Websites and internet marketing in China.

The People's Republic of China is one of the most challenging enviroments to penetrate for the Western business. Multiple legal, cultural, technical and linguistic barriers exist. dataSpheric has solved these challenges by developing stable and trustworthy relationships on the ground in China.

dataSpheric marketing services in China:

• Consultation. Find out the specific risks and benefits for your business in China.
• Translation. Make your business message sell to the Chinese buyer-and avoid banned content which can blacklist your website.
• Chinese web page development. Full website development services.
• Website management and maintenance. Established Chinese web hosts or ISPs do not yet offer customer support in English.
• Chinese domain name registration. You may have registered a .CN domain name with a USA registrar but this is not guaranteed to be respected in China.
• Web hosting in China. Insure the greatest level of accessibility and availability to the Chinese consumer.
• Chinese website governmental registration services. All websites hosted in China must be registered with the Ministry of Industry Information within 15 days of publication.
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for the Chinese market. Chinese web surfers are more likely to search in Chinese on Chinese-specialized search engines.
• PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns in China. Reach your consumers affordably.
• Media Sourcing. Publish your message in any number of Chinese publications and periodicals.

To get started with your marketing program in China, please Contact Us.

Frequently Asked Questions about Chinese marketing campaigns.

1. I already have a website. Why do I need one in China? Although many Chinese surf and search in Mandarin Chinese, you might be able to add a Chinese language web page or two to your existing site in the USA. Download speeds for American content tends to be much slower in China, but if your website is visible at all in China it's an option.
2. Is my USA website visible in China? We have to test on a case-by-case basis in several major Chinese cities to make this determination.
3. Why isn't my USA website visible in China? Your website could be blocked for a number of reasons. Most frequently, this would be for "unacceptable content" on your website or on any website within the IP range of your website. This is often the case with a "shared (as opposed to dedicated) hosting account". Your website can be blocked at the national level, at the provincial level, at the municipal level and at the organizational level.
4. What sorts of content are banned? Everything from the obvious to the surprising including pornography, gratuitous violence, certain political discussions, anything from Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and a very long list of specific words and proper nouns. What is accessible can change on a daily basis.
5. How much does hosting cost in China? Increasingly we see prices which are comparable to prices in the USA. Historically Chinese web hosting prices have been on the high side.
6. What currency is used for payment? Normally dataSpheric takes care of currency conversion and payments for contracted services for you, and these are itemized as part of your overall invoice from us (which is in $USD). Where the vendor or service provider accepts international payments, we can facillitate these transactions. In this case, prices will quoted be in $RMB (Renmimbi) and calculated at the exchange rate at the time of the quote. Waiting days to make payment can result in exchange rate changes and recalculations of your $USD price.
7. What legal protections or exposures does my business face? While the marketing environment might seem highly managed or even restricted in China, the system is generally far from hostile. China very much wants and encourages lively international trade. In most cases, a marketing prescence does not subject a business to significant risk.

Here's what Chinese (and hybrid-English) websites look like.

Here's the Chinese website. It's typical "brochure ware". It describes what the client does, who they are and how to get in touch with them. In this case, the user can eamil or click-through to a USA website.

Below you see a directory of links of interestes to the users of this Chinese language website. In this case, the directory runs on our own linkSpheric software. The Chinese development team is very proud of this translation as this is the first linkSpheric software directory in Mandarin Chinese in the whole world. It is interesting that Chinese people find linkSpheric as easy to use as Western people because it is all text-driven.

And below we have a Wordpress blog with Chinese translation. It is not very difficult to translate for Wordpress but unlike our linkSpheric software, there are certain element such as widgets that we cannot translate without certain violations of the intent of open-source software. But it still gives us the ability to easily generate content in the USA which is published immediately, and we translate this on the same Wordpress platform in China. It is a very efficient and economical process.

In each case, we are able to work with the client's existing website design to inexpensively reach the Chinese web user and offer compelling information.

These Chinese web properties have achieved real results in the USA.

By using PPC and other marketing strategies, we were able to produce qualified leads for this business within 14 days of launching our China marketing campaign.