Marketing on Douban offers some unique opportunities for brands targeting niche audiences and could present an interesting opportunity to explore. In this post we are going to have a closer look at the options.

Of course, compared to Weibo, WeChat, Renren or Qzone, those are fairly small numbers but what sets Douban apart is the unique culture created by a core of dedicated users. Unlike Weibo, it appeals to white collar, sophisticated Chinese urbanites. According to Doctor Yang Bo, the founder of Douban, most of the users live in major big cities of China. They are office workers, artists, freelancers and students who share common interests in arts, culture and lifestyle.

Douban is a truly unique Chinese social media phenomenon which can be loosely described as a sophisticated hybrid of Amazon’s book reviews, IMDB.com, Blogger, MySpace, Pandora and Pinterest wrapped up into one platform.

The main core of the site is its communities grouped into:

• Books section, where people review and discuss books and can buy them directly from Chinese version of Amazon. This is one of the revenue sources for Douban;
• Movies section. This one is similar to imdb.com (which is periodically blocked in China) and is the main forum for movie reviews and latest gossip. Here users can book tickets and even book seats in cinemas nearby;
• Music section is, perhaps, the most popular one and it provides a platform for young musicians to post and promote their works. It is somewhat similar to what MySpace is all about these days;

The other part of the site features Groups which are, in turn, categorized by interests such as fashion, entertainment, photography, technology or lifestyle.

Next section is called City which features various events nearby, such as festivals, exhibitions, film screenings, theater performances etc. There is a section for people willing to get together for games, group shopping, dating or any other other local activity.

Next one is Douban.FM which is a music streaming service. In its structure and functionality it is similar to Pandora. It streams music that matches listener’s taste based on his/her history of favoring  or skipping tracks.

In its latest attempt to generate more revenue, Douban has added a section simply called Stuff (东西) which is still in beta. It is all about discovering and shopping for cool things but it is quite unlike a bazaar style of Taobao. The closest Western equivalent would be Fancy.com which resembles Douban Stuff’s type of merchandise and presentation. Items can be reviewed by users, favored, added to wish list or a shopping card and purchased. The Stuff section is somewhat a fresher and more sophisticated version of an online shopping site targeting buyers looking for individual style and less focused on searching for the cheapest bargains.

In the past, Douban has been criticized for slow user base growth as well as for failing to properly monetize its service by restricting its ads. It is true that advertising options are somewhat limited on the community pages with very little screen real estate dedicated to ads. Also, those spots tend to be quite expensive selling between 15 to 20 RMB per CPM, an order of magnitude higher than on comparable sites.

With the addition of the new Stuff section, Douban seems to have found a potentially lucrative formula to keep its distinct and sophisticated character and yet take advantage of the desire of the urban elite, its main user base, to express their individuality through buying unique things.

Overall, in terms of marketing value, Douban seems to be one of the most underrated  Chinese social media sites with great potential. Besides of obvious option of promoting products thorough its new Stuff section, marketing on Douban could be an excellent option for a more sophisticated promotion campaign targeting upscale urban consumers through its communities and groups platform.

Several high brands have also established what is called a brand stations on Douban. One example is of Adidas that features its collections but also actively promoting the brand through completions and events.

For example, visitors and followers get engaged in viewing and commenting on user generated content that feature Adidas brands that is often unique and visually appealing. Below are just a few examples from Adidas brand station on Douban:

Marketing on Douban: Adidas

User generated content featuring Adidas brand:

Video stories on artists creating “Adidas inspired” art:

Corporate content featuring Adidas latest collection:

Contest by Adidas prompting users to submit their stockings and socks footwear matching design:

In conclusion, Douban, being a one of a kind social media site in China, is often overlooked by marketers as an alternative venue to appeal to increasingly sophisticated big city based users. It has recently developed more marketer-friendly platforms and tools that facilitate marketing on Douban and can be effectively used to target niche sectors of Chinese online community.

