Chinoiseries

A Shanghai court has found Baidu.com Inc (NASDAQ: BIDU), China's most used search engine, guilty of copyright infringement when it offered free links to Cloudary, an online literature subsidiary of Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd (NASDAQ: SNDA). The court ruled Baidu should pay ¥500,000 in compensation. Baidu said it has appealed against the decision and declined to comment .
China Telecom Corp (NYSE: CHA, HKG: 0728) released its E-Surfing prepaid broadband Wi-Fi service that is available to both China Telecom and non-China Telecom customers. After verifying possession of a particular handset, users can purchase E-Surfing Wi-Fi prepaid credit via online banking, online payment platform Alipay or China Telecom calling credit, according to Zhang Xin, head of China Telecom's customer service department. Once the purchase has been made, users can sign up for a user ID and password for the service online or via SMS, allowing them to use E-Surfing Wi-Fi hotspots nationwide. China Telecom currently has 300,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across China and plans to increase the coverage to 700,000 by the end of this year, and to one million in 2012.
CNOOC Ltd (NYSE: CEO, HKG: 0883), China's biggest offshore petrol energy explorer, has confirmed its payroll averaged ¥386,700 per head in 2010, higher than the average of the petrochemical industry. The company currently has around 100,000 employees.
GreenTree Inns Hotel Management Group Inc, an American-funded budget hotel chain based in China, plans to raise $150 million from a US IPO in Q2 2011, IFR reported. The company started doing business in China in 2004, and was operating 477 hotels in the country by the end of 2010. It has a presence in 97 Chinese cities. Most of its room rates range between ¥160 and ¥220.
Sina Corp (NASDAQ: SINA), a leading Chinese portal, posted $100.2 million in net revenues and $15 million in net profits for Q1 2011, up 18% and down 24% respectively from the same period a year ago. Operating cost of its Weibo microblogging service pushed up total costs. Its Weibo had attracted over 140 million users by the end of April.
China New Borun Corporation (NYSE: BORN), a leading Chinese producer and distributor of corn-based edible alcohol, posted ¥571.8 million in revenues and ¥77.6 million in net profits for Q1 2011, up 47.1% and 32.8% respectively from the same period a year ago.
Canadian Solar Inc (NASDAQ: CSIQ), a Chinese solar company, posted $443.4 million in net revenues and $5.9 million in net profits for Q1 2011, up 31.6% and 292.5% respectively from the same period a year ago.
3SBio Inc (NASDAQ: SSRX), a leading Chinese biotechnology company, posted ¥118.2 million in net revenues and ¥22.2 million in net profits for Q1 2011, up 22.7% and down 16.7% respectively from the same period a year ago.