An infographic produced by our social media team to show how Facebook now dominates Asia. Enjoy!

Since then, new social media platforms have become relevant – on both sides of the Great Firewall – and so the team reworked the infographic. They have also widened the scope to include more platforms within some of the categories.

Major changes include:

Three new categories: professional social networks, which may become more important with LinkedIn’s China future still uncertain, mobile chat, and online music.

GroupOn’s Chinese platform: Although just launched, if their planned investment is anything to go by and they get over some of their initial obstacles, GroupOn China is likely to become a major player in the next few months.

Quora: Although different to Yahoo Answers, which it replaced, Quora is now the Q&A platform everybody is talking about. On the China side we have included its direct equivalent, Zhihu, as well as Baidu Zhidao and Tianya Wenda, which are more like Yahoo Answers.

More Tencent: This Chinese internet giant has been given a lot more face than last time, with the addition of their microblog and the highly populated but relatively inactive Qzone.

Making graphics like this is, of course, far from an exact science. Many of the changes are debatable and the Chinese equivalents also have very different features from their equivalents. Inevitably, there is also the difficulty relating to category crossovers.

Suggestions welcomed in the comments!

I wrote the below article for China Business Review, the magazine of the US-China Business Council. I’d be interested in feedback from the readers of this blog! Tom

As Chinese consumers spend more time online, foreign companies should deepen their knowledge of domestic social media platforms.

by Thomas Crampton

Much has been written of late about the PRC government’s efforts to control and censor the Internet. The government’s censorship of websites is an important issue, but it is not the top priority of the country’s 420 million Internet users (netizens). Their top priority? Connecting with other Chinese online. The Internet has opened access to information for ordinary Chinese citizens in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Coming from a world where information was pre-filtered by editors at state-run media, China’s Internet is freewheeling by comparison.

Quick Overview
Chinese Internet users are actively engaging in social media—especially home-grown social media platforms. Domestic social media platforms differ in various ways from Western platforms.

Companies should learn how Chinese consumers use social media and take advantage of the platforms to conduct consumer research, launch products, manage public relations crises, and more.

Rather than eliminate social media, restrictions on foreign websites and social media have resulted in a flourishing home-grown, state-approved ecosystem in which Chinese-owned properties thrive. YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are blocked in China, but their Chinese equivalents are expanding. By some measures, usage of Chinese social media is some of the most intense in the world. A Boston Consulting Group study found that Chinese Internet users are online for an average of 2.7 hours per day, considerably more than other developing countries and more on par with usage patterns in Japan and the United States (see Understand and Tap Into China’s Digital Generations).

Numerous factors help drive Chinese, more than other populations, to engage in social media. These include rural-to-urban migration that has separated families, the loneliness of the one-child generation, and a distrust of information from government-controlled media.

A 2008 MTV Music Matters survey found that young people across Asia have made a similar number of friends online and offline. Only in China, however, did young people actually have more friends online than offline. This points to a convergence of the offline and online worlds, where it is less important to distinguish between what happens online from the “real world.” In China, more than in many countries, social media has become deeply integrated into people’s lives.

Chinese netizens actively engage in discussions that could directly affect companies. A recent study by OgilvyOne in China found that 55 percent of China’s netizens had initiated or participated in online discussions about companies. Understanding social media is no longer a luxury for companies operating in China—it is an imperative. Formerly, a lack of engagement with netizens could be considered a lost opportunity. Now, the penetration and impact of social media is such that failing to understand what consumers are saying about a company online has become a business risk.

Comparing social media platforms
To explain the development of social media in Asia, Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence team has developed a series of social media “bulls-eyes” that place international platforms on the outside ring and their local equivalents on an inner ring (see Figure).

With China, as with other countries, this bulls-eye system has strengths and weaknesses. For example, the bulls-eye shows that the equivalent of Twitter in China is Sina Weibo (www.sina.com.cn), and the two equivalents of YouTube are Tudou and Youku (www.tudou.com and www.youku.com, respectively).

