E-commerce

I hope you're ready for a interesting topic today!

Before we start let's ask ourselves what  E-commerce is. Found the answer? No problem, I have it here for you. That's a short term for Electronic Commerce, which is a trading or facilitation of trading services or products using computer networks such as the Internet or social networks. One of the world's most fastest growing E-commerce company is Alibaba Group Holding Limited. 

Source:http://projects.wsj.com/alibaba/.

Alibaba provides C2C, B2C and B2B sale services via web portals. The company was founded by Jack Ma in 1999 in Hangzhou. Here's an explanation by Jack Ma himself of how the name Alibaba came about:

Jack Ma giving presentation.

Picture from Forbes "The richest people in tech".

"One day I was in San Francisco in a coffee shop, and I was thinking Alibaba is a good name. And then a waitress came, and I said, "Do you know about Alibaba?" And she said yes. I said, "What do you know about?", and she said, "Open Sesame". And I said, "Yes, this is the name!" Then I went on to the street and found 30 people and asked them, "Do you know Alibaba?" People from India, people from Germany, people from Tokyo and China … they all knew about Alibaba. Alibaba – open sesame. Alibaba is a kind, smart business person, and he helped the village. So … easy to spell, and globally known. Alibaba opens sesame for small- to medium-sized companies. We also registered the name "Alimama", in case someone wants to marry us!"

Since launching, Alibaba has quickly become successful in the Chinese Market, but also internationally. In 2003 they launched Taobao, the largest online shopping marketplace for consumers in China (> 8 million users registered). It didn't take long for them to also release Alimama, China’s largest online advertising exchange platform, and Alipay, China’s leading online payment service. Now the initial reason that Alibaba was created was to simply facilitate a 24 hour meeting platform for suppliers and buyers from all over the world. Many have criticised said that you can't have a global company out of China, and yet there was Alibaba to prove them wrong. Other companies saw potential in the Chinese market and quickly acted. In 2002 Ebay entered the Chinese market and as any company they expected to instantly create large revenues. They eventually withdrew from China, one of the reason being was their lack of cultural understanding. Ever heard of The Great Firewall? Yup! Ebay didn't see that coming when they entered China. The strategies they used were successful for in many countries, except for China. After Ebay left in 2006, Taobao quickly grew because they understood the importance of relationships in the Chinese culture. Also always putting the needs customers first. Here are some other reasons Ebay failed:

• Trading of secondhand goods were not common in China.
• Merchants unhappy with commission. (Ebay did charge and Taobao doesn't).
• Ebay staff did not speak Chinese and had no cultural understandings whatsoever.
• US servers, which in China caused website to be slow/blocked.

With every success you encounter some challenges. When Alibaba started it has almost no competitors. Nowadays the Chinese market is changing and the demand on things being more digitalised is severely increasing. Alibaba has now some local competitors such as Jingdong and Tencent Holdings Ltd. That doesn't mean that Alibaba isn't successful anymore.

Alibaba has many of purposes and is trying to reach each one of it. From trying to help sellers and traders connect from around the world to providing basic services and products to villages who have little access to employment, products or services. So, in general, Alibaba has created jobs providing trade platform, stimulate employees to volunteer in social activities and spending their annual revenue on environmental awareness. Of course there are many more. Here I just mentioned a few.

Is Alibaba unique to other competitors? Hm, yes maybe depending on which level. Let us compare Alibaba to Amazon.

• Both are top e-commerce company in own country. (only similarity I found)
• Alibaba sells ads whereas Amazon sells products.
• Both companies focus on providing products at lower prices.
• Amazon operates on managed marketplace. (owns massive distribution centres, sells its own brand etc)
• Alibaba operates on a open marketplace.

As a summary of this entire article I think Alibaba has a huge created a huge platform for sellers and traders. Some with business experience and some with non. Jack Ma has showed the world that from many failure something can still be created. I think if Alibaba wants to step foot outside China they will face a lot of criticism from consumers that are not Chinese. Outsiders still value quality and in foreigners their eyes products manufactured in China don't really meets quality for them. Also another thing to think about is other competitors outside China. Just like Alibaba is the leading in the Chinese market another e-commerce could be leading in another country. When people have been trusting one seller for a long time it will most likely be hard to trust one from another part of the world in my few. If Alibaba wants to step outside China they must make research of the worlds beyond the great wall.

Please feel free to post your comment and share this article!

Thank you for reading.

~Chayenne W.

References

(n.d.). Retrieved from projects.wsj: http://projects.wsj.com/alibaba/

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://service.alibaba.com/buyer/faq_detail/10632016.htm

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/digital-media/11101238/What-is-Alibaba-in-60-seconds.html

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/275969

(2014, september). Retrieved from forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2014/09/22/alibaba-vs-amazon-who-will-win-the-global-e-commerce-war/#7bf5c2fa202c

(2015, june). Retrieved from quora: https://www.quora.com/How-did-Alibaba-become-so-successful

(2015, october). Retrieved from advancedmanagement: http://advancedmanagement.net/content/gnw2015-why-did-ebay-fail-china

(2016, september). Retrieved from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alibaba_Group

Social Media

Hi readers,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend (:
I have an interesting subject for you guys today!

