China Watch Blog

China Watch Blog has learnt that with Google’s Instant Preview here to stay, leading search marketing specialist and technology firm Greenlight, has 2011 pegged as “web design year”.

Greenlight predicts Google and Bing will offer app search before the year is out, as competition between the two hots up and duplication filters to get even tougher as the search engines take more drastic measures to limit the amount of resource they spend on less valuable content.

For paid search, Greenlight predicts 2011 will be the year display marketing starts to mirror much of what is search in practice. It expects there to be huge growth in the contextual based pay-per-click (PPC) model – pulling away from the search engine domain to advertisers such as such as eBay or Amazon and the Yahoo! “Rich ads in Search” proposition to take off, prompting Google to counter with a more appealing model.

These are just a few of Greenlight’s top 10 predictions in its annual ‘Year in Review Briefing’, charting what’s in store for natural and paid search marketing in 2011.

It also looks back at what unfolded in 2010, surprises included, and how its predictions panned out. Among others they included Google factoring in the content of videos into page relevancy scores and the search giant finding more ways to monetise the excess inventory in AdWords, to internet use on mobile phones accelerating and mobile search taking off.

Greenlight’s top 10 predictions for paid and natural search in 2011 include:

1. Google and Bing will offer app search before the year is out

2. Display marketing will mirror much of what is search in practice

3. Google versus Bing – competition will hot up

4. Yahoo! “Rich ads in Search” proposition will take off, prompting Google to consider offering display style ads within the search engine results page (SERPs)

5. Too much content on the web

6. There will be massive growth in the contextual based PPC model – pulling away from the search engine domain to advertisers such as eBay or Amazon

7. Instant Previews are here to stay, making 2011 “web design year”

8. Pre-targeting, Re-targeting, Re-marketing – all will be a prerequisite of any search strategy

9. Quick Response (QR) codes will replace “search online” calls to action in above the line (ATL) advertising

10. Google comparison ads will be rolled out across all finance (and perhaps more) vertical keywords

China Watch Blog agrees with the slogan that if you can imagine it, you can achieve it – but some do it the wrong way.

Some people who wanted to make a fast buck selling apples at the wholesale markets in Beijing decided that it would be faster to make an extra buck by lining cardboard boxes with cement together with the apples.

Customers who were cheated in this manner have complained to the authorities, who now require apple sellers at the wholesale markets to provide their contact information printed on the cardboard boxes containing the apples to crackdown on the cheats, the Shandong Business Daily reported.

The ruling was introduced after some unscrupulous wholesalers were found selling apples by weight in cardboard boxes lined with cement.

China Watch Blog has learnt that it was a dream come true for a 77-year old grandma from Wuhan, who chatted with her lover from 57 years ago via an internet video link-up on Saturday, bringing her happiness, the Chutian Metropolis Daily reports.

Reporters from Hubei and Sichuan helped the woman locate the man, who is 83.

The two broke up in 1954, but the grandma said she had always kept him in her heart.

China Watch Blog has learnt that sharp-eyed netizens have noticed that Shenzhen city’s list of candidates for low-income apartments includes some people who drive expensive cars and live in high-end neighborhoods.

The nearly 5,300 households on the list show family assets below the benchmark of 320,000 yuan ($48,300), according to a China Daily report.

However, the housing authority has said some of the data, including out-of-town securities, financial earnings as well as vehicle values, are not yet available.

“We published the list at the end of the year with a view to showcase the progress we had made over the issue, but it turned out to be improper,” Hu Jianwen, spokesman of the housing authority, said, adding that the bureau has evidence of cheating involving more than 20 households, which will face punishment.

Regulations state that fraudulent applicants can be deprived of the right to apply for three years. But some fear the punishment is not enough to stop people from forging information in a bid to buy the houses for profit.

In contrast to Shenzhen, the neighbouring city of Hong Kong considers it a crime to make fake statements when applying for a public house, and violators face fines up to HK$50,000 (US$6,430) or six months in jail.

Chen Aipin, secretary-general of the Shenzhen Housing Research Institute, said one of the issues is that the government-funded houses can be traded in five years.

“It leaves a lot of room for making a profit, so no system can prevent some of the applicants providing fake information,” he told Nanfang Daily.

The average housing price of the city exceeded 18,900 yuan per square meter last year, but the first batch of government-funded apartments for the low-income offered in 2008 were priced between 4,000 to 5,000 yuan per square meter.

Though the price has not been decided yet for the ongoing second batch, the big price gap and possible profits from trading five years later are attractive to applicants.

About 35 percent of the 8,148 initial applicants have so far been found unqualified, official figures show. The list will continue to receive public scrutiny until Jan 14, according to the Shenzhen Bureau of Housing and Construction.

China Watch Blog has learnt that Mainland China’s automobile market registered the highest annual sales in the history of the global automobile industry in 2010, far surpassing those of the United States for a second consecutive year.

That came as successful stimulus measures from local governments, and a strong economy, boosted the nation’s vehicle sales by more than 30 percent, according to a China Daily report.

Domestic auto sales jumped 32.37 percent to 18.06 million vehicles in 2010, said the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on Monday. The figure far outstripped the expected 11.5 million units of sales in the US last year.

Moreover, the nation sold 13.76 million passenger vehicles, including cars, sports-utility vehicles (SUVs), multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs) and minivans in 2010, surging 33.2 percent year-on-year, said the association.

China’s December auto sales hit a monthly record high of 1.3 million units in 2010, as buyers flocked to catch the last opportunity for tax incentives for small cars and subsidies for trade-ins, as well to take advantage of Beijing’s quota policy on car purchases.

China Watch Blog has learnt that China’s trade surplus narrowed in 2010 for the second straight year – helped by increased domestic demand – and the trend is expected to continue for the first half of 2011.

According to economists citing figures released by the General Administration of Customs on Monday, the trade surplus for 2010 totalled $183.1 billion, down 6.4 percent from a year earlier.

The news of a smaller trade surplus came just a week before President Hu Jintao’s visit to the United States and shows that China is rebalancing its economy toward greater domestic consumption and boosting the world economy with a greater demand for imports.

The balance of trade and yuan or renminbi appreciation will top discussions between China and its trade partners including the US, the China Daily reported, citing economists.

“China is going through a transition from an export-driven economy to one driven by domestic demand,” Ted Dean, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, told China Daily.

“It’s important, necessary and happening,” Dean said, adding that the changing growth model means greater opportunities for US companies in China.

Increasing domestic demand will open up new markets for US companies in sectors such as services, retail and technology, Dean said.