Localization and Diversification
As you know, our singular focus is helping our customers to expand, grow and enter new markets. With that in mind, I think it's appropriate to talk about localization and diversification when entering international markets.
While Google, YouTube, Facebook, Yahoo! and all the other western social media and search engines sites provide online advertising for much of the world, there are still plenty of places where relying on the social media sites and search engines you are familiar with in your home country are simply not the right solution for entering a new country. For example, three well know non-western social media and search engine sites are Baidu, Tudou and Guruji.
Lets focus for a moment on China.
Consider this Ad Age report -
“China has:
- More than 513 million Internet users
- More than 355 million mobile Internet users (nearly 200 million of which are mobile-only Internet users)
- Projected 2012 Internet advertising revenue in 2012 of $8 billion+ USD...
The Chinese Internet represents a world unto itself. First of all, there's the language. Not only do the Chinese characters render content inaccessible to non-speakers; but the double-byte encoding of these characters erects an additional entry barrier for software developed using the Latin alphabet. In addition, government policy actively shapes the Chinese Internet - and specifically blocks a raft of both international and domestic sites in mainland China. I encountered the reality of these restrictions each time habit led me to log in to my Twitter and Face book accounts (nothing doing)...
Unless you and your shareholders are prepared to write off somewhere between a quarter and one-third of the global Internet market, you need China in your five-year plan. And far more than in many Western markets, you'll have to significantly adapt your products, services and way of doing business.”
One critical way to successfully enter the Chinese market is to focus on the nationally and locally successful social media and search engine sites available domestically inside China. BBC posted that “Baidu, China's largest search engine, has reported a 77% surge in profits between October and December [2011] as its advertising revenue continues to grow.”
When doing business internationally it is imperative to have the right partner navigate the local market for you. At HCEA we are experts at just that. We consistently make “Being in Demand” easy for our customers.
J Peterson Marketing Director HCEA Asia
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