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The latest China cybersecurity law have had broad implications to technology companies operating in the Mainland. It also covers wide range of areas which were not explicitly defined up until the enactment of the law.

In this post, we are going to summarize most important points of the law, specifically those having the broadest implications.

5 Most Important Takeaways from China cybersecurity law

#1: Real name requirements

The law makes sure that user’s anonymity online will no longer be tolerated – every messaging service and social network operating in China is now required to verify users’ identity. Only real names must be used and user’s personal information must be verified by providers who are required to deny service to anyone who refuses to comply.

Many Chinese internet companies have already been gradually implementing these requirements before the law took effect. After it has become official,  some retroactive action also affected existing users who haven’t been properly verified. Failure to pass verification now typically results in account suspension.

#2: Data localization

Article 31 of the new China cybersecurity law requires that citizens’ personal information must be stored within China borders. In addition to personal data, the regulation loosely defines “other important data gathered and produced during operations” which must also be stored on local servers. This clause is applied to “critical information infrastructure operators” which, in effect, means any network provider with large user database.

This requirement has already affected companies that presently have to move users’ data overseas for processing. Such companies are not be able to continue doing this without applying for a government’s permission. Some foreign tech companies such as Apple, were forced to store their user data locally which already caused backlash from some users.

#3: Prohibited content

Network operators are officially required to censor content and remove any prohibited material. The law states that “any person and organization shall, when using the network, abide by the the Constitution and laws, observe public order and respect social morality”.

It further expands to what is considered illegal content to be circulated online: “activities harming national security, propagating of terrorism and extremism, inciting ethnic hatred and ethnic discrimination, dissemination of obscene and sexual information, slandering or defame others, upsetting social order, harming the public interest, infringing of other persons’ intellectual property or other lawful rights and interests”

#4: Technology “backdoors”

The “cybersecurity” part in China cybersecurity law was further expanded by including requirement to submit to security reviews by authorities. Article 23 stipulates that “for the needs of national security and criminal investigation, investigating organs may request network operators provide necessary technological support and assistance in accordance with laws and regulations.”

This part has already been causing concerns to foreign technology companies as the requirement could also mean providing encryption backdoors or other surveillance assistance to the government. Fortunately, the requirement of source code disclosure in earlier draft version was removed amid protests from US and other countries.

#5: Critical information infrastructure sectors

The law further defines so called “critical information infrastructure” industries that includes telecommunications, energy, transportation, information services, finance, public services, military and government networks as well as “networks and systems owned or managed by network service providers with massive numbers of users”.

Those sectors are specifically singled out for additional checks and measures for establishing security safeguards enacted by the State Council.

#6: Legal responsibility

Chapter IV of China cybersecurity law prescribes punishments and penalties for violators. The fines range from RMB 10,000 to 1 million and can be applied to both organizations and individuals.

Repeated violations will result in temporary or permanent service suspensions, revoking business licenses, freezing assets and criminal responsibility.

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Also, the type of banners ads  that are considered to be more effective in China tend to be flashier and more animated, something that Western users typically find most annoying.

According to polling by iResearch China, the ad’s relevancy is the most important factor in user’s decision to click it (36.5% indicated that as the main factor), followed by the quality of the copy (34%).

32.5% of respondents indicated that promotional info, such as discounts, coupons or attractive pricing prompted their clicks. Finally, great visuals and sound effects is what attracts 31.4% of people.

Much less visitors were clicking an ad based on frequency – only 15.3% clicked an ad because they have seen it multiple times. However, that is still a fairly high number that makes retargeting (remarketing) a highly effective strategy for serving banner ads in China.

Different types of banner ads in China and their effectiveness

Banners on ecommerce sites

According to various data, banner ads on Chinese ecommerce sites are, by far, the most effective. According to iResearch, nearly 8 in 10 users paid attention to those ads and over 60% of users routinely click them. Since such advertising is often highly relevant to users who are searching for specific products, those results are not surprising.

