In Asian countries, social media is a very important parts of the online marketing mix and many brands use blogs and communities to create brand awareness. This post offers some numbers and reasons about the social media phenomenon.

What is social media?

Actually we just need to split the term into social and media. Social stands for interaction of Internet users and for sharing content, basically characteristics that give technology a human touch. Media is the content that is shared and can be any kind of online media like videos, pictures, text or sound.

So, put together social media is about reading and writing blogs, posting opinions in blogs or BBS, creating accounts in online communities, uploading pictures, videos or music, make friends by connecting to other online profiles and share content with them.

Social media use in Asia

Universal McCann conducts a yearly study about worldwide use of social media. This study has really some great numbers and I summarized some of them with a focus on Asian countries. Asian countries covered are Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, India.

The key facts:

• Asian countries have worldwide the highest penetration of blogs and communities. Numbers are the same with video upload, photo sharing, etc.
• The inventors of the social media business models (esp. the US and to some extent the European countries) lag clearly behind.
• Use-generated content has become a mainstream online medium in Asia.

I wonder about one thing: You can quite often hear the opinion that Chinese like to use social media because through blogs they can the first time freely express their opinion. This study contradicts that idea because other Asian countries like Japan and South Korea with freedom of opinion embrace blogs and communities in the same way. The inversion of the argument is that it must somewhere lie in the Asian culture and nature of the people.

Maybe a sociologist could help in this matter. Anyway, any kind of idea or comment is welcome!

Why is social media so popular among users?

The use of blogs and online communities has a great stimulation for persons. It allows them to communicate and interact on a very private basis, sharing personal information that one would maybe not so openly and easily share in real life. This “open your soul online” phenomenon is supported by the fact that many people who are online in social media live under a pseudonym, basically being able to be themselves but not showing others their real identity. This allows pushing the border much further than in real life as you’re real identity can’t be tracked back.

Example 1: Opinions in blogs, forums or bbs show very clearly what a person thinks. And people tend to be very open and frank when their real name will not be shown. One can assume that in a face-to-face discussions many opinions that are posted online would be worded more carefully – or maybe not at all.

Example 2: A profile in a social network like myspace. Many people basically expose themselves. It would be like these people place their family picture album in front of a supermarket, so everybody can take a look. Nobody would do that. But online it’s no big deal.

The importance of social media for brands and businesses

1. Social media has become a mass-media in Asia that can’t be neglected due to it’s mere reach.

2. Blogs and communities offer insight about consumer opinions which have never been available before because they are real and true. I.e. businesses and brands can not only find out what consumers really think, but if done wisely they can use the willingness of people to create own content for product development (creative consumer).

3. The word-of-mouth (viral) potential of social media campaigns can create great buzz.

4. Brand management must adopt and create a culture within the company to profit from the social media development.

5. Opinions and reported experiences about companies, products and services are one of the most important influencing factors for decision building prior to the purchase of a product, no matter if the purchase happens online or offline.

Social bookmarking: QQ Bookmarks, Baidu Bookmarks, Yahoo.cn My Web, 9fav.com, Chouti, LeShou.com, inu.cc, tolib.com, hemidemi.com, and Otag.cn.

Video storage/sharing: Tudou.com, 56.com, Youku.com, 6 Rooms, hupu.tv, bobouni.com, Mofile.com, UUMe.com, video.QQ.com, Ouou.com.

Very “Digg”: Diglog, 20ju.com, DigBuzz.com, MyTaoke, Shouker.com, SecretWeb.

Music sharing: 8box.cn, icoobo.com, yobo.com, weazone.com, SongTaste, MyBaLe.com, Lifepop.com, Ubox.com.cn, Top100.cn, Music.AoBo.com, MusicPaw.com, 9sky.

Blog hosting: Yo2.cn, 72pines.com, Lifesterblog.com, Blogcn.com, 51.com, Sina.com, Sohu, 163.com, Baidu, Qzone, Bokee, BlogBus, Donews blog.

Micro-blogging platforms (like Twitter)F Fanfou.com, Jiwai.de, iLaoDao.cn, LaiGuLe.com, TaoTao.com.

RSS: ZhuaXia.com, XianGuo.com, 365Bloglink.com, Anothr.com, RSS.com.tv, Potu.com, OPML.cn, EmailRSS.cn, RSS.modim.cn, feed.Aobo.com, FunP.com.

Photo-sharing: yuPoo.com, BabaBian.com, DPDP.net, JetPhoto.cn, QuDoo.net, SeekPai.com, 886.cn, Fotolog.com.cn, Fotoky.com, QieZi.com.

Map services: Baidu Maps, Yahoo.cn Maps, City8.com, Edushi.com, eeMap.org.

Online apps: xiaoI.com, mojiti.com, Picidea.net, Sayjoy.com, Lenovo Scheduler, Best4C.cn, Mindpin.com.

Personalized homepages: sWoDe, Googsc.com,yaTrack.cn, hoozone.com, WoYong.com,P.cn.

Social networking: xiaonei.com, linklist.com, 365ju.com, qoodou.com, fZone.cn, iPart.cn, myTupa, babytree.com

User-generated content/comment sites: douban, koubei.com, fantong.com, dianping.com, mtime.com.

Online TVF: PPlive, QQlive, PPstream, MySee.

Not to forget:

Virtual worlds: hipihi, shanda, perfect world, ipartment.

Travel websites ( a la holidaycheck): yododo, mipang, tuniu, cn0km

There is a clear focus on online dating communities. Why? Social life changes rapidly in China. Especially young people move to the cities in order to study or find a adequate job. They are often well educated, earn good money and are familiar with technology. But often they don’t know anybody at their new location, have no familiy, no friends. On the one hand there is no time for “regular” partner search, on the other hand there is family pressure to present a partner . On the search for Mr. or Mrs. Right they growingly rely on online dating portals and are also willing to pay for the service. This is a good basis for a solid business case.

The Internet dating and “friend-making” industry in China is forecast to be a $80 million industry by next year with a yearly growth rate of 60, according to Shanghai-based iResearch.

Last year the iDate conference was held in Beijing with speakers of all major online dating portals. The next meeting for the Far East / Asian market will be held in Tokyo in May 2008.