Asia New Business

Disney-Pixar: It's a Wrap

2006-01-24T18:03:00.000+08:00

BusinessWeek reports on this tectonic deal. What an awesome win for tech and media consumers! This is tantamount to an Apple Disney merger, without the banking fees and integration headaches!

Free Flu Vaccinations in Hong Kong

2005-11-07T11:47:00.000+08:00

Xinhua reports a program started today by the HK government to give a quarter million free flu vaccinations to certain parts of society including poultry workers, some pediatric outpatients, some of the elderly, and some workers in related industries. Good move.

Bird flu business thoughts: I know it's morbid but...

2005-11-07T11:00:00.000+08:00

With the Hong Kong Flu Watch in full swing, I can't help but imagine what the business environment would look like. One thing is possible if this happens: much greater need for home delivery. As we saw from SARS, people were loath to go out, and retail pretty much ground to a halt. People still need to eat. All entertainment will likely be at home. Country parks or anything outdoorsy still

RedTacton

2005-02-23T08:31:00.000+08:00

RedTacton Human Area Networking (HAR?). Hat's off to our Japanese neighbours for putting this out. The line is definitely blurred between fact and fiction...we'll end up with body spamming soon. Thanks Dwayne!

Turn any iPod into an iPod Shuffle in 3 easy steps! on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

2005-01-13T09:58:00.000+08:00

Turn any iPod into an iPod Shuffle in 3 easy steps! on Flickr - Photo Sharing! Hahaha! Thanks Engadget for pointing this out...

Text messages aid disaster recovery

2005-01-07T13:25:00.000+08:00

BBC NEWS | Technology | Text messages aid disaster recovery SMS is one of the most robust telecommunication media available and the authors in the above article got that part right. The challenges faced by the 'Alert Retrieval Cache' concept, as it was loosely defined, is sketched out below, and the recommended solutions are attached as well. 1: Objective of usage: The technology solves what

The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog

2005-01-03T15:15:00.000+08:00

The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog This is a valuable use of technology. Shout out to the tech providers who do this free of charge to the end user.

Hong Kong is 2nd most broadband connected economy

2004-09-14T18:16:00.000+08:00

According to the ITU, Hong Kong ranks number two in the world in terms of broadband penetration, at 18%. This, just after Korea at 23.3%. Let's hope the little ex-colony can come up with some hot innovation like what Korea has done over the past several years in broadband gaming, mobile technologies, and generally things technological. Thanks to RED HERRING for the heads up.

"Phone Book", anyone?

2004-09-14T01:22:00.000+08:00

As reported by Smart Mobs, this was an IHT article about the use of the phone as the reading media for super short novellettes, in this case by a Chinese author. It makes a huge amount of sense...for Chinese language even more so than English due to the denser encoding of Chinese words. 70 character Chinese sms's can convey more than the 160 character english sms. What we need now are long subway

A Truly Great Post about Apple

2004-08-16T18:54:00.000+08:00

Hats off to John Gruber on his salient piece "Daring Fireball: Why 2004 Won't Be Like 1984". Quite simply a thoughtful and amazing summary of the state of the art (of business) at Apple. Amid the hullaballoo over Jobs' unwillingness to license the iPod platform, being compared to a deja vu of Apple's previous unwillingness to license the Mac platform, John argues that in fact the iPod situation

RFID in Japanese Restaurants

2004-08-12T18:29:00.000+08:00

Kaiten-sushi Restaurants are upping the technology ante in the land of the rising sun. People think of inventory tracking applications for the mighty RFID tags. Well, think sushi. In case you haven't tried Kaiten-sushi, it's basically sushi served on a conveyor belt around a sushi counter. The chef whips up the sushi on a plate, usually two to a plate, and the plate then travels on the conveyor

One Cool SMS Application

2004-07-29T12:43:00.000+08:00

comp0804smsbike_A Originally uploaded by joncheng. Tipped off by Smart Mobs, this has to be the coolest sms application I've seen. Popular Science reports this hacktivist using his bike to receive sms text messages, print them on the road with a chalk printer and with him navigating the bike to do the rendering, then phlogging the whole thing, along with gps data. Brilliant. Large format

2004-07-27T17:41:00.000+08:00

Wi-Fi Networking News: NY Times Looks at AirPort Wi-Fi Finally! The days of scarce wifi in U.S. airports may numbered.

2004-07-22T14:53:00.000+08:00

Excited to have met with a new friend today doing a super cool new Asian business Thelicatessen. Fantastic idea, fantastic product, great packaging, great looking website.

