I'm sure that it's common knowledge to everyone that Facebook is banned in China. And based on this little piece of information itself, many questions are raised like why is Facebook banned in China, are there other popular social media that is banned in China and if there are, what are they, and finally, what is the social media usage in China like?
In class, Mr Choy pointed out that China has the most number of Internet users in the world. The picture shown above shows a more recently updated list and it still proves that China is not letting up from its first position. Not only that, the gap between China and the second country, India is really wide - a difference of 299 million!
With such massive statistics like this, it simply begs the question: Does at least ONE person among these reported 674 million Internet users in China use some form of social media? Obviously the answer is 'yes' because Facebook is not synonymous with social media.
But, first, answering the first question: Why is Facebook banned in China?
A little dig into the search engine (I used Google by the way...) and results have shown that the ban of Facebook came about at the aftermath of the 2009 Xinjiang riots .
In short, the riots were about ethnic unrest between the Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in Xinjiang, one of the most politically sensitive regions in China. People within the region then went online through blogs to disseminate pictures of the riots to the rest of the world and express their distaste towards the issue, questioning the government policies. In fear that this would spark even more violence, Chinese authorities swiftly removed these comments. This then culminated in the ban of Facebook and Twitter.
Shocking, right? Who knew the reason for the Facebook ban would be so bloody?
So, since Facebook and Twitter are banned as a result of these riots, what are the odds that other popular social media platforms are banned in China as well?
To no surprise, Instagram, WordPress.com and Blogspot are among many social media that are banned in China.
Moving on to the next question: So what is the social media usage like in China?
China does have its own social media platforms but interestingly, they are somewhat 'copycat' versions of popular social media - of which they are sometimes referred to as "C2C model" by researchers on Chinese Internet innovation. And, if you're wondering, 'C2C' means 'Copy to China'. For example, China's answers to Facebook and Twitter are QZone and Weibo respectively. Below is a useful summary of the social media landscape in China.
However, what I find much more interesting is how QQ, one of China's popular instant messaging service, claims the top position in the country in terms of monthly active users (MAUs) and despite the vast majority of its users living in China, it also claims the second-place spot in the worldwide rankings behind Facebook!
Truly amazing!
Furthermore, 87% of China's social media users now access via mobile devices each month and there is a growing number of users every second - 2.5 new users every second to be exact .
And, at 1 hour and 43 minutes per day, social media accounts for just under half of all the time that people spend online in China with social media users spending their time 23% longer on social media than they do watching TV each day although there are many TV viewers engaging in 'second-screen' social media use at the same time. Below is the rundown of social media usage in China.
So, I've really learnt a lot about social media usage in China and I'm truly amazed and impressed from the research that I have gathered.
Before I close this post, I'd like to share an interesting article that my friend had shared with me.
I don't know if any of you are aware of this but Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been quite relentless in wooing China to open its massive market to Facebook. But the thing is, with the substantial popularity of the country's own social media platforms, is Facebook even needed in China? Apparently, Zuckerberg seems to think so. But for me, I don't think so. Even if the Facebook ban in China has been lifted, the same reasons for the ban itself would no doubt resurface and could lead to even more chaotic riots in China.
But who truly knows what would happen? Only time will tell.
I hope you'd find my post helpful for your learning! See you next post!
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