Chinese social networks list. Banned: Which social networks can not be used in China. Chinese social networks

"Are you on Facebook?" - such a phrase will cause a strong reaction from the Chinese, and sometimes he simply will not understand you, since access to such popular Western social networks as Facebook, Twitter and others is blocked. It has its own social networks, whose audience numbers tens of millions of users. So the Chinese are no exception, and they also like, repost and post photos of their food online.

As of January 2015, China (excluding Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau) had 642 million users, or 21.4% of the world's total.
Chinese internet users have registered 629 million social media accounts (47% of the Chinese population - still room to grow)
China also accounts for a third of all mobile internet users: China is the land of mobile phones – they already account for 41 percent of China's total population

7 most popular social services in China:

1. Qzone

The social network Qzone is the brainchild of the Internet company Tencent. It is the third social network in the world in terms of the number of users (it is surpassed only by Facebook And YouTube). As of the beginning of 2014, 625 million people were registered on the network.

Created in 2005, it primarily allows users to create their own blogs, create online diaries, watch videos, listen to music, and post photos. Fortunately for marketers, this is where all the well-known brands can promote their products and services through the so-called fan pages.

In Qzone, you can change the design to your taste. But only the basic functions in Qzone are free, and all additional services are provided on a paid basis. To purchase such services, you need to get the status of the "Yellow Diamond" - a kind of premium subscription.

Registration in Qzone

150 million Qzone users update their personal page at least once a month.

2.

As an instant messaging service, similar to ICQ, QQ offers versatile web communication features: instant messaging, voice and video chat, file sharing with other users, and a machine translation service.

The program was introduced in 1999 by Tencent and is the "great-grandfather" of Chinese social media. It has since been enhanced to include features such as apps, music, online shopping, and microblogging. According to official data from Tencent, the number of active users of this service is about 300 million people. To stay on trend, the Chinese company has also introduced the Mobile QQ app, designed for use on mobile platforms. After appearing on mobile platforms, the QQ Wallet mobile payment service became available, allowing users to pay for online purchases. In addition to the main Chinese version of the program, there is an English version - QQ International.

QQ is not used for "cold sales", but the vast majority of commercial sites have a button through which you can contact a consultant or sales manager using QQ.

Registration in QQ

If you are especially fluent in Chinese, you can safely change the language to English, which will greatly simplify the registration process. In addition, you have the choice of registering with your mobile phone or with your email.

Hi all. In touch Alexander Glebov. Everyone knows what social networks are, everyone knows VKontakte, facebook, twitter, etc. Our Chinese friends, however, do not have access to these social networks. networks, but they have their own social. net - weibo sina. What is this network and how to register in weibo read in this article...

For me, weibo sino is, first of all, a service that allows you to log in to various Chinese sites. Until recently, using weibo, it was possible to register on baidu cloud, but now a mobile phone is also required for baidu, so there is not much point in pass-through authorization. But the weibo account will come in handy in the future. It is used in many places on the Chinese Internet... Let's first understand what kind of service weibo sino is...

What is weibo sina

What happens if you cross a hedgehog and a snake? Something unimaginable. =)) So here sina weibo turned out as a result of a symbiosis of twitter and facebook. Add some Chinese quirks to that and it's a killer mix. =)) Lan, a little touched the Chinese.

In general, the word weibo (微博) is translated from Chinese as microblogging.

As you know, on July 5, 2009, there were Uighur riots in Urumqi in China, there were mass riots, and so on. Of course, the Chinese government quickly suppressed all these unrest, but made certain conclusions, namely, it decided to close access to all popular social networks in China. networks that are not based on Chinese sites. In other words, the Chinese have lost access to twitter, facebook, plurk, etc.

At this time, the CEO of Sina Charles Chao (曹国伟) decided that this was an opportunity for his company to create its own social network. And literally in 1 month and 9 days they riveted a test version of their social network. networks. The test version was launched on August 14, 2009.

How to register on weibo sina

My registration method is in the Chinese version of sina weibo, but the instructions are of course in Russian. Why in Chinese? And everything is simple. Much less movement. True, you need to go to weibo.cn on your mobile. But I don't think this is a problem.

