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Comparison of web design: global vs. Chinese version
23
Jun
Jun
Today let's have a look at the web design of popular websites and let's focus on the main differences between their global and Chinese version.
Here is the comparison of some well-known sites and their Chinese version:
Amazon
There are some significative differences in web design between amazon.com and amazon.cn.
As you can see below, the Chinese site displays a complete menu (from top search to comment space) at the top of the page in addition to another focused on the catalogue on the left like in the global version.
Some functionnalities differ and are not located at the same position in both sites. For example, the cart icon isn't integrated in the search box but displayed in the top menu on amazon.cn.
Plus, you can notice that the color used on Amazon China's website is a light blue shading compared to a plain dark blue on the worldwide website. You can also see that joyo.com's logo is still displayed on the webpage (Amazon acquired the Chinese bookstore joyo.com in 2004).
Amazon.com
Amazon.cn
Let's now compare the design of Google's websites. As you know, google.cn now redirects to google.com.hk after Google decided in March 2010 to stop censoring its search results in China.
The main web design difference between Google.com and Google.com.hk consists of the numerous icons displayed under the search box in the Hongkongese version that enable users to access directly Google's services.
Google.com
Google.com.hk
Apple
No difference in the web design of Apple's global and Chinese websites. Check it out yourself:
Apple.com
Apple.com.cn
Yahoo!
Yahoo! China's homepage might look similar to the global page: they both display a large block of news content in the middle of their homepage. However, the menu on the left of the page offers more functionnalities on yahoo.com than on yahoo.cn.
There are also differencies in the other blocks (for example 'trending now' vs. access to email on the right).
You can also compare the length of the two versions. Yahoo! China's homepage is very long compared to global's (I cut the homepage screenshot though to enable you to read the end of this post without scrolling down too much...).
Yahoo.com
Yahoo.cn
Ebay
The main difference between ebay.com and ebay.cn is the position of the search box within the site. On the global version, the search box is located just under the logo at the top of the home page whereas it is more down in the Chinese website. The organization of the blocks also largely differs.
Ebay.com
Ebay.cn
MSN
When I look at MSN's global and Chinese websites, I can see many differences in the homepage pages: not the same structure, not the same colors. However, there is always the bing search box at the top. The global version looks much lighter than its Chinese equivalent to me.
msn.com
cn.msn.com
Microsoft
The web design of Microsoft's global website homepage differs from the Chinese site only by the color: sky blue to light blue shading vs. orange to white shading for the Chinese version. Do you have any idea why they chose these colors ? I don't know but microsoft.fr has the same web design as Microsoft China's website...
microsoft.com
microsoft.com/china
As you can see above, some companies decided to have the same website design as their global website and only translate content for their Chinese version. Others display a different web design and modify their website structure.
The challenge for global websites is of course to strengthen their brand image and adapt China's market at the same time.
If you're interested in web design, you can also visit our previous articles about themes for Drupal to donwload and web design templates.
Rakuten acquires French eCommerce leader PriceMinister
18
Jun
Jun
Japan's online mall giant Rakuten acquires French number one online eCommerce platform PriceMinister for about 200 million euros.
Rakuten buys France's biggest eCommerce platform
Rakuten which is Japan’s biggest online shopping mall operator will acquire the entire stake in PriceMinister which is France's biggest online shopping platform in terms of monthly visitors.
The 200 million euro acquisition is expected to be finalized in July.
Launched in 2000, PriceMinister had 10 million registered members and revenue of 40 million euros in 2009. The Paris-based company also provides services in the UK and Spain.
Rakuten wants to be a global company
With this acquisition, Rakuten enters the European eCommerce market after it recently bought US online retailer Buy.com for approximatively the same price ($250M).
In addition, the Chinese online shopping market is also part of Rakuten's plans: the Japanese company established a joint venture with the Chinese search engine Baidu to launch an eCommerce platform in China.
Moreover, Rakuten also signed a deal with Indonesian media conglomerate PT Global Mediacom to launch a local eCommerce network through a joint-venture in the second half of 2010.
With these several acquisitions and partnerships, the Japenese company clearly wants to expand internationally since Japan's eCommerce market is mature.
World eCommerce market on the move
At the same time, Rakuten's rivals, China's largest e-retailer Taobao and Yahoo! Japan, have joined forces to launch the world's largest cross-border e-Commerce platform.
World e-Commerce market is undergoing moves, especially in Asia where growth is driven by countries such as China (see our previous post about statistics of China's e-Commerce).
US actors like Ebay and Amazon have been rather discrete till now but they will have to react if they want to be still parts of the worldwide eCommerce race.
Taobao and Yahoo Japan's eCommerce platform beating eBay ?
2
Jun
Jun
China's largest e-retailer Taobao and Yahoo! Japan have joined forces to launch a cross-border eCommerce hub on June 1st.
Taobao and Yahoo Japan launch the largest eCommerce platform
Announced a few weeks ago, the partnership creates the world's biggest online marketplace, beating US rival eBay in terms of users and products on offer. Indeed, the service is expected to attract 250 million customers and offer more than 450 million products.
The joint service allows Internet users in China and Japan to buy and sell using systems translated into their native languages. Yahoo! JAPAN China Mall now offers 50 millions products from Chinese businesses to its Japenese consumers while on the other way around Chinese Internet users can buy 8 millions Japense items on TaoJapan.
Taobao is a subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. Japan's mobile phone carrier SoftBank owns shares in both Taobao and Yahoo! Japan.
eBay's leadership in danger
After this announcement that threatens eBay's leadership in the e-Commerce market, the US company clearly had to react ; and it did by signing an international tri-lateral agreement with China Post and the United States Postal Service to provide easier shipping procedures for Chinese vendors who sell to American customers.
Besides, eBay launched an online tracking system with China Post Express & Logistics Corp, a unit of China Post. The partnership creates a new shipping platform for international tracking and delivery of lightweight goods ordered by consumers in the US from eBay sellers in China.
Other threat for eBay: Baidu, China's top search engine in terms of market share, which announced in January that it'd set up a joint venture with Japanese retail website Rakuten to launch a shopping mall targeting domestic web users in the second half of 2010. And by the way, Rakuten also recently acquired a domain name that can be well appropriated: Buy.com (for $250 million)...
