An overview of the social and digital landscape in China. There are around 600 million Internet users in China; this makes it the largest Internet market in the world. Chinese internet users, including important audiences for UKVI, are turning to one another for new ideas and fresh information. Social media provides a platform for these conversations, through bulletin board systems (BBS), blogs, WIKIs, Q&A platforms, microblogs, and social networks. These slides provide a look at China's social media equivalents.

1. Setting the Scene in China
An Overview of the Social and Digital Landscape

2. 2
Social Media in China: An
Overview
There are around 600 million Internet users in China; this
makes it the largest Internet market in the world.
Chinese internet users, including important audiences for
UKVI, are turning to one another for new ideas and fresh
information. Social media provides a platform for these
conversations, through bulletin board systems (BBS),
blogs, WIKIs, Q&A platforms, microblogs, and social
networks.
Due to government restrictions, Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube and many other international social media
players are inaccessible in mainland China. In their place
a number of domestic equivalents have thrived. In many
ways these Chinese sites are clones of their foreign
counterparts, yet as we will see there are a number of
important differences.

3. 3
Social Media in China: An
Overview
Microblogs (Weibo)
Microblogs, better known as Weibo, are the leading platforms among
general audiences in China. These function similarly to Twitter, but with
more multimedia functionality. Sina Weibo, the leader, has more than
140 million monthly active users.
WeChat
WeChat, with 400m+ users, is a mobile instant messaging service
similar to What’sApp that features social functionality similar to Twitter.
WIKI and Q&A Platforms
With over 2 million entries, Baidu Wiki is an important source of
information in China. Less authoritative, but equally popular with over 1
billion views per month, are Chinese Q&A platforms.
Social Networks
RenRen and Kaixin functioned similarly to Facebook in the West, yet
due to the rise of Weibo and WeChat are fading in relevance. Weibo
Baidu WIKI & CN
Wikipedia