in Uncategorized

Looking back – and forward

2006 was a great year, once again a year full of changes and opportunities, but also lots of hard work. I set up Spill Group Asia in January and did not expect that at the end of the year it would be a 35 person company, active in running game portals and in game development. The take-over of Zlong Games in September was successful as well, and we managed to get some big multinationals as clients over the past months.

Gary ensured that Tudou also kept on growing extremely fast, the average Alexa ranking over the past week was 258 (meaning that it is almost in the top 250 of websites worldwide, based on size). A lot of competitors started this year, some very well funded, but Tudou.com is and will be the number one video site in China. It is bigger than all its Chinese competitors according to Alexa, both in terms of ranking and total page views. Of course the 8.5 million USD investment helped a lot as well. My wife quit her job at Roland Berger this year and is now also active at Tudou, as VP and CFO.

China Bay
moved to a new office again this year because our former office (the first floor of a villa on Weihai Lu) would be destroyed. The company is now located in an old renovated villa on Zhaojiabang Lu. I am not very active anymore in China Bay, because Spill Group takes almost all of my time, but I still work with some European clients on their China strategy. Very different from my day-to-day operational work in the internet business, but very interesting to work directly with clients as a consultant and help them to grow their companies here.

Privately Qi and I had our first wedding anniversary, which we celebrated in Guilin. Other travels (some partly for work) included short trips to Hong Kong, Macau, Italy, Monaco, Holland, Dubai, and a one day skiing trip outside Beijing. Also we tried to work a bit less on weekends, and spent some weekends outside Shanghai, among others in Nanjing, Hangzhou and Moganshan.

The plan was to ride a mountain bike from Lhasa in Tibet to Katmandu in Nepal, but this plan was postponed due to Nepali rebel action. Hopefully we will be able to do this 20-day trip in 2007. Other sportive highlights were scarce, although I did run another marathon, this time in Macau. Next year my dad and I plan to run the New York marathon in November.

And what will 2007 bring? I will certainly still be in Shanghai in one year’s time, and very likely still as CEO of Spill Group Asia. I expect the company to keep on growing, and would not be surprised if we will double in size over the next 12 months. We have some interesting ideas for game.com.cn as well, that I will write about once we launch them in about 3 months. Tudou will also keep on growing fast, I think 2007 will be the year that online video really becomes mainstream.

Privately, my sister will get married in May, so that means a trip to Holland for the wedding. As mentioned I hope to ride through the Himalaya this year, and I also plan to run in New York. My work load won’t reduce, but that’s something I don’t mind. I try to live a bit more healthy though, with more sports and more sleep. Of course combined with nice food and wine, no compromises there.

For all readers a successful, happy and healthy 2007. Xin nian kuai le!

in Uncategorized

Internet problems in China

As usual, this morning when I got up the first thing I did was to check my mail. But for some reason the server from Spill Group Asia timed out. That happens sometimes, so I was not too concerned. Then I noticed that none of my colleagues at SGA were online in MSN, and that is more unusual. I suspected that the internet in the office was down, until I noticed that some were online in Skype.

At the same time I started checking my RSS feeds, and quickly realized from several blog posts that the problems were caused by the Taiwan earthquake yesterday. Some cables on the bottom of the sea were damaged, and these were vital for worldwide communications. Strange enough at that time I did not see any US or European media reports yet about this problem, the blogs beat the press bureaus once again. Now the first reports finally start coming in, but it’s not even on the front page of Google News yet (and maybe it will never make it there, Google News is never that interested in foreign, let alone Asian, news). Repairs may take two to three weeks according to this article on Bloomberg.

It seems this earthquake is having a huge impact on Asia. Not only the internet in China is severely disrupted, but also the net in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and even Singapore. I talked to my colleagues, and heard that MSN messenger is not working at all (good for QQ messenger in China!). And when I try to go to game.com.cn or tudou.com from Europe, I cannot open these sites. Friends in China and HK are telling me that they cannot open most sites, that they cannot use email (except Gmail), and that the internet is generally very slow. This is costing tons of money, and I wonder if any insurance policies cover this (likely not).

I am surprised that such a “small” natural disaster can still have such a huge impact. I remember that something similar happened a few years ago, when a fishing boat tore apart one of these cables (also close to Taiwan if I remember it correctly). The Chinese internet was disrupted for days. At that time the internet was not so important yet for most people, but that has changed of course. I assumed this could not happen again, but it seems I was wrong. Who would be in charge of this? And what would happen if terrorists would damage a couple of these cables worldwide? Scary…

in Uncategorized

The best Christmas present ever!

