China: doesn't need FB to dominate social media

China Doesn’t Need Facebook to Dominate the Social Media Space

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In Russia, it’s VK. In Japan, it’s Mixi. Until very recently, Orkut was No. 1 in Brazil. Facebook, it turns out, is not always the all-dominating social media platform it is here in the U.S. Nowhere is this more obviously the case than in China, where it may be ok for Mark Zuckerberg to appear in  documentaries about extreme police force but his brand of social networking, well, it’s a little less welcome. According to a recent McKinsey study that surveyed 5,700 Chinese internet users, despite the censorship of many western sites like Facebook and Twitter, the planet’s most populous country still manages to dominate the digital social space. Today, China accounts for one-fifth of the world’s internet users and has increased its online community by a factor of 22 — from 23 million to 513 million — in just 12 years.

An overwhelming 95 percent of Chinese living in Tier One, Two and Three cities (broadly defined as city-centres that are prefecture-level and larger) are presently members of a social networking site–and 50 percent belong to two or more. Lest you think these numbers don’t reflect retention of regular users, an almost as high 91 percent say they’ve logged into these accounts at least once in the past six months. Compare this with just 30 percent in Japan and 67 percent here in the U.S.

The social media landscape in China is different from that of Russia and Japan, both of whose most popular social sites look and act nearly identical to Facebook, in that China’s most popular networks, Qzone (560 million users) and Tencent Weibo (337 million users) are comparatively unique platforms. The country’s closest Facebook cousins, Renren (147 million users) and Kaixin (120 million users), come in a distant fifth and six, respectively.

(Image via Best Free Online)

Tags: China, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, McKinsey, New Study, Social Media, Social Media Usage

China: Chen Guangcheng's escape sparks round-up

Hu Jia (R) met Chen Guangcheng (L) after his escape, and was later detained

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Chinese authorities have begun to round up relatives and associates of blind activist Chen Guangcheng, who fled from house arrest last week, reports say.

Several people involved in Mr Chen's escape have been detained or have disappeared in recent days, and fellow activist Hu Jia is being questioned.
Mr Chen is believed to be sheltering at the US embassy in Beijing.
The US and international rights groups have frequently expressed alarm at the treatment of Mr Chen and his family.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has demanded his release in the past, is due in China this week for a previously arranged meeting which is now likely to be overshadowed by Mr Chen's case.
The US government has not so far commented publicly on the whereabouts of Mr Chen.
Analysts say the issue will be highly sensitive for both sides, and will not be easy to resolve.
If Mr Chen is in the embassy, his case will raise memories of an incident in 1989 when another prominent activist, Fang Lizhi, fled to the US mission in Beijing.
He remained there for more than a year while the two sides attempted to broker a deal.
'Shameful saga' Mr Chen was placed under house arrest in 2010 after spending more than four years in jail for disrupting traffic and damaging property.
He had exposed how local authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, forced thousands of women to have abortions or be sterilised as part of China's one-child policy.

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SEEKING US REFUGE

• In 1989 dissident scientist Fang Lizhi fled to US embassy in Beijing after supporting the Tiananmen protesters
• He remained in embassy for 13 months while US and China argued over his fate
• Beijing eventually allowed him to leave to seek medical treatment abroad
• Spent the rest of his life in exile in US, dying in April 2012

His colleagues said last Sunday's escape had taken months to plan, and was carried out with the help of a network of friends and activists.

He scaled the wall that the authorities had built around his house, and was driven hundreds of miles to Beijing, where activists say he stayed in safe-houses before fleeing to the embassy.
His wife and six-year-old daughter remain under house arrest, but several of his family members have been detained and others are being sought by the authorities.
One of Mr Chen's friends, He Peirong - who wrote on her microblog that she had driven him to Beijing - is believed to have been detained in the city of Nanjing.
"I was actually talking to her and the last words she said were 'the PSB [Public Security Bureau] has arrived,'" said Bob Fu, of the US-based ChinaAid pressure group.
Her microblog was later deleted, and all searches on popular microblogging sites for Mr Chen's name and other related terms were being blocked by the censors.
On Saturday, the authorities detained Hu Jia, who had earlier told the BBC how he had met Mr Chen since his escape.
Mr Hu's wife, Zeng Jinyan, said late on Saturday that her husband's detention had been extended for a further 24 hours.

Chen Guangcheng directly addresses Premier Wen Jiabao in a video released after his escape

"I asked where Hu Jia would sleep, they said on a chair," she said.
The fate of other associates of Mr Chen also remains unclear, with reports claiming several have disappeared.
The treatment of Mr Chen and his family by local authorities has long been controversial.
Amnesty International regards him as a "prisoner of conscience" and has called on the authorities to end the "shameful saga" of his detention.