About China blogosphere, travel, and entrepreneurship

There is an utterly amazing perk many American expats or travellers in China can enjoy so long as they’re customers of Bank of America (whom are legion, despite the fact that Bank of America is somewhat widely despised amongst many in the States): BofA customers can use their BofA ATM card to withdraw the USD in their accounts back home as RMB cash via China Construction Bank ATMs throughout China…for free.

No ATM fees, no currency exchange fees, no credit card cash advance fees, and no need to set up a CCB bank account either. Just cold, hard, delicious cash converted at the day’s exchange rate.

I used this a year ago and, embarassingly, I didn’t think to write about this useful tip until Dan over at China Law Blog just recently discovered and posted about it earlier today.

Now, the daily ATM withdrawal limit in China was raised from 5,000 RMB to 20,000 RMB in mid-2007. Accounting for the current exchange rate (6.94 RMB per 1 USD at the time of this posting), this means you can effectively move up to about 2,880 USD into China each day, barring any daily withdrawal limits you have on your BofA account. If your limit is lower than the converted amount you want to access in China, you’ll need to call Bank of America in advance to raise your limits appropriately, lest you get confounded at the ATM. There’s also the current 2000 RMB per transaction limit at CCB’s ATMs, so you’ll need to repeat the withdrawal process 10 times to get the full 20,000 RMB daily limit. After making everyone behind you wait, however, you can walk smugly past them carrying your fat stacks of 100 RMB bills. Baller.

Now, 20,000 RMB is a decent sum of cash for the vast majority of transactions. That’s about 5000 street-cooked fried rice meals in China or 714 Starbucks cappucinos. Being able to freely access and convert your USD into RMB cash should be particularly useful for business travellers and other short-term visitors. You no longer need to hassle with carrying large amounts of cash, getting cashiers cheques, using wire transfers, or going through the hassle of setting up a Chinese bank account (which would require you to bring money in first anyway). Not only do you save money on fees and exchange rates, it is downright convenient.

The free ATM withdrawals perk has been available since April 2006 and you can thank BofA for opting to buy a stake in CCB and partnering with them instead of pursuing the retail banking market on their own. I, however, only learned about this service in mid-2007 when I needed to quickly move several thousand USD over to cover development costs for my startup, adex360, without fussing with wire transfers. In fact, BofA required me to physically appear at a US banking center just to wire my own money to myself in China. Yeah, like I’m really going to buy a round-trip airplane ticket just so I can pay them an additional 45 USD fee for a wire transfer to myself. I ended up withdrawing over several days to accumulate the RMB bricks I needed.

So yes, you can certainly make withdrawals over several days (or weeks) should you need to move more than 20,000 RMB. Of course, going to the ATM each day isn’t the most graceful way of moving large chunks of money, but it may be less annoying than having to set up, pay for, and then wait for a wire transfer that can sometimes take longer than you prefer. As with my example, you often can’t actually initiate a wire transfer of your own money to yourself from abroad anyway, thereby necessitating that you have someone abroad who can wire funds to you. Moreover, for many expats and travellers, trying to communicate with Chinese tellers when their English is about as good as your Chinglish can be a hassle as well.

There may be more good news too, as it appears that BofA and CCB has had a free wire transfer pilot program in place since late 2006 also. This allows BofA account holders to wire transfer money without the 45 USD fee or the 20,000 RMB daily limit to CCB account holders. But, before you think this is a better option than making 10 withdrawals a day over several days to move larger chunks of money, remember that you need a BofA account, a CCB account, and you’d still need to initiate the transfer at BofA in person in the United States. Therefore, as far as using this to wire your own money to yourself, it would only be useful if you’ve already set up your CCB account and you’re doing initiating the wire transfer right before you fly over from the States to China. The actual target market for this service are family members, friends, and businesses that need to move money between themselves and have the people to initiate and receive wire transfers on both sides. If you’re just one person in China trying to access your money in your US account, then the free ATM withdrawal service is still what you’re looking for…if you’re a BofA customer, that is.

