31st floor
Managing Directors from Pacific-Asia area and Members of Profero Beijing celebrate the transition into the new venue.
A silent background echoes and collides with the chaotic daily life of Beijing, a city which is likely always awake with it cacophony of horns, bells and shrieks. The sunshine is reflected on the neighbouring skyscrapers and the people, who are walking frenetically on the street, seem as though small ants, trying to gain what little space they can in this metropolitan jungle. On one side, the old Imperial City reigns supreme and evokes the power of Ming and Qing dynasties as a pillar of the ancient Chinese culture; on the other side, the Chinese World Trade Center “where China meets the world”, rises as a capitalistic symbol that towers above the communist symbols from an earlier, more dogmatic time. Sitting here and watching this breathtaking scenario from the 31st floor of the new Profero Beijing office in the South Tower Soho Shangdu palace, at the heart of Beijing, reminds me of David Frost’s saying: “Just do what you love and believe in, and the success will come naturally”.
Not so many years have passed since Wayne and Daryl Arnold set up Profero London from their love for digital technologies and their belief that great individuals can do great things. Always creating ideas people can belong to, Profero have earned an enviable success merging creativity, passion and technology, which savor as one delicious symposium. Today, with hubs in London, New York, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Zurich, Munich, Moscow, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Mumbai (in all 15 offices), more than 600 talents work together creating a culturally diverse, kinetic and meaningful network of ideas.
798 Factory. Team building activity.
A couple of days ago, with the same enthusiasm with which a family member might receive an important honour, Profero’s managing directors from the Pacific-Asia area, and several special guests, had two days of meetings in Beijing celebrating the transition of Profero Beijing into a bigger venue; the digs, certainly more suitable for meeting the increasing demand and success the office has seen.
Nevertheless, despite the importance of having good space and dreamlike landscapes, the team members and their working synergy are still the anima of Profero – “the more we can all work together as one global team the more successful we will all become” - said Wayne Arnold, and its members certainly believe that. On opening the door of the 31st floor office, a big meeting room with glass walls appears, covered by 67 thousand squares that were hand-decorated by the team; every square is a symbol of this growing unity across Profero, and Beijing were certainly proud to be at its center, discussing, not only creating ideas, but Beijing’s own approach of materializing ideas that people belong to. We hope we can share more ideas with you soon.
31st floor.
The Art of War: Tencent vs Qihoo 360
According to Sun Tzu (The art of war), as well as war being of vital importance to laissez-faire and the shift towards “freer business”, competition between companies is one of the necessary conditions which, in addition to improving economical situation, brings better and more enjoyable civil and political circumstances for the citizens.
Despite the success around the world of this market mechanism, the role of state still plays a major part in China’s business, with their recent intervention being decisive in melting the cold war between two Chinese leading software companies: Tencent, whose instant messenger QQ connects more than a million users, and Qihoo 360, who provide Internet security services, protecting the majority of Chinese netizens (globaltimes.cn. November 1st, 2010). The dispute: “Tencent vs Qihoo”, begun as an ordinary competition for reaching market share, and became a real war between two giants when Tencent launched QQ Doctor 1.0, a small anti-Trojan tool which made the company gain a substantial market share in the Sino market. Then later in September, after the launch of a new QQ Doctor version (with an interface that assembles 360 safeguard in a similar manner to its rival), Oihoo 360 first accused, and then proved, that Tencent had been spying on the online behavior of its software users through spyware. Nevertheless Qihoo themselves are hardly saints with an untarnished corporate image and, after Tencent’s spyware fiasco, they have been under investigation for ads involving pornographic web sites (China daily, November 3rd, 2010). After this accusation phase between the two parties, the situation has degenerated into childish reactions. Qihoo updated the privacy guard to block ads in QQ, while Tencent blocked its products from running with 360 Safeguard installed, technically forcing users to choose between using the instant messenger and its portal services, or the anti-virus.
Thousands of users have shown their displeasure with the two companies, signing online petitions and saying that their behavior disregarded users’ needs. “I support fair competition, but unfair play turns online users and others into victims” said a user of both QQ messenger and 360 anti-virus software during an interview with Global Times (November, 2010). As a result of these public protests a decision was made by the head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Li Yizhong ,to intervene in the interests of concerned netizens, conducting an investigation into the actions of both parties, which have been branded as “immoral and irresponsible”(China National Radio, November 01th, 2010).
