Virtual China

Researchers at Peking University’s Institute of Computer Science and Technology, with the University of Mannheim’s Laboratory for Dependable Distributed Systems, just released a fascinating paper laying out the technical aspects of virtual asset theft and modeling the relationships among various actors in the Chinese virtual asset economy.  The paper is quite technical, but contains a lot of meat for the nontechnical reader as well.  Some points of interest:

• the virtual asset market on Taobao alone is estimated at over $30,000,000. The study was conducted from January to September 2007, but it’s hard to tell whether this estimate refers to that time period or to all virtual assets ever traded on Taobao.  And of course, virtual assets are traded on more than Taobao.
• They divide virtual asset economic actors into 6 categories: Virus Writers who market their services on BBS for tens to thousands of RMB per Trojan; Website Masters/Crackers, who redirect unsuspecting users to sites with malware that installs itself on their machines; Envelope Stealers, who collate the "envelopes" of data on accounts and passwords and sell them on a per-envelope basis; Virtual Asset Stealers, who log in to the stolen accounts and sell their virtual assets or their accounts for a fraction to thousands of RMB; Virtual Asset Sellers, who buy stolen virtual assets through BBS ads and then run online virtual asset shops on popular public auction sites like Taobao, Paipai, and eBay; and last but not least, Players, mainly male teens. 
• Black market buyers and sellers find one another via BBS on places like Baidu Postbar, but you have to know the right jargon to find them via keyword search. 
• Buyers commonly pay via Alipay, and the virtual assets are exchanged via emails or other mechanisms.

I also found in my own visits to Internet cafes that people were buying and selling virtual assets in face to face transactions, which would be hard to track. 

For more analysis, especially on the aspect of malware, see Ryan Paul’s great post on Ars Technica, here.

The folks at AsianOffbeat must have a really good network for scouring Chinese websites for the bizarre and wonderful!  "3 Nanjing Youths Build 4.5 Meter Transformer" appeared on QQ.com news on Oct. 9, and AsianOffbeat posted it the same day.  Even with a time difference, that’s pretty fast. 

The three fans, who grew up watching the Transformers cartoons and comics, started with parts from a Citroen C2, and sculpted, built, welded, and screwed together by hand someone they call "X2" who is based on the Bumblebee and Jazz characters from the popular movie. It’s got a Chinese flavor, according to the makers, which can be seen in its more square head, based on ancient Chinese headgear designs. During the 3 months that they were building X2, the makers say: "Every time we saw X2 we felt like he was full of life, you could talk to him, and you felt that at any moment he’d start moving." The three spent 50-60,000 RMB (~ US $8,000) to build him.  X2 weighs more than 600 kg and uses original Citreon C2 lights and tires; the rest is hand-sculpted synthetic resin, glass, and metal.

They’re planning on making more. 

Hello all — Lyn here.  I’m on vacation in China and have been traveling for work a lot in the past couple weeks, thus my posts have been, well, nonexistent.  Hope to have more to share once I get back in late July.  Look forward to hearing from you or seeing you!  Also, for those who don’t know, all TypePad blogs are blocked in China now, so Virtual China is not available in the PRC.  We can post, but not read.  We’re working on setting up a mirror site.

Recently came across this running drama (apologies if it’s been covered to death elsewhere); I’m so cynical these days about online reality that it did cross my mind that it’s a very clever, extremely well acted online soap opera masquerading as a real situation.  However, it does seem real since one of the clips is a TV interview.  It’s one of the oldest stories in the world, unfortunately: boy meets girl, girl gets pregnant, boy decides to move on, girl is faced with a serious dilemma and a child is born. In this Youku video posted last week and titled Get the image of this runaway man transmitted to every corner, a Chinese girl named Yi Youran has taken matters into her own hands.  The latest video in a series begun last fall, has gotten over 300,000 views on Youku alone. 

It opens with video of the man, his name, birthdate, university and graduation date, and posts his address and ID card number.  We see wedding photos of the two of them (often taken, as was the case here, before the actual wedding takes place) and she explains that they had a falling out in early 2006, but she had already decided to have the child and the father’s name was on the hospital records.  In September 2006 she posted her first online video on the subject, and her case has been in the mainstream media since then.  However, all her
efforts at publicity have not resulted in getting the man’s family to
contribute financial compensation for the child, or to get the father
to recognize the child. It’s clear from her comments that she’s been carrying on a conversation
online with commentators on various BBS–she specifically mentions
Nanjing Xici Hutong.  She’s posted photos of the baby online, "so his
father could see him," and she’s clearly opened up a public debate
about the morality of both his inaction and her going public online.

As of today she has a total of 6 videos on Youku, the latest posted 2 days ago and titled: They say they”ll definitely help me find Lu Jun, filmed in the hallway of a private investigation company.  She says she’s gotten help from all over the country–but she still can’t find him.