Social media penetration in China 2018-2027

In 2022, the penetration rate of social media reached around 70.1 percent of the population in China. Despite global social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube being blocked by the “Great Firewall”, Chinese homegrown equivalents such as WeChat, Weibo, and Youku Tudou have captured millions of users in the country.

How active are Chinese social media users?

In 2023, the number of social network users was projected to reach 1.06 billion. Social media plays a huge role among Chinese internet users. During the third quarter of 2021, Chinese netizens spent circa 315 minutes on average per day on the internet. Sites such as WeChat and Sina Weibo each held a bulk of the share of internet users in China.

What is the role of social media in China?

For the end user, social networking sites allow for the establishment and reinforcing of social relationships by sharing photos, videos, posts and statuses. Microblogging has become an indispensable tool to share news across China with over a hundred million words and photos each posted daily. On the business end, social media also presents an attractive avenue for advertising with estimated ad spending surpassing 100 billion yuan in 2022.