Asia Startup Pulse

How to Prevent PR Crisis in China, with Alex Duncan, co-founder of KAWO

Episode Summary

Social media is one of the most influential means of communication in the world. It helps brands to engage with customers quickly and effectively. However, it also brings potential risks. Social media management platform KAWO recently published a report analyzing social media crises in China during the last 10 years. It shows that there were 42 brands crises in 2019 in China, while only 1 incident happened each year from 2009 to 2013. Geographic sovereignty and politics are apparently the dominant causes for these crises. We invited Alex Duncan, co-founder of KAWO, in today’s podcast to share his insights about the report, how to manage social media in China, and most importantly how to prevent PR crisis. Find KAWO’s report here: kawo.com/bcr

Episode Notes

01:53 About Alex and KAWO

02:37 What brought Alex to China

03:45 How Alex started working for a technology company

05:26 What has KAWO achieved

06:28 What makes dynamic social media ecosystem in China

11:06 Challenges that western brands have in China

14:56 Social media is way more influential than it was

19:28 Localization: trust the local team and listen to users

20:01 Brands are also facing risks from publicity

25:40 Startups being impacted by the PR crisis

27:20 The reason why there were more PR crises

29:24 KAWO’s competitors and challenges

Many thanks to our guest Alex Duncan, host Oscar Ramos; ; producers Eva Shi; editors David and Geep; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsors People Squared and Himalaya. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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