December 2005 China News

SHANGHAI, China (CNN) -- Just like the U.S. tech boom of the 90s, China's Net entrepreneurs are young, smart and riding the crest of a wave.

Young, wired and hooked -- the country's online tribe is massive, and its members are itching to get their fix.

For e-commerce execs, this place looks like the mother lode, but there is just one hitch -- China has a notoriously fragmented banking system.

There are too many ways to pay, from online game cards, debit cards, international debit cards, local credit cards, bank wires, post wires, and last but not least, cash.

Kwan's company offers a fast, safe and streamlined way for Chinese Web users to pay online.

"I used one bank card to pay for one item. The payment took one week to settle. Then to mail in it took another 10 days. So it took 15 days before I could see the item. That was the old days; today it's getting better," he told CNN.

After one year in the business, Kwan's company is quickly gaining on rivals Alipay and Paypal China and already has about 1.6 million users.

Not bad, but still a drop in the bucket in the land of 100 million Internet users.

China's "Net-izens" venture online mainly for news and social interaction. And in the off-chance they make an impulse buy, they whip out the cash.

At online book retailer Dangdang.com, the majority of customers still pay using renminbi (meaning "people's currency") on delivery.

But it is early days -- Net users are warming up to the idea of online payment. And besides, most of them are students. When they mature, their online buying power will skyrocket.

And when it takes off, e-commerce will have a distinctly Chinese feel. Mobile technology will play a huge role. There are three times as many mobile users as Internet users in China.

Kwan's 99bill already offers payment through mobile phones, signaling that e-commerce in China is making significant progress.

And as for the transport of goods bought online -- most deliveries are still done by a guy on a bicycle. I guess another startup will have to handle that one.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. plans to explore making hybrid cars for China with its main partner in the country, targeting their introduction by 2008.

Beijing, concerned that an energy shortage could slam the brakes on rip-roaring economic growth, is increasingly open to the idea of hybrids on its roads.

Hybrids burn less fuel by adding one or more electric motors to a standard gasoline or diesel engine. The batteries help power the vehicle and recharge by capturing energy during braking.

The world's largest auto maker and SAIC Motor Corp. Ltd. said they signed an initial agreement over the weekend to explore the production of energy-efficient vehicles in China -- an extension of an earlier alliance to run hybrid bus trials in Shanghai.

That pact came just a month after Volkswagen A.G., GM's main Chinese rival, unveiled plans to begin making hybrids by 2008 with Shanghai Automotive -- SAIC Motor's parent.

"To make this happen, we need to bring down costs and build the necessary infrastructure -- and the best way to do that is by business and government working together," GM chief executive Rick Wagoner said in a statement issued over the weekend.

China is the world's largest consumer of oil after the United States, importing more than a third of its oil needs. Beijing has said it wants to raise the average fuel efficiency on vehicles by 15 percent by 2010 from 2003's levels.

To do so, it has said it would support research into alternative powertrains -- such as hybrids and cleaner diesel engines -- while also exploring fuel-cell vehicles.

Last September, Toyota Motor Corp said it would start building its Prius hybrid sedans in China with FAW Group in a step it hopes would promote the vehicles as the global standard for fuel-efficient cars.

The Prius, first launched in Japan in 1997, has emerged as the most popular hybrid.

China #1 for tourism by 2017?

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will become the world's top tourist destination by 2017, three years earlier than World Tourism Organization predictions.

The WTO has forecast China will receive 137 million inbound tourists in 2020, but that goal will likely be achieved earlier due to the current boom in tourism, Xinhua said, citing an official at the National Tourism Administration.

China received 41.76 million tourists who spent at least one night last year, ranked fourth in the world. France was number one.

China earned $25.7 billion from tourism last year, Xinhua said, providing jobs for some six million people.

But increasing numbers of Chinese are also travelling overseas, many for the first time, as years of double-digit economic growth puts more money in people's pockets.

Almost 29 million Chinese went abroad on holiday last year, the report added, making China the single largest source of tourists in Asia.

That number is expected to reach 50 million by 2010, Xinhua said.

Source

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- China plans to put three men into space within the next two years as it looks ahead to an orbiting space station and a mission to the moon.

In October, China successfully completed its second manned space mission aboard the Shenzhou VI, and is now developing a series of new craft up to the Shenzhou X, two Beijing newspapers said.

The Shenzhou VII would carry three people and be launched within the next two years, the Beijing Morning Post said.

But the Shenzhou VIII and IX would only carry equipment for the planned orbiting space station, the newspaper said, quoting chief rocket designer Liu Zhusheng.

Shenzhou X would carry the people who will work in the space station, Liu told the newspaper, without giving a timeframe for its launch.

But he said once the space station project got under way, Shenzhou VIII, VI and X could be launched within a month of each other.

"Once one part has gone up, we need to immediately send up the next bit to connect it, so we'll carry out a series of quick launches in succession," Zhu said.

China is also designing a rocket that can carry a payload of 25 tonnes into space, up from a present limit of eight tonnes, the Beijing News said, though it would unlikely be ready for another six-and-a-half years.

Another objective is to put a man on the moon, but that plan could be complicated due to China's current inability to land and then recover a craft from the surface, the report said.

"Though we have already achieved a high level of successful technology, success does not necessarily mean the technology is mature," the newspaper quoted another rocket designer, Yang Hong, as saying.

China put its first man in space aboard Shenzhou V in October 2003, giving China membership in the exclusive club of countries that have put a man into space.

The former Soviet Union and the United States first sent men into orbit in 1961.

State media has put the cost of developing the whole Shenzhou program at about $2.3 billion, a fraction of the $16 billion budget of NASA, the U.S. space agency, for 2005 alone.