Check out Yann Lombard-Platet's piece for our ChinaTechNews.com. He writes an overall view of online marketing and advertising in China.

I first met Yann eight years ago in a smoky conference room atop an oddly shaped office building next to the Huapu department store across from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing. His company China Interactive and mine had come together with a third company called Clear Thinking, a great little business analysis firm associated with the Economist Intelligence Unit at the time, to try to put together the pieces for a larger business or service for online initiatives. Nothing could be worked out at the time, but we parted our ways and I would run into Yann's colleagues a few times over the years. Yann's company was recently purchased by the Canadian firm Nurun, making China Interactive now named "Nurun China Interactive". I like palindromes: Poor Dan is in a droop!

Internet marketing and advertising is an ever-changing beast. If you buy an offline book about Internet marketing or advertising, it's already filled with useless information. Regardless of small domestic or large multinational online advertising agencies (in China and definitely elsewhere), it's rare to find anyone that has the passion and experience that can combine to deliver clients real value beyond the ability to just "talk". Yann's persistence in this sector has paid off and he has a great roster of clients to show for it.