18 days of free ATM withdrawals and you’ll be able to transfer the yearly maximum of 50,000 USD. Heh, how’s that for hedging against RMB appreciation and USD depreciation?

One final note: Despite the conveniences afforded by this partnership, don’t expect any service from CCB banks and representatives regarding your BofA account. The most they’ll know is that you can access your BofA account balance through their ATM. They are not there to help you with managing your account otherwise or answering any BofA questions.

A few weeks back on May 6, I briefly attended two sessions of Zero2IPO’s China Venture Capital & Private Equity Forum (CVCF). I wrote this post up but then the Sichuan earthquake happened and I was focused on that.

I only had time to attend two sessions that day. Here are my notes and key takeaways from first of the two panels I attended.

Session 1: Venture Capital - Behind the Scenes of 2007 China VC Industry & Projections for 2008

Elliott’s key takeaways:

• There are diverse investing styles among China VCs. Some like innovative, technology-driven deals targeting global markets. Others like execution plays targeted toward fast-growing domestic markets.

• The consensus is that early-stage has the least competition, with growth and mezzanine stage seeing high degrees of deal competition.

• Sectors that seem to be hot include: clean tech, health care, consumer products, consumer services. This is in addition to the traditional VC sectors of semiconductors, computer hardware, software, internet, and media.

• There is increasing regulatory pressure on traditional company structures like the “Sina model” and increasing barriers to foreign direct investment. An alternative joint venture structure is preferred by regulatory agencies like MOFCOM but are more onerous to set up.

• RMB funds are emerging as a new factor. They can be used to invest in new sectors, potentially in partnership with municipal governments. There are significant challenges in making this fund structure work with foreign Limited Partners.

• RMB funds also face challenge from a domestic investing environment where there is a lot of Chinese domestic money that is less demanding from a rights and preferences basis.

• The market feels a little “frothy” as there are lots of first time entrepreneurs and first time VCs. The legal and accounting support for these deals is also in scarce supply, forcing VCs to do more of the deal work themselves.

Panelists:

• Danny Lui, moderator. Zero2IPO Group, Vice Chairman Startup Capital Ventures, General Partner

• Yan Huang. CDH Ventures, General Partner
• Gary Rieschel. Qiming Venture Partners, Managing Director
• Alan Song. SoftBank China Venture Capital, Managing Partner
• Lip-Bu Tan. Walden International, Founder & Chairman
• Yang Xia. Legend Capital, Managing Director
• Joe Zhou. Venture Capitalist

Question: In 2007, how many deals have you done? How much money has gone in?

Yan Huang, CDH Ventures

We’ve invested $200 mm in 18 companies; 1/3 early, 1/3 mid stage, 1/3 inflection point. We invest in clean tech, medical device, internet, education. We focus on growth rate, not initial profitability.

Gary Rieschel, Qiming Venture Partners

We’ve made 14 investments; 10 are pre-revenue. We led 12 deals, and invested $100 mm. We are focused on early stage, where many investors are not comfortable investing.

Alan Song, SoftBank China Venture Capital

We invested in 12 companies, $75 mm. Our fund size is relatively small. Our first fund was $100 mm, our second fund was $200 mm, and today our 3rd fund is a $300 mm fund. We are still focused on early and middle stages. We are opportunistic with late stage deals, where late stage is defined as pre-IPO in China H Shares (Hong Kong stock exchange IPO)

Lip-Bu Tan, Walden International

Walden international is 40% in China, investing in 4-6 companies/year. Our focus is very early stage with 70% investment, and expansion stage with 30% of our investments. We are interested in clean tech, and often traditional businesses like a brick manufacturing machinery company we invested in.

Yang Xia, Legend Capital

We’ve invested in 16 deals, and deployed about $60 mm. We are mostly invested in early stage investments, but in three deals we invested in growth capital. We invest in information technology, design, wireless services, CRO outsourcing

Joe Zhou, raising a fund

I’m interested in clean tech, technology-driven fields like semiconductors, media, advertising, and consumer service.

