Although the United States dominates in social media, there four emerging social media markets in the world that you’ll want to keep an eye on: BRIC Countries.
What are BRIC countries? Brazil, Russia, India and China. They’re grouped together because they are “all deemed to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development.” (Pardon the Wikipedia reference.)
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Mixi, the most popular Japanese social network, is offering a new birthday gift service. A user will be able to send a gift to a friend with minimal effort – you just choose who you want to send the gift to, make the payment and it’s done. The user will receive a message that a birthday gift has been sent from a friend, and they confirm their home address.
Sina Weibo, the Twitter of China, is now charging members for premium features, and the success may hint at a possible monetization model for Twitter itself – although it seems unlikely. Sina Weibo is making the move after they posted a $13.7m loss for its first quarter in May. The new services will allow for greater personalization, mobile access and security and will carry a monthly fee of 10 RMB ($1.57).
It’s easy to assume that America is the hub of world social media — especially considering the origins of Facebook — but the truth is that recent surveys of Chinese Internet users have shown that 95% of them use social networks, putting it on track to become the biggest social media savvy country in the world. Sites like Qzone, Renren and Kaixin 001 have taken off like wildfire in the country. Part of their eager appetite could be due to the fact that China is notorious for controlling state media, so the idea of a network where you can express your own views is very attractive.



