China Digest: Weibo launches English version, China.com filed for bankruptcy protection, and more

Here are some startup news snippets from China, not only in its capital, Beijing, but also other startup hubs such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Hangzhou, and many more.

(1) China’s second most popular microblogging service, Tencent Weibo, launched their English version last week to target the international market. For the first time, non-Chinese speaking users can sample a little taste of the Chinese social networking phenomenon.

(2) CDC Corporation, the company behind China.com and many other businesses and the first Nasdaq-listed Chinese internet company has filed for bankruptcy protection, highlighting that the company’s years of struggle has finally accumulated to the extent that it couldn’t deal with them anymore. Stocks have gone down more than 50% on Nasdaq.

(3) Kandian, by Sina, is an online video site that allows users to create their own TV station, like Justin.tv.

(4) In a sure sign that Turntable.fm has made it, it now has its very own Chinese clone, Duomi.fm. The site, currently in closed beta, appears to shamelessly clone every aspect of Turntable.fm.

(5) Xiaomi Tech, the company behind Xiaomi mobile is said to be tapping into the digital reading market through MIUI, a 3rd-party customized Android ROM curated by the mobile-focused company.

(6) Streaming subscription music service Pandora will enter China and is head-hunting a capable CEO. This is definitely great news for music fans in China. But the question you may ask is whether this music streaming service can operate legally in China. After all, the environment here is kinda complex.

(7) Lashou is said to be the first Chinese group buying service to make a profit, according to people close to the site. Lashou refused to comment when approached.

(8) If Tencent’s penguin is hungry, it can be very dangerous and eat everything. When Taobao launched its B2C platform just a month ago, Tencent’s open B2C platform also launched.

(9) Pinju.com, a late-comer to the extremely competitive Chinese ecommerce market, made its debut with several group buying deals. The site is reportedly positioning itself as an online general store with catalogues ranging from cosmetics, clothes, maternity and baby products, electric appliance, home supplies, health products, 3C products to luxurious brands including Hermes, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Armani, Gucci and so on.

(10) Maimaicha.com, a Chinese B2C online vertical which sells tea today announced raising RMB hundreds of millions (US$15 million) in Series A funding from four domestic venture capitals.

(11) In a report by independent market research institute CNZZ, Sogou, the search engine curated by Chinese portal Sohu.com, tops Google China in user adoption.

(12) Who are the prime beneficiaries of the current ecommerce mania in China? To start off, consumers. They now have access to abundant choices with stunning price tags. Portals as well as website aggregators like hao123.com (acquired by Baidu) and hao.360.cn (by Qihoo 360) are also benefitting. Why? They pull in considerable amount of money by promoting these ecommerce services on their virtual properties.

(13) Xunlei, China’s online entertainer which offers a popular download tool and online streaming service filed to withdraw its IPO, citing deteriorating European debt crisis and gloomy U.S. economy as the main causes.

(14) Chinese social gaming vendor Happy Elements announced raising US$30 million in Series B funding from Legend Capital with previous investor DCM participating. The funding, according to its CEO Wang Haining, will go towards beefing up the team and speeding up R&D.

We thank nordicfactory for the flag image.

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