Our China Blog
Search Engines in China
Western companies looking to achieve better visibility in China’s vast internet landscape quickly find themselves in the unfamiliar territory. Traditional services by Google, Yahoo or Microsoft, that seem to be running the entire internet in the West, are reduced to the point of irrelevance by local competitors and some tricky government decisions that went along with that. The largest search engine in China is Baidu with 360 Search quickly gaining market share. The third largest service is called Sogou. read more…
What Alibaba is Really About?
When Alibaba goes public this week, New York stock exchange is going to see the biggest IPO in its history. The company is expected to raise more than $20 billion, bringing its value to over $150 billion, this will put it alongside other online tech giants like Facebook, eBay and Amazon. However, unlike those three, Alibaba has been virtually unknown outside of China until most recently. read more…
Infographic: Mobile Commerce in China
In the last couple of years, mobile access to internet in China has become the primary way to get online for majority of Chinese. Not surprisingly, this trend had a profound effect on the ways Chinese shop online too. In 2013, mobile shopping registered 165.4% YoY growth compared to 35.7% in the previous year. In 2014, it is estimated that over 50 million Chinese will shop online through their mobile phones.
It is also a predominantly younger generation’s phenomenon with 50% of mobile shoppers aged between 24 and 30. Thanks to its popular mobile apps for Android and iOS, Taobao came to dominate China’s m-commerce space with estimated 76.1% of the market share. The next largest player, popular online store JingDong, accounts for slightly over 5% of the entire market. read more…
Infographic: Digital Ad Spending in China
What are the most important venues for digital advertising in China? Who are the largest players? What type of digital ads are most popular in China? These and other questions are answered in another great infographic from Go-Globe.com.
Here are some of the highlights that I find most interesting:
- China outspends any other country in Asia Pacific on digital ads which in 2013 reached 13.23 bn dollars or approximately 11% of the worldwide spending;
- Banner ads remain the most popular type and stand at 30.2% of all types digital display ads. Keyword search ads are next at 28.5% which is still behind US share of 47.1%;
- Baidu and Taoabao are the largest online advertisers in China by revenue standing at 22.25 bn RMB and 17.22 bn RMB respectively. Together they represent over half of the entire market;
- Largest online ads spenders are Pingan, Chinese insurance giant, followed Volkswagen, P&G and Shanghai GM;
- Four top sectors by online display ads are transportation, online services, real estate and food & drink;
Advertising on China’s Professional Networking Sites: Tianji.com
Advertising on professional networks is emerging as one of the most efficient B2B marketing channels in China. In my previous post, I have covered various marketing options that exist on one of such networks, Ushi.com. This time, I’m going to look at the largest of those platforms in China – tianji.com.
At the moment, Tianji has established itself as a leader in China’s online professional networking. read more…
7 Lessons of XiaoMi’s Marketing Success Story in China
It has been widely reported last week that XiaoMi, a relatively unknown outside of China mobile handsets maker, has claimed the top spot in Chinese smartphone market, unseating Samsung as the market leader. This makes XiaoMi, a private company that was founded just 4 years ago, a fifth largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. Even more impressive was their sales growth figure standing at astonishing 240% compared to the same quarter last year.
On the other hand, the company’s success didn’t come completely unexpected considering huge popularity XiaoMi has been enjoying in China in the last year or so. Clearly, to achieve this feat, XiaoMi had to do a few things right and they did. This begs the question: what other companies, especially Western newcomers, could learn from XiaoMi’s experience? read more…
Advertising on China’s Professional Networking Sites: Ushi.com
Traditionally, there haven’t been too many options for B2B marketers in China: Alibaba.com is not suitable for everyone and has a reputation of being associated with lower quaility products and services. Online and print magazines, as well as industry publications, have always been some of the most popular routes. In the last few years, thanks to explosion of social media in China, a new promising channel is emerging – online professional networks. Unfortunately, the biggest network of this kind, LinkedIn, hasn’t really caught on in China and its market share remains negligible, at least for now. Most Chinese white collar professionals use other networks which I’ve reviewed in my my previous post. read more…
Overview of China’s Professional Networking Sites
In February 2014, LinkedIn has officially announced its intention to launch in China in hopes to attract 140 million users. Although, 140 million people would represent only about 20% of China’s online population, this goal sounds quite ambitious. So far, it is estimated that about 100 million Chinese use some type of professional social network with the largest one, Tianji.com claiming to have 20 million users.
