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

Abstract

Companies worldwide use microblogs to communicate with stakeholders, but there may be cultural differences in how they do it. A content analysis was conducted comparing Twitter (currently known as X) and Weibo accounts of four Western IT companies; Weibo accounts of four similar Chinese companies served as benchmarks. Results show that Western microblog activities differed in many respects from Chinese practices. Specifically, they focused more on technology and less on marketing and community-building. In their localization strategies, Western companies chose to adapt (e.g., paying attention to community building), not adapt (e.g., keeping their technological profile), or cautiously adapt (e.g., using somewhat more emojis or reluctantly experimenting with sweepstakes). Cultural differences on microblogging platforms are comprehensive and multifaceted and cannot be easily reduced to established cultural dimensions. Processes of cultural adaptation, therefore, depend on profound knowledge of the business environment and cultural differences.

Keywords:

• Cross-cultural communication
• cultural differences
• localization
• microblogging
• X (Twitter)
• Weibo

Introduction

In our digitalized world, social networking sites (SNSs) have become important channels for companies to build and maintain stakeholder relationships, promote products, and provide services. When people need information about companies, brands, or products, they tend to use SNSs more often than websites (Men and Tsai 2014). A comprehensive study of the evolution of Twitter shows that the importance of microblogging for companies increased substantially between 2006 and 2021, both in terms of the corporate use of Twitter and in terms of user engagement (Al Guindy, Naughton, and Riordan 2024).

The popularity of SNSs helps companies to reach stakeholders beyond national borders. However, international communication also comes with challenges. SNS content may be affected by cultural differences (Capriotti and Ruesja 2018; Prakash and Majumdar 2021) and companies must balance between overall consistency and culturally appropriate content (De Mooij 2014). Customizing communication may be important to appeal to specific international markets (Florenthal and Chao 2016b; Men and Tsai 2012; Tsai and Men 2017). Carefully considering cultural differences may contribute to users’ appreciation of posts (Liu, Tsai, and Tao 2020) and might even enhance business performance (Shi and Xu 2020). Knowing how companies use global and local platforms in international settings is an important step toward effective cross-cultural communication on SNSs.

This study focuses on Western companies’ activities on two microblogging platforms: Twitter (currently known as X) and Sina Weibo (Weibo hereafter). Twitter is the most prominent microblogging platform worldwide; Weibo is its Chinese counterpart. Microblogging involves real-time dissemination of short messages, consisting of at the most 280 (Twitter) or 2000 (Weibo) characters. Text may be replaced by or complemented with elements such as visuals, video, audio, hyperlinks, or emojis. Both platforms facilitate immediate and interactive communication and are thus suitable for effectively disseminating information and building stakeholder relationships (Potts and Jones 2011). The similarity of the two isolated platforms offers opportunities to study cross-cultural differences in companies’ SNS presence and the way Western companies try to adapt their SNS activities to the Chinese market (Han et al. 2016).

This article describes a content analysis comparing how four large Western IT companies use Twitter and Weibo and how their adaptations relate to the way four similar Chinese IT companies use Weibo. We focused on large IT companies, because they may be assumed to have more advanced social media usage than other industries (Culnan, McHugh, and Zubillaga 2010; Veldeman, van Praet, and Mechant 2017). We aimed at a comprehensive analysis of their microblogging practices, comprising numbers and types of accounts and three message characteristics (content, message elements, and communication strategies). By doing so, we answered two research questions: (1) How do Western and Chinese IT companies differ in their use of microblogging? (2) How do Western IT companies localize their microblogging activities from Twitter to Weibo?

Literature review

Research confirms that companies can benefit from microblogging. Twitter/X and Weibo are low-cost channels with enormous user bases, capable of delivering timely information and reducing information asymmetry (Prokofieva 2015; Zu, Diao, and Meng 2019) and strengthening the relationship customers have with products, brands, and companies (Laroche, Habibi, and Richard 2013). Accounts on both platforms may enhance companies’ financial performance (Crawford et al. 2024; Majumdar and Bose 2019; Zu, Diao, and Meng 2019) and stock market value (Dong et al. 2018; Kim and Youm 2017).

