One of the key rules of marketing is to go where your customers are. There are many different places where they could be, both in the real world and online. Finding high concentrations of your target market is the best way to ensure your marketing is effective and yields great results. If you haven’t yet considered social media marketing in China, we’ve put together a few statistics that are sure to change your mind. Once you have looked over these needs, you’ll be hard to convince that there isn’t huge potential for your company marketing in China.

Read on to see the numbers that are getting the marketing world excited about China.

Chinese started the New Year on Weibo

For many Chinese people, the Year of the Horse started on the internet. In the first minute of the New Year, over 860,000 posts were published on the Chinese Twitter-like network, beating last year’s total by more than 55,000. And during the Spring Gala Festival, Weibo saw an 139% rise in posts referring to the festival in 4 hours on the same period the previous year (source: China Internet Watch).

Social sharing more than doubled in 2012

Social sharing is when someone distributes news, deals, or information about their recent purchases through social networks. It has many benefits for businesses, as social recommendation is one of the best ways of getting more website views, email sign ups, social followers, and customers. In 2012 alone, social sharing in China more than doubled, increasing by 60% (source: Go Globe).

China has a lot of internet users

China has an internet penetration rate of 44%. In terms of world rankings, this puts it in the middle of the table, however, when you then take China’s enormous population into account, this equates to more than half a billion internet users; 618 million as of January 2014. Chinese internet users spend 4.5 hours per day on the internet via their laptops or desktop PCs, and 1.9 hours per day accessing the internet via mobile devices (source: CNNIC).

China leads the way with social media usage

A survey of Chinese internet users carried out by global management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company discovered that, out of 5,700 users, 95% of Tier 1, 2, or 3 city inhabitants were registered on social media, with 91% having visited a social media site within the previous six months. This puts China way ahead of countries including the USA at 69%, and vastly ahead of Japan, at just 30% (source: McKinsey & Company).

Chinese social media marketing from Market Me China

Your company needs campaigns that accurately describe your core drives and your product benefits. These campaigns need to be put in front of your target market, and inspire them to respond. This is what you get from Market Me China – expert marketing knowledge combined with extensive experience of the Chinese social media landscape and culture. Talk to us about your project today.

(Image source: “Asian Business Network” | www.freedigitalphotos.net)