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Tudou announces enhanced video sharing platform for Weibo

I don't mention Tudou a lot on my blog since I am not involved in the company anymore, but the latest Tudou news is quite significant, so I decided to share it here. Tudou announced on Friday that it is launching an improved platform for Sina Weibo users to seamlessly share and upload Tudou videos. In case you don't live in China: Sina Weibo is the Chinese Twitter and has over 250 million users, and mother company Sina owns a significant share in Tudou. In addition, Sina Weibo users who...
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Where is everybody in Shanghai?

This afternoon I was talking to a colleague who told me that he felt that it was stil unusually quiet in Shanghai after Chinese New Year. I told him I had the same feeling, because there were hardly any traffic jams on the highways today. Chinese New Year's Eve was last week Sunday, so 12 days ago, and most people should be back to work by now, but I wonder if maybe more people decided not to return to the big city. I have no proof for this (well, except that Scott's nanny decided to stay...
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Midnight delay

Delays are quite common when you travel by plane, especially in China or with Chinese airlines. Over the years I had many bad delays, including one 28 hour delay on a KLM flight from Amsterdam to Shanghai (it seems the blog post about that one has been lost in cyberspace) and many 6+ hour delays because of air traffic control in China. You can't change it, so I try not to get too upset about it, it's just part of the deal when you fly a lot. Last night we planned to take a 0:55 AM flight...
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Two day trip to Singapore

Tuesday and Wednesday Xander and I were in Singapore for business meetings. I had not been to Singpore in almost 2 years (except for stopovers on the airport) and it was good to be back for a few days. Next to the busy meeting schedule we also managed to see a bit of the city, especially because our meetings were scattered all over the place. During most of my recent trips I stayed in the city center, so I noticed that the city changed quite a bit since I last spent more time here (which was...
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New Zealand Wine Tour

Last week I spent 6 days in New Zealand to learn as much as possible about local wines. We traveled with a small group of family and friends (among others with Gary and my parents) and tried to combine visits to wineries with some sightseeing activity as well. After a day in Auckland and Waiheke we traveled to the Bay of Islands, a beautiful subtropical area about 40 minutes north of Auckland (by small plane - by car it would take many hours). A very nice place for a holiday and still...
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Waiheke – Island of Wines

Today we visited Waiheke, New Zealand's Island of Wines, located just half an hour by ferry from Auckland. I had read a lot about the island over the past weeks, so I was very excited to see it with my own eyes. I expected a nice island, but nothing too special. But I was wrong, this island is a dream come true. The island is quiet and has a real holiday feeling to it. It is very green (the recent rains certainly helped), and when you drive along one of the few roads on the island you...
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A strange Chinese New Year’s Eve

It's Chinese New Year Eve, a time that you normally spend with family eating a huge dinner and then watching the CCTV New Year Show. But not this year. I am sitting in the lounge at Guangzhou Baiyun airport with a small group of friends, among others Gary and Grace, waiting to board a flight to Auckland right after midnight. When we booked this flight I did not realize it would be Chinese New Year Eve - but it probably was no coincidence as we only booked a few weeks ago and all other flights...
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One week in Holland: wines, meetings and a lot of fun

I am writing this on the plane from Amsterdam to Shanghai after spending a week in The Netherlands. I was here for business reasons, but I decided to go a few days earlier to visit my parents as well. I flew to Amsterdam on Friday afternoon and had an excellent flight from China, working a bit on the plane, having good food and even better wines (KLM always has a good selection in business class), sleeping for an hour of two, reading newspapers and magazines and even watching the movie De...
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Unitedstyles launches in Russia & CIS

Russia is a key global market for fashion and luxury items, and unitedstyles has taken the strategic decision to make Russia & CIS its first non-English market. Not only has the website been localized for Russian-speaking consumers, but the company is offering Russian-language customer service and support through its Moscow-based partner, Interstice Consulting. Moscow-based customers will even have an opportunity to personally visit the local unitedstyles office and examine samples of...
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WPP acquires CIC – congrats to Sam Flemming & the team!