This comparison is helpful, but it can also be misleading. China’s social media platforms and online behaviors vary in important ways from those that may be considered their international equivalents. This variation is not all due to censorship. In China, as elsewhere in Asia, local variations of Internet usage are driven by language, culture, levels of economic development, and the underlying digital ecosystem. Digital ecosystems—the platforms around which populations focus online communications—can vary wildly between countries and within a single country. Substantial differences can exist even in countries at similar levels of economic development. Even without government blocks, Internet users in Japan and South Korea, for example, flock to domestically developed social media platforms such as GREE (www.gree.jp) and Cyworld (www.cyworld.co.kr), respectively, rather than internationally known sites.

YouTube vs. Youku and Tudou
Different social media usage patterns tell a great deal about the Internet and the country involved. For example, Chinese netizens use online video platforms quite differently from how Americans use YouTube. Rather than short videos of cute animals or silly domestic mishaps that may be popular among YouTube watchers, Youku and Tudou are filled with longer form content, up to 70 percent of which is professionally produced. Users in China spend up to an hour per day on the sites, compared with less than 15 minutes spent by Americans on YouTube. In the way they present programs, the Chinese sites seem more like online television stations or a replacement for digital video recorders. Though individuals in China produce and post videos, a large portion of online video content is longer-format professional videos. Much of this content consists of foreign programs pirated, subtitled, and uploaded hours after broadcast in the United States. An odd consequence is that the stars of programs such as Prison Break have a huge fan base in China, despite the series never having been broadcast on Chinese television.

In addition to the pirated programs, demand for original content on Youku and Tudou has resulted in a boom of companies that focus purely on online video. In some ways, the sites resemble a variation on US-based television service Hulu more than YouTube.

The television-like feel of Youku and Tudou reflects the usage pattern of young Chinese. University students in China often express skepticism when told that their country has one of the highest levels of social media engagement in the world, because they expect that the United States would rank first.

In my favorite demonstration, I ask students in a classroom to raise their hands if they have watched China Central Television (CCTV) in the last week. Generally, no one raises their hand. When I ask who has watched a video on Youku or Tudou in the last 24 hours, every hand in the room goes up, accompanied by amused laughter.

This switchover to social media does more than demonstrate the popularity of new media—it affects the whole advertising industry. In China’s case, certain demographics can no longer be reached effectively via traditional media channels. As the anecdote above shows, a well-crafted television advertisement on CCTV could miss university students entirely.

Twitter vs. Sina Weibo
Some differences between Chinese and foreign social media are rooted in culture and language. At first glance, Sina Weibo is a latecomer to the microblog phenomenon. But launched in 2009, just about three years after Twitter, Sina Weibo is by far the most popular microblogging platform in China. (The PRC government has blocked Twitter, though a small number of Chinese and resident expatriates hack their way around the blockage.)

Similar to Twitter, Sina Weibo allows users to post 140-character messages, and users can follow friends and find interesting comments posted by others. Small but important differences in the platform have made some say it is a Twitter clone, but better. For example, unlike Twitter, Sina Weibo allows users to post videos and photos, comment on other people’s updates, and easily add comments when re-posting a friend’s message.

Though mobile phones are used to send less than 20 percent of Twitter updates in the United States, nearly half of Sina Weibo’s updates are sent via mobile phone. This phenomenon points to the growth of China’s mobile Internet, one of the biggest trends in China and Asia.

Perhaps the most striking difference between Chinese and foreign social media, however, is the length of communications expressed via microblogs in Chinese versus English. One measure is to look at what Dell Inc., a company skilled at social media, can communicate on microblogs in Chinese compared to English. Twitter holds messages to 140 characters, which is quite short in English, especially if users want to include a URL. Dell often uses its Twitter feed, @delloutlet, to promote special offers, such as this posting: “Today’s Deal: Get FREE Eco-Lite Sleeve with the purchase of any Dell Outlet Insprion Mini 10 or 10v Netbook! http://bit.ly/77fUFG.” This message came in at 136 characters, almost the maximum length.

