Last week was Valentine’s Day, and Grace and I decided to celebrate with a nice dinner outside our home. Since Scott was born we hardly ever get out of the house anymore together, and it was only the second time since his birth that the two of us had dinner in a restaurant. We made reservations at Jade on 36, on the top floor of the new wing of the Shangri-La hotel, overlooking the Huangpu river and the Bund. We were not the only ones making a reservation and first we were told no tables were available before 9:30 PM. But they called us back and we managed to get a table at the window at 8:30 PM, but only after scanning and faxing a copy of our credit card (both sides) to the restaurant. I found this a bit ridiculous, but we had no choice if we wanted to secure a table.

The restaurant location is excellent for a romantic dinner, although the views were not as good as usual: because of all the winter problems in China over the past weeks the government had decided that energy had to be saved in Shanghai as well, and all lights on the Bund were still turned off. The same measure that they also take in summer when temperatures are above 37 degrees. The winter problems are over already, however, but the government probably forgot to give instructions to turn the lights on again. Anyway, the view was still nice and it made the ongoing Chinese New Year fireworks over the city even better.

The evening was wonderful. The food was amazing, the chef had done an excellent job in designing the Valentine’s menu. A few of the culinary highlights: The dinner started with a dish called I Love Me, which was a strawberry that had been injected with cola, covered with truffels and parmesan cheese and served on a small hand mirror with chocolate around it. After you ate it you saw yourself in the mirror, hence the name. The next dish was a combination of 3 kinds of foie gras (amazingly put together, see below here for a picture of the dish), followed by a Boston Lobster with liquorice caramel and lime. The next two main dishes consisted of a Lotus Turbot followed by a lamb cutlet with truffel. Then the desserts started, first a chocolate brulee, then a ‘flower’ dish (see picture) and the last dish… I forgot… I ended the evening with a double espresso.
I was impressed not only about the unusual combination of ingredients, but also by the creativity that was put into the dishes. Absolutely top! Chef Paul Pairet is amazing, and the combinations he dares to make are excellent. His innovative style is called Avant-Garde cuisine, and I love it! See for a description of his creations and dishes in the current menu here (pdf). Of course the total dinner was not cheap, but the location and the creative and innovative dishes make the experience totally worth the price. If you live in Shanghai and have never been here, give it a try as soon as you can. Of course this is the same if you just visit Shanghai, and do not want to have Chinese cuisine every night, or want to have food that you won’t easily find outside China either. Bon Appetit or Man Man Chi!

If you travel by car in Shanghai, the by far nicest view you can have is when you drive down from Yan’an elevated road to the Bund. In the lefthand curve you have a magnificent view of both the Bund, the Huangpu river and the Pudong skyline. Most first-time visitors to the city are stunned when they see this, and even I am still impressed each time I drive that stretch of road.

But by the end of this month the nice view will be gone. Actually, the view will still be there, but the curved road will be dismantled. This is part of a bigger plan, where a 3.3. km long tunnel will be built below the Bund from Yan’an Lu to Hongkou. With typical Chinese speed the tunnel will be ready in exactly two years (just in time for the WorldExpo 2010 in Shanghai, surely no coincidence). During that time, however, the whole area is likely to become one big traffic jam. Not good for all the restaurants and stores on the Bund, I suppose.

What will also disappear, although just temporarily, is the 100-year old Waibaidu bridge at the end of the Bund over the Suzhou creek. The bridge will be completely dismantled and then transported to a shipyard. After maintenance the bridge will be put back into place in about one year. Quite an operation for an old bridge, but at least it’s better than demolishing it and building a new bridge. The Waibaidu bridge is part of the Bund for me, so I am glad they do it this way.
Photo Waibaidu bridge (creative commons): Kramchang

