Just came back from a meeting at the Four Seasons hotel, next to the China Bay office. Outside two TV crews were waiting (Shanghai TV and Oriental TV) and at the entrance a new Bentley was parked (very nice car by the way). I was observed by three doormen while walking in, and inside several staff with ear pieces were nervously walking around.

I wonder what famous or important guest is staying here. Even in October when Michael Schumacher stayed here and in December when Tom Cruise lived here, there was less security around.

My RSS reader automatically picks up stories on the internet that are related to online gaming in China. This morning I saw a headline that said “Online casino tips for Chinese players“. Because online casino’s are banned in China I was curious about the article and clicked on it. And to my big surprise I see an article about youxi.cn in which I am describing the game portal as an online casino!

I have no clue what happened here. I do interviews every now and then, but I have never used the words gambling or casino in relation to youxi.cn. Youxi.cn is a pure casual gaming website, with free games that you can play whenever you feel like it.

Maybe an editor was in desperate need for a story about China and decided that by rewriting the youxi.cn press release he could have some sort of a scoop? Or an overactive intern misinterpreted the press release and added some spice to it? In any case they did not do any research, because one click on youxi.cn would have shown them that it is something completely different from an online casino.

Next month Toodou.com will have the 1st anniversary of its website. On April 15, 2005 the site officially went live. Only one year, it seems like a much longer time.

To celebrate this we will host a party at our office at the Si Hang Warehouse on Guangfu Lu. More details will follow later, but it will certainly be a party to remember. And it will likely be the last Toodou party in our current office, so if you are in town make sure to drop by on Saturday night, April 15th.

I am in Hong Kong at the moment on a business trip, and did not find enough time to post on my blog yet. Over the past days I had some excellent business meetings here for Spill Group Asia, and I have lots of new ideas about how to build up our business in this city as well. Also I set up the holding company for Spill Group, and that is moving forward quickly as well.

What I noticed about Hong Kong is how expensive it is compared to Shanghai. A decent meal in an non-Chinese restaurant is problably twice as expensive, and a 5-minute ride from the Airport Express to my hotel set me back more than a 30-minute ride would in Shanghai. But I always enjoy this city, it’s lively and has a great mixture of European and southern Chinese culture (especially Soho, where I tend to spend most my nights).

A nice thing is how quickly you can be out of the city and in real nature. I was talking to Marcel Ekkel, and he told me that many of the expats here do not realize that. Just take the MTR a few stops on HK Island, walk for 10 minutes and you are in the middle of a beautiful scenery. Mountains, lakes, and dense vegetation. HK has many trails, so you won’t get lost easily (at least not on HK Island, the New Territories are different).

This is something I definitively miss in my current hometown: Shanghai is a great city to do business, have good food, go out and live a pretty decent life, but there is just no nature. Even after driving for one or two hours you are still surrounded by houses, factories and roads. This gets on my nerves sometimes, and that’s why it’s good to travel a bit every now and then!

I wrote before about the Shanghai tourist tunnel, the somewhat tacky tourist atrraction that takes you from Puxi to Pudong in a small carriage surrounded by sounds and lights.

It seems that not enough people are using this means of transportation, not completely unlogical considering the current entrance price of RMB 30 one-way. So a plan has been developed to turn the attraction into a normal means of commuting. Of course, this means the price would have to be reduced drastically.

I think this is smart, because there are no efficient ways of crossing the river from the Bund to Pudong. The ferries land too far from the main attractions in Pudong (although there is a ferry landing next to the river promenade – but it was never put to use as far as I know), and the subway is no alternative because there is no station close to the Bund. So the only current option is finding a taxi and crossing through the crowded car tunnel.

If this plan indeed becomes reality I hope they will keep the current display of lights and sounds!

I always thought that pharmacists know a lot about the medicine they sell. But it seems that this is not always the case in China for conctraceptive drugs: The Center for Reproductive Health Technical Instruction and Training in Shanghai conducted a survey among 100 pharmacies and found that only 9% of the pharmacists knew that morning-after pills are different from regular contraceptive medicine!

