4 ms·

Email Isn't a Natural Fit For Tech-Savvy Chinese

22 points by prakash 19y ago

ilamont 19y ago
Raises some interesting points about differences in business cultures. One thing that would get lost in the Chinese approach is having access to records of conversations -- I use email search every day to check the status of projects in various stages of development.
- notauser 19y ago
  Logging IM isn't that difficult. If you use something like Pidgin then you get all of your logs neatly organized in one place regardless of protocol. Equally most corporate IM servers support logging. I expect that with a very small amount of hacking eJabberd could be persuaded to store good data even if it can't already do so.
  - ilamont 19y ago
    I was actually making a reference to the cellphone conversations mentioned in the article.
- kingkongrevenge 19y ago
  There's some study out there on email vs IRC for team coordination. IRC won by a significant margin, if I recall correctly. The teams that used email less did better.
caudicus 19y ago
I wonder how much of this is sort of self-feeding behavior: e.g. in America we use email a lot at work, so emails are answered quickly, which reinforces its use. But in China, they don't use email so much, so email isn't answered quickly, which discourages its use. Maybe it's more initial conditions and less culture.
- tx 19y ago
  I think it has a lot to do with culture. Russians are very much like Chinese in this regard: voice mail has never gained any traction there, and email is considered somewhat 2nd grade. Email is for things that weren't important enough to deserve a phone call. Phone calls are getting replaced by SMS messages, especially among younger crowd, but email/voicemail are nowhere close to importance they have among Americans. A typical example: my neighbours sent me an evite for a party next weekend, in Russia that would be a bit insulting: my parents would think "nah, it's not a real invitation, otherwise they would have called" Americans value their "personal space" too much, and email/voicemail allows you to do just that: communicate with people without getting out of this bubble of comfort. Eastern cultures reject that: if you want to talk to me, - then TALK to me. That's the attitude. (exaggerated a bit, but delivers the message)
  - attack 19y ago
    Well that's no fun. With IM or email you can talk to 50 people at once. Or are you referring to business communications? I'm sure that no one in the US undervalues the effectiveness and persuasiveness of voice communication for critical negotiations. On second reading, I think you're just referring to the resistance of old people to new technology?
    - tx 19y ago
      This is not about technology at all, it's about ways to communicate. As I said, differences are larger than most people realize. Here is another example not related to tech or "old people". A co-worker had a birthday party few weeks ago. The next Monday I had a "Thank you" card on my desk, even though he's sitting next door. You see, a card like this will only freak a Russian out: a card? why? couldn't he have said something instead? This is why IM and SMS picked off very quickly over there. I've met people with ICQ numbers on their business cards as early as mid 90s: these media fit their culture better. Email is just like a birthday card: too detached, too impersonal, not real-time, etc. The only email I ever get from my parents always contains short and usual "Call us", everything else is too important to be shared "indirectly". It's all changing, of course. And my views and memories may be getting a little rusty (haven't been there since '02), but culture does play a major role in everything we do, including preferences for technologies.
deleted 19y ago
[deleted]
yawl 19y ago
May I say: Text Messaging Isn't a Natural Fit For Tech-Savvy Americans?
kingkongrevenge 19y ago
Email is very inefficient compared to voice communication. All the time you see email threads that tallied up used half an hour plus the mental energy of people subconsciously polling for the reply, but a two minute phone conversation could have wrapped the thing up.
tokipin 19y ago
email never seemed elegant to me. mailing lists in particular are atrocious. i think a good communication medium for a business would be forums (eg vBullitin) which allow topical conversation in an organized, non-retarded way as well as one-on-one private exchanges
ALee 19y ago
E-mail isn't the only thing. If you look at the way advertising works on Chinese sites, it looks more like a street bazaar in terms of the experience. It still amazes me that Chinese sites sell ads on a monthly/daily basis rather than CPM or hours spent on site.

22 points by prakash 19y ago

Raises some interesting points about differences in business cultures. One thing that would get lost in the Chinese approach is having access to records of conversations -- I use email search every day to check the status of projects in various stages of development.

notauser 19y ago
Logging IM isn't that difficult. If you use something like Pidgin then you get all of your logs neatly organized in one place regardless of protocol. Equally most corporate IM servers support logging. I expect that with a very small amount of hacking eJabberd could be persuaded to store good data even if it can't already do so.
- ilamont 19y ago
  I was actually making a reference to the cellphone conversations mentioned in the article.
kingkongrevenge 19y ago
There's some study out there on email vs IRC for team coordination. IRC won by a significant margin, if I recall correctly. The teams that used email less did better.

caudicus 19y ago

I wonder how much of this is sort of self-feeding behavior: e.g. in America we use email a lot at work, so emails are answered quickly, which reinforces its use. But in China, they don't use email so much, so email isn't answered quickly, which discourages its use. Maybe it's more initial conditions and less culture.

tx 19y ago
I think it has a lot to do with culture. Russians are very much like Chinese in this regard: voice mail has never gained any traction there, and email is considered somewhat 2nd grade. Email is for things that weren't important enough to deserve a phone call. Phone calls are getting replaced by SMS messages, especially among younger crowd, but email/voicemail are nowhere close to importance they have among Americans. A typical example: my neighbours sent me an evite for a party next weekend, in Russia that would be a bit insulting: my parents would think "nah, it's not a real invitation, otherwise they would have called" Americans value their "personal space" too much, and email/voicemail allows you to do just that: communicate with people without getting out of this bubble of comfort. Eastern cultures reject that: if you want to talk to me, - then TALK to me. That's the attitude. (exaggerated a bit, but delivers the message)
- attack 19y ago
  Well that's no fun. With IM or email you can talk to 50 people at once. Or are you referring to business communications? I'm sure that no one in the US undervalues the effectiveness and persuasiveness of voice communication for critical negotiations. On second reading, I think you're just referring to the resistance of old people to new technology?
  - tx 19y ago
    This is not about technology at all, it's about ways to communicate. As I said, differences are larger than most people realize. Here is another example not related to tech or "old people". A co-worker had a birthday party few weeks ago. The next Monday I had a "Thank you" card on my desk, even though he's sitting next door. You see, a card like this will only freak a Russian out: a card? why? couldn't he have said something instead? This is why IM and SMS picked off very quickly over there. I've met people with ICQ numbers on their business cards as early as mid 90s: these media fit their culture better. Email is just like a birthday card: too detached, too impersonal, not real-time, etc. The only email I ever get from my parents always contains short and usual "Call us", everything else is too important to be shared "indirectly". It's all changing, of course. And my views and memories may be getting a little rusty (haven't been there since '02), but culture does play a major role in everything we do, including preferences for technologies.

deleted 19y ago

[deleted]

yawl 19y ago

May I say: Text Messaging Isn't a Natural Fit For Tech-Savvy Americans?

kingkongrevenge 19y ago

Email is very inefficient compared to voice communication. All the time you see email threads that tallied up used half an hour plus the mental energy of people subconsciously polling for the reply, but a two minute phone conversation could have wrapped the thing up.

tokipin 19y ago

email never seemed elegant to me. mailing lists in particular are atrocious. i think a good communication medium for a business would be forums (eg vBullitin) which allow topical conversation in an organized, non-retarded way as well as one-on-one private exchanges

ALee 19y ago

E-mail isn't the only thing. If you look at the way advertising works on Chinese sites, it looks more like a street bazaar in terms of the experience. It still amazes me that Chinese sites sell ads on a monthly/daily basis rather than CPM or hours spent on site.