2014 China - ASEAN E-Commerce Summit Starts New Era for Free Trade

Aug. 28, 2014
From September 16, 2014 to September 17, 2014, 2014 China - ASEAN E-Commerce Summit , co-sponsored by China Electronic Commerce Association, E-Commerce Committee of China Service Trade Association, People's Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and China-ASEAN Expo Secretariat, will be held in Nanning, Guangxi Province, China.

ASEAN is China's good neighbor, good friend and good partner. Since the establishment of China - ASEAN free trade area, bilateral economic and trade relations develop rapidly. In 2013, bilateral trade volume amounted to $ 443.6 billion, 8.1 times than that in 2002, with an average annual growth of 21.8 percent. E-business cooperation is an important component of China's economic and trade cooperation with ASEAN countries. E-commerce industry has broken the traditional market boundaries, broken the national boundaries and has become the most dynamic, creative, and the most widely influcial new industries in economic development. It also bring about dramatic change in production, circulation and consumption industry. While creating more opportunities and much space to grow, it plays an increasingly important role in promoting employment, promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and promoting global trade growth and trade facilitation. It can be said that e-commerce has become the trend of the era. （Translated by ChinaInOut）

As the theme of the 11th China - ASEAN Expo , 2014 China - ASEAN E-commerce Summit will conform to e-commerce developing trend, firmly grasp the opportunities of the construction of "21st Century Maritime Silk Road", together with the electronic business leader and renowned institutions in China and ASEAN countries to create the world's top platform of China-ASEAN electronic commerce program and service cooperation with the participation of global enterprises so as to promote e-commerce to become China - ASEAN Free Trade upgraded new areas of development, impetus, as well as a new bright spot. （Translated by ChinaInOut） 

The summit will focus on three themes: "cross-border electricity supplier", "Digital Internet City", and "Internet new economic trends," inviting government departments from China and ASEAN countries, important business associations, the well-known investment institutions and leaders from e-business, mobile, and Internet business and well-known economist to carry out high-end dialogue and in-depth exchanges in order to stimulate new ideas, new resource aggregation and new projects for the development of China - ASEAN e-commerce cooperation. （Translated by ChinaInOut） 

With the purpose of enterprises performing under the supervision of the government, the summit invited representives from a number of well-known e-commerce and traditional businesses. Persons in charge from the Alibaba Group, SouFun and other famous e-commerce businesses will discuss together with leading cloud infrastructure service providers the development of e-commerce experience and intellectual city and the future; as traditional business representatives, the leaders in charge from cross-border e-commerce enterprises like Greenland Group, Eastern Group and Orchid Pavilion will communicate with each other on "How Cross-border E-commerce Promote the Construction of a New Silk Road"; meanwhile, the global retail chains Wal-Mart, consumer insight and new domestic economic research and consulting firm iResearch Consulting Group will talk about the topic of innovation in the field of new Internet economy with a number of responsible persons from domestic e-commerce companies, well-known investment institutions and leaders from ASEAN countries .
In addition, the summit will also launch China - ASEAN E-commerce Leaders Exchange Conference to further build China and ASEAN countries, regions and relevant business exchange and cooperation platform.  （Translated by ChinaInOut） 

Currently, economic development and trade transactions between China and ASEAN countries are very frequently. The host of China - ASEAN Expo and the establishment of China - ASEAN Free Trade Area provide a huge platform for the merchandise trade between China and the ASEAN economies. Since inception in its 2004 , China - ASEAN Expo has been successfully held for ten years. Relying on the strengths and resources of the Expo, 2014 China - ASEAN E-Commerce Summit will make a positive contribution to e-commerce between China and the ASEAN countries and regions as well as the development of the new economic field.

（Translated by ChinaInOut）

What will Happen When Wanda, Tencent, Baidu Cooperate with Each Other?

Aug. 27, 2014

This Friday Wanda, Tencent and Baidu will announce the establishment of an e-commerce company in Shenzhen, with a total investment of $ 5.0 billion, Wanda accounting for a large share of the company. The abbreviation of the three companies is BTW, “by the way”, while the best is yet to come.

