China's Social Media

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone

 

Maybe mildly interesting reading material, if you're looking for some. Mostly about Renren, but also talks about the development of China's social media

 

 

China’s Facebook Is Back. Why Doesn’t Anyone Care?

 

 

• Once valued at roughly $7.5 billion, Renren’s decline over the past decade is symbolic of the broader commercialization of social media spaces.

 

More of an awkward anachronism than a flamboyant comeback, Renren’s new app takes its cues largely from the Weibo-WeChat duopoly.

- Wang Yicheng, Ph.D. student

 

[Randy W]

More reading material of maybe mild interest, from Abacus

 

WeChat now has over 1.2 billion users worldwide

 

Tencent's multi-purpose app has nearly half the number of users on Facebook, most of them in China

 

 

Tencent said the number of WeChat users was up by more than 8% in its first-quarter. The company attributed it to the Covid-19 pandemic, which it said has boosted demand for the app’s myriad mini programs, now used by more than 400 million users. Some people have switched to doing grocery shopping and accessing municipal services within the app, according to Tencent.

 

Facebook still has a lot more users across all its platforms. For its main site alone, the company said it had 2.6 billion monthly active users. But when Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp are included, Facebook reaches 2.99 billion users. And despite WeChat’s growth, much of Tencent’s 6% growth in profits in the first quarter was thanks to its massive gaming empire.