Global social media - China
I work in retail so this ‘Chinese Social Media Boom’ is no great revelation to me. China’s social media boom is evident in the plethora of Chinese customers I serve daily. Dedicated apps to help them shop better, wiser, smarter through community interaction are ubiquitous with the savvy Chinese consumer. It is also extremely common to have a visiting customer say hey have to “ask a friend” before buying something before talking quickly into their phone and just as quickly turning around to say, “I’ll have it!”. The truest form that I see these digital communities that is ingrained in Chinese culture now is, ironically through the face-to-face interactions I encounter. One most telling social media interaction we have in my store is that every Sunday we have two Chinese customers that bring two phones and a basket and they go ‘live’ to allow customers tuning in in China to buy brands, products, sold out items that you can’t get in China- through them. Genius, right?
The statistics only back up my observations on the very social tuned Chinese market. A McKinsey survey states “Chinese consumers say they are more likely to consider buying a product if they see it mentioned on a social-media site and more likely to purchase a product or service if a friend or acquaintance recommends it on a social-media site.” Going onto to state the cultural difference in Chinese consumers placing the most value in peer feedback and their distrust in advertising and institutions- so I’m redundant, right? (McKinsey, 2014)
So, is this the future for all? Are we bound to the digital communities we create?
