“Social Media is huge in China.”

– Professor Sun Baohong. Cheung Kong Graduate School Of Business, at “The China Business Conference 2013”

Social Media is huge in China

– A hot topic at The China Business Conference 2013

We were pleased to attend “The China Business Conference 2013” at Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London on the 14th of March, run by China-Britain Business Council. It was a fantastic event for China – British businesses. Prime Minister David Cameron had an opening video message and the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the UK, Liu Xiaoming had video speech at the opening session.

Prime Minister David Cameron

Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the UK, Liu Xiaoming

Bob Grace, President of Jaguar Land Rover China, one of the speakers at the opening session, talked about the legend of Jaguar Land Rover in China’s market. By showing the social media landscape in China, Bob said Jaguar Land Rover’s social media strategy in China has been successful, however, a key point about any strategy in China is to always consider adapting the strategy to meet the needs of Chinese people.

The opening session was followed by different sessions focusing on three new programmes that formed the cornerstone of the conference: 1. Liveable Cities; 2. The Chinese Consumer;  3. China Outbound. Twenty one experts in these three industries gave the insights and discussed with the audience.

Social media was a hot topic when talking about “The Chinese Consumer”.

Professor Sun Baohong, Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean of Global Programmes, Cheung Kong Graduate School Of Business, enjoyed asking the questions: Have you heard about Taobao? Do you know Wechat? What about Meilishuo, Mogujie? In summary, she said “Social Media is huge in China.”

Toni Piech, CEO at PAE Group, had a very good sense of humour when talking about Chinese social media and luxury consumers. The example he used is a Chinese lady called “Xiao Liu” who spends 6 hours per day on Weibo. And a percentage he gave might surprise you, is that 80% of purchases by Chinese luxury consumers have been researched on social media.

It is time to set up your China social media strategy to adapt to your Chinese audience, as “Social Media is huge in China.”