The Road to Creating Wealth through Counterattacking Japan and South Korea
On December 18-19, 2024, the "2024 GoGlobal Forum of 100 • Shanghai" (GGF2024 Shanghai), hosted by EqualOcean, a leading think tank for globalization, successfully concluded in Xuhui District, Shanghai. The two-day event featured four full-day forums: the Leadership Forum, the Brand Globalization Forum, the Overseas Insights Forum, and the Emerging Industries Globalization Forum. With 107 speakers, 100 award-winning institutions, and over 3,000 attendees, the forum aimed to advance globalization, drive "true" global expansion, and create a new chapter for Chinese companies going global in 2025.
On December 19, during the Overseas Insights Forum, a roundtable discussion titled "Japan and South Korea – The Path to Wealth Creation Through Counterattack" was held. The panel included Lavin, Partner at Spruce Capital; Zhang Yan, Co-founder of Beiang Intelligent; Zhang Yi, Overseas Business Head at Chiye Technology; Chu Gangqiang, Founder of Jacob's Column; and Luo Haofei, Fund Manager at Leviaries. The discussion was moderated by Dai Yu, Head of External Cooperation at EqualOcean. Below are the highlights from the panelists' remarks.
Lavin: Product Originality and Systematic Approach – Keys to Unlocking the Japanese Market
Lavin， Founding partner of Spruce Capital and former Senior Vice President of Huaxing Capital. Having been deeply involved in investment banking and investment in the primary market for many years, and having gone through multiple capital cycles and relying on professional capabilities, we have assisted numerous enterprises in successfully obtaining financing, mergers and acquisitions, and achieving their listing goals. Representative cases: Wo An Technology, Keychron, Beisi Technology, Duoerqibai En, Tianshuo Navigation. Focus on high potential fields such as new technology, overseas intelligent manufacturing, and overseas consumer technology.
Lavin pointed out that for early-stage startups, originality in products or technology is a key element if they want to enter the Japanese market. The Japanese market has strict regulations on infringement, and once plagiarism is involved, companies will face serious consequences. At the same time, Japanese consumers pursue high-quality and reasonably priced products on the basis of emphasizing product interactivity and ease of use. This means that before entering the Japanese market, companies must carefully position their products to ensure that they not only have unique highlights, but also have a complete and detailed system throughout the entire process from production to after-sales. The Japanese market culture emphasizes planning, methods, and details, with a low tolerance rate for enterprises. If a company encounters problems, it needs to solve them quickly, otherwise it will lose market opportunities. Therefore, the Japanese market is more suitable for companies with mature overall operational strategies and well-established systems.
In terms of market channels, online channels such as Amazon, Nichia, and Lotte e-commerce are relatively friendly to Chinese brands, but companies still need to carefully plan comprehensive marketing activities. The channels in the Japanese market are relatively vertical, and offline market access is difficult. Therefore, before entering the Japanese market, companies need to conduct sufficient research and planning, make full use of existing channel resources, and respond promptly to possible problems in order to achieve effective landing and marketing in the Japanese market.
Zhang Yan: Differentiated positioning, creating a high-end Japanese brand
Zhang Yan, co-founder and general manager of Beiang Intelligent. Graduated from the Department of Electronic Engineering at the University of California, USA, is a leading talent in Suzhou Industrial Park and a dual innovation talent in Jiangsu Province. In 2017, we established an overseas team to launch Beion's globalization strategy, achieving rare results in domestic companies selling our own brand to Europe and America, and selling well in 96 major countries and regions worldwide. Beiang Intelligent is a global technology company specializing in the research and production of air purification and other health appliances. It was founded in 2009 by five Ph.D. graduates from world-renowned universities such as California Institute of Technology and University of California. The self-developed and self sold brand is referred to by Alibaba International as "changing the world standard with Chinese standards", and its products are sold well in 96 major countries and regions around the world.
Ms. Zhang emphasized the company's experience in developing the Air dog product in the Japanese market. In terms of strategy and product positioning for entering the Japanese market, she emphasized that product differentiation is crucial in the fiercely competitive Japanese and Korean markets, and it is difficult to break through without uniqueness. When building brand awareness and high-end positioning, she pointed out that product sales in the Japanese and Korean markets are closely related to customer trust. Enterprises should visually display the effectiveness of their products to customers and visualize their utility in order to convey the greatest sincerity to them.
The customer service system conditions in the Japanese and Korean markets are strict, and she suggests that professionals do professional things. When it comes to marketing, look for local professional institutions. When it comes to after-sales service, look for local professional after-sales institutions. When it comes to customer service, also look for local professional after-sales customer service. Connect all the elements together and present professional touchpoints to customers.
Zhang Yi: Localized operation helps establish roots in the Japanese and Korean markets
Zhang Yi, head of overseas business of Ciye Technology, manager of Joey's 900 million overseas notes, 10 years of experience in advertising marketing and Internet industry, 5 years of experience in overseas marketing industry, and seller of Japanese e-commerce platform. Advocates of the values of "localization first, globalization later" for Chinese brands, committed to using a combination of operations and technology to assist in the localization process of Chinese overseas brands.
In Ms. Zhang's view, a product is not a one-time delivery process, but the sum of all services provided by the seller to the buyer throughout the entire lifecycle from early sales to product completion. Therefore, she suggests that entrepreneurs of Nissan in Japan, South Korea, and other countries should define their products in a systematic manner and pay more attention to what consumers experience throughout the entire process, including the timeliness of after-sales service. Only by giving higher priority to this item can we have broader development opportunities.
Ms. Zhang elaborated on the key points of localized operation in the Japanese and Korean markets. She pointed out that although the Japanese way of life is influenced by Europe and America, it still retains local characteristics. This means that companies entering the Japanese and Korean markets must keenly capture these consumer preferences and differences, and make corresponding adjustments in product presentation and sales platforms based on different consumption habits. At the same time, she emphasized the importance of localizing partners, and the brand's control over platforms and channels is crucial. They should select suitable partners based on their own positioning and use their power to reach end consumers, which is an indispensable part of localized operations.
Next, Ms. Zhang provided suggestions for beginners entering the Japanese and Korean markets. She believes that as a stock market, the Japanese and Korean markets are difficult to make people rich overnight. Enterprises need to adjust their mentality, focus on long-term returns, patiently respond to challenges, and operate steadily. In addition, Ms. Zhang shared her own experience regarding the limited resources for beginners. Due to the difficulty in finding operators in the Japanese and Korean markets, she faced the problems of low manpower efficiency and high requirements for personnel qualifications when doing Japanese e-commerce. To solve this problem, she started with the product descriptions of excellent competitor stores, classified them by functional and emotional types, established a corpus, and solved the shortage of manpower through automation to achieve localized operation, providing a reference for novice enterprises.
Zhuqiang Gang: Insight into the Japanese and Korean markets, welcoming new challenges for enterprises
Zhu Gangqiang, founder of Jacob Column, has rich professional experience and has served as CxO responsible for retail, supply chain, and digitalization in Nike Greater China; LVMH affiliate Trendy Group CxO is responsible for mergers and acquisitions, brand digital transformation; Oriental International Lily Women's Clothing CxO is responsible for strategy and digitalization; CxO, a Microsoft joint venture, is responsible for product and solution architecture; J&J and Eli Lily Pharmaceuticals are responsible for IT and compliance.
From the perspective of stock markets, Mr. Zhu pointed out that Japan and South Korea are relatively normal stock markets, with a certain degree of predictability in investment and income, which is fundamentally different from domestic business growth strategies. Chinese enterprises can learn from the long-term operation and establishment of financial empires of Japanese enterprises in the stock market, and explore the undeveloped stock market. Although Chinese enterprises have shortcomings in going abroad to Japan and South Korea, if they can find new growth drivers and return to the domestic market, it will create huge value.
Mr. Zhu emphasized the significant differences in corporate decision-making patterns between the Japanese and Korean markets and the Chinese market. In Japan, corporate decision-making mostly follows a top-down model, which makes the Japanese market relatively independent in the global corporate system. Japanese consumers have a high loyalty to local brands, and the policy environment provides strong protection for local products. In the management systems of global companies, Japan exhibits a high degree of verticality, which means that in procurement and other aspects, there is often a tendency to choose local products. This policy orientation has to some extent set obstacles for foreign companies to enter the Japanese market.
However, Mr. Zhu also pointed out that there are many opportunities in the Japanese stock market. Despite facing many challenges in entering the Japanese market, as long as companies can create products with unique brand tone, strong product technology driving force, and sufficient premium ability, they have the opportunity to get a share of this mature market. Unlike some domestic markets that pursue ultimate cost-effectiveness, Japanese consumers place greater emphasis on brand power in their purchasing behavior and are willing to pay for brand premiums. This requires companies to not rely solely on low price strategies when expanding into the Japanese market, but to focus on brand building and product innovation.
Luo Haofei: Cultural empowerment enhances the high-end value of the brand
Luo Haofei, Leviaries Investment Fund Manager, Senior Foreign Lawyer. With 12 years of experience as a foreign-related lawyer at the International Red Circle, I have assisted Fortune 500 companies in their affairs in China and accumulated a wealth of cross-cultural international business negotiation experience in the overseas investment process of central state-owned enterprises. Combined with its unique art collection and aesthetic background, I initiated the establishment of the Leviaries Overseas Investment Fund, which has successfully held investor roadshows and private equity expert investors in the Middle East, Europe, America, and Japan. The investment and financing consulting field for domestic clients involves project selection consulting and incubation, as well as how to enhance brand image and visibility through the internationalization of brand aesthetics, and how to protect brand rights and eliminate market barriers through legal means, connecting with local market and other professional service institutions.
Mr. Luo believes that culture is a key factor in the success or failure of business, especially when it comes to high-end brands going global in Japan. Taking the strong cultural characteristics of the Japanese nation as an example, Japanese investors tend to follow investment concepts and business logic that have been validated and have strong competitiveness in the European and American markets. If a company wants to enter the high-end market in Japan, it can first operate its brand in Europe or the United States, obtain recognition, and then enter Japan. High end brands such as Wuliangye and Esco can increase brand added value and enhance their competitiveness in the international high-end market by collaborating with foreign artists, holding press conferences, and designing art collections.
The refined culture in Japanese commercial culture originates from aesthetics and is fully reflected in aspects such as mall layout, public aesthetic education, and product packaging. Mr. Luo suggests that companies should pay attention to details when engaging with the Japanese market, such as using high-quality business cards, pursuing ultimate craftsmanship, etiquette, and service, and deeply understanding the business logic and cultural heritage behind it, in order to gain the trust of the market, investors, and customers. In addition, taking international IPs such as Miniso's collaboration with Marvel as an example, Mr. Luo elaborated on how companies can differentiate marketing based on the characteristics of the Japanese market, adapt to local aesthetic needs, and successfully enter the Japanese market. He emphasized that companies need to keenly capture local cultural and aesthetic characteristics in their operations in the Japanese market, integrate them into brand strategies, and achieve effective brand dissemination and market expansion.
Regarding the "Global Globalization Hundred People Association" (GGC100)
Since starting from within EO in 2018, EqualOcean has officially launched the "GoGlobal Committee of 100" (GGC100) at the "2023 Globalization Summit" (ESG2023) held in Shenzhen in June 2023. GGC100 is an organization jointly initiated by EqualOcean and hundreds of well-known entrepreneurs, investors, and scholars. From "gathering a hundred people" to "going to a thousand people together", from "dialogue industry" to "empowering the world". The "Hundred Talents Association" gathers elite members from all over the world, with the aim of serving Chinese enterprises' global expansion, and holds the "GoGlobal Forum of 100" (GGF) to complement the "Global Globalization Hundred Talents Association".
As of now, the GGC100 Global 100 has gathered over 500 elite members from overseas globalization, 1600 executives from overseas enterprises to share insights, and 20000 precise overseas globalization communities, covering industries including but not limited to new energy AI、 Fast selling products and catering cover the entire industry, with a total market value of 10 trillion yuan. The company has held 8 thousand person conferences, more than 20 industry salons, more than 10 elite events, and multiple study tours.
About the Global Global Hundred Forum (GGF)
The GoGlobal Forum of 100 (GGF) is hosted by EqualOcean and the Global 100, and is held annually in Shenzhen in June and Shanghai in December. Each conference lasts for 2-3 days and attracts over 2500 attendees, with approximately 70% being directors. It is the largest and most anticipated industry gathering in the field of global globalization. Welcome to contact EqualOcean staff to learn about cooperation methods.
About EqualOcean
EqualOcean is a new type of think tank and core resource linker that focuses on serving Chinese companies' global expansion and helping overseas companies or institutions seize development opportunities in China. With the mission of "connecting China and the world", our core advantages are having the strongest team in the industry, connecting the official and private sectors, connecting the technology Internet and "traditional industries", having a global vision and a global resource network. Established in November 2018, EqualOcean currently has products such as the New Overseas Research Institute, New Overseas Academy, Overseas Globalization Hundred People Association, Media Activities, and Huang Yuanpu Channel. It provides in-depth reporting and analysis in both Chinese and English, global strategy consulting, overseas market research, overseas benchmark study camps, overseas study tours, overseas conferences, and overseas closed door meetings. In 2024, the EqualOcean team also published a book called "New Overseas Wave", which sold 100000 copies.
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