Chinese Payment Systems Overview: AliPay vs. WeChat Pay vs. Union Pay

Understanding Chinese payment systems is a prerequisite to setting up a successful sales strategy in this market. Here is the overview of the top 3

China Cybersecurity Law: 5 Things You Should Know

It is important to be aware of legal requirements for setting up and operating online business in China. China cybersecurity law is designed to regulate such operations having broad implications for foreign companies operating locally. Here are the top 5 most important takeaways from the law.

5 Unique Taobao App Features That Boost Sales On Mobile

Taobao app on mobile is responsible for over half of the sales. Here are the top 5 features which contribute the most to its efficiency and popularity.

Behind Douyin Success Story: How Did It Pull It Off?

Douyin (aka TikTok in the West) is the most successful short video app that has taken China (and the world) by storm. Here are the key ingredients Douyin success story and how it unfolded.

6 Bizarre Body Image Weibo Trends That Went Viral

A few recent viral Weibo trends in China were all about body image but often promote stereotypes and unhealthy lifestyles. Here are some of the recent ones.

Successful China Marketing Strategies: Lessons from Evernote

How did Evernote managed to do great in China while famous internet giants failed miserably? Here are the reasons behind Evernote China success story.

Building Chinese Website: 15 Points Checklist

Building Chinese website for brands isn’t as straight forward task as in the case of other markets. Here is our comprehensive list of 15 points to consider for building Chinese websites for brands.

China Marketing Alternative: 360 Search PPC Campaign

Baidu isn’t the only choice for China SEM. Thanks to lower CPC, 360 Search PPC campaign offers a cost-effective alternative for China marketers.

China B2B Marketing Success: 12 Most Common Questions

Understanding China B2B marketing environment is the key to success in this market. Here are the 12 Q&As on this topic we have put together for our readers.

Checklist for Building your China Web Presence

Getting serious about setting up Chinese website for your business? Here are the top 10 items on your China web presence check list.

Our China Blog

Guide to Baidu Baike, China’s Wikipedia Equivalent

Guide to Baidu Baike, China’s Wikipedia Equivalent

Baidu Baike is the Chinese equivalent to Wikipedia and is one of the most visited websites in China. Baidu SERP prominently features Baidu Baike entries, therefore getting a page on this platform can propel brands to the top search results.

Here is our guide Baidu Baike.

Baidu Baike (百度 百科 in Chinese, translated as “Baidu Encyclopedia”) is a collaborative, web-based encyclopedia that is owned and produced by the Chinese search engine Baidu. The test version was released on April 20, 2006 and within three weeks the encyclopedia had grown to more than 90,000 articles and surpassing Chinese Wikipedia. In January 2018 Baidu Baike had more than 15.1 million articles. read more…

Baidu SERP: How to Take Advantage of Baidu Zhidao Marketing

Baidu SERP: How to Take Advantage of Baidu Zhidao Marketing

Baidu Zhidao is China’s equivalent to Quora or Yahoo Answers and one of the most linked knowledge base sources. Baidu Zhidao Marketing is an alternative way to get to Baidu top search results.

What is Baidu Zhidao

Baidu Zhidao (百度知道) literally means Baidu Knows is a Chinese language collaborative Web-based collective intelligence by question and answer which is built and run by Baidu. read more…

Understanding Baidu SERP: Increase Exposure with Baidu Baike Marketing

Understanding Baidu SERP: Increase Exposure with Baidu Baike Marketing

Baidu Baike is China’s answer to Wikipedia and one of the most trusted source for information. Baidu Baike Marketing offers brands a backdoor access to Baidu top search results.

As China’s largest search engine, Baidu handles approximately 3.3 billion queries per day. In comparison, Google is only slightly ahead with 3.5 billion queries per day globally. Unlike Google, vast majority of Baidu searches come from China. read more…

Choosing Between PPC vs. SEO for Chinese Market

Choosing Between PPC vs. SEO for Chinese Market

SEO and PPC are the two basic options for boosting traffic to your website. Choosing between PPC vs. SEO for Chinese market is often a difficult decision to make.

