Conquerors of the East
Observations from Shanghai: Mobile congress and our first Chinese customers
A visit to the Mobile Congress in Shanghai (Mobile World Congress) is my second trip to China: we decided to enter the Chinese market several months ago, and I already shared my first impressions. After the first trip, we didn’t have confidence that it would work, but it would have been strange not to try. Since then, we have a few customers from China, and there is no doubt that the market has succumbed to us. Now we are thinking about speeding up on it, and for this we are studying the local mentality and experience of other companies in China - Chinese and Russian.
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What was at the Mobile Congress
The Mobile Congress in Shanghai is a clone of the Mobile Congress in Barcelona , where our employees have also been. It is smaller in size than the Barcelona Congress, but also rather big - three huge pavilions and an extensive conference program, which is worth a fortune. As in Barcelona, ​​there should be telecom operators from all over the world, but in reality from all over Asia. They are found not only among themselves, but also with suppliers of various products and services, one way or another connected with the telecom industry. Why are we here? There are all the companies we can work with in China, either among the exhibitors or among the visitors.
To help Russian companies meet potential partners from Asia, RVC and Russoft organized the Russian Day congress, where they managed to gather 50–60 visitors from companies from different countries. There were several Russian companies that looked good against the general background - ABBYY, SPB TV, and several startups.
In addition to networking, knowledge of market trends in online gaming and television, the main industries where CDN services are used was important for us. At the congress there was a section where people from gaming companies spoke, but there 80% of the speeches were in Chinese with a fragmentary translation. In the section where representatives of television spoke, there was more English, and there I was late. Particularly interesting was the presentation of CIBN (analogue of our RTR). They perceive television not just as a backdrop for evening family entertainment.
The future of television in China is much more important: it is the main channel of bilateral interaction with the family as a unit of consumption. Chinese television reporters are convinced that to buy products for the whole family, to pay bills and so on, you will always need not a smartphone, but a TV. The role of television will be more significant, and we only benefit from it.
About the Asian approach to products
To understand what products the Chinese market needs, I studied those that already exist there - both in the B2B sector and in the consumer sector. Some of the solutions that I saw in Shanghai are being sold in the Asian markets with might and main, but we are missing as a class. I liked, for example, a small box - a router that is registered in all Asian networks, it already has all the electronic SIM-cards of all operators. That is, you travel around Asia, and you always have Internet at a local rate, and the router connects to all networks automatically. It turns out something like routers, which sell our mobile operators, only from all operators at once.
Another of the interesting is the service that was presented at the forum by a Korean company. It installs its icon on all phones that are sold in Korea, and sells it to other developers as a place for their applications. This month, one company will pay for the right to put its application under this icon, another in the other month. It is very convenient: none of them need to run through all the phone manufacturers and negotiate with each one separately. This is a very serious business model, which is also lacking in Russia. We regularly see press releases from the category “Now in the LG Nexus phones, Yandex is installed instead of Google.” And every time you shrug: cool, well done ...
When you come to the European exhibitions, you understand how far behind you in understanding even your own product from local competitors. I mean marketing: in order to be considered seriously, you need to invest millions in brand promotion and product packaging. And in Asia, with marketing, things are approximately the same as in Russia - even Japanese and Korean companies that were represented at the exhibition were not impressed with marketing and expressed themselves in technology. Well, we in Russia have become accustomed to the same, which means that when entering the Asian markets, at least in marketing there is no need to invest millions, as if we decided to go to Europe.
How to sell to the Chinese
In Asian IT markets, people pay more attention to the practical side of things, rather than to the image side. If a Chinese entrepreneur sees that the product is suitable for him in terms of technical characteristics and price, he will not hesitate to buy for a long time. As they explained to me, the “psychology of the wolf” is characteristic of the Chinese. If they see something advantageous, they immediately grab it, almost like in our times of the late USSR. A quick decision to buy me, as a seller, can not fail to impress. While in European markets, reflexion in transactions is a common thing. When you sell your product in Europe, you go through several stages of marketing communications. At each stage, you have to convince, and you always run the risk of running into the phrase: “Oh, I don't know, I have to think!” After that, the negotiator disappears for half a year, and the sales process stretches like an accordion.
