4 Steps to an Online Rollout Across Multiple Asian Markets

A regional strategy for Asia requires considerable thought and preparation, as no market within this region is the same.

Here are four key areas to consider when planning a rollout for an online business across multiple Asian markets:

• Markets
• Languages
• Domain name(s)
• Search engines

Identify the Markets

First, consider which markets within Asia best fit your business. China is an obvious one for many businesses, as this is nowadays the largest consumer market in the world. Here are a number of key ones:

• China
• Hong Kong
• Taiwan
• Japan
• Korea
• Singapore

Speak the Local Language

One of the most efficient ways to reach local consumers is to speak their language. A website’s content should be created in the local language of your target market.

Languages for some Asian markets include:

• China: website in Chinese simplified language
• Hong Kong: websites in English language and Chinese traditional language
• Taiwan: website in Chinese traditional language. Note this language isn’t entirely the same as the one for Hong Kong’s users as the local slang for the two markets are different. In Hong Kong the spoken dialect is Cantonese but in Taiwan it is Mandarin.
• Japan: website in Japanese language
• Korea: website in Korean language
• Singapore: website in English language

Choosing Domain Name(s)

Next step is choosing the right domain name(s) for your multi-language website, and there are a number of options:

• Buy a unique domain name for each of the markets. For instance, example.cn for China, example.com.hk for Hong Kong, example.co.jp for Japan, etc.
• Buy the .com domain and place each market on their sub-domains. For instance, cn.example.com for China, hk.example.com for Hong Kong, jp.example.com for Japan, etc.
• Buy the .com domain and place each market under the folders. For instance, www.example.com/cn for China, www.example.com/hk for Hong Kong, www.example.com/jp for Japan, etc.

The first option will allow the greatest flexibility, as each market’s website can be treated as a totally separate entity to the websites of other markets.

For example, you can customize your website for China as much as possible for local marketing and promotional purposes without it having an impact on the websites and marketing functions of other markets.

You can maximize this advantage by building local marketing and operation teams for China.

When choosing the second option, we normally assume the websites for all the markets will be built under one single infrastructure which allows for easy maintenance and high consistency.

The websites (or sub-domains) of each market can still be hosted separately in their own country’s web hosting.

The third option is essentially multiple languages are hosted on one single website. If your website or page loading speed is an important area for optimization, then this will not allow for the optimization for each country. However, the advantage of this setup is the high consistency and ease of maintenance across all market websites.

To learn more about selecting domain names in China, check out my previous posts on the subject, here and here.

Acquire New Users Through Search Engines

When growing your user base in each market, search engines are one of the major traffic sources, and cannot be ignored.

The major search engines of each market with best optimization for organic search traffic and buy/paid search traffic are:

• China: First, and of upmost importance is Baidu, followed by Haosou
• Hong Kong: Yahoo (for Chinese language users) and Google (for English language users)
• Taiwan: Yahoo mostly, but should also consider Google
• Japan: Yahoo mostly, but should also consider Google
• Korea: Naver
• Singapore: Google

As you can see, no market in Asia is the same – so a calculated and strategic plan should be established before any Asia-wide rollout begins.

Good luck!

Image via Shutterstock.