Mad About Shanghai

China Digital Review : Ali Baba Express Buying Experience

Admittedly, for the longest of time, I had never purchase anything from Chinese B2B or B2C websites.

Even though billions of dollars of transactions took place in sites like TaoBao and Ali Baba, I had a misconception of the level of credit card security and privacy protection these Chinese sites provide.

That changed one day when I was looking for an addenda for the audio system in my car. I looked in several sites like eBay and and a host of other trading sites from the US. The prices were hugely inflated to say the least.

I googled for the part and one of the search results pointed to an Ali Baba Express site. For those unaware, Ali Baba is the biggest B2B site in China. There are some B2C transactions on the portal too. There are several vendors that sold the part I wanted.

I picked the two least dodgy looking and reasonably priced ones and and began to ask the vendors some questions. One as expected, did not bother to reply. I knew that as there are no user reviews or feedback on their account. The other one with a lot of compliments on their service and responded swiftly to my questions and even gave me a discount. The responses to my questions were answered over the weekend and at night too.

I entered my credit card , though there does not seems to be any verification that took place, I was informed that my transaction went through and notified of my shipment. A few days later, I got my package at a fraction of the price I intended to pay.

Overall, I am a happy customer and would purchase more in the future.

Check out their site at : http://www.aliexpress.com/

China Digital Review: WeChat App

How many chat app do you have on your smartphone?

Just when you thought you are comfortable with one, your friends tell you they found a better one and ask you to chat with them there. When you refuse to install those apps, your friends ask you why are you not on it.

Sounds familiar?

Because of this, I have been using quite a few chat apps to talk with friends from different countries. I got iMessage, Whatsapp (seems to be the most popular one), Line (for chatting with friends based in Japan) and KaKaoTalk (for chatting with friends from Korea) and also sometimes, Facebook Messenger. On rarer occasions, I use the good old SMS or text message.

There you go, at least for me, seven different ways to chat with my friends using my mobile phone.

Just when I thought, that is about it, I got to know about this app call WeChat from my brother while I was testing out his Andriod phone. Out of curiousity, I downloaded it and found that to be an app developed by Tencent from China.

After adding some of my friends from China, and playing with it, I found this to be a very good app, even trumping some the chat apps developed by Western tech companies (those that I mentioned above).

For example, the user interface is quite intuitive and allows you to send either a text, photo or a voice message easily to friends. Integrated with it are some fun social elements not unlike Facebook called "Moments". You can post your photos onto your "Moments" space for friends to "Like" or comment on it. The good things is, only you and mutal friends from your account list can see those comments. In a certain sense, there are some privacy features inbuilt onto it.

You can also choose to chat with random people either around you using GPS or look up with people looking to chat immediately or later by shaking your phone or using the "drift a bottle" function. These are quite fun. Usually when I am at a cafe waiting for people to arrive, I would use this function to alleviate the boredom and chat with random strangers that is possibly in the same cafe!

Overall, I would say this is a good effort by a Chinese company and I can see more and more of them leaning away from blatant copying and adding their own design and features which makes the product better.

But! It is not immune to Chinglish too:

Look it up in iTunes or Google Play. Worth a download.

QQ 2012

Just a few days ago, I logged into my QQ account to be informed that I needed to load the latest version or my current version would be unuseable soon. And so I did.

Like Weibo on iPad and mobile, I think the Chinese developers have got it right again.

The new version are in some areas better than MSN Messenger as it suggest friends you may know (like Facebook), much less resource intensive than the previous version and you can join different chat groups or find random people to chat to when you are bored.

However, one thing I still do not like about the QQ account page is their blatant copying of Facebook in the "comments" and "Like" function.

Other than that, it is good to see Chinese software developers shifting away from outright copying to adding their own inputs and character into the overall software design.

Let me show you some screenshots:

Like it? Download it here.

China Digital Facts

At this time of writing, mobile phones has officially surpassed PC as the most popular device for web surfing in China.

Nearly 52% of those that are just beginning to access the internet are from the rural areas of China.

There are currently 538 million web users in China, which is the highest in the world. This figure is also more than the entire population of USA and Russia combined!

Demerit Points System for Weibo

OK. The inevitable has happened.

