On April 11th, one night after returning to Holland from 2 years of volunteering as a marketing consultant for charity organisations in Xi’an, China, me and Jessica Sun gave a 45 minute lecture on Social Media in China at the Social Media in 1 Day seminar. After a short introduction, using one and a half minute of the Xi’an TV report on my work as a volunteer, we explained the Great Firewall, which makes usage of western social media impossible in China. Next we introduced the most popular social media in the country and gave some tips and answered a few questions from the audience. The full lecture can now be downloaded as a 45 minute audio recording (apologies for the low quality), which can be listened to in combination with the handouts of the presentation. When the mobile application Weixin/WeChat is discussed you can watch the video below that was shown during the lecture. These resources can be found here: http://home.failsafe.nl/?p=548

1. Social Media in ChinaSocial Media in ChinaSocial Media in ChinaSocial Media in ChinaSocial Media in ChinaSocial Media in ChinaSocial Media in ChinaSocial Media in China
Ed Sander & Jessica Sun
Social Media in 1 Day
Spant, Bussum
11 april 2013
Ed Sander & Jessica Sun
Social Media in 1 Day
Spant, Bussum
11 april 2013

2. Back after 2 years …

3. 1111 THE GREAT FIREWALL OF CHINATHE GREAT FIREWALL OF CHINATHE GREAT FIREWALL OF CHINATHE GREAT FIREWALL OF CHINA
MOST IMPORTANT SOCIALMOST IMPORTANT SOCIALMOST IMPORTANT SOCIALMOST IMPORTANT SOCIAL MEDIAMEDIAMEDIAMEDIA
INTERNET USAGEINTERNET USAGEINTERNET USAGEINTERNET USAGE
CONCLUSIONS, TIPS & Q&ACONCLUSIONS, TIPS & Q&ACONCLUSIONS, TIPS & Q&ACONCLUSIONS, TIPS & Q&A
Content
2222
3333
4444

5. History of Great Firewall

6. Great Firewall of China
• Harmony & stability.
• Media control & regulation of
information.

7. Impact of Great Firewall
Accessible
Int. sites
Chinese
sites
18,000 websites
inaccessbile

8. • Golden Shield project.
• Blocking full domains
or pages within sites.
• Arab spring: servers
in China.
• Instructions for SOE
and private
companies.
• Blocking search
engine results for
certain keywords.
Great Firewall of ChinaGreat Firewall of ChinaGreat Firewall of ChinaGreat Firewall of China

9. The truth is not out there

10. Now what?

12. Content Monitoring
• Constant screening of content.
• Both by Internet companies &
government (estimated staff >30.000).
• Filtering & quick removal of sensitive
posts & blocking of keywords (+/- 13%
of posts are deleted).
• Dynamic system.
• Liability for ISPs & self-censorship.
• Relatively high freedom on certain
topics, e.g. corruption by local
governments.

13. Curving Opinion – 50 Cent Party

14. MOST IMPORTANT SOCIALMOST IMPORTANT SOCIALMOST IMPORTANT SOCIALMOST IMPORTANT SOCIAL
MEDIA IN CHINAMEDIA IN CHINAMEDIA IN CHINAMEDIA IN CHINA

15. Inside the Wall
Outside the Great FirewallOutside the Great FirewallOutside the Great FirewallOutside the Great Firewall InsideInsideInsideInside thethethethe Great FirewallGreat FirewallGreat FirewallGreat Firewall
GoogleGoogleGoogleGoogle Baidu, Qihoo
FacebookFacebookFacebookFacebook RenRen, Qzone, Kaixin001
TwitterTwitterTwitterTwitter Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo
MSNMSNMSNMSN Tencent QQ
YoutubeYoutubeYoutubeYoutube Youku, Tudou, Ku6
WikipediaWikipediaWikipediaWikipedia Baidu Baike, Weigi Baike
FoursquareFoursquareFoursquareFoursquare Jiepang
GrouponGrouponGrouponGroupon Meituan, 55tuan, Dianping, Lashou, Nuomi
eBayeBayeBayeBay Taobao
LinkedinLinkedinLinkedinLinkedin Ushi, Tianji
FlickrFlickrFlickrFlickr Douban
WhatsappWhatsappWhatsappWhatsapp Weixin (WeChat)
Blogger, WordpressBlogger, WordpressBlogger, WordpressBlogger, Wordpress Sina Boke, Sohu Boke

