Will you join us to slay the mighty Sina Weibeast, O Microsoft of Redmond? "Renren, a Chinese social networking website, will integrate its services with MSN, Microsoft's Internet portal, the companies announced on Wednesday. Reuters reported that netizens will be able to share login access, status updates and instant massaging on both platforms, according to their agreement. The collaboration between the two former competitors reflects a trend of alliances in social networking services, combating pressure from front-runners such as Chinese micro-blogging site Sina Weibo and instant messenger provider QQ, industry analysts said. China is the world's largest Internet market with around 480 million users, and half of them use social networking websites." [China Daily] more ›

Hey hey! Perhaps Baidu's English language search results might be incrementally less horrendous now: "Chinese search giant Baidu Inc. will use Microsoft's Bing for some English-language results as the software giant tries to expand its small share of China's search market. No financial details of the tie-up between Microsoft Corp. and Baidu were released. Baidu has 75.8 percent of China's search market while Google has 19.2 percent, according to Analysys International, a Beijing research firm. Bing's China market share is so small that Analysys counts it among "others" that have a total of 2.2 percent. In a statement, Baidu vice president Samuel Shen said the agreement with Bing will improve English search for Baidu users and raise Bing's profile in China. Baidu says its site already handles about 10 million English searches daily. Baidu operates a search site in Japan but makes nearly all its revenue in China. Its profit for the first quarter of 2011 more than doubled from a year earlier to 1.07 billion yuan ($163.5 million). Last month, the company announced it was investing $306 million in Qunar, a Chinese travel search engine, to become the company's majority shareholder." [China Daily] more ›

• The 14th annual Shanghai International Film Festival (affectionately dubbed SIFFilis around the Shanghaiist 'office' this week) kicked off last night with Francis Lawrence's Hollywood romantic drama Water for Elephants. Red carpet stars this year included Susan Sarandon, Matt Dillon, and Rupert Murdoch.
• Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap draws some interesting comparisons for Bloomberg between the two largest crowds he saw gathered this week around Shanghai: Nervous gaokao parents and Kungfu Panda fans.
• What do you get for hating the rich and keying nine of their cars in Shanghai? One year in prison.

Shenzhen: the bright star of market liberalization and home to Foxconn controversies and Obama's half-brother is now being touted as the next... political reform breeding ground? On the heels of Premier Wen Jiabao’s political reform comments made during an August trip to the city, it is at the heart of an experiment that gives more responsibility and greater freedoms to independent social and civic organizations... aka NGO’s. more ›

This article was also posted on Gizchina. Check it out for daily tech, gadget and 'Shanzhai' news! more ›

Google and Yahoo have long been lambasted for the censorship policies they employ in China to appease the CCP, particularly when Yahoo handed over email information to party officials in order to convict a Chinese journalist. Now critics have shifted their attention to Microsoft's Bing search engine. more ›

• You could just call it good business, or you could call it a complete disregard for humanity - China's $7 billion resource deal with the African nation of Guinea (currently under a regime without legitimacy) has basically screwed Guineans out of their lifeline out of poverty. [The Independent]
• Want an explanation of what the Obama-Hu collaboration for clean energy and climate change really means? So do we. So here's one. [Green Leap Forward]
• Want to see a Chinese interview of President Obama? Here's the one Southern Weekly did. [Southern Weekly]

In a not too surprising turn of events, Microsoft 7 has been "released" early to the Chinese market. The New York Times reports that a week before the official Windows OS release date, electronics markets all across Shanghai are bursting with copies of the new software for around just 20RMB, not to mention that the software has been available on Taobao for weeks already. Microsoft has already lowered the price for their software to reflect Chinese wallets, but at 399RMB, its still 20 times more expensive than its pirated counterpart. While we'll be good kids and buy the real version, we bet locals will have a hard time justifying 399 yuan versus 20 yuan when it's practically the same thing. That's like a different of 379 baozi! more ›

