Guide to Most Popular Chinese Social Media Sites & Platforms for Marketing

In this guide, you will learn everything you need to know about the most popular Chinese social media platforms.

Social media platforms from the Western world are blocked in China. Facebook, Twitter, and video-sharing platforms such as Youtube are not allowed. This ban makes the Chinese social media ecosystem unique.

First, let us introduce you to the biggest social media sites in China. (How big they are, and how they work).

And how successful brands are using them to push sales to Chinese consumers with their smart Chinese social media marketing strategies.

Finally, we will also answer the question: What is the perfect platform for you? Let’s dive in.

WeChat – The Most Popular China’s Super-App

WeChat (Weixin) has a unique place in the Chinese social media landscape. But in reality, it has become much more than just an app.

Let us show you why.

What is WeChat?

WeChat started out as an instant messaging app for Chinese mobile users. It is often compared to Facebook, for its dominant position. And to Whatsapp for its chat-focus look and feel, as it’s a platform primarily focused on messages. But the comparison stops there.

Unveiled by Tencent, the creator of QQ, the “Chinese MSN”. WeChat has grown to become the world’s (not just China’s) biggest super-app, with more than 750 million average daily active users.

It is a whole ecosystem on its own. With WeChat, you can:

• Chat messaging
• Make an audio call and video call
• Create videos on WeChat Channels
• Payment in both physical stores and online (WeChat Pay)
• Moments (create content, share text, images, and videos)
• You can do online shopping, there are stores on WeChat
• Ordering services (such as Taxi) or Food Deliveries
• Ect.

We won’t post the whole list of features available here, but you get the point: Wechat is massive. Not only by its never-ending list of features but by its incredible scale.

WeChat for Business: Best Features for Wechat Marketing

Everybody in China is on WeChat. And that’s not a figure of speech. This means if a company has any ambition toward the Chinese market, they need to be in it. Now it’s not only a social media site but also (or even more), an e-commerce platform, where the majority of brands offer their own stores.

The central place WeChat has in Chinese users’ lives also means they spend a lot of time within the app, particularly on mobile phones. That opens great opportunities for branding & social media marketing in China.

Here are the main tools and features that you can use for your business in China:

• WeChat Official Accounts: they are like Facebook pages, with the function of sending newsletters to followers. They are a great way to engage with your audience and keep it updated about your brand and products/services, but they also open many possibilities, such as mini-programs or paid advertising.
• WeChat Mini-Programs: those are mini-apps within the WeChat ecosystem. They enable more advanced features than what is available in the standard WeChat app. This includes things like ordering food, making appointments, and paying for goods and services.
• HTML5 Brochures: Brands can create different HTML5 campaigns such as games, quizzes, and voting… to boost engagement from followers or to create sales directly.
• KOL Marketing: Key Opinions Leader’s campaigns are a very common way to promote products in China. Brands leverage popular Wechat accounts of KOLs who have huge followings to spread the message.
• Paid Advertising: Wechat ads include Moment ads (shown on Moments) and banner ads (blended into targeted articles) to increase the reach of brands.
• Customer relationship management: You can use your official account to talk with your followers, send automatic messages, create group chats, and more.

Sina Weibo – Is It The Chinese Twitter?

Weibo has long been called the “Chinese Twitter”, but in 2022 it is fair to say that it has very much grown past its Western inspiration. But can it be considered the largest communication platform in China?

What is Sina Weibo?

Weibo is one of the oldest Chinese social media sites. The micro-blogging platform describes itself as an open social media platform. More than WeChat where people not only post, share and interact but also get updated on trends and news. 

This is the place for content to go viral and for KOLs to build their online communities.

Social Media Marketing on Sina Weibo

Like its counterpart in the Western world, Weibo can be used for corporate communication and announcements. In fact, if there is one app on top of WeChat where companies create official accounts, it is Sina Weibo. 

Here are some of the perks of using a Weibo official account for your business in China:

• Content Marketing: brands can create their accounts and post interesting content to attract and engage followers. Once articles are read by a certain number of users, they can gain popularity on hot-topic or super-topic community forums.
• Live-streaming: Weibo has its own live-streaming platform, called Yizhibo Live.
• E-commerce Integration: brands can link Taobao stores and products in their posts.
• Weibo Stories: something that we know from Instagram that is gaining popularity in China.
• Paid Advertising: Weibo ads are cheaper than WeChat ones and allow you to reach various niches and bigger audiences.

