China Watch Blog

China Watch Blog reports that Qantas and the NSW Government have announced a new $30 million partnership to promote Sydney and regional NSW to the world.

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell and Qantas Group Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce signed the three-year agreement at Qantas’ facilities at Sydney Airport, marking the largest tourism and major events marketing partnership in the State’s history.

Qantas

Premier O’Farrell said the deal involved Qantas matching the NSW Government dollar for dollar to attract more international visitors particularly from the United States, United Kingdom, Continental Europe, China, South-East Asia, Japan and New Zealand.

“Nothing says Australia more than the unmistakeable red tail with the flying kangaroo and the home of Qantas is right here in Sydney,” O’Farrell said.

“This partnership with Qantas is the cornerstone of our strategy to increase tourism to NSW, providing a boost to our economy and helping to create more jobs.

“We will be aggressively targeting big spending leisure and business travellers from overseas which will be a boon for our hotels, restaurants and retail sector.

“This will build on our standing as the nation’s leader for international visitation and expenditure and the preferred destination for key emerging markets.

“We understand the importance of tourism to the State’s economy – that’s why we’re building a new convention and entertainment precinct at Darling Harbour and investing in partnerships like this with iconic brands like Qantas.”

Joyce said the time was right to elevate the partnership between Qantas and Destination NSW to a higher level.

“Qantas is Australia’s national airline, flying from Sydney to every continent on earth and to every corner of Australia,” Joyce said.

“Sydney is the gateway to Australia with more than 50 per cent of all international visitors to Australia arriving at Sydney Airport so it’s fitting this is the largest partnership we have ever entered into with a State Government.

“We have seen a fantastic and tangible response to work we have done with Destination NSW in the past and we think working more closely will result in more people visiting NSW and flying Qantas.”

The partnership – which sees both the NSW Government and Qantas invest $15 million each over the three years – will include international advertising and marketing campaigns, marketing activities around major events and joint public relations activities. There will be a strong focus on digital
platforms including online and social media.

China Watch Blog reports that airlines should charge obese passengers more, a Norwegian economist has suggested, arguing that “pay as you weigh” pricing would bring health, financial and environmental dividends.

Bharat Bhatta, an associate professor at Sogn og Fjordane University College, said that airlines should follow other transport sectors and charge by space and weight.

“To the degree that passengers lose weight and therefore reduce fares, the savings that result are net benefits to the passengers,” Bhatta wrote this week in the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management.

“As a plane of a given make and model can accommodate more lightweight passengers, it may also reward airlines” and reduce the use of environmentally costly fuel.

Bhatta put together three models for what he called “pay as you weigh airline pricing.”

The first would charge passengers according to how much they and their baggage weighed. It would set a rate for kg per passenger so that someone weighing 59 kg (130 pounds) would pay half the fare of a 118 kg (260 pound) person.

A second model would use a fixed base rate, with an extra charge for heavier passengers to cover the extra costs. Under this option, every passenger would have a different fare.

Bhatta’s preferred option was the third, where the same fare would be charged if a passenger was of average weight. A discount or extra charge would be used if the passenger was above or below a certain limit.

That would lead to three kinds of fares – high, average and low, Bhatta said.

Airlines have grappled for years with how to deal with larger passengers as waistlines have steadily expanded. Such carriers as Air France and Southwest Airlines allow overweight passengers to buy extra seats and get a refund on them.

Asked about charging heavier passengers extra, Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said: “We have our own policies in place and don’t anticipate changing those.”

United Air Lines requires passengers who cannot fit comfortably into a single seat to buy another one. A spokeswoman said the carrier would not discuss “future pricing.”

About two-thirds of US adults are obese or overweight.

In a 2010 online survey for the travel website Skyscanner, 76 percent of respondents said airlines should charge overweight passengers more if they needed an extra seat.

China Watch Blog reports that Dave Ramsey, personal money-management expert and popular national radio personality, will be inducted into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame during the NAB Show Radio Luncheon, held Tuesday, April 9 in Las Vegas and sponsored by ASCAP.

