China had to forgo many internationally accepted privileges to achieve its incredible economic stability despite being a global superpower and one of the wealthiest countries globally.
The government had to ban Western social media platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter, and introduce platforms suitable for the Chinese audience. If you’re a Westerner moving to China, you have to forget about your current social media networks and try Chinese-centric alternatives.
What Are the Top Chinese Social Media Apps
China has a multitude of social media apps targeting different groups of people. Take your pick among communication-centered applications such as MOMO, WeChat, and QQ.
Most social media apps in China are multipurpose, meaning they can be used for live streaming, messaging, e-commerce, and other tasks such as calling a cab or playing games with friends. Just arrived in China or want to expand your business to China? Here are some social media apps you must know.
Sina Weibo
Sina Weibo is a top-ranked Chinese micro-blogging app launched in 2009 to facilitate social sharing and interconnectivity. It’s a great Chinese social media platform supporting sharing of 140-character posts along with emojis and images. Weibo is an incredible commerce platform targeting B2B and B2C marketing. Sharing high-converting posts on this platform will help you reach more users, triggering organic growth.
Sina Weibo is like the Twitter of China, offering almost identical features and benefits. Weibo supports user tags, stores (like Instagram), one-to-one engagements, and hashtags. Users can use the social listening features to track what their clients say about competitors and their products. Suppose you want to use Sina Weibo outside China to monitor the latest trades and market your China-localized business. In that case, you’ll need to bypass any geo-censorship using rotating residential proxies.
WeChat is the TikTok of China and one of the world’s most famous apps. It’s a jack-of-all-trades application targeting individual users, brands, and businesses. WeChat provides dozens of unique and amazing features and functions to support efficient social networking. The platform has a direct messaging channel and an e-commerce mechanism.
WeChat is an excellent app for video chats, product sales, and other essential marketing and networking activities. Although it costs nothing to create an account with WeChat, the process is complicated because you’ll need to scan a QR code from an existing user’s device.
Tencent QQ
Do you want to localize your website for the Chinese audience or connect with your Chinese friends or family? Tencent QQ is another excellent social media platform to consider. It belongs to Tencent and has stood out as the near-perfect alternative to WeChat. Fortunately for you, registration doesn’t require a QR scanning process and a phone number.
You can set up an account in minutes and start conversing with your friends and family. Like WhatsApp, Tencent QQ lets you download a desktop application and set it up by scanning a QR code. This feature qualifies it as one of the most optimal Chinese social media applications for business marketing.
Baidu Tieba
Baidu is the largest search engine in China, and it hosts a friendly online forum with over 45 million active monthly users called Baidu Tieba. The social media platform existed way before Facebook came into the limelight, despite not achieving popularity in Western countries. The social networking site has over 1.5 billion subscribers, which gives it an edge over similar platforms.
Unlike other social networking websites, Baidu Tieba has the support of a reputable and well-known search engine in China. Therefore, content shared on this platform will consistently rank better compared to others. If you’re a content creator, use Baidu Teiba to optimize the performance of your interactive, question-and-answer, and keyword-based content.
Conclusion
Social media marketing has taken center stage in the world’s internet marketing sector, with millions of businesses using social networking channels to optimize their business performance and trigger more growth.
You might be familiar with the typical social media apps available today in the Western world. However, keep in mind that they won’t be helpful when you expand your business to Chinese markets. The aforementioned social media apps are what you need to gain a footing in China. Once you try them out, you’ll realize how useful they are.