Bettering your email marketing campaign does not mean you need to increase your marketing budget. Instead, you need to spend more time and effort on your data collection and quality of content. You can spend all the money in the world, but if your data is faulty or your content is poorly contrived, your efforts and money are wasted. These are the areas in email marketing you need to dedicate your time on.

You should only send personalized emails to your customers. Making your emails relevant improves 2.5x more click-through rates and leads to 6x more sales. You can collect relevant information by asking your customers to fill in a sign-up sheet; you can then segment your findings based on each demographic. Sending relevant, segmented email campaigns via automation can generate 320% more revenue.

Spending the time on generating personalized content makes for happier customers. 74% of consumers become irritated when they receive an email that is irrelevant to their preferences. This can damage your brand’s reputation and make you less trustworthy.

The above may seem costly; yet, there are many email marketing services who can offer package deals including all the tools necessary to create an effective marketing campaign. Instead of money, spend sufficient amounts of time and effort on your campaigns.

Global brands are often challenged when it comes to developing a social media presence in China’s market. Every brand wants to reach internet users in China since there are over 700 million internet users in China alone, and half of the world’s internet users are located in Asia (source). To be a player in China’s social media scene, brands have to develop a different strategy because the platforms are different, the regulations are different, and the culture is different. Being successful with social media connections in this market requires expertise and resources. Today, we will be talking about the main social media platforms in China and illustrate 4 ways to expand your social media marketing to reach and engage Chinese consumers.

China’s Social Media Platforms

China’s social media platforms are different from those that are popular in the rest of the world. Facebook and Twitter are largely blocked in China, so you need to know where to go. The platforms that are widely used in China are fragmented and require differing tones. The popular channels are Weibo, Sina Weibo, Tencent Qzone, Tencent QQ, Tencent Wechat, Renren, and Youku & Tudou. Instead of Google, Baidu is used as the main search engine in China. With so many social media options in China, test to see which ones work best for your company and concentrate on the channels that perform best. Expanding your social media marketing does not always have to mean that you have to use every channel.

1. Establish Trust through Social Media Word of Mouth: For the most part, the culture in China is that consumers do not trust official sources. Social media marketing is a great way to involve the social channel community in your marketing efforts. Use reviews and community tactics to create a social environment that lends itself to word of mouth through China’s social channels.

2. Use Storytelling to Create Trust and Engagement: If you can harness the power of storytelling, your brand can experience great success in Chinese markets. When you can weave a story, it is not only engaging to consumers, but you can make them feel a connection with your brand and be more authentic in the eyes of your audiences. Use online chats, video, and other types of media to help tell your story. Utilising different types of media in addition to social channels will help bring your story to life.

3. Take Advantage of the Dominant Mobile Online Market: More people in China access the Internet via mobile than on computers. When you use location based mobile advertising to reach out to consumers, you can take advantage of this large mobile base. As online shopping becomes more and more integrated with social media in China, this will be a big area of growth. If you establish your brand’s mobile shopping and social media connection now, you will be ahead of the game when it comes to your competition.

4. Leverage Media Monitoring Tools Specific to China: Did you know that there are specific tools that can help provide intelligence on consumers in China and across Asia? There are tools and software that specialise on media monitoring in China that can provide insight on social channels, networks your consumers prefer, and even detailed information on sentiment and demographics. Having this knowledge about your audience and consumer base can be vital in developing the right social media campaigns that will speak to your target consumers and get them to engage with your brand, converting online visits and even resulting in offline sales too. Take a look at the media monitoring tools that Isentia offers. These types of highly targeted tools can be your secret weapon to success.

Summary and Action Points for Your Brand

If your target market is China, then you need to have the right tools and strategy for the Chinese consumer. That means testing to see what works for your target audience who are using the social channels specific to China. Any marketing campaign will need testing; however, when you are launching social media in a challenging atmosphere like China, then even more testing is going to be necessary. Be prepared that some ideas may need tweaking and others might need to be scrapped altogether in order to find the right marketing mix. Make sure that your marketing strategy includes our 3 keys for expanding social media marketing for your brand in China: establish trust through word of mouth, use storytelling to enhance that trust and create engagement, take advantage of the dominant mobile usage in China, and leverage media monitoring tools and software that are specifically geared for China. Using media monitoring and competitive analysis tools will help you gain insight on the industry and how to better connect with your audience using the different social channels popular in China.

