China’s Internet industry suffers many disadvantages compared to the US. It is burdened by heavy regulation, underpowered data centers, and censorship, just to name a few. But one of its great advantages comes from a counterintuitive source: The country’s underdeveloped tech-commerce infrastructure. The implications are significant, and they are shaping China’s Internet landscape in a way that may ultimately be followed by the US.

In the US, Internet businesses have developed in an environment in which they must compete with already-mature industries that have long had good access to technology. That’s true of ecommerce businesses, for example, which have had to build on, against, or over established bricks-and-mortar networks of retail stores. It’s also true of the online travel industry, which has had to adapt to pre-existing technology systems tied to airlines, agency groups, and, more recently, early-Internet booking verticals such as Expedia and Orbitz.

Countries 'more receptive' to investment amid global downturn

The global debt crisis presents opportunities for Chinese companies planning to invest overseas amid enticing prospects for outbound direct investment (ODI), the Ministry of Commerce said on Sept 6.

Alibaba.com Ltd, the Chinese e-commerce company shaken by revelations of fraud, is heading West as it rebuilds trust, courting entrepreneurs in the United States and investing in online companies.

About 200 people attended a three-hour conference at California's Stanford University this week to hear how the company is helping businesses to find Chinese manufacturers for their wares. Small businesses in the US, including peddlers of everything from bikes to light bulbs to ballet flats, are starting to tap Alibaba to find partners.

"In the US, nobody really knows about them," said Jonathan Shriftman, who began using Alibaba.com last year to find a manufacturer for inexpensive fixed-gear bikes. Shriftman resells the bikes on his own website, SoleBicycles.com. "If you have an idea, it's really easy to make stuff now."

A STARTUP California developer of electric cars said yesterday its first model will be made in China and go on sale in the United States this year.

CODA Automotive Inc's four-door sedan will be produced by a Chinese partner based on one of its models that has been adapted for electric drive and to meet US safety standards, CODA's CEO Philip F. Murtaugh said.

He said CODA will produce batteries in China with another partner and supply technology and engineering skills.

CODA plans to begin sales in California this year and expects to sell 10,000 to 14,000 vehicles in its first 12 months, said Murtaugh, a former chairman of General Motors China who joined Santa Monica-based CODA last month.

HUAWEI Technologies Co has won a United States court order to ban Motorola disclosing its intellectual property rights to Nokia Siemens Networks which hopes to buy the American firm's network business, the Shenzhen-based firm said yesterday.

In Chicago, US District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman said on Tuesday that Huawei has shown a "reasonable likelihood of success" on the merits of its claim that Motorola Solutions and Nokia Siemens Networks might misappropriate trade secrets, and that "irreparable competitive harm" could result.

In January, Huawei filed the lawsuit against former partner Motorola to stop it transferring IPR to Nokia Siemens Networks, which seeks to buy Motorola's network business for US$1.2 billion.

Huawei said the acquisition deal would transfer the Chinese firm's core technologies to Nokia Siemens Networks, one of its biggest rivals globally.

Since 2000, Huawei's products have been distributed by Motorola under the latter's brand.

The success of Huawei, the China's biggest telecommunications equipment maker, in securing the court order marked the growing awareness of IPR protection in China, industry insiders said.

Nearly half of Huawei's more than 100,000 employees are involved in research and development, and the company pumps in an average of 10 percent of its total revenue to R&D annually.

Huawei is the world's No. 2 network equipment maker.

YOUKU.COM'S debut on the stock market in the United States capped the biggest one-day advance in five years while Dangdang's shares almost doubled on their debut yesterday.

Youku, China's top online video sharing website, surged 161 percent to US$33.44. Its surge was second only to the record set by Baidu.com, the most popular search engine in China, which soared 353 percent when it was first traded in August 2005.

With the share surge Youku is now worth US$3.43 billion, exceeding the US$2.88 billion market value of Sohu.com, which owns exclusive rights to broadcast many popular TV series.

Dangdang, the country's largest online book retailer which based its business model on Amazon.com, jumped 87 percent to close at US$29.91.

Data complied by Bloomberg showed that the previous average first-day advance for four Chinese internet firms was 57 percent.

Global environmental exchange operators are seeking partnerships in China to assure a place in the fledgling carbon emission trading market as the nation heads toward becoming a world leader in the low-carbon sector.

NYSE Blue, a new joint venture of exchange operator NYSE Euronext and carbon trading market infrastructure provider APX, is responding to emerging market opportunities in China. It is setting its sights on voluntary market activity in the country.

It has undertaken a joint project with the China Beijing Environment Exchange - the voluntary Panda Standard, which NYSE Blue hopes can become mandatory in the future.

"A carbon trading market is taking shape here," said Brian Storms, NYSE Blue's chief executive officer.

By 2020, China intends to reduce carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 40 to 45 percent from 2005 levels.