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By SMG Research Team, March 25, 2010 2:20 pm

Hi everyone – happy almost-Friday!

First of all, my apologies for my blogging-hiatus.  I’ve been on a one-track mind with working on an exciting research project involving 8 markets in Asia – subject and findings to be revealed soon!

But I want to continue to blog and post interesting things – so I’m going to put it down on paper now that I’m committed to 2 new posts every week.  Tuesday and Thursdays.

The rise of China’s Ant Tribe

We’ve been talking about youth and their desires and also just how much Chinese families rely on the success of their only children.  Many parents work double or triple jobs and use every penny of their life savings just to put their child into university, with the hope that they will get an education, find a good job and take care of them in their old age.

As we’ve seen through talking to youth for our Youth Surveillance research, Chinese youth are ambitious and optimistic.  They are certain they will succeed and are doing everything they can to ensure it.  Just like one of the youth I wrote about in my last blog - he saw the extreme competition during his first year job fair and decided that he needed to stand out even more.  Thus, he started reading leadership books, learning languages and trying to collect as many experiences as possible to make him a better person and more appealing to prospective employers.

This mentality is what we see in students who are still IN university.  However, what about those who have already graduated?  … What has become of them?

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal discusses the plight of some of the previously starry-eyed Chinese youth, fresh out of university, with reality crashing down hard on them.

Unemployment amongst new graduates is a very serious reality.  Many attribute this is to the country’s rapid expansion of state-controlled universities over the last decade, and dramatically increased student enrollment.

An area north of Beijing houses vast numbers of youth who call themselves the “ant tribe” (term coined by Lian Si, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing).  This is due to their industrious, hard-working nature, but also in reference to their cramped, crowded and meager living conditions.

Xiaoyuehe, a crumbling one-street village on the north end of Beijing, is the home of several thousand migrants, who are university graduates from across China.  One member of this “ant tribe” is Zhao Lei, a 24-year-old computer science major who graduated in 2008 from Beijing Jiaotong University.  He resides in a 12-square-meter room with five others.  “For most of us who live here, we choose to live here as we have no alternatives,” Zhao said. “This is a place we could afford with our meager income when we first step into society.”

A visitor was almost moved to tears upon seeing the dismal 54 square-feet room two new-grads shared and hearing the song they composed about their tough lives.  Members of the Ant Tribe talk about how cold it gets inside their rooms due to the lack of heating, and also about their loneliness and how difficult it is to date and to start a family given their lack of money.

It is estimated that there are 100,000 university graduates living in different such ‘colonies’ on the periphery of Beijing, but the numbers are likely to be much, much higher than that.

For university students all across China, with their grand dreams and high aspirations, coupled also with the pressure of their parents’ welfare resting on their shoulders, this is a very sobering reality to have to face.

Local officials have said that they are aware of this situation and have allotted money into helping to rectify the situation, such as building low-rent high-rises to provide the college grads with better living conditions.

But I wonder what else can be done for these “ant tribes”.  Whether there’s something companies can do to make their lives just a little bit more comfortable, or to provide a save haven for them to congregate and share their thoughts, fears and experiences, and also to learn the basics of job-hunting – like resume writing, interviewing practice, and other marketable skills – to give them more confidence and a feeling that others do care for their wellbeing.

This Youku video was produced by a member of the ant tribe depicting the loneliness and alienation of a young migrant college graduate in Beijing.  It has received over a million hits.

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By SMG Research Team, March 11, 2010 6:10 pm

Starcom recently organized a very immersive experience in Beijing, focusing on the dynamic force that is Chinese youth.

Chinese youth are complex individuals.
On one hand, they grew up as ‘little emperors’, basking in the sole love and attention of not only their parents, but their grandparents as well.  But on the other hand, being single-children puts an extreme pressure on their shoulders, as they are acutely aware that they must take on the burden of caring for their parents financially in the future.

This brings about their need-to-succeed mentality, where failure is not an option.  Those with lofty dreams of being a singer, artist, etc., feel the need to put these dreams aside and concentrate on practical studies, as their end-goal is financial well-being, and others are depending on their success. This forces Chinese youth to grow up really quickly and to adopt a mentality mature beyond their years.  They understand the nature of China’s extremely competitive work environment and will do anything to make themselves stand out amongst the millions of youth, for they know that experience is currency.  This includes learning as much as possible, exposing themselves to new situations, taking on internships, networking, volunteerism…

Their other world – an online one – encompasses everything: their escape, their way of learning, their entertainment, their connections with others… their life.  They have taken the naturally existent off-line culture of community, and have transferred the feelings of community, trust, and cooperation into their online world.

