AOL goes Chinese
So yes, they are my former employer, and yes, this may make me biased (in which way I'll let you decide:) ), but I think they're making a very smart move by releasing a portal targeted at Chinese-Americans. While the stated target market is only a few million users, this clearly gives an 'in' to a segment of the population that could prove very sticky to a portal site targeted at them. Additionally, there is sure to be additional spillover traffic to other AOL properties.
While there are clearly some kinks to still be worked out (the page title is 'Welcome to AOL.com in Chinese - I suppose they are telling it like it is), and advertising could probably be a bit more targeted, this should represent a new opportunity that could prove lucrative.
While there are clearly some kinks to still be worked out (the page title is 'Welcome to AOL.com in Chinese - I suppose they are telling it like it is), and advertising could probably be a bit more targeted, this should represent a new opportunity that could prove lucrative.
posted by Tim O'Shaughnessy at 8:28 PM
1 Comments:
Since my computer isn't set up to display Chinese at this very moment I'm taking a bit of a leap here...based on the few characters that will render properly.
Tim, you made the comment, "...I think they're making a very smart move by releasing a portal targeted at Chinese-Americans."
Pershaps, but beyond that, I see this as an even smarter, albeit more subtle attempt to begin a play for the Mainland Chinese audience.
The reason is this: the site uses simplified characters (used in the PRC) rather than traditional characters (used by most overseas Chinese...including the ones living here.)
Simplified characters were introduced by the Chinese Communist Party, ostensibly to increase literacy, but more likely to limit access to the verboten fruit of pre-1949 bourgeois China.
Just a thought.
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