American internet companies are the dominant tech companies around the world, with
American internet companies are the dominant tech companies around the world, with one glaring exception.
In China, and Asia more broadly, they’re struggling to make a mark.
It’s not for lack of trying, either.
U.S. tech companies keep trying to enter the Asian markets, and yet, they learn the hard way, over and over again, that Asian tech companies are entrenched, smart, and understand their markets better.
For a country used to winning, it’s an embarrassing predicament.
So what’s going on here? And who are these upstart Asian companies?
- Baidu beat Google in China
- Tencent is embarrassing Facebook, Zynga, and AOL with its success.
- Tudou is the Chinese answer to YouTube
- Ushi is embarrassing LinkedIn in China.
- Taobao is embarrassing eBay in China.
- Meituan could end up embarrassing Groupon
- Naver is embarrassing Google in South Korea
- Mixi (Japan) is embarrassing Facebook
- GREE is owns Japan. Foursquare hasn’t made its move.
- Japanese company Rakuten is embarrassing eBay
Not all is lost though:
- Twitter does really really well in Japan and in China.
- Yahoo! also owns an extremely valuable stake in Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba
Don’t worry, US startups still have some fight in them…