Is China on Your Horizon?

There has been a multitude of articles popping up in the worldwide business press recently about China. So, out of curiousity, I thought I'd ask: Is China on your agenda? Are you already doing business there? Do you have plans to? Are you thinking about it at all?

Unfortunately, I don't think people in China can read TypePad-based blogs, but I'd love to hear some opinions from Chinese business leaders on the economic growth of their country and the avid/fearful eyeing of its market by business leaders from other nations...

Comments

[laurent bervas]

Thanks elizabeth ;)
For me it's a major concern : I'm planning to open an office in china at the end of 2005.

Many reasons :
- The new markets are here
- The chinese like french (rather americans)
- My father is living in asia for many years

I think, if you are an entrepreneur, you have to be there.
And it's not so difficult : chinese people are pragmantic : if your products are good you can make business.

My first steep was to learn chinese.
I think the fear of china in mainly problem of ognorance.

Learning is very easy : no grammatic, no plural, ... jut a problem of prononciation.

Second I've planed a business trip in october with my chinese associate.

For those that are interested, I will open very soon a new blog aimed on china and europe.

PS : my company is developping a methode to learn chinese available in french and english in 2 or 3 week.

[Bahar Gidwani]

Just returned from two weeks in the "outback" of China. (Inner Mongolia. No kidding!) Hoh Hot (capital city) has 2MM people now and looks a lot like Cleveland or Pittsburgh. Lot of SUVs. Six lane highways and glass office buildings. Six story shopping malls.

I put a few pictures on my blog (http://www.dimdump.com/dimdump/2004/09/image_idea_6dev.html) that show what is happening on the marketing side. Big billboard ad for a bank that had three Asians, a white man and a black man (!?!). Big display of toothpaste in a major department store with Crest, Colgate, and two local brands. Going to be big market for advertising and therefore great for anything communications, publishing and broadcast related. Consumer demand is skyrocketing. Phones, TVs, refrigerators, rice cookers. (Saw more than fifteen different brands of rice cookers on sale--with discounts of up to 35% and commissioned salespeople offering special deals to move them.)

My company is there now, with four agents (one each in Shanghai and Guangzhou and two in Beijing). Also, two agents in Hong Kong. I recommend having multiple agents if possible. Too hard to figure who will do the best job, up front. Plus, too big a market to do it all from one place. (Air transport is OK, but a bit too expensive for the average Joe. Train transport is good via overnight trains. But there is enough local chauvenism and market differences to make it worthwhile to have a local presence, if you can.)

Couldn't post to or manipulate my blog from there. Couldn't see it. HOWEVER, could go into our corporate network using VPN and THEN could blog. Would be good to set this up, before you go there. Watch out for sending emails not through VPN. I had a bunch lost or blocked via Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.

ADSL is probably the best Internet service to get, if you have a land line already (like in your office). Can get it added to your line in two or three days. Download speed is good, but upload sucks (70KB). Hotels are expensive to use for Internet, and their connect speeds are slow. No wireless in Hoh Hot, but I saw the cards being sold, so I know they have it elsewhere.

[Patricia Boaglio]

Elisabeth,

Chinese people do have blogs (even if they don't use TYPEPAD).

I have a link on my blog to a chinese guy's blog from Shanghai, Wang Jian Shuo.

http://patriciaboaglio.typepad.com

Zaijian

Patricia (Bai Li Xia : chinese name)