Western Tech Brands Are Recognized in China, But Their Products Are Rarely Used (zdnet.com) 67
Despite having insignificant market shares and being marginal players in mainland China, western tech giants have a very high brand awareness among Chinese consumers, a market survey published last week revealed. From a report: The survey, which factored in answers from more than 2,000 respondents, showed that for the most part, top western tech companies have established themselves in the consciousness of the Chinese public. The survey, carried out by market research firm Statista, found that Apple had a 91% brand awareness among Chinese users, one percent behind the brand awareness leaders -- local tech firms Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent. However, less than half (48%) of the respondents said they used Apple products, while daily usage for the three top Chinese firms was 74%, 82%, and 82%, respectively. Similar stats were also recorded for four other western tech giants, with consumers being aware of their business, but rarely using their products -- Google (87% brand awareness, 45% consumer usage), Microsoft (86% and 62%), Amazon (82% and 32%), and Facebook (66% and 17%).
Price (Score:2)
This has to be all about price. Currency manipulation means local currency goes a lot further with local companies than elsewhere. Also, the chinese companies make shitty knock offs so they can obviously be sold more cheaply even without currency manipulation.
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This has to be all about price. Currency manipulation means local currency goes a lot further with local companies than elsewhere. Also, the chinese companies make shitty knock offs so they can obviously be sold more cheaply even without currency manipulation.
Between import tariffs and luxury taxes, prices for the high-end western brand products are nearly %50 more then outside of China and that's without considering any of the "currency manipulation"
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How many people in Western countries use Apple products for comparison?
Do more than half the people you know use Apple products? 48% seems quite high for China.
That part seems like a non story. Expensive brand is well know but unaffordable.
All the Chinese tech companies they are comparing to would be used every day by a lot of people even if you had an Apple phone because they are all services. Payment platforms you can use on Apple, but not the other way etc.
Meaningless comparison.
Google and Facebo
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"Do more than half the people you know use Apple products?"
Yes. Not that anecdotes mean anything. And the phones this is really talking about are comparably priced to the competition throughout the rest of the world.
"All the Chinese tech companies they are comparing to would be used every day by a lot of people even if you had an Apple phone because they are all services. Payment platforms you can use on Apple, but not the other way etc.
Meaningless comparison"
No, but they have counterparts which are primari
Re: Price (Score:2)
Some of it was straight up government manipilation. Google where ratfucked out of the local market by a government that means put so many absurd restrictions on them they had to bail on the whole market , which meant govt approved baidu got to seize the whole thing
48% is "rare"??? (Score:5, Interesting)
"Western Tech Brands Are Recognized in China, But Their Products Are Rarely Used"...However, less than half (48%) of the respondents said they used Apple products
Wait a second, how is 48% "rare"???
I actually thought the percent of Apple users in China was lower than that, 48% is pretty amazing considering the range of more native options they have in China.
Really interesting that Facebook use is so low there (17%) though that's a lot more expected as they have hyper-advanced social networks there. But that was the lowest one, the others (Google/Amazon) had percentages that didn't seem all that rare either (and again with Amazon, 32% usage is higher than I would have thought).
There are a lot of examples (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps you have heard of a tiny app called TikTok, originally developed inside China as Douyin...
Other than that, take a look at some items from this list [dragonsocial.net].
Basically if you wander around China or Japan anywhere you will see what I mean, look what what is happening on mobile screens around you. Most asian users (not just Chinese) seem to like controls that are like jet fighter cockpits.
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At least one is huge (Score:3, Interesting)
Now they should see how recognized Chinese brands are in the West,
That is a little unfair though, because for various reasons (including splitting the market for the west) Chinese companies usually use different names in the west - as I responded to someone else, no-one in the west knows what Douyin is, but ask anyone under 20 if they have heard of TikTok and you'll get a rather high hit rate.
It is true that other things (like the largest Chinese search engine) don't have traction outside the U.S. at all.
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The numbers seem way off. Google is at 45%, even though all Google services and sites are blocked in China. Android phones sold there don't have Google apps.
I thought the block was partial (Score:1)
Google is at 45%, even though all Google services and sites are blocked in China.
The last I heard this [comparitech.com] was still accurate - that you could use Google.com.hk from China, which returns censored results. Even with a lot of censoring going on that's probably enough useful data (especially for technical searches) that I could see that many people still using it (they could also be using VPN's, but no way are VPN user numbers that high).
Or maybe the article is a bit confused and reporting 45% that includes peopl
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Either they're counting counterfeits, or their sample set came from right outside an Apple store.
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Let us guess that they were not surveying farmers or laborers. Had they done so, there would be fewer Apple users in the response. Presumably they were surveying tech users since it is a survey of tech brands according to the headline.
If they were surveying high level tech users I would expect a relatively large percentage both aware of and using Western technology. The summary doesn't say who responded to the survey. Do people there usually tell the truth in surveys? Never heard of that survey company eith
Re: 48% is "rare"??? (Score:1)
Hard to use your product if it's blocked (Score:1)
I don't know if this is still the case, but as late as 2016 Google search was completely blocked in China, and Facebook was difficult to use outside of Hong Kong and Macau as well.
I thought Google was banned in China. (Score:3)
I can't keep up.
Anyway the article says that Google has a mere 45% "usage rate" whatever that means.
45% of China is more than twice of 100% in the USA. How can they fail so badly?
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In China the "internet" is Baidu. Google is just known for android phones there
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I can't keep up.
Anyway the article says that Google has a mere 45% "usage rate" whatever that means.
45% of China is more than twice of 100% in the USA. How can they fail so badly?
That depends on the Trump admin. All of these US companies are still allowed to trade in China even though Huawei has been banned in the US which is a fate that will befall any other Chinese company that in the future decides to threaten US tech companies by competing with them and thus upset the network of private fiefdoms they have divided the US market into. Currently the Chinese are waiting out the Trump administration to see what happens in 2020. If president man-baby is re-elected and continues expand
Not so different here (Score:2)
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who uses Ali Baba or Baidu in America?
What's even the equivalent of Ali Baba in America? It's not really a product website it's like the ebay storefronts of suppliers not products. Sure you search for products because you have to have some way in, but the mechanism for contacting the supplier and arranging a custom order is part of the design/intent.
I've used it: I wanted 500 lots of a custom cable with a logo embossed on the cable boots as well.
Google figure looks suspect (Score:2)
I do wonder if the survey question cause people to confuse Google as a noun for the company with the verb "To Google" where
Apples to oranges (Score:2)
It makes no sense to compare a hardware company with an e-commerce giant (Alibaba) or search firm. They should have compared it to Lenovo, which makes roughly the same major products. And comparing to Google and Facebook makes no sense--last time I was in China, Google was blocked by their firewall 95% of the time and Facebook was blocked all the time. It's been a few years, so maybe Google is being blocked less aggressively now?