China Watch Blog

China Watch Blog has learnt that the country’s first regulation to guide the development of the electronic-book industry was released by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) over the weekend.

The “e-book” addressed in the regulation is specifically digital content – formatted as print, images, audio and video – that is downloaded over the Internet and read on handheld devices, such as the Amazon Kindle or the Apple iPad, China Daily reported.

The regulation, designed to improve the development of the industry by introducing an admittance system, was released following seven months of research by a panel of experts drawn up by the GAPP.

The panel said the benefits of e-books would become more apparent once traditional publishers link up with digital publishing houses.

The regulation also clearly stated that the government will support traditional publishers as they make the transition to e-publishing. There had been calls for greater cooperation between the two publishing industries before the regulation was issued.

Tong Zhilei, chairman and CEO of ChineseAll, one of the authorized public digital libraries, said that the development of the Chinese e-book industry required the participation of traditional publishers.

Wang Qian, a professor in the school of intellectual property rights at the East China University of Political Science and Law, agreed with the need for cooperation between traditional and digital publishers in the e-book industry.

According to a report by the China Internet Network Information Center, 188 million Chinese read literature online in the first six months of 2010. The market value of registered digital publications in China reached about 80 billion yuan ($12 billion) in 2009, surpassing traditional publications for the first time, though the figure included online games, advertising and other sectors. On their own, e-books currently represent only 1 percent of the sector.

As in the United States and Europe, the Chinese market has yet to agree on a single format for e-books, which is problematic for both readers and publishers. There are currently over 20 different types of e-book formats operating in China, which are compatible with different reading devices.

China Watch Blog has learnt that the value of yuan, China’s currency renminbi, has hit a new high against US dollar on Monday as the central parity rate of the yuan was set at $6.6732 per dollar, according to the data released by the China Foreign Exchange Trading System.

Monday’s central parity rate beat the previous record of 6.6830 on Oct 8, the China Daily reported.

The yuan has picked up its strength against the US dollars and seen increased volatility in the trading days since the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, announced on June 19 this year to increase exchange rate flexibility.

Based on Monday’s central parity, the Chinese currency has strengthened against the US dollar by about 2.26 percent from the rate of $6.8275 per dollar that was set a day before the PBOC’s pledge to increase flexibility.

On China’s foreign exchange spot market, the yuan can rise or fall 0.5 percent from the central parity rate during trading each day.

China would continue reform of the formation mechanism of its currency exchange rate to improve its flexibility, but will do so in a gradual way, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, China’s central bank, said in Washington on Sunday.

China Watch Blog has learnt that Shanghai-based TourBoarding.com has introduced a travel barter model that utilizes language fluency as a new form of travel currency that can be used in China or anywhere in the developing world where people yearn to improve their living circumstances via mastery of a second language such as English.

Travelers who plan to visit China can use TourBoarding.com’s bilingual
communication interface and travel barter platform to arrange a rich
variety of travel benefits from local hosts, such as home stay, tour
guiding, and Chinese language or cooking lessons.

Instead of paying cash for any of these services, travelers can pay by speaking their native language to their hosts for two hours a day, to help them achieve proficiency in their desired language. English is the most in demand, but German, Japanese, and French are also highly sought by the Chinese.

“Unlike other sites that bring travelers and hosts together, TourBoarding is the first site of its kind to offer a structured framework for travelers and hosts to barter directly with one another for services and make specific arrangements according to their own needs,” explained co-founder Ken Chen.

The framework is also designed to be flexible enough so that travelers can deviate from the framework and self-design an a la carte travel experience according to their individual tastes and preferences. TourBoarding facilitates the searching, communication, and arranging process, but leaves the final details to hosts and travelers who are responsible for making any actual exchange happen.

TourBoarding is also the first site to offer traveler and host exchanges that are grounded on the principle of reciprocity: both traveler and host give and receive a valuable benefit in the exchange. Both have an equally vested interest in ensuring the success of the exchange.

To date, many TourBoarding exchanges have been completed with positive testimonials posted on the site, demonstrating that TourBoarding’s travel barter model is sound and viable, the company claims.

Licensing opportunities are available so that this unique “high-impact
social benefit travel model” can be replicated in other developing
countries.

Even though TourBoarding is fairly new, it has become extremely
popular with the Chinese who are anxious to use the site to meet
foreigners they can host. They have signed up at a brisk pace ever
since the site was officially launched on May 1, 2010. There are now
thousands of hosts from all over China, from the first-tier cities to
the remote towns rarely frequented by foreigners.

Neal Gorenflo, visionary publisher of Shareable magazine, dubs this
growing movement “the new sharing economy.”

According to Gorenflo, “Technologies that help people share in the
real world are taking center stage. This is the decade when we answer
the question, ‘how much can we share?’ People are sharing cars,
houses, expensive electronics, and more driven by new technology,
cultural norms, and need.” Examples are available at: www.shareable.net