Make Way for China’s Social Networks, Renren & Weibo
Many of us in North America are familiar with Facebook and Twitter, but how many of us know RenRen and Sina Weibo?
After the Facebook deal with Goldman Sachs failed, many investors are looking for a way to buy into the social media sector’s growth. Well, investors may have a channel now. A news article said that RenRen.com plans to list in the US this year, wanting to raise $500m.
RenRen
Because social media sites such as YouTube and Facebook are banned in China, Chinese have to look for ways to enjoy social media and Renren is one of them. RenRen.com is the largest social network in China founded in 2005 and its layout and features are very similar to Facebook. Its chat feature is very popular among its users and as of 2010, Renren has over 160 million registered users compared to Facebook’s over 500 million users. This is pretty shocking statistics considering Facebook is worldwide and founded one year before Renren.
Another social media site copycat is Sina’s weibo. Its functionality is very similar to Twitter. It allows users to post their thoughts limited to 140 characters which is the same character limit as Twitter. Weibo is very popular among Chinese. As of 2010, Weibo has over 65 million users. One of the reasons why Weibo is so popular is because it is used by many celebrities in China. Fans are able to follow and get updates of their favorite celebrities instantly.
Know Your Target Audience
Even though Renren does not pose any threat to Facebook because Renren is only available in the Chinese language, it will be harder for Facebook to penetrate into the Chinese market if Renren does issue an IPO. Marketers have to pay attention to these trends to ensure they pick the correct channel to talk to their customers. For example, Facebook and Twitter are not ideal for companies who are focusing in the Chinese market as Chinese users won’t have access to it. Rather, marketers have to be accustomed to using Renren and Weibo to promote their brand. Companies have to be careful as to what market they want to focus because they dont’ want to spend too much resources on a channel that is not that effective.
source: Financial Times, eMarketer.com
