IWOM watch Half Year Review
- An Overview of Chinese IWOM trends from July to December, 2008
Report Period: July – December, 2008
CIC Contact: info@cicdata.com

Editorial Summary
No question, 2008 proved to be a historic year for China. After a
difficult beginning, the 2nd half of 2008 had the world’s eyes on
China in August for the spectacular Beijing Olympics with millions
of Chinese eyes on the Internet. Netizens made the 2008 Beijing
Olympics the most ‘Web 2.0’ in the Games’ history by becoming not
only spectators, but also commentators through a variety of
channels which serve host to the massively active Chinese Internet
Community.
CIC’s IWOM Watch is
2008 also saw SNS gain even more prominence within the Internet
a regular Internet
Community landscape as a place where netizens come together to
Word of Mouth Guide
utilize applications to socialize and entertain themselves (i.e.
and trend watch gaming) (often at the same time).
providing a qualitative
overview of Web 2.0 Finally, we see the continued development of social commerce,
which demonstrates that IWOM is not only changing how netizens
buzz in China
make purchase decisions, but the way they make actual purchases.
Of course, this IWOM watch 2nd half review does not cover
everything that happened in that last 6 months of the year, but we
do cover some of the more notable topics covered in our regular
IWOM watch reports for client. If you’d like more information about
CIC’s products and services, please click here or contact us
directly.
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 2

Content
Part One: The (R)evolutionary Web 2.0 Olympics
-The first Web 2.0 Olympics: spectators become commentators
-Blog: utilizing multiple blog types during the Olympics
-Microblog: immediate sharing and reading
-Mobile and Twitter: instantly in touch with the Olympics
-BBS: cheering virtually and loudly for the Olympics
-Olympics: many different ways for community on the Chinese Internet
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 3

Content
Part Two: The Chinese SNS Emerges
-Fast developing Chinese social networking sites
-Netizen enjoy the SNS due to the popular applications
-More and more brand elements built into the SNS applications
-Brands ride the wave and build their own SNS
-SNS leverages its community to encourage consumer reviews
-The roles of blog, BBS, and SNS in the Internet Community
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 4

Content
Part Three: IWOM + Commerce = Social Commerce
-Brands work with communities to “reverse” group buying trend
-Retailers sell directly to consumers in dedicated BBS forums
-Individual sellers integrate online and offline sales tactics
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 5

The (R)evolutionary Web 2.0 Olympics
The importance of the Internet in experiencing the Olympics to
Chinese netizens is underscored by DCCI which reported that
Olympic related page views reached 24.7 billion. More than just
reading about the Olympics online, netizens made the 2008 Beijing
Olympics the most ‘Web 2.0’ in the Games’ history by becoming not
only spectators, but also commentators through a variety of channels
which serve host to the massively active Chinese Internet
Community.

The first Web 2.0 Olympics: spectators become commentators
Sina reports nearly
1.85M Mobile
Viewers Of Olympic
China Mobile
Basketball Match
Records 7M Clicks
Millions BBSes
between China and
For Olympic TV
messages about Olympics
Spain at peak, link
Content, link
Different
Tencent
types of
Olympics E-
Online Torch
blogs and
Commerce Platform
Relay 62M
microblogs
Fills Over 18,500
Participants,
related to
Orders, link
link
Olympics
According to CNNIC’s August 6th report, ‘Chinese Internet User Olympic Media Consumption Behavior,’
over 82% of Chinese internet users were interested in the Beijing Games and 79.8% used the Internet
for Olympic information. It is little wonder that the Games were the biggest story in China in 2008. Large
number of netizens participated in the Olympics via:
• Blog: utilizing multiple blog types during the Olympics
• Microblog: writing immediately about the Olympics
• Mobile and Twitter: instantly in touch with the Olympics
• BBS: cheering virtually for the Olympics
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 7

Blog: utilizing multiple blog types during the Olympics
From its opening on August 8th, the Beijing Olympics was the biggest discussion topic in China. News
updates on athletes and events, interviews, and talk shows discussing and analyzing the day’s events
dominated both TV and the Internet. As well as being spectators, netizens also took part in the
commentary by sharing their personal experiences with and feelings toward the Olympics online. Blogs
were the most popular platform for this expression, and saw huge number of posts, pictures, and videos
concerning the Games.
Celebrity
Athlete Blogs Link
Link
Blogs
Reporter Link Grassroot
Blogs Link
Blogs
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 8

