BrainsToVentures (B-to-V) is a Swiss/German network of entrepreneurial private investors that invest in growth companies. Members of this semi-closed network (you have to be recommended by another member, and existing members have a veto right with respect to the admission of new members) visited Beijing, Shanghai and Singapore last week to get to know more about the early-stage investment culture, and to look at several interesting companies.

I was invited to speak at their private deal conference in Shanghai, and spent most of the day talking to these entrepreneurs. It was very inspiring, not only because all of them are very successful, but also because it gave me some interesting business ideas and even some business leads (for game development, branded games and in-game advertising). I shared my experiences in the Chinese internet industry with the audience, and compared it to the situation in Europe. I feel the Chinese internet is still in its infancy with just 10% of the population online, and I explained to the investors that I see a huge opportunity in China’s mobile internet.

In the afternoon seven start-ups were selected to pitch their business plans to the investors. Among these seven were two companies that I am an angel investor in, which made it even more interesting. Online auto platform 1bib.com presented its business plan and its strategy to gain market share. 1bib.com is looking to raise a new round over the next months, and several investors were interested to participate. 1bib.com is doing very well in the market, and I believe the company can become the market leader in China with this financial injection. I see a very bright future for this company.

Pioco, the bluetooth advertising start-up, also presented its business strategy. I have written about them a few weeks ago, when I was not yet an official investor. Steve Chao, Pioco’s CEO, presented his vision for the company’s future and his current strategy and clients. Pioco is already profitable, but in order to keep on expanding fast it also needs to do an additional round of funding. Pioco received a positive feedback from several investors.

Several other good companies presented to the audience, including an exact Chinese copy of Habbo Hotel, a company that provides low-cost international mobile phone calls, and a Tudou-to-be. For some the 7-minute pitch was too short (meaning that their preparation was not very good), but most did an excellent job in ‘selling’ their company.

At night the angel investors had a dinner together with the start-ups (organized by PwC), followed by a panel discussion with several VC’s (among others Vincent Chan of Jafco Asia, one of the investors in Tudou). Very interesting, although I felt they were a bit hesitant to promote investing in China. Maybe afraid for competition from European angels? The night ended, as many good nights in Shanghai, in Bar Rouge. Too bad that it started to rain, so we could not have our drinks on the outside balcony, but it was a great location to finish this enervating day anyway.

Every now and then I get mails from readers telling me that the atom (RSS) feed of this blog is not working well. I have now put several other ways to subscribe to the content on this blog on the right side (through Feedburner, MyYahoo, Google and Newsgator). If you use one of these services just click on the links. If you don’t have any idea what RSS is, don’t worry. It is just a different (easier, in my humble opninion) way to read weblogs, but you can keep on reading the blog here as well. Nothing will change.

Today is the Lantern Festival in China, the official end of the Chinese New Year. And of course that means fireworks! It already started at midnight last night, which reminded me that the festival is today. I had totally forgotten it was already the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, time flies. Right now I am sitting in my study on the 37th floor and looking over the city. It’s a fantastic sight to see and hear the fireworks all around me. From tomorrow on it will finally be quiet again at night.

China’s number 1 car manufacturer FAW (First Automotive Works) has shown interest in buying Chrysler, according to this article in Forbes. Last week I already heard this story from a friend in the automotive industry in Beijing, but I sort of dismissed it as a rumour (there had been stories before that FAW would like to buy Chrysler, even when it was not for sale yet).

It would be another major take-over for a Chinese company, after Lenovo’s take-over of IBM computer division. For Chrysler it would be the second take-over by a foreign company in less than 10 years. When Daimler-Benz ‘merged’ with Chrysler in 1998, I was working in the Daimler headquarters in Stuttgart. The German and US cultures were more different than people originally thought, and it took a lot of time to change the company culture. Although I have left DaimlerChrysler almost 5 years ago and I am not too much involved anymore, I still feel it is not one company yet. That fact, and especially the huge losses that Chrysler is generating, now leads Daimler to finally get rid of Chrysler.

