Friday, January 25, 2013

11 Must-Read Tech Stories in China This Week

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It has been a pretty busy week in the China technology space, with lots of activity from the big players, both foreign and domestic, especially in the mobile space. We also saw the net nanny make a brief and very annoying appearance, but thankfully not for too long. So in case you missed any of the action from the past week, here’s our recap to keep you up to speed:


Apple Terminates One China Supplier That Had 74 Underage Workers 01/25

We take a look at Apple’s most recent ‘supplier responsibility’ report, and find that there are still an abundance of problems, including one particular supplier in Guangdong which had been found to have scores of underage laborers.


Microsoft Under Fire For Skype China Business and Alleged Chat Intercepts 01/25

Microsoft is being challenged by dozens of rights advocates today in the form of an open letter to Skype. That letter is asking Microsoft to disclose any “surveillance and censorship capabilities” in the Chinese version of Skype.


WTF? Lenovo Considering Acquiring RIM to Boost its Mobile Arm 01/25

Lenovo has been enjoying pretty good business over the past year. But we’re a little confused by a Bloomberg report saying that the Chinese tech giant Lenovo is pondering an acquisition of Research in Motion. I suspect they must not be wearing their ThinkCaps™.


Nokia Sales Down 79% in China as Symbian Dies, Lumia Slow to Grow 01/24

Nokia is doing well in some countries with its slick new Lumia smartphones. But regrettably, China is not one of those countries as the company just posted its worst ever annual report for the country.


Check Out 3 Years of Stunning 3G Growth in China [CHART] 01/24

Want a big-picture overview of the kind of growth that China’s 3G industry has seen over the past few years? My colleague Steven has you covered, pointing out that quarterly 3G subscriber totals for China’s major telecoms going all the way back to 2009.


China Train Ticket Site Cost Nearly $100 Million, Seems to Be Harassing Programmers, And Might Be Broken Again 01/24

And you thought being a programmer in the US was difficult… Just be thankful that you don’t have goons showing up on your doorstep demanding that you delete that plugin you coded, or else!


Social Coding Site Github Unblocked and Accessible Again in China 01/23

As if coders didn’t have it bad enough, this week saw social coding site Github temporarily blocked in China. Thankfully it didn’t stay blocked for long. Clearly the long, strong arms of the Octocat can be very persuasive.


Apple Sees iPhone Sales Double in China 01/23

China is still as hungry as ever for iPhone, and it looks like the folks at Apple are going to oblige them with more retail stores in the country. Way cool.


Tencent Weibo, the ‘Other Weibo’ That Nobody Cares About, Reaches 540 Million Users 01/22

Tencent always seems to do very big things very quietly. While Sina Weibo is the big attention-getter in China’s microblog space, Tencent appears to have 540 million friends who are willing to console them.


Huawei Profits Up 33% in 2012, Now Seeing 66% of Revenue from Outside China 01/21

Huawei has seen a public relations nightmare in 2012, as we’ve written about many times on this blog. But the company still appears to be killing it in terms of profits, even in overseas markets.


ZTE Posts $400 Million Loss in 2012 01/21

In start contrast, that other scary Chinese telcom equipment manufacturer hasn’t been doing nearly as well.


That’s all for this week, folks! For our full spread of China coverage, you can click here or subscribe to our China RSS feed.

The post 11 Must-Read Tech Stories in China This Week appeared first on Tech in Asia.


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Windows 8. Should I develop for it?

Windows 8Ian Ho, Director of Corporate Development (Asia) for Lotaris, breaks down the opportunities that Windows 8 presents to developers.

Since the launch of Windows 8, Microsoft has received its fair bit of flak on how the poorly the market has responded to it. Hardware vendors have not been too pleased with their sales, while consumers to date have shown lukewarm response to Windows 8.

Which begs the question, as a mobile developer – Should I develop for Windows 8? If  yes, when?

Market Opportunity

Before we get started, it is important to get some basic facts established.  For the reasons below, in my opinion, Windows 8 is here to stay.