The stereotype about the slowness and the meditative approach of Asians was finally debunked by our experience. Our first client from China came to our website, wrote a message that he wanted to work with us, after which we connected him, billed him, and he paid for it the same day. The same thing happened with the second client (both were representatives of gaming companies). They all figured out themselves, everyone understood what was happening, and used the service. And after a trip to the forum, we immediately entered into active negotiations with three more: a large media group, a television maker and an online game developer. The Chinese do not hesitate, everything is completed, and this is good.
The most important thing on sale is to convey the very essence of the product so that the Chinese partner can figure it out himself. If you have to go to the explanations, there is a chance to stumble on the language barrier. Most Chinese do not speak English (and even less Russian), and without a Russian-Chinese translator it is almost impossible to communicate with them. It is very rare to find a Chinese manager with perfect English and with a Western MBA education, but you'd better not meet him: in everything related to IT, he understands better than you.
Pro negotiations with the Chinese
By themselves, the Chinese are very easy-going, quickly understand everything, make decisions quickly. But if negotiations begin, difficulties begin with them, and this is not only a language barrier, but also a mental one. You will never understand the external reaction to your words, and you can only guess about the internal one. I had a case when I told a person about some kind of technology. He said once, he answered, and it seemed to me that he understood exactly. Said the second time. And the third time I mentioned the same thing in a conversation, but in other words, and the interlocutor made round eyes: “What, really? Its cool!". And it seems to you that he already knows this.
It seemed to me that up to the end it was simply impossible to understand what the Chinese have in mind, not being Chinese myself. And all successful Russian companies that operate in China, it seems, never forget about it. They send the Russian director to the Chinese office, but, as a rule, he does not participate in negotiations with the local ones. The director hires Chinese managers for this, and then his function is to stand over them with a stick, to follow, so as not to steal and not be lazy. Periodically, he flies to headquarters in Russia to replenish stocks of knowledge and energy. In general, a director in China is an overseer. A well-known fact: in Chinese companies, even computers are arranged so that the boss can see what his subordinates are doing.
However, despite the mental gulf and some slyness on the part of the Chinese, they are very good for the Russians. The official rhetoric of the authorities in China is the same as in Russia, and is illustrated by the phrase “Russian with Chinese - brothers forever!”. I flew to China on a transit visa and had to stay at a certain hotel, but there were no free seats in it, and I stopped at another. So I ended up on the black list for a transit visa next time. After China, I visited another country, but flew back with a transfer in China, where an unprecedented situation occurred at the airport. My luggage, by chance, was not given to transit to Moscow, but sent to a common tape, that is, to the territory of China. To pick him up, I had to formally enter China, but there were problems with this, because I am on the black list. However, the Chinese border guards, after much persuasion, allowed me to enter China, take a suitcase and go back. Imagine this in Europe or the United States is simply impossible. Maybe the Chinese border guards have some sort of unofficial Russian attitude to not offend?
Is it possible to become successful in China
Following the trip to Shanghai, we began negotiations with three more potential customers. These are three Chinese companies: a TV channel, a television manufacturer (with its smart TV) and an online game developer. But, more importantly, we have an understanding that full-fledged work in the Chinese market is possible. Let our mentality is nevertheless closer to the European than to the Asian, many features of the Chinese market are close and clear to us, and it will be even easier to adapt to them than to the European ones.
The most amazing thing is the speed with which the Chinese live. In Shanghai, I talked to a Chinese who returned home from Toronto, where he studied for several years. He said that in Shanghai everything happens much faster, and he called Canadians lazy. It seems to us that time is fast flowing in Moscow, but in Shanghai I had a feeling that it flows even faster.
Life in modern China is changing dramatically. Since the time of contact with European culture, the current generation of Chinese has probably become the first to eat to the full. Because of this, in China there is even a cult of food: with a minimum delay in the flight at the airport, I received a bowl of rice with meat from the airline. However, the Chinese very quickly satisfied their basic needs, moved away from the concept of "copying the west and selling cheaper."
According to historians, in the Middle Ages, China accounted for about 40% of world GDP, and now it is possible that history will repeat. In 2014, China has already become the largest economy in the world , with a share of 16.3% in global GDP. The Chinese are able to repeatedly surpass all other countries again, both in technological development and in consumption, and we want to be nearby.
