Why WeChat works better in China - Tricia Wang

Tricia Wang

Cultural settings define the success of internet tools often better than technical limitations. That explains why Chinese internet users prefer censored search engine Baidu over Google, and why WeChat works better in China than some might think, writes sociologist Tricia Wang on her weblog. 

Tricia Wang:

In a society with very restrictive social norms around permissive interaction and self-expression, Chinese youth don't have a lot of opportunity to meet new people outside of formal contexts or to express themselves. 

So the quasi-anonymity of the internet provides a space for youth to explore emotions with strangers - emotions that they don't feel that they can share offline with people they know like friends and family. There's a bunch of social structural reasons for this that I won't get into here. But the important thing I realized was the extent to which youth spend time online interacting with what we would call strangers - and really strangers is not an appropriate word because some of these relationships become very meaningful. 

I don't see user practices around We Chat as an example of communication becoming less personal [as some say WeChat is less personal than others]. 

Rather I see youth trying to find ways to personalize communication. Texting is more personal than talking for Chinese youth - it's easier for them to share emotions over words than voice (also less expensive and more accessible)What is interesting is that they are trying to fulfill a desire for a more personal connection in what seems to be a very impersonal way (i.e. talking to strangers). But for them, a more impersonal connection with a stranger presents the greatest chance for personal connection. These apps allow a more continuous connection and in the case of We Chat - it's not just connections with personal ties, but also strangers!The analogy I use is a bar - and that some apps are a lot of like third spaces, spaces outside of home (first space) and work (second space). The informality of a bar widens what is considered permissive behavior. When you walk into a bar, you can be anyone - you have no institutional or personal ties attached to you. We go to bars to meet strangers but also to be a stranger. We all need informal third spaces where we can chill in the company of unknown others.  And in the same way, we also need similar spaces online. 

Some software environments are very formal (prescriptive behavior, primarily personal ties), but some software environments are more informal - and it is in these informal online spaces that people gravitate towards when they want to explore a self outside of prescriptive ties. In Chinese society where there are VERY limited options for self expression, online third spaces like We Chat are a place where self-exploration feels safe for Chinese youth. 

Also as an aside, the discovery of "why X Chinese app is surprisingly better than X Western app" is something I am hearing more often lately.

More on Tricia Wang's weblog "Bytes-of-China".

Tricia Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau.Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form. 

China's internet companies are trying to go global, finding cultural barriers compared to the problems Google, Yahoo, Ebay, Groupon and others found in China. The China Weekly Hangout discussed on November 15, 2012 with +Steven Millward  of Tech in Asia, and +Fons Tuinstra  of the +China Speakers Bureau  about Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba and other Chinese internet companies exploring the world. Main conclusion: most larger companies are positioning themselves in Southeast Asia, Baidu is collecting 500 million USD in bonds for purchases, but not too much is happening yet. The China Weekly Hangout is a weekly feature, discussing this week the bird flu and what China has learned since SARS, now ten years ago. A full overview of previous hangouts, you can see here. 

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Google's Android has no China competition yet - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

China's government has picked Google's Android for its dominant position, because the government simple does not trust Google, tells business analyst +Shaun Rein to Bloomberg. But Android has not real local competition for the next two, three years, and China's consumers just want the best, he adds.

Shaun Rein 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.


 How are China's media doing in Africa? That is the question the +China Weekly Hangout  is asking itself coming Thursday, March 7, in a first session on China's international politics. We will be joined by +Eric Olander  of the China Africa Project, and other guests. You can read our announcement here, or register directly to participate on our event page.

Google is not the only foreign firm getting into trouble in China. The +China Weekly Hangout  on January 30 discussed failing foreign firms with +Andrew Hupert and +Richard Brubaker . Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra .

