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Facebook Repeatedly Deleting Hong Kong Opposition Groups
Today’s South China Morning Post reports how Hong Kong’s political opposition has faced repeated deletion of their Facebook groups.
Read the article here (behind paywall), but some key points raised:
A Facebook group with 84,298 members formed to oppose the pro-establishment DAB was deleted
Kelvin Sit Tak-O, who runs a discussion group that opposes the pro-establishment party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), said his group’s Facebook page was shut down without notice on Thursday. The group had 84,298 members and was aiming for 100,000.
How were they deleted?
The closures could have been triggered by opponents flagging the group as “abusive” with Facebook administrators, Mr. Sit speculated. A spokesperson for Facebook was not immediately available for comment.
This is not the first time it has happened to Hong Kong opposition groups
Controversial Facebook groups were closed in 2008 in the run-up to the Olympic torch relay passing through Hong Kong, as Beijing grew especially sensitive to issues such as Tibetan self-determination. Christina Chan Hau-man, a student protester who waved a Tibetan flag during the torch relay and used Facebook to rally support, had her account closed days before the event. At the time, she said she was told her page had been closed because of “persistent misuse of the site”.
Ironically, this comes as Hong Kong government is pushing to engage citizens online, with a 3-hour online forum taking place today.
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Europe’s Sharpened Stance on China
China can expect some pushback from Europe in coming months, warns Mark Leonard of the European Council of Foreign Relations in this video. His data points leading to the coming sharp shift in the EU-China relations:
1- French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s meeting the Dalai Lama caused China to cancel the EU Summit.
2- At the Climate Summit in Copenhagen, both Europe and China blamed each other for the absence of a deal.
3- The Google vs. China conflict.
4- The execution of the British citizen Akmal Shaikh in China.
The Economist this week has a similar take:
There is, however, a new self-confidence these days in China’s familiar harangues about anything it deems sovereign. That is the second trend: China, after its successful passage through the financial crisis of late 2008, is more assertive and less tolerant of being thwarted—and not just over its “internal affairs”. From its perceived position of growing economic strength, China has been throwing its weight around. It played a central and largely unhelpful role at the climate-change talks in Copenhagen; it looks as if it will wreck a big-power consensus over Iran’s nuclear programme; it has picked fights in territorial disputes with India, Japan and Vietnam. At gatherings of all sorts, Chinese officials now want to have their say, and expect to be heeded.
These events and attitudes on the part of Beijing have caused a shift in Europe’s view of China, so Beijing should expect a pushback from Europe over the next years, Leonard said. This could mean a hardening of Europe’s approach to various issues like Iran, climate and currency.
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Job: Hong Kong-based Editor at International Herald Tribune
The newspaper where I worked and for whom I can vouch as a great employer, is looking for copy editors in Hong Kong:
The International Herald Tribune is looking for experienced copy editors to work in Hong Kong for its Asian edition. You will work with a team of dedicated, hard-working editors and correspondents from The New York Times-Herald Tribune family to offer our readers a well-edited, must-read newspaper six mornings a week and a 24-hour Web report. We expect you to know how to smooth copy, write inviting heads and make solid news judgments about international developments. We value energetic professionals who are excited by the Asia story. Experience in Asia and business journalism is a plus. We are looking for candidates to fill both full-time and temporary positions. Interested? Send your resumes to: asiaresumes@iht.com.
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How To: Choose speaking engagements
My colleague John Bell compiled this handy checklist to help decide whether to speak at an event or not. The core criteria apply to any profession.
Selecting speaking engagements has become more and more difficult for those of us working in Social Media. There are more and more great events that deal with Social Media.
Here’s John’s criteria (slightly edited):
Core Criteria
* Will I likely learn something substantial that I can apply to my business within the next 90 days (I learn something no matter how poor a conference event and I am talking about “substantial learnings”)
* Is the event provocative? Will the session likely challenge my own view of how the world turns in social media? This one is a hard to get right, yet can be the most important.
* Can I connect with clients or brands during the trip? The “killing two birds with one stone” approach helps justify costs and time. Likewise, can I connect with my global team and deliver off on part of my business mission with them (e.g. new training, business development, their client meetings)
* Do I have something substantial to contribute as a teacher? Beyond the ‘thought leadership points’ of stage-time, is there an opportunity for me to share something highly useful with colleagues, something they can meaningfully apply to their business within 30 days? (I hold myself to a slightly higher standard which I hope to meet) I don’t want to speak just to speak - too many folks burning us out with that.
* Can I meet a concentrated group of social media specialists for the sake of current and future recruiting needs? Meeting colleagues who are actually doing the work and sharing from experience is usually very valuable.
Social Media-specific:
Beyond this base there are a few new criteria which draw from where I am at professionally - both on a personal level and as a leader at Ogilvy. Some are qualifiers on the above criteria, others are new criteria.
