England’s Metafocus opens up a “green” channel for products in Chongqing

Reporter: Liang Ling

Source: Hualong Network – Chongqing Business News

Last updated: 3^rd March 2008

Without setting a step outdoors, Chongqing’s local products like preserved meat, Jiangjin’s (a city in southeast Chongqing) mihuatang, a kind of dry glutinous rice sweet, and other local specialities will be sold to overseas markets through the Internet.

Yesterday, the famous Metafocus Internet Marketing Company from England came to an agreement with Chongqing’s Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Commission (COFTEC) to cooperate in building a “green” Internet channel to sell Chongqing’s auxiliary agricultural food products abroad.

In mid-March, COFTEC will also work with the British Consulate General in Chongqing to hold a seminar on the Internet and Foreign Trade titled “How the Internet can Change Foreign Trade, Marketing Creates Prosperity”.

Read the news report on the Internet Society of China’s website here. (Chinese)

A full Chinese version of this slideshow was first presented at the exclusive seminar on How the Internet can Change Foreign Trade, Marketing Creates Prosperity on the 14 March 2008 at the Empark Grand Hotel in Chongqing, China. Read more about how we can help you improve your Chinese online presence.

View the Metafocus Presentation on Global Online Marketing. Keep checking back for more exciting news of Metafocus in China!

On the 14th March 2008, Metafocus Ltd, Magic Pen Advertising Marketing Company in Chongqing successfully held a seminar entitled “How the Internet can change Foreign Trade - Marketing Creates Prosperity” at the Banquet Hall of the Empark Grand Hotel. The seminar was supported by the British Consulate General in Chongqing, the Chongqing Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Commission and the Small to Medium Sized Enterprise Office in Chongqing.

Pictured Above: Robert Watson (WatsonSessions), Lansbury Sessions (WatsonSessions), Alan Clements (Metafocus), Zhou Xiaoyong (Magic Pen), Li Jun (China Trade Consultant), Wei Lei (Project Manager of International Green Industry Cooperation Organisation)

The seminar was opened by the British Consul-General in Chongqing, Nick Whittingham. There were further speeches by the general manager of Magic Pen Company, the Managing Director of Metafocus and other Internet Marketing, SEO and SEM experts in Chongqing.

Pictured Above: Director Chen Yu, from the Chongqing Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Commission and Alan Clements, Managing Director, Metafocus Ltd

After attending the seminar, many enterprises have a better understanding of online marketing and search engine marketing. Together Metafocus and Magic Pen can help enterprises open the door to the international market and help them realise their global marketing strategy. This seminar caught the attention of Chongqing television stations and was reported in the Chongqing Newspapers.

Contact us at info@metafocus.co.uk if you would like to learn more about Chinese search marketing services or how to get an online marketing presence in China.

Baidu recently announced its intention to launch an Instant Messaging service called Baidu Hi! This will join a series of popular tools released by Baidu, listed below:

• Baidu 图片or Image Search
• Baidu 新闻 or Baidu News
• Baidu 百科, dubbed a “Chinese Wikipedia”
• Baidu 知道 or Baidu Knows a Q&A search where users can post and answer questions posted by other users
• Baidu 空间 or Baidu Spaces, a concept similar to MSN Live! Spaces with a rising number of users.
• Baidu 贴吧 or Baidu Post Bar, an online forum where a community of users can exchange, post and share websites.

And of course, Baidu’s infamous mp3 search and their ongoing battle with the music industry over copyright issues. The most recent claim was by the Motion Pictures Association members with damages amounting to RMB 7 million.

Whether Baidu Hi! will take off as an instant messaging service or whether it will flop is yet to be seen. They certainly face very tough competition from Tencent’s QQ Instant Messaging service who occupy up to 70% of the IM market share in China.

In 2005, QQ’s registered users exceeded 430 million, among which active users were over 170 million and the record of maximum online QQ users was 16 million. (China Economic Net)

Contact us at info@metafocus.co.uk if you would like to learn more about Baidu, Chinese search marketing services or how to get an online marketing presence in China.

Other links:

The official Baidu press release - Baidu Hi!

