VIPShop Aims for NYSE IPO, Analysts Say it’s Doomed to Fail

VIPShop, the Chinese discount e-commerce site, launched an IPO roadshow earlier this week in the hope that it’ll lead to listing in the US, aiming to hit the New York Stock Exchange on the ‘VIPS’ ticker. But there are already rumors today in the industry that the effort has come to nothing, and that it’s unlikely to secure the necessary backing of investors and underwriters.

VIPShop’s prospectus focuses on its leverage in online discounts, and how China’s huge amount of medium-sized cities (so-called tier-2 or tier-3 cities) means that mid- to low-range discount retailers have a sure-fire audience. In this respect, VIPShop compares itself to successful US bricks-and-mortar chains such as T.J.Maxx and Outlets, but adds that the lack of such stores on China’s streets means that it has the market cornered in e-commerce. Rivals such as Vancl, Tmall, and numerous other affordable clothing-oriented sites would beg to differ.

But a partner at GSR Ventures, Zhu Xiaohu, let slip on his microblog page that things were not looking too good for the VIPShop proposal, saying that “the IPO window” is probably not open to the e-commerce site. He later added, as he was a party to the discussions, that it’s “still very challenging. [VIPShop is] too aggressive on price range.”

Others in the industry also rate VIPShop’s chances as slim – partly because the global economic outlook is still a bit grim, but mainly because the e-commerce site’s profit margins are pretty thin and some of its logistics costs are reportedly twice that of other leading sites in this sector in China.

Despite being badged a specialist luxury online mall by some (and as inferred by its name), VIPShop actually sells items – usually at a useful discount – from a lot of hum-drum clothing and home electronics brands. As such, the site is not really comparable with boutique e-tailers from China such as The Luxury Club or IhaveU, which both focus on couture fashion, and attracted serious investment from VCs last year.

In the past, VIPShop pulled in funding from DCM, which also invested in other specialist e-commerce sites in the country. Here are a selection of slides from its IPO prospectus:

[Source: Techweb (1) and (2) - articles in Chinese]

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Google to Launch Indonesia Office Next Week

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), which promised to open an Indonesia office last year, is finally taking some action on it. It’s late to fulfill its promise, but never too late I guess. Tech in Asia has been invited to attend the opening of the Google Indonesia office on March 30th, next Friday.

Indonesia has shown much potential over the years, having the third-largest group of Facebook users – and the fifth-greatest number of Twitter users – in the world, and Google certainly doesn’t want to miss out on all that. The number of internet users is rising and most importantly, ad spending is rapidly moving to online.

But I know, some of us think that potential is still potential, when will it ever be realized? With Google coming in big, hopefully, that would help foster the ecosystem here a little.

At the launch event, Google will introduce its country head for Google Indonesia and will likely explain how it will play in the country. Personally, I’m quite curious whether the office will be as fun as the other Google offices across the world – we will be sure to update you guys as we know more next week.

On a somewhat related note, Google will not be the only internet giant making its way into Indonesia. Chinese company Tencent has just recently opened an office there as well.

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How businesses in Singapore are going green

The adoption of green practices among entrepreneurs could become the new black in 2012. With natural resources dwindling, the quest for more sustainable business practices that generate profits will remain a pressing issue for years to come.

In addition, as more consumers are willing to spend more on green products, the boon to an organization’s profitability can be substantial. As such, companies know that taking the plunge into green business practices is necessary to add to their company’s overall value.

Green Future Solutions, a Singapore-based business that promotes environmental awareness and action, provides consultancy services to help SMEs reduce costs, increase revenue, and become more sustainable.

Its founder and director, Eugene Tay, sees ways for businesses to reduce the environmental impact of their products throughout its life cycle by exploring the demand for green products and services and being proactive to meet this need, which would help them gain a competitive advantage and increase revenue.

“Business owners will be in a better position to build up their reputation and enhance their brand as a sustainable company. The business can then market its environmental practices or the environmental benefits of its products or services,” he said.

Marketing green products and services as sustainable businesses

Green Cleaners, a leading eco friendly cleaning service in Singapore, is one company that is actively marketing itself as a green business. They specialize in providing green cleaning services to offices and bespoke facilities such as kindergartens, hotels, spas, gyms and health studios.

