Internet value
According to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the number of Internet users in China is more than 103,000,000 in 2005.
More than half of Chinese Internet users were under the age of 25. Of the total, 32% are students, 12% are professionals and 9% belong to the business and service sectors.
People use the Internet primarily for email, reading news, and searching for information through search engines. Spending on online shopping in China in 2005 was around 9 billion yuan and will increase to 30 billion yuan in 2007. Growth can be expected to double in the following years.
With the above figures, business people should understand the value of using the Internet to explore the China market. Search engine marketing should be the most profitable method to reach Chinese Internet users.
China Region
In fact, the China region does not only refer to mainland China. You can also get to know Hong Kong and Taiwan. Interestingly, the Chinese in these 3 different areas have very different cultures due to their historical backgrounds. Even on the mainland, people from different provinces speak totally different accents of Chinese languages and also differ in their daily life practices. For example, people in GuangDong and Hong Kong often speak Cantonese. They speak Mandarin only when they speak to people from other provinces. Also, people from mainland China and Taiwan are usually not that good at English. However, in Hong Kong, many people can speak and read English well. Therefore, you need to notice the differences in order to write effective copies of the website to cater to different readers in the China region.
Another important aspect to keep in mind is that people from Hong Kong, Taiwan, GuangDong, Shanghai, and Beijing tend to have higher purchasing power.
Search engines in China
The major search engines in China include Baidu, Google, Sina, and Yahoo. According to a CNNIC study, Baidu has a 51.5% market share, Google has 32.9%, Sina has 4% and Yahoo has 3.7%. Based on the above figures alone, you may think that it should be more appropriate to devote most of your effort to Baidu and Google, right? The answer is “Yes or No. It depends!” Why?
This is because the region of China is large and has complicated cultural differences. It’s hard for you to target the entire region of China unless you have a million dollar budget. If you are small and medium-sized businesses, decide on your target region and focus on it first. For example, if you choose Hong Kong as your target market, I can tell you that Yahoo Hong Kong is the most used search engine and hardly anyone uses Baidu in Hong Kong!
Another point worth mentioning is that Google is rated the best search engine in China and the rating means a highly likely translation to its future growth in market share, according to a study by Keynote Systems.
Paid search engine marketing
The popularity of paid (pay-per-click) search engine marketing in China is increasing. Baidu, Yahoo, and Google have their own programs. To be successful in a tough region, search engines rely primarily on agents to sell their pay-per-click marketing. Pay per click is a new concept in China, and people think it is too complicated. Therefore, agents usually sell paid search engine marketing at a monthly flat rate according to the different schemes. It is something different with the western world.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization is a fairly new concept in China, but acceptance of this concept is increasing. Currently, there are many black hat spammers and white hat optimizers in the country. In China, people often optimize for Google and Yahoo only, and use paid search engine marketing for Baidu.
The link building process in the China region is somewhat different than in the Western world. Link exchange is rare in Hong Kong and Taiwan. It is much more popular on the mainland. However, the link format is quite different. First, high-quality links are usually sourced from personal / business relationships. Second, the reciprocal link format in the western world is usually composed of a title with a hyperlink and a description of the site, but in mainland China it is only composed of a title with a hyperlink. Looks like a link farm? However, it is a common practice in China. Therefore, obtaining meaningful links in the China region is not an easy task.
Key factors in Chinese search engine marketing
Many people make a common mistake. Their websites do not have a Chinese version, but they want to promote their website in mainland China and Taiwan. English may be your mother tongue, but it is not a mother tongue for Chinese. To be successful, you must have a Chinese version. Also, you should be aware that Traditional Chinese is used in Hong Kong and Taiwan, while Simplified Chinese is used in mainland China. Sometimes the wording used in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China are also different from each other.
If you really want to get online sales from Chinese people, but you are not familiar with their languages and cultures, you had better use an internet marketing company located in the China region to help you.
