Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Non-Tech : CAOL: The Chinese AOL and Internet Lottery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Investor Clouseau who wrote (89)	5/8/1999 4:43:00 PM
From: sagaloo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 720

Don't fool yourself Clouseau. The old paradigm is alive and well and thriving in the Orient. What do you think is sinking the Japanese banking industry, the entrenched, corrupt old-boy network in which banks, and industry as a whole, are continually bailed out by the government which has always been the servant-boy of industry long before World War II. Even Greenspan fears the Japanese banking system is going belly up, which it is. Okay, why Japan when the subject is China and CAOL? I mention Japan because the Japanese and the Chinese, though avowed enemies, share the exact same mind set, one that is based on Confucianism. It is a social system based on hierarchy, a vertical social order in which the emperor (the gov't) is top dog. That being the case, the guy on top craps on the guy below craps on the guy below him. The U.S. model of freedom and business (everyone equal on a horizontal plane) has no place in this age-old vertical hierarchy. There is no such thing as individual rights. Period. Forget it. I know. I worked in the orient for five years and butted heads with this system more times that I care to recall. If, as a foreign business entity, you do not acknowledge that the old paradigm is alive and well, if you fail to realize that you have to beg and scrape to the guy above you in the pecking ordering, god help you 'cause ain't nothing going to get done no matter how hard you yell and scream. In China the government is on top. Always has been. Always will be. That being the case the gov't can crap on anybody they want below them, business, religious, take your pick. Why do people rarely fight back? They do - they crap on the guy below them! The guy below, having no rights, spends his entire life waiting to get on top so he can crap on the guy below him. This is the old-age paradigm. It is alive in China, Japan, and Taiwan. This is what CAOL is up against and it is a wall. Might the Chinese government threaten to nationalize the ISP system? Damn good question. I heard on NPR yesterday that the Chinese government is cracking down - eliminating! - cable channels such as ESPN and some of Rupert Murdoch's channels because - because!! - they are eroding the Chinese government's monopoly - monopoly!! - in the cable industry! Heard all this on NPR's BBC news hour. The worst thing we can do about China is assume we are playing on a level field. We are not. As for CAOL? Let's just hope they have the government in their back pocket. Preferrably both.

To: Investor Clouseau who wrote (89)	5/8/1999 4:58:00 PM
From: tylcar	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 720

Well... I'm off to a great start as a new SI member! I posted my first message to the wrong board! Message 9409959 Luckily for me, some of your patrols were out looking for lost souls and directed me in the right direction. Hell's Bells, I could have been there for the next six months of my "tuition" wondering why everyone thought of me as such an idiot that they won't even respond to me!! Ty

To: Investor Clouseau who wrote (89)	5/8/1999 11:17:00 PM
From: Dave Gore	Respond to of 720

**** Great post! In fact, I ASK THE CEO....."WHY CHINA..and why not some other country?" His answer was their infrastructure development. Not only are they way ahead of virtually all other Asian countries but a real committment has been made. Most countries in Asia have no infrastructure to speak of (Vietnam, Philippines, etc) and/or their economies are really struggling like Indonesia. SECONDLY, China's high growth potential on the Internet and sheer population size. A few people told me that China will have more internet users than all countries but the U.S. in a few short years. And many have read that PC growth in countries like China is predicted to be way higher that the U.S. for the foreseeable future. THIRDLY, the great love of gambling by the Chinese people, and the approval of the Chinese Government for lotteries, which support sports and welfare programs. It is a "sin tax" and one of the few really "fair" taxes that people don't seem to mind paying nearly as much. FOURTHLY, less risk in China than before... it turns out they didn't mess up Hong Kong, and in fact are using Hong Kong as a model for other provinces, as Inspector first mentioned. ALSO, as both the CEO and Inspector mentioned, they want badly to become a full member of the World Trade Organization and are anxious not to cause controversy, especially with American companies investing in China. Even so, CAOL is careful to seek Legal Opinions of Counsel on all important steps and are using a 10 year veteran Chinese negotiator, and an American Educated Chinese management head. Believe me, there is no stone being left unturned and the CEO and it's members are savvy and conservative. You will be impressed. I am quite sure.