Windows 8 is a true cross-device operating system

We are in an era where consumers demand cross device usage of their applications. Applications that a consumer uses on his mobile phone, has to be replicated on his laptop, tablet and TV set.  Much like what iCloud is to Apple Users, Windows 8 will allow Microsoft to provide flexibility and convenience to their users across multiple devices – mobile, tablet and laptops in 2012. And possibly Xbox and Microsoft TV in 2013. In addition, addressability to the PC market is interesting here with Microsoft taking the store to the PCs where they dominate and trying to build a real cross platform environment. For a developer it’s not going to be as easy as develop once and run on all devices, but at least by taking the right development choices you can support all environments with quite small development overhead.

Upcoming launch of new devices

Let us be objective in our judgement. At the current juncture, Windows 8 is barely 2 months old and the take up of the operating system have been mostly dominated by the PC and Tablet market and not the mobile market. For practical reasons, while the Nokia Lumia series has been launched, Nokia is still in the midst of establishing partnerships with mobile operators around the world (For eg. China Mobile).  Likewise, Samsung with its Activ S has only started its roll out globally. With these 2 global brands launching their mobile products out in the market,  and possibly other brands hopping onto the bandwagon, 2013 remains a hopeful one for Windows 8. After all let us not forget that the growth of Android was driven largely by the success of the Samsung Galaxy Series.

Microsoft is budgeting US$1.5 Billion in marketing dollars on Windows 8

Lastly, we should not discount the power of advertising and that the numbers we are looking at has made the launch of Windows 8 the biggest product launch in the history of the industry. While one can discount the eventual effectiveness of the dollars spent, the amount we are looking will at least allow Windows 8 to make a dent in the market.

Hence should I develop for Windows 8?

In my opinion, a resounding YES if you are a fledging developer and a MAYBE if you are an established developer.

It is a fact that the mobile applications market is an extremely fragmented market. At last count, both App Store and Google Play had 700,000 applications on their marketplaces. And as per the latest Distimo report, mobile applications are still a winners take all market – 7 applications were responsible for 10% of the revenues in November 2012 in the Apple App Store for iPhone. Hence discovery is everything on the application store. And the probability of being discovered as a fledging developer is much higher in a marketplace with 120,000 applications (Windows 8 Phone Store) than one with 700,000 applications.

To give further precedence of past examples,

  • Angry Birds was first launched in December 2009, where there were slightly over 100,000 applications on the App Store
  • Plants Vs Zombies for iOS was first launched in February 2010, where there were slightly over 120,000 applications on the App Store. The game went on to rack in US$1 million in sales over nine days
  • Fruit Ninja was launched in April 2010, where there were about 185,000 applications on the App Store

Naturally, there are exceptions like Draw Something being rather late entrants into the market but in the terms of probability, even with a superior product, there is a higher chance of being discovered when one is playing in a blue ocean. And we saw how Rovio and Halfbrick Studios went to instant fame with their hits.

Ultimately, I understand that the decision to develop for Windows 8  will not be an easy one. The challenges include an uncertain operating system, fragmented testing environment like the Android and entirely new language for developers to adopt,  which is why established developers (Facebook and Twitter) can afford to take their time to decide whether they would wish to put resources behind a Windows 8 project. However, as the saying goes “Fortune favours the bold”, take the plunge as early as possible and who knows, the rewards maybe pleasantly surprising.

About the author

Ian is a Director of Corporate Development (Asia) for Lotaris, which provides a complete Digital Rights Management solution for mobile apps including licensing, analytics and payments. Lotaris solution currently powers the apps of Symantec, Capcom and Sega and has a new product for the Windows 8 platform. Prior to this, Ian was based in Shanghai with Vickers Venture Partners, a Asia-Pacific VC which concurrently was the lead investor in Lotaris. He also had a stint as VP of Corporate Development with 24Quan, a group-buying company in China. You can follow him at @ianhosoosiang.

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Pi of Life: On priorities, spending and saving wisely

Came across this video on personal finance recently

It talks about the saving vs spending habits, handling peer pressure and going with what matters to you, not everyone else. And about staying focused on your goals.

While the movie does go over the top in certain respects (Rs 100 crores, from just a saving and investing habit!?), there are a few important lessons for an entrepreneur and his/her enterprise.