• China says 35 killed in blast at coal mine [latimes.com] "Chinese officials says a blast in a coal mine has killed 35 in central Henan province and left 44 other miners trapped. The State Administration of Work Safety said the predawn explosion today happened at a pit in Pingdingshan city. A statement on the administration's website did not give a cause for the blast. It said 14 miners managed to flee to safety. Ninety-three men were working underground at the time of the blast, it said."
• China enters list of lower-middle-income countries: NBS [China Daily] "China's economic aggregate ranked third in the world as of 2008, pulling it into the list of lower-middle-income countries from low-income ones, according to a Sept 7 report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The report, featuring the nation's 60-year development since 1949 when new China was founded, also said China has gradually become a large manufacturing country as it strengthened industrial infrastructure construction and expanded productivity."
• Taiwan premier quits over typhoon [BBC NEWS] "Taiwan's premier Liu Chao-shiuan has resigned, after the government was heavily criticised for its slow response to last month's typhoon. Mr Liu will be replaced by the ruling party's secretary general, Wu Den-yih. Mr Liu told reporters that someone had to take political responsibility for the fact that at least 600 people had died as a result of Typhoon Morakot."

The Shanghai Daily reports that a man has taken his case to the Haidian District People's Court in Beijing for his piracy warning to be removed from his computer stating that Microsoft "...has no right to penalize users by intruding on their computers." more ›

• Just in time for Halloween, Microsoft's latest update earlier this week certainly has a trick or treat feel to it. If you're one of the millions of PC users using a pirated version of Microsoft office on a pirated version of Windows then firstly shame on you, and secondly you'll be inconvenienced by a scary black screen every sixty minutes and a perpetual warning that your software is fake on your task bar. The latest WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) and OGA (Office Genuine Advantage) Update isn't meant to “brick” your PC, it is just meant to freak you out and pretend to look like you're system has suffered an untimely death.
• And after that little scare and you are truly repentant this Hallows eve, but still think over a thousand Renminbi is too much to pay to make your computer do the most basic of tasks, then visit the Ubuntu site for a legally free operating system. But don't do it until October 30 when it's latest version, the Intrepid Ibex is released. For an office alternative you can try Open Office.
• Chinese software maker Kingsoft, in reaction to this latest somewhat intrusive update has issued a statement that although they are also against software piracy they won't be introducing an update that is effectively malware to their WPS Office product.

It's widely known that Microsoft has taken a fairly laxed approach to software piracy in China. Bill Gates has even admitted to Fortune Magazine last year that "while it was terrible that people in China pirated so much software, if they were going to pirate anybody's software he'd certainly prefer it be Microsoft's." more ›

Photo by Aether Woo more ›

Xinhua: Spielberg slashed by Chinese, but his movies still admired more ›

So in the meanwhile, Youtube remains blocked. Shanghai blogger John Pasden of Sinosplice informs us that Youtube wasn't the only unlucky fella. Revver.com and Dailymotion.com also appear to be hit. And of course Google Video was never accessible in China to begin with, so that's a no-count. more ›

Image of algae in pond by Wandering in China. more ›

more ›

Shanghaiist can’t wait for the iPhone. Of course, we aren’t willing to drop the $500 ($600 for 8 GB model) required to tout the latest and greatest from Apple just quite yet. After all, who actually bought the first generation of iPods back in 2001? The iPhone won’t work in China for a long while thanks to it being exclusively paired to AT&T’s mobile service and, strangely enough, won’t feature a removable SIM card. What we are excited for, though, is the rush of touch-screen copies and look-alikes that are sure to hit the market in the coming months. more ›

star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur, the new graffiti king in town, Bill Cosby's adorable dog, and the disturbing tale of a yoga instructor who was found guilty of killing his girlfriend, a dancer from Ohio who stripped to make ends meet. more ›

This photo was taken by Shanghai blogger Jakob Montrasio on Saturday. He writes: more ›

Google has been in the news recently after co-founder Sergey Brin said at the World Economic Forum in Davos said, speaking of Google's decision to comply with censorship regulations in China, that "on a business level, the decision to censor ... was a net negative." more ›