Microblog: immediate sharing and reading
Chinese microblogging sites Ji.Wai.de and Fanfou set up special Olympic live update sections where
users could easily find both frequent Olympic news updates and other member’s Olympic posts, helping
netizens enjoy the Olympic experience together.
1
1
2
2 Link
Link
Sample Quote 1 - Olympic news: Liu Xiang Sample Quote 1 - Liu Xiang, I understand
apologized to the Chinese people, saying that you (for quitting the 110m hurdles)
he will not give up.
Sample Quote 2 - Now I’m going to see the
Sample Quote 2 – From Italian media: ‘Beijing Olympic Games live!
Roast duck wins the gold medal for flavor’
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 9

Mobile and Twitter: instantly in touch with the Olympics
Twitter #080808 Icons
Google Olympics SMS
Sample SMS:
19:16, Results of the Men’s 800 Three Chinese bloggers (Flypig, Webleon and
meter race, China ranked 5th … Babechloe) started an Olympic meme on the
well-known micro-blogging site Twitter. It was
called the #080808 tag campaign and its use
Google China released a free SMS alert saw dramatic growth.
service to provide mobile phone users with
The concept of the campaign was quite simple:
Olympic updates. Users could subscribe to
anyone who wants to show his or her support
one weather, competition or athlete update
for the Games and interact with others could
per afternoon and receive up to six
create an #080808 avatar and then begin all
messages per competition per day.
Olympic related messages with “#080808”.
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 10

BBS: cheering virtually and loudly for the Olympics
The August 8th Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony was a moment that China had been working toward
for seven years. Early that day, before the ceremony had even begun, netizens were already discussing
and exchanging information about the event. Then, during the ceremony, netizens were uploading
screenshots and reporting on the ceremony’s progress on BBS forums.
Reference: see more cases of NBA fans’ live BBS activities in our IWOM whitepaper (slide 10) and on our
CEO blog.
Live reporting & chat
Warm-up discussions
PV: 291,379 Reply: 1,405 Link
3
1
5
Time:14:00
Time: 19:55
2
4
Quote: I am so excited about
the drummers, the view is so
grand that I cannot type. Time: 19:56 Time: 23:26
Time: 16:25
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 11

Olympics: many different ways for community on the Chinese Internet
Just as in the West, the
Online E-Commerce
Conversation Prism for
Gaming
RSS China (left) shows how
Video
conversation and sharing
Sharing
on the Chinese Internet
Q&A Community is filtered
Customer
through similar types of
Review
participation architecture.
The Chinese landscape is
Wiki
filled largely with local
BBS
players that have localized
applications and platforms.
Blogs The 2008 Beijing
BBS
Olympics Games were
Aggregator
one of the best possible
case studies for marketers
Instant on how these channels
Social
Messaging
Bookmarks are utilized by netizens to
participate around special
events.
Micro-blogging
Photo
For more information, see
Life Stream
Music the CIC IWOM
Whitepaper – “The
Social Networks
Internet is THE
Chinese Social Media Prism inspired by Brian Solis and JESS3, 2008
Community.”
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 12

Chinese Social Networking Emerges
Chinese local social networking sites grew quickly this year.
SNSes like 51 and Xiaonei retained prominence while
Kaixin001 came out of nowhere to attract white collar workers
attention. 2008 is the year that SNS was truly established as
a main channel of the Internet Community where netizens
come together to utilize applications to socialize and
entertainment (i.e. gaming) (often at the same time).