My wife (or Santa Claus?) gave me a very cool Christmas present. I was totally surprised when I opened the package and I had a printed version of this weblog in my hands! It is a hardcover book, printed on high-quality glossy paper with all weblog entries from September 24, 2004 until December 5 this year. All posts including pictures fill a whopping 554 pages. I am very happy with this, all my memories and ideas from the past 2 years in one book.

If you had asked me before I would have probably said that a blog is not interesting in printed version, but now that I have this book in my hand I would take back these words right away. It’s not comparable actually, in a blog you can click on links and add comments – it’s all interactive. But a printed version is different, you can flip through like a magazine which gives a totally different feeling to it. A lot of the posts I had totally forgotten about already, and it is nice to see how some ideas and thought have developed. I am extremely happy with this present, and have already spent more than an hour reading old posts and looking at pictures.

Of course this present gives me a new business idea right away. One that likely already exists: setting up an easy-to-use website where people can upload their blog (with interfaces for the main blogging tools/programs) and where they have to do the editing themselves (drag and drop, it should be so simple that everybody can do it). And then they can send it off to a printer in China, where it is printed within a week. Choice of hardcover or softcover, several types of binding, and for busy bees like many of us also a service where people do the design of the book for you (for a hefty fee of course). With the huge growth in blogs over the past years I think there could be a big market for this, especially for birthday or christmas gifts. I am sure this has been done before, but at least those sites’ marketing is not good enough, because I did not hear about them. So there seems to be a business potential. I won’t do it, no time for new projects, but maybe one of my readers would like to develop the idea and turn it into a (big) business.

Update: I just heard that there is already a Chinese company doing this, www.inker.com.cn. You can upload your document on the site and they print it for you. Not sure if this is the easy-to-use idea that I have in mind (you can download a ‘bookmaker’ tool on the site), they seem to focus more on printing novels and poems. They also do not have an English site, so whoever is interested in the idea might be able to team up with them.

in Uncategorized

Christmas in China

Merry Christmas! A few days ago I was interviewed on a Dutch radio station about how people celebrate Christmas in China. When the producer of the program called me before the show, she seemed surprised that Christmas is not a regular holiday in China.

Basically, most Chinese do not celebrate Christmas. People do not get days off from work, and most people probably don’t even know it is Christmas. Only in the big cities you see Christmas decorations in stores and restaurants, but in Chinese houses you won’t see Christmas trees. We actually had a hard time buying a good tree this year, mainly because only foreigners in China buy trees. In Beijing a few years ago it was a lot easier, maybe because there are woods closer to the city?

In most Western countries Christmas is a family affair, with big meals with the whole family and spending time together. In China the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) has this function. In cities like Shanghai most Western bars and restaurants organize Christmas dinners and Christmas parties, and quite a lot of young Chinese participate. But probably more because they just like a good party than because it is Christmas. So it’s more a commercial affair than a religious or family event.

Last year when I was in Shanghai during Christmas, I did not like it at all, and it was one of the reasons why I decided to travel to Europe this year. Working on Christmas day just doesn’t feel right. At least not working in the office, I am sure I will check my email tomorrow from my parents home. The weather in Shanghai also does not help of course, I don’t think there has ever been a white Christmas there. Beijing is better in that respect, during Christmas 2002 I remember we had huge snowstorms. I had just started my first business at that time, and had to travel to the middle of nowhere in Hebei province on Christmas day over roads that were completely covered in ice!

But this year Holland won’t have a white Christmas either. More likely a grey Christmas, with temperatures above zero both during daytime and at night. But I’ll enjoy it anyway: It is dark outside already, and I am now sitting with my laptop in front of my parents fireplace, Christmas music in the background and drinking an excellent glass of wine. Life could be worse!

in Uncategorized

KLM check-in in Shanghai

While checking in for my KLM flight yesterday there were long lines as usual, both for economy class and for business class. They seem not to be able to reduce these lines, even in the business class line you normally have to wait for half an hour. But there was one very short line, in front of a single computer terminal. I had not seen this before, so I checked with one of the KLM staff. This person said that it was the self check-in for people with an e-ticket who already checked in at home. I did not know they now also offer online check-in for Shanghai (in Amsterdam I often check in online), and made a mental note to do this next time. Because our line was so long I decided to take a look at the computer. To my surprise it was a normal laptop with a slow (probably CDMA) connection to the KLM website where people could check in. So the information of the staff was not right, because the passengers in this line did not check in at home yet, but were doing it here.