Dave_Ramsey

Ramsey’s nationally syndicated radio program, “The Dave Ramsey Show,” is heard by 6 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations and is streamed on Daveramsey.com. On the show, Ramsey gives listeners advice on responsible money management so they can care for their families and retire with ease. In 2009, he was honored with a prestigious NAB Marconi Award.

“Dave Ramsey has influenced countless Americans through his sound financial advice and inspirational messages,” said NAB Executive Vice President of Radio John David. “We are pleased to induct him into NAB’s Broadcasting Hall of Fame.”

By age 26, Ramsey had established a four-million-dollar real estate portfolio, but lost it by age thirty. Using the wisdom he gained, Ramsey rebuilt his finances. In 1992, Ramsey founded financial counseling company The Lampo Group, Inc., which he developed into a multi-million dollar company and nationally recognized brand. Ramsey also created Financial Peace University (FPU) to help people erase debt and develop sound money management habits. One and a half million families have attended FPU classes at their workplace, church, military base, or community group. More than 10,000 educational institutions offer his high school and college curriculums.

Ramsey’s four New York Times best-selling books – Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover and EntreLeadership – have sold a combined 7 million copies. His latest best-seller, EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches, was released in September 2011 and debuted at number one.

Previous NAB Radio Broadcasting Hall of Fame inductees include Bob Uecker, Gerry House, Ron Chapman, Vin Scully, Jack Buck, Harry Carey, Larry Lujack, Rick Dees, Dick Purtan and Dick Orkin.

China Watch Blog has learnt that Shelly Palmer put out this alert that satirical newspaper The Onion recently described Facebook as a project of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

“After years of secretly monitoring the public, we were astounded,” a fictional agency deputy director told Congress. He was happy that Facebook users voluntarily post “alphabetized lists of all their friends” and “even status updates about what they were doing moment to moment”. It is, he concluded, “truly a dream come true for the CIA”.

The scenario is not that far from the truth. Facebook has close to a billion users, many of whom post daily updates on their thoughts and feelings. The same thing happens on Twitter. Foursquare users share information about their location. Commentators on news sites express opinions and outrage. And, as a New Scientist review of procurement requests shows, the US government is keen to take advantage of what amounts to a society of self-surveillance.

In a way, they are behind the curve – marketing firms already monitor social networks to gauge public reaction to product launches. And online chatter can be analysed to forecast election results, for example. US federal agencies want to harness these techniques in an attempt to gauge overseas opinion about America, or even get hints on how to head off terrorist activity.

With these aims in mind, officials at the Department of State issued a procurement notice on 1 June asking software developers to submit bids for a contract to supply tools that provide “deep analysis of topics, conversations, networks, and influencers of the global social web”.

These tools will analyse conversations taking place in at least seven foreign languages, including Chinese and Arabic.

Once the bids are in, the software systems will undergo a six-month trial in which they will examine online reaction to a specific event, such as a talk given by a US ambassador.

The military is even further along with such plans. In 2007, the US air force awarded defence giant Lockheed Martin a $27 million contract to develop the Web Information Spread Data Operations Module, or WISDOM, which analyses posts made to news forums, blogs and social media.

Military analysts are already using it to monitor Central and South America and the Pacific region. Lockheed Martin is now upgrading WISDOM with a $9 million contract from the navy, which wants to “understand the latest regional trends and sentiment and predict threats from groups and individuals”.

Other departments have similar plans – the FBI is talking to software vendors, and the Department of Homeland Security already has a monitoring system up and running.

How might such monitoring affect our online behaviour?

Imagine reading an article about US government policies and then wanting to post an angry comment. Would you pause if you knew the government would collect and store your comment and username? “This prevents people from speaking their minds,” says Ginger McCall of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington DC.

“It quells dissent.” One would hope government officials had such concerns in mind. It is difficult to say, however, because repeated attempts by New Scientist to obtain comments from the Department of State were met with silence.