Metafocus will be holding a seminar on Global Online Marketing in mid-March with our partners in the municipality of Chongqing, China. The seminar will be held in the Banquet Hall of the Empark Grand Hotel and will be hosted by the Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Commission of Chongqing.

For further information, contact our team or have a look at our Chinese website www.metafocus-china.com

(Tianfu Square, Chengdu)

We began our trip in Chengdu with a hotpot dinner, a speciality of the Sichuan province. This would prove to be almost a staple for the rest of the trip with many opportunities to try the different degree of spiciness of Sichuanese food! Alan very quickly learnt to pick out the fiery and tongue numbing hua jiao pepper, translated as a type of “Chinese prickly ash”, which is mixed into breakfast, lunch and dinner foods! In Chengdu, we had the opportunity to meet with various small and large businesses with varying demands, including a Chinese travel company who wanted to improve their Chinese website for the west in order to attract more enquiries and orders. There was also a meeting with a professional software company that could help us to outsource software and the development of complex technical websites. We also had the opportunity to visit the EU Project Incubation Centre at Chengdu’s new Hi-tech Business Centre, a sprawling and new technology park dedicated entirely to helping up and coming IT and software companies.

There was an immediate contrast to the laid-back atmosphere of Chengdu as we arrived to the spectacular neon light extravaganza that lit up the Chongqing nightline. We spent the weekend in Chongqing sightseeing, which brought us to the thousand-year-old rock carvings of Dazu county, 3 hours drive out of Chongqing city. Although the weather was permanently foggy upon our arrival, we also managed to enjoy the ancient town of Ciqikou and hot springs on the outskirts of Chongqing, which seemed a world away from the hectic and bustling city centre.

(Chinese New Year and Olympic Celebrations in Chengdu)

Metafocus have just returned from another successful 10 day trip to the East with very exciting prospects for the future of Global Internet Marketing. We visited two southwestern provinces in China – Chengdu “Home of the Pandas” and Chongqing (formerly Chungking), one the most populated municipalities in the world with 31 million residents!

We met with many companies both in Chengdu and Chongqing with the aim to find suitable companies to help with developing Chinese websites for western companies who want a presence in China. As globalisation continues to affect companies all over the world, the demand for websites in Chinese will only continue to grow. Together with our partner, a well known advertising company, Metafocus can help to design and develop your website in Chinese and search engine optimise it for the Chinese market. 

As a result of discussions with a number of companies, Metafocus has learnt a lot about the differences of SEO between the west and in China. We are confident we will be able to provide your company with a website in Chinese to target the booming Chinese market as well as make it searchable so that your potential clients will be able to find your Chinese website.

Alan Clements, Metafocus MD recently returned from a business trip to Southwest China. He was part of the East Midlands Trade Mission organised by the Leicester based East Midlands- China Business Bureau and UK Trade and Investment  (UKTI). Councillor David Parsons, chair of East Midlands Regional Assembly and leader of Leicestershire County Council and Brian Jackson, chair of EMDA were part of business matchmaking events in the cities of Chongqing and Chengdu, Sichuan province.

On his way to Chongqing, Alan flew into Shanghai and visited the Pudong Technology Park and was met by a delegation of Chinese IT companies. (photographed above) He was exploring the possibilities of cooperation with Chinese website agencies and software companies to outsource software.

In Chengdu, Alan attended the EU-China (Chengdu) SMEs Business Matchmaking Event and had discussions with fourteen local IT companies based in what is now known as the up and coming “Silicon Valley” of China. A number of global internet marketing projects were discussed.

On his journey, Alan stopped over in Xian to see the Terracotta Warriors. The stadiums which housed the thousands of terracotta warriors were truly spectacular.

In partnership with a Chinese web agency, Metafocus is now in the position to help both English and Chinese companies create a global Internet presence. We can now create websites in both English and Chinese and optimise them for both Western and Chinese search engines

As part of the first step in this project, Monica Chia has been recruited in the Nottingham office. Monica is fluent in Mandarin and English, and brings a fascinating, new element of Oriental culture into the Metafocus team!