China represents a significant opportunity for mobile social media marketers in Asia-Pacific
According to March 2012 research from Google, undertaken in conjunction with Ipsos MediaCT and TNS Infratest, a majority of smartphone users in Australia, China and Japan were accessing mobile social media on at least a monthly basis.
Interestingly, smartphone owners in China, still considered a developing country in most brand and marketers’ eyes, had the highest rates of mobile social connectivity—66% reportedly accessed social media via their device on a daily basis during March 2012. While smartphone penetration is lower in China than in more-developed countries around the world, the study showed that consumers who had splurged on smartphones, including both official and “gray market” phones, seemed to be using them ravenously.
In addition, because of the large size of the consumer base in China, even low smartphone penetration can translate to millions of people: eMarketer estimates smartphone penetration at 11.1% of the total population in 2011, but that figure amounts to 148.3 million users. That’s compared to 93.1 million smartphone users in the US.
Applying Google’s numbers to eMarketer’s total for smartphone users in 2011 gives a figure of about 97.9 million smartphone-wielding consumers accessing mobile social media every day. No wonder multinational brands and marketers are betting on China, and especially on mobile, in a big way.
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Check out today’s other articles, “Teens Still Like Talking Face to Face, but Texting Catching Up” and “Marketers Seek New Models to Grow Media and Entertainment.”