* Will the event give me considerable opportunity to meet and talk with professionals in one of the core areas of my business focus this year? We have set priority areas of expansion for our business - social media platforms, geographies, business verticals. For instance, we are tremendously bullish on the use of the Facebook/Twitter social crm model for brands in a few markets around the world. We specialize in integrated social media programs that scale. Can I advance these expertise/offerings even further? Can I find or establish a “community of practice” even?
* Does the event go deep on any form of meaningful measurement? You might argue this is just another facet of the previous criteria yet it is a singular focus for us and worth calling out. Ever since we introduced Conversation Impact (or really when we began working on it), we are insatiably hungry for the best thinking on measuring impact and performance. Also, events that have a solid focus on measurement - marcom, business impact - tend to be more rigorous in their agenda - less fluffy talks/sessions.
* Will I learn new ways to innovate in a “bootstrap” environment? I was thinking about this the other day when talking with Andrew Nachison from WeMedia, another great conference coming up. My team at Ogilvy innovates all of the time coming up with new, more effective and impactful ways to use social media marketing. We embed that innovation in our day, so-to-speak. I am always eager to learn new ways of doing that.
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Shai Agassi: Why Electric Vehicles Work
Five years ago, while at a YGL gathering in Zermatt, Switzerland Shai Agassi was bothered by climate change, pollution and the impact cars have on the environment. Suddenly, he had an epiphany about the company he wanted to launch.
His pollution solution: Create an electric car network. Instead of becoming a seller of electric cars, Shai decided he should create a network to become the AT&T of transportation.
His company, Better Place Plc, aims to introduce electric car networks into the mainstream consumer markets at emphasis affordable prices and great convenience. The project recently got a great boost with US$350 million of investment from HSBC, Morgan Stanley and others.
Electric cars would be especially valuable in areas of high density and short distance driving, such as Hong Kong. His main target in Hong Kong is the taxi fleet.
More than half of Hong Kong’s kilometers are driven by taxis, so eliminating the pollution from these would eliminate a great deal of ground level pollution. The first launch of his system will take place in Israel and Denmark within the next year.
Agassi’s real target, however, is China. With the fastest growing fleet of cars (13.5 million and rising fast), China will play an important role in the development of this technology. If China decides to go electric, the world will go electric, Agassi says. But is anything pointing in that direction?
China already incentivizes electric vehicles with a US$9,000 tax break and a new city only for electric cars is planned. All the right policies are driven top-down from the government as well as bottom-up from the car industry, Agassi says.
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World’s Fastest Internet: Korea, Japan and Hong Kong
Asia’s Internet speed is not surprising news, but the details of this recent report on the Internet by Akamai show how much Asia and South Korea dominate the world of high speed Internet. Korea is also increasing the average national Internet speed at the fastest pace of any country in the world.
Korea, Japan and Hong Kong have the world’s fastest connections
Although South Korea continued to hold the top spot as the country with the highest average measured connection speed at 14.6 Mbps, its fastest city (Masan) was ranked fifth among Asian cities, at approximately 1.2x the country average. South Korea, unsurprisingly, has six of the top 10 fastest cities in Asia, all with average speeds above 15 Mbps.
South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong are in global top 5 for increasing average speed.
As compared to the second quarter of 2009, South Korea saw a shift in the distribution of connections to higher speed buckets, with the 5-10 Mbps bucket declining from 35% to 29%, while the higher speed buckets all saw increases, with more than 10% of connections once again being made to Akamai at speeds greater than 25 Mbps.
The increased percentages of extremely high speed connections are in line with South Korea’s third quarter growth in both average measured connection speed and high broadband adoption rates.
While having a high broadband adoption rate that approaches just half of South Korea’s, Hong Kong has the second highest levels of extremely high speed connectivity among the top 10 countries, with more than 2.5% of connections to Akamai at speeds between 20-25 Mbps, and more than 5% at speeds in excess of 25 Mbps. The distribution of connection speeds above 5 Mbps remained fairly flat in the United States between the second and third quarters, and the United States remained #12 globally for this metric.
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ComScore: Social Media pressuring Traditional media
When you look at raw data, the trends become clear. Social Media Sites are squeezing out traditional media in terms of time, advertising and audience, said Magid Abraham co-founder and CEO of ComScore said in this video from the DLD conference in Munich.
In terms of advertising impressions in the US, sites like Facebook and Myspace account for more than 20 percent. The Long Tail of the Internet is largely being aggregated by social media sites that offer a platform for the huge number of small content generators, he said. This is putting pressure on portals and the traditional media in terms of advertising because their shares of both time and page views are declining.
So what is the way forward? Instead of trying to challenge these sites, traditional media should find a way to benefit from the attractive platforms offered by social media, Abraham said.
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The Economist: The 3 hot topics of Davos
Matthew Bishop of The Economist gives his take on the 3 hottest issues being discussed in the hallways of the Congress Center in Davos this week:
1- The banking sector: Will we be able to regulate the banking system to help the world economy instead of destroying it?
