The Guardian has today reported that China is set to be the world’s biggest internet user within two years. An increase of 23.4% in users last year, up to 137 million people, represents growth of a startling nature.
Despite the problems that China has experienced with censorship – last month Wikipedia were caught at the centre of a row after it was written that many people viewed Chairman Mao as ‘a mass murderer, holding his leadership accountable for the deaths of tens of millions of innocent Chinese’ – the Chinese economy is booming, and the technology industry is at the heart of this growth.
For companies to ignore China – many cite poor language skills as a barrier to both outsourcing and partnerships – shows a short sighted attitude that will be punished where it hurts most…in the purse. Having an office in China, sending back-office processes to China, creating partnerships with Chinese companies – there are several ways to jump on the China bandwagon, and it seems like a sensible bandwagon to be on.