Among Chinese applications, there are two most popular social networks. The first is familiar to many foreigners WeChat. The second is its competitor called weibo. It is usually referred to as something between Twitter and Facebook.

In fact, Weibo is a microblogging service where anyone can start a page. And according to 2018 data, this is one of the most popular applications in the country. Developers boast millions of daily active users. In terms of frequency of use, the application in the near future can compete even with Facebook.

In Chinese, the word "Weibo" means "microblogging". Therefore, it is quite obvious that the developers knew from the very beginning how they want to see their creation. Perhaps that is why they managed to achieve success as quickly as possible. Weibo is in the TOP 10 phone apps, which means that in China it is difficult to find a person who is not registered in this social network. Such scales really impress ordinary users, and the owners of competitive companies are made nervous and do not stop developing.

A bit of history

The Weibo service was launched relatively recently - in 2009. It developed at a fast pace. Already in February 2013, the number of active users of the application reached 500 million per day.
The Chinese social network at one time had problems with the local government. The fact is that at the beginning of this decade, the state introduced strict censorship, trying to protect users from inappropriate content. But the developer managed to cope with both censorship and competitors. Now all the locals and those who come to the country know about Weibo. There are two types of accounts in the application, which allows it to be used by both ordinary users and large corporations.

Personal accounts are for ordinary people. Both a Chinese and a foreigner can register in the application. Corporate accounts are made for registration of various organizations. In this case, both accounts can be verified. This is one of the most important differences between this social network and Facebook, in which identity verification is required only from stars and well-known brands. Everyone can immediately get the coveted badge next to their name.

Verifying your accounts is also beneficial for users. The fact is that without identity verification, some important functions are not available to account holders. For example, you can not conduct online broadcasts, which are so popular among the Chinese. Therefore, many are willing to pay 300 yuan for the long-awaited icon to appear next to the nickname, confirming the user's verification.

So why are many users and companies willing to give their money for this service? Everything is very simple here. The application has a huge audience. Therefore, readers and buyers from a person registered in this social network, and wisely approaching the promotion of his account, will be enough. So, it will be possible to get both popularity and money.

Everyone registers on Weibo. The audience can be divided into several main categories. The bulk of users are ordinary people who use the application for communication and entertainment.

The second, equally large group are people who want to start doing business in China. This category includes both local businessmen and those who live outside the country. Foreign businessmen from the CIS, America and Europe prefer, at least at the initial levels, to attract an audience through social networks.

Weibo is also used by bloggers, ordinary people who want to become popular on the Internet, and journalists. The latter, by the way, are also inspired by this platform in order to write articles, full-fledged reports. Due to the fact that many share their stories and latest news here, there is enough material for interesting texts.

Those who have already achieved success also register on Weibo. Stars often use the app to communicate with their fans. And large corporations analyze their customers in this way. This applies to both Chinese companies and international corporations. For example, the multi-million dollar company L'Oreal has its own account with a huge number of subscribers. This increases brand awareness and allows you to sell more cosmetics in China. In order to succeed among spoiled Internet users, even large corporations prefer to dilute serious texts with bright GIFs, interesting photos and broadcasts. In addition, various promotions and prize giveaways, which are also carried out through Weibo, work well. Thanks to the convenient functionality, doing this is as simple as possible.

Weibo has many interesting features that attract such a large number of users. First of all, it is worth noting that Weibo is a more open platform than Wechat. Like Twitter, most blogs can be read even by unregistered users. In addition, accounts are visible to major search networks. Therefore, it is not difficult to find the right blog. This annoys some people, but most people even like this scheme, because it is much easier to increase the number of subscribers.

Also in this application it is easier for bloggers to communicate with their followers. Compared to the same Wechat, where a lot of attention is paid to privacy (after all, the messenger of the future), Weibo is more open.
The advantage of Weibo is that the number of posts per day is not limited. That is, you can safely plan a content plan consisting of 4-8 posts per day. True, according to statistics, most accounts that are maintained specifically for the purpose of attracting subscribers post 2-3 messages per day. This is enough to ensure that the blog is not forgotten, and, at the same time, not tired of it.

