Stopping by the Detroit Auto Show earlier this week, Tesla founder Elon Musk said one of the company’s big goals for the year is to reach profitability.

“Now, the tough thing for Tesla is to actually make a profit for the first time,” Musk said, adding that such a milestone is far more likely at the end of the year than it is now. “I’m hoping we’ll have a profitable quarter this year. Shame on us if we can’t achieve that.”

With that goal in mind, Tesla is moving forward with some agressive plans for retail expansion. The automaker intends to open 25 new stores this year. Half are to be in the United States, the other half overseas, including a Beijing store that’s expected to open its doors in the spring. Also on Tesla’s plate for the year ahead: Increasing the number of Supercharger charging stations in the U.S. to the point where Tesla owners can actually take a reasonable road trip.

That is: You were watching NBC’s coverage of the Olympics alongside a good chunk of the U.S. population. More of them than ever, actually.

The broadcaster says the games were the most popular TV event in U.S. history, pulling in 219 million viewers across 17 days. That’s just above the 215 million that tuned in for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

If you’ve been following NBC’s statements during the games, then today’s news won’t surprise you. Short version: The network says that despite the nattering nabobs, its coverage was a ginormous success.

The longer version comes via a press release which credits the network’s coverage with curing cancer, turning lead into gold and levitating the Pentagon. You should eventually be able to read it here.

The most interesting statistic is that NBC pulled in an average of 31.1 million viewers in prime time — the time the network dedicated to showing heavily edited versions of events that had occurred hours earlier. NBC’s vociferous critics argued that by keeping marquee events off the air until later, NBC diminished their value. But results like this will make it difficult to sway the network brass.

To harp on this point one more time: Last night’s closing ceremonies, in which no sports of any kind occurred, also aired hours after the fact. And even that non-event drew an average of 31 million people — about a third of all TV viewers. (Alternate theory: We are vastly underestimating the Jessie J fan base.)

And yes, there was streaming, too. NBC’s press release is full of gaudy statistics comparing this year’s streaming usage to Beijing, but that seems besides the point, since Beijing had next-to-no live streaming.

Relevant stat here: Pay TV subscribers “verified” some 10 million devices (PCs, iOS, Android), meaning they could watch live events on NBC’s site and apps. And they collectively streamed 13.6 million hours of coverage.

But since it came out a couple of years ago, a number of ideas have sprouted up for applications beyond gaming.

Microsoft decided to support this grassroots movement by hosting a special Kinect edition of TechStars, which gives entrepreneurs 13 weeks and $20,000 to get off the ground.

Eleven companies were chosen from nearly 500 applicants to participate in the program, which took place in Seattle; today, the founders made 20-minute presentations at Microsoft’s headquarters in front of a roomful of investors, in hopes of raising their first round.

The ideas varied dramatically, but for the most part, no one was playing around.

Many of the concepts revolved around the health care industry. Jintronix, for example, is trying to make it easier and less expensive for patients to continue physical therapy. Another idea, from Styku, was targeting e-commerce companies to create more efficient ways to try on clothes when shopping online. Lastly, and most goofy, were the folks from Freak’n Genius, which is allowing just about anyone to create cartoons and animations using real-life body movements. (Pictured on the right, Ubi Interactive demonstrates how it can turn any surface into a multitouch screen using Kinect.)

Here’s a brief description of the 11 companies that presented today:

• Jintronix: Uses Kinect to track a patient’s movements to make physical therapy cheaper and more accessible.
• Manctl: Uses 3-D technology to make it cheaper to make orthopedic molds for creating shoe insoles, or to fit bras more accurately.
• Ikkos: Founded by an Olympic coach, the company is creating a way to train athletes by using the Kinect to track a user’s movements.
• Kimetric: Uses Kinect sensors to track consumer behavior inside of retail stores.
• NConnex: Enables consumers to create 3-D models for interior decorating or remodels.
• Styku: Created by executives of Tukatech, which creates software for the fashion industry, is now making it possible to virtually try on clothing to find the perfect pair of jeans.
• Ubi Interactive: Is using 3-D multitouch technology that turns any surface, including a coffee table or window, into a digital sign or game of Angry Birds.
• Voxon: Giving artists and game designers the tools to create “holographic” entertainment and education.
• Zebcare: Monitors senior citizens in the home to assure that your loved ones are safe.
• Freak’n Genius: Makes it fun and easy for anyone to create animations using your whole body.
• GestSure Technologies: Allows surgeons to navigate MRI and CT scans in the operating room while maintaining sterility.