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China Debate - the new Google community tool

English: Google China (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Google+ has been pretty quiet in the past few months without major improvements, but last night we got a big hit as the Google+ Communities were hitting the internet. Google+ did allow personal pages, business pages, but it was not really the right things for groups with not a direct commercial purpose.
But Google Communities is in less than 24 hours become very popular on the internet, although Google has not yet announced it, and we have started our own community China Debate. In most countries the number of communities has been amazing, but because of the special position of Google in China, things are not going that fast in China-related stuff. One other community you should join is Sam Xu's "business in China."
Since it is all very new, we cannot offer a lot of advise - we are still discovering all the new buttons on the different interfaces, but this is a major change for the ways communities are working. The first tutorials are already around and - as always - there is a very active community helping you out to get around.
Let me know if you need any assistance.

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Why a blanket ban of Google will not happen

Internet Access (Photo credit: whurleyvision)

China's leadership is gathering in Beijing for the meeting of the Communist Party and that typically means internet censorship is turned a notch higher. Filters work at full speed, and internet speed is even lower than normal. It is not only heavy filtering; in my time in Shanghai during high-profile gatherings, internet speed for visiting delegations, including journalists, had to be guaranteed, often at the expense of residents and regular companies, who suffered from lower capacity. That might still be the case for the poor citizens of Beijing.

In this sensitive climate, where everybody is a bit itchy, you find a fertile ground for hoaxes. Last week the first hoax was that 'somebody' had been messing around with the twitter accounts of foreign correspondents in China. Journalists discovered they had to reset their pass words after getting a warning from Twitter suggestion possible malicious use of their accounts. In this case it proved to be a problem of Twitter itself, who had mistakenly reset the pass words of 20 million accounts worldwide. Foreign correspondents in China gave their own twist to the event, and it took a few hours to discovered they shared a problem with millions elsewhere in the world.

Second hype was the supposed blanket ban on Google, initially reported by Greatfire.org. They actually suggested China was heading for a full closure of the internet, not only limted to Google:

Many VPNs and other circumvention tools have been working poorly or not at all in the last few days. The free iPhone app OpenDoor is still working, though it has also suffered glitches recently. Another method of accessing Google Search is to use one of their other country versions such as http://www.google.co.uk https://www.google.co.uk orhttp://www.google.ca https://www.google.ca. These may also be blocked of course.

Many media took the story for granted and copy-pasted the story. (At the bottom you find a nice selection of media reports on this issue.)

I was suspicious from the start. I got emails and even had a Google Hangouts without any problems. Nobody from my contacts in China reported they were having other problems in stead of a slow internet connection. Of course, in China you regularly have problems with your internet, but nothing suggested a blanket ban of Google, VPN's or a combination of both.
A day later Greatfire.org reported the Google blocked was over, and offered a few explanations for the hype they caused. One option they did not mention: there might have been no blockade at all. If there has been a blockade, it was at least not noticed by many. At their website, Greatfire speculates a bit on the reasons for the blockade nobody else noticed.
There are good reasons, why such a blockade would never last very long. During my time in China I learned that Google, VPN's and proxies were not only needed for the foreign community. Large sections of the Chinese government depends on those tools, so they can monitor what is going on. Some services are blocked, like Twitter and YouTube, since China is offering domestic services that work of better for Chinese users. But a blanket ban of crucial services? That would be big news if it would be true.
Also Chinese journalists would at their first working day get a VPN (in my days actually developed by the Falun Gong), because they needed access to blocked websites too. With that experience as background, I tend to find every story about a blanket ban on China's internet highly suspicious.

While it is certain, filtering of the internet is in full swing during tense times, few people on the ground in China supported the claim of a blanket ban. So, why would a rumor like this be launched? I have a suspicious nature and would assume here an NGO is looking for funding, and might be a bit less critical just to get some headlines?
You think my theory is too far fetched? If I find enough participants we will hold on short notice a (Yes, Google) Hangout where people can share their experiences from China. If it works out, the YouTube video will appear here, at my profile in Google+. If you want to participate, or host the video at your site, drop me a line. Let me also know what time works best for you.

