However venturing in China is not simple

Founded in 1978, the workshop BNP Paribas is the cell of technology watch of the French banking group. Since its Shanghai Office, its Director for Asia, Patrice Nordey, commented on the impact of the Olympics on the Chinese Internet, pitting the French start-up opportunities.

This summer, while all eyes were hijacked on Beijing, the Olympic Games have changed the deal of the Chinese Internet

China hosted the first games of the era of Web 2.0! But the Chinese vision focuses on the long term and is not a magic wand suddenly transform. Despite expectations, there has not been effect Olympic Games. The development continued, but across China, in a country which already 253 million Internet users. And to know that 80 of the population, especially in the countryside, did not yet have Internet access!

The day of the opening ceremony, 32 million Chinese connected. And, during the games, official sites have accounted for 24.7 billion page views, including on portals like Sohu, where information paraded in Chinese, of course, but also in Arabic, English or French.

On its dedicated website, the official television CCTV channel provided to 5,000 hours of video on demand. And, beyond the official players, Internet users could themselves put their videos on sites such as Youku online or retransmit their mini-blogs by SMS from their mobile on Twitter.

Technologically, it was an enormous challenge! For the games, the amount of it investments amounted to $ 400 million. The technical requirements necessary for the dissemination of videos, the quality of images, to the security of the sites against hackers, all by deploying the new IPV6 Internet Protocol... everything was assembled to give nightmares to any computer! Yet, everything went smooth.

What about censorship

The Chinese Government has made some concessions, and they will continue for the Beijing Paralympic Games. For example, YouTube has not been deactivated during the games under the pretext of technical problems, as happened in the past. Of course, some sites was censored, especially when they evoked political or sensitive subjects. And, as on television, the sites were filtered and the images broadcast with a few seconds of lag. But, overall, the authorities have not interfered with the sport. Further controversies have emerged: on forums, some Chinese are outraged to learn that part of the fireworks had been drawn, but that, due to fog that day, the version seen viewers was a replay.

In this country with 535 million subscribers to mobile phones, have you attended the Internet boom of the mobile games

No, mobile Internet not held all its promises. A Chinese on two has a phone in his pocket and 600 billion SMS were sent to China in 2007. The authorities hoped to launch the third generation of mobile, which would have allowed, notably thanks to technology Chinese TD-SCDMA, the spectators to have access to the Internet at high speed from their mobile phones. But they were not ready technically. Lack of coverage, local 3 G has been available in some districts of the 6 Olympic cities.

The discharge of the Chinese Government, the telecoms industry must be restructured and go 6-3 operators, 3 G licences to be awarded. This will take time. But this reorganization will create a huge appeal of air for innovative foreign companies.

Is the merchant Internet there not a more immediate opportunity According to the Data Center of China Internet, Chinese have spent 37.5 billion on the Web in 2008...

E-commerce flourishes all over the place, business to business, consumer to consumer and business in particular. And it remains largely dominated by Chinese players, including Alibaba and its subsidiaries. But the sector already has its peculiarities, such as the practice of "tuangou": his followers recruit companions on the Web to go to group in a store and make collective pressure on prices. In the spring, more than 1,000 people have set appointments in Beijing to acquire 200,000 electronic products. But entire sectors, such as banking services or advertising online, are fallow. Places are to be taken.

Especially for French innovative companies

Yes. Many are already there, like Meetic, Viadeo, NetBooster, Orange or Publicis. During the games, some also fired their PIN of the game, as the SSII Atos Origin or the SME innovative Ask, which provided 12.2 million RFID for Olympics tickets. However, venturing in China is not simple. Heavy-hitters as eBay has are broken teeth. Because we need to adapt to the local culture. In addition, the role of the State is not limited to the filtering. The regulatory aspect is essential. But the rules can change. The authorities can propel or close a sector of the day to the next day.

In the wake of YouTube, many Chinese entrepreneurs have launched video sharing sites. Probably fearing overflows, the Government suddenly subject activity to the Federal licensing. The State and private license a majority of the initiatives. In contrast, the approach of the Olympic Games, the State has subpoenaed airlines to move from the era of paper to electronic tickets. The e-ticketing took off at a rapid speed.