jonathan haagen

What can we learn from the business experiences of digital/tech companies trying to introduce their product in new markets? Well in China there was a pattern of failure amongst Web Companies (Ebay, Yahoo...). Even Google has gone from being a market leader to having just a fraction of the share of Baidu.com (now has 80%)

What mistakes have these companies made? Largely design issues it seems. Chinese sites have blinking lights, bright colours and lots of navigation and an incredible amount of information. If the page looks bare ("simple") people will think there isn't anything on it and move on. People are happy to click through but not happy to type.

The big problems though are :

• localisation/partnerships
• top executives are entrepreneurs
• Western companies just can't bend the rules like domestic companies can.

Having better technology isn't the only thing since if you come into China someone will figure out how to replicate and even do it better. Jonathon showed a screenshot of a site that looks exactly like Facebook but was in Chinese...

Money quote :"If you're thinking of coming to China, don't. There are much more fun ways to lose money"