Yeeyan is a website with an interesting proposition: it started off translating select English blog posts into Chinese, and have recently started to do the reverse, translating popular Chinese blog posts into English. The execution is not perfect, but nonetheless quite a noble idea.
One of the translated blogs is entitled: Internet companies’ top 10 mistakes in China (Parts 1, 2 & 3). The original Chinese post is here.
To summarize, here’s the Top Ten “Mistake” List (with my own translation since Yeeyan’s version is not 100% accurate):
1. Ignoring the needs of the masses. US companies tend to focus on elite white-collar workers - they ignore the needs of Internet cafe users and users in smaller cities (which is now >50% of population). In other words, they target a small segment of elite users as opposed to targeting the masses.
2. Rather to be forgotten than to be hated – US sites aim to prevent negative press. Chinese sites yearn for negative press (and the publicity that comes with it). Also, there’s a motivational issue. Managers of US sites lack a fighting spirit – they are paid 10 times that of local sites and thus are risk adverse.
3. Using long-term strategies rather than querilla war tactics. Spending/wasting too much money and time on the “perfect” planning. Unable to adapt quickly.
4. Emphasis on process and protocols rather than just the end result. In other words, not willing to sacrifice professionalism or moral/ethical standards to achieve results.
5. Telling users what to do rather than having them tell us what they want. Relates to #1 – not understanding the needs of the masses and tend to over-design for the elite group.
6. Focus on building quality product vs. focus purely on traffic. Tendency to throw money on packaging and other marketing campaigns that does not matter.
7. Brand marketing vs. pull marketing. Marketing effectiveness is low. Focus on building beautiful ads – Chinese companies will produce ads that drive traffic.
8. Rely on email and MSN communications, and English. Not adapting to Chinese business culture whereby phone calls and face to face meetings are preferred. Led to inefficiencies. Also, meetings are held in English as long as one foreigner is present. Inefficiency.
9. Simple and elegant designs. Again, this relates to targeting the small elite groups (who prefer these simple elegant designs) and not the masses (who prefers the vibrant crowded sites).
10. Hiring “polished” managers with simlar backgrounds. Tend to prefer MBA’s or returnees.
These comments are representative of those I’ve heard from smart entreprenuers in China. I agree with some, but disagree with others. Will provide my counter Top 10 (or less) in a follow-up post.
No mention of how to avoid being a banned or censored site? Isn’t that really the biggest threat to market penetration? If no one can access your site through the great China firewall how will we be successful? Any comments about guanxi in the internet realm? I’m still looking for more here.
the intention of this list is a comparison of US vs. Chinese-local Internet companies… Since both are subjected to the same censorship, it’s really not quite applicable here. but point taken – if your business is based on “sensitive” information as defined by the Chinese government, you’d have zero chance of succeeding!