advise to startups in Singapore can be summed up in two words: Think big. The main challenge for startups in Singapore is the need to think outside Singapore and handle a larger market, which may or may not be China. For the US market for example, you need to have the right team and skillsets to handle the market.
Jeff’s advise is to think beyond the shores of Singapore not just from a market viewpoint, but also in the way you do and carry out things. On the same note, Jeff also advises entrepreneurs to share and split the pie with co-founders and partners who might give you the necessary expertise that you lack. Citing that it’s better to own a small slice of a larger pie then a large slice of a small pie since it will be more easy to succeed.
China is a market with one and a half billion people and yet fairly uniform. For startups looking to enter China, Jeff’s advise is to start with a good strategy and make sure you do proper market research. You will also need to find the right partners to work with.
South East Asia as a whole is half a billion strong with probably more Internet users than in the United States. It’s definitely attractive. Markets are young and have lots of growth opportunities. Startups looking to enter Southeast Asia must have the right market entry strategy, on your own or through partners.
Jeff’s advise is to seek out young promising local companies to partner. Entrepreneurs that have tried to enter the market on their own, especially in China, historically have not enjoyed much success. Those who succeed, in Jeff’s opinion, identified the right partners early on.
Take a look at promising technologies set to change the market. The companies that are launching products in this session are: 3D International, Sofshell, Terra Barrier Films, eTrainer, and CellSievo. Lyrex, Techdrois, and T.WARE are the startups launching Alpha Pitches.
15.04
15.02
Apparently Tera-Barrier Films Pte Ltd are selling a different Tera Film compared with Plastic Film.
They claim that their TeraFilm only allows 1 droplet of water per meter square compared with 30 liters of water in the same area per year.
15.00
Well the crowd loved the presentation. And we are starting a new pitch now. Tera-Barrier Films Pte ltd.
14.59
The iPhone was still working after that bowling ball!
14.58
Ha. They just dropped a bowling bowl. Not 6, not 8 but 12 pounds of bowling ball on an iPHONe!!!
14.57
They protected the watermelon from being nailed with the Sofshell pad.
And then they proceeded to hammer a demonstrator’s hand wearing a Sofshell pad.
14.56
I think the Sofshell just dropped a giant nail into a watermelon.
14.55
Elgin just gave the customary “Kids don’t try this at home ” line.
14.54
Elgin is presenting Sofshell as a gel-based impact protection solution.
14.53
Elgin started by smashing a brick with a hammer… to highlight about impact protection.
He started on fire.. sounding like a tv commercial. Ha.
14.53
Apparently, Elgin the presenter from Sofshell had downed 5 RedBulls this morning according to Tim.
14.52
3DI went slightly overtime but they showed 3 tv screens — 1 SuperStreetFight4, 1 Transformer movie, 1 photo album
and we now have the next pitch by Sofshell
14.50
Apparently they are doing 3D without the viewer wearing 3D glasses. They are doing it with a piece of glass and a one-time install of software. I have to say the 3D effects are there, but not very obvious to me.
14.47
Woo.. they are showing a StreetFighter4 game. 3DI thinks the best market for their product would be the games market.
14.46
Okay a little bit of drama, Alfred just threw away a pair of 3D glasses.
14.45
Alfred Chong is presenting from 3DI.
3DI wants to change the way games are played on large screen tv and 3D
14.44
All right, time for the 6 minute demo pitches.
3DI is up first with a demo involving Chromatic Light Deflector. It is patent pending Optical element.
We are waiting for them to set things up with 3 LCD screens.
Exploit Technologies is the commercialization arm of A*STAR, a research agency of the Singapore government. Philip Lim joined Exploit Technologies in August 2009 as its General Manager, and was appointed the Chief Executive Officer in December 2009.
He has engaged extensively with many members of the A*STAR community and has led Exploit Technologies in a comprehensive review of its roles and responsibilities.
14.42
Matt: So who do you see the poster child of successful startup scene in Singapore?
Philip: Well we have a KPI and we would measure things and how they measure up.
14.40
Matt: So how do you define success for these entrepreneurs?
