Archive for the ‘China’ Category
The JW Marriott hotel, Shanghai
A report by the China Economic Weekly says the room rates of five-star hotels like the Shangri-la, Grant Hyatt and Hilton during the Shanghai Expo is about 1,500 yuan ($219.74) to 1,800 yuan, an increase of more than 20 percent compared with the end of 2009. The demand for rooms this year was greater than that at the end of 2009.
Statistics from Ctrip.com, a leading online travel service company in China say that the demand for rooms from economy hotels was more than four times than that at the end of last year and the prices also increased at different levels.
Meanwhile, the person in charge of rooms at the five-star JW Marriott Hotel in Shanghai said that prices may grow further as the expo draws nearer.
Currently, Shanghai has 550,000 beds, or 340,000 rooms; this is enough accommodation during normal periods, but not enough during the holidays, according to Han Zheng, mayor of Shanghai.
The upcoming World Expo is expected to bring in an estimated 70 million visitors and 58.5 million may from the other provinces or overseas, with the People’s Daily online report estimating an additional 400,000 beds are needed a day on average.
A row of Carrefour shopping trolleys at the entrance to a Beijing outlet of the French retailer. (XU YIN / CHINA FOTO PRESS)
Retailer embarks on strategic expansion on the back of high sales
The night time craze was symbolic of the retail giant’s strong performance in China. Claudio Gouveia, vice-president of Carrefour China and also general manager of the North Territory of Carrefour China, said the country has become one of the most significant and also fastest-growing markets for the retailer.
Carrefour last year pulled out of Russia and southern Italy amid the economic meltdown following decisions to quit Japanese, South Korean and Mexican markets in 2005 and 2006, because of “unsmooth operations”. It sold its stores to local enterprises.
However, the retailer maintained steady expansion in China. Gouveia said that Carrefour opened 22 new stores in 2009, boosting the total number of outlets to 157 across the country. It plans to open 20 to 25 new outlets this year.
He added that the company was satisfied and very optimistic about its business in China because the country’s household consumption rates have been high.
In the past year, Carrefour benefited a lot from the stimulus measures, introduced by the Chinese government. For example, the authorities subsidized energy-saving household appliances in an effort to encourage their purchase.
Gouveia said Carrefour had a very clear strategic plan for the Chinese market and would be focusing on constructing hypermarkets with an average size from 6,000 sq m to 11,000 sq m.
The company was making great efforts to balance its presence in big cities and also second and third tier cities. It has been operating its retail business in 45 cities across China.
“Currently, Carrefour has a good presence in big cities while more new stores will be in second and third tier cities,” said Gouveia.
The French company will be the first international retailer to enter the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, where it plans to build a new outlet in 2011.
The retailer plans to develop its China-based outlets alongside the construction of local infrastructure and arrival of new businesses. “For instance, there will be a new airport in the Daxing district of Beijing’s southern suburb and there may be a new outlet nearby. I believe we have many opportunities in this area,” said Gouveia.
In response to its rival Wal-Mart, which is planning to build about 50 new stores each year, adding to its current total of 160 outlets, Gouveia said the focus of Carrefour was to keep a good balance between the rhythm of expansion and the quality of the stores.
Gary Wang, founder and CEO of Tudou.com, describes himself as a "world citizen", having studied in the United States and France. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
Even when his company endured a government-led online crackdown on copyrighted video content last year and had to face a group of new giant competitors such as CCTV and Baidu, the 36-year-old chief executive still maintained his calm and confidence rather than submitting to worry or panic, something many had expected.
Wang dropped out from China’s rigid education system in the 1990s, but later managed to get his bachelor, master and MBA degrees at the world’s best educational institutions. He enjoys hiking and reading and describes himself as a “world citizen”. He is also the author of a popular Chinese fiction book that some believe to have described his early days of studying in the United States and France.
As a man who comfortably mixes his work and free time, Wang is happy dealing with business emails while camping during a hike and allows flexible working hour for his employees. As an interviewee he is relaxed to the point of resting his legs on the office table while excitably discussing his favorite books.
Surprisingly, these characteristics, regarded by some as perhaps conceited and arrogant, helped Wang win approval from many investors, one of whom once said he felt “assured” by Wang’s attitude towards work and life.
