Language is an obvious barrier for foreign companies trying to tap into the Chinese Internet market. Many foreign entrants have underestimated its impact and the distinct market characteristics it has resulted in. To name two: language has contributed to the autonomous character of the Chinese web and as lots of netizens are not familiar with the commonly used Pinyin input system they prefer to click instead of type.
In some cases also the name of a company entering China can be a problem. In this respect Facebook is not very lucky with its name: some people say that in Pinyin it sounds like ‘fei si bu ke’ which means ‘doomed to die’. Also Google has not proven to be a good name. Zhang Tao, International Sales Manager at Baidu, expressed: “I believe that around 15 percent of the Chinese people cannot spell Google.” To cope with this – to make it easier for Chinese netizens to remember – Google has acquired the domain name G.cn back in 2007.
Back in 2006 Google was looking into adopting a Chinese name. Eventually it was decided the official Chinese name was to become Guge (谷歌), which means ‘Harvesting Song’ and sounds very much like Google in Mandarin. Google’s officials said it expresses “the sense of a fruitful and productive search experience in a poetic Chinese way.” Alternative sound-likes opted by Chinese netizens that filled in an online poll at news portal Sina.com were: NoGuge, Gougou (dog dog), Goule (enough), Gugu (auntie), Gugou (ancient dog) and Gege (elder brother). (more…)
A few weeks ago Youkubuzz, a blog from one of the biggest Chinese video-sharing sites Youku.com that regularly posts funny/interesting items, tweeted:
It reminded me of some videos and news-items that have all experienced their 15 minutes of viral-fame in China. They are about home-made vehicles. Sounds boring? How about a gyro copter for 2, an ultra-light airplane with a rudder made of hemp-rope, or a one-person helicopter that maneuvers through the streets of GuangZhou? I think the vehicles in the videos are a metaphor for the Chinese way of doing things: people here have a very different mindset than in developed economies. Rather than safety-first it is all about pragmatism. As the videos show, despite the dusty-and dirtiness, the pragmatic and auto didactic approach definitely pays off . Here’s a small list:
A home-made helicopter (nearly slicing up the power cables):
This afternoon a package from Shenzhen that me and my colleagues have impatiently been waiting for was finally delivered. It was a Razor phone, ordered on Taobao, China’s eBay. No, China is not behind, nor were we interested in buying an outdated mobile device, on the contrary: the Chinese Razor phone – with David Beckham as its unofficial ambassador - has just been launched and is cutting edge, literally. The Cool758 Razor as the phone is called, is the first phone that has an actual working electric razor function build in! Apart from this great tool to cope with the 5 o’clock shade while hardly hearing the person you are calling, it also offers, among others: a 2 megapixel camera (which you can use while shaving), a 2.6 inch touch screen, dual SIM card, a shaver cleaning brush, and it supports T-Flash cards of up to 8GB. (more…)
Written on 30th March 2009
7 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Fascinating news out of China today. Google, in partnership with basketball star Yao Ming, are introducing FREE high quality music downloads to the Chinese market.
Ming’s established site, Top100.cn, offers downloads of 350,000 songs from both Chinese and foreign artists. With Google now on board, they aim to increase the number of tracks available to 1.1 million over the coming months and bring in music from both Chinese and international artists.
Lee Kai-Fu, president of Google in greater China, said one reason Google lagged behind search leader Baidu.com is because it did not offer music downloads.
Lee told reporters:
“We are offering free, high quality and legal downloads, we were missing one piece … we didn’t have music.”
“This is the first serious attempt to start (monetizing) the online market in China. I can’t overestimate how important this is,” said Lachie Rutherford, president of Warner Music Asia Pacific and Asia chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
IFPI said last year that more than 99 percent of all music files distributed in China are pirated. With this latest move, IFPI (and Google) are hoping the service will attract users away from pirated music and more towards their “higher quality” sound.
Written on 24th March 2009
5 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
“Many people have a false impression that the Chinese government fears the Internet. In fact it is just the opposite,”
Despite this comment from China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang, China does appear to have to blocked access to YouTube to its near 300 Million internet users.
According to the BBC, the motivation for the blockage appears to stem from a video hosted on the site. The video, sshows hundreds of Chinese troops flooding through a Tibetan monastery where they are caught on camera beating, choking and kicking monks and other men.
Another possible reason for the blockage include the 20th anniversary of the government’s bloody crackdown on the pro-democracy Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 – YouTube hosts a number of videos about the massacre.
Our previous Editor in Chief, Ernst-Jan was part of a China 2.0 team invited to visit China to gain a a deeper understanding of China’s approach to the internet and technology.
Whilst all members of the trip appeared to have returned with feeling some reports in recent times had been unjust – possibly unfair – it is difficult for outsiders to cast an open mind when the government censors a website that has given a voice to anyone on the planet willing to share it. It seems China are just not ready for it yet.
No, this is not a screen shot from my iTunes. It’s a photo of a CD shelf designed by Li Jianye, a Chinese designer who knows the meaning of linkbait. The name? Waddayathink? iShelf, of course!