Philip: Well, nobody does these things for free of course. We would like to see cashflow but also the potential of how the startup reaches positive cashflow.
If we have a Google, Facebook, we would be very happy to see.
14.38
Matt: So how do you help to build the environment to entice people to take up entrepreneurship?
Philip: I think the most important thing is to spark ideas. We have formed Biopolis, Fusionopolis, so we can get these companies to come together to generate more ideas.
Even in this building, the Matrix, we limited the number of eating places, so we can force the researchers to meet during lunch time so that we can spark off new ideas.
Another reason why we are a partner of DEMOAsia, is to allow these gatherings, meetings which promotes entrepreneurship and ideas to percolate and form.
14.35
Matt: You mentioned, Philip, that the most needed ingredient here is entrepreneurs?
Philip: Yes. We need the people who have been there, done that to avail themselves their time, their resources, so we can encourage the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Once we have a stream of successful entrepreneurs coming along, inspiring the next wave, then we can get that bit closer to San Diego.
14.34
14.34
Philip: We like to compare ourselves with a similar city, San Diego.
Similar population, similar GDP, similar funding available.
However, they churn out 5 x the IPs, 10 x the funded companies than we do in Singapore. We tell ourselves that San Diego has a 10 year head start on us.
14.32
Philip: It is always a team effort.
You cannot use a guy who can present very well as a silver bullet. Well you can start like that, but not end there.
You need a team. A team of researchers behind the entrepreneur. It is a journey as well. It takes several months to tweak the technology, the product, the value propositioning and so on.
14.30
Matt: How do these entrepreneurs find you ? How do these entrepreneurs start?
Philip: There are some people who are really not suited. We found quite a few based on the researchers doing work in A*STAR Technologies.
What we found works is that we invited experienced entrepreneurs who can advise, partner and introduce these budding entrepreneurs the ropes, the markets.
14.28
Matt Marshall: so tell us about the process about how you go through 200-300 projects and choose 20-30 licenses and turn them into something commercially viable?
Philip Lim: Some of these projects sell by themselves. The fun starts when we need to put in a little bit of work on others. We also work with overseas collaborators.
Eg, would be the iTwin product we saw yesterday. It started as an encryption project
We talked to other people. Should it be more of a iTunes thing? Should it be an encryption product?
We also tried various proofs-of-concept. Does the proof-of-concept work? Do people buy them?
Then once we get past the question of whether it works. We need to test the price points. Will the market buy at ? ? 0? Can we turn a profit on that price point?
So basically, we look at the entire value chain. We start with the technology. Then we look at the product development. Finally the markets, manufacturing and so on.
It takes months.
14.25
All right, here we go! One on One with Philip Lim, CEO of Exploit Technologies.
They sponsored lunch, ya know..
Editor: I am always wondering when Apple will release a pocket size (~7′ inch) iPad. If iPad 3 comes with two size, I would go for the Mini one. But, obviously Andrew Sykes, Founder of GizChina does not think so. Here are his reasons.
Rumor and guesstimation have determined that Apple may release an iPad mini next week at their March 7th iPad event, but we’re not too convinced!
Ever since Apple released the original iPad, there have been those who have anxiously waited for the company to release a smaller version. Even after Steve Job’s himself openly mocked 7-inch tablets fans have still kept hoping (he didn’t mock 8 inch tablets after all!). Now, with March 7th less than a week away there has just been enough time of tech sites to speculate on how they believe a smaller iPad with 7.85inch screen will accompany the next generation iPad on Wednesday (could be an iPad 2S!).
But next week there will be no iPad mini to compete against the Android in the small tablet market, a market which Android owns!
No Leaked Physical Proof
“Apple are notorious for keeping a tight lid on their products”, if you have heard this line before you will no to make a half assed effort to make your cry of “BS!” sound like a cough!
Apple are terrible at keeping their latest products a secret, we now have more of an idea what Apple will be up to for the next 12 months than, for example, Blackberry, Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Nokia, HP, ASUS, ACER etc!
