buy.at, the UK’s largest independent affiliate marketing network, has acquired online lead generation provider Lightstate in order to access its market leading technology and experienced management team and expand buy.at’s offering to both its clients and affiliates.
The last 12 months have been pretty hectic with building this business upto become a market leader, and it's nice to get some recognition when you get bought out by a Big player.
I would however like to say that I only deserve a part of the credit, the real hard work was done by my team, especially JP Jones (Technology) and Riz Wasti (Finance), these 2 guys both left their secure jobs to come and participate in my master plan, and have worked day and night ever since then.
One lesson I have learnt on this project, It's all about the PEOPLE and Execution, Ideas are a plenty, but it's the people and the execution that actually matter.
Anyway back to work now, and I hope to blog once in a while on here.
]]>a, I moved back to London last summer (2006)
b, Been busy running a new business which has gone from a simple idea to a multi million $ turnover business in less than 12 months.
c, I just came back from a weekend in Shanghai hence I thought I should post as a few people asked me about Chinawhite.
Anyway do keep an eye on the blog over the next few days as I will be announcing something pretty big :)
]]>That aside, everything finally arrived, and our team had a 12 stage quality control process they wanted to go through, even after the factories in China do their own version.
So basically we had 2 suppliers, and the end result was this:
a, Supplier A had a 2% failure rate, much better than expected, and they were very minor issues which can be solved easily by us here.
b, Supplier B had basically a 100% failure rate, every item we bought is NOT sellable, without going into specifics, just imagine that you are buying a casing for a mobile phone, consisting of 2 parts which attached together form 1 unit, in this case part a and part b are different sizes, and NO body bothered checking this in China, although quality control on individual items was done perfectly, common sense was amiss and no one made sure the 2 pieces were the same size.
I emailed both suppliers with my findings, and below is a snapshot of their replies:
a, We think your staff must have damaged the 1& of goods which you say are faulty as we never have problems with other customers, please tell your staff to be careful as they have obviously damaged the goods.
b, We personally inspected every item, maybe we can send you replacements if it helps.
Now maybe I am missiong something very obvious here, that whenever I am in the worng, I am the first guy to put my hands up and "sorry, my fault", however it seems that my 2 suppliers don't work like this.
I had read in many many books about such stories, but this was 1st hand experience, in somebody not wanting to lose Face and accept responsibility. The most baffling thing is that I praised supplier A for having such a low failure rate, and still they come back with a counter email.
Oh well, supposed it's all part of the learning curve when dealing with China eh ;)
]]>Can I just add, that I feel very honoured that the organisers decided to name Stealthcon 1.0 after me, it was a wonderful day indeed...
]]>For me, this is an awkward question, as I honestly don't know where I would call my hometown, and chatting to a few western friends got me thinking about doing this post, to see if I can work where my hometown actually is:
Born = Small village in NW England called Nelson
6 months > 10 years old = Various towns around Copenhagen, Denmark
10 years > 11 years old = Back to Nelson, England
11 years > 18 years old = London
18 years > 21 years old = Various towns around North East England
21 years > 25 years old = London
25 years > 26 years old = Northern Cyprus
26 years > 31 years old = London
31 years > now = Shanghai and London
add the fact that my parents come from a remote village in Northern Pakistan and you kinda get my meaning I hope.
So my answer usually is London, however many people are not happy with this, and continue to delve deeper, much as I would love to say the Village in Pakistan, I don't actually think that is correct.
What you think ?
10 Things I hate about London:
Unsafe Streets and High Street Crime
Overcrowded and Underfunded Public Transport System
Stealth Taxes (congestion charge, this tax, that tax and the other tax)
No parking spaces anywhere
Bad service in Hotels
Far Right Movement (BNP and friends)
Yob Culture (Grafitti, Vandalism etc)
Silly Questions about China (Do you eat Sushi every day ? is the best 1 so far)
Lack of Taxis
Breakdown of Law and Order
I hope the people outside of UK reading this get a bit of an insight into what life in the Great West can be like, not all Hollywood here you know. and as you can see above, some serious social issues need taking care of.
“People in these countries are virtually isolated from the rest of the world by authoritarian rulers who muzzle the media and keep a chokehold on information through restrictive laws, fear, and intimidation,” said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper.
]]>People Spitting and Picking their Nose in Public
Bad Quality Western Food
Lunatic Taxi Drivers
Dvd, Rolex and Massageee hustlers
Pushing and Shoving for taxis, in shops etc
Chinese Customer Service
Menus (in Chinese only)
the Laowai stare as if I am from another planet
Slow speed of the WWW
Chinese Timekeeping and Punctuality
to be honest it was so much easier doing the list about what I miss and there were many more I could add, whereas the list above had me struggling for a bit.
]]>10 Things I miss about China:
90 minute massages at Dragon Fly for around £10
Real Chinese Food
Free WiFi in Coffee Shops
Maid to tidy up after me
Security Guards at the entrance to my apartment complex
Happy Smiling Faces
$2 a pack Marlboro Lights
Taxis everywhere (most of the time)
24 hour spas/bathhouses (jacuzzis/Hot tubs etc)
My Chinese Lessons
Maybe tomorrow or the day after I should the same but for the 10 things I DONT miss about China :)
Now some of you are probably wondering why I am off again and will I come back, and if so, when ?
So here's the lowdown, my stage 1 mission is complete, and my goals were:
1, Being able to speak Basic Conversational Chinese.
2, Get connected with people in the Online Marketing Industry.
3, First container of Goods to have left Shanghai port bound for London.
