Cultural differences in microblogging: How Western IT Companies adapt Twitter (X) activities to the Chinese Weibo context

Figures & data

Table

Content category	Description
Corporate communication
Community relations	The company engages proactively with users, promoting relationships and creating a sense of community, for example using bonding messages (e.g., greetings), entertainment information (e.g., jokes, games), or announcements of offline activities (e.g., games, exhibits).
CSR	The company provides information about activities aimed at making a positive impact on the world (e.g., protecting the environment, supporting charity).
Research and development	The company provides news about new technologies, presents its latest innovations, or releases research findings from its labs or R&D center.
Business insights	The company shares insights about business management and operations (e.g., how to solve business challenges, build credibility, or improve customer loyalty).
Partner relations	The company provides information about its alliances (e.g., suppliers, service providers) and collaborations (e.g., joint product development).
Human resources	The company provides information for employees (e.g., employee achievements, career development) or potential employees (e.g., recruitment, employer rankings).
Corporate achievements	The company provides information about achievements or company awards (e.g., a high ranking on the Fortune list, stakeholders recognition).
Government relations	The company tries to influence or persuade government officials or lawmakers to change or maintain public policy and legislation.
Crisis communication	The company responds in times of threats, crises, and unforeseen circumstances.
Technical communication
Information on specialized topics	The company informs people about technological developments and their implications (e.g., technological concepts, tips and tricks, programming knowledge).
User instructions	The company provides procedural and operational information about using products (e.g., installation, troubleshooting, practical applications).
Updates and feedback	The company provides information about product updates, errors and warning information, or asks for product feedback or reviews.
Marketing communication
Commercial advertising	The company provides product information (e.g., quality, price, functionality, design) to persuade people to buy it.
Successful business cases	The company describes in detail how its products or services help customers to solve problems or make profit.
Product launch	The company provides information about the release of new products.
Sales promotion	The company provides short-term incentives to stimulate the purchase of products or services (e.g., discounts, free trials, coupons).
Word-of-mouth	The company broadcasts positive reviews by others (e.g., customers, professional agents) praising its products and services in order to encourage people to buy.
Corporate and technical communication	The company shares business and management strategies and discusses latest technologies.
Corporate, technical and marketing communication	The company shares business and management strategies, discusses latest technologies, and promotes its products or services.

Table 1. Overview of the corpus: microblog accounts and posts.

Platform	Company	Number of accounts	Number of microblogs in week 1	Number of microblogs in week 2	Total number of microblogs
Twitter	IBM	38	1651 (31%)	1315 (25%)	2966 (56%)
	Microsoft	39	636 (12%)	773 (15%)	1409 (27%)
	HP	18	212 (4%)	323 (6%)	535 (10%)
	Intel	13	221 (4%)	146 (3%)	367 (7%)
	Total	108	2720 (52%)	2557 (48%)	5277 (100%)
Weibo	IBM	5	15 (3%)	14 (3%)	29 (5%)
	Microsoft	14	155 (29%)	137 (25%)	292 (54%)
	HP	8	41 (8%)	48 (9%)	89 (16%)
	Intel	8	52 (10%)	81 (15%)	133 (24%)
	Total	35	263 (48%)	280 (52%)	543 (100%)
Weibo	Huawei	22	346 (22%)	314 (20%)	660 (43%)
	Lenovo	19	93 (6%)	124 (8%)	217 (14%)
	Xiaomi	21	297 (19%)	293 (19%)	590 (38%)
	ZTE	10	70 (5%)	4 (0%)	74 (5%)
	Total	75	806 (52%)	735 (48%)	1541 (100%)

Table 2. Overview of different Twitter and Weibo accounts.

Type of account	Western companies on Twitter	Western companies on Weibo	Chinese companies on Weibo
Service and products	51 (47%)	16 (46%)	56 (75%)
Stakeholders	20 (19%)	3 (9%)	6 (8%)
News	7 (6%)	0 (0%)	1 (1%)
Region and policy	6 (6%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
CSR	5 (5%)	1 (3%)	1 (0%)
Main	5 (5%)	5 (14%)	4 (4%)
Human resources	4 (4%)	3 (9%)	3 (4%)
User support	4 (4%)	4 (11%)	3 (4%)
Lab and research	3 (3%)	3 (9%)	1 (1%)
Technical documentation	2 (2%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
Events	1 (1%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
Total	108 (100%)	35 (100%)	75 (100%)

Table 3. Content of microblogs.

