Can Golden Pig Bring Quality

Above: I went to TianAnMen Square to celebrate Pig Year. China's population grows 15-17M per year but 2007 is a Golden Pig Year, 22M new citizens are expected. Photo gallery below.


Can Golden Pig Bring Quality?
CHINESE CONSUMERS NOT YET QUALITY DEMANDING

CASE 1.
BEIJINGERS CRAZY ABOUT FLAT TVs
Many Beijing households have got a flat TV. It's not for better viewing experience, since 98% of Beijing households still receive analog signal. It's not for better picture quality, since quality of cable TV broadcasts are sometimes very bad. Problems are hiding in house networks, city access networks, or passive components like cables and splitters.

In Beijing flat TV is fashion and serves as a status symbol. Flat TV buyers are not demanding what comes to picture quality. They might complain if broadcast content becomes fully unavailable. Chinese have taken a slow boat towards service quality and consumer awareness.


CASE 2.
CAN BEIJING GO ON WITHOUT INTERNET?
Earlier this year earthquake broke sea cables and China Internet went offline for several weeks. Networks are cheaper and planning easier if not planning separately routed redundancy. Being reactive is also easier.

Chinese don't understand the importance of Internet for businesses and business visitors. Chinese Internet providers lack proactivity, they solve problems with reactive behaviour. As long as they can solve the problems, they are champions and and local consumers applaud for them.

Competitiveness in China's network business has much similarities to that of China's banking sector. Fruits hanging low are easy to pick. Not enough competition in growth market.


CASE 3.
BEIJING BROADBAND PROBLEM
During Pig Year celebrations my China Netcom (CNC) broadband connection didn't let me browse most European or U.S web-sites. When I visited a friend other side of Beijing, his Great Wall Broadband service was quik and fine. I called to CNC for help.

CNC sells pre-paid broadband but quality is not much importance. Service people at CNC have good attitude, but their knowledge is limited on regional problems, which they can't do much about. Refund for Internet unavailability has never happened at CNC.

My CNC broadband service started somehow to function after one week cut but it's service level is still like a box of chocolates, even pictorial web sites can get blocked.

Are problems with my Internet broadband a "fat finger problem" in managing great China firewall? Or is it a public security issue? Or has broadband network company CNC a Guanxi problem in fight for international capacities? Or is it simply non-professional behavior at CNC since business with broadband is easy parkwalk in China's growing market?


Epilog
Beijing Olympic quests can't be sure of their access to email, banking services or company servers abroad when in Beijing.

Access to all web domains is not always possible when in Beijing, examples: Wikipedia encyclopedia, BBC news, Technorati blog search, blogspot/Google, dotMac homepages by Apple and many financial information web sites. Browsing China's domestic Internet works better and is fast if Olympic visitor use Mandarin.

People who work in China to help it's growth suffer about these troubles.

For Chinese consumers the quality of service is not yet high priority. For now they bend and stretch and wonder, rather than crack like bamboo.


BeijingMan aka Kippo

List of BeijingMan Postings

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These faces are from TianAnMen Square, Beijing, 21st Feb. 2007. Pig Year just started, everybody is celebrating. I talked with many of these persons, tens came to take pictures with/of me. In 2 hours I took over 200 pictures. I used Canon 20D and EF 70-200mm F/2,8 L IS lens. Click to enlarge.

Above-1: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-2: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-3: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-4: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-5: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-6: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-7: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-8: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-9: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007. A show group, girl in red is also in previous picture.

Above-10: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-11: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-12: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-13: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-14: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-15: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-16: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-17: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-18: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-19: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-20: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-21: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-22: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-23: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-24: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-25: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-26: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-27: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-28: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-29: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-30: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-31: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-32: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-33: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-34: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-35: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-36: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-37: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-38: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-39: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-40: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-41: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-42: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-43: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-44: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007.

Above-45: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007. Red flags, then People's Heroes Monument. Mao Zedong Memorial Hall building.

Above-46: At TianAnMen Square, Beijing, Wed. 21st Feb. 2007. Rostroom with Mao's picture is at the North side of the square. There Mao announced the birth of P.R.China on October 1st 1949. High on top is red logo of China, national enblem, GuoHui.

ADDED March 2008: Golden Pig Year was successful, during it Beijing got 170.000 new born babies.


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© BeijingMan aka Kippo 2008, 2009