China Businesscast

China Businesscast: ChinesePod

2007-04-13T08:07:00.000-07:00

Ken and Jenny (pictured right) deliver the Chinese language to your iTunes

In this episode I interview Ken of ChinesePod, the language podcast that set the standard for language learning podcasts. Ken explains how one builds a business around a free language learning podcast. Much thanks to ChinesePod for letting us record with their equipment, making this the best sounding China Businesscast to date.

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Tom Doctoroff of JWT

2007-03-12T03:11:00.000-07:00

Doctoroff: Genuine individualism does not exist in China

Tom Doctoroff is CEO of JWT Greater China and author of the book Billions: Selling to the New Chinese Consumer. In this interview Doctoroff talks about the "Confucian conflict" that affects how modern Chinese spend their money. Doctoroff argues that while Chinese are driven by their egos, they do not display genuine individualism in the way Westerners do.

Doctoroff summarizes his point of view like this:
My overall point is that culture is relative and we Westerners have to open our eyes to differing fundamental motivations. Cultures do evolve. The process however is slow and the evolutionary path is always consistent with deeply held beliefs (i.e., cultural "imperatives"). There are human truths and cultural truths. Both need to be approached with an open mind.

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Links and Sources

Tom Doctoroff's Book: Billions: Selling to the New Chinese Consumer

Naviblog CEO Mandali Khalesi

2007-02-24T19:28:00.000-08:00

Mobile marketing firm Naviblog

With about 140 million PC Internet users and 450 million mobile subscribers, people are questioning whether or not the mobile device will surpass the PC as the primary means for accessing the Web in China.

Naviblog is a Japan-based, award-winning mobile marketing firm currently making inroads into the Chinese market. They provide platforms for location-based blogging and a Second Life-like game played from the mobile phone. Continuing our series on the mobile space in China, I talk with Naviblog CEO Mandali Khalesi, who argues that mobile marketing will drive adoption of mobile Web use in China as well as other markets.

Will mobile marketing take China to a place where millions follow the footsteps of top China blogger Xu Jinglei as she blogs on-the-go, or will users just balk at their mobiles turning into fountains of spam?

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Links and Sources

Naviblog site: here

Past episode on mobile marketing: David Turchetti of 21Communications

Past Danwei entry on dm codes: here

Henry Winter of Smart Club

2007-02-15T04:03:00.000-08:00

Henry Winter is CEO and founder of Smart Club, which allows consumers to earn points from their purchases and exchange them for prizes. He gives insight into the economics of consumer points or "jifen" (积分) and how the virtual currency economy in China works in general.

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James McGregor, author of One Billion Customers

2007-01-28T01:48:00.000-08:00

McGregor on Xinhua Finance: "We should have driven a stake through their heart ten years ago."

In 2005 James McGregor released his book One Billion Customers, Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China. The book became a best seller, seen by many as the defining book on doing business in China. Propelled by the success of his book, McGregor started a company focusing on strategic consulting, research, and China-focused fund-of-funds.

In this talk we cover several topics including China's media industry, failures of foreign web companies and possibilities for success, how China should focus on enhancing the competitiveness of its private firms, and how a little TLC goes a long way with Chinese employees.

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Links and Sources

One Billion Customers is available on Amazon or at the Bookworm if you are in Beijing.
JL McGregor and Company: homepage

Read Danwei's recent review of One Billion Customers in Danwei Christmas book list

Read James McGregor's essay published on Danwei: No More Chinese Whispers

Shaun Rein of CMR China Market Research on strategic marketing in China

2007-01-26T07:53:00.000-08:00

n the last episode of Danwei FM's China Businesscast, I interviewed Shaun Rein on the topic of strategic consulting in China. For our mainland listeners who couldn't listen because of internet difficulties, I am republishing the interview using our mainland server.

Shaun Rein is the chief executive at CMR China Market Research Group, a strategic consulting company based out of Shanghai. See original entry full description.

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Mobile Space in China: Richard Robinson Part 2 of 2

2006-12-15T07:54:00.000-08:00

Listen to part 2

Mobile Space in China: Richard Robinson

2006-12-15T07:51:00.000-08:00

In the second part of our series on the mobile space in China, I interview Richard Robinson, CEO of Dada Asia. Richards makes a case for why entertainment applications are the most compelling.

Aside from Dada and sitting on a few boards of other companies, Richard produces ChopSchticks, which I had the privilege of attending and enjoyed immensely. Definitely highly recommended.