Type of content	Western companies on Twitter	Western companies on Weibo	Chinese companies on Weibo
Corporate communication	1827 (35%)	238 (44%)	797 (52%)
Community relations	473 (9%)	144 (27%)	605 (39%)
CSR	351 (7%)	11 (2%)	14 (1%)
Research and development	310 (6%)	40 (7%)	37 (2%)
Business insights	250 (5%)	9 (2%)	18 (1%)
Partner relations	176 (3%)	9 (2%)	29 (2%)
Human resources	122 (2%)	10 (2%)	15 (1%)
Corporate achievements	83 (2%)	15 (3%)	76 (5%)
Government relations	62 (1%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
Crisis communication	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	4 (0%)
Technical communication	1604 (30%)	172 (32%)	174 (11%)
Information on specialized topics	478 (9%)	54 (10%)	21 (1%)
User instructions	962 (18%)	106 (20%)	142 (9%)
Updates and feedback	164 (3%)	12 (2%)	8 (1%)
Marketing communication	1009 (19%)	101 (19%)	540 (35%)
Commercial advertising	507 (10%)	41 (8%)	130 (8%)
Successful business cases	286 (5%)	3 (1%)	21 (1%)
Sales promotion	71 (1%)	24 (4%)	119 (8%)
Word of mouth	59 (1%)	5 (1%)	36 (2%)
Product launch	86 (2%)	28 (5%)	236 (15%)
Corporate and technical communication	325 (6%)	18 (3%)	18 (1%)
Corporate, marketing, and technical communication	512 (10%)	14 (3%)	12 (1%)
Total	5277 (100%)	543 (100%)	1541 (100%)

Table 4. Message elements in microblogs.

Message elements	Western companies on Twitter	Western companies on Weibo	Chinese companies on Weibo	Chi-square test comparing the three groups
Hyperlinks	3600 (89%)	236 (44%)	340 (22%)	χ^2 = 2415.4*
Hashtags (#)	3530 (87%)	259 (48%)	1118 (73%)	χ^2 = 510.4*
Mentions (@)	1043 (26%)	39 (7%)	284 (19%)	χ^2 = 110.1*
Visuals	3112 (77%)	329 (61%)	938 (61%)	χ^2 = 160.6*
Video	297 (7%)	71 (13%)	135 (9%)	χ^2 = 22.7*
Emojis	353 (9%)	158 (29%)	806 (53%)	χ^2 = 1291.5*
Total	4068 (100%)	540 (100%)	1536 (100%)

Note: This analysis was limited to original microblogs; reposts were excluded.

*p < .001.

Table 5. Communication strategies used in microblogs.

Communication strategies	Western companies on Twitter	Western companies on Weibo	Chinese companies on Weibo
Information	2823 (53%)	248 (46%)	531 (34%)
Action	2062(39%)	179 (33%)	596 (39%)
Promoting events	768 (15%)	19 (3%)	95 (6%)
Selling products or services	655 (12%)	68 (13%)	191 (12%)
Providing instructions	478 (9%)	72 (13%)	28 (2%)
Offering downloads or updates	149 (3%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
Calling for feedback	12 (0%)	0 (0%)	1 (0%)
Sweepstake	0 (0%)	20 (4%)	285 (18%)
Community	392 (7%)	116 (21%)	414 (27%)
Response solicitation	352 (7%)	105 (19%)	366 (24%)
Responding to mentions	40 (1%)	11 (2%)	43 (3%)
Total	5277 (100%)	543 (100%)	1541 (100%)

Table 6. Summary of the findings.