I am glad to say that in my opinion, I have now reached all these goals and I explain why:
a, I have continued my Mandarin lessons of 2 hours every day come rain or shine, and life is quite comfortable these days when it comes to the basics (getting around, ordering food, negotiating with suppliers, making appointments and general chit chat with local NON English speaking folk), however maybe some of the folk that know me in Shanghai can care to comment on how bad my manadarin is.
b, With the help of a few very connected folks in China and 1 or 2 in Mountain View, I can safely say that I am at max 1 or 2 degrees away from knowing anyone I really need to know when it comes to doing business in the Online/Search/Affiliate industry in China, at the moment this is an area I am not currently concentrating too hard on, however when the time comes I shall be sure to get involved on behalf of compaies back home.
c, I decided that I should take advantage of me being in China and the manufacturing industry here, so on Thursday a 20 foot container left Shanghai full of Exhibition equipment destined for my new UK company which will be up and running by 1st of June (fingers crossed).
So that's why I am going back, and I hope to be in UK for the next 3-4 months building the new business, especially the sales/marketing side of things.
I love living in China and am truly having the time of my life, someone summed it up as being a cross between San Francisco in 1849 and Silicon Valley 10 years ago, so I shall be back around July/August if all goes according to plan.
I hope to continue my Mandarin in London either with a teacher or as a language exchange with a Chinese student living there.
The posting here will be a bit quiet no doubt, however I am currently working on a report which I am looking to publish in the next 2 weeks or so, quite interesting even if I say so myself.
till next time friends, Zai Jian
]]>Whilst NOT agreeing 100% with what's written, I must say it is a very well researched piece and answers many many questions regarding foreign internet companies doing business in China, and also gives you a glimse into what Chinese surfers are really doing when online.
Brin's team had one more challenge to confront: how to determine which sites to block? The Chinese government wouldn't give them a list. So Google's engineers hit on a high-tech solution. They set up a computer inside China and programmed it to try to access Web sites outside the country, one after another. If a site was blocked by the firewall, it meant the government regarded it as illicit — so it became part of Google's blacklist.
Thanks to Imagethief in Beijing for the tip.
]]>They came, they saw and they just went back, so I will let you read their version of events instead, a very entertaining read indeed ...
JP and Shak2 in China (read from bottom up)
Picture Gallery
It was a huge event hosted in the grand ballroom at the Beijing Hotel, a stones throw away from Forbidden City, a lot of the senior folks from Mountain View were in attendance including Eric Schmidt, Omid Kordestani and Shona Brown.
Myself and a few friends were invited, and since we were in beijing anyway climbing the Great Wall, how could we miss such an important event in China.
]]>Apart from Shanghai, I have visited Beijing, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Suzhou , Nanjing and Wuxi on day trips as such for various meetings.
Now like most people out there I had heard of these 1.3 billion customers in China waiting to buy goods and services over the next 10 > 50 years (dependant on what you read), However the more you read the more you become aware that only a small percenatge life a similar life to what Shanghai or Nanjing has to offer, and that 80 > 85% of the population lives in whats called Rural China.
So when an invite came from Laoban Daniel of ZimZone to come and experience some REAL China instead of the China Light we are living, there was no way I could refuse.
So last Friday, my flatmate and I flew to Hefei, capital of Anhui province, 55 minutes flight or 5 hours by train from Shanghai, the city itself boasts 1.5 million people but including surrounding areas totals about 4 million, this is what's known as a 2nd tier city in China.
Well what an amazing 2 days we had ....
A quick dinner in a local restaurant and then on to experience some nightlife in Hefei, 1st thing that strikes me is the price, everything seems 1/2 price of what we pay in Shanghai, 2nd thing that strikes me is the VERY VERY few foreigners here, in fact out of the 3 clubs we went to, I see 1 other Laowai. quite interesting that the best club in town is called "Beauiful Club", huge place with lots of signs and corporate identity all featuring a Typo (welcome to China, why fix it if its working), 3rd thing that strikes me is the friendliness of these people compared to Shanghai (we love Prada, Gucci, LVMH and Starbucks).
The night draws to a close with us having a burger at Novotel at 4am, the only place to get a decent burger or decent anything I think at 4am in Hefei.
Next morning we are collected at 8am for a trip to the countryside, and a 2 hour drive later we start seeing what the 85% people live like
and how they spend their spare time
Now we spent the best part of a day out here, and I must say it was an experience unlike any other, and so so different from the China which I am living in, as are most (not all foreigners) and even more surprising is the fact that a lot of City people I have spoken to younger than 30 have never been to such places, and looked at me in shock when I said I was going for a weekend break.
The people were so genuine, and even though there may not be any income coming in directly, the 1 family breadwinner working in the city is supporting anything from 2 to 10 people or more in some cases, but everyone believes in the cause "Today is better than Yesterday, and Tomorrow will be even better", by the way most people out here were 0 > 15 years old or over 50, not many youngsters or working age people, as they are the 1s chasing THEIR dream in the cities.
All in all a very interesting experience, and 1 that I'd recommend to anyone coming to China, obviously having local guides made all the difference, and allowed me to briefly see what real China is like.
The funny thing is that I was told this was the suburbs and REAL China was a few hours drive west ?
Hope you enjoyed the post, and apologies for the lack of posting lately, been a busy studying Chinese and drinking Vanilla Lattes in Starbucks.
(disclaimer: this post is intended for the folks back home, not for the 1 guy who has lived in China for a few years and wants to nit pick the tiniest detail of my post, if you dont like it, go teach another English class instead for $1,50)
