China Auction Industry Association Calls Taobao Platform Illegal (But It Probably Isn’t)

Taobao made waves a couple weeks ago when it teamed up with the Zhejiang People’s Court to serve as the platform for an online government auction site called Taobao Sifa. In the time since then, the site has conducted two successful auctions, but it has apparently also raised the ire of the China Auction Industry Association, which says Taobao is violating the laws that govern auctions both online and off.

According to an industry insider we spoke to, though, Taobao should be in the clear as long as it is just a technological platform and the court itself conducts the auctions. As a non-commercial enterprise, the Zhejiang People’s Court should be exempt from the laws that govern commercial auctions. I have a feeling the China Auction Industry Association’s lawyers may disagree or argue that Taobao has some commercial stake in the venture, though, so we may yet see some kind of court case result from this.

For its part, Taobao doesn’t seem to be particularly concerned. When asked for comment about the China Auction Industry Association’s actions, an Alibaba rep told us:

This online auction model is unprecedented in the Chinese market and in this instance, Taobao.com is maintaining its role as a third party platform provider offering a bridge between the buyer and seller. The success of the first auction demonstrates that this model has the potential to do well in the Chinese e-commerce sphere as it is not constrained by geographical limitations; this results in high participation rates nationwide and competitive auction prices for the seller.

The Taobao Sifa site continues to be operating normally, although there are no new auctions at the moment, so we’re guessing that Taobao isn’t too worried about the accusations. Still, is all this going to end up in court someday? We’ve got no way of being sure, but we’re guessing if it does, the guys at the Zhejiang People’s Court can hook Taobao up with some pretty good lawyers.

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Sydney’s taxi finder app goCatch beats 8 others to win Microsoft’s APAC Startup 2012 Award

Taxi location app goCatch took home Microsoft’s prestigious APAC Startup 2012 Award, after pitching their business idea at BizSpark APAC Entrepreneur Summit in Sydney.

In its five-minute pitch, the Sydney-based startup’s solid business proposal and plans of venturing into overseas markets impressed the panel of judges to beat eight other finalists, including StyleRocks, a custom-made jewellery-maker.

The location-based app works through the use of GPS signals to help passengers track taxis. Once this app is downloaded into a mobile device, passengers are able to locate and hail a taxi hassle-free. Currently, the app can only track registered taxi drivers, a number that has reached 7,000 to date in Australia.

     

The finalists were also part of Microsoft’s BizSpark program, a global program designed to accelerate the success of early stage Startups.

Photos: iTunes App Store

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Series C Funding of $18 Million for Indian E-Commerce Site Yebhi

Gurgaon-based fashion e-commerce site Yebhi.com has just announced that its parent company has wrapped up Rs 100 crores (US$18 million) in series C funding. That’s its biggest ever round. The site is owned by Big Shoe Bazaar, one of India’s top online wholesale cash and carry companies.

Two new investors led this third funding round in Big Shoe Bazaar – Fidelity Growth Partners India and Qualcomm Ventures – that also saw participation from previous backers Nexus Venture Partners and Catamaran.

Its main site, Yebhi, is one of India’s leading e-tailers of low- to mid-range clothing and shoes for both men and women. It has recently diversified into other items, such as electronics and mobile top-up payments. Its first funding round in November 2010 raised Rs 10 crores, followed by raising Rs 40 crores last year.

Qualcomm Ventures, the investment arm of the chipmaker Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), usually invests in mobile-oriented startups, and it seems that mobile commerce is on its mind with its first backing of Big Shoe Bazaar. Qualcomm Venture’s senior director Karthee Madasamy said in an announcement today:

The number of mobile internet users has already surpassed those who use PCs, creating a growing opportunity to reach mobile-connected consumers and provide them with unique shopping experiences. Our investment in Big Shoe Bazaar has come at a time when the rapid rise of smartphones, tablets, and social media networks stands to greatly influence the way people engage in online shopping.

Last year, Big Shoe Bazaar acquired the jewelry portal Stylishyou.in, and more acquisitions might be in the offing with its biggest-ever VC funding.

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91 Assistant Gold Mining Kids Apps

Guess many people should’ve seen a video featuring an infant playing around with an iPhone without any difficulty, intuitive touch screen devices like iPhone and iPad are not just for adults but also could be used – especially iPads – for child’s education. As you might’ve noticed, under the Education categories of Apple’s App Store, apps for child’s education accounted for half of the Top 12.

Over the past years people have been seeing more and more young parents who are geekheads themselves in tier-1 and tier-2 cities of China are considering using iPad for children education purpose. The only problem for them, is to find the proper and right apps to meed their demands, like one app that can read ancient Chinese poems to kids, the other one that can sing to them, and another one that teaches them how to draw a nice picture.

China’s southeastern Fujian-province-based NetDragon spotted the trends and opportunities. As the company’s latest earnings report shows that, it’s subsidiary 91 Wireless is working on a 91 Assistant Kids Apps Center in an aim to focus on recommending apps curated for children.

The iOS version of the app center accumulated more than 2 million downloads in just one month after being available for download. It’s PC client was made available in this June, and an Android version is also expected to be launched soon.