Little Red Book / Xiaohongshu – The Chinese Instagram

Xiaohongshu is a Chinese social media app that’s similar to Instagram. It’s mainly used by young people in China to share photos and videos of the clothes they’re wearing, the food they’re eating, and the places they’re visiting.

This social media is a great tool if you need to market to Chinese women. Why? Because 80% of the community on Xiaohongshu are women.

Social Media Marketing on Little Red Book

Few platforms offer such a complete, self-contained, and focused ecosystem as XiaoHongShu. The Chinese social media platform primarily focuses on UGC (user-generated content) but also offers a variety of tools to both its users and brands as follows:

• E-commerce: You can create your shop on XiaoHongShu and sell your products directly to Chinese consumers.
• Influencer Marketing: RED is one of the most popular platforms for KOL marketing, as it’s based on user-generated content and relies on recommendations and product reviews. It’s the best platform for word-of-mouth marketing, especially for cosmetic and beauty brands.
• Xiaohongshu Business Accounts: You can create your own company account and share your own content. Having a business account gives you access to the app KOL network but also to their integrated eCommerce feature.
• Paid Advertising: The platform offers several types of ads to show promotional offers. Mainly those take the form of banners and popups.

Little Red Book / XiaoHongShu is a smaller social network compared to some other big names on our list. But it offers a very focused community of young women. If that is your target audience, then it might just be the perfect platform for you to invest in.

Douyin – The Chinese TikTok

While other Chinese social media apps source their inspiration from Western social media sites, Douyin is different. It is the unicorn of Chinese Social Media that has conquered the World.

Douyin is a short video social platform made for creating and sharing short videos with special effects. Relying on user-generated content. 

The app is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, which first released Douyin in September 2016 for iOS and Android in China.

Social Media Marketing on Douyin

Douyin allows users to create and share creative and trendy short-form videos. Short videos are, unlike long-form videos, optimal for engagement and virality. 

Douyin provides the ability to edit videos with engaging special effects and funny stickers to inspire its users to produce more and share more of these kinds of funny short videos with their friends.

Brands can use content marketing to attract users. However, a brand’s content has to carry the right tone to be a good fit for the platform and must not be intrusive. 

Douyin also offer brands the opportunity to have a business account that comes with many benefits such as access to paid advertising tools, better visibility, and the possibility to publish longer visibility than regular users’ account.

Some brands (Airbnb, Harbin Beer, and Chevrolet) collaborate with Douyin influencers to share their brands (through content that appears in the user’s information stream) in a way that is consistent with both the Douyin tone and the brands’ personalities.

Customized challenges on Douyin are an effective way to create a social buzz for brands: Douyin is really great at creating challenges for users to engage and prove their creativity. This tactic incentivizes mass participation and results in a social buzz that can connect users to brands more effectively.

Kuaishou – TikTok’s Innovative Challenger

Kuaishou is Douyin’s main competitor in China. It has gained momentum in China’s lower-tier cities and is now starting to close the gap with the bigger players.

Kuaishou is one of China’s leading social media platforms, thanks to its innovative and surprisingly addictive short video feature. The app allows users to share quick, 15-second clips of their everyday lives with friends and strangers alike.  

While it may not be as well-known as some of the other major Chinese social media apps outside of China, Kuaishou has a strong user base within the country – second only to TikTok in terms of active monthly users. 

Social Media Marketing on Kuaishou

As a social media, video, and live-streaming platform, Kuaishou offers many tools that both brands and influencers can leverage to grow their reach in the Chinese market and more specifically 3rd and 4th tier cities. 

Does Kuaishou have an official account option for companies, organizations, and influencers? The answer is yes. Just like Douyin, you have different types of official accounts for different types of organizations. Kuaishou official accounts allow for e-commerce integration and paid ads, they also help brands gain visibility and credibility (thanks to the verified icon on the profile).

The two most efficient ways to promote a brand on Kuaishou are: 

• Through influencer partnerships: You can find popular Kuaishou influencers in your industry and partner with them to promote your brand on the platform.
• By running ads: Just like its competitors Douyin, Kuaishou has a precise targeting algorithm, making it a great place to advertise through paid ads. These paid ads can link to varied landing pages outside of Kuaishou, such as your e-commerce store. For instance, Kuaishou has partnerships with famous Chinese online retailers such as JDcom.

