Weibo Has 260 Million Monthly Average Users and Growing

A new study shows Weibo, a social media app widely used in China, is growing in monthly active users, as well as net profits (Note: Linked study is in Mandarin.)

In fact, there were approximately 275 million monthly active users in the second quarter of 2016, which represents an increase of about 75 million since 2015.

Penguin Intelligence, a data intelligence agency owned by Tencent, researched 8,373 internet users to uncover insights on their Weibo behavior and to understand how it can be best leveraged as a marketing tool.

The data shows 71.7 percent of those surveyed had used Weibo and 31.2 percent were loyal users. Further, 11.6 percent were relatively new users, and about 29 percent had not continued to use Weibo on a regular basis.

The study found users spend 15 percent longer on WeChat (another social app popular in China) than Weibo when looking at users that are active on both platforms. This is largely due to the chatting tools and friends circle built into the WeChat platform.

Looking deeper into user behavior, the research shows 41 percent of people spend the most time reading and viewing Weibo, indicating it’s a source of news and information for many users.

While the top three types of accounts users follow on Weibo are celebrities, lifestyle news and media news, brand official accounts and ecommerce accounts are followed by 20 percent and 9 percent of users, respectively.

The data also shows the majority of Weibo users (62 percent) do not contribute original content, rather they share existing content (similar to retweeting) or simply use the app to browse.

For businesses looking to Weibo as a possible marketing platform, the study found about 31.2 percent of Weibo users had purchased something using Weibo.

Image credit: Sekkei Studio

Investment in Social Media Advertising Increasing in China

According to a new report by iResearch titled, “China’s Innovative Social Networking Marketing Report,” the number of social media users is growing on mobile.

More than 346 million monthly active users access social media via mobile as of March 2016 and 458 million use their desktops, the study found. In addition, the number of Chinese users logging into social networks on their mobile devices has been steadily growing over the past year.

As a result, businesses are joining social media networks to leverage the large audience as a marketing opportunity. On Weibo, the platform grew from having 740,000 verified business accounts in 2014 to nearly 1 million (960,000) in 2015.