Banners on portals and search engines

Over 70% would notice ads on portals and search engines and over half would click them which makes it the next best channel for placing banners ads in China after ecommerce sites. Such high numbers are explained by the fact that there is a higher degree of intent and interest on the part people who are searching for a specific term or visit specialized websites.

Banners on video sites

Although about 70% of visitors to video sites like Youku or PPTV notice the ads, they are the most disliked types of banners ads in China. Another research from Tencent Penguin Intelligence found that the majority of internet users aged between 16 to 20 did not watch video ads, and 11.6% even said they were “intolerable.” These types of ads are mostly disliked on mobile. With the typical length of a pre-roll ad on Youku being about 1 minute, those finding are hardly surprising.

Banners on social media sites

In general, banner advertising on social media sites such as Weibo is often considered ineffective. Another research by Kantar, discovered that a dismal 13% of visitors on those sites liked such ads while while 24.2% said they were put off by them with 42.1% simply ignoring them. In our experience, post boosts work much better in social media due to their higher relevancy to users’ interests.

Mobile banner ads

Mobile ads is the fastest growing sector which offers the most potential. New mobile ads networks are improving efficiency, although the industry is still in the experimentation stage. Many networks are still looking for the best ways to monetize and the prices may vary widely. One of the biggest problems with mobile ads is the fact that they often get clicks by accident. This, in part, is caused by limited “real estate” of the small mobile phone screens. On the other hand, larger smartphones and “phablets” offer more potential.

Ads on gaming sites

The biggest problem with these type of banner ads in China is the relevancy – it is hard to figure out precisely who would be interested in checking out the latest fast food restaurant offer while playing a game. Even though the marketing reach with gaming ads can be quite large, CTR is often low. Most effective banner ads on gaming sites and mobile games often feature new games and related apps installs rather than unrelated or broad subjects.

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Here are just some of the most impressive nuggets on what has happened on one minute on China Internet:

• Almost 400,000 people log in to WeChat app every minute;
• 625,000 Youku-Tudou videos are being watched;
• Almost 65,000 Weibo tweets with over 50,000 of them containing images;
• Over 4 million of Baidu search queries;
• $1.1 million is spent on Taobao or Tmall;

China Internet in 60 seconds:

(credit to TechInAsia)

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When it comes to Chinese market, it is often a good idea to have your site translated to both Simplified Chinese for Mainland China audience and to Traditional Chinese used in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Even though, both Taiwanese and Hongkongese would have little problem reading content in Simplified Chinese, having those two choices would be seen as showing respect to millions of Traditional Chinese readers. Large number of corporate executives and managers of companies in China are from Taiwan and Hong Kong and it would certainly be a good idea to offer them proper translation as well.

Website translation to Chinese doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg

If you are on a bootstrap budget, the first thing to try would be finding a freelance translator through sites like Elance.com or Odesk.com (recently merged to Upwork.com). It’s by far the cheapest option but could also be a hit and miss.

Many freelance translators, who are native Chinese speakers, don’t have a good grasp of Traditional Chinese and would simply use machine translation program, like Google Translate, that simply substitutes Simplified to Traditional characters. As a result, Traditional Chinese translation would look awkward and, sometimes, completely unreadable. If you use any of the freelance translators, make sure to test them first by asking them to translate a paragraph to both languages and have it verified with a native Taiwanese or Hongkongese.

A word of caution: for website translation to Chinese, never hire translators who are not native speakers, this would be a complete waste of your money. You should also make sure to verify the work before you release the payment.

If your company has a decent budget for a website translation to Chinese, then, by all means, consider a professional translation firm or a local marketing localization agency. They would typically pay attention to details that are beyond a straight translation, such as proper formatting of time, date and currency.

You still have to exercise caution while hiring a professional translation company – unfortunately, many of them are simply one-two man operation, regardless of what they say about themselves on their website. Large number of them would use machine translation software with some corrections afterwards. Be prepared to shop around for a while as, in my experience, 80% of such firms provide very low quality work.

