Chinese don’t use the Internet the same way as Americans. They are technologically a step into the future in one respect, mobile services like gaming and IM via QQ, and a throwback in another, bulletin board systems (BBS) are at the heart of most websites.
Tom Melcher’s Live from Beijing blog explores the later.
I can’t overstate the importance of a website’s BBS to Chinese Internet users. Time and again, through informal conversations and more formal online polling, I have confirmed that an active, well moderated BBS is far more valuable than professionally-developed content. In every subject area imaginable, from the latest news, to having a baby, to decorating a house, to raising your children, the advice and comments of presumably-ordinary people literally power the traffic and interaction within the Chinese internet. Every major successful Chinese B2C website I know began as a BBS.
Paul Denlinger, takes up the baton on The China Vortex. exploring the marketing and advertising implications for foreign companies.
Most westerners who come into the China Internet market have no idea of its power and influence, and instead think that the Chinese Internet is largely the same as the US market, but it isn’t. The Chinese government doesn’t really like BBSes because it really is free (as in free speech), and is the breeding ground for all kinds of weird stuff. And while it is important for gathering buzz on products (as CIC, based in Shanghai, does) for corporations, nobody has really been able to monetize it.
Bottom line: social media in China are alive, well and 10 years old. And like many 10 year olds, often overlooked, misunderstood and off in their own world, where they can make mischief for all the adults.
