getting to know the chinese internet
TRANSCRIPT
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What you need to know about the “Chinese” Internet
Kevin Bluer, Bluer Inc
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Format & Caveat
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Format & Caveat๏ Feel free to interject, ask questions, discuss, etc๏ Note that the information presented herein may be
out-of-date, inaccurate, or just plain wrong :)๏ Tried to make things “actionable” / can send slides
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Agenda
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Agenda๏ Goals๏ Some Stats๏ Key Players๏ Differences (and Similarities)๏ Recent Trends๏ Getting Started๏ Resources๏ Q&A
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Goals
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Goals๏ To try and teach you something about the Chinese
Internet that you didn’t know before๏ To learn something from you guys :)
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The “Chinese” Internet?
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The “Chinese” Internet?๏ What makes it different / unique?๏ The number of users๏ The government’s role๏ The fact that so many globally
popular services aren’t used๏ The opportunity
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Some Stats
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Country๏ 31 provinces (287 prefectures)๏ 1.357 billion people๏ Concentration towards the east and south coast
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Appreciating the Scale๏ On course to become the world’s largest economy
in 2025 (currently $10 trillion in yearly GDP)๏ Already the world’s biggest market for many
products and services๏ To put that in perspective :)๏ Guangdong = Spain๏ Shandong = Indonesia๏ Yunnan = Czech Republic
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Internet๏ 649 million total Internet users๏ 632 million mobile Internet users๏ Note that the Internet was only made available to
the general public in 1995!
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Key Players
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Government๏ Plays an outsized role compared to other countries๏ There a many overlapping government bodies…๏ China Internet Network Information Center๏ Cyberspace Administration of China๏ Publicity Department of the CPC๏ Ministry of Industry and Information Technology๏ Issues the ICP license (which is required if you
want to establish a domestic presence)
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Companies๏ Alibaba (Marketplace, E-commerce, and a lot more)๏ Baidu (Search engine)๏ Tencent (Games and services)
๏ Jingdong Mall (E-commerce)๏ Sina Weibo (Micro-blogging)๏ Xiaomi (Mobile phone maker and increasingly services)๏ Huawei (Networking and telecommunications)๏ Lenovo (World's second largest maker of PCs)
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More Companies!
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Entrepreneurs๏ Sorted by net worth…๏ Jack Ma, Alibaba Group ๏ Robin Li, Baidu๏ Ma Huateng, Tecent๏ Lei Jun, Xiaomi๏ Liu Qiangdong, JD.com๏ Liu Chuanzhi, Lenovo
๏ http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/020415/top-10-chinese-entrepreneurs.asp
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Influencers / KOL’s๏ Key Opinion Leaders (KOL’s) play a big role๏ Examples…๏ Celebrities (“Forbes China Celebrity 100”)๏ Bloggers (Han Han, Song Qian, He Jiong)๏ Activists (Ai Wei Wei)
๏ Micro-influencers๏ Speak to a local and regional audience๏ “More effective for companies looking to promote
their brands in second or third tier cities”
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The Differences (and Similarities)
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The Differences (and Similarities)
๏ Usage ๏ Comparables๏ Mobile๏ Censorship๏ Uniquely Chinese
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Usage
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Usage๏ Largely used for entertainment purposes, being referred
to as the "entertainment superhighway”๏ Core uses include…
๏ Content๏ Search๏ Community๏ Shopping๏ Mapping๏ Payment๏ Gaming (huge)
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Usage / Download Metrics๏ Web๏ As far as I know there is no domestic equivalent
to Compete, Quantcast, Alexa, etc๏ Although Quantcast does have some information
๏ Mobile๏ App Annie (great for iOS
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Comparables
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Comparables๏ The majority of mainstream international services
simply aren’t used (or aren’t available) in China๏ “Contrasting views suggest that local Chinese
businesses such as Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba, some of the world's largest internet enterprises, benefited from the way China has blocked international rivals from the market, encouraging domestic competition.”, Wikipedia
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Comparables๏ Google <> Baidu ๏ Twitter + Facebook <> Weibo ๏ Amazon + eBay <> Taobao + Tmall ๏ WhatsApp <> WeChat ๏ Skype <> QQ ๏ AirBnb <> Tujia ๏ LinkedIn <> Ushi + Tianji ๏ Paypal + Stripe <> AliPay๏ Kickstarter <> Demohour ๏ Monster <> 51job
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There’s an Alibaba for that…
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Censorship
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Censorship๏ Types๏ Content Take Downs / Restrictions๏ Search Engine Filtering๏ Discussion Forums & Social Media (50 Cent Party)๏ Post comments favorable towards party policies๏ Attempt to shape and sway public opinion
๏ A fact of life and largely derided / resented by the populace (assuming they’re aware)
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Censorship๏ 18,000 websites are blocked from within mainland
China๏ Around 13 percent of all social media posts are
censored in China๏ 12 out of the Top 100 Global Websites๏ Supposedly only “superstitious, pornographic,
violence-related, gambling, and other harmful information.” is blocked :)
Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science
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GFW :)
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Why?๏ "Surprisingly, bad-mouthing the government isn’t
what censors are targeting. “What they censor is attempts at collective action,” King says. “They don’t want anyone to control the movement of people other than the government. That’s what could cause them to lose power.”
