June 26th, 2007 by China Business Success Stories
By Dalida Turkovic
Picture Beijing in the early 1990’s: a strong visual presence of communism in the typical courtyard-style housing (12 families housed in a block built around a central yard), grey Mao suits everywhere, almost no neon advertising signs and only occasional cars and mini-vans on the streets. In those days there were two currencies: Yuan and FEC(Foreign Exchange Currency) available only to foreigners, with a lower exchange rate than Yuan (1$=8.9yuan, 1$=7.4FEC). Strong government control, exacerbated by the recent happenings on Tiananmen Square, meant that getting to know Chinese people was almost impossible - they were not allowed to enter hotels and so had no exposure to foreign goods and lifestyle, which were only available in hotels. Read the rest of “Business in China - Relaxing the Grip of Bureaucracy” or post a comment
June 6th, 2007 by China Business Success Stories
By BeijingMan
GOLD RUSH TO CHINA. Some 200 companies from small Finland have already established business in China. Similarly, over 300 companies from Sweden and more than 500 from Germany.
Nobody knows how many French companies are there, but restaurants and cafees in Beijing are filled with French speaking students, officers and businessmen.
To boost their businesses, Spain took Cervantes Institute to Beijing and Italy reserved the whole year 2006 as their culture year in China. Year 2006 is also Year of Friendship with India and The Year of Russia. Read the rest of “How could SMEs get business in China? Winning big brands by product fit” or post a comment
May 24th, 2007 by China Business Success Stories
Running athletic hurdles without a clear finish line
By Martijn Hovinga, CEO BilltoBill – Payment Solutions in China
Could anything be easier than achieving success in the world’s fastest growing and potentially biggest market? Isn’t it just about riding the economic tide and sharing in the continuous growth of about 10% in Gross Domestic Product per year?
Foreign companies in China tend to fail more often than that they succeed. In my experience the main obstacles to success are arrogance and ignorance. Virtually every foreigner, including the author of this article and extremely successful companies such as eBay and Google, are guilty of both when starting a venture in China.
As CEO of BilltoBill, a payment services company helping airlines and other merchants selling online in China, I wish to relate some of my personal experiences in building a business in China from scratch. Read the rest of “Building a business in China” or post a comment
