How Sotheby’s and Juwai.com are working around China’s Great Firewall
How Sotheby’s and Juwai.com are working around China’s Great Firewall
The alliance will provide competitive advantages to Sotheby’s International Realty associates
For Sotheby’s International Realty, courting affluent Chinese buyers has become more requisite than ever. China is already the second-largest source of visits to sothebysrealty.com, next only to the US.
There is just one problem: The Great Firewall of China.
Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates have recently found a way to work around remarkable levels of online censorship in the country. Last week, the realty firm announced an alliance with Juwai.com to place listings on the Chinese property portal and its real estate search results.
“One of Juwai.com’s key advantages is that it is hosted on both sides of China’s Internet firewall, so its listings are visible online both within China and outside of China,” says Wendy Purvey, chief marketing officer at Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates, in a statement.
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Internet censorship in China is notoriously extensive; sites such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, and even NYTimes.com are inaccessible in the country. The country blocks 25 percent of all internet sites, according to internet freedom advocacy GreatFire.org.
Under the alliance, Juwai.com’s Chinese-language team can respond to consumer inquiries in real time and translate them to English for Sotheby’s associates. Sotheby’s banner ads, along with a brand overview page that will allow customers to view contact info and listings, will also run on Juwai.com.
“Having Juwai.com’s team respond to leads in timely fashion overcomes the cultural and time-zone challenges of working with overseas buyers,” says Purvey. “That’s a huge competitive advantage to our affiliates and independent sales associates, and to their clients.”
Chinese buyers acquired at least USD350 billion in US real estate from 2010 to 2015, Sotheby’s noted. Between 2009 and 2015, Chinese buyers accounted for 28 percent of all foreign residential real estate acquisitions in the US.
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Source: Property Report