Everybody here in China knows about this. CCTV celebrity news anchor Rui Chenggang blogged about the Starbucks inside Beijing's Forbidden City [points to blog entry in Mandarin] in January 2007, questioning whether it was culturally appropriate for a U.S. business to be located there.
One thing led to another - his blog post was picked up and debated on bulletin boards; blog host Sina.com featured his blog prominently on their home page; that drove more traffic. The result was 2,864 comments left by readers and over half a million page views on Rui's blog. (You can see these numbers at the bottom of the second image, below.)
As you may recall, Starbucks agreed that a storefront inside the 600-year-old imperial palace wasn't the best idea. Starbucks' lease ran out and the shop officially closed in July 2007. Now a Chinese brand of lattes occupies the space. I had an espresso there (see photo above) when I toured the Forbidden City last week in Beijing. It was just as pricey as Starbucks!
Is this an example of corporate blogging? You bet
Given that Rui's is an official employee blog, sanctioned by CCTV (China's official news network), I'd call this an example of effective corporate blogging. Waddya think?
Great explanation of the Forbidden Starbucks brouhaha here by William Moss / aka Imagethief, who is based in Shanghai.
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