Two types of research on companies’ usage of Twitter and Weibo can be distinguished: monocultural studies and cross-cultural comparisons. Most monocultural research focused on Twitter; research on Weibo is scarcer. We will first discuss monocultural findings on Twitter and then take them as a starting point for discussing monocultural research on Weibo and cross-cultural comparisons.

Monocultural studies on companies’ use of Twitter

Companies’ use of Twitter has been extensively studied in Western contexts (Olanrewaju et al. 2020). Research focused strongly on message characteristics, specifically on content, message elements, and communication strategies. Content-wise, most studies analyzed specific communication domains, such as corporate social responsibility (Araujo and Kollat 2018; Gomez and Vargas-Preciado 2016), customer services (Berry 2018; Einwiller and Steilen 2015; Page 2014), public affairs (Gaither and Austin 2016; Watts, Hefler, and Freeman 2019), or health promotion (Park, Rodgers, and Stemmle 2013). Zhang, Gosselt, and de Jong (2020) gave a comprehensive overview of the types of content IT companies post on Twitter, covering a variety of topics within the domains of corporate, marketing, and technical communication. Zhang, de Jong, and Gosselt (2022b) further refined this by distinguishing between two communication domains: technical communication vs. marketing and corporate communication. In general terms, the research shows that Twitter is used to communicate about a wide variety of content, overarching and sometimes merging original communication traditions.

Regarding message elements, research showed that tweets consisting of plain text are rare; most company tweets contain visuals, hyperlinks, or hashtags (e.g., Lovejoy, Waters, and Saxton 2012; Zhang, de Jong, and Gosselt 2022b; Zhang, Gosselt, and de Jong 2020). Emojis are seldom used (Waters and Jamal 2011; Zhang, de Jong, and Gosselt 2022b; Zhang, Gosselt, and de Jong 2020).

Regarding communication strategies, the main discussion involves the extent to which companies try to benefit from the interactive and engaging affordances offered by Twitter. Findings suggest that companies still predominantly disseminate information on Twitter, without fully utilizing more engaging possibilities like establishing dialogue, calling for action, and building communities (Gomez and Vargas-Preciado 2016; Lovejoy and Saxton 2012; Rybalko and Seltzer 2010; Shin, Pang, and Kim 2015; Zhang, Gosselt, and de Jong 2020). However, research into the effects of more interactive approaches produced mixed results: Compared to one-way information provision, some studies found positive effects on users’ online engagement (e.g., Araujo and Kollat 2018; Luarn, Lin, and Chiu 2015), while others found no or even negative effects (e.g., Watkins 2017; Zhang, de Jong, and Gosselt 2022a, 2022b).

One study investigated companies’ use of multiple Twitter accounts (Zhang, Gosselt, and de Jong 2020). Literature suggests that using different Twitter accounts might help companies in addressing different stakeholder groups (Jansen et al. 2009; Li, Berens, and de Maertelaere 2013). Zhang, Gosselt, and de Jong (2020) found that companies indeed host many different accounts and arrange them meaningfully using three basic principles: a focus on products, explicit stakeholder labels, and conventional content areas.

Monocultural studies on the corporate use of Weibo

Fewer studies investigated how companies use Weibo. In line with Twitter research, studies on message characteristics concentrated on content, communication strategies, and message elements, with largely comparable results. Regarding content, research focused on the use of Weibo for marketing and promotion purposes, specifically in the cultural (Chen et al. 2020; Li and Duan 2018), health (Song et al. 2019), and nonprofit sectors (Tian et al. 2021). Comprehensive overviews of Weibo content are not available. Regarding message elements, Chen and Fu (2016) found that corporate Weibos rarely consist of only text, but Gao (2016) found that the possibilities of adding videos, visuals, hyperlinks, and hashtags are not optimally used by many Chinese nonprofit organizations. Zhou and Pan (2016) reported that emojis served to engage users. Concerning communication strategies, research showed that information sharing is prevalent on Weibo as well (Gao 2016; Zhou and Pan 2016).

No empirical findings are available on how Chinese companies use multiple Weibo accounts. Research by Jin and Huang (2017), however, confirmed that having different corporate accounts enhances people’s microblog identification, especially for well-known companies.