This collaboration is indeed a perfect one.

Neither Tencent nor Baidu's main business is e-commerce, but they are now actively in the launching O2O business which make them determine to cooperate with Wanda, because there are 85 Wanda Group has 85 Wanda Plaza located in the city center, the number expected to be 120 at the end of this year and 140 at the end of next year. There are 2 billion customers shopping at the Plaza. In the eyes of Internet companies, it a flow of customers that makes them envious. 

Therefore, cooperation with Wanda, Tencent and Baidu will share the biggest advantage that is to introduce all the businesses into their own platform, thus forming a closed-loop real O2O business.

Now we have been able to book through "My Bank Card," on Wechat the Wanda Cinema movie. In the future we may be able to make an appointment on the "Big Star" KTV at Wanda Plaza or make a reservation at “Haidilao” restaurant. You can also effect payment through Wechat or Badu Wallet in advance.

Of course, the content of cooperation should be more abundant than this, for example,  Tencent can open stores in Wanda Plaza, and sell a variety of authorized physical goods and virtual goods? Or Baidu can set up marketing centers at Wanda Plaza, serving as a showcase of brand and Merchants?

In short, room for cooperation is quiet large. For Wanda, the future goal is certainly to do O2O transactions, but to do O2O transactions, it certainly doesn’t work without online flow and users. It is useful to rely on the Wanda Plaza costomers’ card, but the speed is too slow. Now if it is able to have an access to Tencent QQ, Wechat and Baidu search engine platform, it can solve this problem to a large extent.

Of course, the three parties will certainly have a bargaining process, but the final outcome will be witnessed this Friday.

Sinopec’s Trial Operation in E-business Market under Agreement with The Store

Aug. 25
The author of this article got the news that China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group)  signed an agreement with domeatic B2C e-business corporation The Store, which indicated its trial operation in e-commerce market following its trial operation in retails and logistics. 
According to the agreement, both sides will cooperate with each other mainly in joint procurement, O2O (online and offline interaction) business, electronic business platform collaboration as well as in areas such as oil sales, which means the former will take advantage of the global sourcing platform of I Hao Dian and the 23,000 stores of easyJet to conduct joint procurement of part of the goods so as to reduce procurement costs; Sinopec Express convenience stores ha already piloted in e-business including some O2O (online and offline interaction) business of self-service and merchandise two-dimensional code saving ; The Store will try to start particular online shop to sell specific goods of Sinopec Group; both sides also explore electronic business cooperation platform, conduct cross-marketing and promote the sale of products of two sides; Sinopec will act as oil supplier to offer high quality oil to The Store and ensure adquate oil supply to the later. .
As China's largest and world's second largest supplier of refined oil products, Sinopec as of the end of 2013, owned more than 30,000 fuel (gas) stations and about 80 million customers with VIP fuel card.
The Store started operation in July 2008, pioneering in "online supermarket" in Chinese e-commerce industry. The website is visited by up to 20 million a day, ranking third in the domestic B2C integrated e-commerce companies in 2013 and achieved an overall revenue of 11.54 Billion yuan in 2013.
It is reported that The Store is the first e-commerce partners of Sinopec. Sinopec Sales Co. Ltd., reorganized with a mixed ownership. has cooperated with a number of enterprises this year, including RT-MART, Tibet Dolma Springs, SF Express and other companies.

Netcitizens: No More Waste of Water Resources

Aug. 22, Ding Daoshi

This August their are two pieces of news worth of our attention. 

News 1: Provinces like Henan, Liaoning, Shandong and Shanxi in China suffer the most severe drought in 2014 for over 10 even 60 years, which led to large bulk of crop dead. Take Liaoning for example, in just half of a month, the province's drought-hit area increased from 1,130,000 mu (about 75,710 hectares) to 24,290,000 mu (about 1,627,430 hectares). Almost no crops are harvested in western Liaoning Province and southern Dalian Province. The province's 58 small reservoirs dried up due to the drought; 341 small rivers run out of water; 25,646,900 mu (about 1,718,342.3 hectares) of crops have been affected covering the province's 14 municipal cities. Thousands of Chinese people experiencing water shortage. 