16. Top 10 Social Media

17. QQ

18. Qzone

19. Weibo

20. Tencent Weibo

21. A Chinese Microblog
• 以前做绿皮车觉得上面的人很脏所以改坐动车。结果动车
上却也是一群脏人所以改坐高铁。结果发现是群有点小钱
但没有素质的人所以改坐飞机。结果发现飞机上的人更本
不是人所以发现还是绿皮车上的人纯朴呀 94 characters94 characters94 characters94 characters
• “When I took the green trains I thought the people were
very dirty, so I switched to bullet trains. But I found there
were a bunch of dirty men on bullet trains, so I turned to
the high-speed rails. There I found people with money
but lacking character, so I changed to planes. But on the
planes I found the people weren’t human at all. In this
way I found that the people on the green trains weren’t
dirty.”

22. Chang Weibo

23. Chinese Microblogs
• Sina Weibo is linked to Sina blog.
• Tencent Weibo linked to QQ (IM) and
Weixin (Mobile).
• Lots of ‘Zombie’ accounts.
• Estimated only 10% of registered
users really active.
• Average age 25 years.

24. RenRen

25. Weixin (WeChat)

26. Convenience of Weixin

27. Douban

28. Youku & Tudou

29. INTERNET USAGEINTERNET USAGEINTERNET USAGEINTERNET USAGE

30. This is China

32. Weibo Usage

33. Source: IDG Accel
• Gap between East &
West, urban & rural.
• Internet penetration
cities 55%, rural 21%.
• Only 11,5% of
internet users have
university(+)
education.
• 80% online < 5 yrs
• 50% online < 3 yrs

34. Going Mobile

35. Mobile
• China has more people using internet
on their phones than on computers.
• This share is expected to expand
even further thanks to smartphones
getting cheaper and new
demographic groups buying them.

36. CONCLUSIONS, TIPS &CONCLUSIONS, TIPS &CONCLUSIONS, TIPS &CONCLUSIONS, TIPS & Q&AQ&AQ&AQ&A

37. VPN
• The Great Firewall can be circumvented
with VPN software,
• Some Chinese use VPN.
• Still, few Chinese actively use foreign
social media since their friends are not
there and the functionality of the Chinese
alternatives is better.
• Don’t believe reports that claim enormous
numbers for Facebook and Twitter in
China.

38. Conclusions
• Don’t waste energy on Facebook, Twitter,
etc in China.
• For social media, only use Chinese
products.
• Keep a close eye on developments: the
social media landscape is still changing.
• Use a local agency to ensure correct
communication (grammatically & culturally).
• Only communicate in Chinese.

40. Recommended Marketing
Reading

42. Value of Social Media in China

43. Meer weten? Failsafe.nl
this presentation
20 ChinaTalk
articles on
CustomerTalk

44. Contact
Ed Sander
Jessica Sun
T +31 (0)6 51 214 206
E ed@failsafe.nl
jessica@failsafe.nl
W www.failsafe.nl
Ed Sander
Persuade Brand Interaction
Striensestraat 67
5241 AW Rosmalen
Postbus 169
5240 AD Rosmalen
W www.persuda.nl

45. Acknowledgements
• This presentation uses information and materials
provided by:
– CiC
– China Real Time Report
– Tech in Asia
– King-Wa Fu & Michael Chao
– IDG Accel
– Beijing Cream
– Go-Globe.com
– The Economist
– Bill Bishop’s Sinocism (www.sinocism.com)

46. Introduction ... Ed Sander
• 15+ years of experience in Direct Marketing, Database
Marketing, CRM, On-line Marketing
• Pet Food, Tissue Products, Mail Order Office Supplies,
Pharmaceuticals, Financial Services. (B2B & B2C)
• Docent Beeckestijn Business School
• Event Driven Marketing
• Accountability & Marketing Metrics
• Co-author & editor of
• Event Driven Marketing (Kluwer, 2004/06)
• Follow That Customer! (USA, Racom, 2010)
• Author of various columns & articles (failsafe.nl)
• Marketing Consultant / International Volunteer for VSO
in China
• Per 1-5-2013 Persuade Brand Interaction