As a marketer, you may be wondering where you can best advertise your business. If you are targeting the Chinese market, this article is for you as we have taken the time to list and explain the ten best internet markets you can use. So sit back, get your notepad and pen while we take you on this journey of the adventure of internet marketing in China.
The Top Ten Best Internet Community in China are:
1. Baidu.
2. Bytedance.
3. Sohu.
4. Zhihu.
5. Tianya.
6. Jianshu.
7. Xiaohongshu.
8. Weibo—Sina.
9. Wechat.
10. Douban.
However, do you know some of these internet communities are search engines and social networking applications? You probably thought Google, Opera mini, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Bing are the only search engines and social networking applications. No, these 10 internet markets are valid and the best search engines, especially in China. Now let’s take an in-depth look at these internet market communities.
1. Baidu:
Baidu is the 2nd largest public internet search engine in China. It was founded on January 1st, 2000 by Robin Li and Eric Xu. Its headquarters is in Beijing, China. Baidu has up to 76.05% market shares and was included in the NASDAQ-100 index in December 2007. This search engine often used in China and in the United States and Japan minimally. To get your business out there to the Chinese public, you need to familiarize yourself with Baidu and the good news is Baidu has other 57 internet services like its keyboard, maps, e.t.c.
As an internet marketer, Baidu has competitors like 360, Sujou, Google, Bing, Eachnet, e.t.c. Baidu has shareholders and the top on this list are; Primecap Management, Renaisance Technology LLC, BlackRock Fund Company, and Vanguard group. Having over 45,887 employees, Baidu offers the best internet services and very effective. Little wonder it has over 27,573 billion Chinese Yuan. Whatever you do,such as construction contractor,or hotel hoster,you will find the answer in Baidu.
2. Bytedance:
This is the second on our list but one of the popular multinational internet companies. It is founded by Zhang Yiming in March 2012 and serves worldwide. It is a privately held company of above 60,000 employees and worth about 100billion dollars as of May 2020. It might interest you to know that Bytedance owns the famous Tiktok (Douyin) that is sweeping through the internet as well as Buzzvideo, Helo, Russo, and Vigo video. Bytedance has great social media and video skills and applications. It also has other services like Toutiao which is a news search engine, Xigua video where 2-5 minutes video clips are uploaded, and TopBuzz another platform for videos.
How amazing can Bytedance be? It is in partnership with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and through this, it establishes more grounds for effective and good internet services for the public and its investors includes; Coatue, KKR, Sig Asia Investment, Source Code Capital, Sequoia Capital, China, SoftBank, and Hillhouse. You should engage your business in this platform especially through videos.
3. Sohu:
Sohu is another internet community you should be aware of. It was founded by Charles Zhang and Edward Roberts in August 1996 though as Internet Technologies China (ITC) before it was renamed Sohu. It has its headquarters in Beijing, China (Sohu Internet Plaza) and Delaware, USA. Sohu offers a very recognized internet service such as games, news, and TV and is a Chinese primer online brand. It has about 7,010 employees and worth 86 billion USD as of 2017. You can visit and make use of the internet service by simply clicking on sohu.com
4. Zhihu:
Known as a knowledge site for questions and answers like Quora. Zhihu is a Chinese website created by Zhou Yuan and launched in January 2011 and has its headquarters in Beijing, China. It has about 250 million views a month and over 18million registered users. Being an intellectual property, it offers high-quality questions and answers which are usually professional and can serve as an entertainment tool. Zhihu generates funds through paid ads on its site and e-book sales. You can begin your question and answers by visiting: zhihu.com though it’s available in the Chinese language.
5. Tianya:
Often called the Tianya Club, Tianya ranks the most popular internet market community in China. It is the 11th most visited site as of 2015, it is also one of the oldest internet platforms, though launched in February 1999 and has its headquarters in Beijing, China. It serves through blog service, BBS, microblog, and photo services. By Tianya,you can find lots of machinery manufacturer,supplier,and professor.
6 Jianshu:
This internet market community focuses on e-learning and education and also contains a website and application which provides users the ability to read and write Chinese and English-written books. It is a privately owned business founded by Li Lin in 2011 and is based in Shanghai, China. It is a record of 41 million visits per month and a total of six internet products.
7. Xiaohongshu:
Xiaohongshu is an e-commerce internet company founded in June 2013 by Charlwin Mao Wenchao and Miranda Qu Fang firstly as an online tour guide and as a site to share people’s shopping experiences.It is located in Shanghai China, it is also known as RED. This social media service records 300 million registered users and over 20 billion Chinese Yuan in 2019 as sales revenue. Being a social network, it provides entertainment through travel blogs and lifestyle stories by short videos and photos. Travel companies, tourist centers, and hotels use their services to their business benefits. It also has a mall named RED Mall that sells internationally to the Chinese public along with its delivery system. Xiaohongshu has won many awards due to its great performance in the internet market and currently ranks 367th in Huran China Top 500 Private Enterprises. It can be accessed through xiaohongshu.com
8. Weibo—Sina:
Often called Sina Weibo, it was launched in August 2009 by the Sina Corporation, headquarters in China but has risen to one of the largest social media platforms in China. It is a microblogging website and a social media platform in China which has over 450 million users as of 2018 and about 4,200 employees. It has many records of large sales and revenue of over 30 billion dollars. Weibo which means microblogging specializes in advertising and other commercial and social media activities. It has features like Twitter and also has photo sharing features like Instagram. You might want to visit weibo.com to create an account and get involved in this internet community.
9. Wechat:
Wechat is an instant messaging app created by Tencent Holding Limited and Alang Zhang in January 2011. It is a multi-purpose application that allows its users to connect through photographs, video games, location sharing, broadcast, and many more. It has about 1.17 billion registered monthly users as of 2018, about 1400 employees, and has its headquarters in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It ranked 42nd in the best social media applications and fortunately is free on iOS and Androids though there is some controversy about its security. Countries like China, Thailand, Japan, Korea, and many others use Wechat, it is also used for mobile payments and available in 17 different languages.
10. Douban:
Douban, the last social networking service on our list is a commercial application made by intellectuals and launched in March 2005 by Yang Bo who was a research scientist at IBM. Douban is so good that about 200 million users were recorded in 2013. It has 200-500 employees and has its headquarters in Beijing, China. It is often used in China and is ranked number one in the iOS app store in 2012. Douban helps to record information about an event, book, music, or activities.
Finally, we have introduced you to the 10 best internet market communities in China. You probably did not know about them, now you do so ensure you utilize their services for your good and the good of your business. I hope you enjoy doing so.