More Chinese boarding planes, the cyber way

By Jason Tan

When Dreama Tsai missed her train from Shanghai to Guangzhou on the first day of the week-long Golden Holiday in October, she decided to call up Ctrip.com on the spot to purchase a flight ticket.

The 25-year-old architect, a Taiwan national working in Shanghai, rushed to the airport and settle her bill directly over the Ctrip counter.

“The service isn't bad,” she said. “Lots of my friends popped up the company's name when I asked them where to get flight tickets.”

A growing number of expats -- especially locals -- are now flying via Web-based agencies in China, either through clicks on the Internet or calls to the call center.

With 162 million people online, China has the world's No. 2 population of Internet users after the US, and this made online travel a booming business.
Set up in 1999, Ctrip.com has now ruled over China's cyber travel space, thrusting away smaller rivals including Elong.com and China-sss.com.

The Nasdaq-listed Ctrip.com reported profit of US$18 million in the third quarter, 68 percent up from the same period last year, thanks to more airway ticket purchases and hotel bookings from travelers.

“Ctrip.com moved into the market very early, launching advertisements in the airport and membership cards for certain privileges. This made it build up a loyal fan base since the early stage,” said Chen Wen, an Internet analyst with CCID Consulting in Beijing.

Seventy-percent of the company's sales are from call center, while the rest through online reservations, she said.

With around 2,000 staff managing queries, manpower of the firm's call center is believed to be the largest among all Web-based travel agencies in Asia, she said.

Indeed, these Chinese online tour firms are innovative in reaching out to the crowds.

Most of the them offer ticket delivery to clients' doorsteps, meaning consumers can lay back while courier men come sending you the ticket while picking up the tab, either to pay in cash or plastic cards.

They also tie up with various hotels in the country, or those abroad, and users who book through these agencies are ensured of cheaper check-in rates than the advertised fees.

In the case of Ctrip.com, it claims to work with to over 28,000 two- to five-star hotels in 134 countries for such service.

Another perk for those money conscious. Surfers of Elong.com, which is also Nasdaq-listed, could key in their house or mobile numbers on the Web site, which will then route the calls instantly to the company's hotline -- for free.

Elong.com's Web page also highlights certain flights when the seats are running low.

Meanwhile, travoo.com partnered this month [November] with C-store to offer consumers 24x7 direct purchase of tour packages at the latter's 200-plus convenience store outlets.

Despite more affluent Chinese could now afford to fly, they are getting picky in choosing the best services.

“These marketers have to innovate by leveraging the Internet to reach consumers as conventional online advertising method is not adequate now, considering increasingly tech-savvy Chinese netizens,” Grace Pan, Nielson China's head of travel and leisure research, said in a recent report.

Attractive and informative online content are a must to facilitate Chinese travelers in making destination choices, and after that, a user-friendly and trustworthy mechanism will be needed to facilitate bookings, Pan said.

Nielson released a report in late October, revealing that 29 percent respondents did online bookings with travel agents and 16 percent went cyberspace to reserve hotels or transports.

Though the bulk of respondents, or 61 percent, still relied on traditional travel agents, the Internet power is on the rise, it said.

Seven in 10 Chinese travelers would do homework on the destinations via the Internet, while six in 10 would gather information from online travel forums before jetting off, according to the poll, which questioned 1,500 respondents from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou -- the three most affluent cities.

Ango Shao, a 24-year-old Shanghai native, is in the tech savvy pool.
One of his favorites is China-sss.com, a Chinese airline offers cheap domestic flights for online reservations.

“Sometime when I am feeling down, I would just purchase flight to Hainan island to enjoy the sea view,” the lawyer said. “It is, after all, a cheap way to fly.”

Sneak peek of Desperate Housewives + Ugly Betty +...

By Jason Tan

It was a cooling winter afternoon in Shanghai, and I started to feel bored after visiting most of the tourists spots in the bustling city.

The Internet in my room was running at snail speed as usual, but surfing the Web was a good pastime nonetheless as my French housemates didn't have TV at home.

I logged onto the Web, trying to track down a recent China TV series to see if I could download and all of a sudden -- I bumped into bulges of Chinese video sharing portals.

These Web sites stream videos from the popular series "Ugly Betty", "Desperate Housewives", to reality show Amazing Race, and also include Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong movies and dramas!

Some of the videos were just recently broadcast in the US and not even hitting Malaysian airwaves yet. And most importantly -- they are free!

I chose to click onto Xiaoli site to kick start my Korean drama "Coffee Prince", reportedly quite a hit in South Korea and was recently shown over Taiwanese and Singapore TVs.

Within the next week or so, I managed to finish the 17-episode drama, plus a special episode on the production notes.

In between, I squeezed in the first eight episodes of "Ugly Betty" Season 2 (who wouldn't love Betty and wonder when the plain-looking girl will transform into a charmer? For your information, this season will only premiere on 8TV on Feb. 5).

I also watched first seven episodes of "Desperate Housewives" Season 4 (a new neighbor with a secret past has again descended onto Wisteria Lane. I just love seeing the new twists and suspense, plus the gossips in the neighborhood.)

In case you wonder, resolution of the pictures were not top notch, but good to get by fitting my 12-inch notebook.

The video buffering wasn't a big distraction either as when I was watching the first part of an episode, I would click open the second and third parts the same time to let the buffering complete before seeing them.

These portals made my days in Shanghai and I only hated the fact to discover them too late.

Indeed, video sharing portals are sprouting in China thanks to the stringent movie and Internet censorships.

Each year, China only allows 20 foreign films, including Hollywood blockbusters, to be screened in local cinemas. Cable networks like the StarWorld, HBO and Cinemax, are definitely out of reach for the general public.

Munching popcorns at theaters is therefore not a viable option for most in view of the limited choices, but the good thing is -- pirated versions of latest uncensored Hollywood flicks boasting top DVD quality are accessible across Chinese cities, and each piece costs as little as 5 yuan (RM2).

In last November, an uncut version of Ang Lee's erotic thriller, "Lust, Caution", swamped Chinese Web sites after 22 minutes of graphic sex scenes were cut by China's State Administration of Radio Film and Television.

According to CCID Consulting, China's leading technology researcher, online video business is making waves in China with audience estimated at 78 million.

Tapping onto the trend, Western venture capitalists have poured US$120 million into the industry since 2004.

Tudou -- barely up and running in 2005 -- is now China's largest video sharing Web site, serving more than a billion minutes of video traffic per day, which is around 30 percent more than its US counterpart YouTube.

These Web sites -- also include Youku and Sina, among others -- are not only gaining momentum in the mainland, but also attracted overseas surfers.

China puts the blame on the rampant copyright infringement of these portals as an "international crime".

Just this month [January 2008], a Chinese public-security ministry official asked for international help in copyright enforcement, noting that many infringers use Web sites hosted outside Chinese jurisdiction, making the authorities hard to enforce the law.

International cooperation is needed to curb the piracy, the official said.

China has also announced on tougher restrictions on what surfers can get on videos.

Come January 31, online video postings will be limited to state-owned or state-controlled video providers. Clips that contain violence or sex or are considered "detrimental to the nation's security" will be deleted immediately.

The regulation mainly targets content uploaded by amateurs and experts believe TV and film clips will largely remain untouched.

Despite the authorities' efforts, these sites are already sweeping the Internet industry by storms and hooking too many netizens in the world.

With those free-of-charge contents available 24x7, who would to wait for TVs to finally show them?