The moves are among the most dramatic censorship efforts undertaken by Beijing since the rise over the past two years of the popular microblogging services, known in China as weibo. They allow the fast dissemination of information, challenging the central government’s traditional control of the media.

They also show the continuing tensions in China following the March sacking of Bo Xilai, a former Chinese Communist Party star whose ouster as Party chief of the megacity of Chongqing showed cracks in Beijing’s veneer of political unity.

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But Cook’s trip may have had another purpose: Finalizing Apple’s long-in-the-offing iPhone deal with China Mobile, China’s largest wireless carrier. Sources say Cook visited China Mobile’s Beijing offices, and while they offered no details beyond that, it’s not much of a leap to conclude that he was there to talk about the iPhone, which is currently offered by China Mobile rivals China Unicom and China Telecom.

“We wouldn’t be surprised if Cook was exploring a deal to distribute the iPhone with China Mobile, Mainland China’s largest mobile phone carrier,” Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes said in a note to clients. “We believe that China Mobile could sell the upcoming iPhone 5 by C1H13, after a fall launch in the U.S.”

That seems a reasonable prediction. Certainly it’s in Apple’s best interests to sign a distribution deal with China Mobile. If, at long last, it was able to add the device to the carrier’s portfolio, it would gain access to an additional 120 million subscribers. That’s a massive addressable market, and one that Apple can’t ignore much longer.

A spokeswoman said Mr. Cook — who is on his first trip to China since becoming chief executive of the Cupertino, Calif., company — “had great meetings with Chinese officials today.”

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Credit: Feng Li/Getty Images

Apple has decided to postpone the retail availability of its new iPhone 4S at some stores in mainland China, after a rowdy crowd disrupted the device’s debut at its Sanlitun store in Beijing.

Would-be customers — many of whom had waited overnight in the freezing cold to be among the first to purchase the latest iPhone — became so unruly when the store failed to open its doors on time that Apple was forced to cancel first-day sales there. Further inflaming the situation: organized groups of scalpers paid to purchase iPhones for later resale at exorbitant prices.

So rather than risk a repeat of the incident, which ended in profanity, egg-throwing and a few scuffles, the company decided not to sell the 4S at any of its retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai. Instead, it will sell the device through its Web site and carrier partners.

“The demand for iPhone 4S has been incredible, and our stores in China have already sold out,” an Apple spokesman told AllThingsD. “Unfortunately, we were unable to open our store at Sanlitun due to the large crowd, and to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, iPhone will not available in our retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being. Customers can still order iPhone through the Apple Online Store, or buy at China Unicom and other authorized resellers.”

Apple declined to say when it planned to resume sales of the 4S at its Beijing and Shanghai stores.

(Image courtesy of Feng Li/Getty Images)

The Paris-based company’s CEO Dan Serfaty has moved to Beijing with plans to help Tianji establish a new subscription revenue model. The Chinese website currently earns the bulk of its revenue from recruiting tools, but is free to regular users. Globally, Viadeo earns 30 percent of revenue from recruiting, 20 percent from advertising, and 50 percent from subscription fees paid by users.

The company plans to explore various models, including small, incremental payments (like those online game and instant messaging operator Tencent charges users for virtual goods) and subscriptions. Viadeo will also soon be launching a platform for third-party applications on its website, which is expected to earn some revenue as well.

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Google declined to comment specifically on whether an application had been submitted. But given Beijing’s claim and the timeline here–not to mention Google’s recent spat with the Chinese government over Gmail and its souring relations with the country–this looks like more “New Approach to China” posturing.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Google Shutters Google.cn
• China to Google: Go Ahead and Leave, Ya Big Loser
• Report: Google Bailing on China in Early April
• Beijing to Google’s China Partners: Nice Site You Got There. Shame if Something Happened to It.
• China: We Are in Talks With Google. Also, We Are Not in Talks With Google.
• Chinese Scientists Recalibrate Google’s Evil Scale
• Chinese Schools Tied to Attacks on Google? Where’d You Read That, Mad Magazine?
• World War WAN: Google Hack Traced to Schools in China
• Nearly a Month After Debut, Google’s “New” Approach to China Still a Lot Like the Old One
• Google CEO: Ask Not What Google Can Do for China–Ask What China Can Do for Google
• China on “Google Farce”: Our Internet Is Open
• China to Google: No Worries, We Were Planning to Clone Those Android Phones Anyway
• U.S. State Department to Complain to China About Google Hack. Not That China’s Going to Listen.
• Microsoft: “Don’t Be Evil” Is Google’s Motto, Not Ours
• What’s the Chinese Word for Bing? Google Threatens to Leave China.

