Chinese rely heavier on user-generated content than Americans

Posted on January 2, 2008
Filed Under online marketing |

marketingcharts.com reports that Chinese consumers have dramatically surpassed Americans in adopting Web 2.0 behavior, relying heavily on social media for guidance in purchase decisions, according to data from Netpop.

The Chinese-consumer behavior data have broad implications for American companies intent on selling consumer goods in China, Netpop said.

Among the key findings of the report, “Netpop | Nations: China and the US Web 2.0 Behavior”:

  • User-generated content (consumer reviews/rating sites, forum/discussion boards, blogs, etc.) influences 58% of all purchase decisions in China, compared with 19% in the US.
  • 47% of Chinese broadband users post comments to a blog, chat room, listserv or forum, compared with just 28% of American broadband users.
  • Search engines are the most influential source for making purchase decisions in both countries: 46% of Chinese broadband users use a search engine to make purchase decisions vs. 25% of American broadband users.

So, why do Chinese users rely so heavily on user-generated content?

In my opinion there are two things: first, expressing your free opinion and posting it in blogs and forums is much easier in the Internet than in traditional media. Due to the facilitated access, of course. Second, advertisement in China in traditional media is often heavily misleading consumers. So, consumers often have developed a natural cautiousness to magazine, TV and outdoor ads. On the contrary, mouth-to-mouth recommendation is trusted much more. As user-generated content is nothing else than that, it is very successful.

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