Aspect	Research finding	Western-Chinese difference	Cultural adaptation by Western companies
Accounts	Western-T companies have more microblogging accounts than Chinese-W companies; Western-W companies have the fewest accounts	Possible explanation: evolving business practices	No adaptation; more likely caused by the foreign context
	Chinese-W companies’ accounts are less diverse (more product-oriented) than Western-T and Western-W companies’ accounts	Confirms Wu et al. (2016); contradicts Men and Tsai (2012) and Zhang, Tao, and Kim (2014)	No adaptation
Content	Compared to Western-T companies, Chinese-W companies pay more attention to community relations; Western-W companies take in-between position	Connects to Hofstede’s individualism-collectivism dimension; confirms Men and Tsai (2012) and Zhang, Tao, and Kim (2014)	Adaptation
	Compared to Western-T and Western-W companies, Chinese-W companies pay less attention to CSR and business insights	Possible explanations: less of a CSR tradition and stronger competitiveness	Adaptation (or alternative explanation)
	Compared to Western-T and Western-W companies, Chinese-W companies are less likely to share research & development information	Possible explanations: stronger competitiveness and less technological profile	No adaptation
	Compared to Western-T and Western-W companies, Chinese-W companies focus considerably less on technical communication	Possible explanations: less technological profile and technical communication discipline only emerging	No adaptation
	Compared to Western-T and Western-W companies, Chinese-W companies pay more attention to marketing communication	Confirms Wu et al. (2016); contradicts Men and Tsai (2012) and Zhang, Tao, and Kim (2014)	No adaptation
	Compared to Western-T companies, Chinese-W companies’ marketing communication focuses more on sales promotion and product launches; Western-W companies take an in-between position	Possible explanation: different marketing eco-systems	Cautious adaptation
Message elements	Compared to Western-T companies, Chinese-W companies use fewer hyperlinks; Western-W companies take an in-between position	Confirms Men and Tsai (2012) and Wu et al. (2016)	Cautious adaption (or alternative explanation)
	Compared to Western-T companies, Chinese-W companies user fewer hashtags and mentions; Western-W companies use the fewest hashtags and mentions	Confirms Florenthal and Chao (2016b) and Wu et al. (2016)	Adaptation (or alternative explanation)
	Compared to Western-T companies, Chinese-W and Western-W companies use fewer visuals	Contradicts Wang, Huang, and Pérez-Ríos (2020) and Wu et al. (2016)	Adaptation (or alternative explanation)
	Compared to Western-T and Chinese-W companies, Western-W companies use more videos		Relative prominence due to fewer microblogs in foreign context
	Compared to Western-T companies, Chinese-W companies use more emojis; Western-W companies take an in-between position	Confirms Wang, Huang, and Pérez-Ríos (2020), Wu and Li (2018), and Zhang, Tao, and Kim (2014)	Cautious adaptation
Communication strategies	Compared to Western-T companies, Chinese-W companies focus less on providing information; Western-W companies take an in-between position	Confirms Florenthal and Chao (2016a, 2016b), Huang et al. (2017), Waters and Lo (2012), and Wu and Li (2018)	Cautious adaptation
	Compared to Western-T and Western-W companies, Chinese-W companies provide fewer user instructions	Possible explanations: less technological profile and technical communication discipline only emerging	No adaptation
	Compared to Western-T companies, Chinese-W companies pay less attention to events promotion; Western-W companies provide the least attention to events	Possible explanation: different marketing eco-system	No adaptation; more likely caused by the foreign context
	Compared to Western-T companies, Chinese-W companies include more sweepstakes; Western-W companies take an in-between position	Possible explanation: different marketing eco-system	Cautious adaptation
	Compared to Western-T companies, Chinese-W companies put more emphasis on community strategies; Western-W companies take an in-between position	Connects to Hofstede’s individualism-collectivism dimension; confirms Florenthal and Chao (2016a, 2016b), Huang et al. (2017), Waters and Lo (2012), and Wu and Li (2018)	Adaptation

Note: Western-T: Western companies on Twitter; Western-W: Western companies on Weibo; Chinese-W: Chinese companies on Weibo.

Wu, W., M. Clark, B. Kang, and M. Fine. 2016. The use of Sina Weibo and Twitter by international luxury hotels. Tourism Culture & Communication 16 (3):137–45. doi: 10.3727/109830416X14750895902837.

 Google Scholar

Men, L. R., and W.-H S. Tsai. 2012. How companies cultivate relationships with publics on social network sites. Evidence from China and the United States. Public Relations Review 38 (5):723–30. doi: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.10.006.

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Zhang, X., W. Tao, and S. Kim. 2014. A comparative study on global brands’ micro blogs between China and USA: Focusing on communication styles and branding strategies. International Journal of Strategic Communication 8 (4):231–49. doi: 10.1080/1553118X.2014.886251.

 Google Scholar

Florenthal, B., and M. C.-H. Chao. 2016b. A comparison of global companies’ performance on Twitter and Weibo. International Journal of Business Environment 8 (3):242–64. doi: 10.1504/IJBE.2016.10000548.

 Google Scholar

Wang, R., S. Huang, and N. G. Pérez-Ríos. 2020. Multinational luxury brands’ communication strategies on international and local social media: Comparing Twitter and Weibo. Journal of International Consumer Marketing 32 (4):313–23. doi: 10.1080/08961530.2019.1710736.

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Wu, D. D., and C. Li. 2018. Emotional branding on social media: A cross-cultural discourse analysis of global brands on Twitter and Weibo. In Intercultural communication in Asia: Education, language and values, ed. A. Curtis and R. Sussex, 225–40. Cham: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-69995-0_11.

 Google Scholar

Florenthal, B., and M. C.-H. Chao. 2016a. A cross-cultural comparison of a global brand’s strategies on micro-blogging sites: Sina Weibo vs. Twitter. International Journal of Online Marketing 6 (4):54–72. doi: 10.4018/IJOM.2016100104.

 Google Scholar

Huang, H., S., K. W. Chu, L. Y. Liu, and P. Y. Zheng. 2017. Understanding user-librarian interaction types in academic library microblogging: A comparison study in Twitter and Weibo. The Journal of Academic Librarianship 43 (4):329–36. doi: 10.1016/j.acalib.2017.06.002.

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Waters, R. D., and K. D. Lo. 2012. Exploring the impact of culture in the social media sphere: A content analysis of nonprofit organizations’ use of Facebook. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research 41 (3):297–319. doi: 10.1080/17475759.2012.728772.

 Google Scholar