I can’t remember a year during which computer security stories jumped so readily from the tech and business pages to the front page.

The year 2010 was bookended by two such cases. It opened with Google’s disclosure that it had come under attack in China, an apparent attempt to penetrate the Gmail accounts of certain activists and journalists.

It ended with the WikiLeaks affair, which stemmed from the alleged theft by an Army private of classified documents stored on a government network.

And let’s not forget in mid-year came the story, as fascinating as it was sobering, of Stuxnet, a computer worm developed by parties unknown–although the smart money is on Israel–that penetrated and ultimately damaged equipment used in the Iranian nuclear program.

Computer hacking–which has for too long evoked images in the public mind-set of teenagers in basements taking digital joyrides–has finally revealed itself to everyone for what it has long been for those in the know: The domain of espionage, sabotage and possibly warfare.

In Google’s case, the attacks upon its systems raised questions about where it draws the line with authorities in Beijing about such matters as freedom of speech. When the attack was first disclosed, Google publicly mulled shutting down its operations in China.

Then in protest, it stopped censoring its search results, giving mainland Chinese access to the same search results available to residents of Hong Kong. Beijing responded by blocking access to Google’s site.

Finally, Google and China came to a new agreement, and Google appeared the loser in the battle of wills.

Computer security is one of those things that companies and governments say they take seriously, but never really seem to get a grip on, judging by the results.

In any case, there is no firewall or software in existence that could have prevented Bradley Manning from stealing the documents that he is alleged to have given to WikiLeaks. As a low-level Army intelligence analyst, he was a trusted insider who had access to this material in the course of his day-to-day job.

So, it was not technology that failed. The failure was one of internal policies that allowed him access to data not relevant to his position.

Any employee of a midsize company can see how wrong that is. Human-resources documents are limited only to those who work in that department. The same is true of people who work in the legal office, business development department and so on.

But it apparently didn’t occur to anyone in government to limit the access to what became the WikiLeaks cache to people who worked only for or closely with the State Department.

If it turns out that thousands of companies are better at protecting their business secrets than the U.S. government is, then it’s not for nothing that the Central Intelligence Agency task force investigating the WikiLeaks affair bears the initials “WTF.”

Something similar was true of Stuxnet. One of the reasons the attackers, whoever they are, succeeded was that they used several so-called “zero day” vulnerabilities in Windows.

These are undocumented weaknesses that hackers save up for special occasions as a way to open a back door into a computer and then insert a troublemaking payload, like a worm. Zero day exploits are a fact of life, and once spotted in the world, they’re usually patched.

The Stuxnet attackers used as many as four zero day exploits as a way to get their worm into targeted computers. Microsoft, to its credit, made short work of fixing them once they came to light.

Even so, the Stuxnet worm burrowed its way from Windows machines into industrial control computers known as SCADA systems, which are widely used to run factories, power plants, pipelines and all sorts of other infrastructure essential to modern life.

The worm was designed to find a specific target: The systems controlling a set of as many as 1,000 centrifuges at the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, and make them spin faster than they were supposed to.

The ability to attack industrial computers and cause them to do things they’re not supposed to do has been a lingering fear among security experts for years. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy in 2007 looked at the potential for attacks on SCADA systems and proved that it was possible to seize control of an electrical generator and then make it destroy itself.

They also found that many of these systems are connected to the Internet for what seem like good reasons: Convenience and cost savings. But these connections have also opened them up to the same kind of attacks that rattled the Iranian facility in Natanz.

Another Stuxnet-like worm, the thinking goes, could be used to bring down a power grid, or poison drinking water, or shut down an oil or gas pipeline. The good news is that such an attack is expensive–Stuxnet, by one estimate, cost $10 million to create–and requires a lot of specialized insider knowledge.

The bad news is that the Stuxnet source code is circulating in the wild for anyone to study. And as the WikiLeaks case shows, there are often insiders willing to take part in criminal schemes.

The other bad news? Securing these systems won’t come cheap.

If history is any judge, there will likely be a barrage of computer security companies that try to spin these incidents into opportunities to make a sales pitch. That’s what security companies do, after all.

But they usually miss the point. How can you plan for a vulnerability you’ve never seen? How can you stop an otherwise trusted insider from abusing their access to sensitive information? Both are fundamentally difficult problems for which there are no easy answers.