Just like with the freelancers, you should test the quality first by asking them to translate one paragraph and, if you suspect that machine translation has been used for any of the languages (most likely Traditional Chinese), don’t hire them.

If you are prepared to spend anywhere around $1,000 or more, make sure to have a written contract with such company. The contract should stipulate that the company must correct the translation within 2-4 weeks after submitting it to you if you find any issues. There must be a legal recourse clause in the contract in case of substandard quality of the translation but it’s always time limited, so make sure to check their work carefully as soon as you receive it.

Now to the technical side. Most websites use CMS (content management system) that make inserting new language a much easier process than editing HTML or XML files. You have to make sure that your system supports Chinese which shouldn’t be a problem with all modern CMS.
A website can also be configured to load a specific language based on IP address location. However, there should be an option to change an automatically selected language because not everyone who may visit your site should be assumed to be able to read Chinese. Besides, IP address based geolocation would not work if a site visitor uses VPN – a very common way to bypass China’s infamous Great Firewall in order to get access to blocked sites.

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Baidu growth in China has been impressive, although it stayed at somewhere around 60% market share in search engine space last year. With China’s internet users increasingly going mobile, Baidu is right to divert its resources away from the core desktop search business and into mobile applications. 

Things look different for Baidu international expansion ambitions. By his own admission, Robin Li, Baidu’s founder and the 3rd richest person in China, the company has no plans to enter US market in near future. “For Baidu, we choose not to come to the U.S. market first because this is a market that is very different from developing countries,” he said. “For a company to be successful internationally, they don’t need to be successful in the U.S. The U.S. is just one part of the world.”

Back in 2011, Baidu rolled out its search engine version in Vietnam, Thailand and Egypt and in July 2012, that also included Singapore. So far, with the exception of Vietnam where Baidu offers a few more sophisticated products, Baidu hasn’t gained any meaningful market share in those countries. In 2007 the company has launched Baidu Japan but has been losing money ever since never coming close to challenging Yahoo’s and Google’s dominance. To make things worse, the Japanese government has warned users that some of Baidu’s programs could be spyware. Most recently, Baidu has launched the localized Portuguese search engine called Baidu Busca for Brazilian market.

The truth is that what really Baidu excels at is its censorship technology which is very efficient at blocking sensitive topics on the fly.

Baidu boss claims that the right strategy for the company would be targeting developing countries where it could become a more natural fit. Wang Menqiu, head of Baidu’s consumer products claims that “We really understand the common user, not the international, sophisticated user, but very, very normal people. Google tried to assume users take a lot of actions and want to make a lot of choices when they use their products. But in our products, we do it a different way. We first of all assume users are lazy and are naïve. And we try to deliver our products in the simplest way.”

To me, that just doesn’t sound right – while some of that could be true in home market where some elderly users could struggle with using Pinyin or typing complex characters into the search box, none of those issues exist outside of China. What level of sophistication does a user require to type in a search term in a simplistic search engine interface, if it can even be called that? Besides, all of the modern search engines have a voice recognition feature already built-in allowing for searches by simply speaking into the microphone.

So, what is the real logic behind Baidu’s decision to expand into developing market? The truth is that what really Baidu excels at is its censorship technology which is very efficient at blocking sensitive topics on the fly. Baidu is notorious for filtering out the results based on the blacklisted keywords and phrases. And where is the market for that? It surely isn’t in US or Europe but more likely in countries with various degree of government control over media such as Egypt, Iran or even Singapore. Considering the recent political climate, my guess is that Russia could also be on Baidu’s expansion list, although taking on Yandex, the local dominant player wouldn’t be easy.

It is no secret that Baidu international expansion plan enjoys enthusiastic support of Chinese Communist party that considers political dividends and opportunities to influence public opinion overseas. According to Wang Xiujun, deputy director of China’s State Internet Information Center, “the future of our party and country” depends on winning “the struggle for ideological penetration.”