So far, professional networking sites in China haven’t reached the same popularity as in the West. LinkedIn has never been a big hit in China and was only able to catch on with English speaking professionals and expats. The reasons for this situation are mainly cultural, as well as technological: read more…
Online Payment Options for Chinese Market
Selling products or services online in China is different from the Western model in one crucial aspect – low prevalence of credit cards and, generally, unwillingness by the Chinese to use them for online payments. Thanks to the rapid ecommerce development in the last decade, China has skipped the credit card era almost entirely by leaping straight toward the age of the digital money.
While offline, cash is still the king, online ecommerce is ruled by giants like Alibaba’s and Tencent. read more…
Infographic: China’s Online Shopper
There hardly exist any other nation in the world that can compare to China in the speed with which it embraced ecommerce. More and more Chinese today shop exclusively online buying anything from clothes and food to furniture and cars. Alibaba, one of the most valuable tech. companies in the world, has been the principal driving force of this process. Its presence is everywhere in the China’s ecommerce universe: from B2B space with its Alibaba.com, to B2C with Tmall and, finally, the indispensable Taobao for C2C.
Other rivals, such as Tencent and Baidu with their own ecommerce offers, are still trailing Alibaba which is set to stay as the dominant force in Chinese market for the foreseeable future. read more…
Should Your Company Sell on Tmall?
Tmall, formerly known as Taobao Mall, is the spin off of Taobao and is focused on B2C sales vs. Taobao’s C2C. It is operated by Alibaba, the famous Chinese internet giant and was designed as a platform to sell authentic branded goods to consumers in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Tmall.com currently features more than 70,000 international and Chinese brands from more than 50,000 merchants and serves more than 180 million buyers. It holds about 50% of the entire B2C ecommerce market with its closest rival, Jingdong.com, with about 18% market share. read more…
Infographic: Chinese Social Media Users Stats and Profiles
Here is the great infographic from Go-Globe.com showing Chinese social media landscape as of mid-2013. I find the part on the “other” social media networks, those besides the most well known ones, Sina Weibo and WeChat, to be especially informative. For example, Tencent Weibo, the platform that is still quite popular in lower tier Chinese cities, still claims to be of roughly the same size as Sina Weibo.
Another monster, Qzone, is still the largest network in terms of registered users, although it is largely considered of limited value to marketers. read more…
30+ Types of Integrated Functionalities of Third Party WeChat Apps
The most popular Chinese social media service, WeChat, has become much more that just a chat app. For the last 1.5 years, Tencent, the internet giant behind WeChat, has been building the entire ecosystem of interrelated services and functionalities that can be integrated directly within WeChat. Besides of keeping in touch with friends and staying informed on the news, WeChat user can now shop, book hotels, play games with friends, buy and sell stocks, purchase flight tickets and do many other things without ever leaving the app. read more…
Infographic: China’s Mobile Users’ Behaviour – Android vs. iOS
This infographic compiled by Guohead.com shows the behaviour patterns of Android vs. iOS users in China. While the data from 2012 may be slightly outdated, the general usage patterns seem to be still holding up today.
With the market share of Android being twice larger than that of iOS in China, marketers need to know what drives Android users to spend money on apps, as, those patterns are different from iOS users and vice versa.
For example, iOS users are 3 times more likely to make an in-app purchase than Android ones. read more…
How to Use WeChat for Brand Marketing
In less than 2 years, WeChat has evolved from a relatively simple chat app to a multilevel platform that holds a lot of promise for marketers on a global scale. In addition, by releasing its APIs to third party developers, WeChat has spawned the entire ecosystem of integrated apps ranging from those providing information on products or delivering customer support to complex flight booking systems and banking apps which all can be run within WeChat. read more…
Most Effective Ways to Promote Your Brand on Weibo
Despite some signs that Sina Weibo is losing some of its appeal and possibly the top spot in China’s social media landscape, it still remains an extremely important platform for effective brand marketing.
At its height, in the mid-2013, Sina Weibo claimed 600 million registered users with over 60 million daily active users. There is an ongoing debate around the exact reason of Sina Weibo apparent downsizing, commonly mentioned reasons range from increased state censorship to the emergence of more dynamic competitor, Tencent’s WeChat. read more…
7 Top Tech Trends Affecting Marketing in China in 2014
What should marketers expect in 2014 in Chinese market? Advances in technology constantly redefine advertising platforms, the reach and scope of existing tools and the effectiveness of various marketing methods. In this post, I’m going to look at several important tech trends that are going to bring significant changes to Chinese market in the short and in the long term and their effect on marketing.
Here are t the 7 most important trends to watch: read more…
6 Steps Brand Marketing Plan for Weibo
Sina Weibo is becoming one of the most important marketing channels in China. Approximately, half of Chinese internet users are on Weibo and this audience is also quite active and willing to connect and engage with brands.
Large number of Chinese companies have already established their presence on this platform while increasing number of global brands are quickly moving there as well. read more…
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