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The global ambitions of China's internet companies - China Weekly Hangout

Image via CrunchBase

The China Weekly Hangout on Thursday 15 November is going to discuss the growing global ambitions of China's internet companies. For almost an decade China's growing internet population offered enough room for expansion. But as China's internet connects already close to 600 million domestic users, its internet companies are looking for expansion globally.

Baidu was the latest on the headlines, with the plan to issues US$ bonds worth US$ 500 million to purchase companies on the international market, but not the only one. Tencent and Alibaba are just a few others with global ambitions. How can they avoid the failures companies like Google, Ebay, Groupon and Yahoo made when they entered unchartered water in China? What might be their strategy? Are they, like the telecom companies like Huawei and ZTE, first enter marginal market, before taking on the US and Europe?

You can register for the upcoming China Weekly Hangout at our event page, leave a note here, or drop a note. 

Paul Denlinger will join the discussions, as might Andrew Hupert, and we are still trying to invite people from the companies itself. Moderation will be in the hands of Fons Tuinstra, of the China Speakers Bureau.

This week's China Weekly Hangout on nuclear power was unfortunately aborted this week as we missed the change in daytime saving in the US, and our panelists only emerged an hour later. The subject is on the agenda again for November 22 with Richard Brubaker and Chris Brown as participants.

The China Weekly Hangout is held on Thursdays, now at 10pm Beijing Time, 3pm CET (Europe) and 9pm EST (US/Canada).

Previous editions you can watch at our YouTube channel. 

Our previous Hangout on the question what Huawei can do, with David Wolf, Fons Tuinstra and Andrew Hupert.

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The power of innovation on mobile - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

Is China lagging on innovation or a force of change? For investor William Bao Bean the answer is positive, especially on mobile. In the Rensselaer in China he explains why mobile and innovation are a golden opportunity.

William Bao Bean:

China has some unique characteristics. It is a developing market. In some sense, it’s a very rich market but in some sense very poor. Their experience with technology is different than that in the US, where most of the people grew up with a PC first then a smart phone. But here in China, the majority of the market has never used a PC or email. 

So one area I focused on was mobile. But the mobile market in China was horrible. No one was doing any investment in the mobile market until the end of 2010. The reason was because that the telecom operators in China were trying to control distribution of software and services. It was a very closed market. It was true in most of the markets around the world but especially true in China. If you can’t get your services paid for, you won’t make money. 

But the power of mobile and the power of innovation to move around obstacles finally won out. On a global basis, the folks that tried to control things have lost out or are losing out. And innovative companies, like Apple and Google, are creating a new environment and a new ecosystem. This is one of the biggest investment trends in the last year and a half. I was lucky because I’d been investing in mobile pretty heavily for the last 5 years. And because there was not a lot investment in the sector until more than a year ago, there aren’t too many people familiar with the traditional mobile market. You’ve got a lot of people moving from the Internet space but sometimes the assumptions you use to make an Internet product doesn’t always hold true in mobile. So I got a really good opportunity. 

In China, the Internet is dominated by really big players, like Tencent and Baidu. They always tend to offer every product. But these guys don’t have a clue about mobile. Because of the difficulty operating in the previous tough regulatory environment, they had basically pulled out of mobile and they were right to do that. But when mobile came back, they didn’t have a sense of how to deliver good mobile product and that created an opening for startups.

More in the Rensselaer in China.

William Bao Bean 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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Building trust on the internet - Tricia Wang

Tricia Wang

Key lesson cultural anthropologist Tricia Wang learned from the internet in China: trust and transparency are essential to succeed. And that lesson is not limited to China, but universal, she teaches at a media conference in Malmo, Sweden, illustrated by NGO 'Free Lunch'.

