According to Baidu’s director of international communications, Kaiser Kuo, the Chinese search engine rejected as fake a press release issued on Monday that said it was to buy US social gaming company Zynga Inc. Soon after the press release was published on the website prurgent.com announcing that Baidu would offer $US 10 per share for the company, Zynga shares jumped 4 per cent in heavy premarket trading. Zynga shares eased back to $US3.24, up 1.5 per cent, in morning trade on the Nasdaq.

Source: iresearchchina.com

In 2011, Microsoft was announcing its five-year plan to provide software design and development tools worth 1,4 billion yan to 3,000 Chinese firms. Two years later, China is one of the fastest growing destinations for Microsoft’s sponsorship with 900 local firms participating the program. The number of applications designed for Microsoft's own-brand smartphone also continues to increase by 20%-30% every month, according to the company, adding that since the launch of its latest operating system Windows Phone 8, sales of such applications have risen by 45%. The number of registered Chinese developers for applications has also surpassed 60,000.

Source: wantchinatimes.com 

The latest amendment draft of the Consumer Protection Law (Law of PRC on the Protection of Consumers Right and Interest) was presented to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee for discussion. Since the law first came into operation 20 years ago (Jan1, 1994), this has been the biggest amendment for it ever.The draft that applies to online shopping, TV-shopping, Tele-shopping and mail orders, has clarified that consumers should have the right to return goods they bought online within 7 days, exceptions are for some particular products such as real-estate or fresh food which are not suitable for returning. On the other side, after receiving the returned goods, legally vendors should refund the consumers within a week.

Source: technode.com

A new report by Taobao identified 12 types of customers based on their online shopping habbits. The most discussed category is „hand-choppers” that spends 160,000 yaun per year on Taobao and usually completes three deals every two days. The largest group of online shoppers is the „night fighters” and counts 22.8 million people from Taobao’s 500 million registered users. These customers are shopping between 11 pm and 5 am. „Hoarders” is another popular category and it is represented by 1.3 million shoppers that normally purchase goods in large quantities, usually enough to last a year, for fear that their favorie products will sell out. Other notable groups include collectors, bargain hunters, window shoppers or second handers.

Source: wantchinatimes.com