A visit to the Mobile Congress in Shanghai (Mobile World Congress) is my second trip to China: we decided to enter the Chinese market several months ago, and I already shared my first impressions. After the first trip, we didn’t have confidence that it would work, but it would have been strange not to try. Since then, we have a few customers from China, and there is no doubt that the market has succumbed to us. Now we are thinking about speeding up on it, and for this we are studying the local mentality and experience of other companies in China - Chinese and Russian.
')
What was at the Mobile Congress
The Mobile Congress in Shanghai is a clone of the Mobile Congress in Barcelona , where our employees have also been. It is smaller in size than the Barcelona Congress, but also rather big - three huge pavilions and an extensive conference program, which is worth a fortune. As in Barcelona, ​​there should be telecom operators from all over the world, but in reality from all over Asia. They are found not only among themselves, but also with suppliers of various products and services, one way or another connected with the telecom industry. Why are we here? There are all the companies we can work with in China, either among the exhibitors or among the visitors.
To help Russian companies meet potential partners from Asia, RVC and Russoft organized the Russian Day congress, where they managed to gather 50–60 visitors from companies from different countries. There were several Russian companies that looked good against the general background - ABBYY, SPB TV, and several startups.
In addition to networking, knowledge of market trends in online gaming and television, the main industries where CDN services are used was important for us. At the congress there was a section where people from gaming companies spoke, but there 80% of the speeches were in Chinese with a fragmentary translation. In the section where representatives of television spoke, there was more English, and there I was late. Particularly interesting was the presentation of CIBN (analogue of our RTR). They perceive television not just as a backdrop for evening family entertainment.
The future of television in China is much more important: it is the main channel of bilateral interaction with the family as a unit of consumption. Chinese television reporters are convinced that to buy products for the whole family, to pay bills and so on, you will always need not a smartphone, but a TV. The role of television will be more significant, and we only benefit from it.
About the Asian approach to products
To understand what products the Chinese market needs, I studied those that already exist there - both in the B2B sector and in the consumer sector. Some of the solutions that I saw in Shanghai are being sold in the Asian markets with might and main, but we are missing as a class. I liked, for example, a small box - a router that is registered in all Asian networks, it already has all the electronic SIM-cards of all operators. That is, you travel around Asia, and you always have Internet at a local rate, and the router connects to all networks automatically. It turns out something like routers, which sell our mobile operators, only from all operators at once.
Another of the interesting is the service that was presented at the forum by a Korean company. It installs its icon on all phones that are sold in Korea, and sells it to other developers as a place for their applications. This month, one company will pay for the right to put its application under this icon, another in the other month. It is very convenient: none of them need to run through all the phone manufacturers and negotiate with each one separately. This is a very serious business model, which is also lacking in Russia. We regularly see press releases from the category “Now in the LG Nexus phones, Yandex is installed instead of Google.” And every time you shrug: cool, well done ...
When you come to the European exhibitions, you understand how far behind you in understanding even your own product from local competitors. I mean marketing: in order to be considered seriously, you need to invest millions in brand promotion and product packaging. And in Asia, with marketing, things are approximately the same as in Russia - even Japanese and Korean companies that were represented at the exhibition were not impressed with marketing and expressed themselves in technology. Well, we in Russia have become accustomed to the same, which means that when entering the Asian markets, at least in marketing there is no need to invest millions, as if we decided to go to Europe.
How to sell to the Chinese
In Asian IT markets, people pay more attention to the practical side of things, rather than to the image side. If a Chinese entrepreneur sees that the product is suitable for him in terms of technical characteristics and price, he will not hesitate to buy for a long time. As they explained to me, the “psychology of the wolf” is characteristic of the Chinese. If they see something advantageous, they immediately grab it, almost like in our times of the late USSR. A quick decision to buy me, as a seller, can not fail to impress. While in European markets, reflexion in transactions is a common thing. When you sell your product in Europe, you go through several stages of marketing communications. At each stage, you have to convince, and you always run the risk of running into the phrase: “Oh, I don't know, I have to think!” After that, the negotiator disappears for half a year, and the sales process stretches like an accordion.