If you are a foreigner in Shanghai it’s relatively easy to land a small role in a film or TV commercial. Most foreign crews filming here only bring their main talents from overseas, so when foreigners are needed they look for them locally. A few years ago even I have been in some TV commercials, just because I thought it would be fun. Well, fun it wasn’t, you had to show up at 6 AM, it was always cold and the main part of the day would be spent waiting and waiting and waiting. And sometimes they would even cut you out of the final version…

But if you don’t mind all the waiting, there might be an opportunity for a bigger role than that of an extra. National Geographic is planning to shoot a documentary later this month, called “Legacy of China”. For that they are looking for speaking roles, for both foreigners and Chinese. In this case only for males (sorry ladies…). For Westerners, the requirements are that they can have either an English or French accent. For Chinese males it would be a bonus if you understand English.

Casting director is Robert Vicencio, who you might know from Tudou parties. He is the magnificent singer (among other he was a star in the musical Miss Saigon in London) who performed at at least 3 Tudou parties over the past years. He is also the founder and CEO of AskBenny.cn.

The casting will be held tomorrow already (February 15) at the AskBenny Casting House in Shanghai, Rm. 1705, 1280 Fuxing Zhong Lu (????1280?????1705?).
MALE WESTERNERS : 11:00 – 2:00pm
???? ? ??11????2?

MALE CHINESE : 2:30pm – 6:00pm
???? ? ??2?????6?

More info? +86 1350 1875 454 or RobertVicencio (at) gmail (dot) com
If you want to give it a try, good luck.

Last week the Casual Connect convention was organized in Amsterdam, a big conference (1200 participants from all over the world) focusing on the casual games industry. Of course Spill Group was one of the main sponsors, as the biggest Dutch casual gaming company. I attended last year, but this year I decided to stay with my young son, so only Thijs Bosma represented Spill Group Asia in the Dutch capital. The conference was a big success, with big gaming companies such as Microsoft, Real and Popcap attending. It was also an excellent promotion for Amsterdam.

However, during the 3-day event the head of Casual Connect, Jessica Tams, announced that next year the convention will be held in Hamburg. The reason? A lack of cooperation from the City of Amsterdam and from Bgin, the Benelux Game Initiative. A bit strange, because Amsterdam tries to get international conventions to the city and also supports gaming initiatives. Reinout te Brake, Spill Group’s chief strategist, decided that this was too important to just let it happen, and started a campaign to try to keep Casual Connect in Amsterdam.

This weekend he started with an email to all people related to the Dutch gaming industry, and he followed up with an article on the well-read Dutch blog Marketingfacts. Twitter was also used as a tool to spread the word. Suddenly things went quickly and Sunday night a representative of the City of Amsterdam already called Reinout. Amsterdam-based newspaper Het Parool picked up the news, and also Amsterdam TV station AT5 reported about Reinout’s campaign.

And it seems to have effect. At least 3 other Dutch new media/internet related conventions (BrightLive, TheNextWeb and E-day) now plan to put their resources together and organize a 7-day event in March 2009. Discussions about this with the government are planned already. If it is still possible to keep Casual Connect in 2009 in Amsterdam is not sure yet, but because of Reinout’s involvement it seems more and more likely that the event will be back in 2010.

If anybody has ideas or wants to support the initiative to keep Casual Connect in Amsterdam, please get in touch with Reinout <reinout (at) spillgroup (dot) com> directly or contact me.

Photo: Paul van Heel

In early 2006 I participated as an angel investor in Chinese online marketplace and brokering service for second-hand vehicles 1bib.com. The company was set up by former DaimlerChrysler colleague and friend Honglian Tan, and her management skills together with the upcoming market for used cars in China convinced me to invest.

The company has grown steadily since, and has several offices in China already. T-Ventures, the VC arm of Deutsche Telekom, also believes in the future of this company and has now announced that they have taken a share in 1bib.com as well. The money (amount will not be publically disclosed) will be used for further expansion of the company. Congratulations to Honglian and her team to get T-Ventures on board.

