I just signed onto a very popular Shanghai blog and here are the first three ads through google adsense. And these are the titles of the first 3 ads, “Tantric massage Shanghai”, “Ecstasy Massage” and “Massage Shanghai”. All three offer outcall service and of course all three list mobile phone numbers. Now it seems like this is quite a very common occurrence these days. These massage girls are obviously bidding very high for google adwords because I see it on almost very Shanghai centered site, including the NextStep Directory (Although its pretty NextStep Directory nominal on our website). On the flip side, it also means that not only are people clicking on the links, but they are utilizing the services. Why else would the massage services continue to pay so much money per click. Anyway, what it comes down to is the fact that all these websites are acting as pimps.

On another note, I’ve read a couple articles recently that talk about how there are several cities/towns in the US called Shanghai, such as Shanghai, Virginia. Since the keyword Shanghai is bid at such a high rate, these massage ads are appearing in these towns throughout the US.

Lastly, just to give this post an ounce of respectability, the consistency of these massage ads on Shanghai related websites says something about google’s adsense/adwords business model. After all, it was just announced they had missed their projected earnings and that click through rates for adsense were going down on a global scale. This seems fairly obvious when you think about it. You seem the same ads on every site you go to, how many times are you really going to click on it so all these sites have started to cannibalize each other. My recommendation, and what we will probably do for the NextStep Directory is using a different service for delivering ads to your site. This way, you are distinguished from the rest of the sites and might actually offer something unique.

If you are a freelancer, or you are running an IT/Web Design company here in China, don’t thank me for giving you the link to GetAFreeLancer.com, just buy me a drink some time. Need I say more. It is a brilliant marketplace that  lines up jobs with prospective developers on a global scale. I am sure there are other sites out there, and I know of a few. But, for the time being this one takes the cake. Have a look by clicking here. If you are able to pull some work from this, be sure to drop me a line to say thanks, and I can never turn down a gin & tonic.

Cheers.

I’m going to start by saying that this is completely a stretch but has anyone noticed how most fake DVD’s start with the the Fox logo?  The last 5 DVD’s I watched all started with the Fox intro and none of the movies/tv shows were actually made by Fox.  This would have caught my attention regardless of which company was constantly being featured, but I’m only writing about it because the head of Fox happens to be Rupert Murdoch whose wife is Wendi Deng, who was born and raised in China.  We also know that Wendi is very involved with News Corporation’s (parent of Fox) dealings here and was a big force behind MySpace China.

So this is a conspiracy theory for the most part.  Just a couple neat coincidences, but if it were intentional, I would have to say its a brilliant PR/Marketing strategy.  And yes, Chinese people do notice.

If you want to find out more about the Green Business Forum you can click here to listen to my interview on the ChinaBusinessNetwork with Christine Lu. Mind you it was 1am Shanghai time when I was answering these questions.

The Green Business Forum is an important event for me, as it is my first attempt to get a large community behind a movement–a movement that matters. If you are reading this blog now, we are only three days away from the first Green Business Forum in Shanghai. I want to get people thinking, I want to get people active, and I want people to actually care about how they are conducting their businesses. What we are trying to achieve with the forum is simple, get you active and give you the tools to make a difference. Roots & Shoots, Greennovate, 350.org and JUCCCE are all excellent companies and organizations that will be able to help you as an individual, as a manager, as a business owner to really make a difference.

If you want more information about the Green Business Forum click here.

The Forum is on Saturday, July 12th from 2 til 6pm at the Grand Hyatt in Pudong

How bad does it have to get, before we decide as a collective whole that the way we live, build our businesses, and plan for the future is flawed? I am not saying we are at a doomsday moment, but why wait until we get there before making change? Changing now will be less painful and less costly.

It is time for all of us to get active and make a difference. The NextStep Green Business Forum is going to do just that. I was inspired by the efforts of several individuals living here in Shanghai and their desire to bring about environmental change. I coupled that with a recent viewing of the award winning documentary The 11th Hour, and I decided that I could make a personal effort to enact change. The Green Business Forum is my personal call to action to give business owners, managers, and everyone else the tools and know-how to make simple changes in our daily business practices that can ultimately have enormous effect on the greater community.

The Green Business Forum will be held on Saturday, July 12th from 2-6pm at the Grand Hyatt Hotel (JinMao Tower) in Pudong. Entry fee is 250 RMB, 25% of which will be donated to Roots & Shoots and Greennovate.

You can reserve a seat by emailing us at RSVP@nextstepshanghai.com

Find out more event information by clicking here  or you can check out the July 3rd issue of CityWeekend to read an interview of me and Peggy Liu of JUCCCE.

Being that our LexDex.com project requires us to stay on top of the newest web and mobile developments, I have become quite familiar with the Google Android project. You may want to have a look at what Google unveiled on the 27th of May by clicking here. This just may set the standard for what is to come for mobile phones. Remember, that the Android project is a mobile phone operating system that will be pre-installed by manufacturers. The OS is not only being developed for touch screen phones. And, how does Google make its money? Well of course, through advertisements. Check it out.

We’ve been very very busy at the NextStep offices preparing for the v1.0 release of the NextStep Directory.  You can read here what its all about. If you see a relevant category, we encourage you to upload your company and take advantage of what the Directory has to offer.

