China Market Research, a DIY Approach
Do you know why the China market is such a great opportunity? The explosion of the consumer class is one part of it. Those Chinese consumers’ demand for quality western goods and services is another. But the reason that makes the China market an arbitrage opportunity is fear.
Most of your potential western competition is irrationally afraid of the China market, leaving plenty of low-hanging fruit for the organization that can get over its fear, quantify risk vs. reward, and create a sustainable, scalable plan of action.
Why is the competition so afraid? Courtesy of the western press, who manage to spin any news about China negatively. For example, when Alibaba IPOed, the proper story would have been to highlight the opportunities this platform presented for western companies that wanted to scalably tap the China market.
Instead, they focused on negative points – potential scam artists on Alibaba’s 500m member B2B platform, the prospect of Alibaba undercutting Amazon domestically.
Then again, the reasons for the fear aren’t so important. What is important is to do the China market research necessary to identify, then quantify, the opportunity.
Now, you could go to an expensive research company to do that research for you. But surely it makes sense that, given the world’s largest online population, China market research can be done online, effectively, and for free, at least to get up and running.
Believe it or not, robust China market research can be effected from your own computer. The Chinese Internet is just a click away, after all!
Get started by going to fanyi.baidu.com. Baidu is China’s Google, and fanyi is Baidu’s translation site. Fanyi is generally better than Google Translate for translating English to Mandarin, and vice versa.
Start with a list of keywords for your organization in English. Translate one to Mandarin. Copy that Mandarin term, then go to Baidu.com and paste it in the search bar. Make sure you have a translator tool installed in your browser.
Once you get your first SERP, hit the ‘translate page’ function for your tool. Keep in mind that all links with the characters 推广at the end are paid ads. These are the most important links to click on, from a China market research angle. If there are quite a few, that means the segment is competitive, which is a good sign. Investigating those sites with your trusty translator tool will reveal much about the competition, their products, and their positioning.
It pays to look at all the first page links. These will point to two things, the information about your keywords on the biggest information portals, and the biggest platforms at the heart of China’s online conversation around your keyword. These platforms are almost always integrated with BBS and social media. With some digging around, you can find out how many registered users are on the site. The numbers are frequently in the millions.
If your keyword is a product, go to taobao.com and tmall.com and paste the Mandarin translation in those sites search bars. The top results will be the top sellers. Studying their price points, as well as the comments at the bottom of the product pages will reveal priceless information about potential opportunities.
Hopefully the foregoing seems as simple as it is. Good China market research isn’t about shelling out for surveys of 1000 people in ten cities anymore. It’s about realizing China’s Internet is just a click away.
Most of your potential western competition is irrationally afraid of the China market, leaving plenty of low-hanging fruit for the organization that can get over its fear, quantify risk vs. reward, and create a sustainable, scalable plan of action.
Why is the competition so afraid? Courtesy of the western press, who manage to spin any news about China negatively. For example, when Alibaba IPOed, the proper story would have been to highlight the opportunities this platform presented for western companies that wanted to scalably tap the China market.
Instead, they focused on negative points – potential scam artists on Alibaba’s 500m member B2B platform, the prospect of Alibaba undercutting Amazon domestically.
Then again, the reasons for the fear aren’t so important. What is important is to do the China market research necessary to identify, then quantify, the opportunity.
Now, you could go to an expensive research company to do that research for you. But surely it makes sense that, given the world’s largest online population, China market research can be done online, effectively, and for free, at least to get up and running.
Believe it or not, robust China market research can be effected from your own computer. The Chinese Internet is just a click away, after all!
Get started by going to fanyi.baidu.com. Baidu is China’s Google, and fanyi is Baidu’s translation site. Fanyi is generally better than Google Translate for translating English to Mandarin, and vice versa.
Start with a list of keywords for your organization in English. Translate one to Mandarin. Copy that Mandarin term, then go to Baidu.com and paste it in the search bar. Make sure you have a translator tool installed in your browser.
Once you get your first SERP, hit the ‘translate page’ function for your tool. Keep in mind that all links with the characters 推广at the end are paid ads. These are the most important links to click on, from a China market research angle. If there are quite a few, that means the segment is competitive, which is a good sign. Investigating those sites with your trusty translator tool will reveal much about the competition, their products, and their positioning.
It pays to look at all the first page links. These will point to two things, the information about your keywords on the biggest information portals, and the biggest platforms at the heart of China’s online conversation around your keyword. These platforms are almost always integrated with BBS and social media. With some digging around, you can find out how many registered users are on the site. The numbers are frequently in the millions.
If your keyword is a product, go to taobao.com and tmall.com and paste the Mandarin translation in those sites search bars. The top results will be the top sellers. Studying their price points, as well as the comments at the bottom of the product pages will reveal priceless information about potential opportunities.
Hopefully the foregoing seems as simple as it is. Good China market research isn’t about shelling out for surveys of 1000 people in ten cities anymore. It’s about realizing China’s Internet is just a click away.
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