In a continuing series of personnel losses, including Li Kaifu (to eBay) and Kai-Fu Lee (to Google), Microsoft today lost another member: Timothy Chen. Microsoft’s China Corporate Vice President (uh…) is said to leave for NBA where he will lead the further development of infrastructure and operations (as if that’s the reason they needed to grab one of the top international exec.)

Microsoft had, of course, stuggled with building important goverment relations ever since they ignored mainland China and instead opened a center in Taiwan - Chinese government never forgot

Mr. Chen, a Taiwan born, certainly comes with a taste for pedigree – previous roles included: VP of Motorola (China), CEO of 21CN Cybernet Corp, and U.S. based Lucent Technologies (then AT&T Inc.). Not to mention his MBA from University of Chicago – a typical story of successful Chinese American returnee.

What about NBA? To make it short, NBA in China is huge. Over 300 million people play basketball - and nearly all of them have high awareness of NBA brand. Of course, in a country where television is not much of a show, NBA Chinese web site plays a key gateway to basketball footage.

Once again, a company that put tremendous resources in building its human capital is falling apart and losing its key leaders in the meantime.

more from reuters

Filed under: China Market | 3 Comments »

I’ve written on Chinese payment companies before, and noted the vast advantage Alibaba’s child company, Alipay, has over its competitors. Well, today my friends at Maverick China Research released a report outlining the current state of third-party payment services and Alipay’s current dominance of the market.

A brief summary follows:

• Companies Profiled: China UnionPay, Union Mobile Pay, Alipay, Smartpay, Yeepay, IPS, Chinapay,
  99Bill , Tenpay, PayEase
• Multi-channel payment options are available to Alipay users, including online bank transfer, cash, and direct debit solutions.
• Alipay has signed partnerships with over 300,000 merchants in China.

But, of course, AliPay’s true advantage is Jack Ma - who could argue otherwise?

The report can be found here

Filed under: China Market Trends - Daily Online Usage Trends | 1 Comment »

No doubt you probably have already heard the news about Mr Hsu and his generous donations to the nation’s top leaders. Well today Wall Street Journal brought much light onto the mysterious businessman, his ties to many failed ventures accross the Atlantic and strong Silicon Valley Asian-American roots.

All of this is quite interesting, but somehow it just feels a little absorb to me. Why? Because the story is just way too well fit for the time and the journal. His China roots, Hillary’s donations and Silicon Valley connections are all a big PR hit. The fact we don’t hear much of stories like that is the prove that people who live this way of life generally know what they are doing. But then here we have a story that seems to be filled with blunders and yet only the wsj was able to uncover the plot. Somehow I get the feeling that top people knew all of this much earlier but were simply waiting for the right opportunity to shine light on all things in the opposition–namely: China and Hillary.

Just my two cents…

Update: Clinton to Return Hsu-Raised Funds , Woodstock Creator Funded Hsu with $40million

Filed under: China Market | »