The condition has been cooling down since the intervention of State, but the battle has already affected the companies’ performance. According to enbar.net (November 11th, 2010), Qihoo 360’ s browser software fell from 19.9 percent to 3 per cent from the end of October and Tencent’ s losses, even if more difficult to estimate, are reflected on the success of MSN which has gone “from tens of thousands signups per day, to millions” since the dispute between Tencent and Qihoo 360.
In China’s business today, it seems nothing is more true than what Sun Tzu wrote: “He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious (The art of war)”.
To find out more about Tencent and Qihoo 360 in China:
http://www.tencent.com/en-us/at/abouttencent.shtml (En)
http://www.360.cn/ (Cn)
Silk (virtual) Routes
In the 14th century a Venetian merchant, Marco Polo, undertook a caravan trip across the Mongolian Empire. His adventures have been read for centuries following and other adventurers, who were inspired by his descriptions of Asian prosperity, explored the region themselves. Both before and after Polo’s travels, caravans have covered the Silk Road connecting the Middle East with Europe, and people around the world are still retracing this route as their forefathers did in the past - albeit using different tools: in today’s digital age, backpacks, moleskin and sleeping bags are considered archeological finds, with modern technology providing a different means of discovery.
Nowadays, it is enough having the right URL to discover sounds, colours and tastes of mainland China. Accessing chinasmack.com, virtual tourists will have the opportunity to taste Hangzhou’s delicacies such as fried insects, scorpions and spiders, or attend the preparation of “goodwill hostesses” in Guangzhou, who have begun their military training in order to prepare for the opening and closing ceremonies of the multi-sport event - Asiad. Tourists can also go back to the past, visiting the Forbidden City (beyondspaceandtime.org) or go sightseeing across Qianmen street in Beijing, meeting tour guides, storytellers and enjoying the trip on streetcars (qianmenyou.com).
Nevertheless the “destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things (H. Miller)” and it might be interesting exploring the Sino-culture digitally: observing the differences in designing websites for Chinese users, where cultural elements are manifested in many ways; from the big family photos used as background for the launch of a new sedan model, to Taobao.com’ s choice of using orange as its main colour, which according to the Feng Shui represents the Yang associated with fire, the sun, and therefore masculinity. In fact, beyond content itself, we are already seeing how web architects are using the Internet to create design and functionality based on a user experience inherently effected and influenced by culture. Chinese netizens use the Internet differently because of their cultural upbringing, experiences, values and overall way of life; this is something that Chinese websites have naturally catered to; yet as the Internet develops, specialists in User Experience are busily analyzing Internet architecture and local user behvaiour, attempting to design new, innovative ways to use the web: the end goal being to ironically synthesize intuitive web browsing for a local Chinese market.
All the Chinese values detected by the famous sociologist, Hofstede, long term orientation, collectivism, masculinity and high power distance are mirrored in images, colours and fonts accurately selected by web designers and marketers to attract the attention of visitors and to improve the web experience. Smashingmagazine.com has interviewed well-known Sino-designers (Yu Guo, Whitecrow Zhu, Junchen Wu, Lytous Zhou, Johon Woo and Rex Song) to understand better the current trends in web designing. Cultural elements, user-experience, rationality and visual design have to all be considered in order to perceive and comprehend the present and future development of the industry. Today’s industry is already highly complex, with digital savvy designers building a web of digital media interactions - a world of full of images and text interfaces -, developing Flash animations, focusing on entertainment, and respecting the meaning of colour and other traditional aesthetics.
Even if in the past Chinese designers adopted (or copied) the same web design styles of neighbouring countries, and now they are still found lacking in information architecture because of limited research and development budgets, they are improving in terms of techniques and knowledge (Junchen Wu and Rex Song-Samshingmagazine). They are able to develop “play-ish, SNS-ish and visually attractive” websites that meet Chinese users’ preferences and allow “foreigner-netizens” to discover a little more about Chinese culture, both past and present.