Are you considering migrating your traditional on-premises to a Software as a Service (SaaS) model? If so, you are not alone, as businesses across the world are making the move to the cloud to improve their operations and the user experience. To help you make an informed decision, we are providing everything you need to know about application hosting.

Easy Migration

It’s easy to migrate to an application hosting provider, as all the hardware you need to get started will already be installed, secured and in operation throughout multiple locations across the globe. So, you do not have to purchase an expensive servers or hardware to create a SaaS solution, and you do not have to worry about any lengthy server configurations or maintenance issues.

Set Business Goals

Setting us a SaaS model is like setting up a brand new business, so you should set various objectives that the new software services can help you to accomplish. For example, you could utilize the SaaS solution to improve data collaboration between various departments, improve data retention or reduce software management expenditure.

Simple Deployment

If you have deployed an on-premises solution, you will remember the steps you had to take to install the hardware, before setting up the software onto the hardware. Once that was done, you had to successfully configure each application and embark with lengthy tests. However, application hosting simplifies the process, as all the hardware has already been set-up so that you can deploy the application quickly. While some hosting providers do not offer customizability options, the likes of Umbee Hosting can provide a bespoke custom design that is complement by built-in security, a managed backup and 24/7 support.

However, it is still advisable to test the software application once the application hosting is up and running. So, test its compatibility with different browsers, as well as identifying how well the SaaS solution works on various mobile devices, such as smartphones, laptops and tablets.

Scalability

An application hosting solution should grow alongside your company’s needs, offering greater storage capacity, security and support upon request. So, it is important to ask the host as many questions as possible such as how they can work with you to help grow your business into the future.

Focus on Your Team

Migrating from an on-premises platform to the cloud might require your business to re-evaluate their existing team. For instance, an IT technician will no longer be required to manage the in-house platform, so the company might require a SaaS software administrator or a SaaS software developer to improve their cloud software service or help to deploy a new solution.

While the prospect of migrating to the cloud might seem a little daunting, the right hosting provider can simplify the process to ensure you have a smooth transition. While it might take a little bit of work to move to a cloud solution, you can guarantee all the research and hard work will be worth it once you enjoy greater flexibility, accessibility and security.

China has always been a lucrative market for the e-commerce business with its 770 million+ working population and their love for shopping online. The real situation, on the other hand, is a little different than what someone inexperienced with the Chinese market might presume. Although it is the biggest e-commerce market in not only Asia but globally as well, it is nothing like any other market in the world. As many big brands batten down the hatches in realisation of this fact, let us take a close look at some of those shutdowns.

Lotte

Lotte Group Retail has been in China for the last two decades and currently has five shopping malls and 115 supermarkets in the country. However, the group’s first attempt at opening an online mall (Tmall) came to an end this January when sales fell well below expectations during the last quarter of 2016 as compared to Q4 2015. The South Korean MNC had not been seeing too much growth in China recently and as was made evident by the closing of the Tmall, e-commerce wasn’t working for them either.

ASOS

The prospects of e-commerce are bright in the UK and reliable VPS hosting UK makes sure that even emerging online businesses never have a bad server day. This positive experience at home led ASOS to believe that the company could make it in China as well, and the biggest online fashion retailer in the UK entered China with a bang in 2013. They poured in over a hundred million RMB into the market and developed a sales team, opened its own website as well as a Tmall, and imported the best of the British contemporary style it had to offer. All that effort and optimism came to an end in April 2016, when they decided to close shop and leave China for good, with a loss of 4 million GBP! It was a mix of import taxes, complex Chinese clothing trade regulations, ineffective marketing, and stiff competition from local Chinese competitors that ultimately pushed the huge brand out of China.

Coach

Coach, the US luxury brand in handbags launched its first official Tmall in 2015 and closed it down in September 2016! They did give a vague explanation along the lines of “shifting operational strategy,” but it wasn’t really a secret. Just like many other foreign established brands venturing into China, Coach just wasn’t making a profit that justified its Tmall. Coach, however, has not yet left the Chinese online market completely. The company has realised that WeChat is probably the best platform for online businesses in China right now and continues to remain quite active there.

As one can see from the examples above, in spite of China being the largest online retail market in the world, it isn’t a place where a business can enter with pre-conceived notions and zero market research, irrespective of their stature in the outside world. Understanding government regulations, logistics, and the unique Chinese market are some of the aspects of e-commerce that should be thoroughly researched and assessed before entering the nation and its fiercely competitive online market.