• Rumor: Chinese Xbox 360 in "next few months" - Joystiq
  Microsoft is in talks with Chinese internet providers and government ministries for a possible Chinese New Year launch.
  (tags: Microsoft Xbox360 games gaming internet computers China)
• Foreigners working in Shanghai might get new government health care service
  The city government is considering offering health insurance to foreigners working in Shanghai, alleviating problems for those whose work does not offer health insurance or who are temporarily unemployed.
  (tags: healthinsurance China Shanghai health hospital medical foreigners)
• Stores to close during Metro work -- Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 -- English Window to China News
  Stores in the Xujiahui stop maybe closed for as long as a year.
  (tags: Xujiahui Shanghai metro subway stops fashion stores construction)
• Police net heroin and suspects after stakeout -- Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 -- English Window to China News
  One kilogram of high-grade heroin seized in Minhang. There are going to be some pissed off junkies out there tonight.
  (tags: heroin minhang drugs shanghai police)
• Fears over culture survey -- Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 -- English Window to China News
  Chinese people are turning their back on Chinese! English more popular than Chinese among students! The soul of China is the David fighting against the merciless Goliath of Western cultural imperalism!
  (tags: Shanghai China english culture west language learning)
• Winter is the season when the "tree barbers" get to work
  You've probably noticed people cutting off branches of the trees along the side of the road.
  (tags: trees Shanghai winter)
• Explosion at hotel, several injured, journalists and bystanders attacked.
  Gas leak causes explosion in Shanghai. Journalists attempting to report are harrassed, attacked. One bystander, an old man, also gets slapped up by hotel staff.
  (tags: hotel shanghai explosion media journalists)
• Shanghai residents earned most in 2006
  "Shanghai residents' salaries rose by 7.7 percent on average in 2006, ranking at the top of all Chinese cities in terms of salary growth."
  (tags: shanghai china salaries income)
• All Roads Lead To China » Are Chinese Exporter’s Really Suffering?
  "What the author failed to consider is the fact that a hat manufacturer has little in terms of barriers to entry, lots of competitors, and with 4 million units sold, I would have a hard time believing they are able to convince anyone to pay more than a co
  (tags: china export exporters yuan RMB)
• Pacific Epoch - Popular Blogging Actress To Launch E-magazine
  "Chinese actress, director and blogger Xu Jinglei will release a biweekly electronic magazine called Kai La, reports Shanghai Youth Daily quoting Xu's agent Liu Xuan."
  (tags: china internet blog blogging xujinglei)
• Quake prompts tsunami fears -- Shanghai Daily
  "A TINY tsunami lapped Shanghai's coastal areas on Saturday night after a massive earthquake off Japan trigged fears of tidal waves across the Pacific." Tiny tsunami?
  (tags: china shanghai weather tsunami earthquake)
• Provincial bigwig gets death, two-year reprieve -- Shanghai Daily
  "A FORMER high-ranking provincial official in east China's Anhui Province has been sentenced to death for corruption, according to media reports."
  (tags: china anhui corruption)

Photo by Shanghai Sky taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›

think. It just made us wonder: if it were up to the -ist-a-verse, what would we be voting for? more ›

Carrying our (fake) LV bag, slung as an afterthought over our arm sporting a (fake) diamond-encrusted Rolex, on our way to load up on the latest in (fake) DVDs at the neighbourhood store, Shanghaiist wonders why any country would not resort to the levels of rampant piracy that afford us such (fake) decadence. But intellectual property rights (IPR) have their merits, we suppose ... if they didn't, why the big push by economists and government officials to step up IPR protection in developing economies? more ›

Some news about everyone's favorite internet giants:
• Yahoo! China to become a community based portal:

  "I’m changing Yahoo! China from a full portal of self-generated content to user-generated content," said Jack Ma, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, speaking at a conference in Singapore.

  We're not quite sure what this means -- we think it means more stuff like Yahoo! answers, but what we're worried about what there is going to be less of -- as far as internet search engines for Chinese language news goes, Yahoo is pretty decent.
• Is Microsoft going to pull out of China? Apparently, that's what a senior official at Microsoul said recently:

  Fred Tipson, senior policy counsel for the computer giant, said concerns over the repressive regime might force it to reconsider its business in China. "Things are getting bad... and perhaps we have to look again at our presence there,' he told a conference in Athens.

  Commenters on that post wonder if this is just a sympathy piece from Microsoft, or what the real motivations are, since no one seems to believe that Microsoft loses sleep about setting up shop in non-democratic countries.
• Last but not least, Google. They might establish a joint venture with Ganji.com, the Chinese company they share an internet content provider (ICP) license with. It seems that foreign internet companies like Microsoft and Yahoo all have to find a local company to share a ICP license with, which it seems that Google already has. What kind of benefits will creating a joint venture bring to Google that they don't have now? We're hoping a reader can enlighten us.