Spending money on last year’s security vulnerabilities is like preparing to fight the last war: Circumstances inevitably change, and they certainly will in 2011. New kinds of attacks will arise, and they will catch their targets by surprise.

And the public, like the CIA, will reasonably ask, “WTF?”

The unvarnished fact is that the networked society to which we’ve become accustomed in the last several years has a soft, vulnerable underbelly.

And the more we rely upon it, the more people with a combination of advanced technical skills and repugnant motivations are going to look for ways to turn it against us.

Some will do so as a means of making a personal profit. Others may see it as a way of advancing a political or ideological agenda.

But others will want to use theirs skills to do serious harm to innocent people on a large scale.

And the events of 2010 point the way to a world where that’s a more realistic scenario than it ever was before.

Mr. Zuckerberg on Wednesday visited the offices of Sina Corp., a leading Chinese Web portal, and met with its CEO, Charles Chao. That followed a meeting Tuesday with Wang Jianzhou, chairman of state-owned telecommunications carrier China Mobile Ltd., and a visit Monday with Robin Li, CEO of Baidu Inc., at the Chinese search company’s headquarters.

The trip appeared to be an effort by the 26-year-old to learn more about the Chinese market, rather than discuss any specific business proposals. But it came as the Facebook founder openly has discussed a desire to get into China, where the government has blocked access to the site since last year.

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The Beijing-based company has raised $20 million from DCM and Sequoia Capital China in its first round of venture funding. The capital will enable the company to expand its business offering brand-name clothes, accessories, makeup and home furnishings through time-sensitive online discounted offers.

The company has 1.5 million members across China and is one of a handful of start-ups taking the model popularized in the U.S. by companies such as Groupon Inc. and Gilt Groupe Inc., European companies like Spanish internet retailers BuyVip GmbH and Privalia Venta Directa S.L., or the French site Vente Privee, which is backed by Summit Partners LLC.

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Sonos, maker of the well-known wireless multi-room music system for the home, announced at a press conference in Beijing, China, today that it will soon be selling its products in the important Asian market.

The move by the Santa Barbara, Calif., consumer electronics company is a big expansion, putting its players in the hands of a growing base of more affluent Chinese customers by later this month.

“The consumer market is really developing and the Chinese customer wants the best products for music delivery,” said Sonos CEO John MacFarlane in an interview with BoomTown earlier this week. “We have had a fair amount of growth outside the U.S. and we expect it to only continue.”

MacFarlane said all Sonos products, which make a lot of use of Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices as controllers, will be localized in China.

The company said Sonos China will be headquartered in the southern China city of Shenzhen. The new managing director of the Chinese division will be Yaling Zhang, who previously served as managing director of Archos China.

Here’s the official press release from Sonos:

SONOS BRINGS WIRELESS MULTI-ROOM MUSIC TO CHINA

Sonos Controller for iPad and Entire Sonos Product Lineup Localized in Chinese
Sonos China Opens Shenzhen Office and Names Yaling Zhang Managing Director
Sonos China Launches www.sonos-china.com

BEIJING and SANTA BARBARA, California–November 2, 2010–Sonos, the leading developer of wireless multi-room music systems for the home, today announced that the award-winning Sonos Multi-Room Music System will be available in China beginning later this month. The Sonos system will be available for purchase in China at select audio video retailers.

At a press conference today in Beijing, Sonos founder and CEO John MacFarlane introduced the Sonos product family and the upcoming localized Sonos Controller for iPad. MacFarlane announced that Sonos China will be headquartered in the southern China city of Shenzhen, and will be the company’s second office in Asia.

MacFarlane also introduced the new Managing Director of Sonos China, Yaling Zhang. Zhang, who previously served as Managing Director of Archos China, is a consumer electronics veteran who has successfully introduced new brands and new ways of experiencing entertainment to the Chinese consumer.

“More than half of Sonos’ business is conducted outside of the United States,” said John MacFarlane, founder and CEO, Sonos, Inc. “As we enter the world’s largest music market, we have a tremendous opportunity to introduce the Sonos music experience to even more music loving consumers.”

MacFarlane continued “We’re committed to doing business in China the right way, with localized products, a local office, local leadership and a local Website. We’ve found that leader in Yaling Zhang who has both the background and experience in introducing new consumer electronics brands to the Chinese market.”

For more information about Sonos please visit www.sonos.com. To learn more about Sonos China and the Sonos Multi-Room Music System in China, please visit www.sonos-china.com.

