Bullet Messenger (or Zidan Duanxin), a new Chinese messaging app, has hit the headlines in the past few weeks with hyped-up discussions over the possibilities of this new app challenging the dominant position of WeChat, a ubiquitous everyday messaging app in China.
A unicorn is defined as a startup company that is valued at more than a billion dollars. China now has around 164 unicorns, according to a joint study, but this number has increased. China's number of unicorns overtook the US', which has around 132, as of the end of 2017.
In short, manually translate all key pages into Mandarin Chinese written in Simplified Chinese script, the universal language used across the mainland. Make sure your language is concise and persuasive – good copy matters just as much in China as it does in the West!
Besides just translating, make sure to adjust the content of your website for Chinese users. Learn what they want, then add or edit content that addresses their concerns.
Nearly 20 years ago in January 1999, Starbucks opened their first store in Beijing basically introducing coffee culture to China. However, twenty years later China and its consumers have changed and competition has blossomed – so, where does Starbucks now stand on the Chinese market?
Google is reportedly in the process of re-entering the Chinese market. The American tech giant has been developing a search engine for China and it has led to speculation over how a Google re-entry, and its fight with local rivals, might play out.
Did you know Chinese tourists are now the hottest demographic in the global travel industry? Why? Two reasons: China's millennials (ages 18 to 35) make more trips abroad and spend more than all American tourists combined!
"Chinese tourists are the most powerful single source of change in the tourism industry," said Taleb Rifai, secretary general of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), as reported in the South China Morning Post.
Here's a list: KFC, Nike, BMW, Apple, Levi's, Microsoft, and Starbucks; what unites them? Not only are they examples of western brands in China who have managed to win both Chinese consumers' hard-earned yuan, but also, significantly, their hearts (though not all of them achieved this without issue… more on that later).
Google is blocked in China, and there are several locally-grown search engines that took its place.
Baidu (百度) is the clear market leader with over 78% of the overall market.
If you ever wondered if it’s possible to promote your products in China using channels established by other people, then the answer is: yes, it is possible. There are two ways to make it work; option one is working with KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) – which we talk about here. Option two is affiliate marketing, which, in China, means working with an affiliate network, similar to a popular affiliate called LinkShare used in Western countries.
Of the Western companies that contact us with questions about search engine marketing in China, it seems about 95% of them are only thinking about Baidu. But Baidu isn't the only search engine in town. In fact, we've had some killer campaigns on Qihoo's 360 Search (360搜索) as well.
