Archive for September, 2008

Dutch NRC misses most important news in eBook edition

Today I finally could use my iLiad again after the screen was repaired (under warranty, thanks iRex Technologies!). I looked forward to reading all the details about what happened on the financial markets over the weekend, and about the nationalization of Fortis Bank (one of the biggest banks in Belgium and the Netherlands) in particular.I downloaded the paper around 9 PM (the earliest time the paper can be downloaded in China) and was surprised to see a half empty front page. No problem I...
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Running in the woods

I am writing this from an intercity train to Amsterdam Schiphol airport where I will catch the overnight flight back to Shanghai. This weekend I spent mainly with my parents, who live in an area with lots of woods and hills (there are a few hills in the Netherlands). Next to getting good food and drinks and catching up on sleep (very necessary after a week that was a bit too busy), I always look forward to staying with my parents because I can spend some time in nature. If you have been reading...
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Dutch service quality

One of the things I noted over the past days in Holland, is that service in restaurants and hotels often is terrible. Not sure if it has gotten worse over the past years or that I am too used to the service level in China where people at least try to do a good job (not that it always works out!). Just a couple of examples from my stay in Amsterdam this week.Yesterday morning when I checked out of my hotel in Amsterdam I asked the receptionist to call a taxi for me. She told me that I should ask...
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Pauw & Witteman

Last night I was a guest in talk show Pauw & Witteman. I was invited together with Dutch minister of the interior and Kingdom relations mrs. Guusje ter Horst, Dutch top business woman Sylvia Toth, and writer Johan Faber. It was my first time on this show and I enjoyed being on it. My part of the show is embedded below:There is also a 5 minute "summary" with the highlight of the show available on the...
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Busy business trip to Holland

At the moment I am on a business trip to Holland, and I have a very busy (but fun) schedule. I am here mainly for meetings at Spil Games in Hilversum, but I am also doing a couple of interviews with magazines. Yesterday I gave a talk at the very nicely designed ING House to a group of wealthy individuals (mainly entrepreneurs who sold their companies) about entrepreneurship in China and success factors to do business there. Tonight I am going to be on the famous Dutch talk show, Pauw &...
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Empty shelves in Carrefour because of melamine milk crisis

I just got back from a Friday night visit to Carrefour and noted that the company is not taking any risks during the melamine crisis and has removed all Chinese milk products.But you can still buy milk: there is a large supply of French milk at (what I assume) are discounted prices. RMB 16.30 does not seem to be much for a liter of imported milk (about EUR...
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hd.tudou.com: Tudou in high def!

Just last week Tudou received its SARFT license, and this week the company made its next big announcement: Tudou officially launched the beta version of "Hei Dou" (black bean), the name for the new high definition area within Tudou: hd.tudou.com. This is a major breakthrough for the online video industry in China. In foreign media Tudou is often referred to as the YouTube of China, but with the addition of Hei Dou it is now more a combination of Hulu and YouTube. Hulu is quite similar, but Hei...
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Spil Games nominated for China Trader Award

I just received a press release announcing that Spil Games was nominated for the China Trader Award 2008. This is a yearly award given to the most successful Dutch company that is active in China. Spil made it to the last three, and on November 13 the winner will be announced during a festive award ceremony.I am very happy with this, and I want to use this occasion to thank Spil's founders Peter Driessen and Bennie Eeftink that they had the vision to become active in China in early 2006, and...
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Living more healthy: doing a mini detox

During my mountain run with Marcel and Dolphin in Hong Kong last weekend, we among others talked about food and life styles. Marcel leads a very healthy life style and that made me think about what I am eating and drinking every day. I probably eat more healthy than the average person from Europe or the US, because of the Chinese food that our ayi prepares for us every day (lots of vegetables, rice, noodles and fish). But during lunch time I often run to Starbucks to grab a muffin or sandwich...
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Spil Games Asia Outing 2008 to Huangshan (Yellow Mountain)

Every year Spil Games Asia and its daughter companies go on a 2 or 3 day outing somewhere in China. The past two years we spent our outings in Zheijiang, but this year we went a bit further and spent our company trip at Huangshan in Anhui province. For various reason not everybody could go, but in the end about 50 colleagues joined us. We left Thursday around 5 PM and the buses arrived in Huangshan by 11:30 PM. Although we all had to get up at 6 AM some people decided to make the most of the...
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Tudou gets SARFT license

I am happy to announce that Tudou confirmed today that it received its SARFT online video license. The company did not release a press statement. The license itself has already been put on Tudou's website, if you're interested to see what this important document looks like you can see it...
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Sit-in protest at Carrefour

Last night I was at Carrefour in Gubei to buy some groceries when I noticed a girl sitting on the ground in the electronics department with a lot of people around her. One of the store employees told us that the girl had bought a mobile phone, used it but did not like it anymore. So she returned to the store and wanted to return it. But naturally Carrefour did not want to take it back since it was working well and had been used.So what did the girl do? She made a fuss, sat down on the ground...
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Sunday morning breakfast

When I am in Hong Kong I normally stay at a small hotel in the Mid-Levels. The views over the HK skyline and harbor are fantastic, and the price is about half of what you pay a few hundred meters lower. And the wifi is free of course.When I am here on a weekend I often end up at Staunton's for breakfast or brunch, which is just a 10 minute walk from the hotel. To read the SCMP or a book while having Eggs Benedict with a coffee and an orange juice, and to watch the people passing by on the...
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Hong Kong Trailwalker 2008 preparations

This weekend I flew to Hong Kong to do some serious running/hiking practice with my Trailwalker team mates. The actual race will be on November 7, so we have about 2 months left to get in shape. In case you are not familiar with the Hong Kong Trailwalker, it is a 100 km race over the MacLehose trail in the mountains in the New Territories. You participate in a team of 4 people that all have to run (or hike) the full 100 km in order to get a race result. Because only a few parts of the race are...
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New records, again…

It's amazing, but our Chinese game portals game.com.cn and xiaoyouxi.com keep on growing. Last month we had a total of 32.7 million unique visitors on the two sites, 4 million more than in July (28.7 million), even though normally July is the best month of the year and we had the Olympics in August (which caused a lot of people to turn to their TV instead of their computer).Also our daily unique visitors went up again: on game.com.cn we broke through the 1 million barrier in early August, and...
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