ITU + IoT = IoU

Things seems to be moving on the front of Internet of Things (IoT) standardization.

According to the Chinese news agency Xinhua a draft standard for the overview of IoT appears to have been approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) at the end of March. It will be interesting to see whether the draft goes further than the “technical” (e.g., spectrum, numbering) aspects of IoT standardization and covers issues such as recycling, privacy, security or the environment.

Given the different views that Europe, the United States and China hold on these issues, reaching a global agreement might imply a lot of horse-trading between the key players. While not surprising given the size of the Chinese Internet population (and its potential for growth), it is nonetheless a sign of times that China positions itself among the lead countries for standardization emerging technologies.

No better way to summarize China

Capturing the diversity and dynamism of a country the size of China is not an easy feat.

This week’s announcement from the People’s Daily is likely to achieve it: the online avatar of the Chinese Communist Party’s (People’s Daily Online) is going to be listed on the Shanghai stock exchange.

For many one of the CCP’s mouthpieces embracing capitalism may seem a contradiction in terms or, worse, the proof that the Party has definitevely distanced itself from Marxism-Leninism. It shouldn’t. Symbolism aside, the People’s Daily is not very much different than any other state-owned enterprise listed on the stock exchange: it is majority-owned (and controlled) by the government raising capital where it is available. In fact, it is a similar story than with the Internet where the government has always shown its intent to embrace it while controlling it.

One can’t get more pragmatic than that!

China’s key words

Baidu, China’s leading search engine, has published the hottest searched keywords in 2011 – my comments:

1. Tiangong-1 – China’s space technology slowly filling the void left by the US

2. Jobs – not employment although that may be the case in the future if the government does not manage to re-balance the economy

3. Gadhafi – another testimony that Chinese netizens are global citizens too

4. Earthquakes – a sober reminder that the ground shakes frequently in China and causes massive damages. Still a mystery since one tends to be concerned by the future ones and not the past ones.

5. Food safety – this is not about fake organic pork but rather life-threatening products which make it through the controls of China’s  State Food and Drug administration

6. Personal Income Tax Threshold – The People’s Congress announces that tax exemption was raised from USD 314 to USD 550. Do the netizens trust Baidu more than the People’s Daily?

7. Housing prices – High time to have a structured product to hedge against real estate bubbles in China. But of course, this requires someone to be bullish on real estate in China.

8. 90th anniversary of CCP founding – The party is reaching a respectable age but doesn’t seem intent on retiring yet.

9. Laden – Gadhafi, Laden. The one missing is Kim Jong-Il…

10. European debt crisis – I wonder if the Chinese are more concerned about than the European themselves!

As a “comparison” in Europe the fastest rising words on Google in 2011 are: Rebecca Black, Google Plus, Ryan Dunn, Casey Anthony, Battlefield 3, iPhone 5, Adele, Tepco, Steve Jobs and Ipad2.

Ultimate growth

A growth rate of 19218% (no, you didn’t miss a comma: nineteen thousand and two hundred eighteen percent).

That’s what the winner of the 2011 Deloitte Technology Fast500 Asia Pacific achieved over a 3 year period. Launched in 2008, the Store Corporation (Yihaodian) provides Chinese customers with a one-stop shopping platform, offering all their essential daily items at competitive prices (3-5% cheaper than in supermarkets).

The question is of course whether such growth can be sustained. So far, one of the biggest problem faced by the firm is storage. At least one company feels it’s worth the try: Walmart acquired a minority stake in the firm during the summer: it may not be enough tho maintain such hyper-growth rates but a strategic partnership with the world’s largest supermarket chain will at the minimum bring some insight into the logistics aspect of the business.

P.S.: According to BCG another 30m Chinese will go online to shop for the first time every year until 2015.

Petitions 2.0

The Chinese government is working hard to improve its e-government services, or so it looks.

After the launch of the Zhongnanhai website, where netizens could chat with their leaders, four cities in Guangdong have created an online system to submit petitions – one of the oldest form of communication between the citizens and the government. According to the Financial Times, the service will even include webcasts.

Some cynics may argue that it is probably those keen on petitioning – the disenfranchised – often don’t have access to the Internet and for those who do, well, there is always the risk of mails being lost in cyberspace.

Quid pro quo

The Chinese Internet sphere is once again the target of a tightening of rules in an attempt to clarify national security reviews of foreign investments in Chinese companies

Variable interest entities (VIE) – a scheme in which a Chinese company holds an operating license but control rests in foreign hands – is bound to come under increased scrutiny from the legislator. The hic? Some of the major players (including Google, Baidu, Sina, Youku or Renren) and thousands of smaller Internet players are using VIEs.

While giving more leeway to the regulator, this new rule is, in essence, not very different from the role played by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) which has in recent years blocked Huawei’s acquisition of two US technology companies (2Wire and 3Com).

A cybertruce?

When it comes to Internet matters, the US and China are seldom on the same page. For once though they seem to be reading from the same book. At least that’s what appears from the report of the Second Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit recently held in London.

A team of Chinese and American experts have produced two joint recommendations and 46 best practices that, if implemented, would be very effective in reducing spam. Delegates have also agreed, as part of future work, to come up with a cyber taxonomy as well as multilateral meetings on “rules of the road” for cyber conflict.

It may not yet be cyberpeace between the two countries but at least a cybertruce is a good way to start.

1 weibi = 1 yuan

With all the talk of the dollar being replaced by the euro or the yuan, one may have easily missed Weibo - among China’s largest micro-blogging sites – annoucing the launch of a virtual currency aptly named weibi.

Through this move the Chinese ‘Twitter’ is trying to generate some revenue from its impressive user base (estimated at 200 million). The curreny is equivalent to one yuan for each unit and users can use their bank accounts or online payment tool Alipay to top up their weibi account.

The introduction of fees Weibo runs the risk of antagonising the micro-blogging community and killing the golden goose. If that happens, it will always have the possibility to devaluate the weibi.