Waseem Saddique Marketing dispels social media myths by revealing the country, and coincidentally the brand, that rules the social media landscape.
The USA, Brazil, Japan and more recently Egypt have all been touted as potential ‘kings’ of the social media world. However, they have all been ousted by a nation where social networking is actually outlawed.
Waseem Saddique asserts: “Despite a national ban on social media usage, China emerged as the nation that tops the social networking hierarchy.”
Research published by digitaltrends.com revealed that China has the highest number of ‘active’ Twitter users on the planet. It would appear that a nationwide ban has done little to stifle its citizens from taking to social media sites to communicate with the world, using a variety of VPNs and various other methods to bypass firewalls implemented by the Chinese Government.
Whilst China claimed the country crown for social media usage, the Starbucks chain emerged as the leading brand on social networking sites according to the research.
In a statement from Jonathan Barouch, the founder of Local Measure, he said: “Facebook recently released stats saying that Starbucks has one of the highest check in rates of all brands, so to me it seems to suggest a cultural difference in that Asian consumers have an even higher propensity to share on social than Americans. This is particularly pronounced in food and retail.”
A survey conducted by Local Measure asked a focus group made up of 300 participants which country they thought had the highest volume of social media users. The majority of the group opted for the USA however, in reality the USA lagged behind China, Brazil and Egypt. Whilst the USA has a high number of registered users on social networking sites, the research is based on those that are ‘active’ i.e. accounts that are accessed at least once per day.
Waseem Saddique comments: “To some this may not come as a surprise, but for many they had their minds set on the USA being top dog. What this research really establishes though is a target market for businesses that have connections in those top ranking countries. It gives a fresh insight into business opportunities and our advice is ‘target those countries where social media activity is rife’."
Far from being a US obsession, social media has infiltrated the world dispelling many myths that social networking is isolated and confined to one country. China is a prime example of a nation where citizens are desperate to be a part of social media interaction and will go to extreme lengths to acquire access.