This year Apple will release an new iPad and an iPhone 5 which will actually feature some new hardware (possibly a new dock connector), there looks to be an improved Apple TV on the way, I hope there is a new iPod touch, Apple iTV looks set for release and (please,please,please) improved Macbook Pro’s with a more ‘Air’ design!
Why do we know all of this? Well leaked physical proof, Steve Jobs and talkative Chinese and Taiwanese Apple suppliers, none of which have offered real proof of a mini iPad.
Fragmentation
Apple don’t want to fall in to Android’s trap of fragmentation. For an Android dev to get it’s app working on the numerous Android display sizes available today is an absolute nightmare!
For an Apple Dev however it’s as easy as pie! The current iPad has the same PDI as the Retina display on the iPod touch and iPhone 4/4S so apps work and look great on both!
As for the iPad 3’s (iPad 2S!) Retina display upping the pixel count shouldn’t be too much bother, but most importantly Apple are leaving the old iPad screens behind and they will be pretty much obsolete this time next year while everyone is clambering over the iPad 4, so they’re not worried about them.
The iPad is “Perfect” its bloody “Magical”
No one describes their companies products as “Magical” not unless you are brimming with pride because you have just launched the dream product you have always wanted to make!
Well the iPad was Steve Job’s baby, and not to sound too British but he was well chuffed to show it off!
To Apple, the iPad is the perfect size, it’s big enough for consuming, and is more than capable of creating thanks to the generous screen real estate, yet it’s small enough to fit in to all buy the tiniest of “fanny packs”.
For Apple to release a smaller iPad would be to admit 2 things to customers:
1) They were wrong about the iPad’s original size
2) “Perhaps those smaller and cheaper Android tablets are worth looking at now Apple is making smaller tablets” is also a bad message!
The March 7th Invitation
The biggest clue to that Apple is not planning a smaller iPad launch next week is the fact they didn’t show, or even hint at it on the invitation for the March 7th event!
What they have shown is an new iPad with what appears to be a much better Retina display, or it could be a camera trick, either way this is what Apple wants us to speculate about.
If Apple were planning a 7.85 inch iPad for launch next week wouldn’t they have added a tagline to the event invitation such as “It’s not the size it’s how you touch it” ? (too cheap?)
Let us know what you think in the comments section below, and don’t forget to flame, or troll or whatever it is you do, when I turn out to be wrong!
(source: GizChina)
Related posts:
Just last Wednesday, we caught up with to Marc P. Bernegger (pictured below) down at NUS’ N-House where he talked to students about his key insights as a serial internet entrepreneur. Marc has such a long list of entrepreneurial achievements that I don’t exactly know where to begin. At 20, he founded online entertainment website usgang.ch, which was sold to media company Axel Springer in 2008. He is also a founder of Amiando, which was sold to business platform XING in 2010. At present, Marc is a partner of Next Generation Finance Invest, a founding partner of crowdfunding platform c-crowd, and an angel investor in several startups.
Marc adopts a “Just do it and don’t think too much about it” mindset. Of course, it is not just about blindly venturing into starting up a company. Marc reminds young entrepreneurs that being in a tech and startup environment where we embrace continuous innovations and changes, we need to be aware of what is going on in the dynamic internet environment.
Entrepreneurs need to think of how to develop addictive products and leave customers craving for more. Think – “How do I create a wholesome user experience? How can I better serve my customers? What was the reason your customers fell in love with your product in the first place?” Remember, your competitors are just a click away. You need to act fast and be even faster than the competition. Speed is very important in the internet industry; there is no other industry in which one can grow rapidly with little experience and capital, yet be a game changer.
In Marc’s words:
The success of most internet companies is based on the idea, an assertive team, and real customer value.
Ideas are important, but Marc also stresses that entrepreneurs should build a team with complementary skill sets. Upon the establishment of your team, find the sweet spot of your service and focus your heart and soul on building it. Avoid getting distracted and do that one thing right instead of dabbling in everything.
In a recent post we were reminded that all entrepreneurs should think big. You need to have a global vision, especially when you are running an internet company. There are no national frontiers, which means most web-based services can be offered worldwide. If you have an awesome product, you will be able to roll out globally.