Because I also had an e-ticket (unusual in China, most people still have printed tickets) I decided to check-in here as well. But as this line seemed to move very slowly, my wife stayed in the other line. That was a good idea, because the laptop check-in was a total disaster. Not only did most people who were checking in not have any clue about the online procedure, but the staff who were trying to help were not much more knowledgeable either. My hands were itching to help, but I decided to stay out of it, because most people were quite stressed already and probably did not want to be helped. In top of that they had an extremely slow connection, likely due to either the CDMA card and/or the fact that KLM’s servers are conveniently located outside China’s Great Firewall. Loading one page cost around one minute, and you had to load several pages. But the worst thing was that they did not connect a printer to the laptop…. So after checking in you still had to go to the check-in counter to get your boarding pass and drop off your suitcase. This was of course extremely stupid, and makes no sense at all.

The result: very unhappy passengers, staff who had no clue and who were therefore being harassed, and in the end even a delay of the flight (not everybody could be checked in on time, according to the captain). KLM, if you are reading this a short advice: Set up a server in China for checking in (less than EUR 2000), and program the laptop so that you only have to type in your eticket number, choose your seat and click OK (programming cost in China less than EUR 1000), put a wifi connection on the laptop (very cheap) and connect a printer (EUR 200). Then get at least 3 of these computers and put them next to check in. Train 2 staff members (takes one hour). And of course ask all passengers to check-in at home already. Total cost less than EUR 10,000, implementation time maximum 2 weeks. Result: happy passengers, shorter lines and planes that depart on time.

in Uncategorized

Off to Europe for Christmas

In a few hours I will be flying to Europe for Christmas. Because there is not much snow in the Alps I likely will take it easy, and just have a relaxed couple of days in Holland. A bit of running and bike riding, good food and wine, catching up on reading books and magazines, and spending some quality time with my family. If any of my friends wants to meet up, I’ll be in Ommen most of the time, so give me a ring or send me an email.

in Uncategorized

Working on the last weekend of the year

Micah Sittig notes that the Chinese government has suddenly decided to ask people to work on the weekend of December 30-31. But they will get days off on January 2-3 to compensate for this (New Year’s Day is already an official holiday). This is causing travel agencies a big headache, because they planned for people to have Dec. 30-Jan. 1 off…

I think that many companies (including Spill Group Asia) will give the staff the weekend of Dec. 30-31 off anyway, and ask the staff to report back to work on Jan. 2. But I am actually not sure if this is allowed. Is the government vacation schedule something every company has to implement, or is it only for government employees and state-owned enterprises?

in Uncategorized

Gadget

Last weekend I bought a small gadget, the latest iPod Shuffle. Literally small, becacause it’s about the size of a stamp – see the picture of the mp3 player next to my pen. I lost my black iPod video (probably left it on a plane, very stupid of course), and I cannot really live without an iPod anymore.

I still have an ancient white iPod bought in 2002, but its battery has long given up. If connected to a power outlet I can still use it, but that’s a bit inconvenient when going for a run. And my wife’s pink iPod nano is a bit too shiny for me. So I got myself the Generation 2 Shuffle.

It’s a great toy: very small and light so you don’t notice it while running, and with enough memory (1 GB) for hours of listening to music and podcasts. True, you cannot watch video’s on it (I use my PSP for that now), and you have to create your playlists before going on a run because you don’t have a screen. But the battery is exceptionally good: I turned the music on last night to run the battery down for a reload. And I was very surprised that the iPod was still playing this morning. Even after lunch there was still music coming through my earphones. Only after more than 16 hours the battery run out, much better than the 4-5 hours I got on my iPod video.

If you want to buy one, you can get it in most electronics shopping malls in Shanghai (I prefer Hong Kong Plaza, on Huaihai Lu / Huangpi Nan Lu). The price is similar to the rest of the world, about RMB 700. The official Apple shop charges RMB 788, and then you can be sure the product is not fake. Of course you can also buy one of the Chinese brands, I saw one similar-sized 2GB model with mini-screen for just RMB 200! But those products don’t look as good (they are actually plain ugly), and no guarantees for sound quality nor life span of course.

in Uncategorized

Word verification

I am getting so many spambot comments lately, that I have decided to turn on word verification. If you want to leave a comment you will have to type in the letters and numbers below the comment box before it will be published. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I hope this will stop the spammers from using this blog as a free tool to promote their sites and products.