News 2: In August, 2014, the Ice Bucket Challenge raised by some science gaint in the United States was brought into China. Many gaints in the fields of science and technology took the challenge. Within just few days of development, the activity in China turns out to be different from that of Unites States. A famous food supplier engeged in e-business takes part in the activity with over 10 employees taking the challenge only to celebrate its fifth anniversary. In just a fews days, another well-known entrepreneurs company in Zhongguancun launched an activity to encourage 1,000 people take the ice bucket challenge at the same time....

I believe that most readers of this article know the second news, and share it with pleasure, while few people are concerned with the first news. However, the first news is the most worthy of our attention, because the problem behind the news triggered a problem that is really related to the country's livelihood.

After entering China, Ice Bucket challenge completely degenerate. How many donations will they eventually get is not so important. My key point here is that a large number of Internet practitioners are dressed in the cloak of charity but doing stupid behavior to waste water. Such behavior should be stopped immediately. If this behavior does not stop, dozens of people mentioned above or even 1,000 people ice bucket challenge will continue to be promoted. It may appear that millions or more people will take part in the ice bucket challenge contest in the future. (Translated by www.chinainout.com from Baidu Opinions)

Some may say that even if companies taking the challenge are to hype, to show, to make marketing campaign, but the charity mentioned did get a huge amount of donations, and also greatly enhance the attention of all. So we need to have a correct view on ice bucket challenge. In my opinion, this is simply a gangster logic. If the fund-raising success is built on the premise of water resources waste, I think this fund-raising is not worth mentioning. And if we really want to raise money, if convert these water resources into yuan, the money is just far more than charity donations received. 

Many Internet Gangster has become a public figure, who are easily be imitated for every move if these chiefs are to pay attention to the big drought in 2014 of the country, and make contributions or to use their Internet products to provide some services, then they are really doing good things. 

Weibo Contributes to the Popularity of Ice Bucket Challenge in China

Aug. 22, 2014

Recently, the most popular national entertainment event will certainly be the "Ice Bucket Challenge". Currently, discussions of the "bucket challenges" has reached 1.81 billion. The first person to take the challenge, Lei Jun completed his challenge on Aug. 18. only four or five days later, in such a short time, the discussion is really surprisingly hot, which once again confirms the fact that Weibo played a vital role in spreading such a hot event.
From a global perspective, except that the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg choose to publish the information of his challenge on Facebook, other participating celebrities are undoubtedly publish their own challenges through microblogging. The openness and weak ties of microblogging allow the rapid flow of information about celebrities, but also allow the same challenges of the information passed down like a "flower drum transfer". Microblogging becomes a major social networks in the spreading of the "ice bucket challenge".
As to why "Ice Bucket Challenge" becomes popular? The author of this article analyzes three reasons. First, the channels. Here they refer to mainly two aspects, one is the social networking platform, in fact, the subject is microblogging. Another is the star, stars have a lot of fanson microblog, which is also a huge influence on microblogging. Through this media, they are not only involved in the subject of this action, but also an important channel for the dissemination of the action. 
By microblogging and other social networks, everyone are connected globally. The speed of information flow is very rapid just beyond imagination, especially for the pandemic virus like "Ice Bucket Challenge" , social networking has no resistance. It is like dry wood encountering fire, which is hard not burnt together. The nature of weak ties microblogging has also help the spread of the "Ice Bucket Challenge".
As we all know, the participants are popular stars, who have a strong "star effect." Stars themselves are the focus of public opinion. The fact that they participate in all actions has a topic of conversation. This topic makes rapid information flow leading the rapid spread of this action. Of course, a behavior is so popular, just like a virus epidemic, certainly with trigger mechanism or incentive. Then how "Ice Bucket Challenge" spread? First, the design of this action has a rule that is the challenger to nominate three other persons involved in the challenge. Celebrity nominations also are celebrities. You can make this action through such "nomination mechanism" like a virus spreading. Microblogging @ function, simply like "flower drum transfer" with natural facilitate transfer behavior, can easily "deliver a messenge" to the next challenger. 
With the driving force of star microblogging, enthusiasm of Internet users are also lit up, sharing this entertainment events everyday and ervrywher, which also play a big role. As previously mentioned, users are very happy to see celebrities' wet body "or" embarrassment "of the video, not to mention this is a selfe-teasing with a " goodwill ". Users are more willing to share information. The collective participation of users also lead to the quickly spread of the information. 
In my opinion, microblogging play a role like a booster during the "Ice Bucket Challenge" process. First of all, microblogging has a unique social mobilization feature, which make the challenge activity among celebrities quickly extend to the media (Xinhua News Agency, CCTV), government agencies, businesses (COFCO), universal love among people; more and more bystanders turn into participants. 

