Shanghai is Full of China Marketing Opportunities!

Been in Shanghai, China now for a bit over 2 weeks now (arrived Monday, June 18) and, like usual, I have overbooked and over extended myself. And still there are more people to see and business to do! I love the hustle. And Shanghai has plenty of hustle to offer, for those that can keep up! I’m so exhausted typing this up in Hongqiao airport – but still so full of energy and passion. I think that basically sums up my trip in Shanghai.

I couldn’t sleep last night, thinking a lot about the time here, and thinking back to my first time to Shanghai in 2007 and reading back on my blog posts. The internet was so slow then. It has definitely been upgraded, as well as so much else.

I have to be honest, I’ve gotten a bit burnt out hosting and promoting meetups while in Shenzhen. Here in Shanghai, there are overlapping networking and startup meetups both in the Chinese and foreigner communities, already to go and attend and network. Its amazing, I can just attend – and there are great people there working in tech or web or mobile!

Shanghai is Full of Foreigners

Seriously, this is a cosmopolitan city, some Chinese friends here in Shanghai have complained why all the events are done in English and by foreigners. This may hinder my wishes to learn Chinese though. But still, many more of the foreigners in Shanghai speak Chinese than those I know in Shenzhen. No one can really answer why this is. Also the Chinese community speaks to me in Chinese – not trying to speak in English, so that helps me learn Chinese as well. In Shenzhen, Chinese people either don’t speak to me, or try to speak in English.

Think I can learn more Chinese while in Shanghai. Even if I am surrounded by foreigners. I would have to say, these past 2 weeks I have spoken much more Chinese than when in Shenzhen.

Shanghai is Full of People Doing Domestic China Business

As I focus on helping foreigners enter the Chinese market, I need to position myself in a city that is doing China business. Shenzhen is all about export B2C ecommerce and consumer electronics.

All day, I am meeting people in Shanghai that are doing Chinese business. And its awesome.

Shanghai is all about sales, marketing, business development

I have learned so much about myself, and I’m basically a marketing and business development dude. Not a sales (yes, there is a difference between sales and marketing, and I won’t get into that in this blog post).

Just today I spoke to weibo management agency, another guy making a weibo 3rd party app, a China SEO agency, and a mobile app development company – all doing China business and marketing.

I’m looking forward to getting to Shenzhen and “sleeping on it”, thinking about all that has happened. But, it was beyond my expectations and life seems to be working out lately. Focus, direction, confidence.

Keep it up, add oil! Time to board my airplane.