Search for experienced and well-connected supporters for your business idea. Marc also advises entrepreneurs to explore the option of giving shares of your company to smart business angels. With the external know-how and feedback, these people are able to guide you through the first few months of your startup. You can even get, via such angels, access to networks you normally would not have access to, and also gain support in finding the first customers. Besides, with people backing your idea, it gives your startup higher credibility and a better negotiation position for potential financing rounds.
On the topic of finance, an exit of a company in the internet business is undoubtedly much easier than in other industries. Yes, it is certainly something to get excited about, but Marc cautions that it should not be the main driver of your intention to start up. Entrepreneurs should not be too focused on selling the company. Afterall, most successful exits were not planned; they were driven by their own successful product development.
His advice to students?
It’s the perfect time to start a business because there is no commitment (think of family and kids) as of yet. So if you are an aspiring entrepreneur, just do it, and not think about it.
This week has been very exciting for Near Field Communications (NFC) at the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona. Major handset manufacturers have announced the launch of NFC phones with about 10 mobile NFC phones scheduled to be launched in 2012.
The rising number of NFC handsets has lead to a growth in the number of NFC applications being deployed across the world. One of the most interesting applications we have come across is the use of NFC in the retail industry.
As a quick recap, NFC is a touch based technology using which users can tap their mobile phone onto another NFC enabled device such as a mobile phone or a NFC tag to access information.
Imagine this, you finish a hard day of work at the office and you still have tons of grocery shopping left to do at your local grocery store. So you walk into a store, pick up a shopping basket and get on with your shopping. Once you are done, you get into a long queue to pay. Although this is quite habitual for most of us it’s still quite cumbersome as well. You still have delays while paying, you only know how much you are going to spend once you check-out and have limited information on a product and its benefits or risks.
The convenience of shopping where everything is just a click away has been widely seen using e-commerce platforms wherein consumers can comfortably shop using a computer or mobile phone but this channel of retailing is still small as compared to in-store shopping as most consumers still prefer to touch and feel what that they are buying, especially if it is for things such as fresh produce, apparels, cosmetics etc.
NFC provides the convenience of shopping in a crowded physical setting such as a supermarket.
Now imagine this, you pick up your NFC mobile phone and walk across the store and tap the various products you wish to purchase. With every tap, you get information on the product such as its calorie content, health benefits, suitability for children, price compared to competitor products etc. Once you’ve decided whether you wish to purchase a product you simply press a button on your mobile to add it to your cart.
In the similar manner you move across the store tapping the products you wish to purchase making informed decisions on your purchase and also being able to control your budget as you shop.
There is no longer a need for you to pay by queuing up at the check-out counter instead you can pay for your purchase using your NFC phone on the way out.
You can choose between several delivery options such as instant delivery at a given pick up point, next day home delivery etc. An easy and convenient way of getting your shopping done without any hassle.
In fact the next time you shop, your NFC mobile application will remember your previous purchases allowing you to make a purchase in the convenience of your home. You can add more items to your favorites list the next time you visit the store.
One might argue that this solution seems too ideal for the world we live in (or rightly said, shop-in) but if a retailer chooses to slightly alter their retail value chain to suit a customer’s needs this solution is easily implementable. Furthermore, this form of shopping is not a thing of the future but is currently been seen across the world.
We have seen successful pilot programs being conducted in several countries such as France, Spain, UK, Australia etc. Major retailers have adopted NFC to improve sales conversion, up-selling, loyalty programs, couponing etc.
Imagine getting the right message to a customer when they are in the right place i.e. your store.
What’s your take on NFC opportunity?
Also see: Understanding NFC [Hint: It’s not a subset of RFID]
[About the author – Vaibhav Puri is the CEO and Founder of Taggito S.L., a NFC focused mobile technology, based out of Madrid, Spain. www.taggito.com. He is reachable on vaibhav@taggito.com]
What a difference a year makes! A year ago, inspired by the success of Groupon in the US, group buy clones were spreading across the Chinese internet like wildfire. At the peak of the madness, China had over 5,000 different group buy sites. These days, though, the verdant green fields of internet through which little group buy clones once scampered are now littered with their bones.