And, apropos of nothing, here is an interesting video by Sonos of its also recent Apple iAd deployment:

Apple opened two new stores—one in Beijing and another in Shanghai—last Friday, doubling the number of Apple retail outlets in China. The company also officially launched the iPhone 4 on the same day, marking the fastest roll-out of a new Apple device in China.

But as of Thursday morning, Apple’s flagship store in Beijing’s Sanlitun Village mall was sold out of the new smartphone. As a result, scalpers, who bought up iPhone 4s earlier in the week, are now lurking outside the store ready to pounce on anyone who walks out without merchandise.

“Want to buy an iPhone 4?” they say. “Come with us.”

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“We are close to sell-out and there’s no timetable for the arrival of the second batch of products,” said one China Unicom store clerk.

Quite different from iPhone 3, which saw sales of a mere 5,000 during its launch weekend, and a boon for Apple (AAPL), which has targeted China as its next major geographic growth opportunity.

As COO Tim Cook said during an earnings call earlier this year, “If you look at greater China, which we define as mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the iPhone units were up year-over-year over nine times. We added another 800 points of distribution in China. The revenue, we have never released this number before but I will do this in this particular case, through the first half of the fiscal year that we just completed, for the six month period, our revenue from greater China was almost $1.3 billion and this is up over 200 percent year-over-year. So we are well pleased with how the company is positioned to take advantage of the growth in greater China.”

Last Friday, former Google China head Kai-Fu Lee (pictured here) dialed up BoomTown from that country for a chit-chat interview about his life since leaving the search giant one year ago and plunging into the world of incubation, recruiting and early-stage funding for start-ups there.

Being president of Google’s China operations is far different from being CEO of Innovation Works, which just celebrated its first anniversary.

And, although he left Google (GOOG) on tense terms, said many sources, Lee complimented it as still having the best technology in the world.

Nonetheless, he also added it will only become harder for any U.S. company to compete in China over the next few years for a variety of reasons.

Lee would not specifically talk about Google’s fight with China over censorship issues, but said the bigger problem for it and other U.S. Web companies was actually that they are not local or nimble enough to beat out an increasingly trained Chinese tech workforce.

According to Lee–as well as explained in an interesting deck he sent me that is embedded below–Silicon Valley can no longer rely on a tech edge that it has long had, and China units of U.S. tech companies still will not empower their Chinese employees enough to compete.

“In China, there are a mass of very talented engineers who can attack a long-tail opportunity very quickly,” he said. “This kind of speed is critical in this market now.”

That’s why–unlike most Silicon Valley venture firms with a presence in China–he decided to focus Innovation Works on early-stage companies.

“We see it as a unique opportunity to provide a refreshing accessibility for small, but promising, Chinese companies,” Lee said. “There are a lot of inefficiencies.”

With a heavy focus on mobile–which Lee considers the key arena in China, much of it based on versions of Google’s Android mobile operating system–Innovation Works has focused on a dozen start-ups, including:

Tapas: An Internet smartphone operating system–based on Google’s Android–tailored to Chinese users.

Wonderpod (Wandoujia): A software “assistant” for Android phones to download applications, videos and music without consuming expensive mobile bandwidth.

Umeng: An analytics tool for mobile developers in China.

Photo Wonder: Mobile phone software for enhancing and sharing photos.

Ascending Cloud: A game publisher built on proprietary technology for developing and publishing social and Web games for over 30 countries.

Lee said now that the strategy and investments are in place, next year’s focus will be on nurturing the companies Innovation Works has invested in.

While he said he knows that it is still early, Lee–who has also worked at Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT)–said he thinks that China, specifically Beijing and Zhongguancun, could become the next Silicon Valley.

“There are 300 million Chinese using mobile devices and there is no one or two dominant player, as is the case in the U.S.,” Lee said. “It’s the same across a variety of areas, so the landscape for small, scrappy start-ups is wide open and huge.”

We’ll see how it all turns out. but here is the must-see deck from Lee, as well as a press release on Innovation Works’ first anniversary and a detailed description of it:

Innovation Works Overview (US Press)

Sep 8 Press Release

Incubation Programs

Baidu reported a net profit of 837.4 million yuan, or about $123.5 million, for the second quarter, compared with 383.3 million yuan a year earlier.

The record profit translates to 2.4 yuan, or 35 U.S. cents, per American depositary share, compared with 1.1 yuan a year earlier. Excluding share-based compensation, earnings were 36 cents. Analysts had predicted 31 cents a share.

