UK, specialised in housing the Weibo and WeChat marketing service for its partners. As the great firewall of China prevents access to the most popular digital communication channels that we use in the rest of the world, Weibo and WeChat become the alternatives of twitter and Facebook. This start-up company was created in 2014 to bridge the information gap between UK higher education institutions and their top clients, Chinese students, accounting for 34% of non-EU first-year enrolments (Natalie, 2016).
Traditionally, Small businesses are constantly struggling about the starting point without heavy financial investment. However, the situation is different now with digital maturity. This Essay aims to examine PINGPONG Digital through analysing the business model, pricing strategies, digital product characteristics and to identify the opportunities for further improving the current business. BUSINESS MODEL APPLIED IN PINGPONG DIGITAL PINGPONG digital is a Chinese Digital Media agency. …show more content…
It offers digital solutions to help their clients expand their business and reach to Chinese consumers. The service include: website or mobile app translation, social media campaign setting up and management. The service target the institutions (mainly UK universities) aiming to enter the China market but they don’t know how to launch digital communication channels.
In this Essay, Osterwalder and Pigneur’s (2004) the nine business model blocks will be used to investigate PINGPONG Digital’s business model: 1. Product According to Osterwalder (2004), a company 's value proposition is what distinguishes itself from its competitors. …show more content…
PINGPONG Digital’s service is based on 2 main Chinese social media platform-Weibo and WeChat, which reaches a billion registered accounts in total. Weibo is micro-blogging platform, a Chinese hybrid of Facebook and Twitter, and is the most popular social media platform used in China and by overseas Chinese. It is an ideal place for marketers as it is an open platform. The content can be seen by anybody without connecting first. WeChat is the most popular Chinese instant message application; users can communicate through instant messages, text, and sound recordings and video, it is also linked with Alipay (an Chinese alternative of Applepay) to serve as a wallet, similar to WhatsApp but incorporates all in one social media features such as a news feed, where friends can post status updates or photos. It is a closed network. The users can choose to subscribe an official account to follow or unfollow. The marketing is through subscribers or content actively shared by users through status sharing. “Total UK education exports were estimated to be £17.5bn in 2011, making education the fifth largest services export sector in the UK, ahead of both insurance services and computer and information services. Over 75% of export earnings came from students studying in the UK” (HM Government report, 2013). Among which Over half of international students at UK independent schools are from Asia, with Hong Kong (22% of the global total in 2011/12) and China (17%) dominating this market (ISC Census and Annual Report, 2016). The UK universities and enterprises know the importance of using social media sites spreading its own brand because of the interactive features such as integration, coupled with brand network marketing. For Chinese Social Media Marketing, the universities need to seek a middleman due to state censorship, fierce domestic competition and lack of cultural, language and technology resources in the unique digital communication system that is specifically tailored for Chinese netizens. PINGPONG Digital’ serves as a bridge to fill the communication gap for this niche market. 2. Customers To build an effective business model, the target customers must be identified. For small and medium enterprises, instead of targeting Mass Market, it is crucial to locate their own niche Market. 500,000 Chinese currently reside in the UK with 9.9 percent year on year growth. Chinese in the UK are socioeconomically more widespread and decentralised, making it difficult to target this consumer through traditional advertising. With a record of high academic achievement and having one of the highest household incomes among demographic groups in the UK, they are a consumer demographic worth investing in (Max and Felix, 2013). The universities are seeking to target Chinese students, PINGPONG Digital target itself as a middleman as part of the universities’ marketing team, whose role cannot be eliminated in a short time. By Mixing advertising and independent content to form soft marketing for its clients’ social media
Traditionally, Small businesses are constantly struggling about the starting point without heavy financial investment. However, the situation is different now with digital maturity. This Essay aims to examine PINGPONG Digital through analysing the business model, pricing strategies, digital product characteristics and to identify the opportunities for further improving the current business. BUSINESS MODEL APPLIED IN PINGPONG DIGITAL PINGPONG digital is a Chinese Digital Media agency. …show more content…
It offers digital solutions to help their clients expand their business and reach to Chinese consumers. The service include: website or mobile app translation, social media campaign setting up and management. The service target the institutions (mainly UK universities) aiming to enter the China market but they don’t know how to launch digital communication channels.
In this Essay, Osterwalder and Pigneur’s (2004) the nine business model blocks will be used to investigate PINGPONG Digital’s business model: 1. Product According to Osterwalder (2004), a company 's value proposition is what distinguishes itself from its competitors. …show more content…
PINGPONG Digital’s service is based on 2 main Chinese social media platform-Weibo and WeChat, which reaches a billion registered accounts in total. Weibo is micro-blogging platform, a Chinese hybrid of Facebook and Twitter, and is the most popular social media platform used in China and by overseas Chinese. It is an ideal place for marketers as it is an open platform. The content can be seen by anybody without connecting first. WeChat is the most popular Chinese instant message application; users can communicate through instant messages, text, and sound recordings and video, it is also linked with Alipay (an Chinese alternative of Applepay) to serve as a wallet, similar to WhatsApp but incorporates all in one social media features such as a news feed, where friends can post status updates or photos. It is a closed network. The users can choose to subscribe an official account to follow or unfollow. The marketing is through subscribers or content actively shared by users through status sharing. “Total UK education exports were estimated to be £17.5bn in 2011, making education the fifth largest services export sector in the UK, ahead of both insurance services and computer and information services. Over 75% of export earnings came from students studying in the UK” (HM Government report, 2013). Among which Over half of international students at UK independent schools are from Asia, with Hong Kong (22% of the global total in 2011/12) and China (17%) dominating this market (ISC Census and Annual Report, 2016). The UK universities and enterprises know the importance of using social media sites spreading its own brand because of the interactive features such as integration, coupled with brand network marketing. For Chinese Social Media Marketing, the universities need to seek a middleman due to state censorship, fierce domestic competition and lack of cultural, language and technology resources in the unique digital communication system that is specifically tailored for Chinese netizens. PINGPONG Digital’ serves as a bridge to fill the communication gap for this niche market. 2. Customers To build an effective business model, the target customers must be identified. For small and medium enterprises, instead of targeting Mass Market, it is crucial to locate their own niche Market. 500,000 Chinese currently reside in the UK with 9.9 percent year on year growth. Chinese in the UK are socioeconomically more widespread and decentralised, making it difficult to target this consumer through traditional advertising. With a record of high academic achievement and having one of the highest household incomes among demographic groups in the UK, they are a consumer demographic worth investing in (Max and Felix, 2013). The universities are seeking to target Chinese students, PINGPONG Digital target itself as a middleman as part of the universities’ marketing team, whose role cannot be eliminated in a short time. By Mixing advertising and independent content to form soft marketing for its clients’ social media