Author(s) : Cindy Chiu, Chris Ip and Ari Silverman
Most famous social media don’t have access to China (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube …), nevertheless China has developed its own social media because it’s very important and it’s the second biggest economy in the world. Despite they’re not using the same social media than occidentals; they are doing the same thing on it. (Preparing journey …)
First of all we are going to emphasize the importance of Social media in China.
Not only that, China have the world’s biggest internet user base (513 million, twice more than the United States) they also have the world’s most attractive environment for social media with 300 million more users than other people in the world. Not only they use them a lot but they also have multiple social media accounts. China’s online users spend 40% of their time on them, and more and more people are using their phone to access to them. The most famous social network is weibo. Weibo is a Chinese micro blogging website (corresponding to Facebook or twitter)
Social networking allows a lot of companies to develop themselves (they could embed multimedia content 18 months before Twitter). First in 1994, there were only forums and communities then, instant messaging, blogs and to finish social networks.
We can notice that the Chinese appreciate a lot the fact that they can say their opinion about anything on the web. And thanks to an independent survey we notice that 66% of Chinese relied on their recommendations from friends or family. (Instead of 38% in the USA).But they are skeptical of authority.
The fact that Chinese share their opinions about anything and everything increase the completion in China. Indeed a lot of companies hire people to write positive things about their products and discredit their competitors. Companies try to do deals with them and try to identify the writers but it’s not easy, because of the possible risk to draw the wrong conclusion about the customer’s opinion.
For exemple, thanks to the social media some companies tried to promote their product by producing a drama series dedicated on their web site. People lived it and share it with everyone single person they new
China’s social media sector owns a lot of platforms. Each one has at least two major local players. According to marketers, this fragmentation requires a lot of skills and resources, which allows managing the complexity of social media. Indeed a lot of companies have to adapt ads to Chinese customers (like Dove or Estee Lauder.)
Thanks to the development of social media, people expect individuals’ answers right now.
Conclusion:
To come to the conclusion, even if China doesn’t use Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, China is the biggest social media market in the world with a lot of users who own a lot of account on different social networks. Plus they spend a lot of time on it. More than other people in the world. For many people social media have become the only source of news (social arrest, natural disasters, and protest even if China ‘government tries to avoid it.). We can wonder on means that the government is going to set up to controller that. And using social media is one of the key to reach customers (brands, reach new customers, lunch products …).
If China’s social media (weibo…) are those attractive maybes we can wonder if they will work at the international ladder.
Authors:
McKinsey Quarterly is a business journal of McKinsey & Company. They aim at offer new ways of thinking about management in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. And to help business people run their organizations more productively, more competitively, and more creatively.
Quarterly articles, written by McKinsey consultants, offer practical ideas based on the Firm’s experience with the world’s largest companies and on proprietary research and close ties to academic institutions.