Q: What industry do you like best in CN? How much money is needed for startup to get to liquidity? How much time is required to get to liquidity? What multiples are you looking for?

Yan Huang
We like clean-tech and alternative energy. An example is the solar sector. This is not a typical VC investment because it is investment-intensive and manufacturing intensive. For example, one firm we invested in, LDK, raised $100 million in six months, and went from zero to IPO in 2 years. Returns, management required, and capital needed is not typical. In this case, we got a 5X return on our investment in nine months.

Gary Rieschel
We don’t look at specific industry sectors, but at technology innovation. We’ve done study tours of: synthetic biology, pharmaceutical, clean tech. There is still very limited innovation base in China. We’re interested in healthcare, such as clinical trial outsourcing, and we’ve made four investments to date in health care. It can require anywhere from $2 mm to 40 mm in capital to get to profitability, depending on the deal. We have the most sector experience to date in healthcare.

Alan Song
We like recession proof industries. With a 550 mm urban population in China, industries like food and beverage and packaging material are interesting, and trade at 30 price-earnings ratios. A deal might require $20 million and 3-4 years to reach IPO, and our return expectations on deals are 10X.

Yang Xia
We like IC chip design/build opportunities. These deals generally require 3 rounds of capital to get from product to business success. They often take 6 years or more. there are lots of plays up and down the value chain in computing and IT.

Joe Zhou:
I don’t like hot sectors. However, we have been looking at clean-technology, semiconductor, media/advertisement, and the consumer service/direct marketing space. We’ve made three investments that went IPO. Respectively, we invested $40mm, $40mm, and $20mm, and achieved IPO valuations of $800mm, $500mm, and $250mm on that investment.

Q: RMB funds are starting to emerge. These funds allow you to make pure RMB investments into a joint venture with a local company, that then allows you to go public on China stock exchanges. What is the opportunity for these funds?

[caveat: I don’t fully understand the regulatory issues affecting RMB and foreign funds and the companies that can accept funds from RMB or from foreign funds, so these notes may not make complete sense]

Alan Song
The emergence of RMB funds is in part due to government pressure against the prevailing company structures that have been used by venture backed companies. There are two models, one called the “Rev Trip Model” (Elliott: not sure I have this correct) and the other called the “Sina model.” In the Sina model, a British Virgin Island (BVI) or Cayman Islands holding company is established, into which foreign investors invest funds. Then a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise (WFOE) is established in China. That WFOE then contracts with a domestic company owned by a Chinese national. The contracts between the WFOE and domestic company insure that the assets of the domestic company (such as the ICP license) are controlled by the WFOE. Officially, this structure is not allowed by MOFCOM (Ministry of Commerce). They are not supporting this and discouraging the use of this structure.

MOFCOM wants to push the use of Joint Ventures, but there are other issues with that structure. Investors receive the same stock with the same rights, and there are no priority rights that can be offered. So in a venture-backed joint venture structure, the company has another set of agreements that enforces the preferences for the investor. (Elliott: in Western venture deals, investors receive a preferred class of stock that offers certain preferences like liquidation preference, class vote on certain issues, board directors representing the class, etc.)

RMB funds are difficult to set up. Softbank was one of the first foreign VCs to create a joint venture-foreign RMB fund. But approval from multiple regulators is needed: MOFCOM, SAIC (State Adminstration for Industry and Commerce), SAFE (State Administration for Foreign Exchange), and SAST (Elliott: not sure I have this correct: State Administration of Science and Technology). But once the RMB fund is set up, then there is no case by case approval for deals. There is also a tax advantage to the structure, by setting up a “non legal person entity” which acts like a limited partnership, we only need to pay a 10% withholding when funds are … (Elliott: didn’t catch this)

In summary, RMB funds are: hard to set up, but then much easier to invest.

