Three reason that enterprise social networking will be welcomed in China.

I previously introduced that Chinese enterprise social networking(ESN) market is rapidly growing, and it is estimated that this market growth rate will be 246% in 2012 by CCW Research.

Well, why Chinese ESN market is rapidly growing? In other words, why is ESN welcomed in China?


Generally speaking, I guess that the merits of adopting ESN systems are mainly as follows:

- Everyone is on the same stage, so everyone can easily understand the current situation of company.
- It can provide an open environment for opinions and suggestions 
- Every one can collaborate more effectively and efficiently(Being able to simply ask and get a response) 
- It's easy to collect and accumulate the knowledge of enterprise. 
- It can connect with others even when your or other colleague is working remotely(Mobility). 
- Everyone can discover and recognize hidden talent in the company.
- Minimize email clutter
...

These are general reason, so it can be said that these are also fit for Chinese case. Then are there existing the other specific reason for Chinese company?

This answer is YES. I think there are specific 3 reason as follows:

1. Social media is already penetrated to consumer market in China.
Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo already each have more than 400 million users in China. And according to the recent report by CNNIC, 82.8% of Internet users in China use Instant Messanger(IM) tools, its total account already exist over 1.2 billion. Further more, SNS also have over 250 million users in the second quarter.

Tencent QQ(IM) is the biggest social media searcvice in China, and they already have 800 million accounts. On the other hand, QQ is much use in business seen in China. That proved many user would like to use the tool that is the experienced tools in business... But IM have a weak point in the communication of N-to-N, so Weibo or SNS will be more suitable in future.


2. In China, email usage is less than the average.
According to the recent report by CNNIC, the usage of Email is lower than 50%(the usage of mobile email is 25.9%).

And I have worked in China almost five years, I also feel the usage of email in China is lower than in Japan. The conceivable things is that social media tools, such as IM, SNS and Weibo, was alreadey penetrated, futhermore email is not suitable to Chinese disposition and tastes.


3. Mobile device already became the top of all method connecting to the internet in China.
According to the recent report by CNNIC, mobile internet user in China was 388,250,000 people in the second quarter, and its growth rate is also the biggest.

Colored Red Line = Mobile

Colored Blue Line = Desktop PC

Colored Green Line = Laptop PC





One of this reason is that internet environment of PC is not so good, especially inland area of China. In the most of inland in China, mobile 3G network is faster than the internet environment of PC. And China big 3 career will start to provide LTE network in few years. So these difference of the speed may continue to widen more than now.

As I said above, ESN is good compatible with mobile devices, so it can be the one of reason that ESN tool is suitable in China.


I explained before that many companies started to provide enterprise social networking tool in China, but the growth of its market will be accelerating more than now.