This sign was the last thing I expected to see when I stepped into a quiet back alley restaurant off a street several hundred years old in China. Printed on the worn green wooden plate were Chinese characters that roughly translated into “Feel free to take pictures and show off on WeChat and QQ.” (WeChat and QQ are major social network platforms/apps in China.) Situated at the entrance to a traditional looking courtyard, the sign felt like it was left by someone who once traveled here from the future.
But as my month-long trip to China continued, I came to realize that the presence of such a social media token is perhaps not so surprising after all. It appears social media have become more or less a way of life here. Everywhere I looked, I saw the presence of social media. In this post, I would like to take you on a vicarious tour of the social media landscape in China.
Social Media is Everywhere
According to Statistica, there were 596 million social network users in China in 2017, the highest in the world. This translates into approximately 42% of the country’s population. But the penetration rate is much higher among those under 50 years old, at nearly two-thirds and as high as 77.3% for those 20-29 years old. What is unique about Chinese social media users is the dominant use of mobile devices for social media access. eMarketer estimates that 480.4 million Chinese users will be accessing social media through their mobile phones in 2019.
My own observations in China conveyed the same impression as the numbers. Buses and subways were full of people hunched over their smartphones scrolling through social media postings and friends’ messages. Even the traveling retirees (all 60-70 years old) that I encountered during my trip were frequent social media consumers, spending a large chunk of their free time reading, liking, and to a lesser extent posting on social media. Adoption by businesses is also high. On advertisements and product packages, company social network information was frequently printed alongside phone numbers and website addresses for consumers to reach them. Continue reading “Social Media in China”