ZT: China’s Internet obsession（新附中文）

步从容

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

步从容

中国对互联网的痴迷
在中国最大的60个城市中，人们把自己70%的闲暇时间都花在上网冲浪上。其结果可能是消费市场地震式的变化。
2010年3月 • 安宏宇　马思默




本文包括：
作者简介
致函编辑
..假如谷歌今天退出中国，究竟会留下多大（或多小）的市场空间？今年1月，中国的官方域名注册和研究机构——中国互联网络信息中心报告说，到2009年底，中国的互联网用户数已经达到3.84亿，比美国的人口总数还要多。这一数字比2008年增长了大约50％。此外，有2.33亿中国人——比上一年增加了一倍——用手持设备上网，这部分是因为中国的移动通讯运营商去年开始广泛提供3G服务。

中国人沉迷于互联网。根据我们在2009年进行的一项调查，在中国最大的60个城市中，人们把自己大约70％的闲暇时间都花在互联网上。而在小城镇中，相应的数字为50％。个人电脑正在迅速取代作为娱乐中心的电视机，一谈起谁登录互联网，以及上网多长时间，人们就激动不已。例如，在中国西北地区的一个小城市，一位男性告诉我们，因使用电脑而引起的家庭纠纷已变得难以收拾，以至于他的妻子和他商量是否要花一大笔钱（对他们而言）另外再买一台电脑——否则，就只好申请离婚。最终，他们购买了第二台电脑，并挽救了自己的婚姻。

中国人使用互联网，更多是为了娱乐——玩网络游戏、网上聊天、下载音乐和电影，以及网上购物——而不是为了工作。中国人非常注意网友对产品的评论意见。在年龄为18～44岁的消费者中，有1/5的人在没有首先上互联网研究一番的情况下，不会轻易购买一种产品或服务。他们在拍卖网站（如淘宝网）上在线购物，用预付费的淘宝卡支付购买的产品和服务，邮局收取少量代办费而销售这种购物卡。去年，中国电子商务的销售额翻了一番以上。

毫不奇怪，中国和外国面向消费者的企业，都纷纷对互联网营销大量投资。网络广告一直在以每年20％～30％的速度增长——是印刷媒体增长率的两倍——去年，网络广告的市场规模约为30亿美元（200亿元人民币）。

那些创建微型网站或举办在线活动的企业通常会发现，中国的消费者会以张贴评论、图片和视频的方式热情地做出回应。例如，诺基亚公司与优酷网（一家主要的视频内容网站）合作，举办了一个网上音乐会，并联合土豆网（另一个在线视频网站），举行了一次问答比赛，访问者有机会赢取100万元人民币的大奖。在这两次活动中，数以百万计的用户访问了诺基亚手持通讯设备的内容。最近，雀巢公司联合优酷网和开心网（一个社交网站），发起了一次宣传雀巢咖啡的在线活动。这家瑞士跨国企业正在网上展播一段时长5分钟、名为“Camera Café”的视频，内容是一些办公室工作人员工休时喝咖啡的对话。

2008年5月四川发生大地震后，市场营销人员意识到了互联网影响人们看法的能力。捐款数额巨大的企业受到广泛赞誉，而捐助不多的企业则饱受诟病。事实上，王老吉（一种凉茶品牌）变得全国知名的部分原因，是其地震后在网上广为流传的口号：“要捐就捐1个亿，要喝就喝王老吉”。

许多企业持续跟踪在中国的在线聊天内容，不断询问博客作者对企业和产品都说了些什么？我们正在网上引起积极正面的评价吗？我们如何才能抢占先机，妥善处理在几小时内就能传遍整个博客世界的抨击？他们利用像网络口碑研究咨询服务公司（CIC）、中文网站联盟和大旗网（Daqi.com）这样的中介机构，跟踪网上舆论，联系对企业表示不满的消费者1。这种做法可能存在争议；一些中介机构被指责伪造假评论，但许多机构声称，他们严格遵守美国口碑营销协会的道德准则。一些外国企业邀请一些有影响力的中文博客作者访问其海外办事处和工厂，而另一些企业则参与网上公告栏的对话交流，以澄清谣言和解决问题，同时，它们还从网上收集消费者的洞见。

由于互联网的发展，中国的消费市场可能会发生地震式的变化——我们并不仅仅是在谈论这样一个事实：5千万中国人可能很快就不得不停止使用他们喜爱的谷歌搜索引擎。在中国的虎年，跟踪这些变化，制定数字营销的内容，将是我们的当务之急。密切关注这一领域。

作者简介：
安宏宇（Yuval Atsmon）是麦肯锡上海分公司副董事，马思默（Max Magni）是该分公司董事。



本文首次发表在2010年2月24日的哈佛商业评论上。

mxh0506

学习了，尤其是这一句：
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.