MoneyAre you spending and saving wisely?

Many hear of “lean startups” and get it all wrong. Being a miser isn’t the message. Its just important to spend on what matters to you, your business and has the maximum impact.

But don’t just spend because it feels good, or is the done thing. Do your research right, have your reasons very clear in your head and make sure the money works for you. It does not matter whether you’re bootstrapping or funded.

And the same applies to your personal finances as well. That’s very much part of your startup’s runway, indirectly.

Are you following the herd?

Attending seminars, conferences and events might generate a lot of feel good, and “everyone’s doing it”. But you are better off picking and choosing which to atttend and which to avoid. measure the RoI and the cost of doing the same.

The same goes for life – folks around raving about the new tablet, phone, car, appliance, movie might make you feel like a loser for not being able to afford it or even part of the discussion – but remember you’re not playing the same games anymore and your goals are different.

Like the Uncle in video, its important to be aware of who you are, believe in it and be comfortable not fitting in.

Are you developing as a person, and as a professional?

Entrepreneurship is about expanding and exploring your capabilities. Its about constraints, and being creative within them.
At the same time – some “me time” is important. Don’t focus on only one aspect either of the business, or of yourself. You should be learning more – even if it seems non-core and frivoulous – and enjoy doing the little things right. You’ll surprise yourself with what other skills you develop, and how much richer life gets!

Watch the video with an open mind. Nice lessons for life in there.


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Tech in Asia: Our Picks for Story of the Week [Jan. 26]

techinasia news of the week

How was your week? Fun week? Big week? As usual our week was pretty busy trying to stay on top of all the latest tech happenings around the Asia region. And for your reading pleasure, we’ve put together of some our favorite picks from the past seven days. Read on for more.

Steven’s pick: Apple Sees iPhone Sales Double in China

With so many analysts recently putting the bull in bullish, there was quite a reality check from Apple’s newest financials. The numbers revealed that the iPhone is still seeing good growth in the country, with double the number sold in 2012 compared to 2011.


Andrew’s pick: China’s Xiaomi Aims its MiTalk Messaging App at Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea

The chat app war is getting interesting, and I can’t help but wonder how Xiaomi’s MiTalk will fare in this competitive market. It will be tough for the Chinese handset maker since all the other apps have a significant head start. But still, I think Xiaomi can give them a run for their money. Let’s see.


Willis’ pick: Revenue First

Revenue first. Though the concept isn’t quite true for every startup, I think it’s a refreshing angle to communicate the brutal truth about how hard it is to build a startup in Asia. The article helps to pull back entrepreneurs to reality, so they don’t get mesmerized by Silicon Valley magic. Asia ain’t like the Valley and it’s beautiful in its own ways. Needless to say, there’s lots of growth in Asia too.


Minh’s pick: Apple Indonesia Investment Confirmed, Jakarta Store and Online Sales Coming Soon

An Apple Store in Indonesia? How awesome is that? After all, it’s the largest Muslim country in the world and the most populated country in Southeast Asia. This only reinforces my thinking that Indonesia is on fire right now. With Tim Cook wanting to step up Apple’s market in China, it makes sense that Indonesia is also on his list.


Emily’s pick: Growing Faster than Facebook and Twitter: Key Highlights for Japan’s Line App [Infographic]

Japan’s popular Line app has taken Asia by storm. This week NHN Japan released an infographic (complete with their iconic characters) that confirmed their success in countries like Thailand, Taiwan, and Japan. It is also interesting to know that its amazing growth rate is about three times faster than that of Facebook and Twitter!


Rick’s pick: China Train Ticket Site Cost Nearly $100 Million, Seems to Be Harassing Programmers, And Might Be Broken Again

I’m not really that interested in the continued failings of the Railway Ministry’s miserable website — we’re sort of getting used to that. But I did find it really crazy that one plugin developer in Beijing was visited by ‘strange men’ and asked to take it offline. That’s harsh.


