■ Advertising
Asian media spending soars
Chinese consumers buying more lifestyle products drove advertisement spending in key Asia-Pacific media markets up 14 percent to a record US$66.6 billion in the year to September last year, an industry report said yesterday. The figures, for regional markets excluding Japan, showed corporate spending on television, newspaper and magazine advertisements in China totalled nearly US$37 billion, up 21 percent and accounting for 56 percent of the regional market, Nielsen Media Research said. "China now sits just behind Japan as the third-ranked advertising economy globally," it said in a statement. As a television advertising market only, China is ranked second globally, it added. Gayle Cunningham, executive director for Nielsen Media in China and Hong Kong, said advertising spending in Australia, the Philippines and India also posted strong growth, while South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore saw "modest declines."
■ Music downloads
Sales pass US$1 billion
Online music sales racked up more than US$1 billion last year as more users downloaded songs from music stores and bought ring tones for their mobile phones, the International Federation of Phonographic Industry said on Thursday. The US$1.1 billion in sales tripled the 2004 figure of US$380 billion and accounted for 6 percent of record companies' revenues. Most of the receipts came from new downloaders, while Web users of illegal file-sharing sites were only rarely migrating to authorized sites, the report said. But the trade group said there were hopeful signs that file sharing was stagnating. The organization credited a high-profile string of lawsuits against illegal downloaders for helping stem the tide and said it would continue its legal campaign against illegal downloading sites and their users.
■ Beef
Japan doubts US imports
Japan suspects imported US beef may have contained material considered at risk for mad cow infection, Japan's agriculture minister said. Agriculture Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said there was the possibility that material from cattle spinal cords was included in beef imported from the US. "If it is true, then this goes against the terms of the agreement," Nakagawa told reporters. "A thorough investigation needs to be conducted." Japan in December partially lifted a two-year-old ban on US beef imports. The ban was imposed in December 2003 after the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in a US herd. The agreement allowed the import of meat only from cows aged 20 months or younger. The deal excluded spines, brains, bone marrow and other parts of the cow thought to be at particularly high risk of containing mad cow disease.
■ Software
Microsoft maintains budget
Microsoft Corp said yesterday that annual spending in China on research and development (R&D) remained at US$100 million and no additional investment would be made as state press indicated earlier. "Microsoft's investment in all China related R&D activities currently stands at US$100 million per year," Microsoft spokesman Mathieu Collette said in a statement. The Shanghai Daily reported on Thursday that Microsoft planned to invest more than US$100 million annually over the next three to five years in China to strengthen research and development.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique