Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
    Business
    Home / Business / Companies

    Amber keeps a weather eye on markets abroad

    By SHI JING in Shanghai | China Daily | Updated: 2020-07-06 09:20
    Share
    Share - WeChat
    A woman checks weather using Amber Weather in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, on Wednesday. [Photo by Qian Zhenxiang/For China Daily]

    China's rising mobile tool makes inroads into 100 countries with customized offerings

    Most internet-based startups like mobile apps tend to offer social networking, mobile games, e-commerce, fintech, entertainment, news aggregation, short videos and the like, but Song Rui chose a different path-tools-and thus rolled out with his team Amber Weather in 2015. The app offers timely weather reports.

    In his view, the mobile internet industry in China was already quite mature at that time. Leading industry players had already seized stable market shares in each sector, including news media, online search, social networking and e-commerce. Even in overseas markets, sectors with large consumer bases and unwavering demand had all been fully explored by large companies.

    There was not much choice left for Song, it seemed. So, he chose to look at the bright side anyway, the silver lining, if you will. He further narrowed down his choice.

    "We concluded that there should be two major features in our new startup project. First, it should meet a real steady demand but with lower user stickiness. Second, it should be able to serve a large number of people. With these two factors in mind, we finally looked at weather service apps," he said.

    Over time, Amber Weather has grown into an app with nearly 10 million users in more than 100 countries and regions. The app has been downloaded nearly 50 million times.

    While demand for weather information seems universal, the biggest obstacle to reaching overseas users is inadequate insights into local markets, Song said.

    For users in Japan, a warning function for imminent tsunamis and earthquakes may be needed. For users in Europe, weather updates on specific ski fields are prized information. For users in Iraq and Iran where internet connectivity is not always stable, hourly weather reports may not be required. On the contrary, they would prefer a downloadable weather forecast for the next 72 hours.

    Amber Weather has also come across users in certain occupations that are less known in China. For example, horticulturists use the app and demand precise hourly information on wind speed and humidity.

    "While plain-vanilla weather forecast apps are embedded in most of the mobile phones these days, our app can meet specific demands of 80 percent of phone users. For others, highly specific or expert information is unnecessary. That means opportunity for us to customize information for a variety of audiences," he said.

    It is no easy job to explore niche markets. "When the developer is based in China, it is very likely that his parents are the product's users. It's much easier to conduct user interviews to get a better understanding of user demand. But such accessibility can't be easily realized in overseas markets. People's living environment, cultural background and traditions make all the difference," he said.

    To address such inadequacies, Amber Weather has turned to multiple channels to shorten the distance with users. Online forums or search engines are the virtual means to connect the app with users.

    The company also attends industry pageants such as Google Developer Day held in the Middle East or North Africa-the less-visited markets-to hold offline talks with local users. It is through one such direct interaction that the company drew inspiration to add a Ramadan month fasting alarm function for the benefit of the users in the Middle East, said Song.

    Instead of adopting the costlier way of setting up overseas offices, Amber Weather chooses to offer internship opportunities to foreign candidates, which also serves the purpose of getting first-hand insights into local markets, said Song.

    In the five years after 2014, Amber Weather had focused only on overseas markets. There is no intention to foray into the Chinese market. For Song, that choice is based on the fundamental of demand and supply.

    "It can be said that China's internet industry is highly developed. Although the Chinese market enjoys a large consumer base, supply of internet products and services has exceeded demand. The market has reached a short-term equilibrium. What our team would face in China is competition from companies bearing similar capabilities or even stronger ones," he said.

    But it is quite a different story in overseas markets. First of all, overseas markets are nearly five times the size of the Chinese market, plausibly indicating more opportunities. Second of all, there are fewer companies able to compete with Amber Weather.

    "When it comes to markets like Russia or Brazil, there are few companies with a headcount of nearly 50 employees. Most of them are teams of much smaller size, or more often, individual developers. Combined with the larger size of the markets, the intensity of competition will be much lower in general," said Song.

    During an internet industry forum held in mid June, Wei Haijun, founding partner of cross-border fund Grand View Capital, said that exploring the overseas markets will be the "new normal" for Chinese internet-based companies, as the growth opportunities lie in the global market.

    Chinese internet-based companies still enjoy a competitive advantage when exploring overseas markets, according to the 2020 Chinese outbound internet companies white paper jointly released by Huawei Cloud and online community BaijingApp. Chinese internet-based companies' capabilities in infrastructure technologies and services such as digital payments are superior to most of the markets in the world, said the report.

    Top
    BACK TO THE TOP
    English
    Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
    License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

    Registration Number: 130349
    FOLLOW US
    CLOSE
     
    国产AV巨作情欲放纵无码| 中文字幕在线观看免费视频| 日本一区二区三区不卡视频中文字幕| 日韩精品专区AV无码| 亚洲不卡无码av中文字幕| 亚洲日韩精品无码专区网站| 精品无码久久久久国产| 日韩av无码免费播放| 99精品久久久久中文字幕| 国产亚洲情侣一区二区无码AV| 永久免费av无码网站yy| 最好看最新的中文字幕免费| 中文字幕AV中文字无码亚| 日韩一区二区三区无码影院| 亚洲中文字幕无码久久综合网| 最近中文字幕2019视频1| 亚洲最大激情中文字幕| 中文字幕AV影片在线手机播放| 日韩精品无码永久免费网站| 人妻丰满熟妇岳AV无码区HD| 无码国产精成人午夜视频一区二区| 中文字幕日韩精品有码视频| 久久久久久久久久久久中文字幕| 亚洲成A∨人片天堂网无码| 久久精品无码专区免费| 国产精品无码素人福利| AV大片在线无码永久免费| 久久久久亚洲AV片无码下载蜜桃| 日韩一区二区三区无码影院| 日韩精品无码一区二区中文字幕| 毛片无码免费无码播放| 久久久无码精品亚洲日韩按摩 | 亚洲中文字幕伊人久久无码| 免费 无码 国产在线观看观| 99久久精品无码一区二区毛片 | 国产精品99精品无码视亚| 国产真人无码作爱视频免费| 精品无码人妻一区二区三区| YW尤物AV无码国产在线观看| www无码乱伦| 亚洲 日韩经典 中文字幕|