PetroChina's market value reached more than $430 Billion, second only to Exxon Mobil.
China Mobile and the Industrial Bank of China, are fourth and fifth. Check this out.

MARCUS GEE

October 16, 2007

In yet another sign of China's remarkable economic rise, PetroChina Co. Ltd. shot past giant General Electric Co. yesterday to become the world's second-largest company.

After its stock rose 13 per cent on hopes of big new oil discoveries, the company's market value reached more than $430-billion (U.S.), making it second only to Exxon Mobil Corp.'s $518-billion. General Electric is now third at $420-billion.

Two other Chinese companies, China Mobile and the Industrial Bank of China, are fourth and fifth, both ahead of Bill Gates's giant Microsoft Corp.

Of the world's 25 top valued companies, seven are now Chinese.

"In any economy that is growing that fast, the opportunities for amassing huge amounts of capital are substantial," said Joseph D'Cruz, a business professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

But he said that the lack of solid financial controls and market regulations made it hard to know whether astronomical valuation's like PetroChina's are reliable.

Another U of T expert. Loren Brandt, agreed. "I've never put a lot of weight on the market value of Chinese companies," he said. "If you look at the value of a lot of Japanese companies right before the bubble burst, they were worth a fortune." Japan's stock market fell in the late 1980s, marking the start of an economic downturn that lasted more than a decade.

PetroChina's shares have risen more than sevenfold since 2003. They continued to rise even after legendary investor Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. began cutting its stake in PetroChina. Its value has risen more than 50 per cent this year alone.

The shares trade on the New York and Hong Kong exchanges and the company is planning an offering on the Shanghai exchange soon. It reported in August that its first-half profit rose 1.4 per cent from a year earlier, reaching $10.8-billion.

The Chinese market has been red hot this year. The Shanghai Composite Index rose above 6,000 points for the first time yesterday, breaking the latest in a series of barriers.

That has some market analysts predicting a crash. But Bob Schulz, a University of Calgary scholar, said that companies such as PetroChina are not rising solely on the market tide.

He said state-owned PetroChina has improved its management controls and other business techniques enormously over the past decade, and now exports oil equipment and technology around the globe.

Berkeley is on Youtube.  Many class and event videos can be checked on  Berkeley channel on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ucberkeleycampuslife

It is not a new thing to put the class materials on web , MIT OCW program has run for quite a few years.

Harvard's Law school has offered classes in second life, the most popular 3D virtual society. 

Where Internet will lead us?  How does the democratic TV network, like Current, which Al Gore promote greatly, and Youtube will change the TV media? Do I still need a TV or just a big LCD screen and a Internet Cable?