But those fields are still verdant and green, and it looks like a new kind of clone may be rising to enjoy its time in the sun before its inevitable over-saturation and self-destruction: Pinterest clones. For those not in the know, Pinterest is a social pinboard site, where people can share and organize photos. In the past two months we’ve written about Chinese net giants like Renren, Qihoo, and Tencent launching Pinterest clones, but they’re not alone. In fact, there are already more than thirty Pinterest clones afoot. There’s Duitang and Zhimei and Mishang and MarkPic and Pinfun and Budou and iCaitu and…OK, I’ll stop. You get the picture. (See what I did there?)
Now, by Pinterest “clone,” I really just mean that these sites took the concept of Pinterest, not necessarily the design or every little feature. I am sure they are all unique and beautiful snowflakes. However, they’re going to melt like a snowball in a microwave if they keep multiplying. The Chinese market can probably support thirty Pinterest clones for a little while, but how many of these are there going to be by next month?
On the one hand, the fact that it’s logistically easier to start this sort of social media site — you don’t need local teams in every city across the country — means that Pinterest clones may actually spread faster than group buy sites did. On the other hand, that ease will keep costs and team sizes down, so at least when the culling of these clones comes to pass, we probably won’t see as many news stories about huge layoffs and branch closing. Hooray?
I do think there’s some value in taking Western services and making them work in China (although I’m not sure why the West or the East needs yet another social networking service). But when dozens of other companies are already doing that, maybe it’s better to reevaluate your plans, or join one of those other companies and build your Pinterest clone that way.
Starting this morning, Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) is adding search results from Chinese microblog site Sina Weibo, giving its search engine users quick access to tweets on trending topics.
The very recent tweets will show in a box clearly marked ‘newest weibo results’ on the first page of a Baidu search for any names or phrases that happen to be popular/trending [1] at the time. For example, if I search for ‘Windows 8’ in Chinese, I get three relevant Weibo tweets (as pictured above).
As is inevitable when linking to random microbloggers, the results can be a mixed bag, so only one of the tweets proved useful in my test, taking me to a video news report about the Windows 8 launch. One way for Baidu to improve this is by taking you to the actual tweet page, not the Weibo user’s homepage (as currently occurs). Also, it would be useful to scroll through some more microblog results, as can be done with Google’s collated Twitter search results.
This initiative by Baidu isn’t entirely new, as the search engine giant has already tied up with three other microblog sites in China: Tencent’s (HKG:0700) Weibo, plus the less used Netease (NASDAQ:NTES) and Sohu (NASDAQ:SOHU) Weibo platforms as well. So, today the picture is complete with added support for the Sina (NASDAQ:SINA) service. Even though Tencent’s site has more registered users – a whopping 300 million – today’s addition is important because Sina’s service seems to have the most buzz, more media mentions, and allegedly also has the lion’s share of wealthier urban users.
Announcing the new Sina Weibo searches, Baidu’s executive assistant, Zhang Dong-cheng, said:
We process billions of search queries on a daily basis, and many of those queries are related to the real-time information found on microblog posts. With this deal between Baidu and Sina Weibo, Baidu has completed its integration of high-quality content from China’s four leading microblog platforms.
In the same joint Sina-Baidu press release, Sina’s VP, Peng Shao-bin, said that his company’s Weibo service sees “100 million microblog posts daily” and can thereby provide “quality real-time information.”
Exactly two weeks from today, all microblog sites must start to enforce ‘real name’ tweeting, meaning that any users who have not submitted their names and national ID numbers to the web companies will no longer be able to post. That could cause the number of daily microblog posts to fall off a cliff.
To see what’s trending on the Chinese web, you might like to check out Baidu Trends. ↩
From his blog: Simone Brunozzi is a truly passionate technologist. After being an entrepreneur, a professor, a CTO, and after writing two technical books and two novels, he joined Amazon.com in March 2008 in the role of Amazon Web Services Technology Evangelist for Europe, to raise awareness about Cloud Computing and help developers build applications.
