The week started more smoothly for me in Shanghai than for Mayor Chen -- who was denounced for a multi-billion yuan fraud -- as I went to the original home of the Communist party for the IPTV trade show and learnt about how millions of Chinese live on-line. 
Instead of talking about the marketing opportunities for a metal sourcing company, I found myself facing ‘Haphazard’ and learning about about the World of Warcraft (WOW) . The pretty, dimunitive 26 year old marketing manager is part of a silent army in China. After studying for six years in England Haphazard, aka Rai, returned to work for this metal company because her family wanted her too; one of so many young people who appear somnambulent in their day times because they work out of filial responsibility and stay up all night gaming. As soon as she leaves the office Ray joins some 5 million Chinese gamers who play WOW paying some RMB100 (US$15) per month to Vivendi generating some US$32m in revenue in Q2 of 2006 alone. (source: DFC Intelligence). “I learn to be in a team,” confided Rai as if that didn’t happen for her in the real world, instead connecting with up to 40 people at a time in a cerebral community that apparently reaches over 520,000 concurrent users. “I don’t have any friends,” she continued, “except those that I meet on-line.” I have spoken with friends about the implications of the one child policy and how this combined with filial piety has bred a potent cocktail of arrogance, loneliness and frustration. Haphazard and her friends inhabit virtual venues like Stormwind castle and Thunderbluff on a huge scale, places where there are no parents to obey nor Party to promulgate laws (this part I find appealing), creating a collaborative environment where anonymity guarantees no loss of face and avatars can be modified with money. Reading this week that the Government is considering changing the one child policy for fear of an aging population, I wonder if they also recognise the profile of this lonely petulant generation that have little motivation to work at their parent’s interests but are too cowed to steer their own path in the real world. 
One group seeking to target this generation with cash and time on their hands are those selling Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and it was for an IPTV conference that I had gone to Shanghai to meet a prospect. With over 100 million internet users and over 370 million television homes the desire to push more targeted content to the inhabitants of Stormwind castle and their less glamorous neighbours has western companies trying to tie up content deals with Chinese broadcasters and secure licences from the Government. The problem appears to be multifold. There is a battle between the Ministry of Information that controls content and the State Administration for Radio Film and TV (SARFT) that controls technology standards; which one should establish IPTV protocol? Apparently Microsoft has technology agreements with many broadcasters but has failed to deliver the IPTV platform. Meanwhile program producers and film makers struggle to generate profits because of rampant piracy, and this allied to Government limits on western programming mean that IPTV companies will not have fresh content to attract subscribers. I had a productive meeting with a content encryption company from Los Angeles and hope to replace the now departed Coding Technologies. 
Instead of leaving after the conference I stayed on in Shanghai for the Formula 1, a fitting sport for a city that is racing ahead in all aspects. I suspect that car makers install higher decibel horns for sale in cars in what is described as the New York of the Orient, and pedestrians are coralled at junctions by yellow capped ‘pedestrian control assistants’ who scold and whistle at those who step out of line. Shanghai has an amazing collection of buildings designed by international architects and a fashionable set that can be seen in places like Bar Rouge and Glamour. But most people live and eat in more down to earth places, where I picked up food, and I witnessed another quite common event. Middle aged men seated guzzling beer and gulping cigarette smoke, increasingly animated, and with one increasingly agitated. Within a short time the red shirted puce faced man was pointing at his friend, shouting abuse through his blacken broken teeth, the other two passively listening. I left before the next stage would come, which I have seen on numerous occasions. Eventually the obnoxious man would be irritated by the lack of confrontation, possibly throwing objects at his companions, after which they would coax him outside where they would switch between hugging and drunkenly slugging one another. Staff never intercedes and other diners carry on unabated. I have seen this spectacle frequently and wonder at the level of underlying tension that is erupting as these little Krakatoa’s in restaurants and bars across China. This is not the kind of ‘going out’ that Wang Zhufen of the China National Tourist Authority meant when she said they are “promoting awareness of going out and enjoying life,” during Golden Week which started on Sunday. This holiday was established in 1999 to encourage Chinese to enjoy their leisure time, with some 1.3bn recorded trips taken since then. Some 41 million people will take to the railways this week, which mattered to me because I was not allowed on the plane back to Beijing due to not travelling with my passport; the reason for which can be summarised as attempting to pass through too many administrative thickets in too short a time. The inconsistency that I could not fly to the Capital but I could enter by train did not sway the airport official, and I had to buy a RMB458 sleeper ticket for the 12 hour train ride which left at 7pm, meaning I could not catch my flight to Mongolia as planned. I sat waiting for train Z2 with a sea of travellers watching Michael Schumacher winning the Shanghai Grand Prix on ESPN, and I felt some empathy with Haphazard; In the WOW if your avatar gets into trouble all one has to do is to send another one into battle. In the WCO (World of Chinese Officialdom) ones patience is tried, tested, and inevitably fails in the face of inconsistency and impotence. Next stop Thunderbluff! NOTE 1. For another look (actually a listen) at the world of cyber gaming, check out this radio piece by Michael Switow. It aired on a US public radio programme called "Pacific Time". Listen here (MP3 file)
