the world of and messaging platforms is led by the great technology companies of all time. In this way, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp lead the .
But past the first positions with the networks that we have mentioned, we can find names not as well known as , QQ or Doujin. These occupy the sixth, eighth and ninth places respectively in the list and are native Chinese social networks, whose use is mainly restricted to users in this country, but whose users number in the hundreds of millions.
Chinese social networks you should know
It should be noted that China is the country with a strict network of digital censorship, to the point that Internet browsing is controlled by the government. For this reason, many foreign applications and platforms do not live in the country, as they cannot comply with the imposed censorship demands. , due to the difficulty of controlling conversations within their rooms.
Based on these strong restrictions, Chinese social networks are born, which in principle are very similar to their Western counterparts. In other words, platforms for communication, entertainment, that promote connection through digital means, but that are subject to the legislation imposed by the government. Even so, the fame of some of these networks has spread beyond its borders. Get to know with us a little more about what they are about, why they are so important and how the five most used Chinese social networks work.
We start with the largest in terms of number of users, with more than 1.2 billion users. This messaging service is very similar to WhatsApp, although it has many more features than this.
One of the most relevant aspects of is the integration of different applications within its interface called Mini Programs. These allow the application to offer diversified services to its users, the most important being WeChatPay, an electronic payment platform. This service for making payments and transfers has been one of the great promoters of social eCommerce in China, being used by large retail companies such as
As well as QQ, which we will talk about next, it is available internationally and it is possible to register through its .
QQ / Q zone
This application, whose face to the world is a funny penguin, has a total of 617 million users, following WeChat. At first glance, it might seem that the messaging network is full of bots or fake accounts, since their profiles are named by one digit of up to 12 numbers.. In any case, it is possible to create an alias to be identified more appropriately. Another particular feature of QQ is that its accounts have a lifespan of 1 month, so if it is not renewed within that period of time, the system deactivates it.
Its main function is messaging, which is why it is similar to platforms like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, which we are used to. Although QQ includes more varied options in its services, allowing even chat by voice. This platform currently occupies the fifth place of (which measures web traffic) globally, being surpassed only by YouTube in the field of social networks.
And most importantly: it is the gateway to QZone, a “classic” social network that has more than 600 million users. To make a simile, we could say that QQ is Messenger and Qzone is Facebook.
It is possible to register to QQ, since it has one on a website that also works in English, and its system also allows automatic translation of the text. So, if you want to try it, it’s really easy to do it. QQ also has v.qq.comformerly called Tencent Video, a YouTube-style video social network with over 100 million users.
Douyin, the original TikTok
Douyin is the original version of the international boom of , although being reserved only for use in China it has fewer users than its internationalized copy. For January this year Douyin has a total of 617 million users, below the 689 million that TikTok has.
Beyond the variation regarding the number of users, Douyin has specific characteristics that differentiate it from its international version. Like WeChat, this application is widely used in the field of social eCommerce offering an innovative sales channel thanks to its short video format.
In the same way, the target audience varies, since Douyin has users of very different ages, reaching even 40 years. This is due to the type of content that the application presents, because although it focuses on entertainment, it offers more varied topics such as curiosities and commerce.
Baidu Tieba, a space for forums
Although it does not appear directly in the Alexa ranking, its parent (the most popular search engine in China) is with more traffic. Baidu Tieba is, for its part, a free access platform that collect discussion forums offering nearly 300 million users an environment to share opinions. The slogan of this social network presents it as “Born for your interest”.
In its forums, which feature multiple topics that can range from celebrities, movies, to books or comics, more than one billion posts have been published, and in fact Baidu Tieba’s traffic represents more than 10% of Baidu’s total traffic. The Chinese company Baidu also has a open encyclopedia in which all users can participate, in the style of Wikipedia, called Baidu Baike, and a direct.
It also has an international version called Baidu Postbarwhich has a presence in countries such as , Vietnam and Thailand.
Sina Weibo, the Chinese microblogging network
This could be called the Chinese version of Twitter, a network that was banned by the country’s censorship. Sina Weibo has 511 million users. surpassing Twitter that holds only 353 million. This microblogging network has gone from position 31 a year ago, to occupy the number fifteen in the Alexa ranking.
Although Sina Weibo emerged as an alternative to Twitter, since 2016 it abandoned the character limitation, Twitter’s flagship feature. It also differs in its format, which is much more similar to discussion forums, which makes it more like Facebook today.
The anonymity it offers entails constant surveillance by the country’s censors and several that there is a group of people in the Chinese government focused exclusively on controlling the publications made on Sina Weibo, which has anonymous accounts, but also familiar faces from the Chinese. country. It is also the network in which national and international companies look to maintain their profiles.
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