Digitally in Love: From Animation to Simulation
Part 2- The East wants more
A common derivative of the ever increasing idolization for anime and the social/love interaction surrounding the genre is the “bishōjo”- quite literally, a girl-game, or as we commonly know it, a dating simulation. An example of this is a sci-fi/comedy anime, manga and dating simulation series called Galaxy Angel, created in July 2000. Galaxy Angel (ギャラクシーエンジェル), the anime, comprises a comedy story in an alternate universe, while the games and the regular manga have a serious and involved romance/action plot. The dating games were an instant success and a sequel to the game trilogy was released in June 2006; the major success of these manga-turned game characters stems from allowing the user an opportunity to socially interact with a digital character: having a relationship with a Galaxy Angel girl in the context of a sci-fi based storyline.
Government censorship
With the CCTV and Chinese governments’ stern view of influence on the nation, it can be easily understood how they may further react to the global (and particularly Eastern) involvement with anime and relationships.
A number of issues could be deemed as ‘negative outcomes’ from games such as this. Many high retail games have been banned due to impacts including antisocial behaviour and the promotion or endorsements that such games may bring (consider the morale panic created in China by violent games such as Grand Theft Auto or Manhunt); Furthermore, the Chinese society, at large, would not necessarily embrace the subjects of these “relationship” games, as many aspects of dating sims are still approached coyly in today’s Chinese society; topics such as sex and relationships are generally not spoken of amongst the general public, and PDAs (public displays of affection) are still somewhat frowned upon or rarely seen. Therefore it is possible that the wider introduction of games with these risqué concepts could be rejected by the government; possibly occurring before the nation (that do not partake in digital/anime/gaming) even scrutinized this genre of gaming; and it is, indeed, a prolific genre of work…
The world of (dating) simulations:
“Kanon (カノン?) is a Japanese visual novel released as an adult game on June 4, 1999, and later ported to the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable; the Kanon Standard Edition was released for the PC as an adult version in November 2004. Kanon follows a linear plot line, which offers pre-determined scenarios and courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of five main female characters. Kanon has sold over 300,000 units across several platforms, not counting the PSP release. One of the goals of the original version's gameplay is for the player to enable the viewing of adult scenes depicting Yuichi (the male protagonist) and one of the five heroines having sexual intercourse; the versions that include the adult content include one explicit sex scene in each of the five main story routes, 50-75% of the way through, excluding one fantasy scene.[1] Outside of these, there are two scenes with nudity, which use the same CGs.[1] Yūichi Suzumoto, a scenario writer who worked on later Key titles, commented that the sex scenes in Kanon are very self-contained, and can be easily removed without altering the story.”
Alternatively, ‘Singles: Flirt Up Your Life’ is a different type of dating video game developed in 2004. Bearing many similarities to The Sims, the player is responsible for characters, controlling their behaviour and ordering the simulations to eat, sleep, go to work, as well as engage in a highly sexualized lifestyle; naturally the game has met with much scrutiny. In Australia, it was banned by the OFLC as it had exceeded the highest allowable rating for video games, which was MA15+. It has been debated as to whether or not an R18+ rating (which currently applies only to films and DVDs) should be introduced for video games in Australia. Note, the CD-ROM version sold in the USA censors any nudity throughout the game. Singles was largely panned by critics for being a rip-off of The Sims and the way it offered little challenge, with the player required to simply follow a routine of making the characters progress from making small talk through to professing love then running off to bed together via the simple interaction menus. The 'needs' are also considered fairly inconsequential, with the characters never starving to death even when their 'hunger' need has dropped to zero.
Another popular dating sim I will describe from the perspective of it’s tantalizing plot: “Jun'ichi Nagase attends a prestigious high school. He has the nickname ‘Killer’ since he was rebellious in middle school. This is used, inadvertently, to help a girl named Yuuhi Katagiri from trouble. She later transfers to his school, and in order to protect Yuuhi from danger, Jun'ichi is forced to kiss her. Not understanding what happened, she screams at him. Subsequently, it turns out that Yuuhi is his fiancé as arranged by their parents. Their parents discuss the matter and order them to go out together for a month to restore their relationship. If their relationship does not get better, the engagement will then be cancelled”. This is the plot for the simulation Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka (The Hill Dyed Rose Madder), also known in short as Akasaka; released for the PC as a DVD on July 27, 2007. A version without adult content was released under the title ‘Akaneiro Somaru Saka: Parallel‘on July 31, 2008 by GN Software for the PlayStation 2.
