Internet Marketing in China as Olympics Approach
Gary Wang, the founder and CEO of Tudou, a leading video portal in China, wrote an interesting article on Adotas explaining how to effectively advertise in China.
According to Wang, 35% of the world’s social networking users reside in China. The explosion of broadband access continues and China is quickly becoming the most wired country in the world.
But what really sets China apart is the role user-generated content plays in Chinese purchasing decisions.
According to a Netpop survey, 58 percent of Chinese purchases are influenced by consumer reviews, discussion boards, blogs, and other forms of social media. In the United States, this number is only 19%.
This is an extremely significant number and shows that China is truly on the forefront of Web 2.0. Internet marketing through social media is very effective and must be a big focus for advertising in China.
Wang’s area of expertise is online video, and he goes on to explain that video sharing sites are becoming more popular than television, and Chinese TV itself is adding more and more user generated content to the terrestrial airwaves. Wang urges marketers to take advantage of this trend. His studies indicate that wallpaper ads and 3 second screen insertions tend to work better than banner ads, which are often ignored, and pop ups, which tend to annoy the user and are often blocked by software.
As the Beijing Olympics approach, a considered look into social media marketing appears to be a very effective way to advertise in China.
Technorati Tags: internet marketing, social media, beijing olympics, china, gary wang, netpop, tudou
