by Alice Wansi Chen
What does BBS (Bulletin Board System) remind you of? Many of you may remember the old school Internet forum system, Bulletin Board System (BBS), from the 1990s in the US. For those of you who don’t, the BBSes are computers that can be dialed into mainly for the purpose of reading messages from and leaving messages to other users, sharing files, and accessing information of general interest. And although we may think it’s a thing of the past, it’s actually the most widely used and popular social networking platform in China, NOW. Internet users in China interact differently from the users in the Western countries. Here are 5 facts of Chinese social networking:
- Large population. Internet users in China are usually referred to as “netizen”, people who are actively involved in online communities. The population of Chinese netizens is over 420 million in 2010, and they are actively involved in different types of social networking; including Xiaonei (Chinese facebook), and Kaixin (online social gaming portal).
- Netizens like to contribute. In America only 21% of people create original content, however, in China 40% of people create content.
- BBS is one of the most reliable information sources for netizens. More than 80% of users are using BBS sites to search for information about products they plan to buy, and 61.7% of users are keen to ask other BBS users for opinions before making a purchase. Recent research shows that Chinese netizens are more likely to turn to the Internet, especially BBS, for program solving solutions, instead of turning to their family members and friends.
- Netizens make friends through BBS, and they are likely to be friends in real life through many offline events organized through BBS.
- Netizens frequently talk about brand in BBS, and many successful company campaigns are promoted through BBS and turn to be successful offline campaigns as well.
BBS might be a virtual online communication platform in the Western countries. However, in China, it is a widely used social networking platform where companies could actually monitor and manage their branding, as well as significantly enhance their marketing campaigns. While we are all talking about Facebook and Twitter for branding purposes, in China it is a different story.
