Online Marketing in China. SEO. » business

How copying web content can backfire

admin — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:50:44 +0000

Marc van der Chijs, co-founder of tudou.com, one of the largest video-sharing sites in China, made some interesting experiences with how copying website content can increase your knowledge about competitors:

We had no clue why, we had gotten a lot of traffic during the day from search engines and sites like hao123.com, but it was quite steady until our competitors copied our site. And then we realized what happened: they not only copied the design, but also our site measurement code that was embedded in the site. Thanks for giving us some insightful information on your traffic compared to ours, dear competitors!

Read the whole post here.

China Domains for Sale

admin — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:10:22 +0000

Here are a few domains that I registered during the past years. I want to either sell them or pick one or two business cases to bring them alive if an investor can bring in some financial backing. The complete list is here. Anybody interested, contact me.

China Dating Domains
Domains for the 15 largest Tier1 and Tier2 cities: Beijing, Hongkong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chongqing, Chendu, Wuhan, etc.
Other Asia and beyond: Tokio, Seoul, Singapur, Bangkok, Taipei

The domain names all follow this pattern:
[cityname]-friend.com

Suggested business model:
Nice package for a dating or friendship community that targets whole China but also wants to focus locally as well. China is so big, why should a guy from Chongqing be interested in a girl from Shanghai? That’s why.

Single domains available

humao.net
meaning is similar to bargain with each other, could be used for a community-based classifieds portal. Detailed business idea available.
luxiang.net
means video, could be used for a video portal but maybe not necessarily another youtube-clone.
maikuai.com
means sell fast or buy fast. Why not try a Woot clone or power-shopping portal on this?
cujin.net
nano-trader.com
business directory for nanotechnology related topics.

Web 2.0 players in China

admin — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:55:31 +0000

Here is a complete list of the most important web 2.0 projects in China. The list was originally assembled by showeb2.0 and translated by Rick Martin. Great stuff!

Social bookmarking: QQ Bookmarks, Baidu Bookmarks, Yahoo.cn My Web, 9fav.com, Chouti, LeShou.com, inu.cc, tolib.com, hemidemi.com, and Otag.cn.

Video storage/sharing: Tudou.com, 56.com, Youku.com, 6 Rooms, hupu.tv, bobouni.com, Mofile.com, UUMe.com, video.QQ.com, Ouou.com.

Very “Digg”: Diglog, 20ju.com, DigBuzz.com, MyTaoke, Shouker.com, SecretWeb.

Music sharing: 8box.cn, icoobo.com, yobo.com, weazone.com, SongTaste, MyBaLe.com, Lifepop.com, Ubox.com.cn, Top100.cn, Music.AoBo.com, MusicPaw.com, 9sky.

Blog hosting: Yo2.cn, 72pines.com, Lifesterblog.com, Blogcn.com, 51.com, Sina.com, Sohu, 163.com, Baidu, Qzone, Bokee, BlogBus, Donews blog.

Micro-blogging platforms (like Twitter)F Fanfou.com, Jiwai.de, iLaoDao.cn, LaiGuLe.com, TaoTao.com.

RSS: ZhuaXia.com, XianGuo.com, 365Bloglink.com, Anothr.com, RSS.com.tv, Potu.com, OPML.cn, EmailRSS.cn, RSS.modim.cn, feed.Aobo.com, FunP.com.

Photo-sharing: yuPoo.com, BabaBian.com, DPDP.net, JetPhoto.cn, QuDoo.net, SeekPai.com, 886.cn, Fotolog.com.cn, Fotoky.com, QieZi.com.

Map services: Baidu Maps, Yahoo.cn Maps, City8.com, Edushi.com, eeMap.org.

Online apps: xiaoI.com, mojiti.com, Picidea.net, Sayjoy.com, Lenovo Scheduler, Best4C.cn, Mindpin.com.

Personalized homepages: sWoDe, Googsc.com,yaTrack.cn, hoozone.com, WoYong.com,P.cn.

