中国、３G携帯１億件突破

中国の工業情報化省は２６日、中国での第３世代携帯電話サービスの累計契約件数が１億件を突破したと発表した。最大手の中国移動通信集団（チャイナモバイル）が独自の通信規格にこだわったため、携帯電話端末の品ぞろえが不十分で普及が遅れており、同省が設定した今年末の目標（１億５０００万件）の達成は困難だ。日経より。

台湾のオンラインゲーム企業

気になったニュースはGAME Watchに載っていた台湾のオンラインゲーム会社の記事。

お金が流れるストーリー　

台湾のオンラインゲーム会社、ガマニアデジタルエンターテイメントが９月８日、９日と二日間に渡り、メディア向けの宣伝イベントを開催した。ガマニアがビジネス展開している地域のメディアを招待し、２０以上の新作タイトルを披露。開催地は、台北華山藝文中心という元酒造工場をリノベーションした所で、今回のイベントはその一部を使用している。このレンガ造りの建物で見せ物があり、コンパニオンがいたりの派手なオープニングの様子を見ると、オンラインゲーム会社のオフラインでの心意気というものを感じます。

そもそもガマニアデジタルエンターテイメントとはどんな企業なのか？GAME Watchのガマニア創業者へのインタビュー記事によれば、この会社のCEOは、劉柏園 (Albert Liu)という１９７０年生まれの元プログラマー。自分で開発したゲームソフトの利益を元手に１９９５年に「富峰群企業」を設立し、１９９９年に現在 の社名「ガマニアデジダルエンターテイメント」に変更。ガマニアは、台湾で初めて海外展開したオンラインゲーム企業で、支部が東京、ソウル、上海、北京、香港、また、北米とヨーロッ パにも展開し、ウィキペディア情報によれば１千万人のユーザーがガマニアのオンラインゲームに登録している。オンラインゲームの他にもアニメや課金決済ビジネスなどビジネス分野を拡大し、ガマニアグループの昨年の売上は、１５８億円ほどでゲーム会社としては、中規模であるけれどもオンラインゲーム業界におい てトップレベルの存在のようです。

モバイルを通じて楽しむエンターテイメント産業には勢いを感じる。日本でもグリーやモバゲーを展開しているDeNAに注目が集まってます。またグーグルが、１２５億ドル（約９６００億円）を費やしてモトローラを買収したのもモバイル市場を最重要視している証拠でしょう。モバイルビジネスは、ゲームコンテンツの他に、電子書籍、音楽配信、教育（バングラディシュでは数ドルで英語のレッスンを電話を使って受けることが出来る）などデジタル化するものは、どんどんモバイルに繋がっていく。

またガマニアが現在進行させているビジネスにオンライン上の決済システムがある。「GASH」という課金プラットホームを進化させた「GASH＋」（ぎゃっしゅぷらす）という課金決済ビジネスに乗り出すようで、ガマニアによれば「台湾、香港、韓国、中国、アメリカとヨーロッパ市場の７大市場におよび、７０社以上の企業へグローバル課金プラットフォームを提供し、国際的なデジタルエンターテイメント決済システムの構築を目標に、オンラインゲームから映像コンテンツ、電子書籍、ソーシャルネットワーク等、あらゆるデジタルコンテンツを提供」する。また、GASH＋は、仮想通貨プラットフォームのFacebook Creditsに対応しているためわざわざクレジットカードを使う必要が無い便利さがあるようです。オンラインゲームに加え、デジタルコンテンツの課金決済のビジネスを手掛けるあたりが、ガマニア独特の嗅覚なのでしょうか。

いろいろオンラインゲームについて書いたけれど、今のところ一切興味が無いという心境。けれど、オンラインゲームの動向は気になるところです。

"ZTE to make North American push" from Wall Street Journal

"Chinese mobile-handset maker ZTE Corp. will more than double its device portfolio in the North American market this year, said Lixin Cheng, chief executive of the company's U.S. business, as it tries to gobble up more market share by offering sophisticated devices with the ZTE brand at a low-cost."

"India's ruling party ponders leader" from Wall Street Journal

"NEW DELHI - In a nation where government decisions can take years to slink through the bureaucracy, and policy pronouncements often are riddled with jargon and grammatical errors, Palaniappan Chidambaram is an anomaly: He hates delays and he doesn't tolerate typos.

Mr.Chidambaram also is one of the most powerful politicians in India, tapped as home minister- the nation's top domestic- security position- after the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, following a two-decade career in top economic posts, including minister of finance.

In just over two years, he has formed a broad power base while managing a huge portfolio that includes combating Pakistan-based terrorists and home-grown Maoist rebels, tending to unrest in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, and demanding that Research In Motion Ltd. open its BlackBerry corporate email service to wiretapping."

