Online giant shares China opportunites

The internet has made New Zealand a great place for ethnic minorities to grow a business, according to Chinese megacompany Alibaba.

The giant online marketing company will be present at EPIC, the Ethnic People in Commerce conference taking place in Auckland on June 30.

Piers Smulders, Alibaba’s business development manager in New Zealand, is a keynote speaker and said there were ‘‘significant opportunities’’ for ethnic communities here wanting to tap the Chinese consumer.

‘‘For example, many Chinese entrepreneurs in New Zealand have helped grow the reputation of New Zealand brands in China. The Chinese community has played an important role in the success of many New Zealand brands in China.’’

Many Kiwi businesses were already using Alibaba’s services, and some – particularly those in the honey, wine, fruit, dairy, seafood, health supplements and skincare categories – were exceeding expectations.

The beauty of the internet, Smulders said, was that it transcended size, language or culture. A business could be ‘‘a large company with existing links to China, or a mum-and-dad run exporter operating out of a garage’’.

That was a major advantage to New Zealand, which had an abundance of entrepreneurs and businesses but a small consumer pool.

Meanwhile, China offered 225 million middle-class households already well disposed towards New Zealand’s image.

‘‘We want communities in New Zealand to understand that their reputation for healthy products is the envy of many other markets across the world,’’ he said.

Jordi Du, New Zealand general manager of social media agency UMS – founded by Chinese students who lived here before returning home – said he had seen many businesses try to bridge the cultural gap badly.

It was a common mistake to think marketing to ethnic groups was just about translation.

‘‘Directly translating English communications can not only create confusing communications; it can also misfire and result in culturally insensitive outcomes.’’

To successfully reach other ethnicities, Du said businesses needed to demonstrate an understanding of their target market, and also their preferred mode of communication.

For example, Chinese and Indian cultures both valued contact with extended family overseas, but Chinese Kiwis used WeChat to conduct video calls while Indians preferred phone calls.

Chinese Kiwis did not tend to read emails but did use Chinese media sites and WeChat, while Korean Kiwis used another app, Kakao Talk, which was also popular across Asia.

Japanese Kiwis used Line, Japan’s largest social network with more than 700 million users worldwide.

It was a no-brainer for businesses to use these channels, ‘‘particularly as these apps not only have their own imbedded ecommerce platforms but are key drivers to ecommerce’’. clean and green