China's online advertising market is still maturing and is being driven by the number of internet users. China's internet users continues to grow and stood at 457.3 million (That's twice the U.S.), with a penetration of only 34.3%. According to CIC, internet users in China as of May 2011 were now 477 million.
The Chinese internet ecosystem is dominated by 1 to 3 companies within each internet segment:
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Surprisingly the dominant language of the internet is not Chinese, but English:
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In the US, the relentless expansion of Twitter and Facebook continues to change the entire Internet landscape. Nowadays, social media is as equally integral a part of people’s online lives as other key internet services: search engines, portals or e-commerce platforms. The extended, 3rd party applications incorporated by social media platforms help to quickly form an immersive eco-system and have aided the perpetuation of this social business revolution since 2006: Crowd sourcing, Enterprise 2.0 and Social CRM etc.
In China, the social media environment has been really heating up as traditional internet giants like Taobao, QQ, Baidu and Sina have joined the battle. We have seen the boundary between SNS and e-commerce being blurred by the emergence of some group purchase sites. We’ve also seen big platforms starting to adopt an “Open API & Platform Strategy”, based on a realization of the importance of 3rd party applications to their success.
CIC has been at the forefront of this rapid development of social media in China and based on this first-hand experience and expertise, established itself as the industry’s thought leader. From this vantage point, we could forecast the natural evolution that will eventually lead every enterprise and organization to socialize their business. That’s why CIC have been instrumental in defining the term "social business" in China. Not only that, we are dedicated to helping you gain an actionable understanding of social media and social business in China.
According to Sam Flemming, CIC Chairman and Founder.
"China has the most complex, fragmented, and developed social media landscape in the world with a unique online culture that requires its own specialized understanding,”
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Social media in China is influenced by a number of different factors:
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COMMENTARY: The U.S. internet market is reaching maturity as we approach maximum penetration (65%) in the number of users. In China, internet penetration (34%) is about half that in the U.S. Internet competition in China is fierce. In the U.S. there is usually a clear internet leader within each segment. In China, there could be as many as 2 to 3. Facebook is trying to be the first social network to penetrate the market. The irony of all of this is that with the exception of Groupon, most U.S. internet leaders are banned in China.
Courtesy of CIC and others
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