Summing up, we can say that Weibo is not just a publicized platform for communication. The application has received its huge audience deservedly. This is a very convenient social network, which is enjoyed by both ordinary users and people who want to become bloggers or promote their business in China. Developers are constantly generating new ideas and trying to make their platform even more user-friendly. And this means that the social network has a successful future, and it is quite possible that it will soon begin to dominate not only in the territory of the People's Republic of China, but also beyond its borders. The application is available not only in Chinese, but also in English.

In the 21st century, social networks have become an integral part of the life of a modern person and a new tool for promoting goods and services. With the help of social networks, the distance between a business and its customers has been reduced - each side can directly contact the other. Entering the Chinese market or experiencing the need to promote their business in the Middle Kingdom, Western companies face a number of questions. How to promote your business in China using social networks bypassing the Firewall? What social networks are there in China? Which of them are the most popular and suitable for my business? We will answer these and other frequently asked questions in this article.

1 WeChat social network

2 Weibo social network

weibo usually considered the Chinese analogue of Twitter, however, after a significant expansion of functionality, it would be more correct to compare it with VK (VKontakte). Weibo allows you to share both short posts and large articles with illustrations with subscribers, as well as upload videos, photos, audio recordings and conduct polls, and a convenient search system by interests and hashtags provides excellent opportunities for mass following and searching for bloggers relevant to your business. Speaking of them, Weibo is one of the main platforms where influencers gather millions of fans and actively create advertising integrations.

3 Social network QQ

QQ- the most common instant messenger in China, which can be compared with the familiar WhatsApp or Viber. In QQ, you can find various chat groups by interest and place an advertisement for your business in them, so the message will reach the potential target audience directly. However, you need to remember that getting into them is not so easy: for some, you will need to get an invitation from an already registered user or pay a small amount for the right to become a member.

4 Qzone social network

Qzone has extended functionality compared to QQ: users can share text messages, videos, photos and links to third-party resources with subscribers; add other users as friends. Its difference from Weibo lies in the fact that the main audience of this social network is from relatively small cities - tier 2 and below. If the potential target audience for your business is predominantly young people from relatively small cities in China, registering a Qzone account will be the best solution for you.

5 Youku social network

The next one on our list is a popular analogue of Youtube in China - Youku. The service allows you to post videos in your profile, including long ones, subscribe to channels and users, comment on other people's posts, and so on. If your business is related to video or you just need to post your videos on a Chinese site for further use on other resources, Youku will definitely be useful to you.

6 Douyin social network

Another social network focused on video is Douyin or TikTok as it is called in the West. Its target audience is young people who actively not only consume, but also generate content on their own, and the extensive and relatively easy-to-use functionality of the application helps them in this. Douyin users have access to a variety of special effects for videos, with the help of which they shoot videos, launch various challenges, and lure their acquaintances from other social networks.

7 Social network Renren

Social network for intellectual students - Renren(previously known as Xiaonei). The latest news in music and literature, as well as films only from the box office, are discussed here. Traditionally, Renren is compared to Facebook, reproaching the creators for copying the most popular social network in the West.

8 Baidu Tieba social network

Another popular Chinese social network is Baidu Tieba- an analogue of the well-known Reddit in the West. Here, users interact not only with their closest friends and acquaintances, this network is more like a bulletin board, where anyone can take part in the discussion of a hot topic or a fresh post. With the help of Baidu Tieba, you can simultaneously contact a large number of users, but it will be more difficult to hit exactly the target audience.

9 Zhihu social network

Zhihu- service of questions and answers, similar to the Russian Answers Mail.ru. Here you can both post questions and answer them on your own behalf or by registering a corporate account.

10 Social network Xiaohongshu

Xiaohongshu is primarily an online commerce platform, but the Little Red Book has managed to grow its community. Xiaohongshu users, whose number exceeded 200 million in 2019, maintain their blogs/pages and actively interact with each other, discussing fashion, beauty secrets and showing off new clothes. If you want to promote a product that can be bought in China, the Xiaohongshu social network will be a great help. You can learn more about it from our earlier article:

In this article, we have examined in detail the largest social networks in China, but their list is not limited to those listed above. In each case, you need to select the optimal solution depending on the potential target audience of your business, your needs and opportunities. Communication agency Asia Pacific will help you not to get lost in this variety and register any account.

