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Q: Why there is no English version of most Chinese websites?
Hey, here is a small riddle. Can any of you explain me why most of Chinese major websites like youku, tudou.com, weibo and so on either have extremely primitive (with myriads of mistakes) or no English versions at all? It should've been a piece of cake even for them to translate few bars and at the same time as they are not blocked in most of the Western countries, a great advantage to have at least one European language version while Twitter, Facebook and Youtube cannot operate in China.
I'll push that back at you. Why do most waigou websites not have Chinese versions?
Jackofalltrade:
Maybe because English, not Chinese is the modern lingua franca spoken as a second language by the highest number of people? Besides, you are wrong, all most prominent Western social media channels, entertainment websites and media outlets have Chinese versions: Facebook, Twitter, BBC, Google (and many of its services), Youtube, Wikipedia,LinkedIn, Bing, Yahoo to name but a few.
And them the websites are mainly open to Chinese. They don't pay much attention to making the website stand out.
Yeah I agree with GT.
English speakers are not the target market, it's more of a half hearted after thought.
I'll push that back at you. Why do most waigou websites not have Chinese versions?
Jackofalltrade:
Maybe because English, not Chinese is the modern lingua franca spoken as a second language by the highest number of people? Besides, you are wrong, all most prominent Western social media channels, entertainment websites and media outlets have Chinese versions: Facebook, Twitter, BBC, Google (and many of its services), Youtube, Wikipedia,LinkedIn, Bing, Yahoo to name but a few.
The OP has a point though. The gubbermint here don't like foreign nationals using VPN's to access international websites - "you live in our country so you should observe our laws and regulations" mentality. But the alternative China website for each banned international website is in Chinese which is absolutely no use for foreign nationals that cannot read Chinese characters. So foreign nationals go back to using VPN's because it is the only way that they can access sites that they understand. Catch 22 comes to mind.
I guess the China gubbermint mentality would still be the same: "no VPN's, if you want to live in China and look at maps or search engines you should learn our language" 
Englteachted:
No, they're concerned about Chinese using foreign sites. Foreigners are already informed, the key is to keep Chinese in the dark.