How is Kuaishou different from Douyin?

Kuaishou is a great alternative to Douyin for short videos. Today, the way we sell online with videos is evolving fast and you need to stay up-to-date with all the existing social media.

As you can see above, there are many differences between those two apps. We would say, that the main differences lie in the demographic (with Kuaishou targeting lower-tier city consumers) and in content, as the focus and priorities of both apps are different.

There is no better or worse app and when choosing one, you need to understand who will be your target customers, where they live, how they shop, and what are their interests, because Douyin and Kuaishou, apart from the fact they are both short video apps, are very different and attract different groups of people and content.

QQ – The Chinese MSN (Still Kicking!)

This might be the biggest Chinese social platform you have never heard of.

QQ is a Chinese instant messaging software app. It was created in 1999 by Tencent, and it became very popular in China. Similar to MSN messenger, QQ allows users to communicate with each other via text, voice, and video chat. 

At launch, QQ was just a simple instant messenger. Today, you can play online games, send and receive emails and large files, share Snapchat-style disappearing videos and animations, and join online groups of like-minded individuals. 

You can also stream music, find a partner via QQ’s dating service, and use the Facebook-like Qzone for sharing with friends and reading their posts in your news feed.

How to use QQ for your Chinese Social Media Strategy?

Most of the trendy Chinese social media platforms target the urban online population from first-tier cities. QQ’s demographics trend towards the young and unsophisticated. 60% are under 30 years old and come from 2nd and 3rd-tier cities. This population has a strong consumption potential as they have an increased purchasing power and actively participate in the economy. 

They also tend to spend more time on online entertainment/Chinese social media and are more willing to try new stuff. Brands can use QQ to engage with younger and future generations of consumers.

QQ is also popular in the workplace. They like its ease of use and facility for transmitting large files like images and video. White-collar workers use QQ for daily communication and file transferring instead of email.

QQ group chats allow users of the same interests to connect and brands to run targeted campaigns.

Youku – The Chinese Youtube

Youku is often called the Youtube of China. Yes, like Youtube, it is a video hosting service. In China, Youku is one of the most important online video and streaming service platforms. 

The unique point of Youku is that it offers long-form videos. Despite the emergence of short video and live streaming platforms, longer videos are still preferred when users want to gain deeper knowledge, learn about a topic, or watch the news.

Social Media Marketing on Youku

Youku can help you reach out to a wider audience. Youku is a great tool to increase brand awareness and loyalty. It offers great exposure for your brand via video content and drives traffic to your website.

This is a great social media to promote digital ads. You can use the pre-roll ads, the post-roll ads, or even the banner ads. Your advertising will be displayed while the user is watching a video, which will increase your brand visibility. 

Indeed, Youku wisely selects a target audience depending on the content they used to be interested in.

Bilibili – The Chinese Youtube, also?

Bilibili could be overlooked by some as yet-another youtube-clone. But its initial focus on Chinese youth and its subcultures and community features has made it one of the most interesting Chinese social media platforms to explore for advertisers

Bilibili is a short video platform in China that allows users to share and upload videos. The site is also popular for its unique visual style and community-based features. 

Most of the videos on Bilibili are fan-made. And the site is especially popular amongst young adults. Initially focused on anime-related content and video game lovers. Now a wider range has joined the platform to consume videos, notably Korean drama, and other trendy shows, not always welcome by mainstream Chinese media.

Why is Bilibili Different? – The Community Virality

Unlike YouTube or TikTok, the promotion of a video is not based on a specific algorithm to boost visibility. It is all about community (pop culture junkies ;)) and recommendations, a great opportunity depending on your local strategy.

Social Media Marketing on Bilibili

Bilibili offers brands the traditional social media way to promote themselves:

• Creation of a Bilibili Brand account for your business
• Strong integration between Bilibili and e-commerce platforms to push sales
• Influencers (KOL) campaigns with Bilibili Sparkle
• Advertising with ads placement

Baidu Tieba – The Chinese Reddit?

Baidu Tieba is an online community that was created by Baidu, a Chinese web services company. It’s similar to other online communities like Reddit or 4chan, where users can post content and discuss things with others. 

However, one unique thing about Baidu Tieba is that it’s organized around specific topics, called “bars.” So, if you’re interested in discussing a certain topic, you can go to that bar and find other people who are also interested in that topic.