Joe Zhou
There are two problems with RMB funds. As a General Partner, I need to raise funds from RMB sources but it doesn’t fit with current Limited Partner base. If I take care of LP base, then there is a lengthy process of approval for the fund. (Elliott: I think this means that there is a way to set up an RMB fund that receives foreign investment, but the approval process is more onerous, both on the fund setup and also on individual investments? RMB funds that strictly receive domestic investment are more easily approved, not sure.) With foreign LPs, we need to get approval at the point of the investment and then you do capital call from foreign LPs.

RMB funds are a totally different game, because you are competing with local funds for investment. There are different capital market dynamics. For example, we invested in Unipay. There was a different investor base, they didn’t demand any rights and preferences, and those local investors were so much less demanding that we couldn’t ask for what we usually do and still be competitive.

I am going to continue to target technology plays that will list in offshore markets.

Danny Lui

Yes, there seems to be so much local money not looking for much return!

Yan Huang

The RMB funds invest into local Joint Ventures. This creates an opportunity to invest in some different sectors. We can work with municipal governments to let them into the fund as special limited partners into the core fund. Then, we can make RMB investments that can go into foreign-prohibited sectors, with the support of these municipal governments.

Question: What do you think about the overall state of VC and the model?

Joe Zhou
The next two years is the best time for investment in the sectors that we are focusing on. Not worried about market. We are moving from 80x to 50x … (Elliott: did not catch what…price-earnings ratio?)

Yang Xia
There is more money coming in and lots of Chinese money. More people are educating entrepreneurs on how to raise money. There is limited bank capital, so entrepreneurs must seek venture capital. I feel valuations are going up, as “more hunters are in the market.” There is too much money, the market is hot, and deal access is the issue. Early stage deals are more stable, but growth stage deals are crowded.

Lip-Bu Tan
The change in Taiwan and Mainland China’s relationship is creating an opportunity. Big investments from Taiwan companies are investing in China, and there are cross border opportunities. There is lots of competition, and still disjointed valuations between public markets, US venture markets, and China venture markets.

Gary Rieschel
I went through Japan from 1988-1993, and Silicon Valley from 1993-2004. What makes me nervous is that I am seeing lots of first time entrepreneurs, and first time VCs, and Limited Partners interested in going to China. In 1996, the Kleiner Perkins (KPCB) $300 million fund was the largest ever raised. Also, in Silicon Valley, the accounting and legal infrastructure is in place. Banking infrastructure is also in place. But in China, there is less capacity, so VCs need to be prepared to do more of the work. Quote: “You think its competitive in SV? Bull—. In CN, you should see what entrepreneurs do to each other.” There are also lots of challenges. For example, we were involved in “rollup from hell” wher we took four companies in clean tech from four areas with municipal government involvement and needed to negotiate a deal that made sense for all four founders and their four local government sponsors.

Yan Huang
The challenges are obvious. First, finding quality companies at a cheap price. Second, we need to work much harder - need to be lawyers, accountants, etc. and put more time into the deals. The consumer sector is strong. We invested in a soybean milk maker, a traditional industry that is growing 70%/year. Foreign direct investment is also geting worse because of RMB appreciation and hot money.

Gary Rieschel
There is no reasons why FDI would be relaxed.

Summary:

Venture capital in the US follows more clearly defined sectors–high growth, high market multiple opportunities driven by new markets and new technology. Venture capital in China is much more diverse, as the entire economy is high growth, and many sectors that are mature in the US are still at an early stage in China. As a result, there is a lot more diversity in fund strategy in China and the need to excel at pursuing that fund strategy.

Tweeters, bloggers, and Web 2.0-ers in the People’s Republic unite! David Feng’s unannounced disappearance from that Great Big Internet out there was not totally unexpected: beginning from last Thursday, David was meeting blogger after blogger. You got that right: Not a single day without a new blogger (almost) from Thursday through to Monday.