According to who is overseeing the effort, these apps will be focusing on integrating as many resources as they can and then distribute them to parents who are in need of them. He also said that Boyuan Wireless, the company behind 91 Wireless are profitable right now, but they’re still exploring the most suitable business model of mobile Internet.

 91 Assistant is better positioned in this effort as the service, being the first of its kind in China, has spread quickly among iPhone users. Joe Hu, CFO of the company once mentioned that as of now, 70-80% of iPhone fans in China, or 12-13 million people, use 91 Assistant to download applications onto their mobile phone.

Related posts:

1. Microsoft China Director: Windows Phone Has Chance To Win in 3–5 Years in Mobile
2. Over 65% Chinese App Developers Are Newcomers To The Business
3. LBS Service Jiepang Launches All New App for iPhone and Android

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Use Taggo to get big discounts just by checking in as a fan on Facebook

Since its inception in 2010, Taggo has already accomplished several milestones and stands strong to tell e27 how the concept of Taggo has evolved along the way and also talk about its recent partnership with Paypal.

Previously known as an app that allows merchants to reward customers for their loyalty at the point-of-sales without the hassle of handing out respective loyalty cards, Taggo is now positioned as a Fan Club application for Facebook.

Taggo now converts any existing Facebook fan page into a loyalty program Fan Club by linking the customer’s Facebook account with their mobile number, and making this information easy to access at the retailer’s point of sale.

An exciting progress of Taggo features Paypal as one of its new clients. Paypal has not bundled Taggo into their new mobile payment servce in order to attract more merchants and customers.  Paypal is the first company to purchase service from Taggo, and other payment brands and banks are expected to follow soon.

This means that Taggo will no longer recruit merchants directly since Paypal, the client is already doing this. Since Paypal has large teams of people around the world dedicated to developing relationships with merchants, Taggo can grow globally without needing to hire thousands of people to pound the streets in hundreds of cities.

“Our business model is now clear and tested,” says CEO and founder of Taggo, Aneace Haddad. “Taggo is free for merchants, as the service is bundled into the fees that they normally pay for credit card processing. Payment brands like PayPal sponsor the service because they get merchant funded offers that attract users and increase share of wallet.”

Taggo at Soho Coffee Singapore

Merchants want more fans and free word of mouth advertising on Facebook. Therefore, partnerships between merchants and Taggo have also seen discounts bigger than what is typically seen with credit card offers.

PayPal is at the beginning of their deployment with few retailers using their service (including Taggo).  Since this is only its new launch, larger numbers of retailers are also predicted to sign up quickly.

When other payment brands come on board, Paypal will also promote Fan Club services to retailers, which gives them a choice of whether to have a Fan Club powered by PayPal, or powered by Visa, or NETS, DBS, Citibank, etc. Any payment industry player could power merchant Fan Clubs through Taggo, and get better deals for the company’s cardholders, signifying an exciting future of Taggo’s developments.

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Use Taggo to get big discounts just by checking in as a fan on Facebook

Since its inception in 2010, Taggo has already accomplished several milestones and stands strong to tell e27 how the concept of Taggo has evolved along the way and also talk about its recent partnership with Paypal.

Previously known as an app that allows merchants to reward customers for their loyalty at the point-of-sales without the hassle of handing out respective loyalty cards, Taggo is now positioned as a Fan Club application for Facebook.

Taggo now converts any existing Facebook fan page into a loyalty program Fan Club by linking the customer’s Facebook account with their mobile number, and making this information easy to access at the retailer’s point of sale.

An exciting progress of Taggo features Paypal as one of its new clients. Paypal has not bundled Taggo into their new mobile payment servce in order to attract more merchants and customers.  Paypal is the first company to purchase service from Taggo, and other payment brands and banks are expected to follow soon.

This means that Taggo will no longer recruit merchants directly since Paypal, the client is already doing this. Since Paypal has large teams of people around the world dedicated to developing relationships with merchants, Taggo can grow globally without needing to hire thousands of people to pound the streets in hundreds of cities.

“Our business model is now clear and tested,” says CEO and founder of Taggo, Aneace Haddad. “Taggo is free for merchants, as the service is bundled into the fees that they normally pay for credit card processing. Payment brands like PayPal sponsor the service because they get merchant funded offers that attract users and increase share of wallet.”

Taggo at Soho Coffee Singapore

Merchants want more fans and free word of mouth advertising on Facebook. Therefore, partnerships between merchants and Taggo have also seen discounts bigger than what is typically seen with credit card offers.

PayPal is at the beginning of their deployment with few retailers using their service (including Taggo).  Since this is only its new launch, larger numbers of retailers are also predicted to sign up quickly.

When other payment brands come on board, Paypal will also promote Fan Club services to retailers, which gives them a choice of whether to have a Fan Club powered by PayPal, or powered by Visa, or NETS, DBS, Citibank, etc. Any payment industry player could power merchant Fan Clubs through Taggo, and get better deals for the company’s cardholders, signifying an exciting future of Taggo’s developments.