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It is also a predominantly younger generation’s phenomenon with 50% of mobile shoppers aged between 24 and 30. Thanks to its popular mobile apps for Android and iOS, Taobao came to dominate China’s m-commerce space with estimated 76.1% of the market share. The next largest player, popular online store JingDong, accounts for slightly over 5% of the entire market.

Here is some more figures from this excellent infographic produced by Go-Globe.com:

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Here  are t the 7 most important trends to watch:

#1 Weibo Decline

Weibo continues to lose popularity among China’s netizens with more users abandoning it in favor of WeChat. One of the reasons of Weibo’s decline is its lack of appeal to users who prefer combination of Twitter-like communication with native mobile chat app experience. Also, the situation can be partly explained by more visible oversight by the state.  The censorship is tightening its grip on Weibo: from the requirement to register with the real name to high profile cases of cracking down on popular bloggers accused of “behaving irresponsibly”.

#2 Rise of WeChat

WeChat has been on the rise throughout 2013 and is expected to continue gaining popularity throughout 2014. Several factors contribute to WeChat’s appeal to users: its inherent mobility, ecosystem if useful add-ons, integrating innovative  payment solution directly into the platform and others. Read more about the key factors behind WeChat’s success.

#3 Increasing Android market share

Market share of Android OS has been on the rise in every key developing market including China. Best selling smartphones in China, such as those by Samsung, are powered by Android. The locally produced smartphone market led by XiaoMi is gaining market share too, all of them are also Android based. Although, by the end of 2013, Apple has managed to improve its sales figures by finally signing a big deal with China Mobile, Android’s popularity continued growing.

In general, Android seems to be favored by late adopters who also tend to gravitate to Android-based phones because of their affordability. Marketers should keep in mind that compatibility with Android powered mobile devices will increase in importance compared to iOS in China.

#4 Baidu Decline

From the mid-2013, it was evident that once dominant search engine Baidu’s market share was in slow decline. While still the market leader, its share went from ~80% in 2012  to 66% in Sep. 2013 (in page views). A relative newcomer in search engine market space, Qihoo, seems to be gaining traction with estimated 17% market share in 2013, compared to just about 1% in 2012. Qihoo should be the one to to watch in 2014.

#5 Decentralized consumer finance

Perhaps, the biggest trend of 2014 will be proliferation of more decentralized consumer finance integrated directly into smartphones. In recent months, China’s web giants, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent have been applying for financial services licenses to be issued by the government. That will allow those companies to offer the same services that the banks do: savings portfolios, loans, insurance, and payment methods. Such new services would include savings and investment in funds like Alibaba’s Yuebao and Baidu’s Baifa, microfinance and peer-to-peer lending.

Such new functionality will  further accelerate the development and reach of mobile based e-commerce with the possibilities of one click purchases integrated in the mobile apps.

 #6 Richer content with 4G enabled smartphones

China mobile, the largest mobile provider, has started to unroll 4G network by the end of 2013 with plans to sell 100 million 4G enabled mobile devices in 2014. For smartphone users, faster connection and more bandwidth mean the ability to receive richer content, such as HD videos, as well as faster loading of ecommerce sites and apps. Possibilities of live video chats, for example, will further increase popularity of platforms like WeChat, provided they keep pace with the development of new functionality.

There is no doubt that combining new consumer finance solutions (see above) with faster connection will lead to even wider adoption of e-commerce which is completely mobilized.

#7 More specialized e-commerce

Today, large e-commerce sites, like Taobao, Alibaba or Tmall sell pretty much everything. At some point, consumers may begin to move to more specialized sites when looking for a narrow range of products instead of searching through endless pages of similar ones. With growing sophistication of consumer behaviour, more Chinese are looking for better quality and uniqueness instead of focusing on low price.

I would expect certain degree of fragmentation and specialization emerging in China’s e-commerce space in 2014 and beyond.

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Large number of Chinese companies have already established their presence on this platform while increasing number of global brands are quickly moving there as well.

