China social networking sites statistics 2009 (updated)

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Everything valuable in China seems so competitive, and there’s no exception to social media. CNNIC recently released a report on China social networking sites (SNS) and I’m here to share some key findings:

By the end of 2009, the number of Chinese online social media users is about to reach 124 million.
Every social media user owns on average 2.78 social media accounts.
Top 5 social networking sites (SNS): QQ alumni (50%), Renren (37%), Sina Space (36.6%), 51.com (27.1%), and Kaixin001 (26.4%).
The male to female ratio in SNS users is 52.9:47.1.
Majority of SNS users are youth (52.6%).
17.8% of China SNS users’ monthly income is over RMB 3,000, higher than 13.4% Chinese netizens.
47.5 of SNS users’ month income is lower than RMB 1,000, also higher than the percentage of overall Chinese netizens (44.2%).
59.1% of Chinese SNS users own college degree and above, 34% higher than over Chinese netizens.

China Social Networking Sites Usage

Almost 80% SNS users are referred by friends, classmates, or colleagues.
75.8% indicate their SNS friends are friends in real life.
34.3% SNS users visit social networking sites every day while about 40.2% visit SNS once a week or longer.
Over half SNS users spend no longer than one hour daily on SNS sites; 26.6% between one to two hours; 12.8% over two hours.
China SNS users are mostly interested in status and photo album updates from friends.
Sending messages and uploading photos are the two most popular activities on SNS.

Which Social Networking Site to Choose?

63.5% users pick the number of known friends, classmates, and colleagues on a social network as the top reason for choosing that network.
32.4% users find it important to get useful information on a social network
Having lots of interesting topics is important to 21.4% users for choosing that social networking site
18.4% find a social networking site attractive if it provides lots of online games

The primary purpose of logging in a social network is entertainment for over 42.4% users being interviewed. 27.4% just log in to play games.

Why Abandoning A Social Network?

31.3% users interviewed have abandoned a social network after registration. The main reasons are:
No interesting activities (29%)
No useful information (27.9%)
Not many friends (26.5%)
No common topics (24.9%)
No feeling of being engaged (18.3%)

China Social Networking Sites VAS

40.9% SNS users would like to have mobile access and 25.6% SNS users want third party payment service
Women are more passionate about Value Added Services (VAS) on SNS than men. 19.8% women want to trade virtual goods (men: 16.8%).
Men are more intereted in B2C e-commercie and real goods trading.

China Social Networking Sites Advertisement

Acceptance to different types of advertisements in SNS is less than 30%. About 30.1% users never clicked on an ad. 39.9% users indicate they will click on an ad if it’s interesting.
Ads on personal profile, photo albums, and polls are more acceptable to women than men.
The more educated people are more likely to click on an ad.

BBS forums are another popular social media marketers don’t want to miss. Find out more about China BBS online community.