“Doing business is like playing games: You grow up by passing each level and fight with bigger bosses each time,” Wang said, sitting in his office in Beijing soon after CCTV and Baidu announced they were establishing their own video websites. “I believe we can survive and thrive.” – read more at ChinaDaily.com…
Wuxi is attempting a transformation from a manufacturing hub to a high-tech city.
As a major city in the Yangtze River Delta, Wuxi, Jiangsu province, landed 12 new projects last month including those in electronic information, biopharmaceutics, new energy and materials and outsourcing, totaling 715.7 million yuan.
Wuxi’s development district has already inked an agreement with consumer electronics maker Beijing Huaqi Information Digital Technology Co Ltd, to invest 30 million yuan in a hi-tech manufacturing base.
Beijing Huaqi, maker of Aigo branded electronics, plans to locate its MP6 wireless technology unit in Wuxi.
“Wuxi is one of China’s bases for the ‘Internet of Things’ industry. This is one of the major reasons we chose to locate here,” said Frank Zhou, general manager of Beijing Huaqi’s MP6 business unit.
The “Internet of Things” is a network of web-enabled objects linked together with online services that interact with these objects. Underlying the Internet of Things are technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID), sensors and smart phones.
The Internet fridge is probably the most often-quoted example of what the Internet of Things will enable.
Zhou said Beijing Huaqi hopes to leverage Internet of Things technologies in association with its closely related MP6 business.
Beijing Huaqi expects its MP6 business – focused on the firm’s Internet music player – to generate revenue of 2 billion yuan over the next three years. Zhou said the company is eying both Hong Kong and New York as possible future locations for an initial public offering.
Just last year, Wuxi formed new alliances with telecom carriers China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, to cooperate in research and development, project incubation and other commercial applications. – read more at ChinaDaily.com…
The rise and rise of the 'rich class' A woman takes a look at a model of a property development in Haikou, Hainan province yesterday. Properties on the island province have become hot targets for the newly-rich Chinese. (China Daily)
The large siheyuan, a traditional house found in the capital’s sprawling hutongs, cost Chen 12 million yuan ($1.75 million), suggesting he is far removed from those who sweat and struggle for years to afford small, humble homes.
China has seen a massive expansion in the rich class in the past five years, according to analysts.
“The country’s fortune is increasing at a skyrocketing speed and is converging toward the rich class,” Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of the Hurun Rich List, told Outlook Weekly.
“The number of people with a personal wealth of more than 1 billion yuan has rapidly risen since 2004. Then, there were 100. In 2009, we discovered that 1,000 people are now in the club.”
A spokesman for the Forbes China Rich List also said the threshold for being among the 400 richest people on the Chinese mainland had risen from 1.22 billion yuan in 2008 to 2.05 billion yuan last year.
The growth in Chinese millionaires alone has attracted interest for multinational companies, including Deutsche Bank AG, which is planning to target more services to China’s rich class, reported the German press.
According to other experts, the rich class is a group with only one thing on their mind: property.
A recent poll of wealthy people in Beijing and Shanghai by the Beijing Youth Daily found most owned at least three properties, while many subscribe to the traditional belief that, if you have money, you should invest in property. – read more at ChinaDaily.com…
New user registrations would be halted for a week from Monday in the run-up to the Lunar New Year holiday, the company said in a statement posted on its WoW China website, www.warcraftchina.com on Sunday.
“We recently submitted our application to operate World of Warcraft (The Burning Crusade) to the General Administration of Press and Publication for review,” the company said.
Since last November, NetEase has been caught in the crossfire of an inter-government feud over regulation of the online game space.
The tussle resulted in China’s General Administration of Press and Publication returning NetEase’s application to operate the WoW expansion pack, ordering the company to stop charging users to play the game and disallowing new account registrations citing “gross violations” of regulations. But NetEase continued to operate the game as usual saying it was in compliance with local laws. – read more at ChinaDaily.com…
A salesman at a welfare lottery outlet in Liaocheng, Shandong province, holds lottery tickets that use the image and sermons of Confucius. (China Daily)
Late last month, lottery stands in east China’s Shandong province began selling Confucius-themed tickets that carry a top prize of 300,000 yuan ($44,000).
But the tickets have drawn ire from netizens and columnists who claim that putting Confucius’ image on lottery tickets has tarnished the image of the wise man who lived more than 2,000 years ago.
Lottery officials said they were surprised by the criticism.
