Our China Blog
Xiaoice Vs. Tay: Two A.I. Chatbots, Two Different Outcomes
Chinese chatbot Xiaoice or Xiaobing (literally Little Ice 小冰) that was developed by Microsoft Beijing Research facility and launched in China at the end of 2014 has, so far, proved to be a quite successful A.I. experiment vs. the recent launch of Tay, another Microsoft Twitter based chatbot. Last week, the contrast was quite striking when Tay, after series of offensive racist and genocidal tweets, has been promptly shut down just after a short while of going live.
Microsoft claims that Tay fell victim of a deliberate attack by trolls who were determined to sabotage the experiment. Tay was designed to learn from the users and model her (its?) responses based on the context of conversations and using typical millennials’ slang and speech patterns which it was supposed to pick up. Apparently, Microsoft didn’t anticipate how malicious some of those users could be and, as a result, Tay wasn’t prepared to simply identify and ignore the abuse. read more…
Will Tencent Offer More With WeChat Ads?
WeChat has recently announced reaching 700 million active users which further solidified its position as the fastest growing Chinese social media platform. On the other hand, monetization the platform has been a much tougher task for Tencent. WeChat ads, a potential goldmine of mobile marketing, was much slower to get traction.
Just a few years ago, when the service just started, most of WeChat revenue came from selling stickers. Fast forward to the present, with over half of China’s population using the app on daily basis, the revenue mainly comes from gaming and WeChat ads. Recent reports indicate a 22-percent increase in the company’s profit during the fourth quarter of 2015. read more…
Chinese M-Commerce is Leading Asia Pacific
Chinese m-commerce has been one of the fastest growing sectors of China’s online economy. In China, the number of critical factors make shopping with cell phones (which is what m-commerce in all about) particularly attractive:
- Most Chinese use smartphones as a primary device for getting online;
- Major ecommerce platforms such as Taobao, Tmall and JD already have very successful mobile apps;
- Mobile payments infrastructure is quite well developed with Alipay Wallet being the market leader;
- WeChat, the most popular mobile app in China, already enables built-in ecommerce capabilities within the platform.
Uber in China: 3 Reasons Why It Still Lags Behind
For the largest ride sharing service in the world, it wasn’t a smooth ride for Uber in China. Even though the company has pioneered the idea of private car-hailing services, in China, Uber has been a distant second to a much larger competitor, Didi Kuaidi. The Chinese company, which is the product of earlier merger of two competitors, currently holds about 80% of the market to Uber’s just over 10%.
Didi-Kuaidi, valued at $15 billion, boasts more than one million drivers in 360 cities, compared to Uber’s roughly 100,000 drivers in 20 cities. It has also recently invested $100 million in Uber’s main rival Lyft. Two companies agreed to offer services to each other’s users in the countries where each isn’t currently present. read more…
WeChat Lucky Money Craze in China
It is no surprise that with less than a week to go before Chinese Spring Festival, WeChat Lucky Money feature is quickly becoming the most used function among the users. It is truly amazing how thousands years old Chinese tradition of giving red envelops with money to friends and relatives during holidays has evolved in the digital age.
In fact, sending cash electronically with WeChat is becoming a tradition in its own right. Since exactly a year ago, when Tencent started to really promote this feature, WeChat Lucky Money transactions quickly achieved mind boggling numbers. According to the company, 60 million users are sending red envelops through WeChat everyday! read more…
From WeChat App to WeChat Bot
Almost every smartphone in China has now WeChat app installed. Tencent, the company beyond this hugely successful product, continues packing it with more functionality with every new release. Besides of being a powerful marketing tool for companies, WeChat app has already evolved from a mobile chat program to a personal wallet.
What gives it even more power is the ability to build even more functionality on top of its platform via, so called, service accounts. One of the basic capabilities of the platform is the ability to set pre-programmed responses to various user’s input. This is widely used in WeChat service accounts to deliver all types of messages to users – from latest offers and nearest store location to complex customer service interactions. read more…
Chinese Professional Networking Sites: Who is In or Out
Chinese professional networking sites have been the fast growing sector in the last few years. With the largest labor market in the world, China still offers a very attractive opportunity for such platforms. However, this space has been undergoing some significant changes in 2015.
First and most recently, Viadeo, the LinkedIn competitor, has decided to pull the plug on their Chinese site called Tianji.com. In its recently released announcement, Viadeo explained that the move was necessary in order to consolidate their resources on more profitable sectors, such as their home French speaking market, both in France and in other francophone countries. read more…
Economy of China vs. US, Infographic
According to the IMF, in terms of PPP (purchasing power parity) Chinese economy has surpassed that of US. PPP comparison is designed to measure relative differences between economies based on how much money can buy in each country that is being compared.
