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"Girls in Tech" hit the Annual Youth Assembly @ United Nations

matt@sinotechgroup.com.cn (Jing Zhou) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:29:38 +0000

The event we spoke at was the annual Youth Assembly at the United Nations. About 600 youth leaders from 35 countries attended the event. Our talk was simultaneously translated into 6 languages. The topic was how to build an empowering project, from words to action.

After our talk, people from U.S., Canada, China, Korea, India, Ethiopia, and so on approached us and said they want to be part of the Girl 2.0 Global Campaign. We will have representatives from UN Foundations and Girlup http://www.girlup.org/ to attend the Girl 2.0 Shanghai Expo.

China ad spend reaches US$41 billion in first half of 2010

matt@sinotechgroup.com.cn (Matt McDougall) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:02:36 +0000

If we needed more conviencing that the advertising market in China is taking off then look no further than the published results from CTR Market Research. They are suggesting that advertising expenditure has grown 17 per cent to US$41 billion in the first half of the year for China. This growth percentage for the first six months is the highest in four years. Based on that, CTR has adjusted its estimated growth rate for 2010 from 10 to 13 per cent following a prediction earlier this year.

Got to love those predictions.

Announcement from Digital Marketing Inner Circle

matt@sinotechgroup.com.cn (Matt McDougall) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:27:05 +0000

Dear DMIC members,

We are in the final testing phase of our new social media site for digital marketers. I would welcome you, this community to come and take a look at this SNS and offer us some suggestions and feedback on this new site.

The purpose for this new socially orientated community is to provide a place for us in digital marketing to develop more meaningful connections with others and develop a culture of sharing best practices and even some war stories.

I thank you for spending a few minutes to drop in and take a look. Again, this site is in Beta and your time to take a look is appreciated.

You can visit: http://www.dmic.asia

Thanks
Matt McDougall
DMIC Group Moderator

Chinese Internet Travel Services Make Dramatic Change

matt@sinotechgroup.com.cn (Matt McDougall) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:02:15 +0000

The was bound to be a major shake up in the online travel sector... Only a few weeks ago, Google announced an agreement to acquire ITA Software, a Cambridge airlines and online travel agency and now here in China the Chinese airlines announced that they were slashing commissions to travel agents.

The result of that last announcement drove the share price of Ctrip.com down by 14%% investors started to realize this was not a good position to be in. The commissions paid by carriers such as Air China and China Southern to travel agents like Ctrip.com could drop by as much as 50% and for Ctrip.com that represents as much as 40% of its planned 2010 revenue. Ouch!

Online Advertising Spending Continues to Grow in China

matt@sinotechgroup.com.cn (Matt McDougall) — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 05:58:34 +0000

It is being widely reported that the China’s growth in online advertising continues at a quick pace. AC Neisen has come out and said that this spending reached 4.06 billion RMB in the first quarter of 2010—a 52.7% increase over the same period in 2009. This trend is expected to continue for the remainder of the year. The Fashion industry was the top spender, with almost 18% market share. Half of the top 10 industries lost market share in the first quarter.

In 2010, China's ad investment growth is projected to reach 11 percent, making China the fourth-biggest advertising market after the U.S., Japan and German

Global ad spend to jump 4.5% in 2010

matt@sinotechgroup.com.cn (Matt McDougall) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:02:00 +0000

In what seems obvious to most of us working in the digital marketing space have noticed that this year's revenue is good.. actually very good. So news out today suggesting that global ad spending will increase by 3.5% this year to $451 billion and 4.5% in 2011 to $471 billion is not that surprising. This is the forcasts from GroupM (remembering only 6 months ago they were predicted only 1% growth for this year).

The GroupM forecast supports the upgraded ZenithOptimedia global advertising spending predictions for the next three years. ZenithOptimedia is predicting total increases of 2.2%, 4.1% and 5.3%, respectively. It also predicted Internet ad spending will take a greater portion of ad expenditures in the next three years. So after reading these forcasts I am smiling and I rubbing my hands together expecting a growing SinoTech Group over the next years.

Baibu, Rakuten's Joint Website Launched In China

matt@sinotechgroup.com.cn (Matt McDougall) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 03:44:37 +0000

Seems yet another company is being established to exploit the growing Chinese e-commerce sector. Today, I was interested to note a new joint venture established by Baidu and the Japanese e-commerce operator Rakuten (called "Le Ku Tian").

These are both Internet powerhouses in their own right and this combination may be the start of an interesting period in e-commerce or given the size of these companies and their respective aspirations may turn out to be more buzz than real sucsess. But an interesting combination neathertheless and certainly as digital marketers, we will have much to see from a Branding, positioning and execution (marketing) perspective.

Taobao.com Enters Chinese Online Travel Market

matt@sinotechgroup.com.cn (Matt McDougall) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:07:39 +0000

In another move that marks a continuing change in China's online travel sector is the entry of Taobao.com into the mix. They have reportedly entered the online travel channel by launching a new site called, "Tao Lvyou".

Through the integration of Taobao's quality tourism product sellers, the new channel has four service functions, which are air tickets, hotel bookings, travel services, and destination information, respectively. Using social media as a guide, the site will allow consumers to comment and rank online travel businesses.

Digital advertising revenues rise in China

matt@sinotechgroup.com.cn (Matt McDougall) — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:30:10 +0000

Online and mobile advertising revenues are continuing to increase in China, with this positive trend likely to accelerate over the rest of this year. This is the view of iResearch at least. They have published some bullish prediction on Chinese digital media and according to their reports, internet advertising spend in China reached a value of 6.4bn yuan ($936.9m) in the first quarter of 2010.

This is a significant increase from a few years and supports the global trend of marketing budgets being moved from traditional to digital. Also, every one of my friends working for 4A's in China say they have seen significnt up tick in buiness and sentiment. We too, at SinoTech Group are seeing significant revenue growth. I guess, barring another major Global issue we should continue to see growth and should be positioning ourselves for increased marketing budgets.

The Number of Chinese Mobile Phone Users Hits 1.094 Billion

matt@sinotechgroup.com.cn (Matt McDougall) — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:16:06 +0000

Not exactly digital marketing but still kind of interesting I think for marketers.... News out from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for April 2010 said on its official website that the number of phone users in China has increased of 8.497 million and now tops 1.094 billion.