Calling ourselves a directory can be a bit misleading. The typical notion of a directory is simply a listing of companies and their addresses. However, our goal is to create a dynamic marketing platform for companies to offer their potential clients a rich and comprehensive introduction. What is the need for such a product and how do we expect to build it?

Reaching your clients is a difficult and costly process. Advertising costs in Shanghai for almost any medium are quite expensive and there is a lot of competition. Moreover, there is little space for a company to leverage their unique competitive advantages because its so difficult to get that message across to potential clients.

The NextStep Directory v1.0 is the first step in building a medium for companies to translate their core values to their customers. More than just an address book like most directories, we offer company introductions, category specific company surveys, comments, ratings and the ability to share these companies with others. In the next few months we will be releasing new features such as pictures, videos, maps, announcements, featured comments, customizable RSS feeds and eventually, the NS Metrics.

The NextStep Directory is a platform built for the purpose of enhancing the way you do business. Take advantage of it.  Submit your company.

Our readers know that in order to survive in rapid economic growth sometimes it is necessary to change corporate structures, and that mergers and acquisitions has become a strategy for many global brands. Statistics show that the volume of global mergers and acquisitions in 2006 reached USD 3.6 trillion, beating the previous record high in 2000. And the latest report released by Morgan Stanley indicates that this record will be likely beaten again in 2007. In the case of merging brands, there arises an important consideration: how to give the merged brand a suitable name?

Several merger naming strategies can be used. The name of one merged company can be used to represent the new corporations. A new brand name can also be created from scratch, or even derived from one or more of the former corporations’ brand names.

The use of only one company’s name can be grouped to two situations: main-sub mode and single mode. Main-sub mode is when the name of one merging corporation becomes the new brand name and the other corporation name or names are adopted for products or sub-brands. Youtube became one of Google’s sub-brands, Compaq is marketed as a product line of HP, and electronic application retailer Gome in China added Yolo as a product in its new gaming system. This is recommended when the merging brands are both strong on the market, with one being more dominant or offering a wider range of products or services.

Single mode in merger naming is when one corporation’s name is adopted as the new brand name while the others are completely abandoned. After Boeing and McDonnell Douglas merged, the Boeing brand name was used exclusively. Even existing products manufactured by McDonnell Douglas were renamed, such as the MD-95 which was changed to Boeing 717 after the acquisition. This is an effective strategy if one of the brands was previously doing poorly in the market.

Developing a completely new name was the strategy adopted by Airbus. Airbus was jointly founded in the 1970s by several European aircraft manufacturers: Aerospatiale, Deutsche Aerospace, VFW-Fokker, and Hawker Siddeley. In using a new name, the merged brand effectively avoided any strong bias towards any of the participating countries. In general, this type of naming is not popular; in using a completely new name, there is a high risk of losing the valuable brand equity of the merging corporations.

The most common naming method for merging corporations is to derive a new name from the former corporations. For instance, Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand merged in 1998 and created the new name PricewaterhouseCoopers; the merger between Alcatel and Lucent brought the brand Alcatel·Lucent; China’s famous securities brand Shenyin Wanguo originated from the merging of two brands Shenyin and Wanguo in 1996. This combination strategy allows the former brands to carry-over into the new corporation names that are familiar and resonant to consumers, while strengthening the image of unity and joining of forces to the public.

In mergers and acquisition, brand equity is as important as the more obvious financial considerations at play. The right naming strategy will help merging companies to maximize the benefits of the merge, and to avoid confusing consumers or losing their recognition.

To get more information on creative naming services please surf Labbrand website at:

 www.labbrand.com  

Vladimir Djurovic

Recently,one of the co-founders of NextStep, Gregory, opened my eyes  to DocStoc.com, and I have been more than pleasantly surprised by the offerings on the site. If you need legal, financial, or just about any kind of business document, they have it. If you want to be a contributing member to the community, you can register and upload your own documents that the free-sharing world may find to be useful. It must be said that these documents are definitely not your last line of defense, but at least it is a good jumping off point, especially for a cash strapped entrepreneur.

Check it out, DocStoc.com

We constantly hear about the China media propaganda machine and how it is able to shape and control the opinions and knowledge of 1.3 billion people. Western media is equally guilty of brain washing the rest of us, and I personally believe it is more damaging to the general understanding of geo-political situations/events to be influenced and spun by western media than what is spun off the presses here in the Middle Kingdom. Take for example a NYTimes article I was reading this morning (CLICK HERE TO READ). A great read for 80% of the content that discussed the role automobiles play in the lives of low/middle class Chinese. But, then Keith Bradsher takes a very peculiar turn by attempting to debase the stability of the social welfare system in China without any hard evidence to defend his arguments. Unfortunately, this leaves the thousands of NYTimes readers left with the notion that China is doing nothing for it’s people. I firmly believe that China should be doing more to bolster its welfare system, but I am also a strong proponent of providing a well-rounded picture of the China story to the readers/viewers of western media. Unfortunately, 90%+ Americans don’t realize they may be subject to misinformation.

The China nationalism that is now building up steam around the world may be well-founded.

Have a look at the NYTimes article “With First Car, a New Life in China”, remember you need to have a NYTimes.com account(free of charge).