Old China Hand Reading Room

Saturday afternoon Gary and I had to discuss a couple of strategic issues and decided to meet in the Old China Hand Reading Room. It was a good place for a rainy, dark December afternoon. Inside it was warm and there was some nice background music. We managed the get the big table in the middle of the room in front of the bookshelves.

In 3 hours we managed to get a lot of stuff done, and at least two important decisions were made. The first one is related to Toodou, and we plan to officially announce it on January 6. We need to do a bit more research on feasibility and regulations before I can write about it here. The other one is more private: we picked a timeframe for our sportive event of 2006, the Lhasa – Khatmandu bike ride (more later in another post).

Dinner party


After having some drinks with the Dutch guys earlier in the evening (see post below this one), I went to a dinner party that Qi had organized for some close friends (mainly INSEAD graduates). I took David and Thijs along to the dinner, the more people the merrier right? We went to our favourite Thai restaurant, Coconut Paradise on Fumin Lu: authentic Thai food in a great location. The restaurant is located in a nicely decorated old villa, and in warmer weather you can have dinner in the garden.



Jim Feldkamp was back in Shanghai, and it was good to see him again. He used to be with Carrier in Shanghai, and is now setting up the China office for BBK consulting, a mid-sized management consulting company that specializes in helping manufacturing clients, primarily in the auto industry, on financial and operational issues. Also Matthew Peregrine-Jones joined the dinner, and impressed me with his Chinese skills by talking the whole night in Chinese to Gary’s girlfriend. I still have a long way to go…


After dinner we had some cocktails at South Beauty 881. The manager got us a cosy lounging area in the back of the bar, where we enjoyed a couple of B52’s. One interesting topic we talked about was sailing. Jim just sailed two regatta’s, one from Hong Kong to Hainan Island (where he got stuck because of a typhoon), and then one from Singapore to Thailand. And sailing freak Matthew (he competed in the world championship) just bought a 470 that would be shipped from Hong Kong next week. He still sails in open boats at the moment, even at temperatures just above zero degrees!

Dutch meeting at Toodou

Late Friday afternoon I planned to have a meeting with two Dutch guys active in the Chinese film industry, film director David Verbeek and producer Jeroen Jedeloo about a new project at Toodou. Then I got a call from Thijs Bosma, a Dutch person who used to work with Media Republic in Amsterdam, and who is now looking to start an online business in Shanghai. He just arrived in Shanghai on Thursday, so I invited him as well to have a beer with us. Then I was introduced over the internet to another Dutch person, James Loudon, who works with Media Sky and the Shanghai Daily. They just started their first Buzzword pocast this week, so I invited him as well to get to know him and hear about their product. So there we were, 5 Dutch guys in the Toodou office having a couple of Reeb’s (Shanghainese beer) early Friday evening. We actually did not discuss much about the new project, but it was fun to speak Dutch for a change.

By the way, can anybody confirm whether the name Reeb was indeed invented by Mr. Freddy Heineken by inverting the word beeR?
(picture from left to right: David, Jeroen, James, Thijs and Marc)

China Radio International interview

This afternoon between 17:00-18:00 Beijing time I will be interviewed on China Radio International during the first hour of the program China Drive. The program can be listened to through http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/ (click on Easy FM link for the stream). Presenter James West will talk to me in English about podcasting and Toodou.

About the China Drive program, from the CRI website:
China Drive, your daily features magazine for your drive home, serves up lifestyle, entertainment, discussion and practical news you can use, Monday-Friday, 5-7pm on CRI Easy FM.

Bi-lingual presentation, practical information, silly stories, lively conversation, and features inspired music.

China Drive’s two co-hosts, business news anchor, sports reporter, and three dedicated features correspondents, present fun, creative and thought provoking stories from across the country.

Red Capital Residence (Beijing)



One of the bars with the nicest atmosphere in Beijing is the Red Capital Residence (note: not the same as the Red Capital Club – which is a restaurant that has the same owner). It is a very cosy little hotel (about 4 rooms) with a fantastically designed lounge. The building is located in a hutong (Dong Si Liu Qiao), about a 15 minute walk west from Poly Plaza / Swissotel. There is no sign on the wall or door, but it is the nicest door in the whole street (a red double door, about 150 meters west from the main road). When you enter you walk into a courtyard with a small garden in the middle. The hotel rooms are around the open courtyard, as is the bar. The bar is designed in a Chinese Revolutionary way, full of paintings and memorablia of Mao, and with book shelves covered with books about China. Some of the very comfortable seats come direcly from Zhongnanhai where they had been in use by Zhou Enlai and his friends.