One would hope government officials had such concerns in mind. It is difficult to say, however, because repeated attempts by New Scientist to obtain comments from the Department of State were met with silence.

China Watch Blog announces that GCTL Insights Magazine Issue 13 has been published and can be downloaded for FREE by our readers.

GCTL Insights Magazine Issue No. 13

Go to www.GCTL8.com, click on register icon and then activate your account before downloading your GCTL Insights Magazine Issue 13 for FREE.

Its Cover story is on Hong Kong’s Outsourcing Potential. Other interesting topics include coverage on TOC Asia Conference 2012, Hong Kong’s Wine & Spirits business upsurge and how Russians speak of global connectivity.

The magazine includes lots of articles on aviation, maritime and logistics as well as interviews with independent logistics consultant Mark Millar, and others.

China Watch Blog normally will not report on this kind of controversial topics, but in this instance, your truly feels strongly over this report which the National Public Radio of the United States recently declared that a January broadcast featuring Mike Daisey’s monologue on working conditions in Apple factories in China contains fabrications.

In the monologue, Mike Daisey revealed with “his personal experience” that Shenzhen Foxconn Technology Group of China, which assembles Apple phones and tablet PCs, employed child labors, the People’s Daily reported.

The broadcast on Jan. 6 contained a large part of Mike Daisey’s performance in his program “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.” The two-hour monologue started performing in U.S. theaters in as early as 2010, and more than 50,000 audiences have watched it. Currently, it is still performed in public theaters of New York.

Yours truly strongly suggests that Beijing should step in and fight with the authorities to stop the monologue from being screening, until the monologue clearly carried sub-titles in show explaining that this is merely a fiction, and that in real life, Foxconn does not employ child labor from the minute the show screens tha fabricated parts till the end of the show, so that the audience who see it know that it is not true.

According to People’s Daily, after the reporter of the program “Market” of the National Public Radio, who is in charge of reporting Chinese news, was contacted and interviewed Daisey’s translator in China, People’s Daily found that the translator’s statement was quite different from Daisey’s words. The part of “seeing employees poisoned by ethane” is fabricated, and he also got the ages of the employees “by guessing.”

Regarding this scandal, Daisey defended himself in his blog that he felt regret for his mistake, the wrong point was that his performance in the program was regarded as news, but actually it was not news but a performance of theater.

Daisey’s words denying his mistake are widely questioned and criticized by U.S. media. An article on the New York Times said that, Daisey, who claims that he is not a reporter, did not claim that in his program that he was one, and what he called “things he personally saw” are actually things fabricated. At the end, the article says that Daisey was actually aimed at showing that Chinese factories are violating human rights, and therefore he did not care about facts.

China Watch Blog has learnt that China’s top two online video companies are joining forces, with Youku.com buying smaller rival Tudou Holdings in an all-stock deal worth more than US$1 billion, creating an industry leader with more than a one-third share of a market that is losing money as it battles rising costs.

The two US-listed companies have been bitter rivals, locking horns in courtroom battles over alleged copyright infringement and unfair competitive practices, according to a Shanghai Reuters report.

Both companies this month reported a net loss for last year, pinched by rising costs for internet bandwidth, content and mobile video services.

Bringing the two together is a good move for a highly competitive industry with many players fighting over more than 450 million internet users, analysts said.

“This creates China’s biggest video site, but it doesn’t create a YouTube – they still have less than 50 percent market share,” said Bill Bishop, an independent analyst based in Beijing.

Shares of Tudou, which is 9 per cent owned by Sina Corporation, soared 159 per cent in early trading on Monday in New York to US$38.30 from Friday’s US$15.39 close. Partly reflecting the tough competition, Tudou shares, which debuted in August, had consistently traded below their IPO price of US$29 each.

Youku stock surged as well, gaining 15 per cent to US$28.80. Shares in Baidu, China’s top search engine, lost 1.2 per cent while Renren, dubbed China’s Facebook, saw its stock gain 4.3 per cent.

