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China: Social Media
This section presents data and major trends about China's emerging social media industry. The information is categorized based on major forms of social media in China and includes user behavior, prominent companies, and why these platforms are important to China's Internet landscape. For information on the business implications of social media, access the following sub-page:
Business Implications of Social Media
Understanding China's Social Media Landscape
The following graphic shows tools and applications used by Chinese netizens. Online conversations take place on these platforms and in these communities. There are three key takeaways about China's social media landscape:
Source: Sam Flemming, CIC. 2009.
1. Blogs
China ranks above the daily global average in reading and writing blogs. While most of the blogs are in Mandarin, there are aggregator sites that aims to gather blogs that are written in English (Chinabloglist, Chinalyst).
2. Social Networking Sites (SNS)
2.1. Renren
Renren was formerly known as Xiaonei. The founders, Wang Xing, Wang Huiwen, Lai Binqiang and Tang Yang founded Xiaonei during their college days which aims to connect all Chinese college students within this network.
Renren was often coined as a Chinese Facebook clone because of its close similarities with Facebook (check the screenshot below). Nonetheless, Renren is extremely popular in China and has captured more limelight than any other social sites in China.
At present, 32,000 universities and colleges, 56,000 high schools and 85,000 companies in China and 1,500 universities in 29 other countries are available on Xiaonei’s confirmation system. The social networks for each of these specified colleges, schools and companies have been established.
In the additional section of personal profiles, users can also put on information about their contact information, hobbies, favorite music, movies, the clubs the joined, etc. To personalize the profile, xiaonei has also developed functions to edit profile music and background.
2.2. 51.com
51.com (or 51) claims to be the largest social networking site in China. According to its website, 51 is jointly invested by Sequoia Capital, SIG Asia Investments (SAI), Giant Interactive, Intel Capital, Redpoint Ventures and other renowned international enterprises and venture funds.
As of June 2009, 51 has over 160 million register users, among them 38.5 million login at least once a month. These users generate about 300 million page views, uploaded over 10 million photos and write over 3 million blog posts per day.
2.3. Tianji
Tianji is a site for working professional to connect. The Chinese characters “Tianji” literally mean heaven and connections, and in other words “worldly connections”. Tianji claims to be China's leading social networking service dedicated to business networking for professionals. Unlike 51.com and Renren, the site takes a more serious approach towards networking. It is designed exclusively for the needs of career professionals to help them manage and leverage their network of relationships. It is pretty much the same concept as LinkedIn.
Tianji is also one of the few websites that caters to both Mandarin and the English language. In other words, no Google Translate is needed to interpret what the website is trying to express.
The Bulletin Board System (BBS) or online forum is extremely popular in China. According to statistic from iResearch, 60% of users visits at least 3 BBS sites more than 3 times each week. 98% of the online users have contributed to a BBS by publishing articles, replying to posts, participating in polls etc. More than 96% of the Chinese online users spent an hour or more on BBS sites and has accumulated 1.6 billion page view per day!
According to a report by iResearch Consulting Group, 36.3% of users spend 1-3 hours on BBS, about 44.7% of users spend 3-8 hours and15.1% of users are even on BBS for more than 8 hours a day. Over 60% of users will view at least three BBS at least three ties a week. So what is the reason behind this popularity of BBS? The BBS is one of the most recognizable internet applications to a new Chinese netizen, as they were set up in China as early as 1997. BBS also provides users with relative anonymity when posting messages, which is something not characteristic of blogs. The Chinese are rather quiet and reserved in real life, but show little inhibition in expressing themselves online. BBS users also tend to be more mature, in the 20-40 age bracket from various professional backgrounds.
Source: Chinese BBS - The Undiscovered Phenomenon in Chinese Internet
According to ReadWriteWeb, there are 3 billion registered BBS users in the country. Of which, 80% of the Chinese website run their own BBS to facilitate better online communication for their readers. These could very well explain the massive amount of time spent and page views on BBS sites. The Chinese are addicted to BBS because it gives them first-hand (and real-time) information from a trusted online community that they registered themselves in.
