Category: China

If you were to chose between connecting your product or brand to “China” or not, would you? Would attracting 400 million possible Chinese consumers push you towards a yes? Would the possibility of alienating a few hundred million Western consumers push you towards a no?

Consider these facts:

• According to this Synovate study, “only one in eight respondents from the US and key markets in Europe think highly of the quality of products made in China”. That’s why the “Made in China” sign is written in a 4 point font, hidden at the back of the washing instructions.
• According to the book The Rise of the Chinese Consumer: Theory and Evidence (by Jonathan Garner), national pride is a strong source of brand loyalty among Chinese consumers. You might want to appear more Chinese than you are to gain acceptance.
• In a globalized world, you are less likely to succeed in keeping separate images of your brand in different parts of the world. The Internet is pretty much everywhere and people will see you if you pretend to be something else somewhere else. You’ll have to pick a side.

Now which alternative is most tempting; having your brand be Chinese or not? Would you boost the fact that your product is made in China, or would you hide it?

1. On the size of online China: Sam Flemming gives us some statistics for the fan bar (=community) of “Li Yu Chun, aka Super Girl, aka LYC, aka ChunChun”: over 17 million posts on just under a million topics - in less than a year. Also, some stats on Sina bloggers.

2. On the possible end of (super) cheap labor: Moving to an urban area shows to be expensive for many farmers:

According to Zhong Naiyi, a researcher at Shanghai Institute for International Studies, what has caused the labor shortage is the fact that although farmers’ income has risen in recent years, migrant workers haven’t seen much growth in their income. As a result, farmers feel less inclined to leave for a city job.

Read the Knowledge@Wharton article “Does a Growing Worker Shortage Threaten China’s Low-cost Advantage?”.

3. On the importance of having a good strategy when going to China: Yahoo! feels a need to defend themself. They wouldn’t, had they done their homework (like Google did).

Sam Flemming apparently caused a change to the Technorati 100 when he asked them why Chinese movie celebrity Xu Jing Lei was not listed as number one. She now is.

I suppose that’s fine if all you measure is audience across the whole blog media. But it does beg the question as to why a list of top bloggers - uncategorized - is a relevant measure. There are blogs on any subject and in many languages. So to whom is Xu Jing Lei number one? Those who speak Chinese to begin with, and who have an interest in her as a person. To whom is Boing Boing number one (or two, as it is now)? Endgadget? A List Apart? Gawker? Each has a niche and a specific language.

We wouldn’t list print media uncategorized, so why should we do that with blogs. When we do, what we list is not influence, it’s who consumes the most bandwidth.

As Steve Rubel notes, the explosion of blogs in languages other than English will push the so-called “a-list” bloggers down the list. But in what relevant way were they A to begin with?

This week’s The Economist has a great article on the Internet in China. Largely it’s about censorship and the problems facing both domestic and foreign Internet companies. But it’s also about the unstoppable force that is the Internet, even when there are 30 000 Internet police watching it. Key quote:

“China’s news portals, in their competition for traffic, will continue to test the limits of official tolerance. And in a competitive market few internet-café operators pay attention to government requirements that users’ identities should be registered. An hour on a broadband connection in an internet café in a small town can cost as little as one yuan—about 13 cents.”

Now that’s good. My experience, from a couple of years back, is that the real problem isn’t just the hard obstacles facing Chinese Internet users, such as content “disappearing”; it’s the fact that users don’t even know they can visit foreign web sites to find uncensored information. A mental firewall is still a firewall.

I believe a lot has changed in that regard the last few years. And that’s why I believe it’s a good thing more and more companies seek to establish their services in China. It will wear down the mental firewall and introduce new sources of information.

But companies need to be aware of what they will be facing, and adjust their strategies in a responsible way. To me, Google’s strategy seems the right one; don’t offer services (Gmail, Blogger) that could potentially bring people into trouble with the authorities. At least to start with.

• The myth of “keeping up”. Good thoughts on how to cut the fat from your information diet. But most importantly, it’s about why it’s such a bad idea to compare your own productivity to that of several other people combined. You just can’t win that comparison.
• Microsoft’s China Card (Business Week). They are clearly, as the article puts it, “trying to make up for lost time” in their relations to China. But will they be able to break Chinese piracy? Maybe, with a little help from their newfound friends.
• The Times Emulates Print on the Web (Technology Review). The headline in one of the screenshots says it all: “Microsoft Software Will Let Times Readers Download Paper”. If that’s what you’d like to do I’m sure this will be great!