We kicked off talking about what the opportunities for global brands in China at a high level. Joseph talks about the rise of the Internet citizen rate that has skyrocketed over the last dozen years, making it the largest commerce market in the world, as well as the amount of data that can be collected, yet still facing the struggles that the firewall presents. Hao complimented this point by saying that we haven’t even realized half of the potential that the China internet market presents. Hao then encouraged brands to have a China strategy independent of their global strategy as part of a successful entry process.

Joseph then spoke about the necessity of having a local ICP and a .cn web domain, saying “Once you have those, then now you’re in the game.” China internet monitors traffic and throttles foreign traffic at peak times prioritizing local traffic which can greatly impact your ability as a brand to be truly alive in the market at the times you really want to be. This last mile of existence in the China market can drastically impact performance. Hao spoke to this explaining that not only must you register your domain in China, you must do it through a Chinese registrar. 

Hao then spoke to the different techs involved in China and the tremendous value of having all these ecosystem products all interacting with one user on their mobile phone. In China the government and companies know exactly who is behind all those actions because every mobile number must be registered to a real person (no “burner phones” like in the west for instance), so getting a 360 degree view of your customer is far more real and present in China. Joseph then speaks to the speed of tech in China and if you’re not measuring accurately what’s going on every day you’ll quickly be left behind, and this is especially hard if you’re not, as Joseph said earlier, “in the game” locally.

The last third of the podcast covers some of the early data that was coming out of the Singles Day shopping extravaganza. Joseph points out the lull tin the market the month ahead of Singles Day that usually happens wasn’t present this year and the trajectory was positive all the way through. Hao then spoke to some of the winning tactics vendors were using this year, using not just gamification but actual game-show-style interactions with their customers, something that has proven highly effective to capture and maintain the attention of buyers. Joseph then talks about the most purchased item categories and how basket and transaction sizes were all up across the board that wasn’t driven by deep discounts like in the past which is a very encouraging sign, and how there is now a major decentralization in web behaviour where customers are going further and wider than ever seeking intel and content and date from a multitude of sources to validate and verify before they make a purchase. Awareness and conviction is being triggered at different stages in the funnel.