If you want to make it in China social media marketing arena, the first thing you should know is that all Western social media platforms were banned by the Chinese government. In other words, you cannot access Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or the general Google search engine in China. This leaves you to wonder; how do they connect with one another, seeing as the majority of the world population spend their time on social media networks.
Well, Chinese developers didn’t sit still after this development, they all got to work and started creating similar Chinese platforms that will rival those of the Western world. You must have heard about WeChat; in fact, most people assume it is the only Chinese Social media and networking platform. While it is definitely the most popular one, it is not the only one, because there are hosts of other delightful platforms.
To start your marketing strategies on these platforms, you have to know the leading ones, their features, and how to make the best of them. First, you have to be fluent in Chinese to make use of these platforms, then you’re good to go. You have to also understand the importance of social media marketing in China because according to statistics, over 1 billion people spend 5-6 hours of their day on social media.
Developed by Tencent, WeChat has 1.11 Billion monthly active users, 619.6 million average daily users, and an 85.5% penetration rate. Known as the largest and most popular Chinese social media platform, WeChat provides financial services, online shopping, games, messaging, and file sharing. WeChat was initially designed to be a messaging app, but it later evolved with the addition of payment function. With WeChat, users can book tickets, buy phone credit, and make other financial transactions. WeChat basically plans the user’s life with daily reminders, advertisement options, search features, and the ability to increase customer engagement. WeChat also allows business owners to create official WeChat accounts for promotional contents and gives them the ability to track and manage their customers. All in all, it is a super App.
Weibo is more of a typical social media platform than WeChat. Weibo has a total of 465 million + active users, 203 million daily users, and 50% increase in Weibo Livestream sessions. People can post pictures, videos, and articles on Weibo, and others are allowed to share and interact on that post. Weibo keeps users updated on the latest trends, news, and business opportunities. A brand can market their contents on Weibo with the aid of articles, which can generate popularity on the hot topic forum if it is good enough. Business owners can also make use of Yizhibo live; the Livestream option on Weibo, for their product and service promotions.
Youku
This is popularly referred to as the Chinese YouTube with 580 million active users, 39.6 million daily users, and 1. 18 billion video views. Like YouTube, Youku only supports video upload and streaming. It allows users to upload or view long-form videos whenever they want to release or gain deeper knowledge about a topic, product, or service. All you have to do is enter the name of the content you need in the search box and it’ll produce the video and other related ones. With the help of Youku, brands can now drive traffic to their websites, increase sales, increase brand awareness, and experience exposure to a wider audience.
Zhihu
This is the Chinese Quora; an online Chinese Q&A social media platform. Zhihu has 160 million registered accounts and 26 million + daily users. Zhihu attracts intellectuals, students, and educated people in need of answers or with a passion to share their ideas and facts. On Zhihu, users can vote for the best answer to a particular topic.The more likes an answer gets, the higher it ranks. A brand can raise its awareness by sparking active discussions through Q&A.
Jinri Toutiao
Toutiao means ‘Today’s Headlines’, making Jinri Toutiao the hottest platform for dissemination of News, information, and entertainment stories. The Jinri Toutiao app has 200 million + daily users, 1.1 million accounts, and generates 4.2 billion views every day. The most important feature of Toutiao is the news feed where the app or website brings a user a bunch of updated contents based on the user’s interests and browsing history.The users can also contribute information about a trending company, their products, and why they are hot; this is what most brands use for advertisements.
Douyin
If you’re a fan of the Western TikTok platform, then you will understand Douyin; a platform for uploading and viewing short videos. Douyin has 400 million monthly active users and 200 million daily users. The app allows users to create, design, and upload cute and trendy short videos on their accounts. Unlike long videos, short videos can capture the attention of those that get bored easily, create more engagement, and increase virality. On Douyin, you can make your videos with cute stickers, hilarious special effects, and spooky sounds. For Marketing, a brand has to create really engaging videos if they want to go viral and attract traffic to their website and products.
Xiaohongshu
Also known as the Red Book, Xiaohongshu is a social platform that combines the features of a social commerce website and a social network website. It is an e-commerce platform that allows users to post reviews, join discussions, create contents, and share other people’s contents. Trending topics on Xiaohongshu are usually shopping tips, product photos, and reviews on trips or shopping experiences. The platform also allows users to browse through the popular brands’ list to see a particular product and the purchasing link. Like Pinterest, they can share the pictures of the products they bought or want to sell so that other users can like, share, and comment. For its e-commerce feature, Xiaohongshu features products that have the most shares and engagement, allowing the user to spot trends, and help the seller increase sales.
Yizhibo
In 2017, Yizhibo ranked #1 in user acquisition among Chinese Live streaming platforms. It should be noted that Yizhibo and Weibo collaborated in 2016, hence an individual’s account on each platform are automatically integrated. On Yizhibo, a user can view or host live stream within Weibo and vice versa. If you have a new follower on one of the platforms, the follower automatically follows you on the other one. At the end of 2018, news came out about the acquisition of Yizhibo by Weibo, and it was not a surprise to its users. Due to its partnership with Weibo, a lot of celebrities and popular brands made Yhizibo their playground.
Ctrip
For lovers of trips and tourism, Ctrip is the perfect place to browse for the best travel services. On their platform, Ctrip offers services like accommodation arrangements, reservations, special tours, transport ticket bookings, and travel management. Ctrip has associated with Tours4fun and Trip.com; two American travel websites. On its mobile app, Ctrip has an Instagram-like feature called Trip Moment, that enables its users to upload photos and short videos of their adventures with Ctrip. Ctrip allows brands to partner with them to create exposure for the brand and allow them to make profits from the brand.
Dazhong Dianping
This is the Chinese Yelp; it allows users to rate a registered brand or business, read previous reviews, and create business accounts with the platform. The platform works with restaurants, salons, movie theatres, repair shops, hotels, and many more service providers. Brands and business owners create business accounts with Dianping and can choose any of the following services: SEO, image promo, URL promotion, and banner ads. They have a huge range of active users which allows business owners to target customers, prepare a marketing strategy, and create brand awareness. The higher your reviews, the more customers you get.
To wrap up
These social media platforms are also trending in China for marketing: Momo- the Chinese Tinder, Baidu- the Chinese search engine, QQ, Douban- lifestyle platform, and Kuaishou-short video social platform.You have to know, in China, social media is probably the best way for marketing because Chinese citizens are very active social media users. Rest assured, on each of the platforms explained above, you can target your audience, advertise, increase your brand awareness, increase sales of products, and generate more traffic to your business website. The Chinese are an enthusiastic lot, they will patronize you if your marketing strategies are convincing enough.