Web Analytics in China: Recent Comments

Comment on What does the Omniture Baidu partnership mean to you?

Florian Pihs — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:21:51 GMT

I totally agree. There is still a lot to be done to generate awareness globally. But considering that both WebTrends and Omniture (as well as some smaller player) generate significant profits in the US and Europe but almost nothing in China is a good indicator of market size and maturity.

Comment on What does the Omniture Baidu partnership mean to you?

Florian Pihs — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:06:57 GMT

Hi Maths, welcome to Chinalytics. In my experience very few advertisers have followed the call of the music industry to spend less on Baidu. There is very little to gain for them. Search is one of their most effective channels and Baidu brings 3 to 10 times the traffic for specific keyword. So unless avertisers are willing to comprimize the effectiveness iof their ad campaigns, their will stick it out with the Big B.
Also, it seems to me Omniture has other things to worry about the music piracy on Baidu in China. They need to review and adjust their business model to make it work in China. Hard work ahead.

Comment on What does the Omniture Baidu partnership mean to you?

China SEO Company — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:24:24 GMT

Most people in the US as well (and other countries as well) have no idea about web analytics as well. Yes China is behind in that regard but this isn't something unique.

Comment on What does the Omniture Baidu partnership mean to you?

Maths — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:25:23 GMT

Baidu shareholders should be more worried that more advertisers are starting to review their commitments to Baidu, especially the bigger advertisers due to Baidu's reputation as a music piracy haven. So on the contrary, it's a more bleaker outlook that a sophisticated, paid tool like Omniture which would be more likely afforded by the bigger advertisers are now less likely to involve them. You can read more about the call for the advertising boycott here: http://www.forbes.com/2008/06/03/music-baidu-piracy-markets-equity-cx_jc_0603markets2.html

Comment on Google Analytics in China

Florian Pihs — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:04:44 GMT

Hi Daniel, That is an interesting question. During our Web Analytics Wednesday event I checked with Zhou Yang, Google's Analytics support person on this question. Her feedback was that currently all GA tracking servers are hosted in the US.
One alternative would be using Urchin, Google's analytics server. You will need to pay for a license and run your own tracking server.
Another way to speed up tracking is hosting the ga.js or urchin.js locally. This way the browser doesn't need to load any content but the tracking pixel from Google's servers. More details hereand here

Comment on What does the Omniture Baidu partnership mean to you?

masini de inchiriat — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:57:16 GMT

I can't believe that people in China have no idea about analytics. I mean, all the great gadgets are coming from this country...

Comment on New Omniture China office

masini de inchiriat bucuresti — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:54:28 GMT

Lonely Omniture users, still not that lonely as long as we are all here having the same interest.

Comment on If a man does not know to what port he is sailing, no wind is favourable (Seneaca)

masini de inchiriat bucuresti — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:48:14 GMT

Seneaca isn't famous for nothing. He was a very smart man and he knew that his words will be as true now as they were back then.

Comment on Google Analytics in China

Daniel — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:36:41 GMT

Hi All,

Does anyone know if there are any Google analytics tracking servers in China? We were heavy users of Analytics up until late last year when we realised that we were getting a 1-2 second performance it on many pages because of the tracking script. Has anyone had any similar experiences? Does anyone know if it's improved?

Comment on Invitation to connect on LinkedIn

Robert Ness — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:41:24 GMT

Hi Florian, I would like to interview you for a podcast on Danwei. It is part of a series called Audio Blog Roll, where we interview top English language bloggers in China.

The topic is web analytics of course. We can do it in person or over the phone, and it would not take more than 30 minutes. Please let me know if you can find time for an interview.

Thanks very much,
Robert Ness