While Baidu is about one-sixth the size of Amazon, it is growing very quickly. This is why Baidu was one of Motley Fool's major buy recommendations in 2016. Baidu is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Chinese e-commerce but it reflects many changes the region is facing in this area.

Beijing is no Longer the Epicenter

There have long been jokes that the capital or largest city of a nation is the entire nation and that everything of importance happens there. This is how e-commerce rolled out in the United States, primarily in San Francisco or in New York City. This isn't true in the case of China. In fact, e-commerce growth in China is driven by demand in third-tier and lower cities. A similar trend is seen in India, too, as middle-class consumers with less access to physical retailers order goods online.

Online Selling through Social Media Platforms is becoming the Norm

The Facebook Marketplace that rolled out in 2016 can be seen as copying WeChat's e-commerce model. A third of WeChat users were buying items online through WeChat in 2016, a percentage guaranteed to rise as the WeChat ecosystem of service providers continues to grow. Other messenger platforms in China are adding bots, online marketplaces, and information appliances capable of voice recognition to facilitate e-commerce like Amazon's Alexa.

Social Commerce now the Soul of China's e-commerce

In Asia, half of all e-commerce is driven by social media. This is facilitated in part by the online selling that popped up on social media sites like WeChat. It is also driven by Baidu hosting two-thirds of all web searches in China and offering many items for sale online. Tools like The Email Finder remain critical for B2B sales, but reaching consumers requires going onto the platforms where they shop.

Chinese Preferences are Fueling Innovation

Alibaba pioneered the 'pay with your face' feature to let you authenticate payments by taking a picture of yourself. This builds on the technology of the billion-dollar Chinese startup Face++ used by Alipay, a Chinese equivalent to PayPal. It even protects against fraudsters using a photo by requiring people to move during verification. Alipay itself is starting to rival PayPal and other payment options. Not only is it accepted by half a billion businesses in China, but it is being used by Chinese as they travel overseas. Alipay launched in Europe in 2016 and 60% of its users are already outside of mainland China.

Chinese e-commerce is growing the fastest in the third and fourth tier cities that lack the shopping opportunities of big cities like Beijing. Selling through social media sites is the norm in China and the Chinese prefer to use one, large site than shop with smaller sites. The preference is so ingrained that Amazon chose to partner with Baidu rather than try to move into China under its own name. China is far ahead of the United States in using facial recognition for payments and integrated ecosystems built into sites like WeChat to support e-commerce. China's large population at home and abroad is likely to make IT companies like Alipay a global brand.

Over the past couple of years, increasing numbers of businesses in Asia have been moving their operations to the cloud. While it used to be expensive – and difficult – for corporations to switch to cloud computing, the services and solutions available today are making cloud computing even more accessible to small businesses across the continent.

It makes sense for small businesses to take advantage of cloud solutions because they bring so much value to the table. There are a number of key cloud services and solutions that can help small and medium enterprises stay competitive in today’s economy.

Streamlined Sales Efforts

One of the most popular cloud-based solutions on the market today is SalesForce, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform designed to help businesses fine-tune their sales workflow to the very last detail. It is amazing how many tools are offered by SalesForce on its platform, especially considering the same tools used to be offered exclusively to larger corporations.

By moving sales operations to the cloud using SalesForce and other available solutions, small businesses can now have a strong sales team with the ability to work effectively and flexibly. When doing sales visits, for example, sales officers can convey requests from clients directly to the rest of the sales team at the office. In return, decision makers within the business can manually approve or reject the requests and formulate the perfect quotation for the client.

This type of streamlining has an enormous impact on efficiency. Not only does it allow small businesses to be more flexible when facing market challenges, it also helps businesses expand their operations without investing a lot of money in the process.

Better HR with Cloud Solutions

Another popular category of cloud solutions is cloud human resources management or HRM. Companies such as XCDHR.co.uk have been offering their HR solutions to small and medium enterprises while catering to larger corporations at the same time. Instead of developing an in-house HR department, small businesses can now save a lot of money while getting the same level of HR expertise and tools in the cloud.

Cloud HR is a particularly useful solution for small businesses trying to cope with market growth. Anything from managing existing employees to finding new team members to fill key positions can be done in the cloud, with the help of experienced HR specialists catering to the business’s needs.

Cloud-Based Data Management

Last, but certainly not least, we have different data management solutions designed to run in the cloud. Thanks to recent advancements, it is now easy to store a large amount of data securely using affordable cloud solutions. In fact, cloud storage and backup solutions have the ability to offer more storage space – and advanced data management systems – at lower prices than the more conventional offline solutions.

The availability of cloud computing is really helping small and medium businesses be even more competitive in an already competitive market. If you’re looking for ways to expand your competitive advantage and take advantage of market growth, a suitable cloud solution is just what you need.

On January 17, the Department of Public Works and Services (PWS) of Ras Al Khaimah released a new smartphone app which aims to help citizens reserve services from the government agency. The app is part of a broader eGovernment initiative in the Gulf Coast Country which dates to 2004.

According to the manager of the Commercial Affairs Section for the PWS, Mohammed Mahmoud, the new app ‘will significantly ease and expedite official transactions, save time, money and effort, and bring happiness to the customers.’ Mr. Mahmoud also told the Khaleej Times that the app will help the department to conduct its business in a more efficient manner.

eGovernment has been defined by the eGovernment for Development project as ‘the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve the activities of public sector organizations.’ While some point out that this covers earlier technologies the push towards Government-as-a-Service has gained steam in the last 10 years with the rise of smartphones and technologies.

The leaders of the UAE have taken the opportunity to implement eGovernment initiatives seriously. In fact, the 2016 UN eGovernment Survey ranked the country has the fifth most development eGovernment framework in Asia - second for eGovernment services.

One reason for the success of these initiatives is that developments in eGovernment services are not restricted to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Instead, the Federal Council has sought to include all the emirates in the program. In the case of Ras Al Khaimah, this includes its Emir, Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al Qasimi, who has promoted initiatives to improve the delivery of basic services for all.

Besides the newly launched PWS app, other examples of eGovernment services in the tiny emirate include the e-Dirham system. This program allows citizens to pay taxes and other government service fees online and was first launched in 2015. Since then, every department in the Ras Al Khaimah government has integrated with the payment scheme.

Another example of the eGovernment initiative in the emirate is the Electronic Government Authority (EGA). This agency is tasked with leading the conversion to eGovernment and not only ties together other agencies within the emirate but also coordinates with the federal government in Abu Dhabi.

The EGA has implemented many initiatives including online customs payments, utility payments, filing, and tracking of suggestions and complaints online, payment of traffic fines, and many other services. The agency was launched in 2004 by the Emir with a goal of converting Ras Al Khaimah society to an online community.

This even included opening a training center in 2009 to increase the awareness of government officials to the digital tools being implemented by the agency. To date, the EGA has improved hundreds of processes within the emirate’s government and while adoption of eGovernment services by some older generations has been slow, the clear majority of respondents are satisfied with overall direction of the initiatives.

Other features of eGovernment initiatives in the UAE include one-stop shops, chat features and even text-to-speech features of the government’s website to help the visually impaired. By doing so, the normally conservative UAE has become one of the leaders in eGovernment services in the entire world.

Focusing on Ras Al Khaimah, the emirate is one of the sleepier corners of the UAE with a population of slightly over 200,000. Located less than two hours’ drive from Dubai International Airport, the emirate is located at the northeast corner of the country and borders the Persian Gulf to the north and is the city is the closest port in the country to the Straits of Hormuz.

This highlights the strategic importance of Ras Al Khaimah to the country and the region. As mentioned, the goal of the eGovernment initiative in the UAE is to improve the accessibility and quality of government services. The initiative has been so successful that other governments from around the region have come to visit the UAE to see how their programs work.

Another important aspect of the eGovernment program in the UAE is that the country is a federal system - in that the individual emirates retain a certain level of autonomy on domestic affairs. As such, the eGovernment initiatives in Ras Al Khaimah, like the recently released PWS app, not only need to function as a portal for local government but they also need to be integrated with the federal government as well.

Written by Jane Brown

As any millennial will tell you, there are far too many advantages of using the internet for business to ever consider running an operation without online capabilities. However, while many businesses are truly seeing some of the power that is internet technology, emails, and Facebook groups for marketing, not every company has started to see the light about opening up boundaries and barriers when it comes to connecting real resources across the internet. When it comes to tapping into the online world to conduct business, you can find real solutions in no time at all that wouldn't otherwise be in your backyard.

Finding New Suppliers

While you never want to put all of your eggs in one basket, and you do have to be conscious of who you do business with in any capacity, you also need to know that there is a humongous business landscape that exists outside of your county. Entrepreneur even states the countless ways you can go out and try to find new suppliers, and whether you want to make connections with a distributor, manufacturers, or even find new independent craftsmen, there are countless businesses right now who are looking for individuals and companies to sell to.

If you continue to reach out and find new companies you can work with all of the time, then you should be able to tap into some new efficiency. You might be lucky enough to improve your quality or decrease your prices, but if nothing else, you could minimize some of the levels of risk you bear by keeping all of your suppliers from right around your neck of the woods. That is exactly why smart companies are taking to time to find brand new sourcing options on a constant basis.

New Sales and Clients

The olden days of business meant cold calling was actually about walking into a random door and office and trying to secure business. You didn't even need to know what the company did, let alone who the contact person was. However, when you start to see the power of the internet and how it has replaced the use of picking up the telephone, it can completely make sense to understand why some of the hottest startup companies are all about helping current businesses to connect to other firms as well.

When you consider the different tools such as the power of corporate videocasting by Bluejeans, then you can see why current salespeople don't even need to walk through the door of a company any longer to make a contact and to secure a sale. No one said that they have to drop the cold calling and knocking on doors, but there is a great opportunity to make a contact and close a sale without ever physically seeing the person, especially because video conferencing allows you to see someone face to face even if they are on the other side of the world.

Hiring Remote Employees

Whether you want employees to physically relocate into your corporate environment or you want them to be able to work remotely, the ability to cast a wide net means your organization has a much better selection of possible employees when it comes time to replace or recruit new blood. The old way of seeking out potential candidates was to put an ad in a newspaper and hope that an excellent candidate came along at the right time. However, with top quality recruiting strategists aplenty and with the ability to target potential candidates from all over the world, any organization could wind up interviewing and hiring people from any state, country, or even continent.

The power of being able to cast a wide net to find employees isn’t the only benefit to remote workers. As Mashable states, there can be a chance to communicate more frequently with remote workers than you do with in-house employees. This is partly because you always want to be on the same page as they are, but it also means your communication with those workers could have a stronger quality as well. Throw in the fact that an online workforce full of remote workers means your company never sleeps and is always running around the clock, and it is a component of service that will help to get you even further ahead.

While the internet has continued to propel forward an entire generation of people, it has also catapulted businesses forward in a way that has never been seen before. Whichever method you prefer and whatever reason you start to embrace more of an online focus truly does not matter. However, as long as you are completely aware of all of the possibilities that can be had when it comes to conducting old fashioned operations online, you should truly start to see better results, larger margins, and less effort expended.

Online security and knowledge of keeping data secure has improved greatly, to the point that many internet users don’t consciously worry about it any longer. Almost every computer user knows at least the basics for keeping their information secure and their devices free of viruses. However, the world of technology changes so rapidly that it can still become possible for hackers or viruses to break through the cracks. Safety during video meetings is a prime example. It is a growing but relatively new trend that requires additional security due to the amount of personal information shared. These are some of the most pressing reasons to investigate the protection levels of your online meetings and the steps you can take to improve it:

1. Protection Against Hackers

The news is often filled with reports of companies or individuals supposedly being hacked and their personal data being leaked to the public. The recent U.S presidential race has resulted in a lot more of these stories. For example, No Jitter reported on the NSA spying upon the United Nations by hacking into their video conferencing server. Businesses may not be quite as at risk as political organizations, but hacking can still create a large blow for them. Any hacker who gets into stored customer data or account information could not only steal money or leak this sensitive information online, it will affect the business’ reputation for having poor security.

Video conferencing is largely secure, but hackers have still found ways to tap into it. They can use webcams to zoom in on personal information, record keystrokes to discover passwords, or eavesdrop on conversations undetected.

2. Firewalls Are Your Friend

While it is a complex problem and hackers are clever people, the solution is relatively simple, says eSecurity Planet. They recommend that if you are using cloud based software that is accessed directly through an internet browser, use an encrypted firewall and a session border controller. This seems like obvious advice, but according to them, it is surprising the amount of professional companies and even government departments which fail to take this step.

The likely reason is that uninitiated users of video conferencing software can have trouble accessing meetings if their firewall isn’t configured correctly and will try to disable it in order to log in and possibly forget to turn it back on afterwards. This can be dangerous due to the personal information and sensitive topics they will likely be discussing during the meeting. It could even affect other parts of their computer as well. If anybody in your company has experienced this issue, it is a good idea to instruct them on the correct method of accessing meetings securely and making clear the reasons why proper safety is so essential. If this doesn’t work, it might be time to switch to a different software provider. Be on the lookout for encrypted video conferencing for IT services, an example being BlueJeans. Even if a security alert should occur, and it can still happen at times even to the most careful of users, you can alert the supplier’s risk prevention team who will take measures to eliminate the threat.

3. System Checks

It is always a good idea to copy the ideas of somebody who is doing things the correct way, and that is especially true for security. Have a look at the policies of companies which utilize good protection and have no history of being hacked. You will see that they perform regular system checks to analyse their security and spot potential threats before they happen. This goes beyond simply performing a regular virus scan. It means checking the system thoroughly with somebody who is well versed in online preservation. Prevention is better than cure and spotting potential gaps in the security network before a hacker takes advantage of them will prevent a lot of headaches further down the road.

4. The Human Factor

It is wise to not only ensure that every person on your IT team knows how to spot and prevent safety flaws, but also that everybody in your company knows the importance of proper security and how to prevent errors. You could do this by holding an online presentation during your next company-wide meeting, using some of the above examples to demonstrate the importance of your message. Consider also changing your company’s online protection and internet policies to prevent people from causing security risks or leaking personal information accidentally. This should hopefully prevent a major disaster from being caused by a person who didn’t know any better.

Many threats are the result of somebody who is unfamiliar with their software or hasn’t used proper common sense. By providing proper guidelines to the people in your office and using simple but effective prevention techniques, you can keep your network secure and prevent a major hacking scandal or financial blow in your company.

More and more tourism destinations in Asia, the governments behind them and private operators running tour packages and services are realising the importance of online promotion. We’re seeing a large increase of familiarisation trips, designed to attract bloggers and key influencers to promoted destinations across Asia.

What’s interesting is how these bloggers and influencers then act as the main promotional channels for the destinations. Their seemingly personal blogs are garnering lots of traffic – and their social media profiles are flooded with user engagement. How do they cope with a larger, international audience?

The Shift to Cloud Hosting

One of the most apparent trend among Asia’s top travel bloggers is the massive shift to Cloud hosting. Blogging is turning into a serious occupation – and a big business – for these bloggers, which is why they are strengthening their websites to handle more traffic.
Cloud hosting is indeed the right technology for the purpose. More server resources can be allocated for each site, allowing even the most feature-intensive blogs to handle millions of visitors with ease.

Another interesting trend is bloggers moving their sites to foreign servers or using CDNs to reach international viewers. Companies like bestwebhosting.co.uk are reporting an increase in Asia-based travel sites using their servers to penetrate UK and European markets.

More Financial Backings to Match

As mentioned previously, blogging is no longer something these travel bloggers do on the side. There are even American and European bloggers who now specialise in exploring Asia. Nomadic Matt, for instance, is a famous blog about traveling to Asia run by a New York Times Best Seller author born in Boston.

The market is growing rapidly, just as the market for tourism in Asia is growing rapidly. Governments and their programmes are pushing tourism forward. More money is being allocated for online promotions and a large portion of that goes towards building relationships with travel bloggers and popular websites.

The growing business means it is now rewarding to blog fulltime and stick to travel as the primary niche. We haven’t even begun to talk about how private companies and service providers endorse – and pay – travel bloggers to promote their services too.

New Destinations to Explore

One of the challenges of running a big blog is keeping the audience happy. To do that, you need to constantly provide your audience with valuable content. Thanks to the growing tourism industry across Asia, there is no shortage of new destinations to explore.

Indonesia, for instance, is introducing 16 new destinations to visit. Malaysia continues to promote places like Kuala Lumpur as the centre of Asia. Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, and other Asian countries are following suit, opening their gates to more international travellers.

The market will only continue to grow. It is interesting to see how blogs that used to be about personal notes and journals are now competing with big publications and becoming more effective ways of promoting tourism in Asia. Soon, we’ll see another shift towards live blogging and videos too, especially now that video is dominating the content market.