Today's subject is SOCIAL MEDIA. 

Social media is a collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interactions, content-sharing & collaborations. Basically, websites that connects you with other users. Yes, social media is everywhere and everyone (most of us) uses them. I've research the most popular social networking sites which are Facebook followed by Youtube, twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google +, Tumblr and let's not forget Instagram. Now of course those are just a few I mentioned. Now aren't you wondering how these networking sites have become a part of our daily life? Everyday we spend tons of hours on Youtube or Facebook. Is it safe to say that we cannot live without them? They are improving day by day and the more convenient the more we fall in love with them.

 Nowadays social media has become critical in the marketing mix for outbound tourism, because most of us use the internet to find whatever we are looking for. You first check flights online and compare the prices of different airlines then maybe you go to the travel agency, if you want to be sure. If you are more old school you go directly to the agency, but let's be honest here. We don't usually do that anymore. The internet has made everything easy for us all. I never knew that in China foreign social media are blocked. So what do they use? Well, they use their own social networking sites such as Weibo, Wechat, Youku etc to interact with the rest of the community. Mobile and internet users are arising in China so social media i think is a must there! When you are going to start a social media campaign the key success factors are to firstly ask yourself for who am I going to start this campaign for (Target Group). When you know your target group you have to research their culture and values. A social media campaign in India cannot be the same as in China. You obviously have culture differences and a different language, but also morals and values. Every country is different. So, what do they use in China? I've found a few social medias that are frequently used by the Chinese community.

Weibo, Sina Weibo & Renren are like the Facebook & twitters of China. Tencent Qzone/QQ & Wechat are messaging tools such as Whatsapp.
Youku & Tudou are like Youtube for them. Foreign social media is blocked by the government in China according to fear and protectionism. They want to be independent from outsiders and not let foreigners influence their country. Current trends in social media in general are live streaming becoming more and more popular among youtubers and celebs, social commerce, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation such as Google, Bing and Yahoo), advertising online, apps and much much more. In China e-commerce is growing faster, live video (using Meipai & Miaopai), Q&A sites such as Fenda & Zhihu live, Wang Hong are growing group of influential cyber celebs usually fashion bloggers who use their online fame and turn it into a business. We are so used to our social media whereas in China they don't have ours, but use their own.

My thoughts on social media is: IT'S EVOLVING FASTER THAN EVER! Looking  back 5 years ago the accessibility hasn't developed this far. It's a good and bad thing. Good because you can do many things and connect with people around the world. Bad because there is no sets of boundaries anymore for example when you go somewhere some people interact less with each other. They are constantly on their phones. Can it get better? or worse? Are security measures being taking?

Thanks for reading (:

Tourism From China

This week we were assigned to answer 2 questions for the business case. The questions are as following: 1. What are the trends and development in Chinese outbound travel? 2. What opportunities/threats does this offer The Netherlands or Europe?

To answers these questions we are allowed to use whichever resources we like. Let’s start! The total population of China now consists of around 1.37 billion people. Yes, China is the world’s most populated country. Whereas India (1.3 billion people) is the second most populated and at third The United States (324 million people). Since the dramatic reform and opening up of China’s economy more Chinese citizens are travelling abroad to visit, consume products or simply for business reasons. At the start of 2015 there were over 100 million outbound Chinese tourists. Those developments mean significant opportunity for tourism industries around the entire world. Countries who capitalize upon that open new doors for frequent travellers.

The popular destinations among Chinese outbound tourists were mainly Asian countries, because it is a relatively short journey, doesn’t cost much and doesn’t require a long holiday. Also with the recent frequent terrorist attacks happening in Europe make many Chinese tourist change way for a much safer holiday.  Top 7 outbound tourism countries were Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, USA and Indonesia. Chinese travellers search for new experiences. There are 3 types of Chinese tourists’ types: Independent traveler, Semi-independent traveler and group traveler. These types of groups differ from age. Most of the independent travelers are aged between 20 and 25 years old, semi-independent traveler between 25 and 35 years old and group travelers are aged over 40 years. Nowadays Chinese tourists plan their own trip and program for the duration of their stay. That also has to do with consumers being more digitised  In China there is a boom in the digital era with more than 620 million Internet users and mobile devices. Which changed the tourism in China, more and more people save money and time by booking their trips online. It gives them more flexibility; they travel freely without any restrictions. That doesn’t mean that some Chinese tourists’ don’t use travel agencies. The reason being because many tourist travel abroad for the first time and are less experienced. Choosing a tour saves them trouble and time. The travel agencies help them with visas, travel plan and book tickets with accommodations etc. Social media has a large amount of influence on the decision making factor of Chinese travellers. They use “Weibo” and “Wechat” to share photos, videos, experiences and memory trips with friends and families. Another trend could be that the Chinese government is encouraging its citizens to travel more abroad to give a sense of freedom and reduce the gap between China and other international countries. Major motivators for travelling are scenic, natural and/or cultural attractions and also to spend time with family and friends. They have two collective holidays called “Golden weeks”. Which consists of spring festival (Chinese new year in February) and a national day at the first week of October. The Chinese New Year in February is meant for family reunions. The first week of October families, couples or friends travel. Now that we have covered some trends and developments in Chinese outbound travel we can further look at the opportunities and/or threats it offers The Netherlands/Europe.