A very 2.0 weekend, then. Here’s an overview plus my two cents about the Chinese blogo/Twittersphere, and whom he met:

• Isaac Mao (@isaac): He’s not a pioneer in the Chinese blogosphere for nothing. Humorous, witty, smart and damn-sharp, I found that it was almost impossible not to befriend Isaac. Open, insightful and always one to hold his own unique viewpoint, the “Chairman Mao of the 21st Century” (to use a 2007 Chinese Blogger Conference slogan) weighs in on issues weighty and obscure, and enjoys a laugh, but is also ready to tackle weighty issues. If there’s a big blogger conference and the Chairman’s missing, the conference would be missing a huge chunk of “something”. Isaac is more than just Twitter feed and his site; the extra something (his humor) makes a face-to-face with Isaac all that more valuable.

• Kaiser Kuo (@kaiserkuo): His Twitter ID puts him as the “Guitar-playing, blog-writing, digital strategizin’ daddy in the ‘Jing”, but this brief intro merely scrapes the surface of the man. Kaiser’s wit, humor and insight made him very much on a league of his own. Niubility, Zhonglish and a host of new hybrid Chinglish was made in no time with Kaiser at the table.

• Shizhao (@shizhao): I knew the name “Shizhao” back in my hidden mission at the Wikipedia in 2004 and 2005. So when I blew the lid off the secret that most Wikipedia articles about Chinese freeways around Beijing were a David Feng thing, both Isaac and Shizhao were like — oh my God! At the dining table, I followed Shizhao almost immediately. (I admit I was tweeting in excess at the table.)

• Christine Lu (@christinelu): My, my, was it great to meet the living legend in real life. Christine’s tweeting was taken offline at the table, as the tweeting came out in real life (as in talking), and she was just as humorous offline as she was online. Christine was an incredible breath of fresh air. Insightful, witty and always in the know are just a few words that come to mind when someone mentions Christine Lu to me.

• Tangos Chan (@Tangos): Tangos is an old friend; we met for the first time at the December 2007 Mobile Monday (shortly before “blognation China” tanked). Humor and knowledge add well to what Tangos co-does (so to speak) with Luyi Chen — which is the China Web 2.0 Review. The site is so good that even our techblog86 checks in quite often, and the mutual linking is the icing on the cake.

Part II comes in a tad later. We just saved you from what must be miles of commentary. In the past few days, I’ve also been fortunate enough to meet @simpsonsparadox (our very own Meg), @fuzheado, @pdenlinger (we’ve met before), @awflasher, @winserzhao, @Chinkerfly, @herock, @DaDing, @frankyu and the rest of the gang.

By the way — if I didn’t mention you — I’m sorry! Please don’t take it personally! If David Feng is indication, you will be mentioned — sooner or later!

Elliott’s note: I’ll be posting separately on my impressions of these meetings as well. Apologize for the redundancy in advance.  But uber blogger David Feng beat me to break the story! 

Sichuan team bit beat Japan team and won the male 4×100 relay.

Olympic Torch is in Shanghai now. The torch relay will restart after the national mourning period for Wenchuan earthquake (May 19-21). Originally, it was planned on May 20 and 21. I got this notice about traffic control on May 23 and 24 in Shanghai via an email. It might be helpful for you.

Day 1, May 23 2008 (530 -1600)

• Huangpu (黄浦区): People’s Square -> The Bund
• Luwan (卢湾区): Xingye Rd (around Xintiandi area) to Fuxing Rd. & Xizang Rd. intersection
• Yangpu (杨浦区)：Yingao Rd to Jiangwan Rd. to Guofan Rd.
• Pudong (浦东新区)：Huamu Rd (around Century Park, and Yincheng Rd (around Lujiazhui, Oriental Pearl Tower, Jinmao Tower)

IMPORTANT: Metro Line 2: none stop at Nanjin Dong Rd. station from 730 - 930 am.

Day 2, May 24 2008

• Xuhui (徐汇区): Chaoqi Rd (around Xujiahui center) to the Shanghai Stadium
• Minhang (闵行区): Jianchuan Rd to Dong Chuan Rd. (around Shanghai Jiaotong University Minhang campus)
• Jiading (嘉定区)：Moyu Rd & Caoan Rd

Century Park(世纪公园), Shanghai Scence & Technology Museum (上海科技馆) will be closed on May 23. Oriental Green Boat (东方绿洲), a park, will be closed till 2:30pm on May 24.

