SEM Tycoon

**imported_Michel Z.** · 08-11-2006, 02:59 AM

I thought about penetrating the chinese market a while ago. It definitely has great potential and is already a huge market. At the moment China is 2nd largest online community (number of internet users in China), after US!!

See also:
http://www.multilingual-search.com/c...02/08/2006/en/

For sure soon we will have plenty of ad networks who specialize in China as a market. Though the language is a major barrier! Outsource stuff or looking for a chinese partner might work out here, but still...

I am curious what your thoughts are about targetting China?

**imported_Luke** · 08-11-2006, 07:06 AM

yeah I am sure it would be a very lucrative market but also the competition is vast! I think it would be extremely difficult to become successful due to the time difference and language barrier. You would definetly need to either partner which someone who knows the language or employ staff.

Never say never though, one day I think it might become alot more easier to hit the Chinese markets

**Srirangan** · 08-11-2006, 08:44 AM

Problem is, they don't speak english. Even the highly educated lot don't speak english.

**concorde** · 08-11-2006, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Srirangan

Problem is, they don't speak english. Even the highly educated lot don't speak english.

I speak both Chinese & English and I also drink Cola :chinese:

The problem of Chinese market is payment. As I said in another thread, Chinese people pay in CNY and you could not get payment in USD.

There should be a company who can handle RMB payments and "convert" them to USD automatically and legally. PayPal has a CN version but you could not send money from your PayPal CN account to any PayPal accounts. But PayPal will be a major player in the future (maybe 2007).

**Srirangan** · 08-11-2006, 09:45 AM

Ofcourse. I meant the majority. The market is huge, but we outsiders have great disability in terms of language to break in. Which is why China has some of the biggest regional websites.

Take India for example, India is also a huge market just like China (1 billion + people) but English is well spoken, hence we Indian networks end up competing with those from the US, UK etc.

Call it a handicap. :-/

**concorde** · 08-11-2006, 10:28 AM

Language is not a problem. Ofcause you need to create website in Chinese language.

**Srirangan** · 08-11-2006, 11:00 AM

hehehe .. that is a problem for most of us non Chinese from entering the market.

**GeorgeB** · 08-11-2006, 01:20 PM

Quote:

penetrating the chinese

LOL he said penetrating...

</offtopic>

**Josh P** · 08-11-2006, 01:36 PM

lol, I've dabbled into Chinese (my folks are moving their, work related), and it's pretty crazy. The spoken that is, the written is a piece of cake, if you have a good dictionary and are any decent at knowing language structure you're good to go. payment I wouldn't think would be that hard? Sure, if you get paid in CNY, you could just get it converted to USD couldn't you?

**imported_mattd** · 08-11-2006, 05:09 PM

They speak english pretty well - there were a LOAD at my uni who all spoke it fluently before they even got to the UK.

I think the main issue would be the culture - stuff that works in "The West" might not work so well in China due to the cultural differences.

**Sygon** · 08-11-2006, 07:47 PM

Just create a chinese resource guide get someone to translate it, then another to check over it and then bung some ads on it, and advertise on some popular chinese sites.

**Hobbit** · 08-11-2006, 09:04 PM

Aren't new Chinese taught English at school? A lot of countries are teaching English at a very young age. So maybe the old ones don't know English, but the future generation will speak English and I will target them and penetrate them!

**concorde** · 08-11-2006, 11:03 PM

Quote:

hehehe .. that is a problem for most of us non Chinese from entering the market.

It's not a problem really. Just create your business in your own language and you can find a translater on the web within 5 mins.

Quote:

Sure, if you get paid in CNY, you could just get it converted to USD couldn't you?

Yes you can do it by walking into a local bank in China. If you want to do business online, there is not such a legal method, AFAIK.

If you want to earn money from Chinese people online, without visiting China, you should solve the followings:

1. What to sell
I have no idea.

2. How to handle payment
You can signup with a PayPal.cn account and it can accept payment from major banks in China.

3. How to receive your payment
I have no idea. Maybe you can transfer CNY to your USD paypal account in year 2007.