China Online: self-censorship is key

October 30th, 2009 by admin

Continuing with our China Online theme, we will firstly look at the popular websites visited by the Chinese. While some of the top internet brands are there,the domestic brands are more popular for the moment. Search engines, news and blogs are key features of these sites, however, content needs to be carefully considered so as not to impinge on the ever increasing list of banned words identified by the Chinese government.

Top 10 websites

Take a look at some of these sites and see how they compare to their Western equivalents.

1    Baidu.com
The leading Chinese language search engine, provides a simple and reliable search experience, strong in Chinese language and multi-media content including MP3 music and movies, the first to offer WAP and PDA-based mobile search in China.

2    QQ.com
The most popular free  instant messaging site in Mainland China, and the world’s third most popular IM service. Aside from the chat program, QQ has also developed many subfeatures  including games, pets, ringtone downloads, etc.

3    Sina.com.cn
Largest Chinese language infotainment web portal. It provides news, information, infotainment and email services with localized content plus celebrity blogs.

4    Google.cn
Chinese language google service.

5    Taobao.com
Online auction website

6    163.com
Web portal operated by Netease

7    Google.com

8    Yahoo.com

9    Sohu.com
Search engine, online multi-player gaming and other services.

10    Youku.com
Online video sharing website.

Issues of Censorship

China has the world’s largest net-using population, yet the Internet in China is kept under tight control. The government monitors the internet using a mix of filtering technologies, cyber-police surveillance and propaganda, in all of which China invests heavily. Its censorship hones in on anything to do with human rights, democracy and freedom of belief. The victims of this censorship are the Internet users, bloggers, independent journalists and ISPs.

Extensive forms of communication have been established between the leading commercial websites and the Internet supervisory bodies, including phone, email, text, web platforms and weekly meetings. The supervisory body will instruct sites to not publish an article, to not cover an event, or to put a stop to certain comments. Weekly meetings are held to to determine the subjects to be covered in the coming week, articles to be written under their supervision and articles to be removed. Furthermore, online companies have to strictly monitor all postings, blogs, comments, articles and other messages on their sites. Sensitive content is immediately masked or erased and the username or IP address of the person who posted it is also blocked.

Censorship using key words

This tight control on information has led web sites to practice self-censorship and to use filters to block “key-words” including:
• masked words – words replaced by an asterisk
• sensitive words – words needed to be checked by a moderator
• taboo words – words that cannot be posted or appear in an article’s content
Filters not only have to block the “key-words” but also their synonyms and homonyms culminating in the number of banned key-words to be around 500 words.

It is therefore paramount for any company with an online presence in China to keep up to date with policies and procedures regarding censorship. Sites with blogs and forums need to monitor carefully messages and comments left by users.

For assistance in creating your web presence in China, and helping you understand further the dynamics of the internet in China including how best for your company to reach it’s target audience, contact Thinkmonkeys.com.

Thinkmonkeys.com is a web design and development company based in the UK, Australia and Thailand. We specialise in professional sites ranging in functionality and sophistication. Look at some of our work here.

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China Online – untapped potential?

September 24th, 2009 by sarah

For the last 20 years the Chinese economy has been been growing at a staggering 9.5% per annum. Add to this its relatively young population, high savings and the amount of catching up it still needs to do, some economists believe that China will continue with an annual growth rate of around 7-8% per year for decades to come. This is an exciting and evolving market with an increasingly sophisticated consumer base.

How best for companies to harness the potential of this growing market and maximise profits? One way would be to establish an online presence that understands and caters for this evolving and dynamic market.

China has the world’s largest online population, and yet that online audience accounts for just 19% of the Chinese population. Without doubt, these numbers are set to grow considerably over the next coming years. But while the internet in China continues to expand and evolve, it’s important to gauge where these users are going and what they are doing, as well as understanding how internet content is monitored and regulated under the tight control of government censorship.

For assistance in creating your web presence in China, and helping you understand further the dynamics of the internet in China including how best for your company to reach it’s target audience, contact Thinkmonkeys.com.

