The global outbreak of the coronavirus, which began in late 2019 and continued through 2021, changed the trajectory of the world in a way.In this year, more people moved from offline shopping to online shopping, and businesses also moved their business to the Internet.This year we saw explosive growth in cloud computing, private cloud, blockchain, virtual currency NFT, online video Zoom, and other internet-related industries.
The mentality of doing business is changing under the epidemic, and this applies to the Chinese market as well. If you are or plan to expand into the Chinese market, especially the Chinese online market. Then this article is perfect for you. We will analyze three tips for doing business on the Internet in China based on the changes in the Chinese market under the influence of coronavirus.
1.See the Internet as the number one tool for doing business in China
If you need to explore the Chinese market, you need to know one thing first, that even before the global outbreak of the coronavirus in 2019, it should be very, very important to emphasize the Internet thinking. The reason is simple. China’s Internet is highly developed. It is no exaggeration to say that China’s Internet is the most developed in the world. If you haven’t been to China, or are not familiar with China, and you think China is still a backward country full of rural areas, then you are really “out”. Just give a few examples to show you how developed China’s Internet is. Before the coronavirus outbreak in 2019, if you went to a China vegetable market you could pay a vegetable farmer with WeChat. If you go to any remote village in China, let’s say Xinjiang in the remote northwest or Tibet in the remote southwest, and you can use your mobile phone to make video calls with your relatives at any time. The most dramatic thing is that if you see a homeless man begging on the street, he will not put a broken bowl or container in front of him to accept alms from passers-by. What he will put in front of him is a QR code used to collect money from mobile phones, which is not strange or novel to most Chinese people. These are some of the everyday scenes of China’s Internet age. This is a scenario that even highly developed countries may not be able to achieve at present. Even in the United States, for example, many people still use cash or credit cards. China used to learn from the West about the Internet, but now the trend is for China to send Internet software products to Southeast Asia and other countries.
The current outbreak, which began in 2019 and may continue into 2022 and beyond, has accelerated this change even more rapidly. For example, up to now, 70 white-haired Chinese have learned how to use Alipay or WeChat to scan the code to obtain the security code, so that they can go to the hospital to see a doctor. In the streets and alleys of the cities, in the fields of the countryside, almost every Chinese has a mobile phone.
Whether you want to do language education in China or blockchain project, gaming, travel, selling wine, gifts, etc., one of the first things you should do is investigate how to do business on the Internet in China. This Internet thinking is a thing that you must have, that’s why CNBACLINK’s Editor Mr. Jeff to put this point to the first point to highlight. As for how to investigate business in China and analyze effective marketing strategies, we will continue to share the details in a future article, or you can also consult Mr. Jeff. Jeff is a professional with many years of experience in helping overseas companies expand their business in China.
2.Team with Local Chinese
Whether you are a big business or a small business, when you come to China you need a local professional who really understand the Chinese market to help you. If you come to China to do big business, like Tesla boss Elon Musk, you must understand the political and legal environment in China. China is a country under the overall leadership of the Communist Party of China. If Elon Musk wants to build a Tesla factory in Shanghai, he will have to deal with government officials. Under the model of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the Western model of democracy and the rule of law will not work in China, so you must have a local Chinese who understands China’s political environment and international relations to give you professional advice. For example, Elon Musk at the end of May 2021, he announce on his twitter that considering of Bitcoin mining energy consumption which is not environmental protection, he plan to cancel support for Bitcoin Tesla car payment. We believe he did this because Elon learned some info from China government. There should be some connection between his consideration and the crackdown on Bitcoin mining launched by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and three ministries and commissions in May to prevent the transfer of personal Chinese financial risks to China whole society?
For another example, Elon Musk is going to launch Starlink, which is a much faster and less physical cable satellite communication technology. In China, the Internet is regulated by law, and apps like Facebook and Twitter are blocked. If Starlink plans to expand the Chinese market, does he need to communicate with the Communist Party of China?
If you are just a small business, for example, you come to China just to sell more wine, to sell French Bordeaux red wine to China, you want to expand your business through Taobao. You also need local Chinese to help you, because to open Taobao account, you need a Chinese ID card. If you’re an English teacher and you think platforms like italk are too expensive, you want to skip them, set up your own website and recruit Chinese students. You will also need a local Chinese person to help you, because you will need an ICP record during the process of opening the website, and the ICP record must be a Chinese ID card to complete. Of course, you can also have an alternative, you can buy a server in Hong Kong, so that you do not need ICP. For how to buy host server in Hongkong, advantages and disadvantages of buying server in Hongkong for doing business in mainland of China, you can consult the Chinese marketing expert to get professional answer. They can give you professional answers to help you avoid such headaches as ICP filing . If you are a travel company, reception tourist in Bali, Indonesia, or you have a small travel agency in the Thai island of phuket, you want to have more Chinese visitors. Maybe they are China’s business group who plan to participate in the international exhibition, or China couples who come here for their wedding photos. You also need China team to help you do. For example, if you want to go to China’s largest travel websites Ctrip or Qunar to do Chinese content marketing, you must have a native Chinese writer, otherwise the Chinese travel content will be total a mess , seriously affecting the business transformation.
3.Throw away all those books about so-called Chinese culture
You’ve probably read a lot of articles of doing business in China, which will advise you paying attention to the Chinese culture when doing business in China, like giving the other person face. Some even suggest that you sign up for a WeChat and make friends with Chinese customers or suppliers.
Mr Jeff’s suggestion is not to do so. Don’t be intimidated by the obscure Chinese culture. Because it’s perfectly possible for you to work in the Western way. Work is work, stay connected via LinkedIn or Skype, and don’t force yourself to be friends with Chinese customers or vendors. No matter what the books saying of teaching foreigners how to do business in China, business is simply a matter of cash and delivery: price, quality and reputation.If you are the buyer and you have a big order in your hand, the Chinese supplier will do whatever you want to communicate with you. If you are the seller, as long as your product is qualified and affordable, Chinese buyers will place order. If you want to visit an important customer, or to interview some Chinese government official, you don’t need to bring a gift. If you are a native Chinese, you go to visit a client or a leader, you ask someone to do something for you, and you don’t bring a gift, it is very impolite, in Chinese words, you don’t know the rules. However, we must take into account that you are a foreigner, which is different from Chinese culture. Even if you do not bring gifts, customers or leaders will not feel strange, nor will they look down on you and think you do not understand things in their rule. Because they understand that you are foreigners and we have cultural differences. Moreover, since China’s reform and opening up, there has been a phenomenon of advocating western culture in China. Most Chinese people are very warm and friendly to foreigners. In other words, foreigners, especially white people, are relatively popular in China.
So to sum up, how your business develops in China has nothing to do with face or guanxi or gift-giving.This is true anywhere in the world. There are only a few key factors in any transaction, such as price, quality, and word of mouth. As long as you deal with the price, good quality and good reputation, your product or service will definitely win the Chinese market., of course, apply for a WeChat is absolutely useful in China market. Because in China WeChat arguably has been transformed from a social tools into a marketing platform, if you want to come to China to do business, WeChat is your marketing tools, like facebook,In addition to maintaining friendship, more and more people advertise on it. Especially after the coronavirus epidemic, there’s a lot of traffic on the Internet, and WeChat can really bring you some business. However, it is important to note that WeChat and overseas Facebook or Twitter is different, WeChat is a closed social software, which means that if you don’t have some “friends” on Wechat, it doesn’t make sense for you to do do Wechat marketing. Whether it’s a personal WeChat or an enterprise service WeChat, you have to have a certain number of fans or friends in order to be able to convert.