Charlie’s pick: Xiaomi Box Gets Regulatory Approval, Can Go on Sale

I’ve said before that I’m a big fan of Xiaomi’s courageous set-top box idea. I’m not sure this newly-partnered (and, probably, neutered) version of the device is going to set the world on fire, but it’s something that’s definitely worth keeping an eye on!

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Startup Roundup: Freshbazaar, Shopr, BuyHatke and Woolor

Besides the ones we profiled in detail, here’s a look at a few interesting startups we came across last week: Freshbazaar- the online supermarket. Shopr- another online supermarket. BuyHatke- a price comparison and discovery engine and Woolor- lists online companies based in India.

FreshbazaarFreshbazaar

What they do: Freshbazaar is a Hyderabad based online store for grocery, consumer product goods, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and gourmet (ready to eat food).

Currently, the startup delivers all over Hyderabad and Secunderabad with its own team of delivery boys and has two warehouses in Hyderabad. With a 5 member team, Fresbazaar allows consumers to order via website or phone (040 30911053).

Shopr

shoprWhat they do: Shopr is an online store for all your grocery, personal care, stationery, baby and pet care needs. With more than 2000 products across 150 categories from over 250 different brands and consumer companies, the startup strives to give the same experience as that of offline grocery and supermarket.

The Gurgaon based startup delivers in Delhi (NCR) including Gurgaon and Noida and charges Rs 30 on orders less than Rs 500. Shopr delivers products in four delivery slots.

BuyHatkebuyhatke

What they do: BuyHatke is an online product and price discovery platform. The website grabs results from various online shopping portals and extends best deal to the customer who can then be redirected to the shopping portal offering the best deal. Presently, the startup has products listed across online retailers like Flipkart, eBay, Infibeam, Homeshop18, Jabong, Myntra and Yebhi amongst others with over 25 million products and 1000+ brands.

Woolor

woolorWhat they do: Woolor is an online platform to get information about online companies based out of India. The startup is much like a hybrid version of CrunchBase and Wikipedia and allows users to submit request, add/edit details with source.

The startup aggregates details about company’s founding place, time, founders, snippets with brief profile, team size with covering other information.


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5 tips on how to engage your fans on social media during the festive seasons

Holiday social media engagementJanet Yu, public relations and marketing veteran, shares her takeaways about social media engagement during the festive period.

Chinese New Year is around the corner and, for brands, this is a good time to engage with their fans. Even though you may potentially need to do some work during the holidays, which may get you some raised eyebrows from the team, however, it is important to utilize this opportunity.

During the last Thanksgiving holidays, Instagram received its record-high usage throughout the whole year, averaging 226 photos uploaded per second. The holidays and festive seasons always encourage the public to use social media to share their experiences.  In general, everyone is more open minded to new ideas and concepts. So how should you go about with your holiday social media engagements?

1) Create interactions with your fans

A good tip is to make sure your message with your fans is interactive. The more diverse the message is, the easier it is for fans to reply and engage with you. Fans will also know that you are listening to them. It is important to make sure that the message is relevant to your fans. A recent study revealed the biggest reason why someone unfollowed a brand is because the brand posted content that was irrelevant. An important tip is to make sure to create activities that your fans can relate to, such as photo contests or creating a wish list.

2) A balanced message is key

A balanced message is very important as at times, brands can sometimes write messages that can be more promotional than engaging.

3) Posting at a right time for your fans

Another tip for optimizing engagements is to make sure you post your messages at good times. Most of the Facebook users in Hong Kong are active between 12 midnight to 1 am. A lot of brands have good content in their posts but these are posted during the daytime, which their fans don’t get to read about.  Weekends are also a good time to engage with fans.

4) Plan it early

Last minute rush is never ideal! The earlier you can plan your campaign, the better it is for you and your team. This can help to avoid last minute costs too.

5) Measure your campaign

It is important to measure the impact of your campaign, so you can take away any learning. It will also help you to identify habits and characteristics of your fans.

A good example for the above is Prudential Corporation’s Asia Fan page. They created a holiday drawing competition on Facebook and asked parents and family to submit their children’s drawing.  The prize for the competition is an education fund of up to US$10,000.