China social media ranking

Block IP addresses associated with Telegram, which was blocked in Russia for refusing to provide encryption keys to the authorities. Millions of entries have been added to the registry of banned sites. The network addresses of Amazon and Google were the first to be uploaded. Later, users noticed problems in the Odnoklassniki social network, the Viber messenger and the Spotify streaming service. For technical reasons, ATMs of different banks do not work from time to time. At the same time, Roskomnadzor does not consider this damage significant.

The most famous example of blocking the Internet is the Great Firewall of China. Since the 2000s, access to Facebook, Google, YouTube and other well-known resources has been closed in the country. The official reason is the fight against extremism. We spoke with Russians from China about how they live in a country with limited internet access.

Start of problems

Alexander Maltsev

editor-in-chief of the online publication about China "Magazeta"

I ended up in China almost 20 years ago, in 1999. And at that time there were no big problems with the foreign Internet, it was just that everything opened for a very long time, hung in comparison with Chinese sites. And even now, while the speeds have changed since then, the foreign Internet is much slower than the Chinese one. Chinese videos load many times faster than foreign videos, even unblocked ones.

In the early 2000s, news appeared about the blocking of popular resources: Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook. And of course, for foreigners living in China, this was an unpleasant surprise. Other sites were also blocked - for example, those with opposition political topics. Then online proxies began to gain popularity, where you could drive in the address of the site, and it opened in a separate frame. Finally, there is a VPN. A VPN in China is a must-have tool that almost every expat living here and some Chinese have.

How blocking happens

Now in China, almost all major foreign social networks and information resources that are not accountable to the Chinese authorities are blocked. Twitter, Facebook - wherever you poke, everything is blocked. Many instant messengers are blocked, such as WhatsApp and Telegram. When a resource is blocked, the user is not warned in any way that this site is blocked. The site simply does not respond, and the browser gives an error. Empirically or on special sites, you can check whether it is not available only with you or throughout China. Naturally, this causes great discomfort, especially for foreigners.

As for the indigenous population of China, the restriction for using foreign sites is not so much in blocking as in the language barrier. Much fewer Chinese know English compared to the same Russia. On the other hand, alternatives appeared very quickly in China: instead of Wikipedia, several other similar encyclopedias, the largest of them - Baidu, instead of Facebook, there are many different social networks - for example, Renren.com, instead of Twitter - Weibo, instead of the messenger - WeChat. By the way, the latter is a super application that combines a payment system, a social network with a friend tape and communication.

Therefore, the Chinese themselves are not very tormented by the lack of direct access to foreign sites. For those who want to bypass the blocking, it is not difficult. In online stores and marketplaces, such as Taobao, you can search for products with the words “VPN” or 翻墙 (“fan qiang”), which translates as “get over the wall.” There are many different applications with VPN and proxy for phone and desktop that allow you to quickly and cheaply bypass all obstacles.

Life with a VPN

Since I myself am a foreigner in China and work on the Internet, I use a VPN. It practically does not turn off - only in those cases when I need, for example, to use Chinese resources, because with the VPN turned on, Chinese resources are bad and slow, and sometimes they do not open at all. Watching a video on a Chinese hosting with a VPN will not work. We also use local analogues: even foreigners actively use WeChat as a messenger and a means of payment.

But Telegram is not banned everywhere in China. It all depends on the provider and the region. For some it does not work at all, for some only push notifications work, for some only messages are visible, but pictures do not, for some everything works without problems. Through experience, we have noticed that Telegram works better when it is tied to a Russian mobile number.

WeChat has a huge number of channels for expats living and working in China, of course, there are popular discussions about which VPN is the best, how it is more convenient to bypass blocking. Therefore, foreigners quickly find ways to bypass the Great Firewall of China.

Rules of the Golden Shield

Daria Baranikhina

The Chinese Internet is, in principle, not the fastest thing. As far as I know, it is in the second hundred in the ranking of countries in terms of Internet speed. Even if you use sites on Chinese hosting, they will work much slower than, for example, in neighboring Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.

