http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-amazon-china-review-20160720-snap-story.html
I'm guessing that this article missed the mark on the situation. A negative review can have a huge impact on sales. This isn't about saving face, but making money. BTW, contacting Amazon about a negative review will most of the time do very little -- Amazon is very biased towards the buyers in most situations.
I've seen articles on the estimated value of a star in the lodging industry... it's a big deal.
LM, I think the saving face dimension is still of paramount importance.
1. You're in a culture where saving face is key. It is not acceptable to make a negative comment. A friend who lived in China said that the most unreasonable excuses are accepted in order to let parties save face. So you suggest dinner 30 days hence, and the person says "Oh, that's the day I wash my hair" and nobody questions it. You must give the person a way to save face, but you can phrase it in a way that makes clear that you never want to have dinner with that person.
2. You're a merchant who has flat out negative comments. That means you have failed to save face. That means, that compared to someone who receives a similar review in the US, you are a *really* bad person.
Think of it like grade inflation at a university. If the average is a C and you get a B, well you're a good student. But if the average is an A- and you get a B, well now you're a dollard.
So the need to save face and the impact on revenue are one in the same. But reviews affect revenue on both sides of the pond. However, in China, the meaning of a given review will be different and that's because of the need to save face.
PS - RC, I usually don't have anything to add to your links to news stories so I don't, but I do really appreciate that you post. Much enjoyed the ones you posted over the weekend.
>enjoyed
Thanks. Good to hear.
Ergo, ok, that makes sense. I have dealt with Chinese vendors directly before, but never in a situation like this.
That said, the situation at Amazon is really extreme, one negative review could just kill sales overnight -- particularly if there aren't very many other reviews. That is part of the problem with the current FBA model that all the HowTos are pushing. Sure, if everything is just right you could bang out some nice profit, but if not you tied up a lot of resources in dead weight.
Yes interesting article.
Any of you hear about the Chinese Olympic medal table? apparently they came second....
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/rio-olympics-2016/1653657/rio-olympics-2016-chinese-news-agency-snub-great-britains-record-haul-and-claim-they-came-second-in-the-medal-table/
I guess that is about Face as well.
The other bit I have a personal interest in:
Quote"I'm thinking about spending more time investigating the security of IoT [Internet of Things] devices," he said.
I think that is going to be a trend. for a while anything that can be cracked will be a good viral story.