The lonely Chinese man who wants to satisfy his sexual needs online, faces a challenge that just got a little bigger. The Chinese government has blocked 244 new porn sites over the last week, reports Chinese news agency Xinhua. In its battle against “vulgar” content, China already made 700 online victims. These targets were unregistered and broke laws about the distribution of nasty content (meaning sexual movies, photos and whatnot).
The campaign will last for a month and isn’t limited to websites. Mobile phone games, online novels and radio programs can be blocked as well. Major Internet companies like Google and Baidu also got a public warning because they didn’t react fast enough when forbidden content showed up in their search results.
The Communist Party’s efforts aren’t limited to sexual content. Due to the 20th anniversary of the government’s bloody crackdown on the pro-democracy Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, forbidden political content is also subject to blocking.
When I participated in the China 2.0 tour, Shel Israel and I experimented with Google and forbidden topics like Tianamen Square. On his personal blog, Israel wrote the following:
At dinner one night, Ernst Jan Pfauth typed into Google “Tienanmen Square Massacre” and got the 19-year-old story of troops killing about 400 students. A minute later he typed in “Falun Gong,” the banned religious group and got blocked. The block lated about 10 minutes then he was free to surf again.
According to Xinhua’s reports, it’s gonna be a whole lot harder to find similar results right now.
When I traveled through China with Mike Butcher, Shel Israel, Christine Lu, Scoble, the guys from Web2Asia, and some other rather inspiring folks last November, we were all impressed by the massive user-base from the country’s largest services.
China 2.0 Blogger Tour
One of them is QQ, China’s largest IM service. Web2Asia’s CEO Georg Godula showed us that QQ has 341.900.000 active users. Yeah! We’re serious here! Almost 342 million active users (also because users have multiple online identities and thus multiple accounts)!
Written on 21st January 2009
4 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
China censored multiple parts of Obama’s speech including the live footage of the speech, specifically during mentions of communism.
According to the BBC, China’s leaders were saddened by mentions of silencing dissent and triumphing over communism.
The version with the edits are in Chinese, the English language versions are believed to have been left untouched.
For example, the line from President Obama: ”Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism nt just with missiles and anks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions” was kept as it is for the English language version on state-run Xinhua news, however the Chinese version saw the word “communism” removed.
Another example includes:
“To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history,” the president said.” Whilst the sentence was kept again for the English language version, the Chinese version saw the line removed.
In addition, China Central Television aired the speech live with a simultaneous Chinese translation however whenever communism was mentioned – the translators voice would fade out.
The problem with crowd sourcing is the overabundance of opinions, suggestions and remarks you’ll get from the community. How to sort these out? And how can you decide which ones can be taken seriously? A possible solution for this selection problem is to add an expert layer.
BloggerInsight has done just so. The service connects Chinese expert bloggers with high tech companies which want to enter the Chinese market. According do BloggerInsight, there’s little reliable market research and that which does exist is expensive and generic. By asking bloggers for their opinion, companies might get better information on how to enter the tough market.
BloggerInsight CEO Lucas Englehardt wants to redefine market intelligence. In the press release he says, “By connecting clients and expert bloggers, BloggerInsight hopes to fundamentally alter the economics of information and lower the barriers to success.”
Then he adds a rather interesting point: “In doing so, BloggerInsight hopes to reward new media for its independent voice”. Of course BloggerInsight just wants to make money, but a new way of monetizing blogging can be an interesting side effect. Most bloggers are experts on their field of interest and their opinion is worth a lot of money.
Bloggers roundtable during China2.0
In the US and Europe, many bloggers act like consultants in their free time – or the other way around. In the hard Chinese market though, an intermediary like BloggerInsight might be necessary. Only if it was just for breaking the language barrier.
BloggerInsight is the portfolio company of Web2Asia, one of the three parties which organized the China 2.0 tour I participated in last week. Read an interesting interview I had with co-founder Markus Fuhrmann here.
Written on 26th May 2009
1 COMMENT 
Language is an obvious barrier for foreign companies trying to tap into the Chinese Internet market. Many foreign entrants have underestimated its impact and the distinct market characteristics it has resulted in. To name two: language has contributed to the autonomous character of the Chinese web and as lots of netizens are not familiar with the commonly used Pinyin input system they prefer to click instead of type.
official Chinese name was to become Guge (谷歌), which means ‘Harvesting Song’ and sounds very much like Google in Mandarin. Google’s officials said it expresses “the sense of a fruitful and productive search experience in a poetic Chinese way.” Alternative sound-likes opted by Chinese netizens that filled in an online poll at news portal Sina.com were: NoGuge, Gougou (dog dog), Goule (enough), Gugu (auntie), Gugou (ancient dog) and Gege (elder brother). (more…)
This afternoon a package from Shenzhen that me and my colleagues have impatiently been waiting for was finally delivered. It was a Razor phone, ordered on 
Written on 30th March 2009
Fascinating news out of China today. Google, in partnership with basketball star Yao Ming, are introducing FREE high quality music downloads to the Chinese market.
“Many people have a false impression that the Chinese government fears the Internet. In fact it is just the opposite,”
Written on 22nd January 2009
China censored multiple parts of Obama’s speech including the live footage of the speech, specifically during mentions of communism. 
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
