Comments on: China’s very own analytics solution (part II)

By: Upcoming Omniture training in Beijing and Shanghai « Chinalytics Longmarch Blog

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:43:23 +0000

[...] Omniture, Webtrends and others), skilled and experienced analysts are in severe short supply. (as I’ve argued before). As a result, most analytics teams are made up of one senior person, spending most of his/her time [...]

By: Florian

Florian — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:30:13 +0000

@Mathew: If I were to draw a time line, I would begin the story of web analytics in China some time in Q1 2007. I agree with you and expect looking back at the year in Dec. 2008 we will new Year 2008 as a point when the growth really started, driven by more ROI focus, wider availability and better quality of free tools and a slowly growing community of skilled analytics practitioners.

By: Dr Mathew McDougall

Dr Mathew McDougall — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 07:57:45 +0000

I would echo the comments of Song, Douglas and Florian- China to date has not focused on ROI (in the most part) as a key metric for online advertising. However, I see this changing and changing quite quickly. We launched a Web Analytics tool (www.sinotechmedia.com.cn) only last year and the uptake has frankly been surprising. It appears that as tools become localized and suited for China, there is a real desire to use and understand web site traffic and usage metrics. I predict that this is a turning point in the Chinese market for website publishers.

By: Florian

Florian — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:23:27 +0000

@Song & Douglas: I think we are certainly in line here. My way of putting it was: Lack of ROI focus . Marketing decisions are not made based on reliable numbers, but based on gut feeling, personal experience or existing relationships. That is changing slowly, but I believe for the better

By: Douglas

Douglas — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 07:28:08 +0000

I agree with Song. In some of my research about radio advertising in China, I found that many station owners and marketing managers chose to go with their gut when making ad choices. They might, for instance, know that their daughter likes a particular tea or soy milk, so they will put that advertising in a more prominent time in the radio hour.

By: Song

Song — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:48:06 +0000

I agree. Why China lacks web analytics awarness and talents, one reason is few of Chinese companies think management and marketing are something relevant to science. Most companies rely on some particular individuals’ ideas. And analytics? I see scarcely.