Since each character in Chinese is a word, @delldirect, Dell’s Chinese-language feed, can write much more using the Chinese-language Zuosa microblogging platform (http://zuosa.com). As translated by Ogilvy’s Beijing team, a similar message reads:

Dell’s National Day Sale runs from Sept. 11 to Oct. 8. To celebrate the 60th anniversary with the motherland, Dell Home Computers is offering 6 cool gifts and deals on 10 computer models. These exciting offers will run non-stop for 4 weeks. Also, get a free upgrade to color casing and a 512MB independent graphics card, as well as other service upgrades. All offers are on a first-come, first-served basis. What are you waiting for? Act now!
Even with a message this length—114 characters in Chinese—there is still enough space to put in a webpage link. In other words, 114 characters in Chinese translates into 434 characters in English, well beyond the text limit of a “tweet” in English. This language efficiency turns microblogging in China into a more blog-like platform.

Like Facebook, but different
Throughout much of the West, particularly the United States, Facebook holds sway as the default social network, gathering all demographics. The same does not hold true in China, where a handful of social networks attract segmented audiences, ranging from upmarket urban youth to university students and migrant workers.

Douban (www.douban.com), a more specialized social networking site, attracts art students and those passionate about books, cinema, culture, and music. Users connect according to their interests and often hold offline activities, such as trips to local art exhibitions.

- Kaixin001 (www.kaixin001.com), a platform designed for a more mature audience of young professionals, has a membership that is heavily dominated by white collar workers in Beijing; Guangzhou, Guangdong; Shanghai; and second-tier cities. Users do not upload personal content but rather share information they find elsewhere, often relating to health, relationships, and professional advancement.

- QZone (http://qzone.qq.com), the first and largest social networking site in China, attracts youth from teens through age 25, often from second- and third-tier cities. A sizable portion of migrant workers, many of whom share personal diaries in a blog-like format, use QZone.

- RenRen (www.renren.com), the platform in China most similar to Facebook, attracts university students who use the platform to connect and interact with classmates. The site is organized around users’ school and graduation class. Many users upload videos and photos of their activities.

Bulletin board systems
Beyond these sites that have more modern Internet functionality, some original forms of social media still flourish in China. Bulletin board systems (BBS), which were a primal form of the early Internet, allow people to post basic messages online (see the CBR, January-February 2009, Blogs, Bulletin Boards, and Business). In contrast to many countries, a wide range of BBS still flourish in China today, with users relying on them for critical consumer comments about products and services from clothes and cosmetics to restaurants and cars. Postings are anonymous, which encourages users to give unvarnished views. Writing under pseudonyms, many users that frequently post on BBS build reputations and sizable followings. Anonymity does, of course, also open the system to abuse by competitors writing negative comments.

The Internet as social media
A broader impact of China’s deep involvement in social media is that some netizens only experience the Internet through social media platforms. This is partly because of the large population of new netizens coming online at any given time. According to the China Internet Network Information Center, China had 420 million netizens by the first half of 2010, up 36 million Internet users over year-end 2009. When new users join the Internet, a friend will often introduce them to one particularly relevant service, such as how to communicate with friends for free via Sina Weibo or buy goods via China’s e-Bay equivalent—Taobao (www.taobao.com), so that service becomes their concept of the Internet. These examples show how many Chinese netizens would not distinguish between social media and the Internet itself. To them, the Internet is social media and vice versa.

Case studies in China’s social media
For companies operating in China, the rise of social media opens opportunities to engage with consumers and, at times, avert serious problems. By ignoring social media, companies may not see a consumer-led crisis coming.