Weibo has introduced a demerit point system for all these users. Users that are deemed to have posted offensive and undesirable blurbs would be docked points.

Once you have exhausted your quota of demerit points, your account would be banned. All users starts with an account with 80 points.

If you exercise good behaviour for two months without any demerit points, you could have your demerit points wiped out and start afresh.

Read more about it here.

Uploading Photos on Weibo

I have not used my Weibo account for some time. Yesterday, I logged in from my iPhone to upload a photo and is surprised to find that embedded within the photo uploading function is a tool that lets you select the color tome of your photos. Beside the original, you can choose four other options of color tone.

This is something that even the mobile versions of Facebook and Twitter do not have. This is a refreshing change from the many copied Chinese renditions of digital tools and web pages I see in the market.

And Mark Zukerberg paid a billion bucks for Instagram to have these features on Facebook?

Testing Out Weibo on more Fronts

Since setting up my Weibo account, I have also downloaded the apps for it on my iPhone and iPad.

I tried three ways of updating my status : On the web page, iPhone and and iPad

I find the web page too cluttered and it bombards the user with tons of information. I like the cleaner look on Twitter. The iPhone version is ordinary but funtional and get the job done.

I like the iPad version the most. I must say it surprises me. Prior to the download, I must say I am not expecting it to be so slick. If you have the iPad Facebook version, its almost as intuitive (see pic below). Try it if you have and iPad.

I am having fun exploring Weibo so far :)

I am not a fan of Twitter but somehow Weibo has got me mircoblogging due to the added funtionalities.

If you do not have an account. Try it!

Lets hope they roll out the English version soon.

Now on Weibo

I am new to this.

Add me on Weibo if you have an account.

This is mine : http://www.weibo.com/u/2592171784

 

Some Insights on Digital Marketing in China

I actually got some "fan mail" asking me on my profession. Well, I am the first to admit I am no international man of mystery. To those out there still wondering what I do, I would let you in on some insider tips ;)

I am actually in the digital marketing field. For next year, (well we are not too far away from it) I would include in my blog a tad more focus on digital marketing in China.  Lets face it, social marketing and almost everything digital have seeped into our lifestyle and what we do everyday, whether you like it or not.

Fuelled by social media tools primarily, Weibo, Renren etc, digital marketing is spreading faster than wild fire in China. Due to the volume (number of people in China), it has in the process skyrocketed revenues and share prices for these companies involved in social media and digital marketing. Though the concept did not orginate from them, they have successfully tapped and copied the concept of microblogging and "facebooking"  from the Americans into a localised platform. This is of course aided by a government move to ban twitter and facebook "to help local enterprises".

A colleague of mine recently sent me a report from the Asia Digital Marketing Association.

Let me share with you some interest insights which are China specific. First of all let me acknowldege the source first. All info are provided byAsia Digital Marketing Association.

• There is an estimated 420 million internet users in China in 2011. This number is more than half of the Asia Pacific's  825 million users.

• Ten cent is actually the third most popular site in China.

• Alibaba is the top shopping site in Asia Pacific

• Guandong has the most B2B and B2C online purchaes (not Shanghai or Beijing!)

• Tabao is expected to hit 1 trillion yuan in sales next year.

•  There are 841.1 million mobiles users in china today

• Weibo would hit 200 million users next year.

• Broadband pentration rate is 98.1 % in 2010

At first look one may look at the potential market size of internet users in China and quickly conclude that there is a huge potential.  However, as mentioned earlier, in a (dis)guise to protect local businesses, the authorities banned Facebook and Twitter in China. Google and Yahoo have also similar made to re-think their China policy. The big local brands has also establised a very strong foothold in this space.

So what is your entry strategy ? If you think its easy. Think again.

Microblogging in China

Do you have a Weibo account ? For those outside of China, Weibo is China's version of Twitter and literally means microblogging.

In case you are wondering, the answer is "no", I do not have one. I am not sure why I have not or refused to be caught up with microblogging. However, I use Facebook a lot though :)

Since we are on this topic today, let me share with you some stats relating to microblogging:

Tencent has 200 million microbloggers

Sina has 140 million microbloggers.

The most popular micro blogging account in China in Yao Chen's with more than 10 million followers. In January this year it has "only" 5 million followers.

Pardon the pun, but are you "following"?