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I was reading online that rumors are running about Google making a play for Groupon;  not some small transaction but a $5B mega play. The Bloomberg reports that Groupon is considering whether to sell itself to Google or go it alone for a little longer and raise fresh cash, which could value the daily coupon company at more than $3bn.

As the Chinese eCommerce sector runs along at a rapid pace, it is not surprising that Baidu has launched an online shopping mall in China in partnership with Rakuten, the Japanese e-commerce giant. This new site is called Lekutian (meaning ‘Happy Cool Day’), which will compete with the established Alibaba Group's Taobao.com – the biggest online retail network in China, currently holding a 75% market share (Analysys International).

This week we saw the yet another marketing event being held in Beijing. This one, simply called, "Marcom Beijing 2010"was billed on their website as "the first international conference with exhibition on marketing and advertising covering the whole value chain of the marketing & advertising industry. It is designed to become the premier annual meeting place of media professionals from all over China and abroad".

Did you know that in China we are have a National Eye Health Day (6th June 2010)? Truthfully, not something I had ever thought about nor knew existed. And, what does this have to do with digital marketing?

Well, over the past few years many companies have tried to become better corporate citizens by introducing various CSR  (corporate social responsibility) programs. This is a great trend and I fully support companies that put efforts in trying to bring additional values to the market beyond just providing their products/services. But, as a marketer I am interested in the ways that companies promote these activities (or not) to either highlight their CSR program or any marketing initiatives within their CSR activity itself.

So therefore, I consider myself fortunate that I can be involved with our clients CSR activities who's goal was to promote eye health and improve the general awareness for taking care of their eyes. I wanted to highlight an online video competition being used as a catalyst to meet these goals.