Ever wondered how fireworks are sold in China? In my native Holland there are strict rules on how and when these dangerous good can be sold. China does it differently, the goods are hawked on the street just like most other products. Sometimes even by sales men smoking cigarettes (no picture of that one yet, unfortunately).

Notice how quiet the streets are, these pictures were taken on the afternoon before Chinese New Year. I assume everybody was playing games on game.com.cn, because we broke all records that day!

Over the past couple of days I had my annual Chinese New Year holiday. Having some time to relax means for me that I get lots new business ideas. Most related to things I am currently involved in, like games, where I have thought about some ideas for the next frontier in gaming: the combination of mobile gaming and social networking. But also in other fields, for example in the field of e-books. I won’t have time nor the resources to something with this, therefore I post some of my thoughts about e-books here. Maybe it will inspire others to do something with it.

E-book readers have come a long way since they were first introduced a couple of years ago. The new readers do not use a computer screen anymore that constantly refreshes itself and is therefore tiring to look at, but they use electronic ink. This technology is a huge breakthrough in my opinion, but it does not get the attention it deserves. E-ink means that the screen reads like a real book, it only refreshes itself when you turn the page. If you have never seen it, try to find a store where they sell them (still not easy) and ask for a demonstration. The good thing is that the devices are light (same weight as a paperback) and have a huge battery life because the battery is only used when you turn the page (about 7500 pages). Basic memory in the devices is enough for 100-200 books in these devices, but most have expansion slots to even take a thousand books with you if you want.

I have owned an iLiad e-book reader for about 18 months now (I probably have a pre-production model, that was given to a start-up I invested in), but did not use it much. Why? It was too slow, it always had trouble connecting to the internet (especially with firewalls). The software was user-unfriendly and I always had trouble downloading stuff. However, the e-ink technology was great, and from the moment I had the iLiad in my hand I knew this would one day revolutionize the way we read. Too bad the iLiad engineers and marketeers did not manage to put the product into the market, they had a big opportunity on their hands but they blew it. Out of frustration with the iLiad I decided to buy Sony’s latest e-book reader (the PRS-505) a couple of weeks ago. Although it is still not perfect, it was a revelation.

It’s screen is a bit smaller than the iLiad and, does not have wifi or a pen to write, but it just works. I bought several books already in the Sony e-book store and getting them on my reader was just a matter of drag-and-drop. Even my parents could do it. That statement is not meant to make you laugh, but it shows where the iLiad went wrong. A product should be easy to use, also for people who are not technical geeks. And the Sony e-book reader is fast. I don’t need to wait a long time to get to the next page (for the iLiad this took up to 2 seconds sometimes, totally unacceptable), but the moment you press on one of the page turn buttons (there are buttons for left-handed and right-handed people) the next page appears almost immediately. I read two book on my Sony reader so far, and it’s the same or even a better experience than a normal book. You really forget that you are reading an e-book.

As mentioned I think e-books based on e-ink will be the future. But there is still some work to be done, especially on the marketing side but also on the product side. If I evaluate a business idea I try to look at the potential market size. Products that appeal to older people especially have my interest, because they are the ones that have purchasing power. The e-book is such a product. Why? When you get older it gets more and more difficult to read smaller fonts. If the font on an e-book reader is too small you just press ‘zoom’ and the whole book is offered in a bigger font. Press ‘zoom’ twice and you might not even need your reading glasses anymore. This is a feature that marketeers should focus on.

Another great thing is the integration of audio. The Sony reader has this. It does not work flawless yet, but that should be easy to solve. It does not exist yet, as far as I know, but if I would be a publisher I would offer my books in a combination of audio and text (or to start with a print version, plus a free audio and e-book). If you read the book on the e-book reader but are tired you should be able to switch to the audio version right away. Or when you are reading a book at night, you can continue to listen to it while driving to work the next day. Technically very simple, and nobody is doing it.

