According to a recent study by Beijing Normal University’s Philanthropic Research Institute, more than 80 percent of 2014’s charitable donations, from China’s top 100 philanthropists, were sent to overseas charities due to corruption and a lack of transparency.

According to the study, international charities received more than RMB 24.2 billion, out of a total RMB 30.416 billion, from Chinese philanthropists. Alibaba founder, Jack Ma’s $3 billion charity trust fund accounted for the largest share of all donations, followed by a RMB 452 million donation from He Xiangjian, founder of electronics giant Midea.

Donations in 2014 increased 107 percent from 2013’s RMB 14.7 billion, the first time in four years charitable donations in China have surpassed RMB 30 billion. According to the study, twenty-four Chinese billionaires gave away more than RMB 100 million yuan.

Although this is reason to celebrate, only RMB 4.5 billion donations were made directly to Chinese organizations. Many believe this is largely due to the 2011 Red Cross scandal, when Guo Meimei became famous for posting photos online of her lavish lifestyle. She claimed her trips in private jets and fancy cars were the result of donations to the charity.

In light of that scandal, China’s charities have continued to have problems raising funds. Many philanthropists have established their own trusts or charities, such as Alibaba’s Jack Ma, who set up his trust in Singapore. It is funded by share options representing 2 percent of the company’s current equity valued at $150 billion. The fund was meant to combat the country’s worsening environment, and improve education and healthcare.

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While its competition is still just talking about it, online retailer Alibaba is using remotely-controlled drones to deliver packages by air to its customers.

Alibaba offered air deliveries by drone within an hour to customers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou from February 4 to 6. The catch? You had to order a certain brand of tea. There was one other restriction too: each city was restricted to just 50 deliveries a day.

The airspace in China is tightly controlled and mostly reserved for military use. Last year, civilian air travel in the east of China was restricted as airports were shut down to allow military air drills.

Having found its “open sesame” to China’s locked skies, Alibaba beat out international competitor Amazon, which was planning to make similar deliveries using unmanned drones until US authorities stepped in.

Although the notoriety of Alibaba is still soaring from its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, the drone delivery campaign comes at an awkward time. Last week, government regulators criticized Alibaba for “illegal” acts, such as allowing counterfeit goods to be sold on its site, something to which CEO Jack Ma angrily denounced in a rare display of defiance against authority.

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Alibaba is now using Apple’s handy Touch ID function on newer iPhones to allow payments via the e-commerce giant’s Alipay system.

To make payments via Alipay, China’s largest online payments system akin to PayPal in the United States, users simply need to scan their fingerprint using the phone’s built in sensor. The feature comes with Alipay 8.4 but is only available on iPhone models that have Touch ID, which includes the iPhone 5S models or the newest iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Alipay has assured consumers that all fingerprint information will be stored in the phone, and not uploaded and shared with third-parties.

Apple is also rumored to be working with Alipay on enabling Apple Pay in China.

Photos: Kuaixun, Techweb

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As The Nanfang reported previously, Chinese customers will be able to order goods from Amazon’s US, German, Spanish, French, and Italian stores and have them shipped to China. Perhaps most impressive though, Amazon claims that through partnerships with EMS and UPS, international orders will arrive at your front door in as little as three days.

The plan comes on the heels of popular American megastore Costco getting in on China’s e-commerce market. Through a partnership with Alibaba, the company will ship their popular oversized products to Chinese homes, coincidentally, also in as little as three days.

Amazon is hoping to capitalize on China’s appetite for international goods, as well as the common belief that goods manufactured elsewhere are better, and in some cases, safer (see tainted milk scandal, etc.) than their Chinese equivalent.

Despite increasing competition, China’s e-commerce market continues to grow at a ferocious pace. It is anticipated that by 2015, the market will be worth $540 billion. By 2020, China’s e-commerce market is projected to be worth more than that of the US, UK, France, Germany, and Japan combined.

Whether Amazon’s Chinese expansion will work remains to be seen. They no doubt have the infrastructure to compete with Alibaba and Jingdong, but then, arguably so too does eBay, Walmart, and Best Buy, all of whom have failed miserably in China.

The post Order from US Amazon, Have It Arrive 3 Days Later in China appeared first on The Nanfang.

Costco received over 10,000 orders on the first two days of opening (October 12-14) at its Hangzhou headquarters, including orders for three tons of Kirkland nuts, and 1.5 tons of dried cranberries.

To give you an idea of what Chinese shoppers are interested in, here are the top five recommendations:

1. Kirkland Extra Fancy Unsalted Mixed Nuts; 1130g, RMB 129

2. Starbucks Italian-Style Instant Coffee; 3.3g x 24 bags, RMB 139

3.  Ocean Spray Original Dried Cranberries “Craisins”; 1360g, RMB 59

4. Pure cotton pyjama jumper for girls aged 4 years-old; RMB 85, two-for-one special, SOLD OUT

5. Kirkland Extra Virgin Olive Oil; 2L, RMB 119

Costco’s emergence in China’s e-commerce market comes at a busy time for the country’s online retailers. Amazon China recently announced that its consumers will be able to directly order and receive shipments from its US website, while e-commerce giant Alibaba recently launched an initial public offering on the US stock market.

