Chinese purchasing decisions

[JoheWilkinson]

Hello, i am here to ask the people of China a question please, would you pick an American product over a Japanese product? i am talking if you live in China, which would you buy? based on past events i have a understanding that Chinese don't get along with Japanese which is why i ask this question, do not base your answer on quality, base it on principle, would the Chinese not buy a product based on principle alone?

 

(if you are curious as to why i ask, both the Xbox gaming system and Playstation gaming system will be released in China officially, i work in the industry and i thought i would come straight to the source as this has been heavily debated) which gaming system would you bet on doing better in China, the Xbox or Playstation?

 

Thanks for any reply's!

[ChTTay]

"I am here to askt he people of China"

If you mean Chinese people, as oppose to people living in China, then there aren't many native speakers on here. You are likely to get people answering based on their experience with Chinese people. If you want natives, better to ask in Chinese on a Chinese language forum.

A year or so ago China-Japan tensions reached a high point and I remember people boycotting UNIQLO and Japanese restaurants in Beijing. Not everyone did but I do recall a few UNIQLO stores having to close. Apart from that, most people I know have no problem buying Japanese made anything. Even if they don't like Japanese government or people It doesn't cover not buying products originating from there.

Generally, I find my Chinese friends base their purchasing decisions mostly on price and, more and more, on brand. By price, I don't mean they buy the cheapest. I mean they usually buy mid range, thinking that expensive models are too expensive to be worth it and that cheap models have below par quality. Makes sense to me! I only have about 3 Chinese friends so not a massive sample eother!!

[abcdefg]

I've had Chinese friends tell me that if they had to chose between two equally good products, both fairly priced, which were Korean and Japanese, they would chose the one made in Korea. But that certainly is not a statistically meaningful sample.

[Demonic_Duck]

I'm curious as to why you think coming to an English-language forum about Chinese language and culture is "coming straight to the source", but I'm happy to give my own speculations.

 

I guess the Playstation will be more expensive, so 老百姓 (average Joes) will go for the Xbox, and 土豪 (rich people who like to spend money) will go for the Playstation. I don't think the fact that Sony is Japanese will affect most 土豪s' purchasing decisions, as they'd tend to base them more on what's new, cool and high quality. Furthermore, I don't think the fact that a brand is Japanese affects the purchasing decisions of most Chinese people in any significant way. Maybe what abcdefg says above is true, but even if so, there are normally much more pertinent differentiating features than the nationality of the company that makes the product. Though many Chinese people may have an irrationally strong hatred/dislike of Japan, they're also typically rather savvy consumers.

[James3]

I'm really new here, and very much a beginner with Chinese.  But I can tell you an observation I've made. I have several language exchange partners, all of whom live in mainland China. And their views of the Japanese differ greatly.

 

One person's grandfather apparently told her war time horror stories, and so she hates even the mention of the Japanese. In fact, when I brought up the conflict over those islands - because I was searching for a topic to discuss during our language exchange session - she got really angry with me, and told me never to ever mention this again. (And she ranted for a few minutes about the awful things her grandfather endured at the hands of the Japanese.)

 

And yet, another one of my (much younger) language exchange partners says she has a thing for Japanese boys. So, I would guess that...like most sterotypes and generalizations...it's kind of hard to make one here. Just my guess.

[hedwards]

The students in the classes I taught were always curious where things were made. But, without exception they were always shocked that I would own anything that was made in China. The main reason being that the items made in China for the Chinese market are cheap and I mean remarkably cheap. With the exception of things that are incredibly simple, the tolerances would be wrong and the QA would be absent.

 

It's my understanding that this is typical of an export market, the goods being retained locally are typically of low quality. So, it's not the fact that it's Chinese that's the issue, it's that those low prices for things are low primarily because there's little or no QA involved and you can expect that the tolerances will be off on most items. And you typically don't get any sort of warranty either, so if you don't want to buy unless you can try it out in the show room. The main exception are things like iPhones that are even more expensive than they are in the US.

[roddy]

Is availability of pirated games going to make a difference? 

[hedwards]

Roddy that's an interesting question. In my experience, trying to find legal copies of media proved to be impossible. Well, I could try looking, but trying to identify the legit versions versus the pirate ones tended to be a great difficulty. And, if I recall correctly, there were tons of restrictions by the government on what gaming systems were available. They didn't seem to mind my gaming devices, but there was a lot of concern about game addiction amongst the local population.

 

Ultimately, I wound up just pirating most of the stuff, because in most cases I couldn't be sure whether I was buying a legitimate version or paying pirates for the privilege of getting a counterfeit version. And I dislike paying pirates.

[tysond]

Gaming consoles have been banned for a decade for whatever reasons, but that ban looks likely to be lifted/removed/worked around legally.

 

It remains to be seen what a console gaming software market would look like in China.  Local games are produced and seem to make some money.  Online games involving monthly fees and in-game purchases seem to be very popular.

 

I cannot see any possibly way that choosing Xbox over Playstation will rely on foreign relations.  

I just think of all my American friends who love Cuban cigars.