Chinese users move online
According to CNNIC, the number of Internet users in China rose to 420 million at the end of June, 2010, an increase of almost 36 million users in the first six months of year 2010, including 115.1 million users in the rural areas. The current Internet penetration rate in China is 31.6% acording to Internet World Stats statistics.
There is no way back from this incredible period of growth and now it is up to marketers to penetrate the market and to create strategies to market to the growing number of Chinese companies and consumers online.
As is evident from the emergence of the English language based Internet, it is significantly better to be avant-garde and capture this market as it grows rather struggle to enter an already saturated market years from now.
Clearly it is important to understand the specific needs and requirements of the distinctly different Chinese audience before entering such a highly competitive market.
Website design and functionality
Popular Chinese websites are very image-rich and high on content illustrating the Chinese audience’s prefer to sort through large amounts of visual information quickly rather than navigating through many subpages of navigation.
Similarly to many Asian countries, the Chinese audience loves highly interactive websites and web 2.0 functionality allowing them to be more involved in the website. Examples of such features and functionality include microblogging(e.g. Sina Weibo), blog, forums and the ability to rate products and send information to their friends.
The Chinese audience is a very brand driven audience and viral marketing has proved to be particularly useful in this regard and thus focused viral marketing campaigns can be particularly beneficial to a Chinese audience.
Finally, websites should be designed to be culturally and aesthetically correct and will involve the translation of website content into Chinese in most circumstances.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Just like with English language search engines, users can increase their chances of being among the top hits on Chinese language search engines by altering and optimizing their web content. Baidu is the leading search engine in China, while most web portals also provide search functionality.
There are particular strategies that need to be considered when completing search engine optimization for a Chinese audience based on the fact that most Chinese users search in different ways to simply using Google.
Reaching the Chinese Audience
Focusing on language can be appealing so that you can use one site to service a range of different countries. Chinese the most spoken language in China and the majority of your customers and business contacts do not speak English. The internet is a major marketing tool in China and the first source for information. MKT is particularly interested in aiding its clients in reaching the rapidly expanding Chinese audience and has a team that is both culturally and knowledgably geared to design and optimize a website for a Chinese audience.
We support our customers in all areas of Internet-Communication in China and Asia:
* Web design & Software tools
* Professional translation, Copy write service & Up-dates
* Domain registration, Web hosting & ICP registration
* Chinese Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
* Web Shop solutions & CMS applications
* Internet Marketing & E-Commerce
