ZT: China’s Internet obsession（新附中文）

步從容

March 2010
China’s Internet obsession
People in the country’s 60 largest cities spend 70 percent of their leisure time online. Seismic changes in the consumer market are likely as a result.



Just how big (or small) a market would Google leave behind were it to pull out of China today? In January, China Internet Network Information Center, the country’s official domain registry and research organization, reported that by the end of 2009, the number of Internet users in China had touched 384 million, more than the entire population of the United States. That’s an increase of around 50 percent over 2008. Moreover, 233 million Chinese—twice as many as in the previous year—accessed the Net on handheld devices, partly because China’s cellular providers started offering 3G services widely last year.





The Chinese are obsessed with the Internet. People in the 60 largest cities in China spend around 70 percent of their leisure time on the Internet, according to a survey we conducted in 2009. In smaller towns, the corresponding number is 50 percent. The PC is fast replacing the TV set as an entertainment hub, and emotions run high over who gets to log on and for how long. In a small city in northwest China, for instance, a man told one of us that domestic squabbles over using the PC got so out of hand that his wife and he discussed spending, for them, a large sum of money to buy another machine—or filing for divorce. They eventually bought a second PC and saved their marriage.
People in China use the Internet more for entertainment—playing online games, messaging, downloading music and movies, and shopping—than for work. The Chinese place great stock in the opinions of online product reviewers. One in five consumers between the ages of 18 and 44 won’t purchase a product or service without first researching it on the Internet. They shop online at auction Web sites such as Taobao, paying for products and services with prepaid Taobao cards that the post offices sell for a small commission. The volume of e-commerce in China more than doubled last year.
Unsurprisingly, both Chinese and foreign consumer-facing companies are pouring money into Internet marketing. Online advertising has been growing at between 20 and 30 percent a year—twice the print media’s growth rate—and the market was around $3 billion (20 billion renminbi) in size last year.
Companies that create microsites or stage online events usually find that consumers in China respond enthusiastically by posting comments, pictures, and videos. For instance, Nokia staged an online concert in partnership with Youku, a leading video content site, and tied up with Tudou, another online video site, to conduct a quiz that gave visitors a chance to win 1 million renminbi. In both cases, millions of users accessed the content over Nokia handhelds. Recently, Nestlé launched an online campaign for Nescafé coffee in association with Youku and Kaixin, a social-networking site. The Swiss multinational is showcasing Camera Café, five-minute videos of conversations between office workers on coffee breaks.
Marketers woke up to the Internet’s ability to influence opinion after the Sichuan earthquake, in May 2008. A huge amount of buzz glorified big donors and crucified small ones. In fact, Wanglaoji, an herbal tea brand, became nationally known partly because of its postquake online tag line: “If you want to donate, you donate 100 million renmibi. If you want to drink, you drink Wanglaoji.”
Many companies track online conversations in China constantly, asking themselves: What are bloggers saying about our company and products? Are we generating positive buzz online? How can we preempt an attack that can spread throughout the blogosphere in hours? They use agencies like CIC, the Chinese Web Union, and Daqi.com to track the buzz and to connect disgruntled customers with companies.1 This can be contentious; some agencies are accused of seeding fake comments, but many claim that they follow the US Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s code of ethics. Foreign companies invite influential Chinese bloggers to visit offices and plants overseas, while other companies take part in conversations on bulletin boards to dispel rumors and address concerns even as they gather consumer insights.

Seismic changes are likely to take place in the Chinese consumer market because of the Internet—and we aren’t talking just about the fact that 50 million Chinese may soon have to stop using their favorite search engine, Google

步從容

中國對互聯網的癡迷
在中國最大的60個城市中，人們把自己70%的閑暇時間都花在上網沖浪上。其結果可能是消費市場地震式的變化。
2010年3月 • 安宏宇　馬思默




本文包括：
作者簡介
致函編輯
..假如谷歌今天退出中國，究竟會留下多大（或多小）的市場空間？今年1月，中國的官方域名注冊和研究機構——中國互聯網絡信息中心報告說，到2009年底，中國的互聯網用戶數已經達到3.84億，比美國的人口總數還要多。這一數字比2008年增長了大約50％。此外，有2.33億中國人——比上一年增加了一倍——用手持設備上網，這部分是因為中國的移動通訊運營商去年開始廣泛提供3G服務。