The addiction has translated nicely to offline as well with 64.5% of users have attended some offline events organized by BBS administrators or users.
With all that said, here's a breakdown on what the Chinese population use BSS for:
When we speak of instant messaging in China, QQ is at the top of the Chinese mind. QQ can be compared to the sheer size of "Facebook" (who is the leader in the social media realm currently). Founded in 1998, QQ currently holds 77.90% and is China's largest online community with over 377 million active IM accounts.
As the graph below suggest, QQ has generated more cashflow than any other social sites worldwide. It has generated more than 1 billion (USD) in revenue and that effectively translates to 400 million in terms of net profit. When many social sites are relying on selling advertisement space as their revenue bulk, QQ has re-invented how social sites can make its traffic more efficiently and at the same time, adds value to its users. QQ earns its revenue through micro-transaction. A method where it sells digital goods like a weapon in a particular game and emoticons. The average revenue per user is about 10 times of Facebook‟s.
Sources: ReadWriteWeb, PEW Research Center, Alexa
5. Video-Sharing Websites
5.1. Tudou
According to CrunchBase, Tudou.com hosts over 20 million videos and attracts over 100 million viewers each month. Content on Tudou.com includes both user-generated content and professional content (movies and television shows). Many Chinese users have replaced their television with Tudou as their main source of media content.
It serves more than 100 million videos each day and has 40,000 new videos published daily. Tracy Deng, VP of Tudou.com says it best:
5.2. Youku
Youku was officially launched in December 2006. The company was founded by Victor Koo, former president of leading Chinese Internet portal Sohu.com, where he served as COO, CFO, and president for six years. While many believe that there is close similarities between YouTube and Youku, Youku claimed that YouTube's short video length isn't working well in China. The average time spent on a Youku page view is 10 minutes, compared to YouTube which is only two to three minutes. As of mid-2008, over 150 million videos were being viewed each day. Youku users are spending an average of 35 minutes per session, and 60 minutes per user per day on the site.
6. Search Engines
In Quarter 1 of Year 2009, China's search engine has witnessed rapid growth. Search engine market revenue reach 1.3 billion yuan, an increment of 41.2% compared to the previous year.
Search-Based Advertising
In Year 2008, media advertising revenue of search engines exceeded 5.0 million yuan. Advertising on search websites took the lead in all online media platforms.
6.1 Baidu
"Today more than ever Baidu is the number one search engine in China," said company CEO Robin Li in a call with analysts. Indeed, Baidu.com is the dominant leader for Search Engines in China.
Google (China) is fixed in a firm 2nd place in the Search Category, after Baidu.com.
7. Other Social Media Applications
7.1 Photo Sharing
While people across the globe uses Facebook and Flickr as their main photo sharing tool, China uses Renren as theirs. Facebook and Flickr are not as popular because of they are frequently banned.
7.2. RSS Feeds and Podcasts
Business Implications of Social Media
Content
- Blogs
- Social Networking Sites (SNS)
- Renren
- 51.com
- Tianji
- Bulletin Board Systems (BBS)
- Instant Messaging
- Video-Sharing Websites
- Search Engines
- Other Social Media Applications: Photo-Sharing, RSS Feeds, Podcasts, Microblogging
Understanding China's Social Media Landscape
The following graphic shows tools and applications used by Chinese netizens. Online conversations take place on these platforms and in these communities. There are three key takeaways about China's social media landscape:
- Although Chinese netizens use a variety of applications, some are more commonly used than others.
- Although they use some of the same tools, Chinese user behavior differs from Western users. Knowing why and how Chinese netizens use social media is important for truly understanding these online communities.
- Local companies dominate China's social media scene. Prominent companies like Facebook and Myspace don't even appear in this graphic. Instead, their local counterparts have managed to attract the majority of Chinese users.
