Saturday, April 16, 2005

Demonstrations I had not planned to look at the anti-Japanese demonstrations today. But by coincidence I got right in the middle of it this afternoon. We went shopping at Carrefour in Gubei, an area where many Japanese families live. On the way there I already noticed that there were many policeman on the streets. I also noticed that the Japanese restaurants that we passed were either closed or had their names covered by sheets and their windows were covered with Chinese flags. After shopping at Carrefour I wanted to walk outside to look for a taxi when I noticed hundreds of armed police in front of the store. I wanted to pass them to get to the road, but then I saw why they were there: the demonstration was only 200 meters away from the store. It was all quite peaceful, and I don't think there were more than a few hundred people. Of course this was around 17:30, and the demonstration had started at 9 AM already, so many might have gone home already. I took some pictures and then was lucky enough to get a taxi. But after about 3 minutes in the taxi we hit another demonstration, this one was walking in the opposite direction, and seemed to be bigger. Not sure why they had not merged, they might not even know about the other group just 5 minutes away. This one also had a police car behind it that was constantly announcing something that I could not understand. This group of protesters had the same amount of police troups surrounding them, making sure things would not go out of hand. An new experience, a demonstration in China. The first one I have seen in five-and- a-half years here. Actually, I had seen another one from a distance during the Hainan spyplance incident, but I stayed away from that one, as I did not want to get in trouble myself. But it's not much different from demonstrations in Europe. Maybe a bit more police, and maybe the average age of the protesters is lower, but furthermore it was all the same. People with banners screaming inaudible slogans and lots of people on the sidewalks watching them. No violence whatsoever, at least not what I observed. But I am glad I am not Japanese, I probably would have seen the whole thing in a diffferent light then, and might have not felt so safe. 11:03:47 PM    comment []

Press release Yesterday was a busy day, because Toodou.com went live. Several journalists called with questions about the sit, and I even gave an interview on China Radio International. This is the English version of the press release that we sent out: Toodou.com: a new multimedia website that lets users create their own TV and radio channels SHANGHAI [^] April 15, 2005 Toodou.com today officially releases its multimedia website in China. Through this site users can easily publish and receive personalized content, such as audio, video and pictures. Users that produce for example a video, can upload it to their own channel on the website. Other users can download it from there, or when they like the content, even subscribe to that particular channel so that they receive all new content automatically China belongs to the countries with the highest penetration of broadband internet in the world. This means that many users can quickly upload and download files. The founders of Toodou spotted this, and saw an opportunity to launch a website that can be used for all kinds of media. Toodou founder and managing partner Gary Wang said: [base "]The original idea was to build a site mainly focused on audio-content or podcasting. However, we soon noticed that with the advanced Internet connections in China it is also possible for users to up- and download their own video content[per thou]. The website is still only in Chinese, but an English version is planned so that non-Chinese audiences can profit from the possibilities the site offers. The site was made with the user in mind: each file[base ']s description contains tags, which can added by both content providers and audience, so that users can easily search for content that is of similar nature and collaborate with each other. The user-friendly design of the site also makes browsing the site much easier. Furthermore, the site will give users a community feeling. Everybody is able to directly interact with each other through short message, email and blogs. The website is not an end of goal in itself, but the content will also be used for other purposes. Marc van der Chijs, the other founder of Toodou, comments: [base "]It is our goal to use the best video content to make TV programs for Chinese television. Revenues for this will be shared with the producers, to give them an incentive to make even better programs[per thou]. Parallel to Toodou, a similar idea was developed in the USA by former vice-president Al Gore, who is setting up current.tv for this purpose. Gary Wang continued: [base "]We were surprised to see that they developed a similar concept. But we focus on a different audience, primarily the Internet population. And of course, we are in Shanghai and they are over there at San Francisco. We don[base ']t see them as competition[per thou]. 10:47:12 PM    comment []