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Virtual Nonsense All the Way Down the Drain. A Twisted (?) View of US vs China

Posted on September 28, 2010 ·

second-life460

I don’t often recycle older posts in full – but sometimes I get all worked up, want to “blog it out of my system” only to discover I’ve already said it all. That’s how I feel about the explosion of virtual goods.  So there it is, vintage July 2009, still valid, except this time I’d be using Facebook, Zynga, Playfish, PlayDom, CrowdStar, FoolDom (Ok, I made up the last one).

<rant>

Virtual Worlds, such as World of Warcraft, Entropia Universe, Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin and Second Life grew 39% in the second quarter of 2009 to an estimated 579 million members, reports The Guardian.

A good chunk of these virtual worlds is owning virtual goods, that cost no-virtual, but real money:  GigaOM reports that the virtual goods market is estimated to reach $1.8 billion this year.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

Filed Under: Business · Tagged: , , , ,
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Virtual Worlds and My Twisted View of USA vs. China

Posted on July 30, 2009 ·

second-life460<rant>

Virtual Worlds, such as World of Warcraft, Entropia Universe, Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin and Second Life grew 39% in the second quarter of 2009 to an estimated 579 million members, reports The Guardian.

A good chunk of these virtual worlds is owning virtual goods, that cost no-virtual, but real money:  GigaOM reports that the virtual goods market is estimated to reach $1.8 billion this year.

“About one in 10 Americans reached into their wallets last year and spent an average of $30 on virtual goods, those pixelated swords, outfits and other non-real items used in online games such as Habbo and Club Penguin” – quotes the LA Times, using the same research report.

So why am I ranting about this?  Let me put it very simply:

We’re wasting our brain on stupid things instead of being productive, while sending real money to Chinese entrepreneurs who laugh their *** off while running their sweatshops producing these digital goodies.

And you wonder why the US is declining while China prospers.

</rant>

There, I said it … now I feel better.  Now, for a refreshing and decidedly more intelligent view on China, US..etc read this piece by former wunderkind (may still be wunder but no longer kid) Ben Casnocha:   Rising Tide Lifts All (Nation-State) Boats.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve. For the latest and greatest -well, dunno, but definitely more intelligent posts than this- on Cloud Computing, Web Apps, Business and the like grab the CloudAve feed here.)

Filed Under: Business, Politics · Tagged: , , , , , , , ,
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Zoho Launches in China @ Baihui.com

Posted on April 24, 2008 ·

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:

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.

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Filed Under: Collaboration, Personal Productivity, SaaS · Tagged: , , , , ,
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San Francisco Torchured

Posted on April 9, 2008 ·

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?

Filed Under: Bay Area, Politics · Tagged: , , , , , , , ,
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Earthquake in China – Twitter Beats News Services

Posted on March 20, 2008 ·

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. smile_angry (pardon my French).

Filed Under: Misc · Tagged: , , , ,
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Sunday Morning Newsbytes

Posted on August 12, 2007 ·

China: 20,000 police surveillance cameras will be installed in the city of Shenzhen, reports the New York Times. But that’s not all:

Starting this month in a port neighborhood and then spreading across Shenzhen, a city of 12.4 million people, residency cards fitted with powerful computer chips programmed by the same company will be issued to most citizens.

Data on the chip will include not just the citizen’s name and address but also work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord’s phone number. Even personal reproductive history will be included, for enforcement of China’s controversial “one child” policy. Plans are being studied to add credit histories, subway travel payments and small purchases charged to the card.


Germany: A so far unpublished Stasi order was found from 1973, explicitly ordering East-German border guards to shoot citizens trying to escape:

Do not hesitate with the use of a firearm, including when the border breakouts involve women and children, which the traitors have already frequently taken advantage of,” the order instructed.

Happy Sunday, everyone.

Filed Under: Politics · Tagged: , , , , ,