The power players: key social media platforms in China
Home to over one billion social media users, China has its own internet regulations, including censorship and data privacy laws. There are various homegrown alternatives to the Western social media platforms. In terms of user size, WeChat, Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu are the predominant choices for social marketing and advertising campaigns in the country.WeChat, often dubbed as China's "super app", is a multifunctional platform that boasted over 1.3 billion monthly active users. It offers brands a high reach of consumers from various demographic groups. The Chinese sister app of TikTok Douyin, however, has proven to be a goldmine for creative marketing campaigns. The short video app had around 740 million monthly active users and contributed over a quarter of China’s internet ad spend. Regarding regular brand exposure and interactions, microblogging platform Weibo is the ideal choice with about 600 million monthly active users. When it comes to influencer marketing, social commerce site Xiaohongshu has become the go-to option among brands with over 170 million monthly active users.
