"Though it's still a little early to call it a 'PR industry,' public relations in China possesses the necessary elements for an 'industry' and it is maturing in that direction," said Zheng of CIPRA. A three-tier industry system has been constructed, including professional PR companies, special PR organizations and special education and training institutions. Its services cover corporate, governmental and non-profit organizations and the PR business is being fragmented.

"But we lack a proper industry criterion to regulate its development, and the homogenization of the market competition becomes the bottleneck to its further development," he added.

These days, CIPRA is working on the annual report for 2006 to "track the growing PR market and evaluate its development." The report is expected to be released in March.

International cooperation

When foreign PR companies first landed in China, they didn't collide with the domestic ones in major businesses. "In the past, native Chinese PR companies could only provide low-end services, but now they have begun to grasp the high-end market," said an industry insider in the condition of anonymity.

"Home-grown PR companies used to focus on holding events but now they have begun to pay attention to the branding strategy," said the anonymous source, who also acknowledged that domestic PR companies still lag behind their foreign counterparts in terms of brand resources, expertise and talent.

In the view of HighTeam's Zhou, "internationalization is an inevitable path for China's PR development. Upon our establishment in 1995, the first major client we received was IBM. As we were still a small company at the time, all we could provide was low-end services like designing, and printing." After that, the number of clients increased. In 2005, HighTeam established a joint venture with George P. Johnson Co., a leading full-service event marketing agency based in Michigan.

In 2004, HighTeam became China's first PR company with annual income exceeding 100 million yuan. The next year the company made an income of 145 million yuan, and so far it is one of the fastest growing PR firms in the country.

Since most of HighTeam's clients are from foreign countries, the company devoted some 100,000 yuan to providing 18 months of English-language training for a dozen of its key employees. The company also has its own Skull Camp, in which market research and analysis is an important course for the trainees.

HighTeam commits itself to integrating the different thought processes of East and West. It has employed 20 foreign marketing experts, who work closely with the Chinese staff. "What I appreciate more is the united efforts of our foreign experts and Chinese native talent," said Zhou.

"We only consider foreign PR giants and native ones that have cooperation [arrangements] with foreign PR companies as our direct rivals," he said.

"China's PR market will come into balance, with international PR companies growing more localized and local ones becoming more internationalized," said Darren Burns, General Manager of the Shanghai and Guangzhou region for Weber Shandwick.