SHANGHAI (Reuters) – New real-identity rules to be imposed on China’s Weibo are likely to make the country’s most popular microblogging platform more alluring to advertisers, as Sina Corp seeks to start generating revenue from its product later this year.

On Friday, Beijing-based users on Weibo will need to be registered with their real identities in order to post online. Other major cities, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, are expected to adopt similar rules.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Some Chinese Internet users have this week been able to access blocked websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, relishing the newfound freedom although the reason for the breach in China’s Great Firewall of censorship was a mystery.

China blocks most foreign social networking sites (SNS) out of fear that unfettered access would lead to instability. Chinese SNS firms have filled the void by offering similar products that censor topics the government may find sensitive.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – France’s Accor SA, Europe’s largest hotelier, aims to open 100 hotels in China in the next 2-3 years, the chairman and chief operating officer of Accor Asia Pacific, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Michael Issenberg was speaking on the sidelines of a news conference in Shanghai, where the company launched a customised Mercure brand for the Chinese market.

Feb 27 (Reuters) – China’s Sina Corp said
government regulations forcing users of its Weibo microblogging
platform to register their real names, coupled with new
investments for the popular site, will hurt its profits for this
year.

Sina posted a quarterly profit on Monday in line with
analyst estimates, but forecast a disappointing first quarter,
sending its shares down 4 percent in after-market trade.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese handset maker Xiaomi Technology is looking to raise more funds within the next year or two to boost production and sees revenue in the future coming from software applications rather than handset sales, the firm’s president told Reuters on Monday.

Xiaomi, whose name literally means millet but refers to a revolutionary idiom from the early days of the Chinese Communist Party, was founded in 2010 with a focus on becoming a mobile Internet company.

Feb 27 (Reuters) – Chinese Internet users taking
advantage of temporary access to Google Inc’s social
networking site, Google+, have flooded U.S. President Barack
Obama’s page on the site with calls for greater freedom in the
world’s most populous country.

“Oppose censorship, oppose the Great Firewall of China!” one
user posted, one of hundreds of comments in Chinese or by people
with Chinese names that dominated the site over the weekend.

SHANGHAI, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Chinese handset maker
Xiaomi Technology is looking to raise more funds within the next
year or two to boost production and sees revenue in the future
coming from software applications rather than handset sales, the
firm’s president told Reuters on Monday.

Xiaomi, whose name literally means millet but refers to a
revolutionary idiom from the early days of the Chinese Communist
Party, was founded in 2010 with a focus on becoming a mobile
Internet company.

SHANGHAI, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Shares in Chinese cable
TV company Jishi Media Co Ltd surged by 65 percent
in its first morning of trade on Thursday, reflecting improved
demand for new offerings amid the recent stock market rebound.

Shares of Jishi Media rose to 11.56 yuan ($1.84) in Shanghai
at the end of the morning session, compared with its IPO price
of 7.00 yuan. The company raised 1.96 billion yuan ($311.3
million) in its initial public offering.

SHANGHAI, Feb 22 (Reuters) – A Shanghai court began
hearing on Wednesday a case brought by a Chinese technology firm
seeking to halt the sale of Apple Inc’s iPads across
the affluent Chinese city, accusing the U.S. firm of trademark
infringement.

Previous court rulings in favour of Proview Technology
(Shenzhen) have covered specific retailers in smaller cities,
but a Shanghai order, if imposed, would eat into one of Apple’s
biggest markets in China. A judgment was not expected
immediately.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Jack Ma’s Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group has offered around $2.5 billion to take its Hong Kong-listed Alibaba.com (1688.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) unit private, stressing the move was unrelated to any possible deal to buy back shares owned by Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research).

Alibaba Group is offering investors HK$13.50 in cash per share to take Alibaba.com private, the same price as at the company’s IPO in 2007, the two firms said in a statement late on Tuesday.