The Credit Card conundrum

We have got some attention from Asia Business Media, which is nice.  The whole point is that the Chinese audience may or may not have money, but they don’t have credit cards - and that’s the key when you need online payments.  Google’s audience is more likely to have credit cards

Now the analysts are writing off Google in China

Google is at last getting some good news in China, the stock market analysts are declaring the battle with Baidu to be over, with Google the loser.  Considering their track record, should I be changing my predictions of continued Baidu dominance?

Google Bleed Cash in bid to catch up with Baidu

Google are going to go into China with cheque book open, and buying a couple of unannounced companies.  (Thanks to the Multilingual search blog for pointing this out).

China’s industrial revolution

What is hyper-speed growth?  Seeking Alpha thinks it knows.

 The most important part of China’s growth is that it is not just fast but that it is not new.  China at the moment is simply copying Western success - just being ruthlessly efficient efficient about it.  Depopulating the countryside, rewarding capital and all the other stages of the early industrial revolution.

Always remember that about China, its just doing what fifty countries have done before - just on a bigger scale and a little bit faster.  It’s when China starts acting differently then the bets are off

On the Radio

 Webmaster radio has put up its interview with James Spencer of ChinaSearchAds.com.

China making it hard for workers to move to the City

Here’s a week old piece on the sheer growth of the Chinese economy.  The Chinese government is making life hard for out of city workers to come into the boom cities, through an internal passport system known as the hukou system.  It seems that there is still a vast reserve army of the underemployed.  If you combine this with the under mechanised nature of much Chinese production - there is still a vast amount of economic expansion in the long term - whatever short term hiccups we’re going to see.

Will there be a Chinese overseas investment boom?

One of the more interesting areas about China is that of overseas investment.  Overseas investment is booming, and the savings rate is at an unimaginable high of 40% and ressure on the Yuan is building up and the obvious way to calm the pressure is to allow foreign investment.  The obvious way is through the government’s fund, which is diversifying from its traditional reliance on dollar denominated government bonds. 

What happens if the Chinese government allows for some private savings to be invested abroad?  It will certainly help with the Yuan, balancing out some of the pressure caused by the present trade surplus, while also extending the Chinese government’s reach abroad. 

This could be the chance of a lifetime for investment sales people, and English only sites advertised on Google will not cut it.

China Search Ads on Webmaster Radio

James Spencer of China Search Ads will be interviewed on webmasterradio.fm on Thursday 12 July Thursday 5pm Eastern Standard Time, 10pm in the UK.  For other times see http://www.worldtimezone.com/

He talks about Baidu, why Google’s not doing well, online payment, what the Chinese online market is like and even a bit about Alibaba.

Broadband in China - a growing market

Paul Woodward in Asia Business Media has an interesting piece on China’s broadband boom.  He points to an Investors Business Daily article.  It’s predicting between 68 and 79 million broadband connections by the end of the year. 

The article is also a useful primer on what is driving the current internet expansion - falling prices and rising incomes.  Obviously an economic slow down, even a breather, is likely to sharply slow internet take up.