Companies can use social media in China to conduct consumer research, shift brand preference, launch products, and manage crises. Even monitoring online conversations can yield striking results. For example, while conducting daily online monitoring for a client, Ogilvy found a brewing consumer protest over the client’s shop in Guangzhou. Early in the week, a disgruntled customer had posted complaints about customer service and announced his intention to visit the store that coming Saturday to express his dissatisfaction. Other netizens said they would join, exchanged mobile phone numbers, and discussed where to meet. By Wednesday, a group of 30 disgruntled customers had plans to meet at the store on Saturday. Because the original complainer had posted full details of his experience, the company was able to contact the customer and rectify the situation. In response, the customer announced online that he would cancel his visit to the shop. He was impressed with the direct outreach and the fact that the company listened.

An example involving a nationwide consumer recall shows how companies should use social media and speak the language of consumers. In this case, consumers had different concerns from what the company expressed in public statements about its recall. The company also posted general information about the recall, but consumers online wanted more detailed and practical information. By actively listening to consumers on BBS and other social media sites during the recall, the company adjusted its online messaging to answer consumer questions. As the recall went into full swing, the number of people visiting recall-related forums remained high, but fewer people left comments or asked questions because their questions were being answered sufficiently.

Oddly ignored
As China’s population moves online, consumer behavior shifts. Oddly, many companies have failed to acknowledge the shifts in their marketing strategies. Social media has grown to become the shared commons where Chinese consumers offer opinions, ask for advice, and discuss brands. Ignoring the Internet could be considered a lost opportunity in the past, but in China today, ignoring social media is a business risk.

Based on a wildly unscientific poll this morning of those people who follow my Twitter feed (with more than 25 responses), here’s an overview of the services people use to get around the Great Firewall:

WINNER: Witopia – Undisputed winner. Quality of service, speed of surfing, though it is said to be relatively expensive at US$50 to US$60 per year.

- Hotspot Shield – Bandwidth limits can be painful. Force you to wait until the next month if you use it too much.
- Ultrasurf
- StrongVPN

Interesting to note that one person warned me against posting this, because the government might shut down their preferred service. Since these services advertise all over the place, I don’t think that should be too much of a concern.

Any other suggestions or views on these services?

For those searching for a job, Reid gave a few tips on how to work with social networking sites:

Digital Self-branding: The important thing today is how you brand yourself on the Internet. Its good to be careful not only about how you establish profile but also how you run it on social networks. One of the things we do for you is we actually try to SEO your profile, so that people will Google you. Managing reputational information is that if you have an embarrassing picture it will be hidden because the LinkedIn profile is found first.

Endorsements: You should get some of your friends to recommend you, so you have recommendations there.

Brands and social networks:

At LinkedIn, we use our polling tool to allow people to run market surveys on specifically defined target audiences. When a car company like Mazda advertises and asks which of these characteristics you like the most in a car. From out polling tool, when you click on it, our polling product actually shows them how many people in a region, or how many senior professionals or how many from the Internet industry have said what about their brand.

One of the ways blogging is described is that it is essentially to establish your brand for conversation. Its another way of saying that o.k. I put my brand in a place where people are actually congregating, communicating.

Facebook has these fan pages. They say this is an area they like and this is a soft drink they like. They are treating a brand as another virtual friend.

Jeff Jarvis – who thinks that the Davos crowd really does not appreciate how much trust in them has slipped.

Richard Edelman of Edelman PR – describes the details of the report.

Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times, who says we should continue to trust financial journalists. (He points out that some of the FT’s reporters were writing about the vulnerabilities in the financial system long before the markets tanked).

In fact, this year at Davos he celebrated his 40th birthday in the piano bar with Richard Branson, more than 100 grandees and magnums of champagne liberally flowing.

For some reason Rich insists on calling me T-bone, often shouting across rooms crowded with CEOs and world leaders. He claims the nickname is a term of endearment.

“No self-respecting person from the part of Detroit where I grew up is called ‘Thomas’,” Rich explains. “You gotta have a nickname. A tough nickname.”

Um, gee, ah, thanks Rich.

