Archives: August 2008

India Wins Gold in Astronomy Olympiad

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 31

India may not have done all that well in Beijing - one gold medal winner and just three medals overall at the Olympics - but Indians will always have Bandung....

Nintendo Forecasts: What downturn?

Posted by: Kenji Hall on August 29

In April, analysts were down on Nintendo because the company appeared to be losing steam. For one, Nintendo's financial forecasts suggested that, this year, the company would not match the...

The Beijing Olympics and Openness in China

Posted by: Dexter Roberts on August 28

I've just been reviewing reader comments on the recent story I did "Beijing Olympics: Winners and Losers," August 25, 2008. Thanks for the varied comments. To a number of you...

Sydney Olympics Faked Entire Symphony Performance

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on August 28

Thanks to an alert reader of my Lip-Synching blog, it comes to my attention that the faking of Lin Miaoke's performance at the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics has...

Turnaround for Hong Kong Disneyland?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 28

After a very difficult few years, Hong Kong Disneyland may finally be winning over Chinese people. The South China Morning Post reports today that the park will record 5.6 million...

Inflation Shines Spotlight on Japan's Penny-Pinching Geniuses

Posted by: Kenji Hall on August 27

Only in Japan would a housewife taping plastic flaps to the shelves inside her fridge make it to prime-time TV. Of course, she wasn't just accessorizing her fridge. She was...

Is Tata's Nano the new Austin Mini?

Posted by: Ian Rowley on August 27

Earlier this week, I wrote a story for BusinessWeek.com about the protests enveloping the plant which is slated to soon commence production of the $2,500 Tata Nano, the world's...

Taiwan Joins Medical Tourism Bandwagon

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 26

Now it's the Taiwanese who want to get into the medical-tourism business. Till now, hospitals in Singapore, Thailand and India have been the most aggressive in trying to attract patients...

Advice to India's Tata: Build the Nano Car in China

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on August 25

Here’s an admittedly controversial suggestion for Ratan Tata: Why not build the Nano minicar in China? That would be a nifty way to side-step the problems plaguing his one lakh...

Olympic Games close with Jimmy Page, David Beckham and Boris Johnson

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on August 25

I can’t remember 18 days going by so quickly, yet on Sunday, the Beijing Games finally wrapped up with yet another impressive fireworks display—this time without any computer-generated enhancements. And...

A Korean Takeover of Lehman Could Be a Disaster

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on August 23

News reports speculate government-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) may still buy distressed Lehman Brothers after Financial Times’ said earlier this week secret talks to sell up to 50% of Lehman...

Great Firewall of China silences iTunes

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on August 21

In what appears to be the latest example of the long arm of Chinese censorship, the authorities have been blocking access to the iTunes library for the past several days....

Nike tweaks Olympic ad with Liu Xiang

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on August 20

You have to hand it to Nike for being quick on its feet. Within 24 hours of the heartbreaking departure of Chinese superstar hurdler Liu Xiang on Monday, Nike’s ad...

From the BBC: ‘Condom, Condom’ Ad in India

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 20

Check out this funny video from the BBC World Service Trust, the charitable arm of the British broadcaster. In case you can’t access the 55-second video, it shows an Indian...

India Anti-Abortion Activists Target Google, Yahoo and Microsoft

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 19

The big three American Internet companies are facing what could be trouble in India, trouble that could also spill over into problems back home. India has a serious gender-imbalance problem;...

Olympic Success Cannot Lift Shanghai Stocks

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on August 19

It sure looks like even China’s mighty Olympic gold medal tally isn't enought to lift investor spirits in China. The Shanghai Composite Index touched a new 20 month low on...

Sony Ericsson's Answer (in Several Parts) to the iPhone?

Posted by: Kenji Hall on August 18

The release of Sony Ericsson’s Xperia mobile phone is still a couple of months away but there’s a lot of buzz in the blogosphere about it. The X1 was first...

With Musharraf gone, what's next for Pakistan?

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on August 18

Call it a pre-emptive defensive strike. Faced with imminent impeachment proceedings against him, President Pervez Musharraf resigned today. I can’t say we didn’t see it coming. Musharraf had cancelled...

Emerging Markets Give Japanese Company Profits a Boost

Posted by: Ian Rowley on August 18

The last quarter wasn't a good one for Japan's economy. According to government figures released last week, the world's second largest economy contracted by 0.6% (2.4% annualized) in the April-June...

Chinese Condom Maker Scores Ambush Marketing Olympic Gold

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on August 15

Following on our ongoing discussion of ambush marketing at the Olympic Games prompted by Li Ning's air walk, here's another cheeky attempt to free-ride on the Games. According to the...

