MJD 101-B
Dr. Williams
26 March 2014
Differences of social networks in China and in the U.S.
According to an article from The New York Times, “ Just three years after being introduced in China, Weixin has nearly 300 million users – A faster adoption rate than Facebook or Twitter – giving the app a dominant position in what is now the world’s biggest smartphone market”( Barboze ,2014, Jan, 21). As the article said, not only Weixin (Wechat) has a rapid development, but the social networks of China also developed rapidly. The definition of a social network is a network used for personal relationships. It can be a website or an application that people use to know about or communicate with other people by sending messages, posting photos or slogans, sending voice messages or videos, and sharing information. Weixin is one of the best examples of them because it has the functions that were mentioned. Of course, in the process of the development of social networks, Chinese programmers have studied knowledge and experiences from American products like Twitter and Facebook, and then they have recreated the new products of social networks in China. Thus, social networks seem similar in these two countries, but are totally different. The main differences of social networks in these two countries in 21st century are purposes, operation patterns, and profitability ways.
Difference of Purpose
The
definition of purpose is related to the target population, because the target
population is one of the factors that can show the purpose of companies who
developed the social network applications or sites. Now, we compare Weibo and
the Twitter. The Chinese meaning of Weibo is microblog, and it is the most
popular media social network application or site---it was originally established
as a website--- in China. It works like twitter: people can use @ and hashtag (#)
and users also can choose people whom they want to follow.
It also has a limitation of words and pictures, which limits 140 Chinese characters and nine pictures，which this picture shows：
News with words and pictures
Otherwise, it helps companies to do advertisements.
Some politicians, movie stars or singers, and governmental departments also have Weibo accounts to communicate with the public.
However, according to the article “Six Reasons Why Weibo Is Powerful, Even If It’s Hauted by Zombies” by Rachel Lu and David Wertime, who are founding editors at Tea Leaf Nation, 215 million users are active, that is they log into Weibo everyday, and receive and absorb the news they are interested in. They also write,“Weibo is like the Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, where a vocal minority dominates discussion.”
Weibo
is a platform that people can communicate their views with as many people as possible.
Some participants even are entrepreneurs, publications, famous reporters,
professors of universities or colleges, authors and stars. These famous people
use Weibo to show their opinions and communicate with the public. They are the
leaders of different areas now and in the future in China. However, these
people who are movers and shakers always use traditional media outlets like TV,
radios, newspapers to show their opinions in America. In other words, a lot of Chinese
people will show their politics right through Weibo like going against an act,
or disliking types of actions. Tens of thousands of reposts will spread the
views. Besides, some public figures will repost and support the view they preferred;
it lets requests from the public have probabilities to come true. In addition,
it is the fastest
news platform in China. It is like Rachel Lu and David Wartime said, “Once an issue becomes a hot trending topic on Weibo, it can take on a life of its own and generate greater impact on traditional media and other social media platforms. This amplifying effect is not reflected in the number of active users and tweets on Weibo alone.” In contrast, Twitter looks more like a private entertainment platform. Thus, the target audience of Weibo is people of all areas, all aged groups. But for Twitter, it seems like young adults and Internet users. The purposes of Weibo and Twitter are different.
news platform in China. It is like Rachel Lu and David Wartime said, “Once an issue becomes a hot trending topic on Weibo, it can take on a life of its own and generate greater impact on traditional media and other social media platforms. This amplifying effect is not reflected in the number of active users and tweets on Weibo alone.” In contrast, Twitter looks more like a private entertainment platform. Thus, the target audience of Weibo is people of all areas, all aged groups. But for Twitter, it seems like young adults and Internet users. The purposes of Weibo and Twitter are different.
Difference of operation pattern
According
to the researcher Gang Liu of Chinese Academy of Social Science, in 2009,
Facebook showed the conception of “social environment”. It means that it
offered a place to give companies to do advertisements. The types of
advertisements are based on the users information about what they want to have.
This pattern that social networks offer a place or an account to companies to do
advertisements is a classic model of all social networks. Thus, the operation
pattern of Facebook is to help companies to sell advertisements. This is the
way that helps Facebook to earn money, but the main task of Facebook is to give
a platform for people to communicate with each other. However, if Facebook
relies on social advertisements, it is hard to establish a strong and stable
business model. For now, it is the only way to earn money. Facebook did not
give rights that companies show their own opinions. This indirect sale model
has limitation of showing ideals of companies who want to appeal to consumers
by Facebook.
Like Facebook, Wechat(Wexin) is a social network software for people who want to have more private areas. You can block people who you do not like. From the article “From Weibo to Wechat ” in The Economist, “WeChat, or Weixin in Chinese, is known mostly for private chatting and innocuous photo-sharing among small circles of friends. With more than 270 million active users, it has become the star product from Tencent, an Internet conglomerate. Some have compared it to WhatsApp, an American messaging service. More quietly, it has become the preferred medium for provocative online discussion—the latest move in China’s cat-and-mouse game of internet expression and censorship.” It means that the application interface is like WhatsAPP, but the operation pattern is totally different. The operation pattern of Wechat is not only for people’s communication, but it also give companies, which want to appeal to consumers by Wechat, a right of control their own conception of products. This is an example of Cadillac case from Seachoreman, a computer programmer. The company of Cadillac has a public account for platform. Its followers will receive a group of pictures with Cadillacs of travel. These pictures will elicit emotions of car enthusiasts. Besides, Cadillac also will send the information of different types pictures of Cadillacs and auto shows. If you type in the word “car”, it will give the whole information of cars including pictures. Sometimes, it also will send the information of weather to remind drivers to be safe. This type of public account develops their customers by soft advertising.