To save you the cost of a hotel room and airplane ticket, Matthew Bishop of The Economist kindly summarized what he found after a week in the Swiss mountains.

Mainly, it was pretty depressing and will likely get worse!

Always welcome suggestions for people who should be profiled.

Do drop by and check it out!

If you try it out, do let me know what you think! I always crave feedback.

I have also started blogging on the Huffington Post, for things that I think will interest that community.

I found my breakfast with Shimon Peres particularly depressing. The feeling was that the economic crisis will be long, protracted and painful, but my sense from Peres and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is that we will not see peace in the Middle East anytime soon.

Another theme that kept recurring was the rising cost of financing for developing nations.

Developing nations have made incredible progress in reducing the level of poverty and incredible progress in terms of raising people into [higher living standards] and levels of health care. They are now going to be facing incredible difficulty with refinancing their debts.

It’s not just the cost of borrowing for companies that is going up. When countries start refinancing bonds, they are going to face these same difficult financial markets. So that’s a further impact that we haven’t begun to see yet that is going to be trickling through the economic system.

There was talk of China and India being approached to set up an alternate development bank to the Asian Development Bank. There is a desire for such an institution that is not controlled by the US or Japan.

Speakers included the schoolchildren, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Richard Branson and Peter Gabriel, who sang Biko a capella.

Hearing Desmond Tutu speak was an incredible experience. I have rarely seen someone captivate and hold an audience with such simplicity, humility and light heartedness.

At the end of the event Peter Gabriel led the entire room in singing his tribute to Steve Biko.

By Thomas Crampton

DAVOS, Jan 31: Abhisit Vejajiva, Thai Prime minister, today warned protesters gathering on the streets of Bangkok that they should not further upset the Thai situation.

Speaking with a blogger on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Abhisit also urged former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to return to Thailand and fight the charges against him.

As the supporters of Thaksin – so-called red shirts – gather on the streets of Bangkok, they should keep in mind that the majority of Thai people do not offer support, Abhisit said.

“The country cannot afford to slip back into conflicts and violence and into almost a standstill,” Abhisit said. “People have been fed up with the divisions in politics that have kept the country’s progress back.”

Thaksin, now living in self-imposed exile due to actions against him in Thai courts, would face fair treatment if he returned to Thailand, Abhisit said.

“The Thai government must prove that our country will enforce the law in a non-discriminatory way,” Abhisit said. “It is our clear policy and every intention to do just that.”

ENDSsssss (Full transcript below video)

On a personal note: I was extremely honored that Prime Minister Abhisit recognized my blog (largely due to my interview with Thaksin).

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Protesters are back on the streets today is Thailand headed back into the chaos of previous months?

In the last month the country has made tremendous progress from a situation where we had a barely functioning government. The last month has seen a new government that has begun a lot of hard work and also been able to produce key results.

- Confirmation of the hosting of the ASEAN summit in late February
- All the agreements that need to be signed and passed by parliament
- An economic stimulus package already approved by the cabinet
- The mid-year budget already past the first reading of parliament

I think the country really is moving forward and the people really want this to happen. People have been fed up with the divisions in politics that have kept the country’s progress back. They are now willing for the country to move beyond the old conflicts and the old politics.

What is your message to Red Shirts now gathering on the streets of Bangkok?

I can understand that people have political differences, that I hear their voice and I will try to incorporate the reasonable demands and invite their participation in the future political reform process.

But also, they should be aware that the majority of Thai people and the country cannot afford to let the country slip back into conflicts and violence and into almost a standstill.

What are your views on the future role and influence of former PM Thaksin on Thai politics?

I think it time he came back to Thailand to fight his cases in court, to accept the consequences of the law and sanctions and not to have the country progress kept in check by his own interests.

Is Thaksin still a force in Thailand?

He still has influence, he still has supporters, but the Thai government must prove that our country will enforce the law in a non-discriminatory way.

I can assure him that he will get a fair treatment. It is our clear policy and every intention to do just that.

