Sam Flemming's CIC bought by WPP

Sam Flemming

CIC, the leading company in following the word-of-mouth at the internet in China, has been bought by Kantar Media, a WPP group, CIC owner Sam Flemming announces at his website.

From their announcement:

Kantar Media, the media research and insights division of Kantar, has expanded its social media offer in China with the acquisition of CIC, a leader in the Chinese Social media listening and  analysis industry. The deal will build on the company’s significant global presence and activities in media market research and insights with 5,000 staff across 60 markets, with CIC working along with the other leading Kantar Media partnerships in China including CSM and CTR. Kantar Media is a unit of Kantar, the consumer insight arm of WPP, the world’s largest communications services group. 

The acquisition comes in response to the growing client need for the real-time monitoring of consumer brand conversations in a market with over 70% of the 500 million Internet users on social media and with over 50,000 enterprises owning a microblog account. It gives Kantar Media a strong base in China and Asia Pacific for social media intelligence and insights as China this year became the world’s second largest advertising market.

 Founded in 2004 and with offices in Shanghai and Beijing, CIC coined the now standard Chinese industry term Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) and pioneered the concept of social business in China. With a team of over 60 social media consultants, innovative dashboards solutions and patent pending in technologies such as Chinese language text mining, CIC has led the industry in developing and applying social media intelligence and insights across its roster of blue-chip clients includes 5 brands out of the top 10 listed in Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands, and is at the forefront of monetizing the social business industry in China.

Congratulations from the China Speakers Bureau for this success of Sam Flemming.

More at CIC's website Sam Flemming is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Al Jazeera's red carpet into Zhongnanhai

The news station Al Jazeera did it on Saturday again: they aired a lengthy interview with Guan Guanzhong, the head of China's largest independent credit rating agency, Dagong Credit, warning for the ongoing monetary crisis of the USA, and an expected downgrade of the status of the US bonds. (I have included this broadcast here.)

For Al Jazeera this was the second hit in a short time, as it earlier has an interview with CIC-chairman Jin Liqun, China's souverain fund.

Both gentlemen have also severe warning for Europe, although Mr. Jian praises Europe for not devaluating its currency, compared to the US. 

Interesting is that Al Jazeera has been able to obtain a red-carpet treatment into China's financial leadership. Apart from a congratulation on the address of Al Jazeera, it seems also that China's leadership is doing a concerted effort to talk to the world, and would rather avoid the American and European financial media. No more thoughts at this time, but it is after two hits a possible trend that is worth to watch.
(First published at Fons Tuinstra's weblog)

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ITUC reacts on CIC's Jin Liqun's view on labor rights

Chairman Jin Liqun's of CIC, China's souverain fund, has touched on some sensitivities in Europe, when he addressed the issue of labor rights earlier here.

Sarah Burrows of the international trade union movement ITUC, reacts and asks Jin to withdraw his remarks and get into line with his government's policies.

A remarkable interview with CIC's Jin Liqun

Jin Liqun

Al Jazeera has an interview that is very much worth pointing at: the chairman of the supervisory board of CIC, China's souverein fund, Jin Liqun. CIC has not been very public, but as the importance of its international position changes, CIC seems to have changed its (lack of) communication.

Not only for that reason the interview is interesting, also not because of the knowledgeable image Mr. Jin puts up in front of the camera, including his impeccable English.

When Mr. Jin seems struggling, it is his maneuvering between his initially clear position as an independent banker, looking for the best possible deal, and his viewpoint on China's political position in the world and towards Europe.

The interviewer is doing a nice job, trying to compare Jin to a cold US banker, only looking for his own profit, and then triggers off a few statements that are still very political. Very much worth your 30 minutes. For Europe it might be bad news: the message is that the continent should get its act together, including drastic reform of its social security system. Welcome in the new world.

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Groupon might have a chance in China - Sam Flemming

Image via Wikipedia

The group buying company Groupon from Chicago has set its eyes on China, after successes in 29 countries, including Europe and Japan. Groupon might actually have a chance to win, says CIC founder Sam Flemming in CNBC, although IT companies from the US have mostly failed in China and group buying was actually invented in China as tuangou.
In CNBC:

Tuangou flourished in China partly because haggling is part of Chinese culture, and partly because of scale: there were 420 million Chinese online as of June, 2010, up by 36 million from the end of 2009, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. Chinese netizens also spend a lot of time on internet forums, chatting with others who are interested in the same issues or products. There are, for example, 700,000 people talking about cars in online car-related communities; they post 13 million comments about cars each month, according to CIC Data, an Internet consulting firm that tracks China’s blogs, online bulletin board sites and social media for companies. In North America, you just don’t have the same size or scale of pre-existing online communities, says CIC founder, Sam Flemming.

“In China, this grew out of something customers were already doing. Chinese Netizens had already organized themselves online around brands, products and services – then they recognized they have the collective power to do different things: complain a brand not offering good service, or get 55 people together and get a discount,” says Flemming.

What American companies do better than Chinese is making money on the internet, says Flemming in CNBC.

Still, there appears to be a huge demand for Americanized version of tuangou; at least 50 Groupon clones have popped up in the last few months. Shtuango.com may be making money, but it’s nowhere as successful as Groupon.

“We’ve seen this both with tuangou and with online social games, like Happy Farm; both were developed in China, but made a lot more money in the U.S., because American companies figured out how to monetize it effectively,” says Flemming.

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Sam Flemming by Fantake via Flickr

Sam Flemming is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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