The Beijing-based company said it saw growth in the number of customers and its ability to extract revenue from them. Total active online-marketing customers grew 25 percent to 254,000 in the latest quarter, while revenue per customer rose 39 percent.

Google (GOOG), which has long been the No. 2 player in China’s search market behind Baidu, moved its Chinese search engine to Hong Kong in March after deciding it would no longer follow Chinese government requirements to censor its results. Users in China can still access the Hong Kong-based service, but the move irked Chinese regulators, and appears to have slowed the U.S. firm’s traffic in China.

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That’s the gist of a research note from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who says that China’s stricter filtering of Google search results and the continued willingness of Chinese companies to purchase advertising on the site suggest that Beijing is unlikely to block Google (GOOG) completely.

Over the weekend, Munster and his team conducted a series of everyday searches on Google.com.hk, as well as five searches on politically sensitive topics. While the majority of the former were not filtered, all five of the latter were, with two–“Tiananmen Square Incident” and “Falun Gong”–blocked outright.

To Munster, this suggests the Chinese government intends to leave the Google.cn redirect in place:

Our take is that if the Chinese government intended to shut down access to Google’s Hong Kong portal, it would have done so soon after Google’s announcement in policy change. We believe the more strict filter we observed over the weekend is another sign of Google being able to continue to operate a Chinese search portal….We believe another factor in China’s reaction to Google is the country wishes to promote stability, which enables the government to achieve its objectives. While the mainstream media in China has not been talking about the Google situation, we believe that there is awareness of the conflict, especially amongst younger people, and we therefore believe the government is unlikely to block Google.

The fast-growing social games start-up, Zynga–which recently penned distribution deals with Facebook and Yahoo (YHOO)–rolled out its first original online game today, called FrontierVille.

According to the San Francisco-based Zynga, most social games are iterations on other games already out there. Its flagship game, FarmVille, for example, wasn’t the first farm game.

The Wild West-themed FrontierVille is also the first game from well-known game designer Brian Reynolds, who has previously created Rise of Nations, Civilization II and others.

“FrontierVille is Oregon Trail meets Little House on the Prairie meets FarmVille,” said Reynolds in a statement about the game, where you start with a covered wagon and a plot of land.

There are also varmints to rassle with.

Someone go down to the cement pond to fetch Granny, Elly Mae and Jethro, stat!

Here is a video from Zynga about FrontierVille, as well as some screenshots:

ZYNGA GOES WEST WITH FRONTIERVILLE from Zynga on Vimeo.

And here is the official press release:

ZYNGA GOES WEST WITH FRONTIERVILLE LAUNCH

FrontierVille Invites Users to Tame the Wilderness, Grow a Family, and Build a Thriving Frontier Town

SAN FRANCISCO–June 9, 2010–Zynga today announced the launch of FrontierVille, a wild west-themed social game that allows users to tame the wilderness, grow a family, and build a thriving frontier town. The debut of FrontierVille comes on the heels of the recently launched Treasure Isle that quickly became the fastest growing Facebook application of all time and one of Zynga’s most popular games with 25 million daily active users. FrontierVille launches on Facebook today at http://apps.facebook.com/frontierville/.

FrontierVille introduces a new western theme to the Zynga family and leads a new generation of social games by introducing new features including multiple avatars on a single screen under one player’s control. For the first time, Zynga is introducing virtual families allowing players to customize a spouse and raise a virtual family. Additionally, FrontierVille, the first game from the Zynga East studios, is a “living world,” where players contend with wildlife encounters, varying weather, and vegetation growth.

“FrontierVille gives users creative new ways to connect with people around the world while bringing out the pioneering spirit in all of us,” said Brian Reynolds, Zynga’s chief game designer who led the development of FrontierVille. “FrontierVille is Oregon Trail meets Little House on the Prairie meets FarmVille.”

Beginning with a covered wagon and a plot of land, FrontierVille players are challenged to tame the wilderness, explore the wild West and establish a homestead with friends and family. FrontierVille game features include:

Family: Raise your own fantasy frontier family. Customize your make-believe spouse, and watch your little kiddies grow up. You can always change your own pioneer avatar, and you can move all the members of your family around for work and adventures.

Crops: After you’ve cleared enough land, it’s time to plant some crops and trees. Buy seeds and trees in the marketplace. Be careful to not let your crops wither as they become worthless, but don’t worry, your neighbors can always revive your crops if they wither. Harvested crops yield extra coin, food, and experience points.

Varmints: The wilderness is filled with dangerous vermin. Snakes, groundhogs, and bears lurk behind trees, rocks, and tall grass. You’ll have to attack or chase these varmints off your homestead.