Even the best systems to measure results do not work, if the people, the customers or others, do not trust those results. Transparency of those results is more important to win over the trust of its users. Tricia Wang uses the measurement of electricity at the end of the nineteenth century to illustrate why the troublesome administration of the 'Free Lunch' project is needed to win trust.

A lesson that might also apply to algorithm-driven technology firms like Google, Klout and Peerindex.

Tricia Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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What does Google want in China? - Hangout

Eric Schmidt by Charles Haynes via CrunchBase

Is Google working on a regime change in China? Or does it want to do business in China? Or both, and it that possible, or only after the regime change? Those are some of the questions we want to deal with at the next test-hangout on Thursday, yes, at Google+, where else?

The subject got a similar number of votes at our ongoing poll on possible subjects in our hangouts in what we expect is going to be a weekly feature starting in September.

But when we saw today an interview with Google Chairman Eric Schmidt in Foreign Policy, and saw the critics gathering both at Foreign Policy and at our own link in Google+, the subject was unavoidable. 

Eric Schmidt in Foreign Policy:

"I personally believe that you cannot build a modern knowledge society with that kind of behavior, that is my opinion," he said. "I think most people at Google would agree with that. The natural next question is when [will China change], and no one knows the answer to that question. [But] in a long enough time period, do I think that this kind of regime approach will end? I think absolutely." The push for information freedom in China goes hand in hand with the push for economic modernization, according to Schmidt, and government-sponsored censorship hampers both."We argue strongly that you can't build a high-end, very sophisticated economy... with this kind of active censorship. That is our view," he said.

Eric Schmidt has voiced this opinion earlier, but he seems to stick to his guns, although many in China would disagree with his viewpoint, and for good reasons. At our hangout we hope to collect some different voices.
The "What does Google Want in China" hangout is scheduled for Thursday 9pm Beijing time, 3pm CEST (Europe), 9am EDT and 6am PDT (apologies for the last one). The meeting is expected to last for 45 minutes.
You can view the live broadcast and our recording later in this space, at my timeline in Google+, and you can even host it yourself with the YouTube code. We have limited space for guests who participate in the hangout itself, but everybody will be able to watch and ask questions, both at our event page and by email. Of course we keep a seat empty for Eric Schmidt if he is already awake by that time. Special guests who will participate, will get an invite ten, fifteen minutes before the start of the event. Since this is still a test, hiccups can be expected.
Do _not_ follow the hangup-link at the Google+ event page: it will lead you to an unofficial hangout with only co-victims who pressed the wrong link. If you register timely online, you will get the right link by email.

Update: From now on, you can also do your hangouts from iPhone and iPad. Look here for the details.

Notice: Unfortunately, we had to cancel the Google Hangout today on July 12 for technical reasons, although we could discuss a few issues over iPad. But the iPad does not allow hangoutsonair, and the sound quality is not that good. Do let us know if you want to get updates on our tests, and hopefully from September, our weekly hangouts.

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Buying a mobile phone in China - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

China veteran Bill Dodson got his mobile stolen and took to opportunity to investigate China's fast changing and competitive battle ground for mobile hardware. A report from the shopping mall in Suzhou on his weblog. Bill Dodson:

Instead of just going back to HTC I decided to check out other brands, including domestic labels. For those who have never been to a Chinese mobile phone market, it is very much like a bazaar. Sales clerks could be selling socks and knit caps for all they care; which isn’t to say they don’t care. Instead, in general, sales staff are young, energetic and talkative, for the most part. They go to great lengths to find you a phone that matches your requirments, instead of bending your requirements to one brand. Sales staff at mobile phone bazaars typically hawk several brands, and have no resistance to placing on high-gloss glass counters phones from several competing makers. 

I checked out Motorola and Samsung phones, and took a glimpse at Sony Ericsson’s offerings. The Nokia stands seemed rather lonely, if not well staffed. It was clear Nokia was putting a great deal of attention on the China market. However, the Microsoft squares didn’t seem to stimulate much interest in the shops I visited. Motorola, surprisingly, seems to have begun a resurrection, of sorts; however, I found the version of Android and accompanying apps loaded on its phones uninteresting. 