Photos: iCEO, Hexun

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The renaming of the team revealed Friday by Jack Ma and Xu Jiayin combined two very popular name brands together: the “Evergrande” football club and the “Taobao” e-commerce website portal. However, the point of contention for netizens is with the abbreviation of this name.*

It turns out that one nickname of “Evergrande Taobao” in Chinese can be the term “Great Treasure”, a term with positive connotations until you realize that the Chinese name Dabao is already an established brand name in China—for a cosmetics line.

Such a small detail may seem insignificant to cultural outsiders until you realize the depravity to which Chinese football fans will use to insult opposing teams. It should also be noted that Dabao isn’t the equivalent to Maybelline or Max Factor, but serves the less-glamorous demographic of middle-aged women. Dabao products aren’t as much lip gloss or eyeshadow as they are anti-wrinkle creams.

Dabao can also take on a different meaning. As many Chinese call their children the “family treasure”, “Dabao” can be construed to mean “big baby”.

Here’s a short sample of what people had to say about the new name, “Evergrande Taobao”:

如果_这是真的_：
Very ugly team name!!!!

我想和上帝聊聊：
Lousy name

优雅的番茄：
Isn’t it called the Guangzhou Evergrande Alibaba Taobao TMall Alipay Team? [crowd.emo]

偶尔爱上孤独：
Dabao!!

找一片乐土：
Dabao

红酒庄园2011：
Reasonable!

潘帕斯小白兔：
Jack Ma and Xu Jiayin made a billion yuan investment just to make an advertisement for a household product…

爱你犹如爱呼吸：
Feel as though the people running around on the pitch will be the (Taobao) delivery service [bored.emo]

Well, at least in this way, the feminization of the French word “Grande” in “Evergrande” now finally makes sense.

***

*Quick Chinese explanation: long names are often abbreviated in Chinese into something more manageable. For example, “Beijing University” becomes “Beida” from taking the first character of each character pair (北京大学, Běijīng Dàxué) and make them form their own pairing regardless of meaning (北大, Běidà).

In this case, the new formation does have a literal meaning (ie “North Big”) but its nonsensical meaning is overridden by its use as an abbreviation.

Like any other long name, Evergrande Taobao (恒大淘宝, Héngdà Táobǎo) can be abbreviated, but it’s what happens when the second half of the character gets paired up to become 大宝 (Dàbǎo), or literally, “great treasure” that has gotten netizens so furious.

Photos: nipic (2), Chinese News Network

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Alibaba has initiated a pilot program called “Future Hospital” at the Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, the first such place in China that allows patients to pay for medical services through online accounts, reports China Daily.

By paying fees with a smartphone, Alibaba claims the length of an entire procedure can be reduced from five hours at peak times to one. On its first day of implementation, 580 people used the service at Future Hospital.

However, this is just the beginning of Alibaba’s ambition to reform hospital service in China as the e-commerce giant hopes to “use Alipay’s payment, user data, and big data capabilities to build a comprehensive mobile medical care and health management platform,” reports Tech President.

Technode outlines Alibaba’s huge ambitions:

Zhang Jiangang, an exec at Alifinance, mentioned that in the next 5-10 years, in order to implement phase two of the said plan, Alipay will establish a comprehensive online platform to allow virtually mobile prescription, medicine delivery, hospital transfer, medical care insurance reimbursement, commercial insurance as well as damage claims, as part of the improvement of healthcare reform in China…
“This is a long term plan to realize the shift from cure to prevention,” Zhang said.

Alibaba-owned Taobao had previously attempted to offer a free hospital appointment-booking service in several Chinese provinces only to be blocked in Beijing, where a competing service is offered by the Beijing Health Department.

Alibaba recently purchased a 50% share in the Guangzhou Evergrande football team, the other of Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s projects:

“We’re not investing in football, we’re investing in entertainment. Alibaba’s future strategies are health and entertainment.”

Photo: Gansu Daily

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It looks like the local sports team will be undergoing yet another name change. But as we contemplate whether this will be the largest payment ever on Alipay.com, we’re left with Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s words at a June 5 press conference:

“We’re not investing in football, we’re investing in entertainment. Alibaba’s future strategies are health and entertainment.”

The mind boggles at the implications of the many new brand and product possibilities under the Alibaba corporate umbrella. Guangzhou football video games as Alibaba mobile apps? Being able to vote off deadwood on the Guangzhou football team using Alipay?

With the sad state of Chinese football and the sensational headlines it always garners, we can only hope that “health and entertainment” are also future strategies for the Guangzhou football team as well.

Photo: dzwww

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