Clearly, marketing in social media requires patience and persistence, it’s never a one-off project but a consistent effort. Setting up an account and letting it stay static will never bring any results, the key is keeping adding engaging content. This is, perhaps, the hardest part of social media marketing in general.

Just like with pretty much everything else, drawing out a plan and setting up goals will make this process easier, less overwhelming and more manageable. Here are the 5 steps for marketing on Weibo:

Step 1: Setting up Weibo account

Weibo allows a certain degree of customization within its existing structure. You can place your company’s logo, setup your own background, set your tags and keywords and write a short description.

It’s always a good idea to customize your Weibo sub-domain but you may also find out that your company name has already been taken by someone else. In this case, find an alternative name – it doesn’t really matter that much but make sure that your name is memorable and can be typed in easily.

Consider account verification which is a fairly simple process. This would improve trustworthiness of your page and prevent possible brand hijacking.

Step 2: Putting together the editorial calendar

You have to decide who and when will post on your Weibo and what topics you are going to cover. The best way is to write a plan in a calendar format where you can clearly indicate when the posts get published and who is responsible for the content.

It’s easy to overestimate your capacity to produce valuable content, so to avoid running out of material to write about, set a conservative goal at the beginning. You can always decide to increase the frequency later on.

Some surveys show that the best time to publish is around 5PM in mid-week or on weekends.

Step 3: Publishing content on Weibo

Once your editorial calendar is finalized, start posting your content based on your schedule. You can also consider to automate this process with some software available on the market which allows you to schedule your pre-written posts and even publish it simultaneously on different platforms, such as Tancent Weibo, Sohu Weibo and NetEase Weibo.

Obviously, what you publish is the most important part of your strategy. Good content should include a lot of visuals, videos are the best. If you want to be relevant to the news and current event, automating your content publishing might not be a good idea.

Avoid boring posts and those that don’t really say anything. The content that Chinese like to share the most are jokes, so, if it’s at all relevant to your message, try not to be too serious…

Step 4: Promote your Weibo

Promoting your Weibo is, perhaps, the second most time consuming part of your marketing after content creation. It’s easy to get frustrated with the lack of response and few followers, so persitence is important.

First of all, you have to make sure that you include your Weibo information in all of your other marketing assets. Brochures, handouts. name cards, souvenirs all should have your Weibo link and where space allows, use QR code for it as well.

Include your Weibo link in all of your online material as well, such as main company website, press releases, newsletters etc.

Another good strategy is getting involved with other Weibo activities, such as interviews and social games. Commenting and retweeting relevant posts will also increase your exposure to larger audience. Go to groups and engage with people who mention you. Those are just a few tips.

Step 5: Measure your results

Unfortunately, number of followers doesn’t really say much about the effectiveness of your Weibo marketing campaign. Depending on your original goals you have to set the targets and see if you are getting any closer. If your goal was improving brand awareness, then the best measure is the number of comments are reposts.

If you expect to increase sales directly as a result of marketing on Weibo than you should track lead generation or sales conversion rates.

You also might want to look at 3rd party software that pulls together this type of data for you and presents it in the way you need it.

Step 6: Review and adjust

After a few months of running your Weibo you will start getting some statistics as mentioned in the previous step. You will certainly see some peaks of activities while at other times it might look like a wasteland. The key is to identify when the engagement peaks and what causes it. Once you identify what type of content generates more reposts and comments stick to that topic.

Take a closer look at your audience, where they are coming from, what is their demographics? How do they correlate with your target audience? Should you tweak your message to reach people you really want to engage?

More data comes in, clearer picture will be emerging allowing you to continually improve the effectiveness of your Weibo marketing campaign.

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• Top locations of the largest number of internet users;
• Internet users demographics;
• Total number of websites and domain stats;
• Top internet applications

The number of internet users in China has surpassed the entire US population by reaching 338 million users

Click on the picture below to open the full view:

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