"Telecoms firms seek share of mobile payments" from South China Morning Post

"Mobile payments are arguably the next major change in the mobile industry."

"Such mobile payments exist in Japan and South Korea, but have been held back from mass-market adoption by a lack of handsets and confusion around the business model.

In Hong Kong, the Octopus, launched as the world's first contactless smart card in 1997, dominates."

"980m text messages in one day" from South China Morning Post

"Text message have become one of the most popular ways for people to express their Lunar New Year greetings, and telecoms operators say more than 980 million text message were sent out by Beijing residents on Wednesday, Lunar New Year's Eve, The Beijing News reports."

"Traffic to Mobile Travel Sites Up 200% During NYC Blizzard" from NY Convergence

"The company says that traffic to its travel-related sites was up 200 percent in the past two days. The most traffic came from iPhones and Android devices, perhaps marking the first time business travelers were using more Android devices than Blackberry devices, according to Mobilized."

"Police drop iPhone plan" from South China Morning Post

"JIANGSU- Suzhou police have suspended a plan to buy iPhone 4s after an online posting about it attracted widespread internet criticism, the Oriental Morning Post reports. The police had planned to buy 32 iPhone 4s for use by officers and said they had lots of advantages over other equipment. A 32 gigabyte iPhone 4 sells for 5,999 yuan on Apple's official website."

"The Shenzhen-based company and partner SoftBank, which operates the SoftBank Mobile 3G network in Japan, will this month launch their jointly developed Libero smartphone, which runs the Google-developed Android operating system." from South China Morning Post

"Phone smugglers caught" from South China Morning Post

"GUANGDONG" - Customs authorities in Shenzhen caught a smuggler with 85 mobile phones, 65 of them hidden under her overcoat, the Guangzhou Daily reports. On the same day, they stopped 14 women who tried to smuggle in goods worth 950,000 yuan, including 88 iPads and 340 mobile phones."

"Huawei secures China Mobile project" from South China Morning Post

"China Mobile, Pudong Bank tie up" from South China Morning Post

"China Mobile, the world's biggest mobile operator, has signed an agreement with the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank to co-operation in mobile finance and mobile e-commerce.This includes on-site payment and remote payment service and share customer service resources, China Mobile said in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange."

"Buyouts rise as firms prepare for good times" from South China Morning Post

"Typical is Caterpillar's announcements on Monday that it will buy Bucyrus International for US$7.6 billion. Caterpillar, the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, was sitting on US$2.3 billion in cash at the end of the third quarter. The acquisition allows Caterpillar to add to its line of mining equipment, which is in high demand in emerging markets.

Just last week Chevron Corp. said it would buy natural gas producer Atlas Energy for US$4.3 billion, giving the oil company at entry into the rich gas fields in the eastern part of the United States.

Among the other deals in the past three months, Dove soap maker Unilever bought the VO5 haircare company Alberto-Culver for US$3.7 billion, and Southwest Airlines bought AirTran Holdings for US$1.4 billion. Drug giant Pfizer bought pain medication maker King Pharmaceuticals for US$3.6 billion and Google bought BlindType, a startup that corrects sloppy typing on mobile phones for an undisclosed price.

The deals are happening, in part, because companies have amassed a record US$1.84 trillion in cash as of June 30, according to the Federal Reserve. That was 18 per cent more than a year earlier."

"Mainland operators push ahead with 4G" from South China Morning Post

"China Mobile has already started deploying trial 4G networks based on the super-fast cellular technology called time division-long term evolution (TD-LTE) in large cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Nanjing."

"A German website matchmakes worldwide need with philanthropy" from Wired UK

" "The real change will come from bottom-up approaches. We very rarely hear about the recipients of aid. We have to use SMS since many beneficiaries don't have internet access, but they all have a Nokia." "

"China Unicom, with key support from ZTE Corp, has introduced a 3G mobile applications portal called WoStore on the mainland." from South China Morning Post

"The service will compete against larger rival China Mobile's online Mobile Market and the recently launched simplified Chinese version of the App Store for Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices."

"In July the first advertisements placed through Apple's new iAd mobile network began to appear." from Bloomberg Businessweek

"Marketers use iAd to place interactive banner ads in iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad applications, including some popular games and the music service Pandora. Apple takes a 40 percent cut while the rest goes to the application's developer."

"Research In Motion the maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, said it would begin selling a tablet computer in North America in the first quarter for "under" US$500 as it took on Apple's iPad." from South China Morning Post

"San Francisco : Dell said it will shift thousands of its employees from Research in Motion's BlackBerry phones and over to Dell's smartphones." from South China Morning Post

"Lenovo Group has made an initial 100 million yuan (HK$116.8 million) investment in a fund that provides seed money to mainland software developlers who build programs for the company's Chinese online mobile applications store, LeGarden." form South China Morning Post