“The center is not trying to influence the sale of their lotteries (by using Confucius’ image),” Tang Nianbing, a manager from the Shandong’s lottery center, said in an interview yesterday on the phone. He rejected accusations that Confucius’ images were used to promote sales.
The center intended to promote culture instead, added Tang, although he admitted that would only be a secondary aim to raise welfare funds.
The Shandong area was home to Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Period, about 2,500 years ago.
Sales of the 10-yuan-per-ticket lottery have remained lukewarm compared to that of prior lotteries after release, with more than 2 million yuan worth of tickets sold in the first week.
“It (the Confucius lottery) accounted for about one-tenth of total sales of all lotteries in the week,” said Tang. – read more at ChinaDaily.com…
A model of C919 made by Commercial Aircraft Corp of China is displayed. The State-owned company expects to build 2,000 C919s over 20 years. (Bloomberg News)
Commercial Aircraft Corp of China, also known as Comac, will be at the Singapore Air Show, displaying a model of the 168-seat C919, which is designed to compete with the Boeing Co 737 and Airbus SAS A320. Only one major supplier has been selected for the plane so far, a GE-Safran SA engine venture, which won a $10 billion contract.
State-owned Comac expects to build about 2,000 C919s over 20 years, and hopes to secure 10 percent of the global market, according to Safran. The aircraft is already being touted as a domestic success since the government will place orders and allocate them to State-owned carriers Air China, China Southern and China Eastern Airlines.
“There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that China can be a first-tier aircraft provider at some point,” said Clay Jones, CEO of Rockwell Collins, a maker of cockpit instrumentation. “Everyone sees the market as being important in the future and everyone wants to play in it.”
Rockwell, GE, Honeywell International Inc, Goodrich Corp and United Technologies Corp’s Hamilton Sundstrand are among the aerospace companies competing to work on planes in China. Munich-based MTU Aero Engines Holding AG has already been chosen to help develop future engines for the C919. Separately, Airbus has also set up a plane-assembly plant in the country.
China wants to cooperate with overseas suppliers to access advanced engines, parts and instruments for the C919, which is due to make its maiden flight in 2014 and to enter service two years later. The aircraft is part of China’s bid to end its reliance on Airbus and Boeing. Eventually, the country also wants to challenge the world’s two biggest plane makers overseas. – read more at ChinaDaily.com…
Potential buyers in Qionghai, Hainan province, look at a display model of sold-out residential buildings. (China Daily)
More than 200 potential property buyers have been pouring into the island every day since the end of last year, when the government unveiled its tourism plan, local media reported.
Prices are rising by about 1,000 yuan ($164) per sq m every day for some properties. Those properties that were priced at 15,000 yuan per sq m at the start of the year now cost 20,000 yuan, reports said.
Prices of some of the properties have already hit 70,000 yuan per sq m, with figures constantly fluctuating as real estate hunters flock to the island.
Ye Ning, a professional real estate speculator in Sanya, a popular coastal city in Hainan, said the sudden rise in prices is troubling.
“The average price of new apartments in Sanya’s Fenghuangdao International Port were already as high as 60,000 yuan to 70,000 yuan per sq m as of Jan 11.
Now, the figure has risen to 100,000 yuan,” said Ye, who started his business just two years ago.
“Compared with Haikou (the capital) and Sanya, where prices are already too high for most people, real estate in Qionghai, Wenchang and Boao are still better for the attractive locales and relatively low prices,”he said.
Potential buyers from Zhejiang province and the northeast, such as Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning provinces, are said to be the main force behind the skyrocketing prices. — read more at ChinaDaily.com…
McDonald's and its competitor KFC in Shenzhen
“We expect to increase our capital investment by 25 percent over last year,” said Kenneth Chan, McDonald’s China CEO, during the launch of a new marketing campaign on Friday.
“We continue to be extremely bullish about our business in China and will continue to invest in opening new restaurants,” Chan said, but declined to disclose the investment amount for 2009 or 2010.
McDonald’s, which competes with Yum Brands’ KFC in the US and China, was planning to open 150 to 175 restaurants in China in 2010, which would lead to the creation of 10,000 new jobs, he added.
The company said it had 1,135 stores in Chinese mainland as of the end of 2009.
McDonald’s is launching a new brand concept called “Make Room for Happiness” to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of its first restaurant in Shenzhen. – read more at ChinaDaily.com…
