The importance of social media and digital marketing in China

I chose this topic for my thesis. One of the components of my thesis deals with the reasons why companies use social media in China. One of the reasons is the hyper-connectivity of the country.

as a matter of fact, China has experienced strong growth in terms of digital and technology in the last few years, which has made digital marketing a must-have for businesses. Therefore, very quickly, Chinese consumers have plunged into a 2.0 era.
The smartphone market in China continues to grow and is ahead of the rest of the world. Indeed, Chinese people mostly use their phones to access the Internet. Moreover, digital technology is now one of the areas in which China is investing the most.

Social networks have become essential in China and Chinese people consult them for different purposes: check the quality of a product or a brand or look for a travel destination for example.
Moreover, the Chinese ecosystem of social networks is very rich and has given birth to the term “super application”. It is an application that gathers on its platform many features and services, including a payment system. Examples include WeChat and Weibo applications. Brands wishing to do business in China must therefore be present on these platforms.

E-commerce has also developed strongly in China. Social media have thus implemented and created features that allow users to buy online. This facilitates the relationship between brands and their customers. Moreover, China is the first e-commerce market in the world and platforms have multiplied (the biggest are AliBaba, Taobao and Tmall).
Another phenomenon we hear about is m-commerce which has quickly become a must thanks to multiple factors including Chinese consumers’ appetite for digital, the scale of local e-commerce platforms and payment systems. Social networks being omnipresent in the life of the Chinese and their permanent connection via their smartphone makes it necessary to adapt brands and this new type of commerce.

Today, Chinese people can get almost anything they need via WeChat. The platform is the number 1 social network in China and has its own online payment service, WeChat Pay. It seems essential to be present on this platform to do business in China.
To conclude, in this context of hyperconnectivity, companies wishing to do business in China must learn to master the Chinese ecosystem and more specifically the social media.