In January 2010 he relocated to Singapore, becoming the first AWS Technology Evangelist for the APAC region. In 2010 he received the “2010 Cloud Evangelist of the Year” award.
11.24
Takeaway: Startups shouldn’t worry about infrasructure. Cloud computing gives building blocks for infrastructure. DNS, content distribution. Anything you want, for anything you need.
End of sales pitch. Right, I just realized Amazon is a sponsor of DEMO Asia. Tee hee.
11.21
Simone talking about how AWS scales up and down immediately according to the needs of the user.
11.20
Remember this story? Amazon EC2 Outage Takes Down Foursquare, Instagram, Quora, Reddit, Etc
11.19
Now he’s talking about Filter Sqard, an app that helps you find what you like. More than 1.5M downloads, #1 on Apple’s App Store in 50 countries.
“We have been really happy with the way AWS servers have performed.”
How often does AWS go down I wonder.
11.15
Another example now: Cyclopic wind. Australian based consultancy for wind modeling.
“With AWS, you can have a supercomputer at your fingertips!” WOW! BLOWN AWAY!
11.15
I’m still digging the bright blue pants.
11.14
A few examples of AWS at work now.
First is RedBus, an Indian travel agency. they sell tickets through their website or partners. The website sold 7.5M tickets.
11.12
Developing for the cloud is the same as developing in physical infrastructure. AWS is platform agnostic.
Wow this is sounding like a sales pitch for AWS (what do you expect). Did they pay to be on stage?
11.11
A lot of competitors in cloud services. What differentiate AWS?
Multiple data centres around the world. 8 regions in total. 19 “availability zones”, and 24 “edge locations”. Lots of jargon I don’t understand.
11.10
Slides! Wow! talking about cloud computing and its benefits:
1) elastic capacity
2) faster time to market
3) No CapEx
4) Pay as you go, pay for what you use.
5) Focus on biz.
What about the downsides of cloud computing though? Don’t think he’ll talk about that.
11.08
Talking about Amazon Web Services now. Started in 2006.
11.07
Simone in funky blue pants!
10.54
We’re starting the live blogging on this soon! Previous event still going on…
Is China Mobile (HKG:0941, NASDAQ:CHL) in trouble for corruption again? After several recent rounds of restructuring, it appears the company may still be plagued with problems; today the Chinese media is reporting rumors that China Mobile VP and Executive Director Lu Xiangdong has been detained by Jilin prosecutors for questioning. When questioned, China Mobile’s PR arm did not deny the rumors, but said it was in the process of understanding the issue.
Insiders told Caixin that on the night of February 28, prosecutors from the Jilin office’s anti-corruption division took Mr. Lu from Beijing to Jilin to undergo investigation. Supposedly, the case was referred to them by China’s Supreme Court. If true, this would make Lu’s case unlike previous high-level China Mobile exec’s cases — and presumably more serious — because he is not being investigated by the Party Discipline Committee first and rather has gone straight to criminal investigation. According to the Beijing Times, this is evidence that the prosecution probably already has strong evidence against Mr. Lu.
Interestingly, the detailed description above disappeared from Caixin‘s website without explanation after a few hours. China Mobile couldn’t confirm whether it was true or not either, saying they are in the process of actively trying to understand the situation.
The disappearance of the report could indicate that it is incorrect, but more likely it has more to do with China’s media regulations. Regardless of the report’s veracity, high-level corruption is a sensitive issue and the government tends to prefer to control reporting quite tightly when a situation like this arises. China Mobile is a state-owned company, and corruption at its highest levels could also implicate government officials directly. There’s a good chance the Caixin report’s deletion is just an attempt to control the story by subduing it, at least until all the facts are clear.
Of course, this is all still just rumor, though China Mobile’s non-denial sure makes it sound like something’s going on. If it’s true, we’ll likely know soon enough. Either way, we’re starting to wonder if there’s anyone at China Mobile who isn’t corrupt…
[Beijing Times via Sina Tech, image via CFP]