China 'net stars not just for geeks

My partner Patrick today suggested that one of the cool things about net culture in China is that it closely maps mainstream consumer/pop culture. I think he is dead on.

Let's take recent Chinese net stars The Back Dorm Boys. Check out one of their first videos here if you are in China and here if you are outside China (b/c download speed may vary outside the Great Fire Wall).


The video hit a massive Word of Mouth trajectory via mail forwards and BBS discussion, and was followed by other videos. The incredible WOM was fuelled by a Sina page dedicated to them. Eventually, Motorola picked them up as hosts for their online lip-sync contest. Now, these guys are even getting mentioned on the Today show in the US by Boing Boing.

The "Back Dorm Boys" phenomenon shows a few things worth noting. First, contrary to some people's conventional wisdom, irreverent humor has a place in China among the younger generation. Second, it shows that net stars in China actually can become mainstream stars. Ask how many people in the US have heard of the Star Wars Kid (need a proxy if inside China). Sure he had his 15 seconds of fame among those who pay attention to this type of stuff, but how many actually pay attention to this type of stuff? Not too many. Now ask how many people in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities in China know about Back Dorm Boys. We think a lot. No official figures, but whenever we show this video to clients, the Chinese white collar professionals in the room all laugh as they explain who these kids are to their older bosses.

The computer is the central entertainment and information appliance for the new generation in China and the Internet, through the power of Word of Mouth, is making stars. And some smart companies like Motorola are listening, watching and learning.

How did I get here? The American dream in China

How did you get to China? This, aside from "can you use chopsticks," is the most frequently asked question of a foreigner living in China. So, I think it is appropriate to answer this with my first post on this blog.

Huateng 1999 Chinese New Year Party (I'm circled in red, in the back)

In May of 1996, Shanghai Huateng Software Systems invited me to provide cross cultural training for their software engineers who were being sent to work in the US in droves. What was supposed to be 6 months has now turned into 9 years. Along the way, I moved into corporate communications for Huateng, helping to raise the profile of the company leading to a lot of VC money in 2000 at the at the height of the last Internet boom. I also initiated the spin-off of ChinaPay.com, an e-payment service provider (now partner with E-bay China). The Village Grouch, Steven Schwankert, wrote about us in glowing prose in February, 2000 (unfortunately, the e-payment quandry has yet to be solved in China...more on that another time). After heading up international business development, I left Huateng in 2003 to do my own thing.

"My own thing" has developed into CIC data. What started out as me and a couple of college Internet surfers doing Internet market intelligence research for a US client has turned into me and about 100 surfers doing market intelligence research for clients all over the world in 5 languages 7 days a week all hours of the day. We added some killer senior analysts as well with two of the original college kids, Violet and Robin (now graduates), becoming key members in our Word of Mouth research arm where we also have some very cool technology helping our growing roster of international clients make sense of the millions of Chinese BBS and Blog conversations happening every day in China.

Oh yeah...I also got married, bought a flat and have a cool dog named Elvis (after Costello, not Presley). Essentially, I moved to "red China," became a capitalist, and am living the American dream in the Shanghai suburbs. And I couldn't be happier.