Five things you need to know about China's internet ecosystem

1 China is the most socially engaged internet market in the world

China’s consumers are incredibly active across multiple platforms and represent over 50 per cent of the global user base of some social media behaviours, such as micro-blogs. Compared with the rest of the world, China’s users are more likely to be on multiple platforms, ranging from video to micro blogs. This trend is increasing in each research wave.

2 China has the most competitive social internet on the planet

Sina Weibo, China’s largest micro blogging platform, has twice as many active micro-bloggers than Twitter compared with each market. High levels of adoption and massive expansion in the number of people who are connected has provided a large customer base for services such as Chinese social platforms QZone, SinaWeibo, RenRen and Kaixin. The only other comparable market where there is such a high level of expansion and innovation is the US.

3 Social platforms have pursued non-advertising revenue streams

Chinese social media platforms have never benefited from the same volume of advertising investment as their western counterparts. Where social platforms, such as Twitter, are still struggling to develop business models and look beyond advertising, China’s platforms have had to find other sources of revenue.

They have instead found innovative revenue sources including digital goods, virtual currencies and social gaming. Such diverse business models are likely to attract continuing investment and innovation that moves with customers needs.

4 China will be the source for global innovation

Many claim that China’s leading platforms have merely copied the best parts of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, but this is a long way from the truth. In this highly competitive market, Chinese social platforms have had to evolve at an extremely rapid rate to stay ahead of other local players.

In fact the latest redesign of Twitter in the West borrows a large number of features from Sina Weibo, including embedded video, branded pages and photo albums. We also expect to see Sina Weibo offerings, such as social gaming and virtual currencies on other western social media sites.

The launch of Sina Weibo’s new English language platform will be a chance for the Chinese internet market to demonstrate its strength in social media globally.

5 Global brands need a separate China strategy

In order to harness the power of Chinese consumers, brands need to understand Chinese purchasing and social media behaviours and deliver a strategy in keeping with their internet behaviour.

China is also a major player in e-commerce, thanks to social shopping platforms such as Taobao, which includes features better suited to local consumers, such as instant messaging for buyer/seller contact and are part social network.

In fact, China is the only market in the world where social commerce is truly mainstream and we’ve continually tracked e-commerce levels on a par with the UK, US and Germany.