Twitter & China in 2009: What We Could See

2008 + Twitter = ?

This isn’t a non-formula if you’re not into Twitter, by the way. You may have missed something big. Especially something that became more and more big last year.

(I was part of it.)

For much of 2008, I’ve been tweeting the year away. I started low — maybe 20 or so followers “only” — and ended with about 805.

Twitter, clearly, was one of the things in the year 2008. There was just so much to tweet about. For China tweeps, we had T!bet, the quake, and #080808. State-side, we had Obama versus McCain and just a great many more. For those following China, we had #china20 and the #cnbloggercon.

So how’s Twitter and China working 2009 out? The two may be more relevant this year (so far) than ever. Here’s more.

The Chinese Media Is Paying More Attention To Twitter

Here are two lists that the Chinese media recently spoke of. Some of them were from Mashable, others were more local. The first list shows how Twitter can make a bigger impact this year:

1. Tweetbacks
2. How often a post has been tweeted about
3. Tweet This
4. Twitter no longer being confined to a sidebar on a blog
5. Twitter comments (a bit like those we see on FriendFeed)
6. BlogTweet feeds
7. Twitter ID field when you leave a comment on a blog
8. TwitterRoll
9. Appearance themes with that Twitter feel

List Two goes on more about why Twitter will go mainstream:

1. More media outlets are taking a look at Twitter
2. News breaks first on Twitter
3. Old tweeters who’ve lost interest are coming back
4. The Obama factor
5. The CNN factor
6. More Twitter apps
7. Twitter finding its way into more and more meetings
8. Twitter can solve your pains (nope, it doesn’t sound that medicinal)
9. More Twitter-related stuff are getting funded
10. Companies are using Twitter more and more a la PR

The Chinese Expat Community Is Tweeting More

Some of the most vibrant tweeters in China aren’t tweeting in the local lingo. We’ve quite a few tweeps who are big in China — and who are tweeting in English:

• @kaiserkuo — mainly tech
• @christinelu — Geek Girl
• @pdenlinger — the self-proclaimed happy pessimist with laughs and insights no less
• @wolfgroupasia — Beijing insights to impress
• @ajschokora — with a unique eye on the Chinese Internet
• @Richardphx — the tweeter behind the Peking Duck
• @lonniehodge — connecting culture and being a Mensch
• @daygan — did this guy start one of the earliest Twitter-based cafés?
• @FonsTuinstra — an insightful, (positively) harmonious look at China
• @danwei — top authority for the English-speaking PRC intelligentsia 2.0
• @winserzhao — more than just a traveller
• @marcvanderchijs — Dutch entrepreneur and angel investor in Shanghai
• @BeijingBoyce — a real connaisseur of bars and places like that

It’s OK if you don’t do the local lingo. Just hang around with these tweeting A-listers in the PRC to get a gist. Then, armed with your crash course in Chinese, follow The Bigs in Mandarin — @isaac and @thecarol are good starts.

Obstacles To Overcome

To get Twitter in the mainstream, some things just have to go. Here’s a few to throw out into the arena:

• First, Twitter in China has got to grow more to just being a “dialog box” app that asks users “What are you doing?”. As is the case in places more State-side, people in Twitter update what’s up in their lives — but none of those tweets often feel like an answer to some odd question out there. (At least that describes my Subway tweets.)

• Twitter in China is still perceived by the locals as “boredmedia”. There are still quite a number of around-18 tweeters who think classes are super-boring and thus happily tweet away from the classroom. That’s fine, but it’s not exactly what will make Twitter the thing in China that does stuff like — for example, break the news about the Wenchuan earthquake.

• The worst thing about Twitter is the fact that there’s no Chinese interface. (I’ve @messaged @ev about this, offering to do a Chinese interface — free if they really are short on the cash; no replies, however. Odd.) Twitter’s only going to see better days if it speaks the lingo of 1.3 billion — or OK, nearly 300 million (at least).

• Finally, we’re hoping for minimal (zero, best!) interference from The Powers That Be. We’ve had quite a few accounts shut down in China (or “harmonized”); to let grassroots media grow, the Net Nanny’s got to go — or to show a lot more restraint in what she wants to be doing.

Having said that, though, 2009 could be the year where Twitter seeps into the mainstream in places like the US. In China, though, Twitter could see a massive leap forward if the microblogging platform is given enough to grow with.

Look for more from me — @DavidFeng — as I share my Twips (Twitter tips) in an upcoming post. Getting more followers? You might want to check that post out.