Round the world Facebook Clones

Whilst researching international social networking sites, I came across the famous "Chinese Facebook" - Xiaonei.com. The interface is remarkably similar, but with Chinese touches, note the policebox at the bottom of the page. Closer to home is Russia's Vkontakte.ru which reminds me of the old facebook interface, which I dug out from WayBack Machine.

Buying Online in China

Will they buy online?

Yesterday, Metafocus held a joint breakfast seminar with Nottingham City Council and the East Midlands China Business Bureau. See our Nottingham blog for pictures and details of the seminar!

A few interesting points were raised about the Internet market in China, with questions about the development of China's "web 2.0" and the state of Chinese search engine marketing. In particular, many people were curious about people buying online in China.

Research shows that the scope for youths buying online in China is absolutely booming.

When I was first thinking about the scope for e-commerce in China, I was apprehensive about Chinese people buying online. This was partly because my experience of Chinese business involved the building of trust and meeting business partners face to face was an obligatory step before anything business began.

On the other hand, the sheer number of forum users in China also reinforces the fact that many people do care about what they buy and who they buy from whether it is online or offline. Forums are the perfect way to communicate and share reviews on certain products or services, and it is predicted that about 80% of all Chinese sites run their own forum or "BBS" (Bulletin Board System) with an average of 10 million posts published daily.

The Internet is changing the world though and increasingly as the banks in China begin issuing more credit cards to the population, the combined curiosity of the Chinese youth to exercise their purchase power online will only continue to fuel what would soon be yet another very large part of the Chinese economy.

Apa Khabar, Ni Hao and Good Morning!

I work for Metafocus Ltd, a global online marketing company in Nottingham. I hope this blog will help you (and me!) understand a bit more about the wonderful and ever changing world of the Internet.

Multilingual search engine optimisation is a fairly new field, with lots of exciting developments happening almost daily on search engines all over the world. I will be blogging on new discoveries, international online marketing techniques and introducing some of the new multilingual websites we are creating for our international and exporting clients.

We are a busy bunch at Metafocus but our love for blogging has conquered all. Check out blogs from our online marketing team:

Rich "Massage" Moore -Internet Marketing Nottingham

DJ Ed - Search engine optimisation Nottingham

Stu Owens - Online Marketing Nottingham

and finally, Metafocus Nottingham blog!