Just days ago we read that China, already the world leader in cellphone use, has surpassed the USA as the No. 1 nation in Internet users., so of course it’s a huge market that SaaS providers would love to enter. What better way than have the market come to you?

That’s what happened to Zoho when their Beijing Office was contacted by PC Stars, the largest online distributor in China with more than 2400 resellers and over 1000 system integrators. The are assembling a portal at Baihui, currently offering specific search and productivity tools. Their search products appear to be geared to product groups like software, hardware, games and automotive.

For the productivity apps they teamed up with Zoho, who would provide white-label versions of their products. After a few months of private beta testing, Baihui built a new data center (*), and today they are launching the Zoho Suite under their own brand:

• Zoho Writer - Baihui Xiexie
• Zoho Sheet - Baihui Gege
• Zoho Show - Baihui Xiuxiu
• Zoho CRM - Baihui CRM

These apps will be offered free to individual users, just like they are in the US, and CRM will have a similar pricing, too: free for the first 3 users, then 99RMB /user/months, which is about $14, close to the US pricing. (I would have thought Chinese prices to be less, but they know what they’re doing…) Baihui will later add other Zoho (Business) products.

Zoho’s current user base is 800,000 adding 100k about every 5-6 weeks, and they certainly expect that number to jump with the China deal.

OEM-ing their product is not unusual for Zoho, and especially for the parent company: there are other deals under consideration, and if you own a D-Link access point, chances are the wifi-manager software you have is from Adventnet. I plan to write a backgrounder on Adventnet, their approach to business and their international presence in the near future.

(* Please note, Baihui’s investment is into their own data center, running the Zoho Apps, not Zoho’s parent company, Adventnet, as (first) incorrectly reported on TechCrunch.) Update: it’s now fixed on TC.

Tags: baihau, china, office 2.0, SaaS, web office, zoho

The Olympic Torch took evasive action on San Francisco. It was here and not. The best part of this fiasco was the Twitter coverage .
My personal favorite: chadcat : if the Torch goes on a boat what will the runners do, jog on a treadmill? 

More selected morsels below in reverse chronological order:

tokboxchris : The Olympic torch reduced to sneaking around and juking protesters

KanuDawg : Just went outside as torch just went up Van Ness near work- nothing but police sirens and helicopters: total clusterfuck=accomplished << (2008-04-09 17:25:45)

SXHotdogs : acarvin: NBC11: It was an Olympic Torch Ride, then a Drive, then a Run, now a Walk. << (2008-04-09 17:21:31)

sftorch : Katrinskaya: the torch has taken evasive action. FUNNY. << (2008-04-09 17:18:10)

hdwilliams : It’s torch aerobics…run, walk, step into the bus, step out of the bus. Stand up, sit down, deep knee bend!! << (2008-04-09 17:14:40)

krismet : lame- no torch but naked protesters! << (2008-04-09 17:15:37)

zoliblog : Police alreday claiming success re. torch. Sure, nobody saw it. #torch << (2008-04-09

joshuarudd : Apparently the torch is in three different locations now. << (2008-04-09 16:54:25)

Delilah021 : Torch was re-routed!!! Bullshit!!! Started on Van Ness, likely won’t hit Embarcadero. All of us people ready to cheer, for nothing. Damn! << (2008-04-09 17:11:56)

Katrinskaya : the torch has taken evasive action. FUNNY. << (2008-04-09 17:11:11)

ajonesin : If I were a bank robber I would totally be robbing San Francisco banks right now. All the cops are with the torch! << (2008-04-09 17:11:07)

ryancoleman : they could have at least let the runner hang his head out the window and hold the torch… << (2008-04-09 16:54:05)

sdwindham : so, let’s see: If the torch runs through SF, yet no one actually sees it, was the relay a success, or was the protest? << (2008-04-09 16:53:43)

zoliblog : Torch hide-and-seek. Wear the crowd down? #torch << (2008-04-09 16:53:20)

Rubin110 : #torch It’s a trap. The city of San Francisco just Rickrolled several thousand people

ronjon : Nearly 40 minutes after lighting, still no idea where the Olympic torch is << (2008-04-09

chadcat : if the Torch goes on a boat what will the runners do, jog on a treadmill? << (2008-04-09

joshuarudd : Apparently the torch is in three different locations now. << (2008-04-09 16:54:25)

therahmin : #pier5 the scene has been hijacked by protesters - word is that torch will travel via coast guard boat << (2008-04-09 16:58:58)

niterider : [TT] The Olympic torch? Who has it? Where is it? Watching this cluster fuck on TV is amusing http://tinyurl.com/3eqb55 << (2008-04-09 16:58:31)

williamsba : why on EARTH does SF have an amphibious vehicle leading the torch run? hahhaha that’s awesome! Run for the sea!!!!!! << (2008-04-09 17:04:14)

zoliblog CBS says torch still inside Pier48. Others reported it left in a bus, othes that it’s on a boat

zoliblog If nobody sees the torch, it’s secretly driven around, can SF claim they actually had it here?

Tags: china, olympic torch, olympics, san francisco, tibet, torch, torchured, Twitter, twittertorch

Scobleizer @dotBen says there was just a big earthquake in Chine and it’s not yet on BBC’s site.

the above came from Twitter.  The news is nowhere to be found on Google or Google News either.  If true (hope not…), twitter just beat the major news services again.

A weird co-incidence, I just read this earlier today:

Report: Next major earthquake on Hayward fault will be catastrophic

Update: here’s the USGS report, and the first news from Fox News - still nowhere else.

Update #2:  It’s on Reuters now.

Update #3: It hit (no pun intended) CNN now.

Update #4:  I don’t normally lose it, but I can’t believe such idiots exist:  Chinese EarthQuake Hits 7.4: Karma for Tibet Violence.  Jerk. (pardon my French).

Tags: china, earthquake, hayward fault, Twitter, usgs