Internet usage stats
In 2008, there were 253 million users of the internet, accounting for just 19% of the population. 214 million of these users had broadband access. 29% of these users accessed the internet using their mobile phone. 68% of internet users are aged 30 or under. The large proportion of young internet users has exerted great influence on the shape of the Chinese internet which is largely dominated by entertainment websites.

The number of websites in China has reached 1.919 million, with an annual growth rate of 46.3%.

Popular Internet applications
Online music sites dominate online activity followed by news sites. The rise in online news is believed to be connected to the rise of a number of major news events concerning China, for example the economy and the Beijing Olympics. Instant message, search engine and email are also in the top ten rankings and with usage at over 60% illustrates that basic internet applications remain important activities to the Chinese internet user. The table below ranks the internet applications.

Internet application using rate and size of users

Internet ApplicationProportionNo. of users (10,000)
Basic Internet ApplicationSearch engine69.2%17,508
Email62.6%15,838
Instant Message77.2%19,536
Digital EntertainmentOnline music84.5%21,366
Online video71%17,963
Online game58.3%14,746
Network MediaOnline news 81.5%20,620
Have blog/personal space42.3%10,706
Upgrading blog/personal space28%7,092
E-commerceOnline shopping25%6,329
Online payment22.5%5,697
Online CommunityForum /BBS access38.8%9,822
Publishing on forum/BBS23.4%5,931
OtherOnline banking23.4%5,931
Online stock/fund transaction16.9%4,288
Online education18.5%3,775
Online job hunting14.9%4,669
Source: CNNIC

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UK internet shopping to double in value by 2011

September 7th, 2009 by steve

PayPal’s UK Online Retail Report, conducted by Experian, forecasts that online shopping by Brits will double in value from the current £8.9 billion to £21.3 billion in annual sales by the end of 2011.

This is great news for all of ThinkMonkeys‘ clients for whom we have built E-commerce sites.

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Twitter ye not? Use these 7 top tips to Twitter your business to success

September 1st, 2009 by sarah

Unless you’ve been hiding under a stone for the last few months you will have heard of the new social networking phenomenon known as Twitter. But what is twitter, how does it work and more importantly what can it do for your business?

Twitter is a free micro-blogging and mini-social networking tool. It allows users to send short updates on activities via the web, SMS, instant messaging or emails. People on Twitter answer one simple question, “What are you doing now?” The answer or Tweet has to be less than 140 characters, typically in a sentence or two. But how much can you accomplish in 140 characters? Quite a lot it would seem: tweets range from what people had for their tea to information sharing regarding particular subjects of interest.

So as a business, what is the best way to make Twitter work for your company? Below are some tips and guidelines to ensure your business fully utilises this powerful marketing tool.

1. It’s about community/networking – who is your audience, who do you want to hear your message? Create a network, find people to follow using 3rd party tools such as;

  • http://whoshouldifollow.com/ – searches for like-minded people based on your tweets
  • twitter search bar – enter keywords to search for tweets

2. Get people to follow you. The bigger your audience, then the more influence and networking opportunities you have.

3. Tweet about updates to your company blog or website, remember though it is considered bad practice to regurgitate website info. in your tweets.

4. Use twitter for customer care. Engage with your clients. Frank Eliason director of digital care at Comcast uses twitter to help over 200 subscribers with a range of issues.

5. Use Twitter to gauge public opinion, trends and hot topics. Brad Nelson at Starbucks believes that “there is a major element of Twitter that is about listening and learning”.

6. Inform your clients of unexpected events. For example, airlines tweet about flight delays, cable providers tweet about bad weather causing delays to its service. As a business you can’t always prevent bad stuff from happening, but it’s how you inform your clients and manage their expectations that counts. Twitter provides an additional communication platform in which to do this.

7. Coupons are making a comeback. Use Twitter to inform of special offers and last minute giveaways. For example:

  • A restaurant tweets their daily specials
  • A ticket agency tweets about-to-expire tickets
  • A realtor tweets new homes on the market

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