If FAW should take over Chrysler, the employees will be in for a big surprise. German culture is one thing, but Chinese culture is a whole lot different. And I wonder what FAW will do with Chrysler, because I don’t believe they will simply keep production in the US. Labor costs are way too high, and working with US labor unions won’t be something FAW is looking for. The Chrysler brand may be interesting, but it would be a high price to pay just for the brand. Chrysler’s technology is not state-of-the-art, although they have some good research and development facilities.

I am not sure if FAW will succeed though, personally I think a US company like General Motors will have a much better chance in take-over negotations. But FAW’s move shows that China’s businesses are emerging on the world stage. Now it is still the US, but soon Europe will be the next target. Thanks to many one-sided media reports, most people there still have no clue what is really happening on this side of the world. Soon they might be in for a big surprise as well.

To our surprise our maid was already back in Shanghai when we returned this weekend, because we had not expected her back for at least the next couple of days. We were lucky, but many Shanghai families are still waiting for their ayi’s return. A lot of household staff won’t come back before the Lantern Festival (the 15th day of the Chinese New Year), even though families made arrangements with them to come back earlier. The Shanghai Daily printed a short article about this problem today. According to this report, some people are now paying their ayi’s travel expenses if they come back on time, and others will raise their salaries if they come back on time. One family decided not to wait for her, but took their car and drove a few hours to pick their ayi up in her hometown in Jiangsu province!

One of my readers just left a link to an article in a Dutch newspaper about traffic accidents around Chinese New Year in China. It appears that over the past week 1100 people died in traffic accidents. Over the past week 227 million Chinese (including me) took either a bus or car to visit their relatives somewhere else in China. According to the short report the fatal accidents went down by 33% due to more police patrols (I did not see them on my 1300 km trip) and a publicity campaign in the media (missed that as well). Most accidents occur because people do not follow the traffic rules – that I fully agree to, especially in combination with a total lack of driving experience.

Well, after reading this I am even more glad I hired a professional driver to drive back my car to Shanghai. He delivered it to us Sunday around noon, he did the trip in two days, because he said it was too tiring to drive in one time. The driver even filled up the car and washed it before handing it back. Great service!

i-merge China is looking for a CEO. A Chinese CEO – since a Chinese agency in China, for Chinese clients targeting Chinese consumers has to be managed by a Chinese. In my opinion a great opportunity for the right person, that’s why I decided to help spread the word and put it on my blog (and no, I am not getting any commission). The current CEO, Jan van den Bergh, has built a nice organization with some good clients over the past year or so, and is now starting to look for the Mr. or Mrs. Right to take over from him.

Want to apply? If you’re a true brand lover with at least 5 successful years of experience in advertising agencies then you reached the minimal level.
What else is necessary?
• A strong lead-generating network among Chinese as well as Western marketing directors.
• A rich experience in managing the explosive mix of creative, account and technical people.
• The gift of also keeping an eye into the financial bottom line.
• Preferably also some experience in interactive marketing.
• Even some international experience maybe worthwhile too.
• As well as an energetic dose of entrepreneurial spirit, since i-merge China will become partly your company.

Will the future CEO 100% sure be a former client service director? Not necessarily. It can also be a creative director of course.

If you’re interested pls send an email to Jan van den Bergh at jevedebe@i-merge.net. He is the founder and president of i-merge. For the time being he is also leading the 8 persons’ Shanghai team. But he is not Chinese!

More info about i-merge its people and its activities can be found at their corporate blog.

During the past weeks not only game.com.cn kept on growing fast, but Tudou as well. I just checked the latest Alexa stats for the website and saw that Tudou is now in the top 25 of biggest Chinese sites (to be exact, Tudou is number 24 today). Worldwide Tudou.com is now number 127, and the site keeps on bigger and bigger!
The graph shows the growth in pageviews for the site over the past 6 months.