Tired of talking about Facebook?
How about China’s QQ? It is the largest social networking site (SNS) in the world with twice as many users as Facebook and one billion US$ revenue in 2008.
While everybody in the West is trying to figure out how to make real money with social media, Chinese SNS have developed models that don’t rely on advertising. QQ makes most of its money by selling virtual stuff like avatars and virtual pets.
Great social media solutions are coming out of emerging economies.
I went to a talk yesterday by Sam Fleming of Shanghai-based CIC who has developed a system to track and measure online conversations about products and brands.
The Chinese spend twice as much time online as they spend watching TV. Last year, TV coverage of the milk scandal was banned, while online information about the crisis continued to be available.
Fleming’s first piece of advice to foreign companies that want to use the web to penetrate the Chinese market is “learn to listen”.
There are already examples of brands that have done so.
Instead of hiring an international celebrity like Madonna for the launch of their Moto Q phone, Motorola used Tuzki, a Hello-Kittyish character created by a graphic arts student. Tuzki is a massively popular avatar which appears in many online conversations.
This is what netizens-inspired marketing is all about. There are certainly lessons for corporate communicators in it.
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