Neighbors: Add friends as your neighbors to help you chop trees and build your log cabin. You can also hire your neighbors to get work done quickly.

Reputation: Being a good neighbor to your fellow pioneers earns you hearts. As you gain more hearts, or points, your reputation level increases. A good reputation makes you more useful to friends to hire you.

Today’s FrontierVille game launch along with Zynga’s recently announced partnerships with Facebook and Yahoo! continues to extend the company’s footprint worldwide, creating more opportunities for Zynga to connect the world through games. Recent acquisitions of XPD Media and Challenge Games established new Zynga game studios in Beijing and Austin.

“The Chinese government attaches great importance to protecting the safe flow of Internet information, actively guides people to manage Web sites in accordance with the law and use the Internet in a wholesome and correct way,” the paper reads. “The Decision of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee on Guarding Internet Security, Regulations on Telecommunications of the People’s Republic of China and Measures on the Administration of Internet Information Services stipulate that no organization or individual may produce, duplicate, announce or disseminate information having the following contents…”

What follows is a list so broad and vague it could easily be applied to nearly any speech Beijing finds undesirable: “subverting state power…propagating superstitious ideas…spreading rumors…and other contents forbidden by laws and administrative regulations.”

But steer clear of those and you’re free to say what you like because “Chinese citizens fully enjoy freedom of speech on the Internet”–according to this white paper, anyway.

The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China confers on Chinese citizens the right to free speech. With their right to freedom of speech on the Internet protected by the law, they can voice their opinions in various ways on the Internet. Vigorous online ideas exchange is a major characteristic of China’s Internet development, and the huge quantity of BBS posts and blog articles is far beyond that of any other country….The Chinese government has actively created conditions for the people to supervise the government, and attaches great importance to the Internet’s role in supervision….The Internet provides unprecedented convenience and a direct channel for the people to exercise their right to know, to participate, to be heard and to oversee, and is playing an increasingly important role in helping the government get to know the people’s wishes, meet their needs and safeguard their interests. The Chinese government is determined to unswervingly safeguard the freedom of speech on the Internet enjoyed by Chinese citizens in accordance with the law.

And if “safeguarding” freedom of speech involves, say, blocking YouTube, Picasa and a bunch of other services offered by Google (GOOG)? Well, I guess that’s just the Chinese government “voicing its opinion” in this “vigorous online ideas exchange.”

All chief editors and managers:

Google has officially announced its withdrawal from the China market. This is a high-impact incident. It has triggered netizens’ discussions which are not limited to a commercial level. Therefore please pay strict attention to the following content requirements during this period:

A. News section:

1. Only use Central Government main media (website) content; do not use content from other sources.
2. Reposting must not change title.
3. News recommendations should refer to Central government main media websites.
4. Do not produce relevant topic pages; do not set discussion sessions; do not conduct related investigative reporting.
5. Online programs with experts and scholars on this matter must apply for permission ahead of time. This type of self-initiated program production is strictly forbidden.
6. Carefully manage the commentary posts under news items.

B. Forums, blogs and other interactive media sections:

1. It is not permitted to hold discussions or investigations on the Google topic.
2. Interactive sections do not recommend this topic, do not place this topic and related comments at the top.
3. All websites please clean up text, images and sound and videos which attack the Party, State, government agencies, Internet policies with the excuse of this event.
4. All websites please clean up text, images and sound and videos which support Google, dedicate flowers to Google, ask Google to stay, cheer for Google and others have a different tune from government policy.
5. On topics related to Google, carefully manage the information in exchanges, comments and other interactive sessions.
6. Chief managers in different regions please assign specific manpower to monitor Google-related information; if there is information about mass incidents, please report it in a timely manner.
We ask the Monitoring and Control Group to immediately follow up monitoring and control actions along the above directions; once any problems are discovered, please communicate with respected sessions in a timely manner.

Additional guidelines:

– Do not participate in and report Google’s information/press releases.
– Do not report about Google exerting pressure on our country via people or events.
– Related reports need to put [our story/perspective/information] in the center, do not provide materials for Google to attack relevant policies of our country.
– Use talking points about Google withdrawing from China published by relevant departments.

[Image credit: Rich Anderson/Flickr]

Evidently, clicking on a contentious query more than a few times invites a block that requires users to restart their browsers in order to regain access to the site. So Google.com.hk, the uncensored site to which Google (GOOG) has been redirecting Chinese searchers, is still available in China, but it’s usefulness has obviously been undermined. Oddly, Google’s Mainland China Service Availability page doesn’t seem to have noticed this yet.

