Technical writing is in demand in many areas here but I’d suggest these are worth looking at. If you have experience in the following, you have one foot in the door. Keli Liu, an economic analyst for CNET Networks China, says: “One-sixth of China’s GDP is made up from the infotech industry. From 2003 there was a boom in demand for consumer products mainly because of the changes in property laws. The first developments were ready for move-in in 2002 and in 2003 people started to fill their houses with consumer electronics, such as digital cameras.”
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Silicon.com report that the “rate of development in the Chinese tech world has been extraordinary.
Just eight years ago the country produced no mobile phones but by 2005 it churned out 300 million handsets.”
Liu says: “Out of all the IT products the fastest growing are mobile. In China there are 400 million handsets.
Mobile phones and the wireless economy will be what drive China’s progress. China’s usage of wireless, such as PDAs, computers and mobile phones, has exceeded the US by five years.
Gaming
If you think this is big in the US, you have no idea what it’s like here. For example, when you go to cyber cafes here, most of the kids are playing games online, not checking email and twittering.
Games are a real passion over here. Chinese games developers are now looking to export their products as the local market is saturated and anyway the locals don’t tend to buy game products. Instead they make micro-payments and personalize their online games with accessories. Will post about this later.
“Chinese online game developer Perfect World Company Ltd. has entered into a publishing agreement with Runic Games Inc. a US developer of PC-based entertainment software, for the exclusive rights and license to publish “Torchlight,” a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that is still under development.”
Source: China Tech News
Quick Facts
- 13,000 software companies in China
- $3.59bn worth of software was exported from China in 2005
- $12.5bn will be exported by 2010, according to China’s Ministry of Information Industry
- China-produced software is broken into four sectors – HR, finance, education and tax
- Fastest growing industry is Games
- Largest market for internet cafés is in China
IT Companies
These may need English speaking technical writers. I’ve listed three very successful companies here as these are all very mature, well-run and have international audiences.
Sohu
Sohu is like the Chinese Yahoo. It’s the default search engine for most Chinese and also operates gaming companies. Sohu operates two multiplayer online games – Blade Online and Tian Long Ba Bu. Blade Online. In addition to MMORPG games, the company also seeks opportunities in casual games.
“We believe the market for online games is in an early stage, therefore giving Sohu a viable opportunity to succeed. We are committed to online games for the long term and we are encouraged by this incremental progress.”
Sohu is run by Charles Zhang, one of the smartest web entrepreneurs on the planet. Google him and you’ll find some other great sites his management team has developed. Sohu are listed on the Nasdaq as SOHU. Worth a look: http://corp.sohu.com
Alibaba
Ebay came to China, met Alibaba, and were crushed. Jack Ma and Alibaba have produced an online commerce site that is truly stunning.
“Founded in 1999, Alibaba.com makes it easy for millions of buyers and suppliers around the world to do business online through three marketplaces: a global trade marketplace (www.alibaba.com) for importers and exporters, a Chinese marketplace (www.alibaba.com.cn) for domestic trade in China, and, through an associated company, a Japanese marketplace (www.alibaba.co.jp) facilitating trade to and from Japan. Together, its marketplaces form a community of 38 million registered users from over 240 countries and regions. Headquartered in Hangzhou, Alibaba.com has offices in more than 40 cities across Greater China as well as in Europe and the United States.”
In 2005, Alibaba Group and Yahoo! Inc. formed a long-term strategic partnership. In the landmark transaction, Alibaba Group acquired Yahoo! China and assumed management control of Yahoo! China’s operations, and Yahoo! Inc. invested US$1 billion and became a strategic shareholder in Alibaba Group. Yahoo! co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang holds one of the seats on Alibaba Group’s four-person Board of Directors, which is chaired by Jack Ma.
Sina
Think of Google for China and you have Sina. Also Nasdaq listed, Sina.com is the largest Chinese-language infotainment web portal. Its financial headquarters have been based in Shanghai since October 1, 2001.
As a website that mainly caters for the Chinese population around the globe, SINA claimed that it has about 94.8 million registered users and more than 10 million active users engaged in their fee-based services.
SINA.com was the first to be approved for listing on the Nasdaq National market on 13 April 2000, followed by Netease and Sohu. It raised USD $68 million.
Gallup (China) Research Ltd makes SINA the most popular website in China, with 3 billion page views every day.
Link: www.sina.com
Joint Ventures Deals
Another suggestion is to look for recent joint ventures deals between Chinese and international companies. You can find details of these here:
- Chinese IT News – http://www.chinatechnews.com
- Chinese Joint Venture News – http://www.chinasourcingnews.com/
- Bloomberg daily updated on China – http://www.bloomberg.com/news/regions/china.html
Most of these are updated daily and are good indicators of sectors looking for specific skills and companies that are moving here or opening offices. Other industries where technical writing is in demand include finance, healthcare and energy.
“China is very different from Europe in that sense. In Europe the development of 3G has largely been for business. In Japan it’s for entertainment and in China it will be too.”
Web Writing
Many US companies are developing Chinese themed websites and sites that have a focus on the Chinese marketplace. There is a boom in the travel industry. For example, the world’s top tourism review website TripAdvisor launched its Chinese website, Daodao.com, offering Chinese travellers with local information, reviews and recommended hotels. Chinese travellers can make choices with the help of the site.
“Daodao.com has already included data and reviews of 18,000 Chinese hotels. Daodao.com also provides a marketing platform of pay-per-click advertising and display advertising for its partners such as online travel agencies, hotels, restaurants and airline companies, so the partners will be able to get to high-value customers.”
Thanks to: http://www.chinatechnews.com
I’ll try to get some links up next week about these.
Let me know if you have any questions.
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