This example practices good engagement tips because it interacts with fans by creating a competition. It first came out middle of November last year where everyone is aware that Christmas is around the corner.  If we look at the prize that was given out, the education fund can be easily related to Prudential’s product. Last but not least, when we take a closer look at Prudential’s marketing promotions, it always has a strong focus on children and financial literacy. This competition managed linked the two main elements of Prudential’s business together.

A good holiday campaign should try to take in as many as the points as above, but not necessarily be too complicated. A message that has a good tone of voice, i.e. human-like and not over promotional can be a great start.  Have a lovely holiday!

About the author

Janet Yu, born and raised in Hong Kong, went to the UK for her education. There, she read law and business but ended up working for an IT/ Media  company. First, starting in sales and now in public relations and marketing. Passionate about SaaS, entrepreneurship, sales and marketing. Her motto is “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending”. Follow her on twitter at @janetcyu.

Image credits: Gigcoin

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Court ban on airline transaction fee will erode margins for Online travel agents like Cleartrip & Yatra.com

Travel agents, including online travel agents such as Cleartrip or Yatra and MakeMyTrip, were in for a rude shock as the Supreme Court has banned collection of transaction fee on airline tickets.OTA

The court, on Wednesday said that airlines should not levy any transaction fee from passengers. The bench, comprising of Justice DK Jain and Madan B Lokur said that the transaction fee shall not be collected from passengers in any form or under any other name.

Earlier in December, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had directed airlines not to charge transaction fee from passengers but had failed to implement the directive.

The ruling comes at a time when many online travel agents are looking to tap into the fast growing online ticketing business in India. According to estimates, the Indian travel industry is set to grow 13 % to $23 billion in 2012. It already accounts for the largest chunk of e-commerce which happens in India.

How will this impact OTAs?

Airlines began pushing for online ticket sales to cut down on their sales and distribution costs. They also cut down on agent commissions after which the practice of charging a transaction fee came into being. Companies began charging a transaction fee ranging form Rs 200 – Rs 6500 per ticket depending on the type of tickets being sold, after they abolished commission paid out for agents. Margins on online ticketing will fall further with this ruling. According to some estimates, margins are expected to fall by 3-4 %. The travel agents association has plans to appeal against the judgement.


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Foundation of a startup

Building foundationHiro Maeda of Open Network Lab talks about how founders are the foundation of a startup, and what makes a strong foundation.

The foundation of a startup is no doubt the founders. The founders create the idea, the execution, and the passion that drives the company. The entire organization is built upon this foundation.

Can the Foundation of a startup really make a huge impact. Peter Thiel Stated That a  ” startup Messed up at its Foundation can not be fixed . “ It is really worth Spending a lot of time building the Foundation of a startup. Requires HAVING A strong Foundation the right people with the right skills, mentality, relationship, and culture.

Skills 

There are many skills that would be great to have as founders of a startup However, the two skills that would be most important at its founding is the ability to build and the ability to analyze The ability to build is obvious -. The team needs to be capable of building the product to sell. The ability to analyze is equally as crucial. Running a startup requires constant analysis and decision making. Founders have to analyze user behavior, competitors, market condition and trends, product development, company financing, and many other things. Not only do founders have a lot to analyze, they also have to be fast at making decisions.

Stubbornness and Flexibility

From experience, founders who are too stubborn all the time often struggle scaling teams and founders who are too flexible often take more time with product development. Great startups have founders who have a good balance between stubbornness and flexibility. I’ve been trying to figure out what the balance is perfect and I think Jeff Bezos nailed it – “ Be stubborn on vision but flexible on details. ”

You should be stubborn on the value you bring to your customers and users, but don’t get too hung up on the details on how you deliver that value.

Balance and Relationship

Extremely Intense is the relationship Between Cofounders. Having Cofounders is Like “ being married with Kids, minus the Sex. ”You have this baby (your startup), and there so many stressful Things Are Involved with Raising it. It is Extremely Important That the cofounders trust and respect one another. This is why we prefer cofounders that have worked together before. Cofounders with great chemistry have either worked at the same company before, worked together on a project, or played in the same sports team.