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China Businesscast: The Mobile Space in China: A Primer

2006-11-28T06:56:00.000-08:00

If you are like me, you have sat in restaurants and bars nursing your drink in awkward silence wishing you knew enough to join in the conversation about the wonders of things called 3G and TD-SCDMA. If so, then you be pleased about this first of a series of China Businesscast episodes on the mobile space in China. In this episode I talk with industry veteran Sage Brennan of Pacific Epoch. Hopefully, we'll answer some of the questions you may have been too embarrassed to ask.

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Robert Ness keeps a blog on trends and opportunities in entrepreneurship in China’s new media called The China Venture.

2006-11-28T06:53:00.000-08:00

The Chinese expression 从无到有（cong2wu2dao4you3), to emerge from nothingness, would be a fair way to describe how traditional and new forms of Chinese media have proliferated in the last decade. In this episode, I interview Graham Earnshaw, journalist-turned-businessman, who has three decades of experience in the media industry in China. He offers his insights on working in this industry, including "working in the grey", what the Sony Reader means for the future of Chinese magazines, how to start a dot.com in China, and the future of how the Chinese consume media.

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Chinese Word of Mouth with Sam Flemming

2006-10-14T05:51:00.000-07:00

Flemming talks of net stars and other commercial trends in the Chinese web

How do you sort through the massive noise of millions of messages posted daily on Chinese web forums, aka BBS sites? Sam Flemming, CEO of CIC Data, talks about online word of mouth in China. His company specializes in monitoring, measuring, and analyzing the buzz on the Chinese Web. Somewhere in all that noise, people are talking about your brand, and are affecting it for better or for worse.

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Read Sam Flemming's blog to learn more about online word of mouth in China.

Check out Robert Ness's blog on entrepreneurial trends in Chinese media called The China Venture. Contact him at robert(a)danwei.org.

China Businesscast: Interview with Ogilvy

2006-10-04T07:41:00.000-07:00

In this episode, I interview Debby Cheung and Yohan Vakidis of the Shanghai office of Ogilvy, the international marketing, advertising, and public relations firm. Having just interviewed Vanessa Seow of PR company Weber Shandwick, this interview should shed more light on the PR and marketing landscape of China. Among the topics covered are handeling PR crises in China, interactive PR and marketing, and viral marketing in China. Special thanks to Helen Shu for setting up this interview.

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Check out Robert Ness's blog on entrepreneurial trends in China's new media called The China Venture. Contact him at robert(a)danwei.org.

PR Expert Vanessa Seow of Weber Shandwick

2006-09-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

Vanessa works in technology PR at the Beijing HQ of the well known multinational PR agency Weber Shandwick. She gives deep insight into what makes the Chinese PR industry unique and different from PR anywhere else in the world.

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TongTong.com

2006-09-12T07:24:00.000-07:00

In this episode of China Businesscast, I interview Guy and Terrance, two of the co-founders of TongTong.com, a social networking site in China meant to bring globally minded people in and outside of China together. This episode brings insight on the advantages and disadvantages of doing a Web start-up in Mainland China.

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Robert Ness is interested in web and mobile application development in Asia. He has a blog on entrepreneurial trends in China called The China Venture.

China Businesscast: Fritz Demopoulos, CEO Qunar.com

2006-09-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

This episode kicks off a China Businesscast series on entrepreneurship in China. Fritz Demopoulos is CEO and co-founder of Qunar.com, a travel-focused vertical search engine. Fritz is a true 'sino'-preneur and has a lot of valuable insights to offer those interested in entrepreneurship in China.

Please offer your recommendations on other entrepreneurs to interview, as well as your comments and feedback.

Also, to all those interested in entrepreneurship in China, send an introductory email Robert@danwei.org. Your interaction will allow China Businesscast to deliver content that better addresses your concerns, and serve as an intermediary for meeting other entrepreneurs with complementary abilities and similar interests.

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First Episode of China Businesscast Published

2006-09-03T07:23:00.000-07:00

The first episode of my podcast, China Businesscast is available here or on www.danwei.org. It is an interview with associates and friends of mine at Lenovo. I figured Lenovo was a good way to start out. I don't want to start splitting my feed audiences, so when the suscribe link is up on Danwei, I'll put it on this page. Or you could suscribe to audio and (hopefully in the near future) video content on this page itself, but I'd rather people use the feed.

Here is the link to the file itself.