This is an route map published in July 2007 (green for day 1, red for day 2). source from Xinmin Net(新民网)

Obviously, the route has been updated. For example, the torch will be in Pudong New District area in day 1 in the afternoon.

The same information can be found on Sohu here in Chinese.

Since the Sichuan Earthquake, I’ve been corresponding with Richard Brubaker of China Crossroads and AllRoadsLeadtoChina blog. He is Vice Chairman of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of AmCham in Shanghai. He just recently launched Hands On Chengdu. Here’s the description on their website:

With our strength being volunteer management, our goal will be to recruit, train, and manage volunteers at many levels, to develop community leaders through our volunteer leadership program, engage students and corporations to leverage their capabilities, and work with local NGOs to develop their capacity.

With that, we have established this website as a first step to:

1) Provide a place where volunteers in the affected areas, in cities around China, and around the world can register themselves and provide our NGO partners with a qualified pool of volunteers

2) Advertise and manage the volunteer needs of government agencies and NGOs who are working within various levels of the community to comfort the injured, build schools,

3) Volunteer project scheduling - we will be providing a platform to schedule volunteers in affected cities, townships, and villages.

4) Facilitating financial and product donations to NGOs and government donations in need

5) Provide a forum for announcements and news from affected areas, a place for volunteers to learn about how to help, and provide a discussion forum for NGOs to discuss with each other their needs and how to best service their communities.

This project is modeled after Hands on Shanghai, a similar project that Richard has been involved with.

I didn’t know much about Richard’s work prior to the earthquake, other than reading an occasional post at AllRoadsLeadtoChina. But after the earthquake I found China Crossroads and relied on his blog to frame my thinking about how to donate to the earthquake relief efforts.

I like many others have felt helpless in the face of this event. if you want to know how to help and especially how not to help, read these posts:

Resisting the Urge to Help in the Face of Disaster

Sichuan Earthquake: How to Help - Part 2

This last post, shortly after the earthquake, I asked Richard the questions:

1. How did you research ways to give or help out? What did you learn? What are good ways to help? What are bad ways? (like getting on a train to go to the affected areas to volunteer if you have no specialized skills)
2. What 1-3 options do you recommend for people in China? and for people in the US? (may be same or different…maybe just different payment method).
3. Why did you choose these options? What makes them effective and efficient? What assures you that they won’t waste the money?
4. How did you assure yourself that this is a trustworthy organization? Is there any 3rd party certification of the organization? What assures you that they won’t misuse the money?
5. List of NGOs.

Go see his post for the answers!

I have been following Yeeyan (译言) - a community for people to translate articles in foreign languages (mostly English) into Chinese language volunteerly, since Aug. 2006 when it was called “言多必得”. I personally like the old name which means”you will certainly get something if you express more”. It is form a Chinese idiom “言多必失” means the opposite: you will certain leak some secretes if you keep talking. The current name is more straightforward: “translation” and “language“.

In a presentation by Zhang Lei(张雷), one of Yeeyan’s founders in CnBloggerCon 2007 in Beijing, Zhang Lei compared the online resources about “Breast Cancer” in Chinese (乳腺癌) and English. In the example of Sohu Health Channel, there are less than 30 articles about the general knowledge and treatment. But in a single website of http://www.breastcancer.org/, there are more than 8,000 pages. Statistics show that 1/7 of women will suffer from breast cancer in the world.

• Baidu: 乳腺癌: 8,210,000
• Google: breast cancer :38,800,000

According to Lei, the huge gap of quality contents between Chinese language and English was one of the motivation that Ding Ding (丁丁), Zhao Jiamin(赵嘉敏) and himself found Yeeyan. These three founders from Silicon Valley saw the opportunity in “High Quality Chinese Contents” on the web with the inspiration to encourage Chinese to “discovery, translate and read the best of the Web“.

