2012
has already past, and 2013 already came.
So today, I would like to
think back on the trend of Chinese Social Media market that is
focusing Weibo and Weixin(WeChat) last year, and survey the trend of them
this year.
It
can be said that 2012 was the year that the growth power of Weibo was
decreasing, and the growth power of Weixin was dramatically
increasing. About the fact that the growth power of Weibo was
decreasing, we can make it clear from the history of reports from
CNNIC.
Its
indication was appeared from the second half of 2011, but its
decrease was more remarkable in this year. The report of the second
half of 2012 was not published yet, but I expect that the growth rate
of this period will also remain at single digit figures.
Furthermore,
I personally feel that the rate of active users is also gradually
decreasing. There are two reasons for this.
1.
The online user of friends was decreasing.
For
example, we can find that how many users is now online on Sina Weibo
as follows.
Today's
number is only 27 people... Actually today is still holiday in China, but my
friend on Sina Weibo exist about 600 people. The rate of online user
is only 4.5%.
It is a extreme example, but the daily average online
user of last year was about 70 people, and the average of the year
before last was about 130 people.
2.
The traffic from Weibo was decreasing.
Our
company was continuously posting the information on each social media
of WW for marketing purpose. Weibo, especially Sina Weibo, brought
the largest traffic to us, but this number was suddenly decreasing
from the second half of 2012.
On
the other hand, the growth power of Weixin is dramatically increasing
as I explained before. And many companies already started the
promotion activity on Weixin, and they started to post their QR code
of Weixin on the other social media platform too.
For
example, Starbucks also started their promotion activity on Weixin to Chinese people,
but it's a one of representative example of O2O marketing.
Weixin
will certainly accelerate their O2O marketing solutions this year, so
more companies will start their marketing activity on Weixin this
year.
I think that 2013
will become the challenge year for Weibo, and it will become emerging
year for Weixin.
Weibo,
for example Sina Weibo already started the monetization like "WeiboWallet", Ads on their platform, "Weibo Club" and so
forth. But these can not get the success without increasing the
number of user and online active user rate. This is also true for
other Weibo provider, such as Tencent.
But on the other hand, Weixin also cannot relax their guard.
Because
the similar service, such as LINE and Kakao Talk also watch
vigilantly for a chance to enter Chinese Social Media market. And
furthermore, there is a possibility that completely different social
media platform may suddenly appear like a comet this year.
I
would like to continue watching the trend of Social Media in China,
mainly Weibo and Weixin(including other IM tools) this year too. But
in the last, I would like to introduce the service that I personally
expect in 2013.
1.
LBS advertising
Actually,
it is similar to O2O marketing by QR code. But I would like to define
that O2O and LBS is separately. The market of LBS advertising in
China was rapidly growing in the 2011 as I explained before. The
report for 2012 is not published yet, but according to the report by
CNNIC, mobile device became the top of all method connecting to the
internet on 2012 Jun.
And
the growth speed of mobile internet user in 2013 will be faster than
last year. So mobile Ads, especially this LBS Ads will be more
popular in China.
2.
Enterprise Social Networking (Enterprise Collaboration tools)
As
I explained before, the Enterprise Social Networking(ESN) market in
China is rapidly growing, and it is estimated that this market growth
rate will be 246% in 2012 by CCW Research. And ESN tool is suitable
to the circumstance and culture for business in China.
More
and more many company started to provide the ESN tools in China. And
foreign company such as Salesforce, Yammer, IBM also may be watching
vigilantly for a chance to enter this market in China.
So
watching from the point of view by the user side and the provider
side, it can be said that the popularity of ESN will be more and more
rising this year.
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