3 Social Media Trends in the Auto Industry in China
When it comes to car shopping, social media sites clearly became a major influencer in a buyer’s decision making process. This report looks at the trend in auto industry contents on Chinese social network platform, Weibo. 19 select auto companies have sought to boost reputation via social media, and identifies the key trends that came out of 2017.
Trend 1. Topics

The chart above demonstrates the frequencies of the post related to 19 automobile brands. On certain dates, some brands are mentioned more than 20,000 times on Weibo. Why were people discussing about the brand on that day? And what topics do people like to discuss about? MeasureChina’s solution collects all the contents and shows the most engaged posts of the day. On the day of the first peak on the chart(on the beginning of February, 2017), China’s popular automobile brand, Geely released a new model. The news went viral online and got posted almost 20,000 times. Another Chinese popular automobile brand, BYD brought electronic bus to the road on the beginning of April and made up the green peak on the chart. Korean automobile brand, KIA’s revenue growth made up the orange peak at the end of July. Other peaks were about new energy car and new model release related news. So the topics that gets viral on Weibo are new car model release, new energy car, and sales growth of a brand.
Trend 2. Popular Brands

Which brands are most demanded on social network in China? The chart above shows the number of mentions from January 1st to August 21st, 2017. The oldest Chinese automobile brand, Hongqi ranks number one with 462,793 mentions, KIA, automobile company from Korea ranks number two with 265,856 mentions, and BYD, the best-selling automobile brand for electric vehicle ranks number two with 206,859 mentions.
Trend 3. Keywords
Why are the three brands mentioned so frequently online? Here are the most frequently mentioned keywords on the posts related to the brand.

Hongqi: Center, Kilometer, Bus, Network, Plan, China

KIA: Hyundai, driver, new, find, china, korea, white

BYD: electronic, new energy, cloud track, kilometer, bus, factory, MAX
Do you have any insights on content marketing in China? Share them in the comments below.
