ChoZan, a resources platform for social media marketing in China, has announced its expansion to Singapore.
The founder of ChoZan, Ashley Galina Dudarenok, and her team will be in Singapore from May 15th-18th, introducing themselves to the Singapore market in response to great interest in the region from businesses wanting to engage with Chinese customers on social media, such as WeChat and Weibo.
China is Singapore's third largest trading partner so there are strong business links between these two markets. There are also strong family and cultural ties. Second and third generation Chinese entrepreneurs have established many businesses in Singapore and play a strong role in the community.
However, recent shifts to online marketing and the huge influence of social media have left some businesses behind. They lack the necessary tools and skills to reach modern Chinese consumers, and these modern Chinese consumers are becoming ever more sophisticated at a rapid pace.
ChoZan, which is specifically designed to help marketing teams and agencies use Chinese social media, can help businesses fill these gaps and tap into China's swiftly changing and expanding markets. It sees Singapore as a vital step in its expansion before proceeding to wider international markets such as Australia, the US and the UK.
The demand has been clear to ChoZan's Managing Director for some time. "Since our launch in January this year, we've received an overwhelming number of enquiries from businesses in Singapore," says Dudarenok.
"WeChat is a hot topic and local and international businesses headquartered in Singapore are eagerly exploring opportunities. The Singapore Tourism Board, Singapore Airlines and Banyan Tree are all doing a great job in this area and small businesses need services like these."
The need for information about China's social media landscape have also been noticed by Melissa Lim, founding member of Ladyboss Asia. "There will definitely be interest to learn as China is a nearby market with a huge population. I believe that Chinese consumers would appreciate Singapore products too."
At the moment, Chinese social media isn't widely used in Singapore for marketing but she believes this is about to change, as she puts it, "once people discover the vast functionalities that exists just within WeChat."
General Assembly Singapore, the female entrepreneurs' club Ladyboss Asia, and BNCS invited Ashley to conduct a series of large-scale workshops to demonstrate how to effectively use Chinese social media platforms for marketing.
During this trip, the ChoZan team will also conduct a session with the Business Alumni Group of the National University of Singapore (NUS) to share experiences in WeChat marketing.