You might argue that people are not willing to pay for this. Could be, I know the internet business models quite well, and think that books will go the same route as music. Free, free, free. So you need to start thinking about a new business model. I think there is a very attractive one for e-books. You want to get the latest bestsellers on your e-book reader? Either you pay for it, or you get them with advertising embedded. Just like in a magazine. If you don’t like that, you can pay for it. Or if you don’t like the ads, let the e-book reader know what kind of ads you would prefer. It’s easy anyway to target ads at certain groups based on their reading behavior. You can change where the ads are continuously and you can change the content of the ad. Why is it accepted in magazines and papers and you don’t see it in books yet?

But there is more. Most people do not read book anymore, which is a pity. I just came across the statistic that 44% of all Americans did not read one book in the past year. Apple’s Steve Jobs remarked last month that e-book readers will never become big because people do not read anymore. Because of that he said Apple will not make an e-book reader. But do they not read anything at all? Some of them surely fall into the category that just watched TV or surfs the internet. But there is also a big group that reads magazines and newspapers. And that is an even bigger opportunity for publishers. Make all your publications available in an e-book format! I want to subscribe to the New York Times and to the Dutch NRC Handelsblad. But I am not doing it because I would get the paper with one or more days delay. However, if I can get it automatically on my reader I would be willing to do it. Same for magazines. And it’s good for nature as well, imagine how many trees would be saved if people would not read paper newspapers anymore! Now I realize that paper versions will likely not disappear soon, but with better e-ink readers it could go faster than you imagine.

I actually do not trust Steve Jobs with his statement. Remember when the iPod video came out? A few months before that he said that people don’t watch video’s on a small screen. For the iPhone he also denied that Apple would make one. Well, I won’t be surprised if he is fooling the competition once again, and Apple will introduce an e-book reader in the near future as well. Steve is a very smart guy, and I think he also sees these opportunities. Apple could make the perfect device, the best design with the best features. When the iPod was introduced Steve said that you can now bring your whole music collection with you wherever you go. With the iBook (They already own the name, but use it for a different product) you could do the same for your book and magazine collection.

But in case Steve Jobs will not do this, I hope at least one start-up company will do it – and do it better. Get a better searc
h functionality, make sure the device has wifi and 3G, and make sure the design is great. Amazon made the worst looking product of the year with its Kindle e-book reader; but they still manage to be sold out! Make sure advertising can be integrated, and do a good job on marketing. People don’t even know what e-ink is. Wherever I go people ask me about it, even though the technology is several years old. Integration in a mobile phone could also be an idea (this company is already doing that), to make it even more portable. And don’t forget to make deals with newspaper and magazine publishers (something the folks at iLiad also did not manage). The company that does this right will be a winner.

Note: If someone from iLiad reads this, and feels I am not giving their product enough credit, please feel free to contact me (marcvanderchijs (at) gmail (dot) com). If you can provide me with the latest model I will test it for at least a few weeks and let you know my experience and blog about it.

This afternoon we had an appointment for our baby Scott at WorldLink with our doctor. We were a bit late already, when I realized that the baby was still asleep in his bed. So I went over and took him out of his warm bed. He woke up and looked at me angryly, because he just went to sleep an hour earlier. And when I tried to put him in his Maxi-Cosy baby stroller he started crying out loud. Really, really loud. I would do the same in his situation, so I did not blame him.

But my wife blamed me. She was not in the living room at that time, and came running in and asked me why I woke up the baby. I told her that you cannot avoid waking him up if you go out with him. She had a puzzled look on her face, and told me that we had an appointment for a regular check-up for her, not for the baby. Oops, I misunderstood…

Now the baby, happily asleep minutes earlier, was crying like crazy. We had to leave and it was up to her parents to get him back to sleep. I felt pretty stupid, but could not do much. Luckily the others could laugh about it, and later I heard Scott went back to sleep quickly after we left.