Yeeyan is a bridge of KNOWLEDGE in Chinese and other languages. I found 140 results about “earthquake” (地震) on Yeeyan 9 days after the earthquake, and more than 100 translators joined a translation group. These articles include the reports by western medias (such as CNN, Newsweek, BBC, etc), knowledge about earthquake forecast, rescue, disease prevention. For example, one translator finished <Epidemics after Natural Disasters> by World Health Organization 4 day after the earthquake. Webtizens have helped to spread the word about these great resources on what to do scientifically after the disaster. (see here, here, here and here)

Zhang Lei even contacted Dr.Barbera Joseph from George Washington University and consulted him about crisis and disaster management. Here is the abstract of his post on Yeeyan blog:

请译言的读者、译者、合作伙伴、媒体广为转载本文！
今天，我与美国乔治华盛顿大学灾难、危机、风险管理学院（ICDRM）主任约瑟夫·巴贝拉博士（Barbera, Joseph）通了电话，听取了他对 四川地震紧急应对状况的看法。巴贝拉博士提出下述几点呼吁：
*第一：目前最关键的问题，是救援的决策者**决定**何时停止**对被掩埋者的搜救工作。* 巴贝拉博士紧急呼吁，*搜救工作至少应坚持到震后14天！*他提供了这样一份研究报告：《地震垮塌房屋受困幸存者时间与存活分析》（译言正在紧急翻译)…

Thank you! Yeeyan and all volunteers who have built a bridge in knowledge in face of such crisis.

I have also Interview Zhang Lei on phone about two weeks’ ago. Here is what I learned from him about the team, product and plan.

Q: Why did you and your other two founders get this idea?

Lei: We are very interested in translation. And when we are able to read some many great and fresh contents online, we want to share them with more people in China.We were the first translators of Yeeyan.

Q: What’s your background?

Lei: I am a Tsinghua 96 alum. After I got my Master Degree on Operation Research (OR) in US I worked for Oracle in Silicon valley. Yeeyan is not my first start-up. We tried to launch fantansy sports product during 2006World Cup. As you know, it is very common that first startup fails. Yeeyan is our second baby.

Q: Could you briefly share with us the milestones Yeeyan has achieved today?

Lei:

Jul 2006: 言多必得 found; it was a platform for volunteer translators to publish articles.

Dec 2006: Yeeyan launched. It is a more open platform with more support for translation. For example, users can copy and paste the original contents into an editor, and can run machine translator before editing. Users can tag the article and join different group,such as business, literature, current issues.

Mar. 2007: Yee Pro Beta launched. It is a wikimedia platform also translators to work together for larger projects.

Q: Why do you want to turn Yeeyan into a wiki? Isn’t wiki difficult to use for most users?

Lei: We believe in the social collaboration(SC), and wiki is a great tool for SC. In the past year, we have learned that translation is addictive. It is also very time consuming. In a wiki platform, we will enable more users to work together for big projects. We want more volunteers to join us, even though they don’t have time to finish a long article, but just editing a paragraph whenever possible. A wiki platform creates the possibility.

Wikipedia is successful. I have written a very detailed guide on how to use wiki on editing. I don’t think the technical aspect is a problem.

Q: What’s the status after you launched Beta?

Lei: There are 4 completed projects (including “Long Tail” which has been completed before) and 14 on going projects. It is pretty amazing.

Q: What are the difficulties you have in the past 18 months?

Lei: In Chinese websphere, except of Baidu Zhidao(百度知道), there are not many communities generating high quality contents. Good news is that we don’t need to translate ourselves now. lol. The community is generating 30+ pieces a day. The one big challenge we are facing is that we don’t know much big the UGC market is in China/Chinese.

Q: I know you have quite some Techcrunch translations. What are the most popular contents ?

Lei: A lot. Yes, technology, entrepreneur, business, these are what we ourselves are interested in. Arts and literatuer, current issues are also very popular. Curently, we have 5000+ articles contributed by 1500+ active translators.