Colin Pudsey, its founder who moved to Singapore from Australia, started the company in early 2009 after his sinuses and asthma became worse due to long office hours. Suspecting the cause might have been the potent and toxic chemicals used to clean his floors, he tried looking around for a less harmful cleaning service, but couldn’t find one.

He expects a boom in the green cleaning business: “This industry trend is fast becoming mainstream and an expected option in certain areas of the cleaning industry.”

“The U.S.’s well-known previous Vice-President, Al Gore, has created a dynasty around the importance of “green” and saving the environment citing starting a green business as one of the top business start-up options to consider.”

Started two and a half years ago, Green Cleaners now sells their own range of green cleaning products. They also have a franchising program to meet increasing demand across Asia.

They are also helping their clients to promote environmental responsibility as a savvy marketing tool through their Green Stamp certification of approval, which Colin says “has proved to be an excellent value added service.”

Government support and incentives

For economies to progress, governments see a need for industries and companies to tap into renewable energy and become sustainable businesses. The Singapore government has schemes and funding to encourage firms to take the leap and adopt green practices.

Vaidehi Shah, projects manager from the Singapore Environment Council, believes government funding and incentives plays an important role in helping companies in various industries go green, and points out that Building and Construction, Manufacturing, Research, and Transport industries stand to gain the most from government incentives.

Some schemes that help businesses include the Water Efficiency Fund (WEF), which encourages companies to manage their water demand more efficiently, and the Energy Efficiency Improvement Assistance Scheme (EASe), a co-funding scheme administered by the National Environment Agency (NEA) to encourage companies in the manufacturing and building sectors to carry out energy appraisals and identify potential areas for energy efficiency improvement.

She says of these eco-shifts: “Businesses are becoming increasingly concerned with greening the whole value chain – beyond the manufacturing process, they’re also becoming mindful of peripheral issues such as transport, packaging, waste management, and even corporate philanthropy.”

Adopting green labels and certifications

Green labels and certifications are becoming more important in the eyes of companies and consumers. With more consumer awareness comes greater impetus within the business environment to seek out certification and external validation for their green efforts, and display eco-labels that distinguish them from other competitors.

One such certification is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), an internationally recognized mark of excellence that provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

Colin of Green Cleaners believes the push for such certifications has resulted in more firms engaging the services of his company: “LEED certification not only covers the design and construction stages of a new building but operations too. This means there are points to be earned for things like the how the building is cleaned!”

Similiarly, the BCA Green Mark Scheme was launched in January 2005 to encourage the construction of environment-friendly buildings in Singapore. This benchmarking scheme incorporates internationally recognized best practices in environmental design and performance that has a positive effect on corporate image, leasing and resale value of buildings.

According to Vaidehi of SEC, her organization has the Singapore Green Labelling Scheme, Eco-Office Certification and Singapore Environmental Achievement Awards, and these are examples of local certification and awards programmes that reward strong business commitment to environmental excellence.

She also feels companies are genuinely encouraging behavioural change amongst their workers, to achieve soft changes in their corporate image:

“Environmental volunteering, allowing flexible work hours and telecommuting to reduce car-use and putting up reminders within the office to conserve water, electricity and paper are just some examples. SEC’s Project Eco Office is cognizant of the importance of this, and places heavy emphasis on green behaviour in their certification criteria.”

Monitor and manage environmental risks and impacts

Environmental monitoring and managing such risks and impacts has its benefits and there is a growing awareness among companies to give back as climate change and environmental disasters impact everyone.

The Body Shop is an ideal example of a company engaging in green practices. A well-known advocate of social and environmental responsibility, they are moving towards a hub-based distribution system, consolidating shipping to make less frequent deliveries and merging different types of orders. This improves efficiency and reduces the amount of air freights needed, lessening the company’s carbon footprint.

Eugene of Green Future believes companies can reduce the use of fuel, materials and chemicals and at the same time increase the efficiency and productivity of their operations by finding ways to reduce consumption and disposal so that businesses save on utilities bills and waste disposal fees.

“There are many opportunities to reduce unnecessary wastage and inefficient practices in the business, and reduce costs.”