Tieba is essentially a BBS (bulletin board system) or online community where users can search or create a forum (or “bar”) by simply entering a query within the search bar. If the forum doesn’t exist yet, there will be one automatically created from the query. The concept of ‘forums’ is an old one, but is often overlooked by Chinese social media platforms.

Social Media Marketing on Baidu Tieba

One of the things that make Tieba so great compared to other Chinese social media is that the topics can be hyper-specific; anything from niche video games to types of cell phone cases can be a “bar” (topic).

One thing to keep in mind is that Tieba doesn’t allow ads. So make sure to keep your posting as informative as possible and try not to include too many links.

Using this platform correctly can help develop an organic presence in China without paid advertising. It can also be a powerful tool for collecting feedback from Chinese netizens.

Zhihu – the Chinese Quora

Zhihu, the Chinese version of Quora, is a popular online Q&A and social platform in China.

Zhihu was attracted from the beginning to social elites like lawyers, independent consultants, IT professionals, and entrepreneurs who want to share their specialties with others and gain wisdom in return.

Besides, Zhihu gave high authority on answers that get the most upvotes and they don’t order the answers by time series. 

This also helps encourage people to get serious about answering. In these ways, Zhihu has maintained high trustworthiness among social media users.

Social Media Marketing on Zhihu

Users on Zhihu are promising consumers because Zhihu’s user base is high-income, high-consumption, and highly educated people. Actually, 30% of Zhihu users make more than 10,000 RMB per month.

• Free SEO option; This is due to the high domain authority Zhihu has on mainstream search engines like Baidu and Sogou. Whenever a keyword is searched on Baidu, you can always see a Zhihu Q&A (if has) on the first SERP. In this way, a brand can also get some free rides on SEO.
• Long-term branding for brands; Zhihu’s voting mechanism enables good content to last. Many brands say even today they can get upvotes on the posts/answers that were published in 2011. Long-term branding will work very well on this platform.
• KOLs promotion: Similar to what happened on other Chinese social media, top contributors on Zhihu have managed to gain massive followings on the platform thanks to their in-depth answers.
• Native advertising: Zhihu has an “arsenal” of paid publishing tools that are extremely well integrated within the organic content.

Toutiao – The Hottest Chinese News, Information & Entertainment Platform

Toutiao, which literally means “Today’s Headlines”, is an emerging mobile platform for content creation, aggregation, and distribution, featured by machine learning techniques. Of the various social media platforms we saw, it might be the most singular.

Toutiao is a news and information content platform, founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming. It is one of the most popular apps in China, with over 120 million daily active users.

Toutiao aggregates news and videos from a wide range of sources, including traditional media outlets, online publications, blogs, and major Chinese social media sites such as Weibo and WeChat.

Toutiao’s “intelligent news feed”

The most significant selling point of Toutiao is its “intelligent news feed”, where artificial intelligence and machine learning software tailor and bring audience content based on their unique interests and browsing history. 

Its AI-powered information/content platform means, that the more people use it, the more data people can contribute. The more data people contribute, the better-fit content they will see, then the more frequently people use it.

Social Media Marketing on Toutiao?

• Targeted advertising: Placing advertisements on the platform or releasing advertorials can have exceptional effects on brands. Often, ads appear in the feed with no specification. There is a strong culture of clicking on ads on Toutiao because users see them as more trustworthy and useful. 
• Baidu SEO Push strategy: The platform is not based on search queries but on content promotion. In a word, it is a push strategy rather than a pull strategy. 
• Q&A opportunity: Toutiao launched a Q&A channel, as internet users love to spend time reading opinions and recommendations on several topics. Depending on their answers on the Q&A channel, Toutiao will highlight new content in the user’s feed.
• Entertaining content: We decided to add Toutiao to our list of Chinese social media because the app is using the same business model of entertainment and addictive but smart content. 

Meituan Dianping -The Reviews and Comments Social Media App

Meituan Dianping is China’s leader in O2O (offline-to-online) services, creating a one-stop super app for a range of services, from haircuts, manicures, and massages, to movie tickets, food delivery, and hotel bookings.

Meituan Dianping is the fusion of the former food delivery service Meituan (2010) and the former restaurant reviews app Dianping (2013). 

Thanks to this fusion, businesses can reach out to Meituan Dianping’s huge database through advertisements. They can choose from a wide range of services including SEO, image promotion, URL promotion, and website ads offered by the platform.