2004-07-20T20:53:00.000+08:00

Man this is pretty psycho...Poetry Jam

A Big Day!!

2004-07-20T20:13:00.000+08:00

Champagne flowing and red carpet out to welcome my dear cousin Gav! Good to see you here man! brooose Originally uploaded by joncheng.

2004-07-20T14:27:00.000+08:00

While, we're at it, Asia needs a cool little kiddy clothing design company like this one: Jeeto!™

2004-07-20T12:43:00.000+08:00

AMAZING VISUAL DESIGNS Asia needs a studio like this, no question. What? They're from Canada?!

2004-07-20T11:57:00.000+08:00

Whether you're Hot or Not depends not on the idea itself but the part of the cycle you're in. We've seen this before...mass consumerization of high end products/services. Apparently this is choice again. That's ok...it does work. But not across the board. NO-FRILLS CHIC | An emerging consumer trend and related new business ideas: ", owner of the Holiday Inn brand, is launching the Hotel Indigo

2004-07-20T11:50:00.000+08:00

This is too Cool. Engadget had the following to say... Engadget - www.engadget.com: "The Hitachi engineer behind this is obviously not looking to impress Japan’s future fiancés or its burgeoning gangsta rap community, since he’s manufactured the least blinging diamond ring in the world. The micro diamond ring has a diameter of just 0.02 mm is topped with a diamond that’s a mere 5 billionths of a

It's all in the Head

2004-07-19T15:40:00.000+08:00

Recently spoke to a top pastry chef from the U.S. who plans on moving to HK for good. Why, I asked? The answer came back: I just love Hong Kong. This is no advert for the HKTB. But the thing is there is something quite alluring about the Hong Kong attitude...we're always open for business. Things happen. Stuff gets done. Badabing. It's upward looking, always hoping

Street news

2004-07-16T15:12:00.000+08:00

Expect news from the streets of hk!------Sent from K700i

2004-07-16T13:37:00.000+08:00

As previously mentioned, the guerilla retail concept is a growing movement. This article from trendwatching.com is a pretty complete look at this new scene. The grand daddy of the trend must be VACANT, a truly inspired concept. The question that must be asked is the financial viability of these ventures. Sure the PR is great, and you sell some merchandise...but how much money can you make

2004-07-16T12:33:00.000+08:00

Recently I came across this really neat site called Halfbakery which contains halfbaked ideas. It's a pretty good place to see what wacky things occupy people's brains.

In the Beginning...

2004-07-16T12:03:00.000+08:00

You're looking at the birthplace of a thousand ideas. Or disasters. Isn't it amazing how tied we are to this keyboard? Thinking back to grade 8, straining my finger muscles to work the old mechanical typewriters, cranking out 60 words a minute was no mean feat. On this keyboard was drafted many wacky ideas. I must say there's a certain comfortable familiarity with

2004-03-25T01:16:00.000+08:00

Guerilla RetailVery cool article on what Comme des Garcons is doing.

2004-03-12T15:41:00.000+08:00

Kickbutt Real Estate Investing in Japan3 years ago this company i met with started investing in the budget business travelers' hotel sector in Japan. At that time real estate, and the rest of the economy, was still in the doldrums. These folks bought in and turned things around, betting on the recovery and the attendant growth in budget travel. They have been rewarded handsomely, with over 25%

2003-12-24T11:37:00.000+08:00

Taxi Peer to Peer Networks This innovation courtesy of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). When SARS hit Hong Kong in 2003, the economy basically went to bed. There were no visitors, no shoppers, nothing. Taxis in Hong Kong have long had one of the best reputations in the world, in terms of availability, pricing, and service (OK, that last one was a stretch). Like other parts of the

2003-12-23T11:46:00.000+08:00

é…’åº—é¢„è®¢ æœºç¥¨é¢„è®¢ æ—…æ¸¸æœ?åŠ¡ - æ?ºç¨‹æ—…è¡Œç½‘ Bubble Bubble, Toil and Trouble What a way to open up the IPO market again. CTrip, China's Expedia, went public and the punters ate it up. Stock price doubled immediately...when was the last time we saw that? Transmeta? The difference perhaps is the nature of companies accessing public markets now. A cursory glance at the summary numbers

2003-12-09T13:49:00.000+08:00

I can't help it, I know it's not "new" business exactly, but I just have to weigh in on the current H-share fever.... does it make anyone else nervous that Great Wall Automotive was so oversubscribed in the retail market that people are comparing it to the Tom.com IPO? Is there a bubble in the works? A friend of mine once said, about HK, as soon as people start queueing up for things (Snoopy's,

