The 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which commenced on Thursday in Beijing, is the first Chinese leadership shuffle to be conducted in the age of social media.
This fact has not gone unnoticed by the authorities. China’s Great Firewall is more robust than ever. On top of many sites being down and the Internet remarkably sluggish, key search terms have been banned. Type into Sina Weibo “18th Party Congress”, for example, and you will only receive posts from state media as opposed to actual bloggers.
It comes as no surprise that the government is particularly sensitive right now. Facebook and Twitter might be blocked in China, but that has done little to stop the spread of other social media. According to a survey published by McKinsey in April, China’s networking netizens are the most active and numerous in the world. In December 2011, China had 513 million Internet users, compared with 245 million in the United States and 121 million in India. Over 50 percent of these users spent an excess of 12 hours online per week, and for urban dwellers at least, most were registered on social media sites. That translates into a whole lot of posts about the 18th Party Congress if left uncensored.
Facebook and Twitter might be blocked in China, but that has done little to stop the spread of other social media.
Added to the censors’ woes is the fact that China’s blogosphere cannot be easily defined according to a duality of Facebook versus Twitter, unlike in the West. Rather, the list of social media sites is exhaustive. Many have over 100 million registered users and yet are largely unknown beyond China’s borders.
Here are the current key players that are ones to watch, and are most likely being watched:
Qzone
Media conglomerate Tencent Holdings owns this site, which has the largest amount of users in China. Linked to the popular app QQ Instant Messenger, Qzone is the MySpace of the Middle Kingdom, allowing users to tailor-make pages with posts, photos and video.
Sina Weibo
Sina Weibo might not be the largest, but it is the fastest growing and the most frequently cited in the media. Weibo actually means “microblogging” in Mandarin and users are typically high-earning urbanites aged between 20 and 30. With its 140-character limit, it functions a bit like Twitter.
Renren
Ren means “person” in Mandarin and the sort of person that Renren attracts is generally young. Similar to Facebook, it began as a site exclusively for students and remains popular on campus.
Kaixin
Translating as “happy” in Chinese, Kaixin attracts a white-collar worker crowd. It is similar to Facebook in design, with the site’s unique selling point being its games.
Tencent Weibo
Like Sina Weibo, its main competitor, Tencent Weibo looks and feels a lot like Twitter. Its stronghold lies in China’s smaller cities.
Douban
Douban is an intriguing blend of Facebook, Amazon, IMBD and Tumblr. The site is where China’s creative crowd go to discuss movies, books and music.
