Why yelling in China does not work - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

Shaun Rein explains what he has learned about doing business in China, and how US companies like Google could learn from it. Publicly yelling mostly does not work, he argues in Forbes, describing his first approach with a corruption case a decade ago.

Yelling often doesn't accomplish much in Asia. Even if you're right, it's often better to work patiently. Chinese say you should be like water--you can move fast like a river but also slow as a trickle, depending on the situation.
Take Google's ( GOOG - news - people ) battle with China. Google shouldn't have been so strident and public in demanding that the government end censorship. Everyone wants a freer Internet, but you've got to do what actually leads to improvement...
True reform ultimately needs to come from trusted Chinese showing that rules can be revised without negative effect. Change can't come from foreigners, or from Chinese funded by foreigners. Westerners can and should play key roles in reform, but by offering advice, not arrogant threats, and by presenting examples outside of the system. And always remember that reform is not an easy process. For every two steps forward there is usually one step back.

More in Forbes.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Google is not in charge in China - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

Google was wrong when it behaved in China as if it was calling the shots, says Shaun Rein to Marketplace, as yet another Google service, Google Maps, is about to be banned.

SHAUN REIN: Google really said to the government: do what we say or else.
Rein says Google has claimed to be the victim of Chinese censorship after it had agreed to allow the government to censor its search results five years ago when it created its Chinese site. Since then, Rein says Google has offered China little wiggle room with how the company operates within the country's borders. Rein says Google's behavior is about more than just Google. He says it's turned Chinese officials against other websites like Facebook and Twitter, both of which are blocked in China.
REIN: If Google is not going to adhere to the rules they originally agreed to, then how can you trust anybody else?

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Censorship does not help Baidu against Google - Kaiser Kuo

via CrunchBase

Google has been complaining that censorship in increasing their cost as a foreign player, but Kaiser Kuo, international communication director of its domestic competitor Baidu says in the New York Times that censorship is not giving Baidu a competitive advantage.

Kaiser Kuo, the director of international communications for Baidu, said that it was wrong to suggest that China’s controls on the Internet were unfairly helping his company.

“Google no longer incurs the costs of censorship that we continue to incur; those costs include not only hardware, software and manpower but most importantly the time of our very senior managers,” Mr. Kuo said. “We should not labor under the illusion that censorship is some sort of competitive advantage to Baidu.

More in the New York Times on Google's accusation China's internet controls are against the WTO rules on internet access.

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Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting

Kaiser Kuo via Flickr

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Chinese brands moving up the value chain - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein   by Fantake via Flickr

Chinese brands might have been competing on prices and distribution in 2005, in 2010 they are moving up in the value chain and worry Western brands, writes Shaun Rein in Forbes. Quality and image-building have entered China's board rooms.

Look at Google. Our research suggests that Google failed in China in large part because consumers believed that Baidu had far better Chinese-language search capabilities, not just because of an unfair playing field. In head-to-head search comparisons we conducted, Baidu's results weren't necessarily much better than Google's, but its branding as the site that knows Chinese better than Google and that has technology as good has helped it dominate. Unused to serious local competition, Google was slow to roll out local services and marketing campaigns that would resonate with Chinese consumers. Similarly, Ctrip, an online travel site, is beating up Expedia, and Taobao, the online auction site, remains far ahead of eBay. They are better branded, and they fit the needs of local consumers better.

 More trends multinational companies have to watch out for in China in Forbes: rising labor costs and the new focus on domestic consumption.

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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The China blame game - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein Fantake via Flickr

Shaun Rein addresses, after the country got wrongly accused last Friday of blocking all of Google's services, the China blame game many Western media play at this clip in CNBC.In the debate Rein gets actually told he acts like an apologist for China, but rebuts this blame-game very well.
Rein explains how important it is to dig a bit deeper when Western media reports talk about China and why we should not take all they write for granted.

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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All is not fine for Google in China - Paul Denlinger

Paul Denlinger via Flickr

Google might have gotten its one-year extension of its internet license in China, but that does not mean all its troubles are over, writes business analyst Paul Denlinger in the Business Insider. A smart move by China's government to avoid a head-on clash, but the real struggle is certainly not over.
Google is to blame, says Denlinger:

The whole Google China confrontation has made one thing clear: Google did not have a channel for dialogue with the Chinese authorities since the company issued its statement in January, saying that it would refuse to censor content on its Google.cn search engine. By taking an uncompromising stance on censorship with the Chinese government, Google made it very hard, if not impossible, to sit down and negotiate with any Chinese government counterparty, since this would have amounted to the Chinese side implicitly acknowledging that censorship could be negotiated with Google. No matter how you looked at it, this was a poor negotiating strategy, making a climbdown for both sides almost impossible, and an uneasy confrontation unavoidable... 

Now, even though Google has its ICP license, it can only provide music and products search, not Web page search. Among China's urban intelligentsia, Google was popular because of its web page search; now that service is not available.

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Paul Denlinger is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do let us know.

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