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China Unicom Ups 3G Speeds to 42 Mbps, But We Have Our Doubts

China Unicom has been upping its 3G speed right and left recently, adding HSPA+ support that supposedly raised connection speeds to a possible 21 Mbps, and now the company is rolling out another update it claims will give its 3G connections blazing speeds of up to 42 Mbps. This network update is already in effect in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and a few other key cities, with updates rolling out to other locations over the next few months.

In practice, though, it appears that the “up to” in “up to 42 Mbps” is very important. Despite excellent signal reception in my apartment in Beijing, my Unicom 3G service has never been very fast. In light of this speed update, I decided to try a speed test to see what effect the new 3G network has had on my connection speeds. Gaze ye upon my results, and despair:

Yes, it appears that while 3G users in Beijing theoretically can experience speeds of up to 42 Mbps — perhaps in the same way one theoretically can win the lottery while getting struck by lightning — I would be lucky to hit 2 Mbps. It’s not an anomaly either (I ran this a couple times, and tried it out on my wife’s phone as well); China Unicom’s 3G is just slow. Even though it’s apparently now ridiculously fast.

I called China Unicom to get some clarification on this, but the rep I spoke to appeared to be about as confused as I was. At one point, she told me that the fastest speed I was likely to see via 3G in Beijing was 500 Kbps — that’s really slow — and finally said there was no real way to be sure about speeds as it depends on the network of the area you’re in and, to a lesser extent, also the phone itself.

I guess the moral of the story here is that China Unicom’s speed pronouncements are pretty much meaningless. If you were hoping to actually experience blazing fast 42 Mbps downloads on your phone, don’t hold your breath.

[Metropolis Bulletin via Sina Tech]

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Activeark Oy Acquired By JWT; Interview with India MD

Digital marketing agency Activeark Oy has been acquired by JWT Global Network. This majority stake acquisition comes in close heels post JWT’s acquisition of Hungama Digital a few days back. Though the financial terms of the acquisition have not been revealed, the amount is suspected to be pretty significant given the fact that Activeark’s audited gross revenues for the year ended 31 December 2011 were approximately EUR 8.1 million.

Activeark, founded in 2003, is based in Helsinki with operations in the UK and India and employs more than 80 people. Their Indian office is based out of Mumbai. Post acquisition JWT Finland and Activeark will combine their businesses (and offices as well) and partner in order to provide a comprehensive offering for both local and international clients.

Post acquisition the Activeark entity will be re-christened as Activeark JWT across the world and see its 80 member team merging with JWT Finland’s 30 member staff. In India Activeark has an eight member team which is expected to grow to 15-20 members by the end of this year. This was shared by Siddhartha Vinchurkar, MD, Activeark, in an interview with Pluggd.in.

Siddhartha has been leading the Indian Operations of Activeark since its Indian inception in 2010, and will continue to do so even after acquisition. The India office currently handles the global website Technology/Content management support to the telecommunications giant Nokia Siemens Networks apart from a few more notable Finnish customers. Post acquisition, though it will keep doing what it has been, it will venture into other avenues and unknown frontiers too!

“The leadership team in India will remain the same. The Indian arm has been more into the technology front handling websites and content management etc for overseas clients. However, now we will also start working with Indian customers. Also we will foray into design and branding for Indian as well as international clients. We have worked on a few corporate videos earlier but now it will come into prominence and we might get into doing social media for our clients. Regarding the integration, we should all focus on doing what we have been doing before at the same time adding more to the portfolio, in other words taking care of our clients and delivering top quality in our teams,” he added.

JWT as a group has moved aggressively into the digital space over the last year, expanding both organically and through acquisitions.  Recently XM Asia, a JWT company, agreed to acquire Magnivate, Indonesia’s leading digital agency. Then 3 weeks ago, they bought a majority stake in the 17 year old digital agency AKQA for $540 million. And then Hungama Digital was acquired by JWT APAC. As per JWT, Activeark acquisition is one of the most significant European acquisitions for JWT in recent history.

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Apple Pulls Controversial Chinese Island Defense Game from App Store

We were mildly amused last week to that a Chinese developer had created an iPad game entitled ‘Defend the Diaoyu Islands ,’ a title which has the player defending the uninhabited but disputed Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands for China.

Matt Johnson over at MobiSights had a great overview of the game last week, and translated the iTunes description as below. The app no longer can be reached at its original URL, but it can be viewed in Google cache.

Defend the Diaoyu Islands, for they are the inalienable territory of China! Recently, the Japanese government has been saber-rattling, making attempts to seize the Diaoyu Islands and even arresting our fishermen compatriots while selling off fish from the islands. Today, you can vent your anger by trying this game demo, working together to eradicate all Japanese devils landing on the island and turning them back towards their own lands. Defend the Diaoyu Islands!

Sounds lovely, hey?

According to China Daily citing technology analyst Sun Mengzi, the most likely reason for the games’s removal is that it violates Apple’s rule that enemies in a game “cannot target a specific race, culture, real government or corporation, or any other real entity.”

Here are some screenshots of the game below.

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