This has of course some negative effects on women who buy these products and get a wrong advice. The Shanghai Daily writes that this lack of expertise has contributed to an outrageous rate of failed contraception. Another survey shows that over 90% of the teenage girls who sought abortion had directly bought morning-after pills in pharmacies. But over 80% failed to prevent a pregnancy, because they took morning-after pills in the same way as the contraceptive pill…

Over the past years many of the old buildings along the Bund have been turned into entertainment venues. It all started with M on the Bund, but many have followed since. Among them Bund 18 with shops, a top restaurant and a bar with huge terrace, and 3 on the Bund with the Armani flagship store, an art gallery, a spa and many good bars and restaurants. The buildings used to be dilapidated, but are now back to their old grandeur. The Bund looks much better than just 2 years ago.

But now the Shanghai government is planning to interfere in the naming. Why? Because the official streetname is not Bund anymore, but has been changed to Zhongshan Road after 1949. According to the bureaucrats this would be confusing. Furthermore, according to Liu Bo, deputy director of the city’s Place-naming Authority: “The Bund is the name of a signature historic area, and people can’t use it without government permission.”

Confusing? Zhongshan Road is much more confusing to me, because this road runs around half Shanghai. And who of the target customers does not know where the Bund is? I think most of them have no idea that the Bund is officially called Zhongshan Road. Even in taxi’s I normally say Waitan (Chinese for Bund) instead of Zhongshan Lu, because Zhongshan Lu is confusing.

But as usual with this kind of proposals I don’t think much will change. I predict that after one week we won’t hear about this proposed regulation anymore, and in two years all venues will still use their current names.

Spill Group Asia launches unique online gaming portal

Youxi.cn offers the most popular games on an innovative platform. The portal is also the launching customer for ToodouAds, a revolutionary promotion tool.

Shanghai – March 17, 2006 – SPILL GROUP, a leading operator and developer of online gaming portals in Europe and Asia, today announced the launch of its new online gaming platform youxi.cn. The site offers all games that are currently most popular in China. Youxi.cn differs from other Chinese gaming portals in that it is free from disturbances like pop ups or moving banners and designed in a clearly structured way.

Youxi.cn is SPILL GROUP Asia’s first casual gaming website. The leading developer of online gaming portals approached the creation of youxi.cn with a new concept. With a dark blue background and the use of only a few colours, the design of the site is elementary. “Most Chinese websites are tiring for the eyes when you look at them: they consist of moving banners, blinking names of games and they are overloaded with information,” says Marc van der Chijs, CEO, Spill Group Asia. “Youxi.cn wants to be different. The design of the portal allows for a relaxing, pleasurable online gaming experience.”

The Youxi.cn launch coincides with the launch of a new promotion tool called ToodouAds. The tool was developed by Toodou.com, the leading Chinese podcasting and video website, and puts short videoclip ads in front of or behind clips that are viewed on the Toodou.com website. Those ads are clickable, meaning that users can click them and will then automatically go to the youxi.cn site. “We are very proud that Toodou.com chose youxi.cn as the launching customer for ToodouAds. ToodouAds is a revolutionary tool that does not exist anywhere yet,” says Marc van der Chijs. “With ToodouAds, many potential players will soon hear about youxi.cn and visit the platform. There, they can experience the gaming enjoyment that the site has to offer.”

Youxi is the Chinese word for game or gaming. The online portal youxi.cn features a wide variety of games like action and adventure games, MMORG’s (massive multiplayer online role-playing games), skill, racing and card games. A team of Chinese casual games experts carefully selected the games for youxi.cn, choosing only the best and most popular ones.

The design of youxi.cn makes it easy for users to find the games they like. The games are classified in different game categories. The top 5 most played games of each category are listed on the home page, all the rest is only one click away. Youxi.cn is free – gamers just need to visit the site and they can start playing right away. And because the site is published in simplified Chinese, the whole of mainland China can use it for some gaming enjoyment.

SPILL GROUP Asia plans to launch several more websites in the coming months, both for online and mobile gaming.

About Spill Group

The Dutch holding company SPILL GROUP was founded in 2001 and has subsidiaries in Europe and Asia. Its aim is to become the biggest source of the best games for PC and mobile devices. Currently, the company develops and runs more than thirty gaming portals in eight European countries as well as China, Malaysia and India. 1.5 million unique visitors a day look for gaming enjoyment on the SPILL GROUP portals. The portfolio contains 3.000 online games of all genres – skill games, casual games and fun games. The portals are kept simple and are specifically designed for every country. Those wanting to play a game do not need to register, but can start right away.

For more information on Spill Group, please visit www.spillgroup.com.

Company Contact

SPILL GROUP Asia

Marc van der Chijs

marc@spillgroup.com