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Socializing Chinese-Style: A Beginner's Guide
By Alyssa Paris One of the world’s oldest civilizations is quickly evolving into an online paradise for digital and social media marketers. China, the “land of the dragon”, is home to the largest population of Internet users in the world. Socializing online with the Chinese today means interacting with over 400 million individuals. These “netizens” are young, educated game-lovers with an unquenchable thirst for entertainment. And in spite of government-imposed limitations on web content publication, tools for web socializing Chinese-style are original and cutting edge. These are exciting times for international businesses looking to expand into the lucrative Chinese market in a culturally appropriate fashion — through local media and in the local languages of Mandarin, Cantonese, and other dialects. So if China is already on your business radar, now’s a good time to:
How can you get started? Read on for five great ways to get social in China. 1. Micro-Blogs A hybrid between Facebook and Twitter, these micro-blogging sites, known in China as weibos (pronounced way-bohs), are gaining popularity with each passing day. The two most important weibos are: Sina’s Weibo Founded in 2009 (the year Twitter was banned by the Chinese government), Sina’s Weibo, translated as “Sina's micro-blogging”, currently boasts over 140 million users. Its user base is projected to reach the 200 million mark by the end of the year, potentially propelling it ahead of Twitter in the global micro-blog arena. With a whopping 57% percent of Chinese market share, Sina’s Weibo is arguably the best place to start your social media efforts. It offers the same general interface as Twitter, with a timeline of weibos, or tweets, and a list of top users and trending topics. Its advantages include small group engagement and easy sharing of rich media. One of the greatest aspects of Sina’s Weibo remains to be mentioned: it's free! So is Twitter, you may argue. Yes, but because brand pages on social sites in China often come with a gigantic price tag, Weibo’s free business pages offer a low barrier to entry for the apprentice social media marketer in China. Chinese social media marketers recommend using Sina's Weibo in conjunction with Sina blog, Youku or Tudou for a richer and more diverse marketing campaign. A few fun facts about Sina's Weibo:
Tencent Launched in early 2010, Tencent Weibo trails Sina's with around 80 million users. Olympic gold medal-winning hurdler Liu Xiang has the most followers — nearly 18 million. Most of Tencent’s users come from QQ, one of its other online networks and the most popular instant messaging site in China. Read more about Tencent’s sites in the next section. 2. Social Networking Sites (SNSs) There are too many Chinese SNSs to include in our succinct beginner's guide, but here are a few you should keep an eye on and consider budgeting for, as they’re fee-based services. Renren Renren, or “Everyone”, was launched in 2005 as a social networking site for students, the brainchild of a University of Delaware graduate. Sound familiar? Renren is one of China’s Facebooks. “Everyone” finessed its branding and target audience over the last six years to appeal to a broader user base. According to Forbes, this popular SNS now counts 124+ million users and their daily page views over the last six months largely surpassed Twitter’s. Renren prides itself on being one of the “real name” networks (unlike Sina’s Weibo, for example, where users can remain anonymous). Renren’s features include:
Points contribute to increasing a user’s level, which in turn grants them access to bonus features like emoticons and profile skins. These rewards tend to be very popular with young Chinese netizens. Since 2007, Renren has an open platform and allows for third party integration with many of the same APIs as Facebook. Kaixin001 Created in 2008, Kaixin001, or "Happy Net", is one of the older kids on the Chinese social media block. This site was the 13th most popular in China last year, according to Alexa, and the first to clone Facebook applications for the Chinese market. If Renren is the student network, Kaixin001 is its white-collar equivalent. According to Venture Beat, Kaixin's users are the most monetized and affluent of all Chinese social networks; Kaixin attracts highly active users who'll spend twice as much time sifting through the site as those on competing SNSs. Regulars spend an average of 30+ minutes playing social games like Parking Wars and Happy Farm, and sharing music, photos and ideas. Here’s a fun fact: As of May this year, the top three brands on Kaixin001 were all car manufacturers: VW, Mini and BMW. With the emergence of the super micro-blogs and Renren (whose owners were sued by Kaixin001 for unfair competition), Kaixin's popularity began to suffer and growth has since stagnated. Analysts say Kaixin will need to innovate or it'll be left behind in the high-velocity race to provide Chinese netizens with the best online entertainment, sharing and interface. Tencent sites The advantage to leveraging Tencent's vast internet ecosystem is that its conglomerate of sites, which includes Weibo, QQ and Qzone, QQshow, QQgames and QQpet, serves a mind-blowing multitude of users. Tencent estimates that as of March 2011, there were well over half a billion user accounts (though not necessarily active users) for their IM service alone. Stats tell us that the Chinese do not stick to one social medium — they typically get engaged across various channels — and the Tencent network offers something for everyone. Qzone, for example, is a social networking site that targets young, rural Chinese. Its user base of 480 million is composed largely of teenagers, who can keep an online diary, share photos and blog. 3. Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) Bulletin board systems are still very popular in China, because they are known to be relatively “unfiltered”. Hundreds of millions of Chinese (possibly more than for traditional SNSs) frequent these forum sites for the real scoop, relying on them rather than on state-approved online newspapers and mainstream media. They’re also on BBSs to get the latest news, politics, and celebrity gossip updates, research topics of interest, follow discussion threads, play games, enjoy multi-user chats, check email, and send messages. Because the level of trust in BBSs is high, leveraging them will be an important element of your social media campaigns in China. Mop and Tianya are two of the most-popular Chinese BBSs today. 4. Video Sharing Two impressive stats from Resonance China sum it all up:
The Chinese are generally less concerned with privacy than Americans, and more open to video marketing. These two statements alone should make you consider this medium for entertaining the Chinese with your brand message. If you do it right, it won't go unnoticed — two of the most-visited websites in China are Tudou and Youku, both of which are video sharing sites. Of course a pivotal part of effectively engaging in these channels with be localizing your current video repertory for that audience of 700 million video aficionados. 5. Location-Based Services (LBSs) Only a small percentage of Chinese use location-based services currently (around 7%, according to a recent study by the DCCI) but experts say this will be the next category to skyrocket. China’s leading location-based social app is Jiepang. This relative newcomer to the social scene partnered with Nokia in August of 2011 to offer faster check-ins on smartphones. Sharing locations is an activity that benefits local merchants. If you plan to open a retail outlet in China, a reward-based program could encourage customers to check in at your establishment. The top brand check-ins on Jiepang, according to a recent infographic, were Starbuck's, McDonald's and Burger King, Now that you know who the major Chinese social media players are, it’s time to draft a plan for your social media marketing campaign in China. To do so, you’ll want the help of a language partner who is well versed in localization for the Chinese market and multilingual social media monitoring. Contact Acclaro today to begin socializing with nearly half a billion Chinese online users and tap into one of the most exciting corners of the international digital space.
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