Through Starcom’s Youth Surveillance research, 85% said they would be lost without the Internet and 96% say “The Internet is my life”.  Also, a whopping 41% say they are able to, and will, access the Internet on their mobiles.  This shows their dependence and love for the Internet, as no matter where they are, they will seek it out. This heavy usage translates to brand knowledge, as they welcome company messaging and visit brand sites often (84%).  Nowhere is eWOM as prevalent and as powerful as it is in China.

*****

We were fortunate to have three wonderful youth share their lives with us.  Here is a brief re-cap of their talks.  I will highlight the key themes emerging from each story.

Youth #1’s Story

As a first-year university student, she spoke of leaving home for the first time and exploring her exciting new university life.  She joined activities such as drama productions, sports, and dance.  She also started her first relationship.  It was a breaking-free experience for her, where she came into herself and did the things she had always wanted to do – “No worries, no restrictions.  It’s a paradise for me”.  However, receiving her dismal first year grades was a wake-up call and she is determined to study hard in order to buy her family a big house, her father a luxury car, and her mother beautiful cosmetics.

Youth #2’s Story

This ambitious 3rd year university student decided to take on a double major upon attending his first job fair in first year.  He saw the intense competition and knew that in order to beat out the rest of the students, he had to continuously improve himself.  This led to him learning languages, reading countless books, applying for internships, volunteering and networking galore.  He is an experience collector, with the thought that every experience will make him a better person.

Youth #3’s Story

A native of Shenzhen, she moved to Hong Kong for university and then to Beijing for work.  She is working at her first job, an editor at a publishing house, and is an amateur photographer and filmmaker.  Her offline and online worlds are seamlessly integrated.  From learning of different venues online and checking them out offline, to making friends on douban.com with the same interests as her and actually meeting them in person and becoming fast friends, she is a shining example of how Chinese youth have embraced the Internet and the amount of trust they put into it.

*****

As you can see, the Chinese youth population is not homogenous and as a vast and ever-changing group, understanding youth requires learning about them not only as a whole, but also to recognize the complexities inherent within them.

As marketers, we need to figure out what our “social currency” is with these youth, and what we are going to deliver beyond our product that will make it worthwhile for them to deliver against our brands.

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By SMG Research Team, March 3, 2010 1:32 pm

I am finding this SO fascinating, and I’m not sure why exactly!
Perhaps because it’s so rare that beggars are so publicly recognized.  Perhaps it’s because the Chinese internet community has gone totally and wildly berserk about this man.  Perhaps because it’s just incredible to see the lightening-fast speed information travels online in China.  I think it’s all of the above.

“Brother Sharp”, as Chinese netizens have dubbed him, is a beggar.  But with a smoldering, disheveled, handsome look that clearly appeals to netizens all over China.

On January 23, 2010, photos of Brother Sharp were taken by a passerby in Ningbo and posted on a Chinese forum.  Overnight, Brother Sharp became an internet phenomenon.   A video discussing the beggar was posted on Youku on February 25, 2010, and within 24 hours, the number of views approached one million.

Pretty hunky, no? ^_~

Chinese netizens have even started putting his photos on mock magazine covers and performing Human Flesh Searches on him, hoping to find him and see him in person.  (Note: through Human Flesh Searches, netizens have indeed located him and scores have been trying to meet him, which has actually frightened the man considerably…)

Netizen-produced mock magazine cover

What’s a Human Flesh Search?

Human Flesh Search (Chinese:人肉搜索) is an internet phenomenon originating from MOP, a popular Chinese BBS, where the term was coined by Chinese netizens.  It is an action of mass cooperation and research via all kinds of social media, including blogs, forums, BBS, SNS, etc. to search and locate a human anywhere in the world.  People conducting these searches are commonly referred to as “Human Flesh Search Engines”.

The beauty of this is the collaboration and real-time aspect of it, which makes it easier to acquire information usually difficult or even impossible to find via conventional means (e.g. library, or simple search engines).

