Social Media? China? 12 Facts To Help You Hold Your Own

Everyone is counting online and social media activity in China. After all, force of numbers mean what China does, the rest of the world is likely to do too, eventually. I've picked out what you need to know to give you the edge in any 'Chinese-social-media?-yeah-i've-got-that-nailed' chat, whether it's at a conference, by a water cooler or in the queue for the latest iphone 6 clone.

597 million Chinese people use social media

Go Globe / Via go-globe.com

Almost half are under 30 (49%) and only 62% use their real names online.

80% of them have multiple accounts

Digital Jungle / Via digitaljungle.com.cn

Chinese social media users are the most active in the world and 80% have multiple social-media accounts. 91%, says a McKinsey survey, visited a social media site in the previous six months. Compare that with 30% in Japan, 67% in the United States, and 70% in South Korea.

WeChat is the fastest growing app on the planet.

Statista.com / Via financialorbit.blogspot.com.au

WeChat is the mobile messaging app in the Tencent family and it's growing fast, launching into Europe, South America, South Africa and opened an office in San Francisco. Compare it's growth of 84% per quarter since 2009, with Facebook's, whose user numbers have grown an average of 10%. Or consider the start up growth for each platform: the Facebook user base grew 328% in the first 3 yeas compared to WeChat's average growth of 900%. Tencent has become the first Chinese internet brand to succeed outside mainland China.

Bit-player Facebook has more Chinese users than 6 EU countries combined

Paul Gunn, Bloom Worldwide / Via bloomworldwide.com

Blocked on the other side of the Great Firewall, Facebook ranks 8th when it comes to social networks active users in China. Despite that, 95 million mainland Chinese have found a way to log on.

Chinese social media users are creators not consumers

Via stylus.com

Social media users in China are 'creators': that means (says Forrester) they publish a blog or a website, upload video and/or music and/or write and post stories at least once a month. In the US the number is 24%; in Europe, 23%.

About 70% of consumers in the US and Canada are 'spectators': consuming social content. About a third of people are 'critics' commenting on other people's social content.

Comment isn't free

Photos.com University / Via phys.org

We all know Chinese social media is censored, but did you know that Sina Weibo finds and deletes controversial posts in near real time, despite a daily volume of 100 million messages? That's what a study conducted by an independent researcher and collaborators at Rice University and the University of New Mexico (UNM), has found.

Also, the law is tightening: new rules introduced this year require anyone who wants to post political news to get prior approval, and anyone who uses instant messaging tools to register with the government, using their real name. Right now 62% of social users go by another name.

Account users must also sign an agreement vowing they will 'comply with the law, the socialist system, the national interest, citizens' legal rights, public order, social moral customs and authenticity of information.'

Chinese shop twice as much online as the rest of the world

Geometry / Via connectedshopper.geometry.com

On average people around the world make 3.25 purchases online each month, in China that figure is 5.88, according a study by TNS on behalf of Geometry Global. The study that also showed that Chinese shoppers are the least likely to visit stores in person.

And when it comes to what they buy, social matters

Accenture / Via accenture.com

87% of social users look to their online communities for advice and reviews - trusting each other more than institutions or brands.

And it's surf first, shop later, then surf a little more

“Checkout China” report from TBWA China, Jigsaw International, The Integer Group China / Via resonancechina.com

82% of Chinese netizens are buying online. 58% who shop in store have made their decisions before hand, researching performance, price and opinion online and through social channels. And when they do, China's shoppers are far more likely to use mobile devices inside the shop: 94% do in China compared to 31% in the UK and 35% in the US.

Mobile is driving trends

IResearch China / Via iresearchchina.com

China's mobile shopping increased by 168% in 2013. That is estimated to almost double in 2014. If the trend continues, by 2017 it will have increased by over 1000%.

61% of China's netizens would even buy a car online

"Cars Online 2014", Gapgemini / Via resonancechina.com

Would you?

54.8% of mobile use in China is video.

China Internet Watch / Via chinainternetwatch.com

China has the largest number of online-video viewers: around 450m, or nearly 80% of the internet-connected population, mostly on tablets. Their numbers will rise to around 700m by 2016, according to iResearch. In America and Europe, online video has not yet outstripped broadcast- and pay-TV. in China it seems to have done so. A government news source has said that in 2012 only 30% of households in Beijing watched TV, down from 70% three years earlier.