context

Successfully launching a website in China requires some understanding of 1) how differently the Internet works here, and technical constraints of low bandwidth environment; 2) the dynamics of the Chinese marketplace and behaviors of Internet users; and 3) the frequently changing legal and regulatory framework in China.

Technically, there are a few key factors to consider. Most important are the low domestic bandwidth in China and Internet gateway to and from outside China; and the limitations posed by multilingual data and the double-byte Asian character encoding.

The graphic design must remain functional, while complying with the brand and appealing to the tastes of the local population. As the website starts to grow, a well-designed set of page templates and a flexible content management system will be essential to leverage the online channels.

From a marketing point of view, it is important to remember that in China, the dominant players are by no means the global leaders. Baidu is the leading search engine, not Google. Alipay (zhifubao) is quickly becoming the standard for online payment, rather than PayPal. And for online auctions, Taobao is far more successful than eBay.