Photo: Tanaka Juuyoh

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Sina’s Biggest Enterprise Weibo Accounts Are Pretty Big

Yesterday, we took a quick first look at Sina’s enterprise weibo white paper. Enterprise weibo accounts are a big part of Sina’s push to monetize its popular social networking site — hence the fancy report — so how well they perform, and how quickly Sina can convince new businesses to sign on, is a big deal. Today, we’re diving a bit deeper into the report and taking a look at the biggest enterprise Weibo accounts.

So what companies are winning on weibo? If you take a look at the pure follower numbers, computer products for nerds (UC web browser, World of Warcraft) and shopping and sharing sites for ladies (Meilishuo, Mushroom Street, Ai Wu) dominate the list.

But anyone can buy zombies, and since these numbers were almost certainly collected before real name registration went into effect last week, what really matters is who has got the most active followers. Pinterest-y fashion sharing site Meilishuo tops that list, followed by Mushroom Street and rounded out by YinYueTai (a music platform), Weico (a weibo client), and Tmall.

It’s not a huge surprise to see so many new sites dominating this list, given that Sina’s big enterprise weibo push is also a relatively recent phenomenon. And, we’ve got to admit having nearly two million active followers is pretty impressive. Although that big gap between Meilishuo’s active and total follower counts sure makes it look like they might have bought some zombies. Just sayin’.

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Revolutionary mobile platform creates new global standard for secure cashless payments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

• Simple plug-in device turns smartphones and tablets into credit/debit card terminals
• End-to-end solution provides bank-level authentication for banks, merchants and consumers

SINGAPORE, 22 March, 2012 – A new mobile payment platform which will revolutionise cashless payments for consumers, businesses and the banking industry around the world was launched today in Singapore.

Swiff, which was developed by SCCP Payment Services, will create a new global standard for secure and instantaneous cashless payments between individuals, merchants and banks, using mobile phones and tablets as credit/debit card terminals. Swiff already works on iPhone, iPod, iPad, Android and BlackBerry devices and will soon be available on Windows-based mobile devices.

Swiff is the world’s first complete end-to-end solution which provides the same high level of security as existing chip-and-pin debit cards, with the benefits of being completely mobile. A “beta” version used by merchants in select locations across Singapore since June 2011 has verified the technology, which is now being launched worldwide.

“Mobile payments in Asia Pacific are projected to rise to US$267.8 billion by 2016, backed by the rapid acceptance of mobile banking services across the region,” said Jerome Cle, Co-founder and CEO of SCCP Payment Services. “There is a high demand in the market for mobile payment solutions which seamlessly plug into any existing eco-system of banks, merchants and customers. Today, Swiff is unique in its ability to do so.”

Beyond enabling merchants to generate credit/debit card transactions securely on-the-go, by simply swiping cards through the device, Swiff also instantly encrypts and transmits card data securely to the participating bank. No data is stored within the smartphone or tablet, ensuring customer information is kept safe.

Julienne Loh, Vice-President and Country Manager, Singapore, MasterCard Worldwide said: “Swiff is an easy-to-use and secure platform which brings us one step closer to a world beyond cash, something that we at MasterCard are working towards. We see Swiff playing a significant role not only in increasing small businesses’ accessibility to cashless payments, but also helping them reduce costs and improve efficiency. Beyond the benefits to businesses, consumers stand to enjoy even more seamless customer experiences with Swiff, as merchants now have an additional platform to enhance and be creative with the way they interact with their customers.”

Swiff is the only mobile payment platform that currently allows merchants and customers the ability to track individual devices and its corresponding location where payments were transacted. “Swiff embeds a Multi-Factor Authentication in the payment application using bank-level security. This provides merchants with a greater confidence to prevent misuse and decrease chargebacks,” adds Jerome Cle. Payment authentication is done at four levels – the consumer, the consumer’s device, the merchant and the merchant’s device.

“Key markets for us include the F&B sector, telecommunications, logistics and hospitality, as well as the millions of businesses throughout the world, including developing economies, that have traditionally been locked out of the lucrative credit card transaction market due to high cost of implementing a credit card terminal,” said Etienne Van den Bogaert, Chief Operating Officer.

Etienne Van den Bogaert added, “Businesses improve their efficiency and reduce their costs through lightweight infrastructure, faster transactions and collection of credit card payments. Greater speed and convenience also bring about stronger customer loyalty, increased business opportunities and faster return on investment.”