中國人沉迷于互聯網。根據我們在2009年進行的一項調查，在中國最大的60個城市中，人們把自己大約70％的閑暇時間都花在互聯網上。而在小城鎮中，相應的數字為50％。個人電腦正在迅速取代作為娛樂中心的電視機，一談起誰登錄互聯網，以及上網多長時間，人們就激動不已。例如，在中國西北地區的一個小城市，一位男性告訴我們，因使用電腦而引起的家庭糾紛已變得難以收拾，以至于他的妻子和他商量是否要花一大筆錢（對他們而言）另外再買一臺電腦——否則，就只好申請離婚。最終，他們購買了第二臺電腦，并挽救了自己的婚姻。

中國人使用互聯網，更多是為了娛樂——玩網絡游戲、網上聊天、下載音樂和電影，以及網上購物——而不是為了工作。中國人非常注意網友對產品的評論意見。在年齡為18～44歲的消費者中，有1/5的人在沒有首先上互聯網研究一番的情況下，不會輕易購買一種產品或服務。他們在拍賣網站（如淘寶網）上在線購物，用預付費的淘寶卡支付購買的產品和服務，郵局收取少量代辦費而銷售這種購物卡。去年，中國電子商務的銷售額翻了一番以上。

毫不奇怪，中國和外國面向消費者的企業，都紛紛對互聯網營銷大量投資。網絡廣告一直在以每年20％～30％的速度增長——是印刷媒體增長率的兩倍——去年，網絡廣告的市場規模約為30億美元（200億元人民幣）。

那些創建微型網站或舉辦在線活動的企業通常會發現，中國的消費者會以張貼評論、圖片和視頻的方式熱情地做出回應。例如，諾基亞公司與優酷網（一家主要的視頻內容網站）合作，舉辦了一個網上音樂會，并聯合土豆網（另一個在線視頻網站），舉行了一次問答比賽，訪問者有機會贏取100萬元人民幣的大獎。在這兩次活動中，數以百萬計的用戶訪問了諾基亞手持通訊設備的內容。最近，雀巢公司聯合優酷網和開心網（一個社交網站），發起了一次宣傳雀巢咖啡的在線活動。這家瑞士跨國企業正在網上展播一段時長5分鐘、名為“Camera Café”的視頻，內容是一些辦公室工作人員工休時喝咖啡的對話。

2008年5月四川發生大地震后，市場營銷人員意識到了互聯網影響人們看法的能力。捐款數額巨大的企業受到廣泛贊譽，而捐助不多的企業則飽受詬病。事實上，王老吉（一種涼茶品牌）變得全國知名的部分原因，是其地震后在網上廣為流傳的口號：“要捐就捐1個億，要喝就喝王老吉”。

許多企業持續跟蹤在中國的在線聊天內容，不斷詢問博客作者對企業和產品都說了些什么？我們正在網上引起積極正面的評價嗎？我們如何才能搶占先機，妥善處理在幾小時內就能傳遍整個博客世界的抨擊？他們利用像網絡口碑研究咨詢服務公司（CIC）、中文網站聯盟和大旗網（Daqi.com）這樣的中介機構，跟蹤網上輿論，聯系對企業表示不滿的消費者1。這種做法可能存在爭議；一些中介機構被指責偽造假評論，但許多機構聲稱，他們嚴格遵守美國口碑營銷協會的道德準則。一些外國企業邀請一些有影響力的中文博客作者訪問其海外辦事處和工廠，而另一些企業則參與網上公告欄的對話交流，以澄清謠言和解決問題，同時，它們還從網上收集消費者的洞見。

由于互聯網的發展，中國的消費市場可能會發生地震式的變化——我們并不僅僅是在談論這樣一個事實：5千萬中國人可能很快就不得不停止使用他們喜愛的谷歌搜索引擎。在中國的虎年，跟蹤這些變化，制定數字營銷的內容，將是我們的當務之急。密切關注這一領域。

作者簡介：
安宏宇（Yuval Atsmon）是麥肯錫上海分公司副董事，馬思默（Max Magni）是該分公司董事。



本文首次發表在2010年2月24日的哈佛商業評論上。

mxh0506

學習了，尤其是這一句：
This can be contentious; some agencies are accused of seeding fake comments, but many claim that they follow the US Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s code of ethics.