This is an accidental video exclusive, since no other journalist attending used a video camera.

When I asked whether he thought Social Media could help bring about world peace, he suggested I ask Barack Obama.

Sadly, Obama is not here in Davos, so will have to wait on that question.

This panel features Tony Blair and I will be a discussion leader on new media’s role in helping religious dialogue.

Official title: How can new catalysts – such as the innovative use of technology and social media – stimulate new forms of interfaith and intercultural dialogue and how can they be replicated more widely to move society towards common goals?

This may be “anti Web 2.0″, but one point I would like to raise is that as much as social media is supposed to enhance dialogue and understanding, it can also be used as an avenue to promote hate.

The far right in France has loved the power of the Internet, since they received limited access to mainstream media and faced difficulty getting their message out. Now, with Web 2.0, they can play to their audience and keep out those who do not support their views.

The strength of the Internet in helping you dive deeply into a very specific question can help it become an instrument of intolerance and hatred when people limit themselves to a self-supporting silo of beliefs.

This is stretching the point, but could Web 2.0 turn into a modern-day version of Rwanda’s Radio des Mille Collines in promoting a genocide?

An analogy could be drawn to the nationalistic and anti-foreigner videos posted during the running of the torch.

Any other thoughts on Web 2.0 “helping interfaith dialogue”?

I have started a Delicious Tag: WebReligion

This is a 2-hour session with lead facilitator Jonathan Zittrain of Harvard Law school’s Berkman Center and author of the recently published The Future of the Internet – And How To Stop It.

I have not read Jonathan’s book, but I am quite sure it is excellent. Jonathan has long been a source of great insight for me when working on articles about the Internet.

My fellow discussion leaders:
Peter Bisanz, Director, Entropy Films, USA
Chris DeWolfe, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, MySpace.com, USA
Arianna Huffington, Editor, Huffington Post.com, USA
Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook, USA

The Participants:

* Feisal Abdul Rauf, Founder and Chairman, Cordoba Initiative, USA
* H.R.H. Hussam Bin Saud Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Prince of Saudi Royal Family; Chairman, Zain Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia
* Khalid Abdulla-Janahi, Chairman, Ithmaar Bank, Bahrain
* H.H. the Begum Aga Khan, Founder, Princess Inaara Foundation, United Kingdom
* Fatih Alev, Chairman, Muslims in Dialogue, Denmark
* Kjell Magne Bondevik, President, The Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, Norway
* John Bryant, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Operation Hope, USA
* Lord Carey of Clifton, Archbishop of Canterbury (1991-2002), United Kingdom
* Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
* John J. DeGioia, President, Georgetown University, USA; Chair, Global Agenda Council on Faith
* Mark Ebert, Executive Director, Three Faiths Forum, United Kingdom
* Eduardo S. Elsztain, Chairman, IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones, Argentina
* Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University, and William Ziegler Professor, Harvard Business School, USA
* Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister of the Environment and Water Resources of Singapore
* Shirley Ann Jackson, President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA
* Ronald S. Lauder, President, World Jewish Congress (WJC), USA
* Berel Lazar, Chief Rabbi of the Russian Federation
* George W. Mallinckrodt, President, Schroders, United Kingdom
* Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, Ireland
* Abu Eesa Niamatullah, Imam and Executive Director, Cheadle Mosque, Cheshire & Prophetic Guidance, United Kingdom
* Matthieu Ricard, Director, Karuna-Shechen, Nepal
* David Rosen, Chief Rabbi, International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Relations, USA
* Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Britain and the Commonwealth, United Kingdom
* Pavel Shashkin, Secretary Executive, Economic Council, Department for External Church Relations, Moscow Patriarchate, Russian Federation
* Awraham S. Soetendorp, Rabbi, Jewish Institute for Human Values, Netherlands
* Sadhguru J. Vasudev, Founder, Isha Foundation, India
* Jim Wallis, Editor-in-Chief and Chief Executive Officer, Sojourners, USA