Fast developing Chinese social networking sites
Local social networking sites like 51,
Xiaonei and Kaixin001 have taken the
Chinese Internet Community by storm
over the past year. SNSes combine
the community aspect of BBSes with
the personal expression aspect of
blogging, allowing netizens with “real
name” identities to more efficiently
connect, share, and play with other
netizens.
– BBS
– Poll
– Decorate Homepage
– Diary
– Games
– Virtual gifts
– Music
– Photo album
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 14

Netizen enjoy the SNS due to the popular applications
Networking applications like “Parking War”, “Voting”, and “True Words” are very popular among young
people, serving as key traffic drivers. They perfectly display the two key drivers of the Internet
community on SNS: entertainment (i.e. gaming) and socializing.
Popular applications on Chinese SNSes:
Apartment | 买房子
Voting | 投票 Parking War | 争车位
True Words | 真心话
The Godfather | 教父
Pet Dog | 狗狗
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 15

More and more brand elements built into the SNS applications
Virtual gifts and games like “Parking War” are examples of SNS apps that allow brands to interact directly
with a target consumer base. By building targeted awareness, brands can encourage users to come visit
their websites by linking the branded images to their site. As SNS are about relationship building and
networking, reaching out to just one passionate netizen can help brands penetrate the environment and
help naturally spread the IWOM.
Case 2
Case 1
Parking War: users earn virtual money
Virtual Gifts: Kaixin users send virtual
by parking branded virtual cars
gifts as an expression of their feelings
“Parking War” app is a game which allows
users to earn virtual money by parking virtual
Brands such as Coke, Apple Nano, and Chanel cars in different friends’ online parking space.
cosmetics now all have virtual gifts available for Many of the branded cars in the game even
SNS users to exchange with one another. have the official market value for the car.
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 16

Brands ride the wave and build their own SNS
Nissan launched a SNS for campaign Sample Quote (link)
participants
参加这个活动让我……拓展了全新的朋友
圈……而且我把出去玩的照片也放到了空间里
和大家分享 / This campaign has widened my
friend circle….and I’ve put the outing photos
into my “Space”, to share with my new friends.
The online Nissan Tiida owners club, Tiidalife,
recently launched an online campaign called
“Dream in the drift bottles.” Tiida used the
campaign as a platform to promote its new
Link
vertical SNS, Drift Bottle Space, which is a SNS
for Tiida car owners.
This campaign was praised by the campaign
participants, who utilized the SNS platform to
Netizens’
interact with other owners with similar interests
Intention of
by uploading pictures, leaving comments and
their
initiating polls related to the event. By interacting
Participation
in the Nissan branded SNS, netizens not only
had the opportunity to win points and get
Link
rewards, but also had the opportunity to built
A poll initiated by netizens showed their main driver
new relationships and find new friends with
for taking part in this campaign is to be social.
common interests.
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 17

SNS leverages its community to encourage consumer reviews
Every so often, when users log into their Xiaonei account, they
can see a small display banner of the most recent movies in the
page’s right column which includes all the basic information
about the director, actors, etc. Click the banner, and you will be
taken to the movie’s page on Xiaonei movie channel.
For example, when the latest James Bond movie “Quantum of
Solace” was released on Nov 5th, a banner showed up on the
user home page, allowing users to click through to the separate
movie page. Users then can view other people’s review of the
movie and write their own.
Social networking sites like Xiaonei and Kaixin001 may have an
interesting model for working with brands.
Take the movie case as an example:
Promote movie
Identify the
trailer to targeted
most active fans
active fans with
by movie
some insider
category
information
Fans write
Organize
objective
offline movie
comments and
meet-up
influence friends’
events
opinion / decision
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 18

SNS leverages its community to encourage consumer review (Cont.)
Users can leave a one-sentence comment
I think the movie
Movie
was good, why is
Introduction
the rating so low?
with viewer
ratings
Or they can write a long review post
Recommended
Movies
Even after reading all the negative reviews
about this movie, I still want to give this movie
a chance….
Viewer Link
Comments
In the future, in addition to being an influential
social network, Xiaonei has the potential to
become a trustworthy and objective source of
information and reviews. Brands can become
active in the communities by building up
Discussion
credibility through transparent conversations with
Forum
users and addressing their needs and concerns.
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 19

The roles of blog, BBS, and SNS in the Internet Community
More than just knowing
where conversations are
happening, it is important for
brands to know how and
why netizens connect in
each of these different
spaces if they want to jump
in and participate. Blogs are
content driven by personal
expression, BBS is content
driven by information, and
SNS is content driven by
relationships. Like any good
conversationalist or
community member, brands
need to shape their
communication approach
based on understanding the
motivations and purpose of
each communication space.
For more information on this,
see our blog article “The
DNA of Internet Word of
Mouth platforms” here.
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 20