I visit this bar about three to four times a year, normally with good friends or business partners to enjoy a nice drink and a cigar. Last Friday was a typical occasion. My friend Carlo Crosetto started to work in Beijing a few months ago as CFO for the new Mercedes-Benz and Beijing Jeep plant, and he did not know the place yet. Because I was in Beijing anyway, he invited me to stay at their house. He and his wife Susanne have a very nice place in East Lake Villas, not far from where I used to live 6 years ago (East Gate Plaza). After a pizza at their place (Carlo is Italian), Susanne decided to stay with their son Luca, and we went for a night on the town. Carlo offered me a great Romeo & Juliet cigar from his humidor, and he took a Montecristo himself. So what was the first place I thought of? The Red Capital Residence. There was only one guest there when we arrived, and that is typical. I always think they try to keep the place a bit of a secret, they probably make their money from the hotel rooms.

There was some relaxed background music (no revolutionary songs, mind you), and we both enjoyed our cigars while sipping some drinks. Leaning back in the chairs we talked a lot about life and work in China, and the things we liked and disliked here. After finishing the cigars (which takes some time, probably about 1.5 hours) I showed Carlo the underground bar / cinema. In the middle of the courtyard is an entrance to what looks like a cave. If you enter there (not easy) you will find steps that lead you down to two bigger rooms (each about 8-10 m2). This was built during the Cultural Revolution as a protection agains a Russian bombing. Now it is in use as a bar (but it’s too cold in winter without heating) and as a small cinema. The cinema (max. 5 people can come in) shows films that were famous during the Cultural Revolution.

A great place to have a quiet drink or relax on a Sunday afternoon. Good luck finding it!

Toodou Google results

Today for the first time a Google search on the word ‘Toodou’ showed over 100,000 results, 103,000 to be precise. Two days ago it was still 98,000, so it’s increasing quite fast. Most are Chinese sites using the word Toodou. “Only” 11,700 Enlgish pages mention Toodou, 152 Dutch ones, 15 in German and 14 in French.

I still remember when we registered the name Toodou, then Google still asked: Did you mean ‘to do’?

TV: Higher ratings because of internet distribution

Quote from yesterday’s New York Times:
Internet distribution does not seem to affect the viewership of the broadcast programs(…). Ratings of ABC’s “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” have increased since they have been available for sale on iTunes. Similarly, Mr. Zucker said, the audience for “NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams” has grown since the network started making a Webcast of the program available at 10 o’clock Eastern time each night.

Good news for both the TV industry and for video/podcasting websites. I wonder if the same is true for radio programs that are available online? The results there might be different, because radio listeners have a different behaviour than a TV audience. I expect the total listeners to go up (live radio plus podcast audience), but don’t think people will actually tune in for a radio program podcast that they are listening to on their iPod or mobile phone.

Podcast interview

Fons Tuinstra from the China Herald interviewed me over Skype, and put the podcast online. The quality could be better, because Fons’ voice is recorded much louder than mine (he said that he will work on this), but the Skype connection between Brussels and Shanghai was quite good.


One interesting thing about podcasts is that they are normally pretty rough and not edited too much. For example, had this been a radio interview, then the first part of the interview when Fons asks about getting Amy Gu online would probably be cut out. In podcasting this is not really an issue. Even in Adam Curry’s daily source code you hear things that you would never hear on radio (lighting up a cigarette, taking a phone call while on air, or talking to his wife or daughter who walk into the room while he is recording). That is what I personally like about podcasting – and that is what I hope will not disappear when podcasting becomes more mainstream.

The blog post is here, the interview can be also be accessed on Toodou, just click here.

Camping in the office

Gary set up a tent in the Toodou office for people who work overnight and need some rest. It looks kind of funny, and it’s the first thing visitors note. How many offices in China have a fridge full of beer, a bar full of whiskey and wodka, a treadmill for running, colorful graffiti on all the walls, and a tent for sleeping? Maybe we can shoot a short video ad for Toodou – The Most Interesting Office in China!