It seems to have been a long standing trend that when travelers from China travel abroad, they often aim for destinations that are friendly to their WeChat app so that they might have the opportunity to impress their friends. However, reports are now showing that this trend looks to be changing according to the key opinion leader agency, also known as the KOL.
The marketing report put out that shows the distribution of the content of social media for about thirty thousand influencers earlier this year, said that Weibo appears to now be the favored method of instant messaging and more. Coming in behind Weibo itself were competitors Douyin and Little Red Book, with WeChat messenger coming in behind all three of those.
Some people are asking the all-important question: What exactly was it that changed to create this shift in usage? WeChat has always been a rival giant all around the world. But users, especially those who travel extensively, seem to choose the features that other competitors in the social media department have to offer users such as these. They have moved from the desire to be a user of the most popular apps, to wanting to be users of the apps that are the most fun and most different to use.
WeChat or Weibo 2018?
Especially during times of holiday travel, everyone attempts to adjust strategies for influencing these users. Everyone from travel partners to luxury retailers prepare strategies for how to get the most out the travel plans of those who will be traveling. Top destinations have the potential for pulling in a great deal of value when it comes to media. Tokyo, for instance, looks to bring in almost twenty million USD, Paris, just over thirteen and a half million USD and finally, Los Angeles, also bringing in over thirteen million USD.
According to some of the posts in which these popular travel destinations were mentioned, it looks like the dominating app talked about the most, was Weibo, again followed by the Douyin app and Little Red Book. And, once again, WeChat was at the bottom of the charts, as far as traveler popularity was concerned.
For those interested in influencing travelers, it is obvious they prefer the larger amount of exposure they will get with Weibo. A post that reached nearly 400,000 people, with an engagement rate of six thousand, only reached just over 100,000 when put out on WeChat.
