5 Surprising Social Media Business Success Stories

Top 10 websites

Take a look at some of these sites and see how they compare to their Western equivalents.

1    Baidu.com
The leading Chinese language search engine, provides a simple and reliable search experience, strong in Chinese language and multi-media content including MP3 music and movies, the first to offer WAP and PDA-based mobile search in China.

2    QQ.com
The most popular free  instant messaging site in Mainland China, and the world’s third most popular IM service. Aside from the chat program, QQ has also developed many subfeatures  including games, pets, ringtone downloads, etc.

3    Sina.com.cn
Largest Chinese language infotainment web portal. It provides news, information, infotainment and email services with localized content plus celebrity blogs.

4    Google.cn
Chinese language google service.

5    Taobao.com
Online auction website

6    163.com
Web portal operated by Netease

7    Google.com

8    Yahoo.com

9    Sohu.com
Search engine, online multi-player gaming and other services.

10    Youku.com
Online video sharing website.

Issues of Censorship

China has the world’s largest net-using population, yet the Internet in China is kept under tight control. The government monitors the internet using a mix of filtering technologies, cyber-police surveillance and propaganda, in all of which China invests heavily. Its censorship hones in on anything to do with human rights, democracy and freedom of belief. The victims of this censorship are the Internet users, bloggers, independent journalists and ISPs.

Extensive forms of communication have been established between the leading commercial websites and the Internet supervisory bodies, including phone, email, text, web platforms and weekly meetings. The supervisory body will instruct sites to not publish an article, to not cover an event, or to put a stop to certain comments. Weekly meetings are held to to determine the subjects to be covered in the coming week, articles to be written under their supervision and articles to be removed. Furthermore, online companies have to strictly monitor all postings, blogs, comments, articles and other messages on their sites. Sensitive content is immediately masked or erased and the username or IP address of the person who posted it is also blocked.

Censorship using key words

This tight control on information has led web sites to practice self-censorship and to use filters to block “key-words” including:
• masked words – words replaced by an asterisk
• sensitive words – words needed to be checked by a moderator
• taboo words – words that cannot be posted or appear in an article’s content
Filters not only have to block the “key-words” but also their synonyms and homonyms culminating in the number of banned key-words to be around 500 words.

It is therefore paramount for any company with an online presence in China to keep up to date with policies and procedures regarding censorship. Sites with blogs and forums need to monitor carefully messages and comments left by users.

For assistance in creating your web presence in China, and helping you understand further the dynamics of the internet in China including how best for your company to reach it’s target audience, contact Thinkmonkeys.com.

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How best for companies to harness the potential of this growing market and maximise profits? One way would be to establish an online presence that understands and caters for this evolving and dynamic market.

China has the world’s largest online population, and yet that online audience accounts for just 19% of the Chinese population. Without doubt, these numbers are set to grow considerably over the next coming years. But while the internet in China continues to expand and evolve, it’s important to gauge where these users are going and what they are doing, as well as understanding how internet content is monitored and regulated under the tight control of government censorship.

For assistance in creating your web presence in China, and helping you understand further the dynamics of the internet in China including how best for your company to reach it’s target audience, contact Thinkmonkeys.com.

Internet usage stats
In 2008, there were 253 million users of the internet, accounting for just 19% of the population. 214 million of these users had broadband access. 29% of these users accessed the internet using their mobile phone. 68% of internet users are aged 30 or under. The large proportion of young internet users has exerted great influence on the shape of the Chinese internet which is largely dominated by entertainment websites.

The number of websites in China has reached 1.919 million, with an annual growth rate of 46.3%.

Popular Internet applications
Online music sites dominate online activity followed by news sites. The rise in online news is believed to be connected to the rise of a number of major news events concerning China, for example the economy and the Beijing Olympics. Instant message, search engine and email are also in the top ten rankings and with usage at over 60% illustrates that basic internet applications remain important activities to the Chinese internet user. The table below ranks the internet applications.

Internet application using rate and size of users