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China

What Robert Scoble found in China

By thomascrampton ⋅ November 19, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Robert Scoble, top blogger, Scobleizer and occasional guest on this blog, who just finished an 11-day 5 city tour of China (Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong) shares his take on China and the Internet.

A few quick highlights of his observations (I will add more later):

- Scoble came to China most concerned about censorship and the Great Firewall, but left more worried about China’s impact on climate change.

- China may be concentrating on C2C business for now (Copy to China), but original ideas are on the way. This is driven in part by the copy culture creating several Twitters and Facebooks, which will force the competitors to innovate in new ways.

- Compared with a previous visit 12 years ago: China is changing. Fast. Also, China is big. Very big.

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Comments for “What Robert Scoble found in China”

  • I am not sure about the change from "China = Factory" to "China = Leader", but one thing for sure is that China has no intention in staying at the bottom of the value chain in any industry, and value is in brands and sales channels. As for Internet, competition brings innovation and better value for customers (as US knows very well - aside from dumping and risky practices). What sustains today copycats is foreign VC money which buys time but is no long-term guarantee. Sustainable innovators are bound to surface soon.
  • AlexBowman
    Edit in response to the Disqus Terms of Service.
  • Ray
    I wish I could see Mr Scoble in Hong Kong! I knew he dropped by last Thursday but it seems his schedule was very tight. :(

    Anyway, thanks a lot for the video, Tom! He's so true that there are so many clones of web services. And it's quite ridiculous that they get more funding than the original ones!

    And about the Great Firewall of China, some guys in Hong Kong have made a Firefox plugin which allows people to have a taste of that: http://9gag.com/gag/1541/

    A friend of mine visited a Chinese video startup and he said there were more than 2000 people doing the "harmonize" job in the firm!
  • Agreed on the climate change concerns. I'm mostly worried about a pervasive apathetic attitude that I see in China. People I know are mostly indifferent to problems that face the world as a whole.

    Yes, apathy and indifferent people are common in all countries. But I've been here in Northeast China about 5 years, and I can't think of any exceptions off the top of my head.
  • Hi, Thomas, nice to see you have Robert Scoble again!

    It's amazing to see Robert travelling in China and the comparison his own experience between the 12 years gap in Shanghai.

    I noticed Rob mentioned he had been to Wuxi and Suzhou in his talk, both cities are near Shanghai, in the east part of China.

    What surprise me is what he said the pollution, I just want to add that all the cities Rob had been to are the developed cities in China,which means they should have more restrictions on pollution, if that shocked Rob, while there is much more to explore!

    For the superpower part, it is still early talking about the rise of China, next time do come to the West part of China!

    In the end, build a harmonious China,haha.

    Han Wei at HKU
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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...