All of these games have a large share in a range of markets spanning anime, online gaming, dating simulations, novels etc. They all have the potential to appeal to the masses with increasing exposure through digital technology and as a result, as we’ve already seen in the US, have a strong potential to seep into markets in other countries.
Next - Part 3: The Future and LovePlus
Saving Face(book) in China
The Chinese government first started regulating the internet in 1993, with the central aim of neutralizing critical online opinion. In 2009 the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter were banned due to the social and political commentary published on them. Western audiences may view the banning of social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace as a horrible deprivation of another western right and an outrageous censorship of the media by the Chinese government. The other side to this view would be that internet users in China don’t need the West’s precious Facebooks and Twitters – they have their own equivalents, which considering the access ban, trump Facebook every time. The most popular social networking site in China is Qzone with approximately 388 million Chinese users, followed by 51.com with 160 million users and Ren Ren at 120 million users. Online social networking and micro-blogging (Twitter-type activity) is a big part of Chinese Internet use, though not via familiar western websites.
Some believe the Chinese government are keen to keep give their domestic enterprise an advantage by minimising external competition. Domestic organisations can also be easier to control and the government are wary of the power of social networking sites to bring together groups and ideas. A specific government bureau is employed to monitor activity on social networking sites. One outcome of this policy is a reduction in the variety of competition, an essential element in driving motivation for the improvement of services and encouraging innovation to create new and better technology, all of which keep a market moving forward.
Nonetheless, the competition between domestic Chinese sites is fierce, but it should also be noted that many Chinese Internet users are a member of more than 1 SNS (2.8 sites on average according to the Chinese Internet Network Information Centre). Aside from the big three Chinese online social networks, there are also many other smaller Chinese sites competing for usage. All these factors make the Chinese online social networking market difficult to crack, especially by a Western company such as Facebook.
The use of social networking sites differs between countries and cultures. For instance, the way that social networking sites are used to promote brands and products in the West is considerably different to China. Social networking sites are designed locally to suit the people using them. Therefore it would be ineffective to just take a global social networking site, such as Facebook, and simply localise it to Chinese culture through mere translation alone. Social networking sites looking to break into the Chinese market need to be very in tune with Chinese culture, values and the current phenomena in online social networking.
According to Facebook there are more than 70 translations available on their site and approximately 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States. Facebook users are increasing in other parts of Asia such as Indonesia and Malaysia, but Facebook is still insignificant in China. The government legislation which bans access to Facebook plays a part in its minimal number of users, as prior to the banning, Facebook users were increasing in China.
Zuckerburg, co-founder of Facebook, recently outlined the company’s plans to move into Asia markets with an aim to acquire 500 million users in Asia over the next 5 years. Aside from the small issue of legalising access to Facebook in China, Zuckerburg and co. will still have to entice existing users from the likes of Qzone and Ren Ren; a challenging feat even for a multi-million dollar company such as Facebook.
Research has shown that the specific use of social networking websites varies between countries. In China there is a larger focus on social network gaming, thus in order for Facebook to become as popular as existing Chinese social networks it may need to adapt its applications and services to meet the needs of the Chinese social network consumer. For instance, approximately 68 million Chinese people spend a significant amount of time playing online games - of which 88 percent do so via social networks, according to a survey conducted by Niko Partners (March 2010). The online gaming industry in China is big business and the big social networking sites provide free access to a huge range, including the most popular ones such as Happy Farm, a version of which is also available on Facebook. Facebook can learn from the Chinese social networking sites with regards to gaming and improve the gaming applications it offers. This sort of adaption and improvement can be good for the industry as it offers internet users more choice and better services, as websites must keep standards high to compete for users.
There are other differences between the Western and Chinese social networking sites. Though Ren Ren was initially thought of as a copy of Facebook there are aspects of Ren Ren which are different and potentially better than Facebook. For example, Ren Ren provides a writing application to express your thoughts, similar to a journal, whereas Facebook only lets you do this through short “statuses”. This allows users to be a lot more proactive and expressive in their online social networking. Another big difference between Facebook and Ren Ren is the privacy. Ren Ren allows users to see who has visited their profiles; this is not the case on Facebook. Though some would argue that Facebook is right to keep their users’ activity private, others believe that this decreases mindless browsing and encourages people to only use Ren Ren to communicate with people they have a genuine connection with.