Q: How do you guarantee the quality of the translating works? What about copy right issue？

Lei: We have a feature called “眉批”, a sticky note like feature with which readers can always comment on the translating for correction or improvement or whatever. Readers can also rate the work.

We think a published piece of content online is meant to be distributed and shared, especially blog posts. We encourage translators to inform the authors before publishing. And we will take down the contents if the authors disaprove. So far, we get permission from some prominent bloggers such as Guy Kawasaki, Fred Wilson (A VC)and haven’t received any ”complaints” from the authors.

Q: What about your other team members? Are you full time?
Lei: The other two founders are Ding Ding (丁丁) and Zhao Jiamin (赵嘉敏). At early stage, we three did technology, product and marketing together. Now, Ding Ding is more focusing on product, Jiamin is on contents/editing and I am repsonsible for media and marketing. Jiamin and I are full time for Yeeyan. Jianmin is now in Beijing leading a team.

Q: Are you in need for any financial funding?

Lei: We are talking very closely with a few VCs.

-End

More coverages of Yeeyan from the web and media:

• YeeYan Translates Blogs Posts Into Chinese - ReadWriteWeb
• A window to the world (China Daily)
• web2.0时代背景下的网络翻译与创业 (Chinese)
• Interview of Zhao Jiamin (Life Weekly,三联周刊) (Chinese)

The current projects on Yee Pro.

A Yeeyan fans meet-up in Beijing early this year.

Juan Zeng, the English teacher in Chengdu who wrote us a long report on how her students walked out of the death zone from Qingcheng Mountain has sent me another report. It is a little dated when we count by hour or even minute after the earthquake. She told me that she feels the need to express what she is experienceing and she doesn’t know who she should talk to. We didn’t edit her post and she is not a journalist. Her narration could show you a different picture of the earthquake from main stream media. -Min Guo

People were suffering after the earthquake.

It was 15th of May, at night, in Sichuan Technology University Chengdu Arts College(四川理工成都美术学院)。I think by then, we should call the end of the first stage of the earthquake, although the aftershock comes on and off all the time.

It is 10a.m., in the anti—earthquake center of my college, where I ran into my students. (more…)

Elliott: This post does not reflect the opinions of my co-bloggers, they are solely my own.

Robert Scoble, this one’s for you.

Via Fuzheado on Twitter, Robert Scoble posted on the three day mourning period (translation of the edict on Shanghaiist) and why it was bad:

This is why I’ll fight to the death to protect our freedom of speech…Government control of its people starts with how it treats its media.

Comments on the topic were already ensuing on FriendFeed. This post highlights what I think Westerners don’t understand about China and Chinese people don’t understand about the West.

I felt the opinions of Robert Scoble and the Twitterati (or is it really FriendFeedrati?) were off base and I tried to get away with a rant and Scoble rebuked me into explaining myself. So here goes… (more…)

It’s official: China will enter into three days of mourning beginning Monday, May 19, 2008 through to Wednesday, May 21, 2008. Recreational facilities will be suspended as citizens from around the nation remember their compatriots hit by this recent tragic earthquake.

At 14:28 on Monday, sirens and horns will sound for three full minutes to remember the victims of this terrible tragedy. The Olympic Torch Relay has also been halted for three days, this, too, to remember the recent disaster. On Twitter, we also hear news that CRI (China Radio International) may be planning something of a very different nature — instead of their regular music and lively chat. Things will, indeed, look somber, even over the airwaves.

Yours truly will be observing the nationwide period of mourning, too. All Twitter accounts (@DavidFeng in particular) will have their icons changed to a black square to indicate the period of mourning, and the davidfeng.com website will also change so that a message of mourning and grief takes the place of the normal web site. New projects which are slated to start this time will be pushed back for at least three days, and reduced updates will be the norm as everyone around us remembers those who lost their lives in this recent tragedy.

Recently, the earthquake has been virtually the sole topic all around town, in particular in one of yours truly’s gigs (the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall), but also, more significantly, around Twitter. Of somewhat of an odder note is the fact that the quake has somewhat disappeared from the (more…)