Dell opens Chinese blog, lauds Taiwan

Dell Inc. opened its first Chinese language blog on Monday in a bid to make sure its communications keep pace with its growth and enable it to better serve customers, the head of the new blog said in the first entry.

It is the first Chinese-language blog ever opened by a computer systems company, according to the People's Daily Online, a mouthpiece for the Chinese government.

In the first entry, blog master Jacqui Zhou said Direct2dell.com/chinese had become a necessity.

Since Dell entered China in 1998, its service has tripled and staff has multiplied 18 times to become one of the leading computer technology and equipment suppliers in the nation, Zhou wrote.

"Although the number of customers Dell serves has also grown geometrically, the way we directly communicated with customers did not change," Zhou said. "Upon his recent return to the CEO position, Michael Dell made a series of rapid reforms, restoring our strong determination to directly communicate with customers."

The company will allow workers to post entries on new products and services, personal and work experiences and more, the company said. Customers will also be able to post entries on the blog, including leaving topics and notes for Dell workers to comment on through the blog.

Dell opened its first Direct2dell.com corporate blog in July, 2006, in English.

Dell's chairman and CEO is on a tour of Asia, meeting with customers and partners. The tour started Monday in Taiwan, a place Dell called the home to some of the most important technology companies in the world.

Dell bought around $12 billion worth of IT hardware from Taiwanese companies last year, according to Judy Low, a public relations representative for Dell based in Singapore.

Dell has a team of 400 employees in Taiwan, which mainly focus on global procurement and engineering activities including notebook PC and single-socket server development.