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For our post today, we continue our look at findings in the new GWI Social report (you can download a free summary here) to place a spotlight on social networking in China.
Among adults aged 16-64, Qzone is the most popular network: nearly 85% have an account and over 50% are using it actively each month. Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo follow closely behind, confirming the dominance of local platforms within this market.
However, despite many of the international networks being subject to official bans, it’s also clear that significant numbers in China are accessing sites like Facebook and Google+.
As we explore in GWI Social and in our Market Report dedicated to China, VPNs (virtual private networks) and Proxy Servers have in fact become a major gateway for these sites – a trend which shows why the size and scale of Chinese audiences for such platforms are typically being under-estimated by passive web analytics.
