Microsoft Paper - the Company and Product - Service

Briefly Describe the company and product/service.

Microsoft is a multinational computer technology corporation. The history of Microsoft began on April 4, 1975, when it was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque. Its current best-selling products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Starting in 1980, Microsoft formed an important partnership with IBM that allowed them to bundle Microsoft's operating system with computers that they sold, paying Microsoft a royalty for every sale. In 1985, IBM requested that Microsoft write a new operating system for their computers called OS/2; Microsoft wrote the operating system, but also continued to sell their own alternative, which proved to be in direct competition with OS/2. Microsoft Windows eventually overshadowed OS/2 in terms of sales. When Microsoft launched several versions of Microsoft Windows in the 1990s, they had captured over 90% market share of the world's personal computers. . There were the Windows edition from windows 1.0 to 3.2, it then evolved to Windows 95, 98 and Me, and then it evolved into Windows 3.1, 3.5, 4, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7 and 8. Microsoft had to develop programming software that would make computers user friendly, and create a web browser that would provide information with a general search that would rival Google. In 2009, Microsoft created Bing as a search engine. However, Microsoft has its challenges in being strong successful in the Chinese market.

Analyze the designated foreign market with a focus on the different cultural areas that could impact on IMC activities.

When entering the Chinese market, challenges remain for those looking to do business in the country. Intense competition, corruption, business etiquette and language are some of the barriers that can be faced. Additional factors can be, governmental red tape, the practice and value of culture, piracy, and competition with other servers. According to Teo Kermeliotis,

"despite China's increasing influence, challenges remain for those looking to do business in the country. Intense competition, corruption, business etiquette and language are some of the barriers that can be faced."(Kermeliotis, 2011)

When entering the Chinese market, the product may not sell like it does in the United States or Europe.

"No matter how good you think your product is, no matter how well it sells in the UK, the United States or anywhere else, you need to really look at that product in the context of China and say is that the right product, is it too high-priced, do we need to do something different, do we need to adapt?" (Kermeliotis, 2011) says Perkowski.

In terms of Microsoft and China , the country has a strong censorship