Archive for May, 2011

Free dessert in Los Altos

Sunday night I was planning to have a late dinner with a friend at Sundance on Camino Real in Palo Alto, but it turned out that the place closes at 9 PM on Sunday. I was in the mood for a good steak with a glass of Californian Cabernet Sauvignon and a quick search learned that there was a grill place in Los Altos that was still open. The place was packed when we arrived, but because of the time some people started to leave already so we had a table quite quickly. The steak (tenderloin) was...
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New York, New York

The past 3 days I spent in New York City for the TechCrunch Disrupt conference and to do lots of meetings. Despite the 12 hour time difference with Shanghai and the busy schedule, I had a great time in Manhattan. I arrived late on Sunday night after a trip of almost 24 hours from Shanghai (I flew through San Francisco with a several hour stop-over there) and was so tired that I decided to go to bed straight away. But once I arrived in my hotel room around 9:30 PM on Sunday night I was...
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Tudou logo on Ho-Pin Tung’s Indy500 car

In just over a week Ho-Pin Tung will be the first Chinese race car driver to participate in the Indianapolis 500. And guess what? Tudou's logo will be featured on his car! Very cool, many thanks to Ho-Pin and his team for helping to make this deal. And that's not all, Tudou will send some of its reporters to follow Ho-Pin Tung around the Indy 500 race and the footage will of course be put exclusively on Tudou. So if you want to know more about how Ho-Pin prepares for this race or get his...
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The Emperor of all Maladies

Today I finished a book on my Kindle that was so good that I want to share it on my blog as well. It's Siddharta Mukherjee's The Emperor of all Maladies - A Biography of Cancer. The 2011 Pullitzer Prize winning book written by an oncologist is a history of cancer, a history of the disease (or actually the many diseases that are all called cancer), our understanding of cancer and how treatments developed over the years. It was a fantastic book to read, but because it's quite a thick book it...
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Tudou Video Festival 2011

This weekend the Tudou Video Festival 2011 took place in Beijing. Or to be precise, about a 45 minute drive from Beijing on the grounds of the Goose and Duck Ranch. In the days that I still lived in Beijing (until early 2003) I had been to the Goose & Duck a couple of times (it was still called Goose & Duck Farm at that time), but the place has grown quite a bit since then. I drove to the Video Festival straight off a plane from Amsterdam and started with a cold beer with Gary at...
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Speaking at Creative Amsterdam 2011 this week

Tonight around midnight I will fly to Amsterdam to particpate in the Creative Amsterdam 2011 conference. The event will take place Wednesday-Friday in Pakhuis De Zwijger, close to Amsterdam city center. I will give keynotes on "The Creative Industry in Shanghai" (Wednesday afternoon) and on "Dutch Digital Pride - The Story of Spil Games" (Thursday). A planned talk on "New Business Models in the Fashion Industry" was rescheduled to Friday afternoon, right before my flight back to China leaves,...
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10 misconceptions about online casual and social gaming

The article below is based on a Dutch post at Marketingfacts.nl, written by Spil Games' Scott Johnston with help of several others at Spil Games. It is not a direct translation, but the core points are the same. I wrote this article for the Business Insider where it was published this morning. When I tell people that I work in the online gaming industry...
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It’s a small world…

Tonight we had dinner at South Beauty 881, one of my favorite Chinese (Sichuan) restaurants in Shanghai. I don't go there very often on the weekend as it's located close to downtown, and therefore at least a 20 minute ride from my home. But because my sister and a friend are visiting we decided to go there for a spicy meal. The dishes were great as usual, but after a while Scott had had enough food and wanted to play. So I walked around the garden with him (we were sitting outside) looking...
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Smart marketing: Change your KLM frequent flyer card for a Lufthansa one

A very smart marketing idea from Lufthansa: If you are a KLM frequent flyer you can get a Lufthansa frequent flyer card at the same level in their Miles & More program. Or actually you can get an even better deal, because both KLM Gold and Platinum card holders are eligible for a Lufthansa Senator card. And you will keep your status until February 2013! The only thing you need to do is book one return flight on Lufthansa or one its European partners, fill out a form and upload a copy of...
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UnitedStyles wins Apparel Magazine

Although the May issue of Apparel Magazine does not seem to be out yet, we already received a press release saying that UnitedStyles.com won a top innovator award from the magazine. "UnitedStyles is one of 40 visionary apparel retailers, brands, and manufacturers that have achieved noteworthy success in the highly competitive global apparel marketplace. UnitedStyles will be featured in the 4th Annual Top Innovators Report, which will be published as a special issue in May and online at...
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Ho-Pin Tung will be the first Chinese to race in the Indy 500!

Chinese race car driver Ho-Pin Tung announced that he will be competing in this year's Indianapolis 500 race! He is making history by being the first Chinese ever to compete in this event. Ho-Pin told me the news already during last month's Formula One race in Shanghai, but at that point it was not official yet. I am very happy for him that he managed to get qualify for the 500-mile race. Indycar.com writes about Ho-Pin Tung's participation in the...
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