Chinese prefer Real Thing to Olympic Lip-Syncher

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on August 15

Here’s an update on the lip-synching controversy surrounding the Olympic opening ceremony, suggesting that it’s not just we foreign media who are stirring things up. Here’s some interesting evidence that...

Beijing Olympic Official Takes Media Coverage of China To Task

Posted by: Dexter Roberts on August 15

The head of Beijing’s organizing committee for the Olympics has responded angrily to Western reporters asking about China’s promise to allow dissidents to speak out. This follows just days after...

On the Downgrade of Chartered Semiconductor

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 14

Another example today of just how hard it is to make it in the semiconductor industry. Chartered Semiconductor, the Singapore-based chip foundry that’s long been considered one of the top...

Olympic Harassment of Reporters and China Activists Continues

Posted by: Dexter Roberts on August 14

Even as new Olympics records are set and an overall spirit of festivity prevails in Beijing, there is more bad news for some journalists and activists. A British journalist covering...

Talking Points: the iPhone's Impact in Japan

Posted by: Kenji Hall on August 13

When the iPhone arrived in Japan, skeptics said it would be a disappointment because Japanese handsets were already as good as Apple's offering, while Mac-philes predicted it would spur Japanese phone makers to come up with fancier designs. They were both wrong.

Lip-Synching Ghost of Milli Vanilli haunts Olympic Ceremony

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on August 12

We were all awed by the tremendous artistry of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, especially the pyrotechnic display. But then organizers admitted that artistic director Zhang Yimou included...

China to Pass U.S. as World’s Top Manufacturer

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 12

The economic news from China right now isn’t great: Factories are hurting, exports are down and the inflation figures are mixed (today’s consumer price inflation figure was an encouragingly moderate...

Bill Gates, Chinese Badminton Fan

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 11

Why didn’t Microsoft think of this earlier? Bill Gates is in Beijing for the Games and today went to see the Chinese badminton team’s Bao Chunlai defeat a player from...

Li Ning pulls off Olympic-sized Marketing Ambush

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on August 10

Of the four billion or so people watching the spectacular Olympics opening ceremony, its hard to imagine anyone being more nonplussed than Adidas chairman and CEO Herbert Hainer. Poor guy,...

August 8: Olympics Day - and Father's Day, Too

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 08

Here we are, the eighth day of the eighth month, the start of the Beijing Olympics. But long before 8/8 made it on everyone's calendar as Opening Day for the...

Asian Booze Brands Outsell Western Alcohol

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on August 07

Here’s quick quiz for all you tipplers out there: name the two top selling liquor brands in the world. Here’s a hint—they both hail from Asia, at least according to...

Sony, Bertelsmann End Unstable Music Marriage

Posted by: Kenji Hall on August 06

After a four-year music alliance that was marred by management infighting, Japan’s Sony and Bertelsmann of Germany said yesterday that they have agreed to part ways (pending U.S. regulatory approval)....

U.S. Olympic Athletes and Those Face Masks

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 06

Not exactly the nicest way to show thanks to your hosts: According to this story from Reuters, six members of the U.S. Olympic cycling team arrived at the Beijing airport...

Honda Emerges as Top Foreign Car Brand in Korea

Posted by: Ihlwan Moon on August 05

Lofty oil prices must have created a tough environment for all automakers. Yet Honda is beating its own sales target in Korea where it is now the No. 1 import...

Falun Gong, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Taiwan

Posted by: Dexter Roberts on August 05

"Drastic action that attracts a crowd or affects public order"--that's now the only time that Beijing police are supposed to intervene and stop public speeches. The internal document viewed by...

'Black Knight' and Hong Kong's Skyscrapers

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 05

Some property developers might be peeved with 'The Dark Knight,' as I wrote about on the Eye on Asia blog recently, but executives at local five-star hotel chain Shangri-La know...

Sony Ups the Ante on Batteries

Posted by: Kenji Hall on August 04

What is it about Japanese companies and batteries? Today, Sony announced that it would spend $370 million to boost its output of lithium-ion batteries used in laptop computers, cameras, cellphones...

Is Peer-to-Peer Sharing The Same As Stealing?

Posted by: Kenji Hall on August 01

"This debate of piracy vs. business is a false proposition." If Jamie King's statement sounds anti-Establishment, that's exactly how he intended for everyone to hear it. King is a member...

Does China Want Foreign Tourists at the Games?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 01

Given how hard the Chinese government is making it for people to get visas, maybe the answer is no, Beijing isn’t all that concerned about attracting lots of foreign visitors....