Speaker Reflection 1

Thoughtful China

Julie Yihun Zhu: What Entrepreneurs can teach you about Doing Business in China

The online video presented by Julie Yijun Zhu of Thoughtful China interviewed multiple entrepreneurs already doing business within China and were asked about what challenges they faced in entering this market and what they might recommend to other people looking to China as the next step in becoming successful in this emerging economy. The interviewees came from industries such as multimedia applications, entertainment and electronic gaming, clothing and sports and had several key topics of note that differentiated the business environment from one another as well as a common theme of passion for what one does as a trait best suiting those interested in doing business in China.

The thoughts offered were described as a “library of insights” into the possibilities the Market in China has to offer. Brian Wong started off by explaining that each new business day his company has been able to see a major increase in unique devices being identified by analytics tools in the use of his online applications on mobile devices in recent months. What this means is that Chinese people have gained more access to mobile devices than they had ever had before and so the market has simply opened up to people that have a desire to consume more online application tools to improve their way of living just like developed western countries have enjoyed for the last decade.

The gaming software developer entrepreneur Henri Holm of noted success Angry Birds, acknowledged the market in China as being very fast moving with very strong spirited people hovering around the Chinese culture. With this in mind he directed his Chinese marketing team to set targets much higher than they normally would by nearly 600% and they have since been able to capture major market share by doing this based on the hungry demand in the market. It is important to understand the tipping point for how quickly the market reacts as Chinese people now have access to goods and services they never had access to five to ten years ago.

Alison Ming of Mary Ching Shoes, Doug Pearce an art auction organizer and restaurateur as well as Michael Luevano of Shang Hai Rolex Masters tennis event planning would all agree with Brian and Henri that knowing and understanding the culture of China and dealing with historical elements as part of how to cater to the market are all critical points for being able to succeed in this business arena. They also agree that having conviction and being passionate about what one does in the most important factor of all as it was a unanimous response when asked by Julie Yijun Zhu. All five entrepreneurs also spoke about staying focused on their ventures and encouraged newcomers to not get distracted when setting realistic timetables for how ones plans role out into this market.

A point that several of the entrepreneurs also expressed was that they utilized other markets outside of China such as Japan initially as they built up the infrastructure needed to gain traction and support their next move into China. Getting ones feet wet so to speak in a smaller slower paced market is good insight into any start-up searching out how to initialize a business venture within China.

References

Madden, Normandy. “What Entrepreneurs can teach you about Doing Business in China. “ Online video clip.

YouTube. Youtube, 12 Jun. 2013.