What are the services available on Meituan Dianping?

• Meituan Waimai – The food delivery service like Deliveroo or UberEats in Europe
• Dazhong Dianping – The restaurants’ reference to read reviews and recommendations
• Meituan – The platform dedicated to group offers and discounts like Groupon in Europe
• Maoyan – The cinema ticket purchasing platform covering 600 cities in China

Social Media Marketing on Meituan Dianping

• Omnichannel strategy: The platform is successful thanks to an omnichannel strategy. 80% of the users who make a hotel reservation on MD have already used the platform to order food in the past.
• Location targeting: With its enormous customer base, Meituan Dianping benefits from a large database. This social media uses the location, preferences, and habits of its users.
• Database access: By analyzing their target customers and tailor-making their marketing strategies, brands can increase customer loyalty and brand awareness among millions of monthly active users.

Baidu Zhidao – the biggest competitor of Zhihu

Baidu Zhidao is a Chinese language-based online knowledge-sharing platform, and it’s the biggest competitor of Zhihu. The name “Zhidao” can be translated to “Knows” or “Knowledge” in English.

The platform operates on a community-driven model, where users can contribute their knowledge and expertise by providing answers to questions posted by others. Users can also rate and comment on the answers, helping to establish the credibility and quality of the information provided.

Social Media Marketing on Baidu Zhidao?

• Content Creation: Develop high-quality, informative content related to your industry or products. This could include answering frequently asked questions, providing tutorials or guides, or sharing valuable insights.
• Keyword Optimization: Identify relevant keywords that are frequently used by Baidu Zhidao users and incorporate them naturally into your answers and content.
• Building Reputation: Encourage Chinese Internet users to rate and comment on your answers to boost your reputation on Baidu Zhidao. Positive feedback and engagement can enhance your visibility and attract more users to your brand.
• Advertise Strategically: Baidu Zhidao offers advertising options, such as sponsored content or banners, which can help you reach a larger audience on this social networking platform.

Maimai – the Chinese Linkedin

Maimai is a popular Chinese professional networking platform often referred to as the “LinkedIn of China.” Launched in 2013, Maimai focuses on connecting professionals, facilitating job search and recruitment, and providing a platform for business networking and career development.

Social media marketing on Maimai

• Official Company Pages: Create a company page on Maimai that showcases your brand, products, and services.
• Networking: Connect with professionals in your industry and target audience. Actively seek out individuals who can be potential customers, partners, or influencers.
• Share Valuable Content: Develop and share informative and relevant content that caters to the interests and needs of your target audience. Position yourself as a knowledgeable and trustworthy source within your industry.
• Advertising Opportunities: Maimai also offers advertising options, such as sponsored content or display ads, to reach a wider audience.

Conclusion – What’s the best Chinese Social Media App for you?

As we saw there are many options when it comes to your Chinese social media strategy. Here’s what you should remember. Quick summary of the Chinese social media platforms:

WeChat and Weibo are the most popular Chinese social media. You must be on it no matter what. Mostly compared to Facebook and Twitter in the niche they fill.

XiaoHongShu / Little Red Book is China’s Instagram. A must if you are targeting an audience of young urban women.

Douyin and Kuaishou, short video platforms, mostly geared toward a younger audience. Huge audience and is massively popular.

Youku and Bilibili if you have longer-form video content to share, are the two Chinese Youtube.

Baidu Tieba and Zhihu to build trust and be present in the interest-based communities related to your Brand. Where the discussion on your industry is taking place. Similar to Reddit and Quora respectively.

Toutiao is the news and social media aggregator to reach out to an educated target audience made in the majority of males. Perfect for paid advertising and lead generation campaigns especially in the field of real estate and finance.

Meituan Dianping: The first place Chinese users go for reviews and comments. Amazing for bricks and mortar business, even abroad. And specific industries such as F&B, Travel, entertainment, and so on.

Many other smaller industry-focused social media platforms exist in China. And they could be a great fit for your business.

Ask us – We are experts in Chinese Social Media 

Social media marketing is a great tool to reach your Chinese audience. Let us help you to craft a cost-efficient Chinese social media strategy.

Get in touch with us and we will give you:

• Free one-hour consultation call based on your industry and company size
• Access to our top case studies (that are not shared publicly online)
• The best social media strategies for your market in China 
• What similar businesses are doing successfully in the Chinese market