Instead of talking about the marketing opportunities for a metal sourcing company, I found myself facing ‘Haphazard’ and learning about about the World of Warcraft (WOW) . The pretty, dimunitive 26 year old marketing manager is part of a silent army in China. After studying for six years in England Haphazard, aka Rai, returned to work for this metal company because her family wanted her too; one of so many young people who appear somnambulent in their day times because they work out of filial responsibility and stay up all night gaming. As soon as she leaves the office Ray joins some 5 million Chinese gamers who play WOW paying some RMB100 (US$15) per month to Vivendi generating some US$32m in revenue in Q2 of 2006 alone. (source: DFC Intelligence). “I learn to be in a team,” confided Rai as if that didn’t happen for her in the real world, instead connecting with up to 40 people at a time in a cerebral community that apparently reaches over 520,000 concurrent users. “I don’t have any friends,” she continued, “except those that I meet on-line.” I have spoken with friends about the implications of the one child policy and how this combined with filial piety has bred a potent cocktail of arrogance, loneliness and frustration. Haphazard and her friends inhabit virtual venues like Stormwind castle and Thunderbluff on a huge scale, places where there are no parents to obey nor Party to promulgate laws (this part I find appealing), creating a collaborative environment where anonymity guarantees no loss of face and avatars can be modified with money. Reading this week that the Government is considering changing the one child policy for fear of an aging population, I wonder if they also recognise the profile of this lonely petulant generation that have little motivation to work at their parent’s interests but are too cowed to steer their own path in the real world. 
One group seeking to target this generation with cash and time on their hands are those selling Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and it was for an IPTV conference that I had gone to Shanghai to meet a prospect. With over 100 million internet users and over 370 million television homes the desire to push more targeted content to the inhabitants of Stormwind castle and their less glamorous neighbours has western companies trying to tie up content deals with Chinese broadcasters and secure licences from the Government. The problem appears to be multifold. There is a battle between the Ministry of Information that controls content and the State Administration for Radio Film and TV (SARFT) that controls technology standards; which one should establish IPTV protocol? Apparently Microsoft has technology agreements with many broadcasters but has failed to deliver the IPTV platform. Meanwhile program producers and film makers struggle to generate profits because of rampant piracy, and this allied to Government limits on western programming mean that IPTV companies will not have fresh content to attract subscribers. I had a productive meeting with a content encryption company from Los Angeles and hope to replace the now departed Coding Technologies. 
Instead of leaving after the conference I stayed on in Shanghai for the Formula 1, a fitting sport for a city that is racing ahead in all aspects. I suspect that car makers install higher decibel horns for sale in cars in what is described as the New York of the Orient, and pedestrians are coralled at junctions by yellow capped ‘pedestrian control assistants’ who scold and whistle at those who step out of line. Shanghai has an amazing collection of buildings designed by international architects and a fashionable set that can be seen in places like Bar Rouge and Glamour. But most people live and eat in more down to earth places, where I picked up food, and I witnessed another quite common event. Middle aged men seated guzzling beer and gulping cigarette smoke, increasingly animated, and with one increasingly agitated. Within a short time the red shirted puce faced man was pointing at his friend, shouting abuse through his blacken broken teeth, the other two passively listening. I left before the next stage would come, which I have seen on numerous occasions. Eventually the obnoxious man would be irritated by the lack of confrontation, possibly throwing objects at his companions, after which they would coax him outside where they would switch between hugging and drunkenly slugging one another. Staff never intercedes and other diners carry on unabated. I have seen this spectacle frequently and wonder at the level of underlying tension that is erupting as these little Krakatoa’s in restaurants and bars across China. This is not the kind of ‘going out’ that Wang Zhufen of the China National Tourist Authority meant when she said they are “promoting awareness of going out and enjoying life,” during Golden Week which started on Sunday. This holiday was established in 1999 to encourage Chinese to enjoy their leisure time, with some 1.3bn recorded trips taken since then. Some 41 million people will take to the railways this week, which mattered to me because I was not allowed on the plane back to Beijing due to not travelling with my passport; the reason for which can be summarised as attempting to pass through too many administrative thickets in too short a time. The inconsistency that I could not fly to the Capital but I could enter by train did not sway the airport official, and I had to buy a RMB458 sleeper ticket for the 12 hour train ride which left at 7pm, meaning I could not catch my flight to Mongolia as planned. I sat waiting for train Z2 with a sea of travellers watching Michael Schumacher winning the Shanghai Grand Prix on ESPN, and I felt some empathy with Haphazard; In the WOW if your avatar gets into trouble all one has to do is to send another one into battle. In the WCO (World of Chinese Officialdom) ones patience is tried, tested, and inevitably fails in the face of inconsistency and impotence. Next stop Thunderbluff! NOTE 1. For another look (actually a listen) at the world of cyber gaming, check out this radio piece by Michael Switow. It aired on a US public radio programme called "Pacific Time". Listen here (MP3 file)