Online social networking in China is very well established and even if the government were to remove the censorship of sites such as Facebook and Twitter, it would not guarantee a massive increase in Chinese members. Facebook are aware of the challenges they face to break into Asia and particularly China. The unblocking of western social networking sites could be beneficial for both Chinese and Western sites as they learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It will be interesting to see how they meet these challenges and what the markets can learn from each other to shape the future of world-wide online social networking.
Josephine Seymour
Red Light Shines Through The Firewall: The Chinese Government Goes “Easy” On Internet Pornography.
About eight to nine weeks ago Chinese netizens slowly began to notice a slight change in the sites they could access. Some of the most popular pornography sites were now unblocked and available for viewing. Shock and alarm spread throughout the web community in what can only be described as confused disbelief. Now, almost two-months later, the sites are still fully accessible; leaving some to wonder, what’s going on?
So far the government bodies such as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have failed to provide an explanation despite numerous demands to do so. Unsurprisingly, this has led to speculation that ranges from reasonable to paranoid. Some have suggested that the unblocking of porn sites, which occurred near June 4, was an attempt to “distract attention from the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.” Others have gone so far to suggest that the government aims to “quell increasing discontent among its male-heavy population.” Whatever, the reason, people increasingly believe that this may not be a simple glitch.
“I loveeeee…. Inciting social discord.”
The Online Farmer – How much will your crops truly cost?
What is the coolest job in China according to netizens? Being the CEO of your own company? A computer game tester? Or maybe even a Test Sleeper? All apparently not, as these days every netizen wants to be a farmer - with more than 2 million netizens applying for the job each day!
It seems Happy Farm has become, by far, the biggest, most popular and most talked about MMORPG in China. With more than 200 million Happy Farm users across China, 23 million of which are daily users, a staggering 65% (15 million) of which are made up of white-collar city workers; it seems even those with well-paid jobs in the city cannot resist the chores of a farmer.
The allure of being an online farmer is so prevailing that some individuals juggle their work and play, finding time to do sewing, cultivating, harvesting and in some cases stealing crops, whilst also crunching numbers, punching out computer code and emailing clients at their day-to-day employment.
Such is the magnitude of this problem that the Ministry of Culture has recently [3rd June 2010] released the Provisional Regulations for the Administration of Online Games. The rules proposed in this regulation are as follows:
- Each player must now register to play online using his or her unique ID card. This has been widely condemned across China, as many players expressed their wish to maintain their freedom of speech and sustain their anonymity whilst playing online. This registration has been further scrutinized as individuals have expressed their concern that slack data protection could lead to exposure of private information across the Internet.
- Players are now prohibited from causing confrontations between players online. This includes a tight watch on PPKs (player-player kills) in games such as World of WarCraft.
- Pop-up marketing campaigns are also now prohibited, which could potentially lead to withdrawal of partners, which may then lead to withdrawal of funding.
Whilst the issue of wasted time at work and destruction of relationships is one issue, another, more consequential issue has arisen in recent years, which is the potential of Internet addiction. The recent surge in netizens suffering from Internet addiction has sparked a need for a solution in China. Some frightening statistics have accelerated the need for such facilities, as studies have shown that around 14% of the youth population in China is suffering from Internet addiction. This therefore means that around 450,000 young netizens are allegedly suffering from Internet addiction. With these figures many feel there is a need for special clinics, and at ¥6,700 per patient, it is clear to see that they are not only a potential public necessity, but also a legitimate business prospect.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup: a view from China
You know you don’t need to be a real football fan to enjoy the World Cup. It is a time when countless bars in China pull out their big screens and projectors, enjoying having their customers packed under their little roofs with loads of beers into the late night. Obviously, large droves of China's World Cup opportunists don't actually care about the ins and outs of the game - many reveal the last time they sat down and watched a whole game was years ago! But it’s okay; you may have to be professional to play in the World Cup, but feel free to be quite the opposite as you watch the show – which means, enjoying the game in ways that are totally unrelated to the ball!
Check out this Chinese girl who made an impressive image transformation through astonishing make-up skill.
Feeling Frustrated? Smash a TV with a baseball bat.
Chinese women are facing more and more pressure in China's ever more stressful modern society. Difficulties finding a job without a perverted boss, having to handle a violent tantrum throwing child, being frustrated at home by a cheating husband, all of these can quickly add up to a lot of constricted anger and frustration.
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