（Translated by www.chinainout.com）

Japan's Trade Deficit Reached 964 billion Yen in July

Aug. 20, 2014

Japan's Ministry of Finance released its trade statistics (subject to clearance) on 20th of July which showed the trade deficit of Japan was 964 billion yen (about 57.5 billion yuan). Japan has trade deficit for 25 consecutive months.
Due to the increase of export in vehicle and metal processing machinery, volume of exports increased 3.9 percent compared with that of the smae period of previous year, reaching 6.1886 trillion yen, is the first increase of for the last three months.
Japan’s imports increased 2.3% to 7.1526 trillion yen, an increase for two consecutive months. imports of liquefied natural gas used as thermal fuel and crude oil also increased.
Due to a sharp increase of engine and meat imports from the EU, Japan’s trade deficit against EU was 49.5 billion yen, while Japan’s trade deficit against China was 321.6 billion yen. 
(Translated by www.chinainout.com)

A Long Way to Go for China’s Shale Gas Production

Aug.19, 2014

Earlier this month, Wu Xinxiong, Director General of China's National Energy Bureau, said that shale gas production target in 2020 is reduced to 30 billion cubic meters. In contrast, the goal before the reduction was 60 billion to 80 billion cubic meters. While shale gas production target is significantly reduced, it is still very difficult for China to achieve this goal. Currently, China has only one large project to commercialize shale gas production, Sinopec gas field inFuling, Sichuan Province. Shale gas production in this state-owned enterprises is expected to be 5 billion to 10 billion cubic meters in 2016 and 2017 respectively, which is considered as China's most valuable shale gas field. Last year, all the China's shale gas production is only 200 million cubic meters, so it is hard to imagine how to achieve the 2020 target. Moreover, it is much more difficult to achieve 2015 production goal of 6.5 billion cubic meters.
When referring to shale gas, the cost is the key point. As we all know, hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling technology has already been evented for decades. U.S. shale gas has been able to achieve great prosperity - United States is now not only the world's largest natural gas producer, but also the largest hydrocarbon production country - because Americans find an efficient mining method.
China’s shale gas production cost is about four times than the United States. In other words, its costs are higher than the price of liquefied natural gas. Beijing will undoubtedly narrow the gap, but this in no way means that you can ensure that the conomic viability of economic viability exploitation in China. China's leaders seem to be more worried about how to help state-owned enterprises retain the best field, and ensure that these companies can develop their own expertise to make the profits in the hands of Chinese people. Sinopec is most proud of the fact that all of its production tools and equipment in Fuling are made in China.
China’s shale gas exploitation is faced with a situation that the mining cost is high while the price was artificially lowered. All this indicates that China's technocrats will not be able to achieve 2020 goals.
(Translated by www.chinainout.com)

Cross-borer E-commerce Forced to Be Regulated

By Lihai Gang, Aug.16, 2014

According to someone from "FromGeek", details of national policy to e-commerce and wechat businesspersons will be published soon, which means this industry is forced to be regulated. Cross-border e-commerce in particular will usher in a new policy with many restrictions. In the next few years, there will be a hot industry called purchasing on behalf training. Those who purchase staff on others’ behalf will get certifications if they want to do this. Of course, challenges and opportunities coexist. The key is how to transform, this way or thay way!

According to "FromGeek", regulation administration are taking into consideration the introduction of new e-commerce industry policy. on August 7, National Development and Reform Commission said we will in the next step publish a number of major policies in key areas such as e-commerce industry. Among them, the cross-border e-commerce is put at a very important position.