Swiff’s complimentary digital loyalty and mobile voucher platform also offers an entire new universe of possibilities for merchants and their acquiring banks, as well as consumers and their credit card issuers by increasing value added services, enhancing mobile payment and loyalty adoption while removing traditional integration and added operating costs.

You may view and download Swiff images at the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/77970940@N08/sets/

You may also view the Swiff video at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M08e2PR8Vw

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Interview with Guyi Shen: How LobangClub got 38k users, and more

For those who’ve been following the startup scene lately, it’s hard to miss Guyi Shen, co-founder of Singapore-based LobangClub, a price comparison app.

He was a supposed “victim” on the Dragon Den-like reality show Angel’s Gate, where the angels offered him a year’s worth of mentorship in exchange for ten percent equity — a proposition many find ridiculous (read his side of the story).

But more than that, his app has gained quite a decent amount of traction in Singapore, at 38,000 active users in a city of five million since its launch in September 2011. His challenge now is to expand to the region and generate enough revenue to sustain his business.

We caught up with him recently via email to see how’s he doing.

SGE: So what are your plans regarding expanding regionally? Where are you looking to at the moment?

Guyi: We are looking very closely at philippines right now. It’s english speaking, has a 100 million population, and the iPhone is exploding in the country right now. It’s demographic is super connected and social, and Pinoys love a deal even more than Singaporeans. In fact, I am emailing you from Manila right now.

SGE: It’s probably tougher for a startup like yours, that utilizes network effect, to go from zero to 38k, than say an utility app. What advice can you give to startups that cultivate communities and rely purely on user-generated content?

Guyi: I feel like this is by far the most important question for startups in this region. To be honest, there are lots of ideas done by startups in the region that have the proviso, “this would work, if you can get enough users…”

People here in this region look to the Valley for thought leadership on all things startup, and pretty much verbatim execute the “best practises” they see overseas. However, distribution is a very local thing, especially given the different Internet ecosystems that exist in this region, and copying stuff that works in the U.S does not necessarily work locally.

For user-generated content and community sites, the advice is pretty short and sweet, do whatever it takes to make your first users happy, usually this means doing things that don’t scale; for us, we spent a few months manually seeding the data with everything we could get our hands on, so that the very first user had a good experience when they scanned something.

SGE: On Angel’s Gate, it was mentioned that you’ve had three failed businesses over eight years. Could you tell me more?

Guyi: I wouldn’t exactly call them failed businesses (that was an AG embellishment); one was in ecommerce, one was in lead generation, and another one was in financial services. My role in all of them was user acquisition and online distribution, so I cut my teeth in extremely competitive online markets doing user acquisition.

SGE: How do you bounce back each time?

Guyi: It’s in my DNA to be an entrepreneur, so I don’t really bounce back, I just move onto the next thing.

SGE: It must’ve been tough on your wife and two kids? How do you rally their support?

Guyi: I met my wife while doing my second startup, so my wife has known me as an entrepreneur all along. I believe in the concept of full immersion and engagement, so the days I do work, I work non-stop till 2, 3am, get up at 10am and continue working. On weekends, I spend all my time with family and give them my full attention, that’s why I rarely attend any events that happen on weekends.

SGE: Can you highlight some key lessons from each of your previous business, and how you would have done things differently on hindsight?

Guyi: For my first startup, the key lesson is to pick your founders carefully; the business didn’t reach potential because of a difference in risk profiles on the founders.

For my second startup, the key lesson is that overnight successes are usually more due to being in the right place and the right time rather than any inherent skill on the part of the entrepreneur, stay humble and work hard to maximise your luck rather than think you are smarter than you really are.

And for my third startup, I learnt that you are never good enough not to give 100% of your focus to the business.

End.

More about LobangClub:

Guyi’s thoughts on e-commerce in Southeast Asia
LobangClub asked by authorities to remove cigarette postings

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360buy Denied IPO Rumor

In response to the swirling rumor about “360buy resumed IPO process”, the Beijing-based B2C giant issued a statement last night to rebut the claim. 360buy reiterated in the statement that it has no intention to go public anytime soon, and it never shared any IPO-related information or financial data with investment banks.

A recent report said that the company which raised US$ 1.5 billion in its Series C round of financing resumed the iPO preparations in this month and has secretly contacted a number of investment banks. And according to the company’s financial figures, it saw RMB 21 billion in total sales and RMB 1.2 billion in net loss in last year with a gross profit margin of nearly 5%.