Meanwhile, Tom.com stopped using Google to power its searches, and rumors are beginning to circulate that some of the country’s mobile operators are reconsidering plans to launch new phones running on Google’s Android OS.

Reached for comment, Google didn’t have much to offer: “It seems that certain sensitive queries are being blocked,” a spokesperson told me. “However, the Google.com.hk site is not currently being blocked.”

Yep.

Clearly, Google’s (GOOG) redirection of Google.cn to Google.hk and the implied reminder that Hong Kong is free and mainland China is not, did not go over well with Beijing.

Gang did not comment on the legality of Google’s new approach to China or explain how his country’s government will respond. But he did reiterate Beijing’s you-will-play-by-our-rules mandate to foreign business. Said Gang: “Any foreign company operating in China must abide by Chinese laws and regulations.”

Was he implying that China feels Google is violating its laws by offering an uncensored search service from Hong Kong? That’s not yet clear, though I’m sure it will become more so in the days ahead. Already, there are reports that Google searches for sensitive or banned terms conducted from China are returning error messages.

PREVIOUSLY:

• China: Google Broke Promise, Wrong to Stop Censoring
• Google Shutters Google.cn
• China to Google: Go Ahead and Leave, Ya Big Loser
• Report: Google Bailing on China in Early April
• Beijing to Google’s China Partners: Nice Site You Got There. Shame if Something Happened to It.
• China: We Are in Talks With Google. Also, We Are Not in Talks With Google.
• Chinese Scientists Recalibrate Google’s Evil Scale
• Chinese Schools Tied to Attacks on Google? Where’d You Read That, Mad Magazine?
• World War WAN: Google Hack Traced to Schools in China
• Nearly a Month After Debut, Google’s “New” Approach to China Still a Lot Like the Old One
• Google CEO: Ask Not What Google Can Do for China–Ask What China Can Do for Google
• China on “Google Farce”: Our Internet Is Open
• China to Google: No Worries, We Were Planning to Clone Those Android Phones Anyway
• U.S. State Department to Complain to China About Google Hack. Not That China’s Going to Listen.
• Microsoft: “Don’t Be Evil” Is Google’s Motto, Not Ours
• What’s the Chinese Word for Bing? Google Threatens to Leave China.

“Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks,” a government official told the news agency. “This is totally wrong. We’re uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conduct….”

According to the official, “We made patient and meticulous explanations on the questions Google raised (in the talks)…telling it we would still welcome its operation and development in China if it was willing to abide by Chinese laws, while it would be its own affair if it was determined to withdraw its service. Foreign companies must abide by Chinese laws and regulations when they operate in China.”

No details yet on what the next phase of the Chinese government’s response to Google’s (GOOG) move will be. My guess is we’ll see the search behemoth’s China Service Availability page light up with red X marks momentarily.

“On entering the Chinese market…[Google] clearly stated that it would respect Chinese law,” Ministry of Commerce spokesman Yao Jian said Tuesday. “We hope that whether Google Inc continues operating in China or makes other choices, it will respect Chinese legal regulations….Even if it pulls out, it should handle things according to the rules and appropriately handle remaining issues.”

It’s not clear just what these “remaining issues” are–perhaps some sort of formal notification of withdrawal and the forfeiture of Google’s Internet Content Provider license, which is evidently up for renewal this month. In any event, the rhetoric seems to suggest that Beijing assumes Google (GOOG) will be following through on its “new approach to China” threat relatively soon.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Beijing to Google’s China Partners: Nice Site You Got There. Shame if Something Happened to It.
• China: We Are in Talks With Google. Also, We Are Not in Talks With Google.
• Chinese Scientists Recalibrate Google’s Evil Scale
• Chinese Schools Tied to Attacks on Google? Where’d You Read That, Mad Magazine?
• World War WAN: Google Hack Traced to Schools in China
• Nearly a Month After Debut, Google’s “New” Approach to China Still a Lot Like the Old One
• Google CEO: Ask Not What Google Can Do for China–Ask What China Can Do for Google
• China on “Google Farce”: Our Internet Is Open
• China to Google: No Worries, We Were Planning to Clone Those Android Phones Anyway
• U.S. State Department to Complain to China About Google Hack. Not That China’s Going to Listen.
• Microsoft: “Don’t Be Evil” Is Google’s Motto, Not Ours
• What’s the Chinese Word for Bing? Google Threatens to Leave China.