You Make the Call-Situation 1

Essay

You Make the Call-Situation 1
Bill Moss and several other small business owners joined a trade mission to China to explore market opportunities there. The group learned that China has a population of 1.3 billion and is the third-fastest-growing export market for small- and medium-sized U.S. firms. Average annual income for farmers in China is approximately $285 per person; typical urban income is about $827, with an average of $1,557 a year in more prosperous cities like Shanghai. In any given year, the Chinese software market grows by 30 percent and the number of Internet users quadruples. Furthermore, the demand for management consulting services is increasing, especially information technology consulting. Members of the group were surprised by the number of people who had cell phones and regularly surfed the Internet, especially in large urban centers such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. On the downside, they found that counterfeit goods (from clothing and leather goods to software and CDs) were readily available at a fraction of the cost of legitimate merchandise and that local merchants expressed an interest in doing business only with vendors with whom they had established relationships.
(Sources: Data from http://www.china.org.cn/english/2002/Feb/26975.htm and http://www.china.org.cn/BAT/28231.htm.)