Zhu Fei, a columnist at "FromGeek", said in recent years cross-border e-commerce is growing in a market without almost no regulations, whether in terms of overall size or the increasing number of participants. With the rapid growth of the turnover of cross-border e-commerce, it will exert a greater impact on China's economy. However, due to the lack of effective regulation, market is now in disorder with a lot gray areas which affect fair market competition. It is urgent that regulatory authorities should introduce relevant policies to regulate the market.

According to statistics of Commerce Department, in 2011, China’s cross-border e-commerce transactions amounted to approximately 1.6 trillion yuan, in 2012 approximately 2 trillion yuan, a record of 3.1 trillion yuan in 2013, and espected to increase to 6.5 trillion yuan in 2016, an average annual growth rate of nearly 30 percent. with the rapid development of the industry, the government had to re-examine the standardized management of the market . Earlier this year, the government added specifically  code of 9610 for the supervision of cross-border e-commerce, then launched the General Administration of Customs clearance service platform, and also recently introduced consecutively document number 56 and 57 regulatory policies on cross-border e-commerce. Obviously, Chinese government has satrated the standardized management of cross-border e-commerce.

In the next few years, the market will gradually end this state of disorder, which will exert great impact on small and medium enterprises, mainly manifested by the improved access and the initial costs. However, as long as there is a market there will be a way. For example, to deal with an increased costs in customs clearance, companies that are able to provide a unified and effective customs clearance agency for small businesses and midium-sized enterprises or individuals will become widespread. In addition, if the market space is large enough, short-term cost increase does not affect the long-term development. The standardization is the only way to make enterprises bigger and stronger.

Cross-border RMB Index On the Rise During the First Half of 2014

Aug. 15, 2014

On 14th, Bank of China released a report that Cross-border RMB Index (CRI) was on the rise during the first half of 2014. On the basis of the steady improvement of cross-border goods trade settlement, cross-border services trade and cross-border direct investment gradually rise, which leads to a more solid status of cross-border RMB application.

RMB cross-border activity increased obviously, which narrows the gap between RMB and major international currencies. The report noted that in June the activity index of activity index Dollar, Euro, Pound sterling use was respectively up 2．41%, down 0．52% and down 1．86% compared with that of the end of December 2013. While at the same time, RMB cross-border activity index increased 7.89%. (News from ccstock.cn and translated by www.chinainout.com)

The report showed that in June CRI were 246 points and ramain unchanged compared with that of the previous period. RMB keeps flowing out Maintain within the cross-border flotation cycle, but the pace of net capital outflow has slowed. RMB offshore flow levels increase; the use of RMB outside China is expanding rapidly and grows rapidly in the European markets. RMB cross-border use under the circumstance of direct investment projects becames more active.

Data Analysis of Crude Oil Imports & Exports in July: Net Imports & Exports of Crude Oil

August 14, 2014

General Administration of Customs of People’s Republic of China released the import and export data of crude oil and refined oil in July 2014. 

In July, China's crude oil imports were 23.76 million tons, a decline of 9.01% on a YoY basis while an increase of 2.05% on a MoM basis, and monthly crude oil imports chain increased; crude oil imports average price was $ 107.01 / barrel, an increase of U.S. $1.21 / barrel.

As to refined oil exports, China exports of refined oil were 2.31 million tons in July, an increase of 13.79% on a YoY basis and an increase of 2.67% on a MoM basis. Meanwhile, the imports of refined oil were 1.865 million tons whereas net exports were 445,000 tons; price of refined oil export reached US $ 868.96 / tons.(This news from GAC is translated bywww.chinainout.com)

Major conclusion:

Increased crude oil imports. In July China crude oil imports were 23.76 million tons, an average daily imports of 792,000 tons, increased imports on a MoM basis;

In July, China exports of refined oil were 2.31 million tons while imports were 1.865 million tons with 445,000 tons of net exports. The monthly data reflected the net oil exports situation for the third time, which indicated a shortage of domestic refined oil supply.