The ecommerce giant was rumored to sell shares at NASDAQ last September though things didn’t pan out well due to market unrest among other reasons like turmoil global economy.

Li Guoqing, CEO of NYSE-listed Dangdang, one of 360buy’s arch rival took a shoot at the company claiming “the company(360buy) wouldn’t even survive this August or October” and “(360buy) doing an ecommerce business in hedge fund’s manner was “bullshit” and couldn’t survive long. Eventually 360buy will need to raise a new round of financing or trying to sell shares at NASDAQ after burning out all the raised money.”

It’s been a tough time for Chinese ecommerce services which are bleeding money and waiting for the market to pick up again.

Related posts:

1. 360buy Adds Game Recharge Support, Relaunches Female Vertical Qianxun
2. NetEase Shutting down Online Luxury Service
3. Winter Sets in? Shanda Pinju to Close Down

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Getting to know your ladies better on Updaterus

Indonesian startup, Updaterus.com recently launched their social network platform to celebrate beautiful and inspiring ladies for men to admire not only their external beauty. But, more importantly, see the inner beauty and talent behind every pretty  facade. e27 recently had a short interview with CEO of Updaterus, Jonathan Marga Luhur to find out more about the social network.

A little about the man behind the social platform

Prior to starting Updaterus.com, Joanathan was working as a DJ. Being in the entertainment industry, he had the opportunity to come across many beautiful girls which he cheekily claims that the relationships were all purely friendship. Jonathan adds that when guys see a pretty girl, they will let their imagination run wild by picturing how sexy they look based on their exterior appearance and curvatures. Men seldom think beyond the pretty outer covering of a beautiful girl. I.e., The girl’s passion, hobby, beliefs, character are often overlooked. He went on to affirm that women are judged physically all the time and that is a fact.

On top of being involved in the music industry, Jonathan has always loved technology, especially after working as a software sales executive back in the United States. After graduating with an MBA degree, instead of looking for a steady job in The U.S., he went back to Indonesia to catch the technology trend with the hope that he can contribute something beneficial for others.

Bringing out the inner beauty in every woman

Updaterus was then created to show everyone that there is more to just a beautiful face or body. Behind every pretty face is one very interesting girl with a unique personality, multiple talents that is waiting to be discovered.

We are now living in an era where social media has infiltrated most aspects of our lives. For girls (and guys), there is a phenomenon of taking self shots or pictures of themselves uploading it onto a social media platform. Meanwhile, men like to check out beautiful girls on social media (e.g Facebook). Updaterus wants to change this behavior by showing not only how beautiful women are, but also showing beautiful and inspiring women so that users understand the true meaning of beauty.

Screenshot of Updaterus.com

Competition in the social network space

In view of the competitive space in the social media platform, Jonathan believes that it’s never too late to do something. Even if they did, it’s better be late than never. The key is to always be innovating and creating values for the users. What makes them different from any other social media platforms is the focus they have on the personality of our beauties. Other social media offer just enough information about a person while they are taking a step further to dig down more on the personality and their story.

Next steps and plans for Updaterus

The team realizes that their road is still long to reach their goal and mission. What they have now is only the beginning. In the next phase, there will be more focus on building more features to dig up more about the personalities and behavior of the beauties. Also, both mobile site and apps will be up soon. Marketing wise, they will be doing beauty campaigns soon.

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Getting to know your ladies better on Updaterus

Indonesian startup, Updaterus.com recently launched their social network platform to celebrate beautiful and inspiring ladies for men to admire not only their external beauty. But, more importantly, see the inner beauty and talent behind every pretty  facade. e27 recently had a short interview with CEO of Updaterus, Jonathan Marga Luhur to find out more about the social network.

A little about the man behind the social platform

Prior to starting Updaterus.com, Joanathan was working as a DJ. Being in the entertainment industry, he had the opportunity to come across many beautiful girls which he cheekily claims that the relationships were all purely friendship. Jonathan adds that when guys see a pretty girl, they will let their imagination run wild by picturing how sexy they look based on their exterior appearance and curvatures. Men seldom think beyond the pretty outer covering of a beautiful girl. I.e., The girl’s passion, hobby, beliefs, character are often overlooked. He went on to affirm that women are judged physically all the time and that is a fact.