And the main feature that primarily affects foreigners is blocking. The state program, which is constantly monitoring and blocking more and more new resources, is called the "Golden Shield". In English it sounds like Great Firewall. But it is important to understand that this is not a ban, but a blocking. If it was a ban, we would not have the right to use blocked sites. Now we are simply limited by the government in using the site, but not limited in any way in ways to bypass it. There are no sanctions for this. Therefore, we freely buy VPN services and VPN accounts and use the sites that we need.

Many resources have been blocked: starting with Google and its services (Calendar, Maps, Gmail) and ending with the social networks Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the WhatsApp messenger. There are resources that open in China, but with limited functionality or blocked materials. For example, if we want to find information about June 4, 1989 in Wikipedia, then we will be thrown out of the page. This is an event that claimed the lives of more than a hundred students who rallied in the main square of Beijing. China by hook or by crook is trying to forget about this event. There is even a version that it was for this reason that Google was blocked many years ago.

Also, the rules of the "Golden Shield" apply to Chinese sites. They are not allowed to cite foreign sources without special permission from the Chinese authorities or a special license.

Reasons for blocking

The main version of the blocking of Facebook is anti-Chinese sentiment in some groups, many anti-communist groups have started organizing offline meetings. Another reason is the database of Chinese users, which was located outside of China, which did not suit the authorities. Facebook did not agree to transfer the data and was blocked. Another story from Instagram, which was blocked not so long ago, in 2014. A few days earlier, an "umbrella revolution" began in Hong Kong - local residents took to the streets after they were informed about the new electoral reform. Hong Kongers posted videos and photos on Instagram directly from the scene. WhatsApp and Viber are now working on sending text messages. Voice messages, images and videos are not supported.

VPN is the only way to bypass blocking. Services are paid if stability guarantees are needed. Market leaders have a standard price of $60 for six months.

WeChat as a replacement for everything

I moved to China in 2012. Then only YouTube, Twitter and Facebook were blocked. Even Google, which was blocked in 2010, still allowed access to services such as Gmail. Considering that the mail worked, and I didn’t use social networks very actively, I can’t say that I experienced at least some discomfort when I arrived in China. Discomfort began later, when they began to block instant messengers and slow down the speed. For example, the same "Yandex" - it is not blocked, but it works much slower than a regular Chinese site. There are decent Chinese alternatives to search engines, but neither I nor my foreign friends have much desire to use them when they need information in English or Russian.

But for the messenger, the Chinese have a huge bow. WeChat is something you cannot live without in China, and something that is sorely lacking abroad. WeChat combines the best features of a messenger, social network and application with video and audio calls. In recent years, WeChat has become a way to pay for any service in China. WeChat Pay works in the mountains, in the forest and in small villages. As a guide, I travel a lot, and I have not yet had a single case where I could not pay with my WeChat wallet. The application is indispensable, and it is constantly evolving. This is probably an example when the Chinese counterpart is ahead of blocked messengers in terms of functions and convenience. The only problem is that relatives, friends and colleagues from Russia do not sit on WeChat. There is an inconvenience: WeChat does not work when the VPN is on. If we want to stay in touch with the outside world, then we won't be able to log into WeChat. And vice versa. You have to constantly switch.

Get on Instagram

Marina Yushchenko

English teacher

In China, Internet censorship blocks some sites, I will talk about the problems that I encountered from personal experience. Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Odnoklassniki, Twitter, services on the Google platform, YouTube and others do not work. I was without Instagram for the first two days after arrival, and since I can’t imagine my life without it, I quickly learned from my compatriots how to solve this problem. I just downloaded free apps from the App Store, first it was Betternet, then VPN Master - I still use it now.

For the phone, it is enough to download the application and turn it on before entering the forbidden applications. But still, even with a VPN, the speed is very low, but thanks for that. A laptop needs a VPN router, I didn’t bother with this, but compatriots often buy it. If you want to watch a movie at home, some online movie sites may also be unavailable.

Before arriving, I changed my LG android to an iPhone, and this was not at all because I knew that everything was blocked here, but because I wanted to take high-quality photos, but I am happy with this decision. The guys who come with androids to Google generally buy new phones to solve the problem of bypassing the locks.