Samsung was very strong, especially with its Galaxy offering. Its cameras were amongst the clearest, and it had the fullest line of phones with cameras mounted on the face of phones, to take advantage of apps like Facetime, to ease video calling. 

The Chinese domestic brands had breeded like rabbits since I had last bought a phone at the end of last year. Now, in addition to ZTC, Huawei, Konka, Dopod, Amoi and Lenovo were phones from online service providers: Tencent (with its QQ phones); Baidu, the Google knock-off; Qihoo 360, Netease, Xiaomi and even Alibaba. Handling these smartphones, however, was a disappointment. 

At the price point of about 1500 rmb the resolution of the cameras on the phones was sorely lacking, while their implementations of Android expressed a sense of arrested development. Of course, they were not meant to go head-to-head with the Samsung Galaxy or Apple iPhone; but were instead meant to meet demand at the low-budget end where students and country folk find their finances more constrained than the middle class. 

However, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericson makes at the low end were still more rugged and feature-rich than domestic brands. 

At one mobile phone market in Suzhou I wandered to the HTC exhibition, which was the most crowded in the large room. I spotted the model I had bought for myself six months before. It was a staggering 30% less expensive than half a year before. 

Now, still less than the compact model I had previously bought, were newer models that were black, thin and sleek. The HTC One V was one of them. 5 megapixel (self-focusing) camera; half the thickness of an iPhone; 3.7 inch display; Android 4.0.3. Matte black. Very cool. No. Awesome. 

I wanted one. 

And at 2,300 rmb (just under US$400), it was a great value.

More at Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson 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.

Top-5 most-read stories June 2012

Compared to the exciting times in China in May, June has been more back to basics in terms of news. Or is it a sign summer holidays are nearing? China does not honor the concept of a summer holiday, but traditionally we do see a drop in traffic during the summer, allowing us to have a break too. 

We have started to experiment with the Google+ Hangouts, in different formats, and although we are still fine-tuning the effort, we see the first results also here in our top-5 most-read stories. We will take the summer for some more fine-tuning and hope to organize a weekly show in September. What have been the most-popular stories in June:

1. What can China or the West do in South Sudan? - Howard French
2. The End of Cheap China, Fortune review - Shaun Rein
3. What Chinese Want - Tom Doctoroff
4. What is going wrong in localization - Ben Cavender
5. Why Google will not win back China - Tricia Wang

 

Why Google blew it for Facebook in China - Shaun Rein

When Google decided to withdraw its search engine from China, it was not just a corporate decision, but had large repercussions inside the country's government too, explains business analyst Shaun Rein in the Pandodaily.

The Pandodaily:

“I don’t see how Facebook could succeed in a meaningful way in China,” [Shaun Rein] says. One of the major reasons is that China’s more reform-minded government officials felt like they got their legs cut off at the knees by Google. Rein is angry at Google because of that. 

“When Google came into the country, they made a deal with the government, saying ‘We’ll follow your rules, and you’ll allow us to operate,’” Rein says. “And I think there was a lot of push-back within the government, saying ‘We don’t trust Google.’ But a lot of the fore-minded officials said, ‘We vouch for them, we’ll do it.’” 

When in 2010 Google very publicly pulled its search operations out of China in response to “sophisticated cyber attacks,” including the infiltration of Gmail accounts of China-connected human rights activists, those officials who greenlighted Google got in trouble. In China’s government, discipline is taken very seriously, and in Chinese society, loss of “face” – which can be roughly understood as a blow to one’s reputation – is just as damaging. The consequences of the Google drama are thus hurting Facebook today. 

“Nobody in the Internet field is willing to stick [out] their head and go to bat for an American Internet player again,” says Rein. “Because it’s not worth it for them. They don’t want to see their career stunted, like those guys who approved Google originally.”... 