On top of being involved in the music industry, Jonathan has always loved technology, especially after working as a software sales executive back in the United States. After graduating with an MBA degree, instead of looking for a steady job in The U.S., he went back to Indonesia to catch the technology trend with the hope that he can contribute something beneficial for others.

Bringing out the inner beauty in every woman

Updaterus was then created to show everyone that there is more to just a beautiful face or body. Behind every pretty face is one very interesting girl with a unique personality, multiple talents that is waiting to be discovered.

We are now living in an era where social media has infiltrated most aspects of our lives. For girls (and guys), there is a phenomenon of taking self shots or pictures of themselves uploading it onto a social media platform. Meanwhile, men like to check out beautiful girls on social media (e.g Facebook). Updaterus wants to change this behavior by showing not only how beautiful women are, but also showing beautiful and inspiring women so that users understand the true meaning of beauty.

Screenshot of Updaterus.com

Competition in the social network space

In view of the competitive space in the social media platform, Jonathan believes that it’s never too late to do something. Even if they did, it’s better be late than never. The key is to always be innovating and creating values for the users. What makes them different from any other social media platforms is the focus they have on the personality of our beauties. Other social media offer just enough information about a person while they are taking a step further to dig down more on the personality and their story.

Next steps and plans for Updaterus

The team realizes that their road is still long to reach their goal and mission. What they have now is only the beginning. In the next phase, there will be more focus on building more features to dig up more about the personalities and behavior of the beauties. Also, both mobile site and apps will be up soon. Marketing wise, they will be doing beauty campaigns soon.

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Japan’s NTT Docomo Reaches 2 Million LTE Subscribers

Japan’s leading mobile carrier NTT Docomo (NYSE:DCM) announced yesterday that its high speed mobile LTE service, Xi , surpassed the two million subscribers milestone on March 18th.

According to the announcement, the service – which had initially launched back in December of 2010 – reached a million subscribers one year later on December 25th of 2011. Since then user adoption has picked up, surpassing the two million mark just last week. This count includes smartphones, tablets, and data communication devices. I’m starting to see more and more of my friends suddenly saying they have new LTE pocket wifi devices as well

It was only recently that Docomo announced that it’s total mobile subscriber count (including 2G, 3G, and LTE) had surpassed the 60 million mark, putting it well ahead of its closest competitors, SoftBank and KDDI’s au.

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New iPad Meets a Chilly Reception in China, US Scalpers Returning iPads to Apple

Scalpers return iPads to an Apple Store in the US

The new iPad — what a stupid name — hasn’t been released yet in mainland China. But, like all iPads before it, it has found its way here via gadget scalpers in Hong Kong and the United States, who smuggle the devices into the country on the assumption that there will be a market for them. Previously, that has been so true that scalpers can sell the devices at obscene markups and still move product. But with the new iPad, things seem to be different.

The first clue came a few days ago, when the average price of gray-market new iPad imports dropped by 500 RMB ($79). Generally speaking, limited supply and extreme demand drives import prices up, not down, especially in the weeks immediately following the official overseas launch. when customers know the official China version of the device is likely still months away.

Then, perhaps in response to this, a large number of ethnically Chinese customers were seen returning bundles of new iPads to the New York Apple store yesterday. According to China Business News, these people were iPad scalpers who had planned to export the new iPads to China, but apparently for the first time ever, the gray imports from Hong Kong alone seem to be enough to meet the demand in China.

Part of the reason is that the supply from Hong Kong seems to have increased, and another reason may be that Chinese customs is rumored to be getting better at stopping US-based smugglers from getting the devices into China. But there is also a clear lack of interest in “the new iPad” when compared with previous Apple releases. When the device was first announced, I wrote a bit about why it might not hold a lot of appeal for China, but even I didn’t expect that that would actually affect sales. (After all, we wrote the same thing about the iPhone 4S, and that seems to be doing fine).

It will be interesting to see how much of this is lowered demand and how much is the increased Hong Kong supply driving prices down and US competitors out. The real China launch of the new iPad — whenever that is — should give us an indication of how excited people are about it. The norm for launches these days appears to be massive lines of scalpers and violence, so if we see anything less than that for the new iPad launch, then we’ll know for sure Apple’s latest shiny brick is a dud in the middle kingdom.

[China Business News via Sina Tech]

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