China and Taiwan’s Influence on Global Technology Trends

China has recently overtaken the US as being the biggest car consumers. Don’t be too quick to discount this as being irrelevant though. China may be on the other side of the world but consumer habits there are beginning to have an effect on designs from other areas of the world.

This can be seen as comparable to Americanization. This new found influence has been called the ‘C-Factor’ by journalists.

Businesses from South Korean and Japan have been revered for their technological expertise and approach to business. Everyone is well aware of the technological brands that dominate the tech market. However recently, particularly in the home computer market, Western companies have taken up huge percentages of market shares. Even more recently there has been the growth of two new East Asian countries in the technology market – Taiwan and China.

The manufacturer of the world’s most popular, high-end technology devices is located in China. China’s Lenovo PC manufacturer is now the 4th top selling company and continues to grow.

Although not quite as famous in global economies as China, Taiwanese technology companies continue to rapidly grow. Taiwan is now home to the second biggest computer manufacturer in the world. What this shows is that the technology industry is a continually changing landscape. It will be interesting to monitor how/if the C-Factor (and T-Factor) affects other industries such as health, food and so on.

The Asian markets are often seen as difficult to break into by Western companies. What is popular in Asia is often unheard of in the West. To crack the Asian market Western businesses often offer radically different products, brands and marketing campaigns. This can simply be explained by cultural differences – aesthetics do not always translate well. Companies that operate online, Asian countries are definitely a game changer.

It is easy to think that the world is converging into a single homogenized, global culture. The globalization of brands, as well as the spread of English, helps fuel this idea. Yet when it comes to the Internet and technology, there are still many cultural differences.

One example is the prevalent use of texts and SMS messages commonly used by young people in Europe. However in Japan, this has been superseded by emails. Furthermore, cell phones and other devices may be a more popular method of accessing the Internet in Asian countries compared to the conventional home computer in the West. This creates genuine problems for online companies – if the technology that is popular is different then you cannot simply translate a website and expect it to gain traction.

Social networks are a great example of these differences. Facebook is one of the most popular websites in the world. The number of Facebook users would rank it the third biggest population behind China and India if it was a country. However, its usage is not as pervasive in some East Asian countries.. In China, Facebook is ranked outside of the top 100 most visited websites and it is only ranked as number 27 in Japan. Twitter, another huge online social networking website also has much small user numbers in East Asian countries.

Similarly, online bookmarking (allowing you to save bookmarks) is also not used a lot. The majority of users come from English speaking countries whilst the number of users from East Asian countries is a lot lower. This may be because of the language barrier but there are other factors as well. Design, layout and content needs to be tailored for specific cultures. This is largely the reason why there are so few truly global brands.

You might be wondering what is popular in Asian countries. Blogs are extremely popular in Asian countries and are used much more prolifically than in the West. Blogging is extremely popular all over the world but Asian cultures have taken it up a lot more vehemently. Many celebrities blog and groups of friends work together on joint blogs. There are blogging platforms specifically catered for specific countries, each with their individual quirks and unique features. Online personalized homepages are also very popular with many people setting up home pages which feature pictures, links, music and so on.

Looking at how the social network marketplace is fragmented according to geography speaks volumes on the cultural differences and struggles faced by internal businesses. Combine the C-Factor and Asia’s new immergence in the technology industry, we may soon be examining the East’s influence on the West. It will be interesting to see if these new companies can continue at this pace and if they can stay ahead of the competition once they reach the top.