Cross-cultural studies comparing Twitter and Weibo

Two types of cross-cultural studies can be distinguished. The first is deductive, testing whether cultural differences established in existing theoretical frameworks can be identified when comparing Twitter and Weibo. These studies use existing frameworks of cultural dimensions as a starting point. The most prominent framework available is Hofstede’s (Hofstede 2001; Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov 2010) six cultural dimensions:

• High vs. low power distance: the extent to which people accept and expect hierarchy and unequal distributions of power.

• Individualism vs. collectivism: The extent to which people prefer a loose network in which they shape their individual lives or a tight network in which they care for each other.

• Masculinity vs. femininity: The extent to which people value either competition and achievement or cooperation, quality of life, and care.

• High vs. low uncertainty avoidance: The extent to which people feel comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity.

• Long-term vs. short-term orientation: The extent to which people are future-oriented (valuing thrift, change, and education) or stick to old traditions.

• Indulgence vs. restraint: The extent to which people value enjoying life’s pleasures or the regulation of such pleasures with strict social norms.

A basic assumption underlying Hofstede’s dimensions is that differences in values are at the core of cultural differences. Another prominent cultural dimension, that explicitly focuses on communication characteristics, is Hall’s (1976) distinction between high- and low-context cultures. In high-context cultures, messages remain implicit (with much information being part of the context or internalized in the people); in low-context cultures, messages tend to be explicit and direct. The potential relevance of these dimensions for social media research has been demonstrated in various studies (Le and Duong 2020; Wang, Huang, and Pérez-Ríos 2020; Xu and Duan 2023).

Wang, Huang, and Pérez-Ríos (2020) analyzed multinational luxury brands’ communication strategies on Twitter and Weibo. They found a clear impact of culture, particularly regarding Hofstede’s dimensions of collectivism-individualism and indulgence-restraint. On Twitter, with its diverse cultural environment, luxury brands tried to be neutral and inclusive. On Weibo, situated in the more collectivistic and restrained Chinese culture, luxury brands not only connected more to collectivistic values but also appealed more to individualism and indulgence, which reflects the nature of luxury goods. Xu and Duan (2023) used cultural dimensions to analyze how a U.S. auto company localized its online presence on Weibo. They found evidence in the expected direction for all of the dimensions included in their study (collectivism-individualism, power distance, and high-low context).

A deductive approach has the advantage of building on a demarcated body of theoretical insights. A possible drawback is that differences between microblogging platforms in reality might depend on more than just the selected cultural dimensions. Different sets of cultural dimensions, such as Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1993), include different perspectives on culture. And in practice differences may emerge that do not clearly relate to any of the existing cultural dimensions (Li, de Jong, and Karreman 2020).

The second research type, in contrast, is inductive, comparing specific aspects of microblogs and trying to tie findings to theoretical notions afterward. Below, we will discuss the comparative findings for the three message characteristics.

Content

Research comparing the content of corporate microblogs predominantly focused on marketing and corporate communication. The main discussion involved the prevalence of corporate/product-related vs. corporate/product-unrelated content. Different studies led to different conclusions. Zhang, Tao, and Kim (2014) compared global brands’ use of Twitter and Weibo, finding that brands posted more product-related promotional content on Twitter and more relationship-oriented content on Weibo. These findings confirmed earlier research by Men and Tsai (2012) who compared companies’ use of Facebook and Renren: They also found that Western companies generally posted content directly related to their products and corporate achievements, whereas Chinese companies posted more educating and entertaining messages, including posts that seemed completely irrelevant to the company or its products. Such differences may be framed in terms of low-context vs. high-context cultures: In (Western) low-context cultures, people are used to direct forms of communication; in high-context cultures, such as China, communication tends to be more indirect, aiming for long-term relationships rather than explicitly trying to immediately persuade people (Hall 1976).

One study, however, had the opposite findings. Comparing luxury hotels’ use of Twitter and Weibo, Wu et al. (2016) found that Weibo was more often used for advertising and sales promotion than Twitter, which might reflect the fast developments of online commerce in China. Other studies found that companies used similar strategies on both platforms. Li and Wu (2018) compared how top global brands try to build positive images on Twitter and Weibo, finding that companies on both platforms put more effort into building interpersonal relationships with the public than in providing corporate information and calling attention to accomplishments. Ngai, Einwiller, and Singh (2020) compared how global companies from China and Germany used Weibo, finding that Chinese and German companies posted similar proportions of content on products/services, corporate achievement, and relationship building. These findings suggest an accelerated globalization of corporate practice and an emergence of a global corporate culture.

