Rare and prestigious stamp: Made in the USA

But that is some way off. For now Messrs Lee and Hughes, and their workers, keep busy shearing, steaming, shaving, cutting and drying huge logs into rough chopsticks. They still need to be finished—to eat with a pair of Georgia Chopsticks right off the Americus line you would need tweezers in your other hand and a high pain tolerance. For that they are shipped via the Port of Savannah to China (later this year they will start sending them to Korea and Japan) in boxes with a rare and prestigious stamp: Made in the USA.

Source: Economist

Not rebellion, but luxury

The result is that Apple’s image in China now emphasizes not rebellion, but luxury — or as Wolf puts it, “exclusivity.” Its gorgeous glass-walled stores are located next to high-end clothing boutiques like Armani, Versace, and BMW Lifestyle. Apple is seen as the choice of “top white-collar professionals,” as stylish 30-something Lily Ou told me, glancing up from a row of brightly colored iPhone cases at Beijing’s Sanlitun Apple Store. Ou is a sales manager for an international food distributor. “I like to show off my Apple identity,” she said.

Source: Foreign Policy

Zynga goes to China

This will be interesting to watch how it plays out, online gaming is one space China famously sets the stage.

“As a social game developer, Zynga fully recognizes the value of Tencent’s Open Platform and their professional service capability,” said Andy Tian, general manager of Zynga China.

“CityVille is Zynga’s largest and most popular game and Zynga is proud to partner with the leading open platform in China to bring the innovation and delight of the game to Chinese players. We are excited that a fully localized Zynga City will be introduced to the Chinese audience and look forward to enabling them to connect in a fun, harmonious way.”

Source: Telegraph

China a big growth opportunity for Apple?

Regardless of when the device debuts on China Telecom, the implications of a broadening of iPhone distribution in China are significant. As I’ve noted here before there are potentially massive growth opportunities for Apple in the Asia-Pacific. China Telecom currently has about 105.7 million wireless subscribers and 19.7 million of them use 3G. That’s a vast untapped market, one that Ticonderoga analyst Brian White says could represent a revenue opportunity for the iPhone of $8 billion to $9 billion.

Source: allthingsd

Online: One Country for All

Everything is global online. It seems like most all products are horizontal these days. Still there is an element of local/regional strategy for offerings and licensing but for the most part the business model is global and will scale rapidly. Here’s what Netflix is up to:

Netflix has done an excellent job of attracting subscribers in the U.S. and Canada, but expanding into new markets isn’t easy. With this expansion, it may have benefited by taking a region-wide approach rather than picking one country or another to launch in. It’s likely Netflix was able to secure rights for Hollywood content for much of the Latin American region, rather than bargaining country-to-country. That’s possibly one reason why it’s tackling Latin America and not Western Europe, where the media landscape is much more segregated.

Source