2- Haiti: How can we rebuild Haiti as a working country?
3- International aid: How will governments deal with aid and debt as they come out of a financial crises?
Bishop also talks about the general feeling and attitude towards the world economy. Unlike the previous two years, the world leaders now agree that it is time to move forward and make the necessary changes, he says.
But are the current economic leaders capable of doing that? This is really the main thing that has to be proven in Davos, he says.
In conclusion, Matthew made a shameless promotion of his book: “The Road From Ruin”. Now available at all fine bookstores.
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Orville Schell: In China vs Google, Google resembles a country
With a deep understanding of both China and the California technology scene, China expert Orville Schell is in a unique position to understand the mentality and thinking on both sides of the Google vs China confrontation.
One key issue in the confrontation, Schell said, is that Google has become more like a nation than a company. By this he means that not only is Google closely connected to the Obama administration, but the company has a high resonance in the western world. Only a company like Google could take such a stance against China, he said in this video recorded at Davos.
As for China, Schell China said that in its very tentative reaction he expects the Beijing leadership to seek a face-saving compromise. It is impossible to imagine that China will yield, but there is a chance, that the government will recognise the importance of Google and be willing to compromise.
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Desperately Seeking China VPN
In the wake of Google’s clash with Beijing, it is interesting to note that more and more people are searching for VPNs in China. (Actually, people started searching even before Google’s clash, so there may have been a tightening of the Internet even before Google went public.)
How do I know? Due to a poll I did a few months ago about The Best VPN for China, my blog is one of the top results listed on Google search for VPN China.
In the last two weeks traffic has increased precipitously. The other spike of searches took place in October, during the 60th anniversary celebrations for the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
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Victor Koo: Monetizing Online Video in China
Victor Koo, co-founder of China-based Youku video platform, talks about his thinking in in terms of monetizing web video.
Online video is just like any other medium, Koo said, so revenue should come from a combination of advertisers and subscribers.
Since 2008 Youku has aimed at broadening the business-to-business aspects of the platform, growing to more than 300 domestic and international advertisers. The low distribution costs offer a unique opportunity to create longer viral videos and that really drive advertisers to the site, Koo said.
Youku is also experimenting with different subscription models, the latest one being a mobile gateway. To further grow the subscriber base, Youku partners up with different artists to offer real time streaming of events.
On a monthly basis, Youku now has more than 150 million unique visitors, the same as Youtube in the US.
But Victor emphasizes that Youku isn’t the YouTube of China. It offers less user generated content, longer videos and with people spending a daily average of one hour on the site, Youku is more like the American video site Hulu.
But has all this made Youku a profitable business yet? We are getting there, Koo said.
- summary by Tem Hansen
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For Danwei: The Future of Mobile Media
Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei asked a few people involved in China’s digital scene to answer three questions on the future of mobile media.
This is for The Fourth Danwei Plenary Session taking place at Opposite House.
Below, my vision. Anyone agree or disagree?
Jeremy: Hope it was ok to post it here. (People leaving comments on my blog often have smarter things to say than I do.) I will add links to the other people Jeremy asked if they publish their responses.
1. What will be the biggest thing in mobile media in 2010? (Media includes games, news, apps, video, podcasts, SMS novels etc. etc. An information or entertainment product that can be viewed, played or interacted with on a mobile phone)
Social-related games and game-like interfaces. Farmville brought Facebook to Taiwan and Facebook’s superior mobile app allowed Facebook to beat Friendster in Indonesia. Gaming and game-like features will only get more important as phones are capable of handling better apps.
2. How is the job market going to change because of mobile media?
Employment will be revolutionized with the ability to convene highly-skilled flash-workforces. Historically, someone looking for cheap labor might go to a street corner where low-skill day laborers gathered in hopes of a few hours work. Now, thanks to geo-location of phones and eBay-style ratings systems, employers will be able to quickly gather a highly skilled labor in a short period of time for bursts of work. This is not the future. Otetsudai already does this in Japan, connecting students able to work the machines in convenience stores for a few hours at a time.
3. What type of companies will make money? Examples?
Mobile opens huge opportunities for just about any business. I would, however, highlight the fundamental change for small and locally focused business. In the past, such businesses would need to rely on word of mouth, posters and other forms of low cost media. Costly media, such as large posters or rich campaigns reaching into peoples lives were almost impossible to do. Now, thanks to Social Media and mobile, small businesses can - with relatively little investment - reach audiences in their neighborhood in very rich and interactive ways. Basically, digital slices the media landscape into such small slivers that everyone can take part.
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Thomas Crampton was a correspondent for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times for more than a decade, reporting from five continents, writing a column on Asia and covering Asian politics, economics and culture. Currently based in Hong Kong, he writes here about China, the Internet and New Media seen from Asia, while also advising companies on digital communication strategies. For more information click here...