Ultimately, Internet media companies such as Facebook, Google, and Yahoo were always going to have a tough time in China anyway, because of the nature of their businesses. 

“A lot of people have been saying that China’s government is becoming more protectionist,” says Rein. “That’s not true. China has always been protectionist. There’s always certain sectors, as long as I’ve been here since the mid-90s, that foreign firms cannot operate in easily. And one of them would be, say, media. Another would be electricity, finance, and the Internet. The Internet is actually the worst, because it’s a mix of media, it’s a mix of entertainment, it’s a mix of culture and everything.”

More in the Pandodaily.

Shaun Rein 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.

Shaun Rein is the author of the recently published book "The End of Cheap China: Economic and Cultural Trends that Will Disrupt the World". More about Shaun and his book in Storify.

Why Google will not win back China - Tricia Wang

Tricia Wang

Some - including the company itself - are waiting for search giant Google to gain ground over Baidu, the market leader in China. Forget it, says sociologist Tricia Wang in Postnoon. "Google is clueless about the China market."

Postnoon discusses Google's policy of confronting the Chinese government on censorship, for example by introducing their latest gadget, pointing the finger at the censors when results are blocked:

Tricia Wang, a sociologist researching the digital habits of Chinese people, sees this as a sign that Google is trying to be nothing more than a “niche search engine in China.” 

“I don’t see how this actually reaches their goal,” she says. “First it only antagonizes the government more, and thereby could make it even harder for the existing user base to access Google. So it could be counterproductive. Second, it’s targeting people who are already their existing users, so they’re preaching to the preachers. 

Ordinary Chinese users are aware of censorship, she says, but what matters most to them is getting useful results. Google’s new policy does not make that any easier. The only difference is that now, people searching for the Yangtze River on Google will get a warning to change their language or be blocked. On Baidu, people can search directly for the Yangtze because the politically sensitive results have already been weeded out. 

Beyond search results, Wang says that Google simply lacks many features that Chinese users want. In Baidu, users can look up train schedules or play Angry Birds within the browser, while Google offers none of that. 

“I just don’t think that they understand the Chinese market at all,” she says. “They don’t have any features that makes it overwhelmingly useful for China. … This feature that they implemented, it’s a very self congratulatory, pat on the shoulders, ‘hey, we did it’ — and does not actually do anything to widen their user base.”

More in Postnoon.

Tricia Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

More about Tricia Wang and her investigation of China's underbelly in Storify.  

Why Facebook won't work in China - Benjamin Joffe

Benjamin Joffe

Facebook's IPO forced this other question upon us: is the company ready for China? Forget it, tells internet expert Benjamin Joffe of the digital research & strategy firm +8* (Plus Eight Star) in Techcrunch. 

Techcrunch

Facebook has been blocked there for years, and there is simply no way around the local definition of what constitutes objectionable content. Any web or mobile company who does not self-censor faces shut down if it local, and blocking if not. 

While I’ve heard local entrepreneurs say it is not worse than dealing with Sarbanes-Oxley, the enforcement is roughly equivalent to how other governments might deal with terrorists, drug dealers, pedophiles, and organized crime (the “four horsemen of Internet apocalypse”), or how mass media deals with touchy topics that could upset the powers that be, or their advertisers. For foreign companies that offer content – published either by themselves or by users – it is a pretty big headache, compounded by the double set of constraints they have to deal with: those at home and those in China. 

The PR headaches are – as Google experienced – pretty solid. And the question is: is it worth the effort? Assuming content is managed, China is not a walk in the park anyway: it is easily the most competitive market on the planet, simply because there are so many entrepreneurs and so much venture money. Social networks? China already has TWO listed on the stock market: Tencent (worth $53.4 billion) and RenRen (listed in May 2011 on the NYSE and today valued at $2.43 billion).

More in Techcrunch.

Benjamin Joffe 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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