Up until the middle of 2016, Chinese PPC, especially with Baidu, was, on average, delivering better returns than SEO. This was due to several factors:

  • First, the search results, especially for popular terms, were dominated by paid ads. In some cases, hardly any organic results would be displayed in the first page;
  • Second, there was little visual distinction in Baidu between paid and organic results and most people couldn’t even tell the difference.

read more…

Basics of China Keyword Research: Measuring Search Trends

Basics of China Keyword Research: Measuring Search Trends

One of the foundations of successful online strategy in any market is keyword research and China is no exception. Since the familiar tools such as Google keyword planner are irrelevant here, China keyword research must be done with the local equivalents.

read more…

Basics of China Keyword Research: WeChat Index

Basics of China Keyword Research: WeChat Index

WeChat Index Tutorial

According to the most recent data, WeChat has passed a milestone of a billion users which puts it far ahead of any other Chinese social media platform. Measuring trends on such an enormous network could potentially bring the most statistically accurate data to marketers. read more…

Basics of China Keyword Research: Weibo Index

Basics of China Keyword Research: Weibo Index

Weibo Index Tutorial

In terms of monthly users, Weibo is the second largest Chinese social media platform after WeChat. However, unlike WeChat, it is still primarily PC based. Weibo is one of the most powerful marketing tools in China offering wide range of possibilities for reaching people across various demographics and psychographics. read more…

Basics of China Keyword Research: Qihoo Index

Basics of China Keyword Research: Qihoo Index

Qihoo (360 Search) Index Tutorial

Qihoo, also known as 360Search and So.com, is the second largest Chinese search engine. By various estimates, it holds between 15 to 25% of the search market share and is fairly popular among younger users. read more…

Basics of China Keyword Research: Baidu Index

Basics of China Keyword Research: Baidu Index

Baidu Index Tutorial

Being the largest search engine in China, Baidu keyword research should be the one to start with. Currently, Baidu offers Baidu Index tool that is free for Baidu advertising accounts, offering some basic information to users. read more…

Overview of Advertising with Chinese Search Engines

Overview of Advertising with Chinese Search Engines

China is one of only three major markets where Google is not a dominant search engine. The other two markets are Russia where Yandex holds the commanding market and Korea with Naver being the most popular choice. Currently, Baidu is the most popular among Chinese search engines with market share somewhere between 75% and 85% according to various estimates.

Moreover, Baidu is also the leading choice for searches on mobile devices, the increasingly important Chinese search engines market. In June 2016, it was reported that Baidu had 667 million monthly active users (MAU) just for that month alone. read more…

10 Features of Mobile Apps Market in China

10 Features of Mobile Apps Market in China

With China’s smartphone market reaching 800 million users, the mobile apps space has been quite busy. Given its mobile and ecommerce growth, coupled with rapidly improving mobile infrastructure, China presents an enormous opportunity for both apps developers and marketers.

There are considerable challenges in achieving success in the mobile apps market. read more…

Online Fraud in China Digital Advertising Is Its Biggest Problem

Online Fraud in China Digital Advertising Is Its Biggest Problem

The main reason why online advertising has overtaken traditional channels in almost every area is that it is more measurable, thus can be made more effective. However, what undermines this efficiency is the proliferation of fraud in the form of “non-human” traffic.

Being a worldwide industry problem, China’s digital advertising market seems to be one of the worst affected ones. Chinese  internet is the second most popular advertising media after television and was estimated at $55.48 billion by the end of 2018 according to China Daily. Unfortunately, advertisers’ losses could account for up to third of that amount, mostly lost to non-human traffic and fraudulent CTR (click through rate). read more…

Web Presence Localization in China, Part 1: Translation

Web Presence Localization in China, Part 1: Translation

Having localized website for Chinese market is one of the essential steps a foreign company should take in order to build trust and improve brand awareness locally. Localization is not the same as translation of the content, although translation is the major part of it. Our experience suggests that it isn’t a quick process and, most importantly, it requires careful planning and verifying every step with your contractor.

If you are on a bootstrap budget, the first thing to try would be finding a freelance translator through sites like Upwork or Freelancer. It’s by far the cheapest option but could also be a hit and miss. Typically, we always suggest to have your site translated to both Simplified Chinese for Mainland China  audience and to Traditional Chinese used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. read more…

Successful China Marketing Strategies: Lessons from Evernote

Successful China Marketing Strategies: Lessons from Evernote

Evernote is the most popular online note taking app that works across multiple platforms and devices. Since its launch in 2008, Evernote became one of the most successful stories in tech space, managing to acquire millions of dedicated users and devoted fans, over 100 million according to company’s figures, myself included. They have also realized early on the huge potential of Chinese market  and succeeded in developing and deploying effective strategy in China.

Just one year after its launch in China in 2013, Evernote was already claiming 4 million users. Last year, China has become its second largest market with reported 20 million users. Yinxiang Biji, it’s Chinese company, has recently announced its plans to go public in China. read more…

Building Chinese Website: 15 Points Checklist

Building Chinese Website: 15 Points Checklist

Building a Chinese website for a foreign brand maybe not be as straight forward task as in the case of other markets. Thanks to a unique nature of Chinese internet and various market specifics, brands must modify their approach for establishing China web presence.

read more…

Learn all about China digital marketing here:

advertisement

Follow Us

Archives

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Want to stay up to date on the state of marketing in China? 

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This
Google+