The successes and continuation of Human Flesh Searches, unique in China, can possibly be attributed to many factors. Some of these include:

- The sheer number of Chinese netizens, which exceeds the population of the United States.
- The openness at which Chinese netizens have embraced the internet.  At Starcom, we have conducted research talking to internet users from youth to mums, in China and around Asia.  In no other country does the scope and scale of internet usage compare to Chinese users.  Their love for all things online – posting, commenting, shopping, streaming, searching, etc. – is astounding.
- Their need for information.  Chinese netizens are information-hungry and will not be satisfied with simple search-engine searches.
- Their inherent culture of community.  This enables netizens to form bonds with others online and to speak and cooperate with people they may not know nor have met before.
- The seamless integration of their offline and online lives.
- Their strong sense of right/wrong and upholding justice.  Many Human Flesh Searches are a product of netizens sharing acts by others that violate public morality.  For example, there are cases where netizens have cracked down on individuals found to harm animals, or to have hurt others, or bullies, etc.   Though cooperation by many, these individuals are tracked down via information shared in real-time online.  The target will find his/her personal information posted for all to see online and will even find themselves confronted by netizens in person.
- Their love for sensationalism.  Aside from tracking down those who do wrong, Human Flesh Searches are also done on celebrities or people who have done good.  Chinese netizens love a good, juicy story (case and point: Brother Sharp).
- Their youth.  Over two-thirds of internet users in China are 30 or under (Source: China Internet Network Infomation Center, 2008), this leads to a culture of netizens who are naturally curious, enthusiastic, and energetic.

What does this all mean?
In today’s society, where time is scarce and people just want to find information as quickly as possible, searches powered by people and not programs will become the way to go. Google’s search engine will not tell me where to find Brother Sharp, but Sunnygirl01 from Tianjin might be able to.

Also, no one in this world, not even an unassuming beggar, is immune to the seeking eyes of millions upon millions of curious Chinese netizens.

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By SMG Research Team, March 2, 2010 5:56 pm

Congratulations Canada!

The whole world is buzzing about the end of the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, and no country more so than Canada.  It was the Canadians that won the final gold against the USA in Men’s hockey… and as soon as Sidney Crosby made that final heart-stopping goal in sudden-death overtime, the whole country erupted.  Pandemonium broke loose all over the nation awash with red and white.  But even throughout the games, the Canadians have been filled with a hearty, welcoming, joyful pride.  As a nation that has long been viewed as the underdog to the States, it was Canada’s time to shine.  And boy did they ever!

Sea of Canadian red & white (source: BBC)

This got me thinking about national pride and about how different countries show it in their own way.  The Canadians were rowdy and boisterous.  See this Time article that gives Vancouver a gold medal in drinking!  In Vancouver, the party never stopped.  During the Summer Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese exuded a much more quiet, though equally powerful, pride.  Millions of citizens volunteered to be a part of the Beijing Olympic Games, millions others sat in front of screens in parks and city squares rooting for team China, and millions yet waited patiently on the streets for events like the torch relay.  The Chinese people radiated pride, though it felt like a controlled simmer.  You could see it shining on faces when they talked about it, but it never overflowed in the manner of unrestrained exuberance seen in Vancouver.

Beijing Olympic Games spectators

But despite their more subdued nature, the Chinese patriotism is something fierce.  With a rich 5,000+ years of history filled with constant threats of invasion from the Mongolians to the Japanese to the British, the Chinese have long been forced to bond together and fight as one.  Without the steadfast nationalism found in China, the country may have fallen apart long ago.  Students are taught at a young age to revere their nation and there is a “Chinese Youth Day” every 4^th of May to celebrate the ideas Chinese youth should live by.  Said President Hu Jintao during 2009’s Youth Day: “First, I hope you will always uphold the banner of patriotism, as it is the spiritual backbone that has sustained the Chinese nation through all the tribulations.”

President Hu shakes hands with students during a visit to the China Agricultural University, Beijing, May 2, 2009. (Source: Xinhua)

It is just that when it comes to expressing this love for their country, the Chinese are extremely modest about it.  This is due to the deeply engrained core values of humility and modesty within their culture.

So when comparing the reactions of the Chinese people versus the Canadians during their respective Olympic Games, a third party observer might easily identify with the excitable ballyhoo that were the Canadians.  But little would he know that under their calm and poised outer exterior, Chinese hearts beat with an equally (if not more) intense and powerful love for their country.