Despite Censorship, Chinese Social Media Blossoms

Say It Social has an overview of the Chinese social media landscape (and why Facebook should care) noting that without the influence of major players like Twitter and Facebook, the industry has blossomed.  With 564 million users of it's 1.3 billion population already online, the Chinese represent 51% of the Asian audience, spending 3 hours a day online on average.

The impressive stats continue:

This acutely attractive market is home to countless major players including Tencent’s Qzone, Tencent Weibo and Pengyou making up 56% of the country’s active social media users. A platform gaining great international reach, Sina Weibo, hosts 287 million active monthly users and more than 250,000 company pages. This is taking the international scene by storm, such that 25% of Fortune500 companies now possess a Sina Weibo page. In addition to Sina Weibo, more and more U.S. companies, such as Nike and Starbucks, are flocking to WeChat (Weixin in China), an instant messaging platform with video, photo sharing and status capabilities. Its current growth curve is appreciating on average by 25 million new members per month.

Although America may possess the title of being the ‘Golden Shoppers’ of the Internet, Asia is a source of unbelievable potential. China accounted for over $160 billion in online transactions during 2012. On top of that, 67% of China’s social media users interact with brands online averaging 8 each. As a global brand with loyal customers on an international scale, it is imperative to globalize your social footprint to maximize your customer engagement across all borders.

Courtesy of: SayItSocial

Related articles

• Sina Weibo Valued at $6 Billion


• Sina Weibo's Failure: Why Chinese Companies Should Take the Rest of the World Seriously


• Despite censorship in China, social media thrives


• WeChat - Not Weibo - Is the Chinese Social Network to Watch


• Top 10 Social Networking Sites in the World [INFOGRAPHIC]

Chinese Internet to Be Turned Off?

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="105" caption="Image via CrunchBase"][/caption]

Bao Zhong, top scientist, economist and China’s foremost Internet expert said at the opening ceremony that was held in a MacDonalds on Beijing’s famous Wang Fu Jing shopping street, “There comes a time when you’ve got to start thinking about saying ‘let’s just turn the bastard thing off it's more trouble than it's worth’. There’s no evidence to suggest that the Chinese people are any good at doing stuff on the ‘net – just look at Youku, Yupoo, Kaixin and all the other websites that we’ve ripped off from the US. We can’t sustain this level blatant plagiarism for much longer.”

The committee was convened after Skype was deemed illegal in China, forcing users to subscribe to only state owned companies for telecommunication services.

When pressed for comment, a Conservative party spokesman from the British Ministry of Facebook and Twittering said “we’re already making money from paying Chinese workers a pittance an hour to assemble a wide range of goods used by British companies. Why do they need to use Skype anyway? I can’t understand a bloody word anyone says over there, can you?”

Related Articles

• China makes Skype illegal (telegraph.co.uk)


• China bans Internet telephone service as censors tighten grip (calgaryherald.com)


• China bans Internet telephone service as censors tighten grip (theprovince.com)