1. Blogs
China ranks above the daily global average in reading and writing blogs. While most of the blogs are in Mandarin, there are aggregator sites that aims to gather blogs that are written in English (Chinabloglist, Chinalyst).
2. Social Networking Sites (SNS)
2.1. Renren
Renren was formerly known as Xiaonei. The founders, Wang Xing, Wang Huiwen, Lai Binqiang and Tang Yang founded Xiaonei during their college days which aims to connect all Chinese college students within this network.
Renren was often coined as a Chinese Facebook clone because of its close similarities with Facebook (check the screenshot below). Nonetheless, Renren is extremely popular in China and has captured more limelight than any other social sites in China.
At present, 32,000 universities and colleges, 56,000 high schools and 85,000 companies in China and 1,500 universities in 29 other countries are available on Xiaonei’s confirmation system. The social networks for each of these specified colleges, schools and companies have been established.
In the additional section of personal profiles, users can also put on information about their contact information, hobbies, favorite music, movies, the clubs the joined, etc. To personalize the profile, xiaonei has also developed functions to edit profile music and background.
The Renren Network (Chinese: 人人网; literally "everyone network")
Xiaonei Network (Chinese: 校内网; literally "on-campus network")
Renren's Alexa Ranking
Xiaonei Network (Chinese: 校内网; literally "on-campus network")
Renren's Alexa Ranking
51.com (or 51) claims to be the largest social networking site in China. According to its website, 51 is jointly invested by Sequoia Capital, SIG Asia Investments (SAI), Giant Interactive, Intel Capital, Redpoint Ventures and other renowned international enterprises and venture funds.
As of June 2009, 51 has over 160 million register users, among them 38.5 million login at least once a month. These users generate about 300 million page views, uploaded over 10 million photos and write over 3 million blog posts per day.
2.3. Tianji
Tianji is a site for working professional to connect. The Chinese characters “Tianji” literally mean heaven and connections, and in other words “worldly connections”. Tianji claims to be China's leading social networking service dedicated to business networking for professionals. Unlike 51.com and Renren, the site takes a more serious approach towards networking. It is designed exclusively for the needs of career professionals to help them manage and leverage their network of relationships. It is pretty much the same concept as LinkedIn.
Tianji is also one of the few websites that caters to both Mandarin and the English language. In other words, no Google Translate is needed to interpret what the website is trying to express.
3. Bulletin Board Systems (BBS)
The Bulletin Board System (BBS) or online forum is extremely popular in China. According to statistic from iResearch, 60% of users visits at least 3 BBS sites more than 3 times each week. 98% of the online users have contributed to a BBS by publishing articles, replying to posts, participating in polls etc. More than 96% of the Chinese online users spent an hour or more on BBS sites and has accumulated 1.6 billion page view per day!
According to a report by iResearch Consulting Group, 36.3% of users spend 1-3 hours on BBS, about 44.7% of users spend 3-8 hours and15.1% of users are even on BBS for more than 8 hours a day. Over 60% of users will view at least three BBS at least three ties a week. So what is the reason behind this popularity of BBS? The BBS is one of the most recognizable internet applications to a new Chinese netizen, as they were set up in China as early as 1997. BBS also provides users with relative anonymity when posting messages, which is something not characteristic of blogs. The Chinese are rather quiet and reserved in real life, but show little inhibition in expressing themselves online. BBS users also tend to be more mature, in the 20-40 age bracket from various professional backgrounds.
Source: Chinese BBS - The Undiscovered Phenomenon in Chinese Internet
According to ReadWriteWeb, there are 3 billion registered BBS users in the country. Of which, 80% of the Chinese website run their own BBS to facilitate better online communication for their readers. These could very well explain the massive amount of time spent and page views on BBS sites. The Chinese are addicted to BBS because it gives them first-hand (and real-time) information from a trusted online community that they registered themselves in.
The addiction has translated nicely to offline as well with 64.5% of users have attended some offline events organized by BBS administrators or users.