The stereotype about the slowness and the meditative approach of Asians was finally debunked by our experience. Our first client from China came to our website, wrote a message that he wanted to work with us, after which we connected him, billed him, and he paid for it the same day. The same thing happened with the second client (both were representatives of gaming companies). They all figured out themselves, everyone understood what was happening, and used the service. And after a trip to the forum, we immediately entered into active negotiations with three more: a large media group, a television maker and an online game developer. The Chinese do not hesitate, everything is completed, and this is good.
The most important thing on sale is to convey the very essence of the product so that the Chinese partner can figure it out himself. If you have to go to the explanations, there is a chance to stumble on the language barrier. Most Chinese do not speak English (and even less Russian), and without a Russian-Chinese translator it is almost impossible to communicate with them. It is very rare to find a Chinese manager with perfect English and with a Western MBA education, but you'd better not meet him: in everything related to IT, he understands better than you.
Pro negotiations with the Chinese
By themselves, the Chinese are very easy-going, quickly understand everything, make decisions quickly. But if negotiations begin, difficulties begin with them, and this is not only a language barrier, but also a mental one. You will never understand the external reaction to your words, and you can only guess about the internal one. I had a case when I told a person about some kind of technology. He said once, he answered, and it seemed to me that he understood exactly. Said the second time. And the third time I mentioned the same thing in a conversation, but in other words, and the interlocutor made round eyes: “What, really? Its cool!". And it seems to you that he already knows this.
It seemed to me that up to the end it was simply impossible to understand what the Chinese have in mind, not being Chinese myself. And all successful Russian companies that operate in China, it seems, never forget about it. They send the Russian director to the Chinese office, but, as a rule, he does not participate in negotiations with the local ones. The director hires Chinese managers for this, and then his function is to stand over them with a stick, to follow, so as not to steal and not be lazy. Periodically, he flies to headquarters in Russia to replenish stocks of knowledge and energy. In general, a director in China is an overseer. A well-known fact: in Chinese companies, even computers are arranged so that the boss can see what his subordinates are doing.
However, despite the mental gulf and some slyness on the part of the Chinese, they are very good for the Russians. The official rhetoric of the authorities in China is the same as in Russia, and is illustrated by the phrase “Russian with Chinese - brothers forever!”. I flew to China on a transit visa and had to stay at a certain hotel, but there were no free seats in it, and I stopped at another. So I ended up on the black list for a transit visa next time. After China, I visited another country, but flew back with a transfer in China, where an unprecedented situation occurred at the airport. My luggage, by chance, was not given to transit to Moscow, but sent to a common tape, that is, to the territory of China. To pick him up, I had to formally enter China, but there were problems with this, because I am on the black list. However, the Chinese border guards, after much persuasion, allowed me to enter China, take a suitcase and go back. Imagine this in Europe or the United States is simply impossible. Maybe the Chinese border guards have some sort of unofficial Russian attitude to not offend?
Is it possible to become successful in China
Following the trip to Shanghai, we began negotiations with three more potential customers. These are three Chinese companies: a TV channel, a television manufacturer (with its smart TV) and an online game developer. But, more importantly, we have an understanding that full-fledged work in the Chinese market is possible. Let our mentality is nevertheless closer to the European than to the Asian, many features of the Chinese market are close and clear to us, and it will be even easier to adapt to them than to the European ones.
The most amazing thing is the speed with which the Chinese live. In Shanghai, I talked to a Chinese who returned home from Toronto, where he studied for several years. He said that in Shanghai everything happens much faster, and he called Canadians lazy. It seems to us that time is fast flowing in Moscow, but in Shanghai I had a feeling that it flows even faster.
Life in modern China is changing dramatically. Since the time of contact with European culture, the current generation of Chinese has probably become the first to eat to the full. Because of this, in China there is even a cult of food: with a minimum delay in the flight at the airport, I received a bowl of rice with meat from the airline. However, the Chinese very quickly satisfied their basic needs, moved away from the concept of "copying the west and selling cheaper."
According to historians, in the Middle Ages, China accounted for about 40% of world GDP, and now it is possible that history will repeat. In 2014, China has already become the largest economy in the world , with a share of 16.3% in global GDP. The Chinese are able to repeatedly surpass all other countries again, both in technological development and in consumption, and we want to be nearby.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/267625/
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