A glimpse into the rapidly evolving social media world of China

China’s social media world seems as if it is in a different galaxy than the world we know.  Without Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, Chinese citizens have finally adopted their own social media platform, Weixin, which has grown to over 300 million users in merely three years.  Statistically, it has outperformed Twitter and Facebook in terms of popularity and it is even giving China’s largest mobile phone company’s message service a run for its money.  The developer of this app, Tencent, is already facing fierce competition from other software developers who are realizing the direction that the market is headed in.

We take it for granted that we have already hit and adapted to the social media revolution.  As for a country the size of China, this digital revolution could potentially warp the social media environment in China forever.  Weixin is even available outside of China as WeChat.  

Indisputably, this immense popularity of Weixin is changing the perspective of other nations on China’s internet companies. Companies that formerly seemed "cheap" and knockoffs of U.S. companies are becoming legitimate and powerful.  China is experiencing an onset of more professional internet companies, which have begun to rival those which grew out of the U.S.

As Weixin has already cut deeply into telecommunications and existing social media in China, one can only wonder what will be next.  Will China become reconnected with the rest of the online world?  Is Weixin going to lead to the establishment of China as a force to reckon with on the internet?

The contagious nature of this social media website has made it extremely powerful and only added to its potential to grow. Soon enough, we may start to see our own social media websites of choice start to mirror the layout and design of this prodigious new platform.

See the full article on The New York Times, published on Jan. 20, 2014 http://nyti.ms/1ek80nnhttp://nyti.ms/1ek80nn