The Cultural Differences of Expanding Platform-based Businesses in China and Russia

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2022 in the subject Economics - International Economic Relations, grade: 1,0, FH OÖ Standort Steyr (University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria), language: English, abstract: The main objective of this bachelor thesis is to try to identify how cultural differences might affect the running of platform-based businesses in Russia and China. Moreover, this thesis attempts to offer a rationalization for bringing up new businesses in the respective countries. Aspects such as the main driving forces behind the imbalance faced today between the two respective markets will be investigated and its possible link to the respective culture will be discussed.

The rise of the internet in the 1990s changed the business world to a great extent. A wave of new business models overtopped the economy, one of them the so-called platform-based business model. A platform-based business connects the customers directly with the traders, operating as a modern middleman. Especially C2C markets, consumer-to-consumer marketplaces, where the platform operates as a middle-man between two independent private parties, have increased in popularity. However, since then, a world without platform-based businesses seems unimaginable, as this business model affects all markets, including B2B, business to business, and B2C, business to consumer. Corporations like Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Alibaba are just a few of examples to illustrate the impact this business model created on everyday life. Especially to Millennials and Gen-Z, these companies serve as an attractive labor source and their outputs are used by them on a daily basis. Although the impact of this business model is universal, there are cultural distinguishing factors regarding expanding these businesses among countries. The thesis at hand tries to investigate the cultural differences in expanding a platform-based business in China and Russia.