Anyone using social media with us will inevitably move on a platform controlled by Facebook, Twitter or Google. American Internet giants dominate the global market and have a major impact on how we find out and how we communicate with friends. The big exception is China, where Instagram, Snapchat and Co. play virtually no role. Access is blocked, and attempts by American platforms to gain a foothold in the market have failed due to Beijing’s resistance or concerns about their homeland.
“Seen from the west, you have the impression that there is a big gap,” says Manya Koetse, a Japanese scientist and sinologist who writes about trends in Chinese social networks on her blog “What’s on Weibo”. “But for every western platform, there is a Chinese counterpart that is often more innovative, multi-faceted, and easier to use.” So why use Facebook if the Chinese platform Wechat offers similar features?
The social media landscape of China
The separation of the two social worlds began in 2009. In the run-up to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, the government inter alia blocked the short message service Twitter. In the same year after riots in the provinces of Tibet and Xinjiang access to Youtube and Facebook was blocked. The search engine Google has not been available since 2014. The exceptions are Hong Kong and Macao. The Special Administrative Regions are outside the Great Firewall, which separates the Chinese Internet from the rest of the world.