MARKETINGBLATT

Have you ever canceled a purchase because the payment method did not work for you? No company wants to lose potential customers at the finish line. Due to the enormous market penetration of WeChat's payment service, this hardly happens in China: The smartphone has become a wallet.

Anyone who thinks WeChat is simply the Chinese counterpart to Facebook has not quite grasped its power: Thanks to the countless miniprograms that run on the app, it permeates the daily lives of its users in an unparalleled way.

Social media are very popular in China. However, both Facebook and Twitter have been censored since 2009. Hence businesses marketing their services in the middle kingdom have to turn to the many local platforms. Sina Weibo is one of China's most popular social media services.

The international stage is full of stumbling blocks. Companies expanding to international markets cannot simply translate their marketing materials into the target language. They have to understand and cater to local differences and needs to perform well.

Although the Internet seems to have made the world a global village, there are still large local differences. Google is by no means the first address for search queries in Russia and China. Facebook is blocked in the Middle Kingdom: WeChat dominates here. If you want to be successful in China,...

The world is discovering itself via Google? No, the Western world mainly! Other regions prefer other search engines. And those search engines have their own rules according to which they operate. Businesses interested in markets like China and Russia should therefore research Baidu and Yandex.