With all that said, here's a breakdown on what the Chinese population use BSS for:
- More than 80% search for product information through BBS
- 61.7% of users are keen to ask other BBS users for opinions before making a purchase
- 47.3% of users bought products directly from a BBS
4. Instant Messaging - QQ
When we speak of instant messaging in China, QQ is at the top of the Chinese mind. QQ can be compared to the sheer size of "Facebook" (who is the leader in the social media realm currently). Founded in 1998, QQ currently holds 77.90% and is China's largest online community with over 377 million active IM accounts.
As the graph below suggest, QQ has generated more cashflow than any other social sites worldwide. It has generated more than 1 billion (USD) in revenue and that effectively translates to 400 million in terms of net profit. When many social sites are relying on selling advertisement space as their revenue bulk, QQ has re-invented how social sites can make its traffic more efficiently and at the same time, adds value to its users. QQ earns its revenue through micro-transaction. A method where it sells digital goods like a weapon in a particular game and emoticons. The average revenue per user is about 10 times of Facebook‟s.
Sources: ReadWriteWeb, PEW Research Center, Alexa
5. Video-Sharing Websites
5.1. Tudou
According to CrunchBase, Tudou.com hosts over 20 million videos and attracts over 100 million viewers each month. Content on Tudou.com includes both user-generated content and professional content (movies and television shows). Many Chinese users have replaced their television with Tudou as their main source of media content.
It serves more than 100 million videos each day and has 40,000 new videos published daily. Tracy Deng, VP of Tudou.com says it best:
5.2. Youku
Youku was officially launched in December 2006. The company was founded by Victor Koo, former president of leading Chinese Internet portal Sohu.com, where he served as COO, CFO, and president for six years. While many believe that there is close similarities between YouTube and Youku, Youku claimed that YouTube's short video length isn't working well in China. The average time spent on a Youku page view is 10 minutes, compared to YouTube which is only two to three minutes. As of mid-2008, over 150 million videos were being viewed each day. Youku users are spending an average of 35 minutes per session, and 60 minutes per user per day on the site.
6. Search Engines
In Quarter 1 of Year 2009, China's search engine has witnessed rapid growth. Search engine market revenue reach 1.3 billion yuan, an increment of 41.2% compared to the previous year.
Source: www.iresearch.com.cn
Search-Based Advertising
In Year 2008, media advertising revenue of search engines exceeded 5.0 million yuan. Advertising on search websites took the lead in all online media platforms.
Source: www.iresearch.com.cn
In September 2008, Baidu dominated with 171 million browsers in the Search Category. Google (China) is a far second followed by other home grown Chinese seach engines.
Source: CR Nielsen, http://www.nielsen-online.com/pr/pr_081010.pdf
Source: China Internet Watch, 2009
6.1 Baidu
"Today more than ever Baidu is the number one search engine in China," said company CEO Robin Li in a call with analysts. Indeed, Baidu.com is the dominant leader for Search Engines in China.
- In the second quarter of year 2009, users went to Baidu.com for 75.7% of their searches in China (iResearch)
- Baidu.com declared an increase in net income of 40% in 2009 from the previous year
- In 2009, Baidu.com announced a search deal with local carrier China Unicom, racing to grab a slice of the growing mobile market
- Baidu.com is more popular with internet users in the rural areas of China (IDG News Service, Oct 2009)
6.2 Google (China)
Google (China) is fixed in a firm 2nd place in the Search Category, after Baidu.com.
- In the second quarter of 2009, Google (China) drew 19.8 percent of the searches, down 1.1 percentage points from the previous quarter (iResearcher)
- Google (China) is more popular with the urban Chinese Internet users
- In June 2009, the Chinese government punished it for allowing pornographic links to appear in its search results. At one point, Google.com and its services were banned in China. (IDG News Service)
7. Other Social Media Applications
7.1 Photo Sharing
While people across the globe uses Facebook and Flickr as their main photo sharing tool, China uses Renren as theirs. Facebook and Flickr are not as popular because of they are frequently banned.
7.2. RSS Feeds and Podcasts
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