Social networking: xiaonei.com, linklist.com, 365ju.com, qoodou.com, fZone.cn, iPart.cn, myTupa, babytree.com

User-generated content/comment sites: douban, koubei.com, fantong.com, dianping.com, mtime.com.

Online TVF: PPlive, QQlive, PPstream, MySee.

Not to forget:

Virtual worlds: hipihi, shanda, perfect world, ipartment.

Travel websites ( a la holidaycheck): yododo, mipang, tuniu, cn0km

Usability of Chinese websites

admin — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 14:31:58 +0000

Mediaman China conducted a usability test for Chinese websites with a focus on financial and bank websites. The test took place in a usability test lab in Shanghai. The websites of three Chinese banks were tested (Industrial and Commercial bank of China, Bank of China, Hua Xia Bank) and two websites from German financial institutions (DWS Investments -German version translated into Chinese- and Dresdner Bank Privatkundenportal -German version only-) as well.

Some results are:

Flashy bank websites are ok for Chinese users, but not too overflashed.
A lot of information on the homepage is no problem.
The color scheme of German sites is a little too conservative.
Nice pictures from daily life create an atmosphere of trust.

The whole 58-page report is available upon request. Use this contact form to get a copy.

2007 Venture Capital Investments in the Chinese Online Market

admin — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:49:32 +0000

According to the Ernst & Young Quarterly China Venture Capital Report said that there were 22 separate venture capital deals in the second quarter of 2007 in China involving Internet firms that dealt with some form of information resources. The value of those deals was a record $209 million. This is a plus towards the first quarter but a minus towards the same period in 2006.

An extract of this years venture capital investments is shown in the following list:

56.com, video sharing portal, 10 Mio. USD from Steamboat Ventures and SIG
51.com, blog community, 10 Mio. USD from Intel/Redpoint/Sequoia/SIG. Robert Basic has an interesting post about 51.com …
leeuu.com, virtual community game developer, Redpoint Ventures
NGI, in-game advertising service provider, 10 Mio. USD from GSR Ventures
Captiv8, in-game advertising service provider, Qiming Ventures
lakala, e-billing service provider, 5 Mio. USD from Fortune Venture
PPStream, p2p-video broadcasting service, 10 Mio. USD from Qiming Ventures and Ceyuan Ventures
UUsee, IPTV developer, 20 Mio. USD from DFJ/Highland Capital/Steamboat Ventures
fractalist, wireless marketing solution provider, 5 Mio. USD, SBI Group
1bib.com, used car portal, Econa

Do you know more deals? Post them in the comments. Thanks!

VC for Social Networking Sites in China: Online Dating prevails

admin — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:22:15 +0000

ChinaVenture gives a summary of the venture capital investments from 2003 to 2006. The following table is translated and I added some information:

There is a clear focus on online dating communities. Why? Social life changes rapidly in China. Especially young people move to the cities in order to study or find a adequate job. They are often well educated, earn good money and are familiar with technology. But often they don’t know anybody at their new location, have no familiy, no friends. On the one hand there is no time for “regular” partner search, on the other hand there is family pressure to present a partner . On the search for Mr. or Mrs. Right they growingly rely on online dating portals and are also willing to pay for the service. This is a good basis for a solid business case.

The Internet dating and “friend-making” industry in China is forecast to be a $80 million industry by next year with a yearly growth rate of 60, according to Shanghai-based iResearch.

Last year the iDate conference was held in Beijing with speakers of all major online dating portals. The next meeting for the Far East / Asian market will be held in Tokyo in May 2008.

200 most successful websites

admin — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:10:48 +0000

The 2007 Web Trend Map is available. First time including a Chinese line with the most important websites in China (Baidu, Sina, Yahoo, QQ, PCHome, Taobao, Tom, 163, etc.). Fascinating, a great work and a must for every Internet marketing expert. That’s what iA says:

The 200 most successful websites on the web, ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective. We have done it again – and better. Upon popular demand – here is iA’s next Web Trend Map: