Sergey Brin’s latest comment on China is certainly interesting. This is how he explained Google’s decision to launch a censored service at google.cn, reported by Times Online:

“We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference.”

And then he continues:

“Perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense.”

This is something quite uncommon; a large corporation publicly discussing a change in position on a question where it has been heavily criticized but has yet to change its position.

We don’t know if this was planned or not. Maybe he just slipped, or maybe he launched a “test balloon” to gather reactions. Maybe he likes to chat about ethics.

It comes at an interesting time as China just decided to shut down access to the uncensored version of Google (as has been reported at numerous sites). Expect some media focus.

I still think they were right to launch in China. But it doesn’t mean it will be right under all circumstances. That’s why they should get some credit for continuing to evaluate their decisions. And for being open about it.

You’ve read The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman and recognize that “Made in China” will soon become “Dreamed up in China”. Now read this lengthy article (The Gucci Killers, Fast Company) for an example of this happening. It’s about the creation of Shanghai Tang, Chinese “Gucci Killer”.

My colleague Ola (based in Beijing) observes that on the list of top 50 restaurants, not a single one is Chinese. In fact only one is in Asia.

Not all that surprising perhaps, if one looks at the list of panelists, where Italy is represented by about the same number of panelists as all of Far East Asia.

Read Ola’s post here (in Swedish).

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).

• Changing the World One Video Game at a Time (from PoliticsBlog). Campaigners turn to video games to reach out with their messages.
• Getting money via Skype (Skype Journal). Now we’re starting to see where Skype is heading after eBay acquired it. Ring tones and avatars seems to be part of their future too.
• Xu Jing Lei dethroned from Technorati 100 (Sam Flemming at China Word of Mouth Blog), and back again. Could it be that Technorati is trying to add Sina.com.cn to their index? If so, will the top 100 be dominated by Chinese blogs?
• Lego Factory (from The Long Tail). A lot more fun than putting together your Dell online. A great example of customization, as well as how to make the most out of a classic product using online tools.

I’ve had a brief look at the newly launched Google Trends. While the ability to compare popluarity of searches is interesting, what really interests me the most as a PR professional is the ability to chart Google News data.

News and media analysis usually takes a lot of time and energy. Sure, you can buy that kind of job from companies specializing in it, but that costs money. Also, sometimes you need the results instantly or want to play a bit with the data because you haven’t really decided what you’re looking for (or even at). In that case you can’t ask someone else to do it.

If Google Trends could make this easier, that would be nice. Do they - or could they? Let’s look at an example.

In this Google Trends search I take a look at “apple” during 2006. You can see there are peaks in both search and news volume when Apple presented new Intel Macs in January, and when Apple unveiled software allowing Macs to run Windows XP (this coincides with Apple the music company suing Apple the white plastic company, but I suspect the software is the real reason for the increase in volume).

What does this tell us about the media coverage of Apple? Two things; that it peaked during those two or three events and that it lead to an increase in search. Not so surprising. And if you’re at all following Apple, you already knew that.

What if I wanted to know the quality of the media coverage, either from an Apple perspective (”I hope it was good!”) or from a competitor perspective (”I hope the reviews killed them” or maybe “what did the media say about feature so-and-so that I’m planning to rip off”)? I’d still have to do it all myself; media search, extensive reading, evaluating each item, marking keywords, putting together the charts and so on.

All this could be made easier if I was able to get the set of news stories behind the graph, assign keywords or values to each item, and then have that data fed back into the graph. That would make it possible to create a graph of positive and negative coverage as well as to identify what is causing it. Or evaluate it in any other way I want to.

The possibilities are endless. Google, please continue to improve this excellent product!

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!