IWOM + Commerce = Social Commerce
In Q3, compared to the same time period in 2007, C2C e-
commerce volume increased 16% in China. Leading C2C
platform, Taobao generates more revenue than Wal-Mart
and Carrefour in China combined. Such statistics
demonstrate a large and growing social commerce market
where sellers build credibility, authority and a solid
reputation as well as relationships with consumers within
the Internet Community. Even offline retailers are finding
opportunities to leverage IWOM to build their market and
reputation.
Source: CNNIC, The 22nd Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China, Jul 2008

Brands work with communities to “reverse” group buying trend
Originally, online group purchase activities were only initiated by individual consumers, but now BBS
community owners and companies alike are looking to leverage the popularity of this trend by
organizing group purchase activities themselves. This can be an effective supplementary sales strategy
for brands to attract new customers and engage consumers online. See on seeisee blog here.
Link
Company
BBS
Gome, the biggest home appliance retailer in China, collaborated with KDS, one of the most popular
BBS groups in Shanghai, to launch a group purchase opportunity for KDS users only, which
received over 800 applications, far beyond the 250 application requirement in just 10 days.
Leave
comments
Show off their
on the
purchase
activity
Link Link
After the group purchase, netizens continued to discuss the event and praise the organizers for
offering the group purchase.
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 22

Retailers sell directly to consumers in dedicated BBS forums
Some mainstream IT
communities like 51NB,
PConline and ZOL not
only provide netizens
forums to chat, but also
provide sub forums for
netizens to sell and buy IT
products.
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 23

Individual sellers integrate online and offline sales tactics
In the traditional small southern town of Xitang (西塘), there are many small shops offering special local
food and handmade souvenirs. Interestingly, in many of the shops you will find a laptop open to a Taobao
page with a stream of QQ and Taobao instant messages lighting up on the screen. In addition, the stores
post badges displaying their Taobao credits both Inside and outside their store. This new generation of
local small merchants understand how to leverage social commerce tools and community platforms like
Taobao to boost their business.
1 100% positive buyer comments on Taobao.
2
Aiming
at crown
level
Taobao
credit
store
Inside the store
Outside the store
3 4
Laptop in
6,790 deals
Southern Town Xitang (西塘) shop
have been
displaying
made so far
Taobao
on Taobao
pages &
from the
QQ chat
Live e-commerce Active Business shop
window
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 24

FOR MORE INSIGHTS SEE
READ MORE IN OUR FREE WHITEPAPERS
OUR BLOGs
AND IWOM WATCH REVIEWS
Download here Seeisee Blog (Chinese)
CEO Blog (English)
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 25

“The Internet is THE Community”: IWOM white paper series on Internet
Word of Mouth (IWOM) Development in China Q3, 2008
The full report is available for download on
Slideshare.net/CIC_China
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 26

ABOUT CIC
• CIC is the leading Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) research and consulting firm in China. Since
2004, CIC has pioneered the concept of Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) that is redefining the
relationship between brands and consumers. CIC coined the term Internet Word of Mouth and is
the thought leader in utilizing it for strategy planning and application in marketing communications.
CIC is committed to both providing objective third party strategic advice to clients and promoting
the healthy development of the Internet Community in China. CIC’s research and discussion of
IWOM’s impact and best practices can be found on company blogs, IWOM white papers and
IWOM watch reports and through its IWOM roundtable events such as IWOM summit and IWOM
classroom.
• CIC offers customized research and consulting service to its stable of retainer clients through its
expert IWOM analysts supported by proprietary Chinese language based text mining technology
(patent pending), data processing technology and data visualization technology. CIC’s retainer
relationships stretch over multiple years with multinational clients from Fortune 500 companies.
• CIC’s continual development and evolution is driven by a unique, powerful and open mindset and
learning culture which at its foundation continually seeks to understand how the Internet, and
Internet Word of mouth, is redefining the relationships between brands and consumers.
• For more information, please visit www.cicdata.com (CIC website), www.seeisee.com (CIC
Company blog in Chinese) and www.seeisee.com/sam (CEO's company blog in English).
IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec 2008 27

OUR BLOGS:
www.seeisee.com (Chinese)
www.seeisee.com/sam (English)
OUR WEBSITE:
Thank You
www.cicdata.com
CONTACT US:
info@cicdata.com
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