Visiting a website called China Internet Watch does have an ominous feel about it. China is not known for open access internet browsing so the use of social media in China would surely come with a sense of caution about who is watching, reading, tracking, knowing…
All those fears aside, though, and the numbers of social networkers and social media users in China are simply staggering. The headline reads ‘482M Chinese Visited Social Media Per Month in 2015’ and those are impressive numbers by any standard. Roughly half of net users in China are also users of social networking sites. The article goes on to describe the penetration rates across age groups and China appears to be no different from other countries as the numbers increase across all age groups.
There are differences between social media usage in China and USA including that for Chinese social networkers it is more 
about humour – sharing jokes and videos – than commentary on daily events or news items like it is in the US… which probably makes sense given the attitude towards free speech in a Communist country. However, the mashups of western video and celebrity watching on Weibo (China’s twitter) looks remarkably similar to the twitter feed of the average western teen.
The top 5 social media websites in China are
- Sina Weibo – the Twitter equivalent but with twice as many users!
- Renren – once touted as China’s equivalent to Facebook but after a lengthy court battle over name and URL rights, it has recently seen a decline as its popularity amongst its student base has waned.
- Tencent is a social media hub so has a large user base across multiple platforms. It was originally founded on a messaging service so it is still popular in this format.
- Douban is an interesting service that is popular with intellectuals and writers in China. Its point of difference is that it allows access to unregistered users.
- Wechat has gained ground in recent times because it is a mobile voice and text app which has gained popularity in a country that has an addiction to mobile devices.
Read more:
http://www.chinainternetwatch.com/17191/481-5-million-chinese-social-media-month-2015/#ixzz42b8BDD1r
http://mashable.com/2012/07/02/china-social-networks/#dyeRkkzy9uqk