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Overseas Agression / Paranoia๏ Node JS version number “issue”๏ Github (and GreatFire) DDoS๏ http://www.netresec.com/?
page=Blog&month=2015-03&post=China%27s-Man-on-the-Side-Attack-on-GitHub
๏ https://github.com/greatfire/๏ https://github.com/cn-nytimes/mirrors ๏ http://motherboard.vice.com/read/china-is-behind-
ddos-attack-on-github-activists-say
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Great Cannon & Golden Shield๏ China deploys new weapon for online censorship in
form of ‘Great Cannon’๏ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/
wp/2015/04/10/china-escalates-censorship-efforts-with-debut-of-offensive-cyber-weapon-researchers-say/
๏ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Shield_Project
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Mobile
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๏ “Android devices held absolute advantage with a share of 70.9%, followed by iOS devices with a share of 18.9%”
๏ iOS is extremely coveted (although obviously very expensive from a relative perspective)
Android vs iOS
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App Stores๏ Google Play doesn’t really factor in China (with a lot of
websites just link straight to the .APK)๏ Top 10 Android App Stores
๏ 360 Mobile Assistant (26%)๏ Myapp by Tencent (26%)๏ Baidu Mobile Assistant (18%)๏ MIUI app store by Xiaomi (14%)๏ HiMarket (9%)๏ Wandoujia (7%)๏ Huawei App Store (7%)๏ Others…
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App Store Downloads
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Uniquely Chinese
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App Store Manipulation๏ App Manipulation Farms๏ “getting your app in the
top 10 free apps list in the App Store will cost you RMB 70,000 (US$ 11,200), while making sure it remains there will cost you a staggering RMB 405,000 (US$ 65,000) every week”
http://www.iphonehacks.com/2015/02/how-chinese-game-ios-app-store-rankings.html
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URL’s๏ http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117608/chinese-
number-websites-secret-meaning-urls ๏ That said, this may well begin to change with the
acceptance of Chinese character based URL’s
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Recent Trends
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Recent Trends๏ Public tech stocks are on fire๏ Venture flows in startups are growing rapidly๏ Mobile is becoming the primary means of accessing
the Internet (inline with the rest of world)๏ Attempts at censorship are extending beyond
China’s own shores๏ Internet users are becoming ever more savvy
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Beijing Baofeng Technology Co Ltd
๏ Beijing Baofeng Technology Co Ltd is an Internet video company. The Company develops and operates a series of softwares which include the ‘storm’ PC, ‘storm wireless’ application (APP) and ‘BFVCenter’ video browser.
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Getting Started
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Open for Business?"You can’t exactly just move in there and do business. It’s a very different framework.”, Ryan Budish, a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society
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Are you currently accessible?๏ See whether site is currently accessible…
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Getting Online๏ Getting an ICP (“Internet Content Provider”) license๏ State-issued registration number that allows you to
host your website on a mainland Chinese server๏ Usually displayed in the small print in footers๏ You need one before you can purchase hosting๏ Great guide here.
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App Annie
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Reaching Your Audience๏ Obviously depends what you’re selling?๏ Products (digital vs physical)๏ Services
๏ Web vs Apps๏ Social Media (managing yourself or leveraging an
agency)๏ Localizing your content
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Resources
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Resources๏ App Annie (https://www.appannie.com) ๏ TechNode (http://technode.com)๏ Great Firewall (http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/)๏ Internet Phenomena (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
List_of_Internet_phenomena_in_China)๏ Censorship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Internet_censorship_in_China)
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Q&A
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Q&A๏ “Understanding internet behaviour outside of
Eastern China and the big cities – we focus on “hard to reach” consumers who do not have the latest smartphone/apps etc.”
๏ “A lot of data in China focuses specifically on big cities, and ignores the rest of the population … where arguably there is more opportunity!”
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Q&A๏ “Understanding internet behaviour outside of
Eastern China and the big cities – we focus on “hard to reach” consumers who do not have the latest smartphone/apps etc.”
๏ “A lot of data in China focuses specifically on big cities, and ignores the rest of the population … where arguably there is more opportunity!”