Just in time for the weekend!
Hello everyone, welcome to Hongda Business Services' last roundup for the month of October.
Before we jump into the roundup I'd like to address everyone that is interested in working in China. Hongda Business Services has compiled a great China work visa checklist that really comes in handy when one is preparing all the documents needed to process a work visa on this side.
To see how our FREE checklist benefits those that are looking to apply for a work visa in China, click here!
Alright, now that we have got that out of the way it's time to move on to this week's posts. We are going to recap a lot of great posts that should get you all ready for the weekend:
- Why To Use WeChat When Starting A Business In China (Part 2)
- Five Things You Need to Sort Out in Five Years If You Run China
- A Comparison of China’s Top E-Commerce Platforms for Foreign Enterprises
- Doing business in China: How US companies see it (infographic)
1) Why To Use WeChat When Starting A Business In China (Part 2)
In part 1 of this blog we explored why setting up and using an official WeChat account could almost be said to be as important as choosing which type of China company to open for those of us doing business in China!
As we uncovered, WeChat looks and behaves like WhatsApp, but beyond instant messaging the similarities end.
WeChat is an instant messaging mobile app, but it also offers:
- Official accounts - a mobile website for your company
- Online and offline payments
- Mobile store building
- Ability to share updates of content with followers - this can also be segmented, meaning that you control who gets which update
- Advertising- where large companies can pay to share content
- Interest groups - where anyone can join and chat with their peers and companies about topics which interest them
So whereas Western messaging apps like WhatsApp are, at present, merely useful for messaging, we can see that WeChat offers a one-stop-shop solution for building a community and doing business online in China.
Now you may know why to use WeChat, but how do you go about building a community, generating leads, and doing business with it?
Explore WeChat marketing with Hongda Business Services in part 2 of this blog...
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2) Five Things You Need to Sort Out in Five Years If You Run China
Each autumn, China’s Communist Party gathers more than 350 of its top bosses to an army-run hotel in Beijing to discuss, behind closed doors, the issues facing the state. This year’s plenum coincides with the unveiling of a new five-year plan for the nation, President Xi Jinping’s first such blueprint.
This plan -- a Soviet-inspired cornerstone of the centrally planned economy -- will be sweeping and inclusive, touching almost every corner of nation building, from the economy to foreign policy, the military and the environment. It’s the framework for Xi to fulfill his inaugural promise three years ago that by 2020 China would become a “moderately well-off society” –- meaning GDP and income per capita would double from 2010 levels.
The delegates to the four-day plenum don’t make the plan -- that was masterminded by Xi’s hand-picked financial team and drafted by the National Development and Reform Commission. Nor do they formally endorse it -- that’s done in the spring by the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament. What they do is fill in some details, occasionally amend areas of the plan, and figure out how they will implement it back in their provinces and cities.
Here are five highlights we can expect from this year’s gathering.
3) A Comparison of China’s Top E-Commerce Platforms for Foreign Enterprises
China is home to the world’s largest e-commerce market. With over US$458 billion in sales in 2014 and global e-commerce sites controlling a market share of over 92 percent, foreign engagement with the Chinese online retail sector is at a premium.
This article compares leading e-commerce platforms Tmall Global, JD and Yihaodian to see how they rate for foreign merchants looking to sell to China’s lucrative market.
4) Doing business in China: How US companies see it (infographic)
President Xi Jinping's first State visit to the United States last month paved the road to continued cooperation between the two super powers of the world.
America's third largest exporter, despite reeling from stock-market turmoil pledged $16bn to global initiatives and is still a immensely profitable partner, with trade having topped $ 592bn last year.
The relationship between these two nations are as important and interdependent as ever before, and for American companies looking to do business in China the success of it is equally as important to their own success in the Far East.
The folks over at Bain & Company collaborated with AmCham China in conducting a survey of more than 450 AmCham China member companies to bring us their thoughts (and some interesting figures) on doing business in China, and presented it in a great infographic that you can see below.
So join us as we take a look at how US companies see the business landscape in China and what we can learn from it.
That it for this week's edition of the Hongda Business Services Roundup! Please let us know about any of your thoughts regarding some of the topics we recapped this week in the comments below, or let us know about any other topics you'd like for us to cover.
Hope everyone has a great weekend and that you catch us again next week for more of the news that matters in our world!
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