After years of trial and error in europe, a Chinese company finds it is on the right wavelength

Eric Wang, the 26-year-old country manager of TP-Link UK Ltd, says he was thrown into deep water when he first came to Britain to set up a subsidiary for the company in 2010. "We realized that we had to learn from scratch," he says.

Today, however, TP-Link is a trusted supplier of networking products to British customers, including well-known retailers like Argos and PC World.

Its British sales revenue has also grown from $4.5 million (3.48 million euros) in 2010 to an estimated $24 million this year.

Championing its slogan, "The Reliable Choice", TP-Link's brand image in Britain is representative of a new wave of privately-run Chinese technology companies that are going global with an emphasis on quality.

"From the beginning, we wanted to overcome the misperception that Chinese products are cheap. Our products are actually more expensive than some of our competitors'," says Wang, sitting in his office in Reading, 60 kilometers from London. "Our biggest advantage is our services. If there is a problem, we respond within 24 hours no matter if we're working on that day or not," Wang says, adding that most of TP-Link's products are guaranteed for between three and five years, longer than its competitors' average of one to two years.

But he believes that an even more important factor facilitating TP-Link's success in Britain is the support it receives from its headquarters.

As all of TP-Link's products sold in that market are made in China, its headquarters' expertise in research and development, product design and ability to control costs are all great assets for its British subsidiary.

Founded in 1996 in Shenzhen, in South China's Guangdong province, TP-Link has grown into an industry leader in China, selling a wide range of networking products from routers to Internet-protocol cameras.

In the fourth quarter of 2010, it was recognized by the research organization In-Stat as the world's leading provider of wireless local area network (WLAN) and broadband customer-premises equipment devices in terms of market share.

But even for a business with TP-Link's success, venturing into a new market is not easy. One significant difference Wang noticed about Britain's IT market is the way its sales channels are structured.

In China's domestic market, or even in some East Asian markets, TP-Link had no difficulty finding the IT shops that make up its customer base as they are usually clustered together, often in dedicated sites. By comparison, Britain's IT shops are scattered across the country.

"They are everywhere. We didn't have a database to track them down and even if we did, we wouldn't have the time to visit them all. Even if we had the resources to turn up at their shops, they won't talk to us about business," Wang says.

He then realized that selling through distributors would be the best way to break into the British market, as local distributors' reputations are key when it comes to winning customers' trust for new products.

"It was a great learning experience for us. We learned from our distributors how to manage a big sales team, how their bonus system works, how they motivate their workers, and how they provide support to customers. As a result, we can now provide the same or even better support to our customers."

Over the past few years, his team has grown to include about 20 workers, about half of whom are British. To lead employees from a completely different cultural background was another lesson Wang had to learn.

"I was not a football fan back in China, but after coming to the UK I realized that football is an inherent part of Britain's culture, and something my British employees show great interest in. I was prompted to learn more about cultural things like football, which helped me build a good relationship with my employees."