Youku currently leads the fragmented Chinese online video market with a 21.8 per cent share, ahead of Tudou’s 13.7 per cent, according to internet researcher Analysys International.

“We know online video is way too competitive. There are 10 players, where there should be only one to two,” said Michael Clendenin, managing director of Shanghai-based RedTech Advisors.

“After this merger there are still too many players in the industry,” he said, noting others in the market such as Sohu.com Inc, Baidu, and Tencent Holdings (SEHK: 0700) Ltd, which is trying to develop an online video platform.

“These are not small, insignificant players. So even though this is a step in the right direction in terms of consolidation, there’s still a long way to go,” Clendenin added.

China Watch Blog has learnt that “Creative Videographers’ Eyes”, a growing online blog invites shipping and logistics companies to submit their online videos and animations for inclusion in this globally publicized compendium of best-practice video tips.

Amy Munice, creator of the Global B2B Communications web site that is hosting the “Creative Videographers’ Eyes” blog assures shipping and logistics companies that only positive promotional comments by videographers that reference their video submissions as website video success stories will be included.

Munice’s blog has a two-fold purpose. One, we hope to create a short cut to help global companies that go to some lengths to create quality videos gain a wider worldwide audience.

The industry information might otherwise be too narrow in focus or too technical to become the type of global viral video that can be so important to driving traffic to web sites and assisting in search engine optimization.

The second goal of the blog is to showcase highly talented videographers, corporate video producers, and video production companies as a growing global roster of resources for web marketing videos and other commercial films that work.”

To submit a video for consideration as a globally publicized video success story on “Creative Videographers’ Eyes”, companies need to send a link to their video posted at a public video hosting service such as YouTube to MakeOurVideoViral@globalb2bcommunications.com.

“Creative Videographers’ Eyes” and other high return-on-investment resources for both online and off-line marketing are promoted worldwide through a combination of news releases to both web and print outlets.

Hundreds of articles and columns are written yearly by Global B2B Communications contributors on global marketing topics, pay per click advertising, and via global social networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Xing, Orkut, Viadeo and more.

China Watch Blog was informed by UK-based Pilot Marketing that it has been appointed to handle media relations for Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd (Hactl) with immediate effect.

Cathay plane flies over Hactl

Account Director Derek Jones, based in London, says in a statement sent to the Hong Kong trade media saying that: “As you may know, Hactl operates SuperTerminal 1 in Hong Kong – the world’s busiest international air cargo hub.”

Jones tell us that Hactl’s senior management team is therefore highly authoritative on all matters related to airline cargo handling specifically, and on the air cargo industry in general throughout the Far East.

Derek says if you are researching for any air cargo feature on ground handling, Hong Kong, the Far East or Hactl itself, we will be very pleased to assist you with any interview, information and picture requirements you may have.

As a trade media, having established relationships with Hactl for nearly 20 years, we are puzzled why a UK PR company is telling us about Hactl which is on our door steps.

Maybe there is something going on at Hactl which we do not know.

China Watch Blog has learnt that a media official with the Ministry of Health who has made himself known to every journalist, if not every citizen, overnight by threatening reporters that the ministry would blacklist those that publish or broadcast “phony” food-scare reports.

A China Daily report said that by doing so, the official has made public the mindset of many officials vis-vis “trouble making” journalists.

The General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) stepped in on Monday to clean up the mess created by the official. The media watchdog announced that no organization or individual is allowed to stop journalists from doing their job or blacklist them. The GAPP conceded, though, that media supervision plays an indispensable part in promoting civil society and improving social management.

On Wednesday, members of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee opened the issue of food safety to greater supervision by citizens, and suggested food safety level be upgraded to become part of national security.

Poor food quality raises some important issues on the relationship between the media and government organizations. Investigative journalism, though in its infancy in China, has made some officials uncomfortable. When reporters dig up the truth about social problems, some government departments and officials try to cover it up and blame journalists.

But the media are becoming a force for social good. Officials have realized that transparency is required during emergencies because journalists persistently filed detailed reports on the SARS epidemic in 2003.