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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stoctrash who wrote (26755)	12/16/1997 5:23:00 PM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Does your father own C-Cube? No sour grapes........

To: Stoctrash who wrote (26755)	12/16/1997 7:21:00 PM
From: DiViT	Respond to of 50808

Here we go again... DVD 'S REAL MARKET: CHINA THE U.S. MAY HAVE MORE VCRS, BUT CHINA IS FAST-FORWARDING INTO THE DIGITAL MOVIE AGE. JEANNE LEE 12/29/97 Fortune Magazine Time Inc. Page 262 (Copyright 1997) One thing overlooked in the excitement over digital videodisks is this: The most promising market for the technology is not the U.S. but China. Industry sources say more DVD players have been shipped in China this year than in the U.S. It makes sense--this is a land of 1.2 billion entertainment-starved people. There are nearly 300 million TV sets, but broadcast programming is limited, and the average household does not have a VCR. China is a video tabula rasa, ready and willing to go digital with the latest hardware. It shouldn't be too surprising that a poor country like China may leapfrog wealthy countries like the U.S. and adopt advanced technology. It has happened before--with cellular phones, for example. Fast-growing Asian economies badly needed good phone service but lacked a telecommunications infrastructure; out of necessity some parts of Asia went directly to wireless. It has also happened with an earlier, less advanced version of DVD called video CD. At least ten million video CD players will be sold in China in 1997, according to InfoTech, a market research firm in Woodstock, Vt. By the same logic, Chinese families that are now without the means of playing videos are likely to be the leapfrog adopters of DVD . DVD players can even serve as all-in-one entertainment machines--they play both video and audio CDs. A huge variety of digital movies and karaoke selections is already available in China. Disks are often sold in street markets alongside farm produce and live chickens. They go for under $2.50 each. More than 15,000 movie and karaoke titles are in print--legally, that is. Estimates of the number of pirated titles vary widely, but it may be as high as 65,000. (About 300 digital movie titles have been released in the U.S.) Matsushita, Samsung, and other Asian companies have already started shipping DVD players to China, where they sell in stores and open-air markets such as the huge electronics bazaar in Panyu. A player typically costs $650, or about half the average annual income of a Chinese household, but prices are falling rapidly. A U.S. company, Digital Video Systems, has set up shop in Panyu as well. CEO Edmund Sun[Dave:He was C-Cube's founder], who pioneered the video CD player market in China, believes demand for DVD will also develop significantly faster in China than in the U.S. Americans may eventually take to DVD , either as a VCR substitute, a PC add-on, or both. Until then, consumers in emerging markets will be the ones on the cutting edge. Quote: CHINA IS A VIDEO TABULA RASA, READY AND WILLING TO GO DIGITAL WITH THE LATEST HARDWARE. COLOR PHOTO: GREG GIRARD--CONTACT DVD players and disks are sold in electronics bazaars like this one in Panyu.

To: Stoctrash who wrote (26755)	12/16/1997 10:36:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

China exports will be affected by its neighbors.............................. insidechina.com China Sees Exports Affected by Asian Woes, Surplus BEIJING -- Weaker currencies in Southeast Asia and rising trade friction are likely to dampen China's exports in 1998, Chinese Trade Minister Wu Yi was quoted on Tuesday as saying. "Compared with 1997, China's imports, exports and the use of foreign capital will face greater challenges next year," she said in an interview with the official People's Daily. While currencies in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia have tumbled in a regional financial crisis this year, China's yuan is facing upward pressure from a surging trade surplus and a steady inflow of foreign funds. China has ruled out a devaluation of the yuan to support its exports or attract foreign investment. Despite strong export growth and steady inflows of foreign investment this year, alarm bells are ringing in Beijing due to the currency crisis. "The composition and the markets of goods exported by China and Southeast Asian nations are identical, so the financial disturbance will reduce the competitiveness of our exports," Wu was quoted as saying. Many currencies in Southeast Asia have depreciated sharply in recent months, putting downward pressure on units in the region which have not fallen in value. Wu also saw trade trouble for China in the form of rising international protectionism which has prompted "increasing anti-dumping charges and non-tariff barriers that are targeting Chinese exports," she said. Friction with China's key trade partners has worsened because of its surging trade surplus in recent years, she said. China registered a trade surplus of $40.23 billion in the first 11 months of 1997, a huge surge over the $13.93 billion in the same period last year. "The problem of imbalance does exist in bilateral trade between China and the United States," Wu Yi said. China's trade surplus with the United States is expected to hit $50 billion this year and Beijing officials have said they were concerned over the imbalance. Economists have said any devaluation of the yuan would further aggravate trade friction with the United States. Wu said Washington has "overestimated" China's exports to the United States and "underestimated" U.S. exports to China because of different calculations on trade through a third country or region, mainly Hong Kong. "The Chinese side hopes to see rising exports by the United States to China," she said. "At the same time, we hope that the United States will ease restrictions on its exports to China," she said, referring to U.S. controls on high technology and nuclear equipment. In October, China sent its biggest ever trade mission to the United States ahead of a visit to Washington by President Jiang Zemin that aimed to soothe U.S. anger over the trade imbalance. (Reuters)