It’s best if the cofounders supplements one another. I often find it appealing if there are three founders where one person can build, another can design, and the third person can hustle.

Culture

The founders defines and creates the culture of the company. Culture is extremely important for an organization. An alignment of culture between the founders and hires make an impact on the motivation and retention of everyone in the organization. I’ve seen some teams break up and also even the founders be driven out of their own company that they’ve built themselves because of bringing in the wrong person with the no cultural fit. Brad Feld emphasizes that “culture comes first when hiring.”

Here is a great example of a hiring Criteria from  Chamath  That was Actually Used at Facebook:

  • Very high IQ
  • Strong sense of purpose
  • Relentless focus on success
  • Aggressive and competitive
  • High quality bar boarding on perfectionism
  • Likes changing and disrupting things
  • New ideas on how to do things better
  • High integrity
  • Surrounds themselves with good people
  • Cares about building real value over perception

I think every company should create their culture around the values ​​mention above.

Even if it seems like things are going well, a weak foundation will break eventually. A strong founding team could really go far, even if they start off with the wrong idea. So spend time getting the right people, with the right skills, mentality , relationship, and culture. Spend time building a strong foundation.

This post was originally published on Hiro’s blog as Foundation of a Startup.

About the author

Hiro Maeda is managing partner of Open Network Lab, a seed stage investment program based in Tokyo. Hiro also invests in startups in the US on behalf of Netprice.com.

Image Credits: T.J.S  Concrete

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Beijing Government Releases Official Air Quality Monitoring App

With these levels of smog (this photo is from a couple weeks ago) it’s no wonder people want to know what they’re going to be breathing before they step outside.

Boy, has the government come a long way when it comes to air pollution. Just half a year ago, if you wanted to know how dangerous the air was in Beijing, your only real option was the US Embassy’s @BeijingAir twitter feed, and the Chinese government was desperately trying to stop you from reading that. Now, not only is the Beijing government publishing real-time numbers for the air’s PM2.5 (deadly particles) count, it has released a smartphone app so that users can check pollution stats while on the go.

Of course, there are already a lot of third party smartphone apps out there that are making use of Beijing’s official data and/or the data from the US Embassy’s twitter feed (here’s one, for example). But this app, which was produced by the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center (BJMEMC), is the first official smartphone app to report air quality data. It is available for both Android and iOS, and can access data from 35 different air quality testing stations around the city that report on the PM2.5 content of the air, as well as five other kinds of pollutants.

Although users can check specific stations manually, the app can also access user locations (on phones that support this feature) so that it can automatically report the air quality data from the test station nearest to the user’s position. BJMEMC says that it is aware of the other apps like this on the market, but claims its own app offers more complete and thorough local coverage thanks to the 35 different test stations it accesses.

As you can see from the screens above (from the iPhone app), it’s not the prettiest air quality monitoring application out there, but it does what it is supposed to do, and given that it’s still leaps and bounds ahead of some other official mobile app projects, I’m not inclined to be too critical about it. And having another choice when it comes to air quality apps can only be good news for consumers, so the release of this app seems like something to celebrate. Interested parties can find the iPhone version here and the Android version here (as an apk download).

(Xinhua via Sina Tech, smog image via CBS News)

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Preschool software provider LittleLives buys Illume Technology

LittleLives, a Singapore-based SaaS preschool software provider serving all 240 PCF kindergartens in the country, announced in a press release yesterday that it has acquired Illume Technology, a company operating in the same space, for an undisclosed sum.

In addition to the PCF kindergartens, LittleLives has added a clientele of over 70 private kindergartens and childcare centers this year.

The company specializes in cloud-based administrative software that manages attendance, health monitoring, registrations, and more. It also develops mobile content apps that educate through interactive stories and games.

“With this acquisition, LittleLives’ users will benefit from innovative solutions such as key@once, which further enhances the center’s productivity by elimination of manual administrative tasks such as updating various external portals through automation,” said Ho Sun, founder of LittleLives.

Evan Low, founder of Illume, will join LittleLives to transition his clients into the the acquirer’s system.

Read: LittleLives Is The New Social Playground For Kids (SGE)

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