Most popular example of PPP based scale is a Big Mac index, popularized by The Economist. Most commonly, the baskets of goods are used to compare purchasing power across countries.
This recent infographic by SCMP (South China Morning Post), Hong Kong newspaper that was recently acquired by Alibaba, shows the comparison of the economy of China vs. US. read more…
How to Test Website Loading Speed in China
Slow website loading in China is a major headache for foreign companies who are forced to host their sites outside of the Mainland. In this post, I will focus on how you can test website loading speed in China with some online tools.
Loading speed is one of the most important metrics of a website performance and is directly linked to bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who enter the site and then leave rather than continuing on to view other pages within the same site) and search engine ranking. Typically, if takes more than 5 seconds to load a page, a visitor would be most likely to move on. Loading time within 2 seconds is considered to be the optimal. read more…
Chinese B2B Ecommerce: Selling to Businesses Online
More businesses in China are increasingly moving their procurement online. Particularly, when it comes to buying office supplies and appliances, Chinese B2B ecommerce space has grown significantly in the last couple of years. In 2015, this segment of ecommerce is expected to grow by 27.2% Y/Y.
There are several reasons for this trend: read more…
Localizing web presence for China: Website Translation to Chinese
One of the most important aspects of website localization for Chinese market is website translation to Chinese. Investing in a qualified translation of a website can hardly be underestimated. Poorly translated site is not only an off-putting one to visitors, it also gives an impression that the product or service behind it is probably just as poor.
When it comes to Chinese market, it is often a good idea 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…
Shanghai in Numbers: Infographic
Throughput modern history, Shanghai has always been the most business friendly and dynamic city in mainland China. Without a doubt, the city will continue to occupy the central position and remain the most important business hub in foreseeable future.
According to Wikipedia, Shanghai, with it’s population of 24 million, is also the largest city proper by population in the world. It is also a home to a vibrant expat community of 174,000 and counting. With more than double per capita disposable income compared to national average, Shanghai is also the shopping capital of China. read more…
Mobile Payments in China: Infographic
One of the primary reasons for explosive growth of Chinese mobile ecommerce is its well developed payment component. There is no doubt that the proliferation of mobile payments in China has become the critical industry enabler. This week post features the infographic by Go-Globe summing up the main players in this space.
With over 83% of Chinese regularly accessing internet with mobile devices, it is no surprise that shopping online is quickly becoming one of their most favorite activities. Alibaba, China’s ecommerce giant, has seen this trend developing well in advance and made sure that Alipay, Alibaba’s payment system, will become the payment method of choice for millions of mobile shoppers. read more…
Selling on JD.com in China – Infographic
Jingdong or JD.com is the second largest ecommerce B2C platform in China after Alibaba’s Tmall, currently holding close to a quarter of the market. Selling on JD is a very effective way to reach Chinese consumers directly and, in some cases, can be preferable to Tmall.
We will cover various pros and cons of JD vs. Tmall in upcoming articles. Today’s post will feature the latest infographic by Go-Globe that visually shows what JD is all about.
JD prominence in China’s ecommerce market is bound to grow due to several reason. First one is JD’s recent partnership with Tencent, the company behind WeChat. This would add a powerful mobile component to JD market strategy. read more…
The Rise of Chinese Middle Class
In light of the recent Chinese stock market fall, sudden devaluation of yuan, manufacturing slowdown and talks about troubled real estate market there are signs of growing concern for a long term prospects of Chinese economy. Some reports talk of upcoming economic crash and other doomed scenarios. I would argue that the long term prospect for Chinese economy still looks fairly bright which, if nothing else, could be entirely driven by the rise of Chinese middle class. read more…
China Digital Advertising Market: Infographic
In this week post, we are sharing the latest infographic by Sampi Marketing reflecting the state of China digital advertising market.
In the last 3 years, online advertising revenues in China have been growing at the rate of about 40% on year to year basis and show no signs of slowing down in 2015. According to iResearch, it is projected that this year, the total market will reach 216 billion yuan (almost $40 billion), up from 154 billion yuan in 2014. read more…
3 Key Points for a Successful Digital Communication in China
The Chinese consumer landscape is changing fast. Companies must adapt quickly to keep up. This article focuses on the 3 key points that require your attention and lead to a successful digital communication in China.
To this end, the understanding of brand building power through digital and mobile communication and knowing how to effectively insert themselves into the ongoing conversations are crucial and major factors; especially for any company aiming at the Chinese consumers. read more…
Hiring Online in China with 51Jobs.com
If you are looking for hiring online in China you should consider 51jobs.com which is one of the online services for sourcing local talent. The site is the largest online job resource and also a US listed public company.
The service can be traced back to classified print edition popular in early 90th in Beijing. Since then, it has evolved into a primary destination for job seekers, employers and recruiters. read more…
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