I am very happy to announce that Chinese leading social business intelligence provider CIC was officially acquired by WPP's Kantar Media. The deal took quite some time to negotiate, but I am very happy for founders Sam and Vennie and the rest of the team that the deal has now officially closed. I have been on the board of CIC since 2007 when I led the angel round for the company. It was a great ride over the past couple of years (like every young, growing company with ups and downs), and I...
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The Judgment of Paris

If you have been following my blog, Facebook or Twitter for a while you probably know that I love to drink wine, especially good wine. I also love to read books and watch movies about wine. One of my all-time favorites in the wine movie genre is Sideways, a movie about a road trip tasting wines in Southern California. If you happen to find it online or on DVD make sure to watch it with a good glass of Californian wine in your hand! I am a big fan of New World wines, with a preference for...
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DailyMile 2011 Stats

Next to Facebook and Twitter there is only one other social network that I check and update almost every day: DailyMile, the social network for runners (and bikers, rowers, etc.), that I have been using since 2009. I log all my runs here, describing how I felt and where I ran, and I follow what kind of runs my friends and family (my dad and sister are also on here) are doing. I love to read the updates of all my friends here and it often motivates me to put on my running shoes (or better,...
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Scott’s 4-year birthday party

Yesterday Scott had his 4-year birthday party with some of his classmates and friends. Scott was very happy to see all of them during the weekend and of course to get many presents. We did the party at an indoor kids playground, Mamameya on Hongmei Lu, which was a big success. It's easier for us, no need to find a restaurant to do the catering and to hire a clown and a face painter etc., and the kids love to to play in their playground. If you have toddlers in Shanghai and plan to organize a...
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Building a 30-story hotel in 15 days

Just over a year ago I wrote a post about a Chinese company, Broad Group, that was able to build a 15-story hotel in 6 days, using prefabricated modules. An amazing feat, but they topped it in December 2011 by building a 30-story hotel in 15 days, finishing it on New Years Eve. And once again they made a time lapse video and put it online. According to Broad Group their building can withstand a 9.0 earthquake and is more energy efficient than regular buildings. Only in China? Source:...
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Crossing The Line

In April 2001 I went to North Korea with a group of friends for a one week "vacation". The trip was organized by Nick Bonner, who was my downstairs neighbor in Beijing at that time, and one of the other participants was Daniel Gordon. Dan always carried a small video camera with him while in the DPRK, and after a few days he told me that he was shooting a documentary (at that time still more or less secretly). That was the first footage for The Game Of Their Lives which came out a year...
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Elaine singing happy birthday for her mom

Today Grace had her birthday and Elaine sang "Happy Birthday To You" for her! Below I embed the video from Tudou. Elaine first sings "Itsy Witsy Spider" and then decided to sing "Happy Birthday". Happy birthday Grace & a very nice performance Elaine. Direct link to the...
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Christmas holiday on Koh Samui

This year we decided not to spend Christmas and New Year in Europe, but to fly for a week to a tropical beach with the kids. We opted to go to Koh Samui, one of my favorite islands in South-East Asia. I had not been there since May 2005 (I had to check my blog for that!) and I was looking forward to see the beautiful Thai island again. We also invited Grace' parents and her sister to join us for this trip, so we had a pretty large group. Because we booked quite late it was not easy to find...
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Happy 2012!

I want to wish all my readers a very happy and healthy 2012! I was on holiday in Thailand with the family during Christmas and New Year and decided to spend not much time behind my laptop, meaning no blogging for the past couple of days. Therefore I didn't write any posts with the highs and lows of 2011 yet, so here just a couple of thoughts when looking back. I guess the most important event was Tudou's IPO in August, but also Spil Games new round in November has quite some impact. In...
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Photos Shanghai Half Marathon 2011

During most of the big races in the world photographers take pictures of the runners and put them online so you can order them. For the Shanghai Half Marathon I ordered a CD with my pictures on it (price: RMB 298 for about 25 photos, which is less money than a single picture at the New York Marathon costs) and I received it a couple of days ago. They also put some general pictures of the race on there, quite nice to get them actually. Below a few pictures of me during the race. Start of...
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“A Friend’s Departure” – Horrible China Daily headline today…

I don't regularly read the China Daily, except when Elaine is featured on the front page or when Air China has no other English papers available. Today's headline confirms why I stay clear from this paper as much as possible. How in the world can you call an insane mass murderer who starves his own people a friend? It's a shame. I am not naive and know this is the Party's English mouthpiece, and that China considers the DPRK an ally. But the China Daily should know that its average reader...
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