Introduction to Chinese Social Media Platforms

This year marks the 30th anniversary of China's connection to the internet. Today, China not only has the largest number of internet users in the world, but the growth rate has nearly doubled compared to a decade ago. China's e-commerce sector has also expanded significantly, growing from less than 1% of the global market ten years ago to now accounting for over 30%, making it the world's largest e-commerce market.

However, since the late 1990s, China has implemented an internet content censorship system known as the "Great Firewall." This system blocks and restricts access to certain foreign websites and resources. Since 2000, these measures have become increasingly systematic and widespread. While Chinese internet users often use VPNs and other tools to bypass the Great Firewall, this practice is illegal in mainland China. As a result, the internet within mainland China has developed into a distinct and separate ecosystem from the rest of the world. International internet users' understanding of China is largely shaped by official media, with little direct insight into the daily lives of ordinary Chinese citizens. Similarly, Chinese internet users have limited access to information about the lives of people abroad.

Flyingcat.es aims to bridge this gap by encouraging foreign content creators, especially knowledge creators, to share their wisdom on Chinese social media platforms while also protecting their original content. In the past, Chinese internet users would often find high-quality educational content on platforms like YouTube, download it, and re-upload it to domestic platforms. While this method allowed Chinese users to benefit from the content, it violated copyright laws and infringed on the rights of the original creators. Additionally, these re-uploaders were often motivated by financial gain, and if they didn't achieve the expected profits, they might abandon their efforts, leading to a disruption in the availability of educational content. Moreover, many re-uploaders accessed these videos by illegally bypassing the Great Firewall, further complicating the sustainability of this practice.

To address these issues, Flyingcat.es invites and encourages foreign creators to share their original content with China's hundreds of millions of internet users while actively supporting and protecting their intellectual property rights and economic interests, aiming for a win-win situation.

This series of articles will provide a brief introduction to the major content creation platforms in mainland China, along with their monetization channels and rules.