China remains a difficult market for foreign brands to penetrate on social media. Social networkers are concentrated on homegrown sites, as opposed to Facebook, which is banned in the country, and other worldwide social sites. Still, the massive social user base in China, and the growing buying power of the population, have made the country hard to ignore. And data indicates that brands who do make the foray into social in China are likely to be well-received.
In Q2 2012, InSites Consulting surveyed social network users in select countries and found that two-thirds of those in China reported following brands on social media—the highest percentage among all surveyed countries.