Breaking Waves
- Why do new exporters always want to sell in China? I see so many neophytes try to conquer the Chinese market and get their heads handed to them. I have lost so many potential clients by telling them to go to Hong Kong or Singapore first – markets where they have some chance of understanding what is going on and actually getting some good business done. Here’s another reason to hit these markets first: they have richer customers than China does. A survey of affluent consumers by HSBC reveals that rich folks in Hong Kong have average liquid assets of US$301,289 and that Singapore’s wealthy have $183,145. Rich Chinese, though touted in the press for their lavish spending, have average liquid assets of $126,537 – only 42% of Hong Kong’s richest. The Chinese, too, are quite nouveau riche, averaging 36 years old. The Hong Kongers are 48, the Singaporeans 44.
- One of Hawaii’s most delightful exports is its coffee, among the best in the world to this biased observer. (I drink two mugs of Kona blend every morning.) See these articles from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, published this week: here, here and here. Gotta try the one with bacon in it.
- I saw a new (to me) on-line scam yesterday. I received an email, purportedly from Amazon, that looked a lot like Amazon”s usual order confirmation messages. Except that the items ordered weren’t listed, and the message tells you to click on a link to see what is was you had “ordered”. The first link, in a message loaded with links, was really to Amazon, but all the others were for a site called raceobject.ru8080, which I take to be a Russian mob site. Beware.
- USA Today just noticed that Asia is a big market for U.S. companies. Too bad they only talked to giant corporations who have already spent years and many millions to enter these markets.
This entry was posted
on Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 6:37 am and is filed under China, Corruption/IPR/Economic Crime, Hawaii, Singapore.
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