Like Facebook, Wechat(Wexin) is a social network software for people who want to have more private areas. You can block people who you do not like. From the article “From Weibo to Wechat ” in The Economist, “WeChat, or Weixin in Chinese, is known mostly for private chatting and innocuous photo-sharing among small circles of friends. With more than 270 million active users, it has become the star product from Tencent, an Internet conglomerate. Some have compared it to WhatsApp, an American messaging service. More quietly, it has become the preferred medium for provocative online discussion—the latest move in China’s cat-and-mouse game of internet expression and censorship.” It means that the application interface is like WhatsAPP, but the operation pattern is totally different. The operation pattern of Wechat is not only for people’s communication, but it also give companies, which want to appeal to consumers by Wechat, a right of control their own conception of products. This is an example of Cadillac case from Seachoreman, a computer programmer. The company of Cadillac has a public account for platform. Its followers will receive a group of pictures with Cadillacs of travel. These pictures will elicit emotions of car enthusiasts. Besides, Cadillac also will send the information of different types pictures of Cadillacs and auto shows. If you type in the word “car”, it will give the whole information of cars including pictures. Sometimes, it also will send the information of weather to remind drivers to be safe. This type of public account develops their customers by soft advertising.
Cadillac public account of WeChat platform
Of course, it is not the only way that
Wechat cooperates with companies. Like Rejoice, their account just chats with
people who want to chat . Consumers can say whatever they want to say. People
even can require the account of a brand to sing a song, but the song will last 60
seconds--- this is the limitation of voice message. Also, people can also order
meals by Wechat, if restaurant and consumers are in the same areas.Companies doing advertisements by
themselves is totally different from those companies who are helped by social
network to do advertisements.
Difference of profitability way
According
to Steve Hargreaves’s article “Facebook profit soars from CNN,” “Facebook reported fourth quarter sales of $2.6 billion, up
63% from the same time last year. Profit at the Menlo Park, Calif., company hit
$523 million, up from just $64 million the year prior. Excluding one time
items, earnings per share were 31 cents, beating estimates of 27 cents per
share.” According to this article, more than 90% of revenue of Facebook
is from ad sales. A lot of demand of social advertising stimulates the increase
in income of all social networks sites or software. Besides, the video ad is
the new target of Facebook.
It’s
no doubt that the profitability way of Facebook is the most classic way to earn
money for social networks. However, there is another way to earn money of
Chinese social networks. Tencent QQ is an instant message like ICQ. It earns
money from their consumers. They develop music and games software. If their
consumers want to be VIP members, they need to pay for it 10 yuan per month. Generally,
VIP members can have their own symbol and can bring their message record all
over the world whenever you change the phones or the computers. In addition,
the VIP members are always on the top of the group. It is cheap for people, but
according to the data from Huxiu, there are more than 0.82 billion users. If
just 20% of users pay for VIP membership for a month, it will earn about 0.27
billion dollars. The fact is there is more than 20% of users pay for VIP membership
for years. The interesting thing the QQ account will show the grade of your VIP,
some people continue pay for the VIP just for habits like my boyfriend. And the
price of it is cheap in people’s mind. Of course this is just a way that
Tencent earn money. Their all productions have vip system, and people also need
pay for their equipment or high quality music. What is the relationship of QQ
and their other productions? If you have a QQ account, you can use this account
log in all productions, which produced by Tencent. This is a potential lure to
let people spend money. Tencent has 29 big game copyrights, and many their own
games. They are all need users pay for money. Besides, the programmer of
Tencent develops different games for mobile. The interesting thing is you can
play these games because your friends from QQ already play them. Gamers want to
defeat their friends, so they will pay money for lives and equipment. Also,
Wechat is the production of Tecent. Multiple outlets offer more chance that
social networks earn money. Tencent is a model that companies can think about.
VIP members of Tencent QQ
The game users of Tencent online at the Beijing time 3:00 am.
The Chinese social networks and American social networks seem similar
but totally different. Whatever how different they are, their target are the
same. They want to attract more users. Although the population of Chinese users
of social networks is more than American networks, it is not the advantage of
China. Most of Chinese media social networks imitate products of other
countries. Like Gemma Brich said that Chinese market is “fat meat” (2013,Dec. 27). It just was waiting
for more different social networks. It is not only the opportunities of non-Chinese
businesses to earn money; it also is the chance of Chinese media social networks
to have pressure to develop Chinese social networks.
Social networks is the trend of modern life
Main social networks applications and sites in China and in the U.S.
References
Barboze, D. (2014,
Jan. 21). A popular Chinese social networking App blazes its own path. The
New York Times. Retrieved from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/technology/a-chinese-social-network-blazes-its-own-path.html?_r=1
Widrich,
L. (2013, May.2 ) Social Media in 2013: User Demographics For Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. Budfferapp. Retrieved from: http://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-in-2013-user-demographics-for-twitter-facebook-pinterest-and-instagram
Lu, R. &Wertime, D. (2013,
Mar. 18). Six Reasons Why Weibo Is Powerful, Even If It’s Haunted By Zombies. The Leaf Nation. Retrieved from:
http://www.tealeafnation.com/2013/03/six-reasons-why-weibo-is-powerful-even-if-its-haunted-by-zombies/#sthash.pUE9m5Nw.dpuf
Liu, G. (2010, Jun. 25).
Retrieved from:http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-105489-347190.html
From Weibo to WeChat. (2014, Jan.
18). Retrieved from:
http://www.economist.com/news/china/21594296-after-crackdown-microblogs-sensitive-online-discussion-has-shifted-weibo-wechat
Seashoreman. (2014, Feb. 10). Seven Successful
Cases of Operation Pattern of WeChat. Retrieved from:http://blog.csdn.net/seashoreman/article/details/19035549
Hargreaves, S. (2014, Jan.
29). CNNMoney. Retrieved from: http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/29/technology/facebook-earnings/
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