Weibo seems more important than Twitter, but then I don’t really use twitter and am acquainted with fewer fashion types in the West. This Luxuo.com post highlights the importance of the site for luxury brands.
The Chinese internet and all of its various social networking sites, chatting programs, and remote services are “Main Street” to a much greater extent than they are in the West. This might be because China offers fewer non-internet public forums and the majority of China’s social/economic actors are younger than in the West. In other words, people whose maturation and career development occurred before the internet are a smaller percentage of the spending, discoursing population here than in the West.
For media and fashion types, Weibo has emerged as the most important forum. It is where they go every morning (or a hundred times a day) to hear the thoughts and see the images promulgated by people who matter as well as friends. With the emphases on photos, fans, celebrities, and, most importantly, up-to-the minutes updates, there could be no better tool for the narcissistic types comprising the fashion community. Forget being a season late – weibo addicts are never even a second late.
Naturally, you are welcome to follow my Weibo.
