Plus Eight Star have a great post on their blog discussing the reasons why Chinese companies succeed online in China while Wester companies tend to struggle. At the core of their argument is the "Five C's of Chinese innovation": Copy, Competition, Constraints, Combination, and China.
In our previous post "Why Chinese copy cat websites win", we discuss some similar ideas. Again the key argument in Plus Eight Star's post is that the Chinese market really is different, particularly when you consider factors like infrastructure, size of the market and the prices you can charge for premium services. One interesting example they give is that while Western online travel sites tend to automate the entire ticket purchasing process and deliver e-tickets, Chinese sites Ctrip and eLong finalise most of their purchases over the phone and in person through physical ticket delivery because it's more reliable than the systems that currently exist.
At ad:tech Beijing 2009, you're bound to hear other similar stories, that will make you re-think your own business model or processes.