2003-12-05T11:49:00.000+08:00

Northward, Ho! Been up to Shanghai couple of times now...amazing how many people you bump into there who recently parachuted into the glittering land of gold. The business activity is amazing, with new restaurants, ventures, partnerships getting launched. There is a degree of recklessness that makes blood rush to one's head, in a way similar to the feeling generated by being in an ever

2003-11-05T12:18:00.000+08:00

China! Ho-hum you say. Indeed! Yet true...China is the future. In particular, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangdong, etc. The local market is alive and well and growing and learning, at a rate that would surprise visitors. Consumer spending is growing and the anecdotes abound. Premium brands are now increasingly eschewing Hong Kong in favor of landing first, and straight, into the

2003-10-14T15:34:00.000+08:00

No News is Good News?? A week plus has gone by without new postings...what's up? Here's what's up...business activity is heating up all over. We're seeing a lot of m&a activity, a lot of nda's getting signed, commercial deals getting struck, due diligence occuring. Does this mean new businesses are getting birthed? You bet. People are beginning to take risks again: a necessary requirement for

2003-09-29T11:51:00.000+08:00

20/20 Investing Having been in the funds business for a number of years, James Chen decided to roll the dice on starting his own venture. The hedge fund business is not new and yet there is still room for new entrants. We had a chance to catch up with James to see how his shop fared in the recent past, facing some difficult markets in Asia. Q: What is Vision Investment? A: Vision Investment

2003-09-25T15:51:00.000+08:00

Food for Thought from Tokyo Dominic Penaloza has had a colorful background in banking, private equity, and in startup-land. It looks like he's finally found his home. The hardcore entrepreneur braved nights on the mattress in the office to grow his baby to become a healthy, profitable business in the dotcom world (of all places). Not for the faint of heart. I recently caught up with him and

2003-09-24T15:48:00.000+08:00

Voyages' voyage to Hong Kong Just came back from the contract signing ceremony where I represented Voyages Television, signing with Hong Kong Broadband's cable television service. That makes it two: Voyages will be carried on NOW Broadband TV and HK Broadband TV. Voyages Television HK will bring its 24 hour travel shopping channel to Hong Kong audiences. The whole arena of direct response

2003-09-23T10:10:00.000+08:00

Hotting Up Talking to a lot of folks in the market place and there is an unmistakable smell in the air of greed and deals. Buyers, who have been on the prowl, are now seen hunting in broad daylight. Sectors receiving the most attention are still the value propositions: low p/e's, restructuring opportunity, tiny market cap's. Obviously people are still trying to keep a lid on it but the M&A

2003-09-20T15:40:00.000+08:00

Not so new Media Business in China - an exclusive interview with Robby Yung Robby cut his entrepreneurial teeth back in the early days of cable television and wireless telecommunications in southern China, after having served a stint with U.S. based Metromedia. I've lost track of the number of startups he has been involved with. Hearing he's been on the move recently in the PRC I dropped in to

2003-09-19T18:35:00.000+08:00

Looks like it'll be a fiiiiiiine weekend in HK. Have a good one, wherever you are!

2003-09-19T18:30:00.000+08:00

Japan - Land of the Rising Hopes Heard through the grapevine that Dom Penaloza, founder of Hungryforwords, is on to some very cool new extension to his core business. Hoping to get his interview here soon...exclusively on Asianewbiz! Stay tuned, happy readers. You all are soooo lucky.

2003-09-19T18:11:00.000+08:00

Was just up in Beijing this past week, and things are booming there. Besides the huge contingent of ex-IANDI'ers there, new companies seem to be sprouting up every day. The media business is undergoing a huge wave of consolidation, with state-owned companies losing their support (forced subscriptions), and the foreign companies are hungrily waiting for quality assets. Not sure what it's like in

2003-09-19T17:40:00.000+08:00

Mongolian Entrepreneurship! Caught on camera by Newsweek: Lee Cashell, formerly of Jafco, talking about building businesses in Mongolia. In true pioneer fashion this man is going to open up the wild wild west of China...all except slinging guns. As reported, there are at least two businesses underway: a huge upscale resort and the first real estate agency. More on this as info comes through.

2003-09-19T16:40:00.000+08:00

So, are we going to get lots of good gossip here, or are all those people still on xxxxxx?

2003-09-19T15:12:00.000+08:00

Welcome to Asia New Business, the blog about all the joys, pains, excitement, and plain old work involved in starting and running and making/losing money on new businesses. We'll do our best to keep you current on the latest new business news and happenings. Enjoy the show.