Chinese business emails

[Scoobyqueen]

I have numerous business cards from well established companies.

[liuzhou]

It is very common here. Email hasn't really caught on in China in the same way as in the west. Even if people have email addresses, they never check them, so they expire. No problem. Open another one. Also, names are seldom used. Too many names the same, I guess.

QQ rules. Sadly.

[jbradfor]

Funny you should mention this! Was looking at a business card from someone in China, surprised to see both their business (@company.com) and personal (@163.com) email addresses. Commented to someone that it seems unprofessional, at least from a US POV.

In thinking about this later, is this common because people change jobs so often? That is, is the personal email address often valid longer than the business email address?

[roddy]

Company websites / email tend to be very badly run, quite possibly as given the choice between paying 200Y for a functional website and 100Y for a kick in the teeth, many bosses will pay 100Y and start looking around for a dirt-cheap dentist. It's not unusual for email to be inaccessible, or only accessible from certain locations (webmail? Ah, that'll be extra). Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, are all likely to be much more reliable.

[Scoobyqueen]

Thanks for the feedback

[ABCinChina]

I was involved with helping out with our company website and what you're saying is true; Chinese companies do skimp when it comes to email/website payments. We paid about ￥100,000 for some company to do it and got a horrible result. Well it's not that horrible, but nothing compared to what you'd see in an average company website in the US. I wonder how much a US-made website complete with domain name, email, etc. would cost if built from scratch...

[simonlaing]

Sometimes it has to do with the desire to control information.

In many industries, (including translation) companies' workers after working awhile in a company will leave start a new company and try and take the former company's customers.

Many companies put clauses in their hiring contracts to try and prevent this, even stating the potential fines they would be liable for. However these are usually illegal contract clauses and unenforcable generally so people ignore them.

When we send interpreters out for short contracts we put the companies email and phone as the contact point. Most translators don't have company emails anyway but this helps with stopping translators do free lance work on the side.

Good luck,

SImon:)

[Lu]

The solution: drop the US POV, this is how things work in China.

[Scoobyqueen]

The solution: drop the US POV, this is how things work in China.

Chinese wanting to do business outside of China

[jbradfor]

The solution: drop the US POV, this is how things work in China.

Well yes, that is what we are doing by asking this question. We could say "Oh, Chinese business cards have personal email address" and drop it, and learn nothing. Or we could discuss why they have it, and learn more about the current business environment in China.

[simonlaing]

Chinese people (espicially businessmen) have different ideas on the line between work and private life.

For instance voice mail and answering machines are not popular here. Most people are used to getting work calls in the evening or mornings as it means business. (This would not likely happen in France, unless the job was for a plumber or emergency repairman.) Better Unions, what are you going to do?

Also there is an expectation as in other places that when called to do overtime you do it. In China overtime payment rules are variable. (From small companies just not paying it .) To my company that pays by the 1000 words and provides half days off for overtime.

In the tech sector in China, it does seem that people change their jobs often, like once a year or once every 2 years.

I do think it is a point of view idea as well.

Have fun,

Simon:)