Well, personally I do now see any visual threats through these trends. I only see opportunities for countries to expand their tourism. One third of the population lives in China and India. Using the tools such as Weibo or Wechat to attract more Chinese travellers. Also making more tourist worthy attractions are ways catch ones attention. As we read before Chinese travellers travel for the experience. The Netherlands/Europe could create more travel package to ease first time travellers. To get rid of the terrorist scare there is not much to do about that, because it can happen anywhere at any moment. The way people feel safe is mostly when there are more authorities around. Gain the trust of the people that is.

I’d like to give some facts about China:

-       Most densely populated country in the world.

-       Major player in the economy (export + investment).

-       Relationship (Guanxi) is important for business. Also trust and well mannered behavior.

-       Don’t mention political subjects.

Now that we have that covered the trends, developments and opportunities about Chinese outbound travel we can conclude that China is a fastest growing outbound travel market in the world. We don’t need to look at the statistics, because you can already see it happening all over the world. Countries who act upon these travellers gain more experience day by day on what they like or hate. Opening up a new tourism market that can boost the economy.

Thank you for reading.

-Chayenne Wongsokario-

Bibliography

(n.d.). Retrieved from travel china guide: https://www.travelchinaguide.com/tourism/2015statistics/outbound.htm

2012, E. C. (2012).

(2015). Retrieved from marketing to china: http://marketingtochina.com/7-key-features-of-chinese-tourists/

(2015). MarketScan China 2015.

Week 1 (part 2)

And now a short review of how my first week went...
Intense! I started on Monday and I thought it was supposed to be an introduction to the minor. I was wrong. Some teachers already started giving us actual classes. On the first day of school you usually get a brief intro about each subject and what there is to be expected of you, right? Nope, they went straight to the point. Which made it not interesting, because we weren't ready for that. We have guest lectures and those are 3 hours straight. That kills you, literally. And we have other classes after that or before. It makes it difficult to concentrate because by then after 3 hours your energy level is already at 0%...If it were up to me to make the schedule I'd put 1 or 2 guest lectures on one day without other lessons. Then all your attention will be on that particular topic. Am I right?
Let me know what you guys think and how your first week of school went.


See you next week!
再見 (bye) (:

Week 1 (part 1)

大家好, (Hi guys)

I will start this post by telling you about my first field trip to Nijmegen at the muZIEum.
We had a field trip for the Bildung module where we went to a museum. At first I didn't know what to expect. I just thought it would be paintings and stuff like art.
It was a museum where you could experience how a blind person experiences things. At the beginning of the tour they would give you a brief introduction of what your day holds. After that you get a pole and you go into the dark where an actual blind person guides you through it. They take you on a vacation. In my tour I got to experience China in the dark. If, I could be completely honest with you I got emotional from the start of this tour. I get major anxiety when my environment becomes unknown, but to myself I thought these people can't see anything at all, why am I complaining? Just put yourself in their shoes for once and understand. At multiple times I got very emotional. Our tour guide explained how difficult things were for her. She told us that she was not always blind. Due to a operation failure she lost her eyesight. Telling us how she remembered some colors and sometimes dreaming of seeing again. Later waking up and seeing nothing.. that it was only just a dream. Every time she told us where we were for instance in a hotel lobby or at a farmers market I asked myself how does she know this? How can she see the beautiful things around her? It deeply saddened me, because she has to picture everything in her mind as to how she thinks it would look like. The thrill a person gets by seeing the Eiffel Tower or the simplest things like the sunset they cannot experience. It made me realise how fortunate I am to have eyesight and to be grateful of the beautiful things around me. Never complain about how difficult your life is when there are other people in this world who have it 10 times harder than you, but yet manage to still have a smile on their faces.
If you see someone in need help them. A little help goes a long way guys.



If you are up for a unique experience I would advise you to visit the muZIEum in Nijmegen.
Check out their website http://muzieum.nl

Introduction

你好 (Hello),

Welcome to my Blog!

My name is Chayenne and I am 20 years old. Curious as to why my blogs name is China takes over the world? Well, I can answer that for you. I am in my third year of my bachelors degree program at Saxion University of Applied Sciences in Enschede where I study Commercial Economics. Right now I am doing my minor which is called Doing Business with China. My task is to set up a blog where I would have to post every week about my experiences, projects or classes towards this minor.
The reason I chose this minor was because China is a interesting country. Yes it's the world's most populous state! I always love learning other languages and cultures. I want to understand the Chinese people and culture as much as I can. This minor was perfect to start with.

This semester we have different modules such as:
-Chinese for beginners (Learning Chinese)
-China in the world  (Chinese History)
-Bildung (Self development)
-Business case ( Assignment to research Chinese market for a client)
-Intercultural management
-China experience (Field trip to China)

Each module is graded differently and the study points also differ.


Join me on this journey.
I will post a topic every week... Stay tuned!

請享用 (Enjoy)

                                      Chayenne Wongsokario