Message elements

Research found that companies in China use more non-textual cues on SNSs than Western companies do, including emojis (Wang, Huang, and Pérez-Ríos 2020; Wu and Li 2018; Zhang, Tao, and Kim 2014) and visuals (Wang, Huang, and Pérez-Ríos 2020; Wu et al. 2016). A possible explanation is that Chinese people have a stronger visual orientation than Western people (Li, de Jong, and Karreman 2020), which might be attributed to their pictographic script (Wang and Wang 2009) or their high-context culture. Zhang, Tao, and Kim (2014) suggested that differences between both platforms might also play a role: Weibo offers considerably more different emojis than Twitter does. Western companies, on the other hand, appeared to use more hyperlinks (Men and Tsai 2012; Wu et al. 2016), hashtags (Wu et al. 2016), and mentions (Florenthal and Chao 2016b; Wu et al. 2016), This might reflect the difference between high-context and low-context culture: Hyperlinks, hashtags, and mentions can be seen as explicit text elements, which makes them more suitable for low-context cultures (Kim, Coyle, and Gould 2009).

However, familiarity with the platform and embedding in the platform’s context might influence the use of message elements. Florenthal and Chao (2016b) compared Western and Chinese companies’ use of message elements on Weibo and Twitter, finding that companies outperformed their counterparts on their home platform: Chinese companies used more interactive elements on Weibo than Western companies, whereas Western companies used more interactive elements on Twitter than Chinese.

Communication strategies

Regarding the use of communication strategies, research revealed different levels of engagement and interaction. Chinese companies were found to be more interactive than Western companies (Florenthal and Chao 2016a, 2016b; Huang et al. 2017; Waters and Lo 2012; Wu and Li 2018). They more often solicited feedback, requested action, and tried to develop a sense of community. This might be attributed to differences between individualistic and collectivist cultures. Individualistic Western cultures value individual expression more; social media are predominantly used to distribute information, aiming at increasing popularity and attracting followers. In China, social media usage can be seen as a form of collectivist behavior, aimed at promoting togetherness, harmony, and interpersonal relationships (Florenthal and Chao 2016b; Li and Wu 2018; Yuan 2019).

Method

We used content analysis to answer our research questions. We systematically analyzed how Western IT companies use Twitter and Weibo, with comparable Chinese IT companies’ usage of Weibo as a benchmark. We used coding schemes from earlier research on companies’ use of Twitter (Zhang, Gosselt, and de Jong 2020) and communication strategies (Lovejoy and Saxton 2012). To ensure the reliability of our findings, we included inter-coder reliability assessment in our procedure. We will elaborate on these elements below.

Corpus

This study compares three kinds of corporate microblogging accounts: Western Twitter accounts, Western Weibo accounts, and Chinese Weibo accounts. For Western companies, we selected four of the top 10 Fortune 500 Technology and Telecommunications Companies, excluding online stores (Amazon), social media companies (Facebook), and companies without accounts (Apple). To analyze companies’ arrangement of different accounts, we required that each company needed to have at least ten different accounts. The companies that met all inclusion criteria were HP, IBM, Intel, and Microsoft. For Chinese companies, we selected four similar companies with global counterparts from China’s Top 100 Electronic Information Companies. Using the same selection criteria as for the Western companies, we selected Huawei, Lenovo, Xiaomi, and ZTE.

We gathered all Twitter and Weibo accounts of the Western companies and all Weibo accounts of the Chinese companies. The results were then filtered using the “account/people” tab to ensure that only company-owned accounts were included. Not all accounts could be verified as official company accounts. Only unverified accounts that systematically posted official company information and included a link to the company website were included. To set aside national, regional, and cultural variations, we excluded Twitter accounts aiming at specific countries (e.g., “Microsoft India”) and Weibo accounts aiming at specific provinces or regions (e.g. “Huawei Jiangsu”).

Tweets and Weibos often contained links to external materials. As such links help to explain microblog content, we followed each link, read its material, and included its content in the analysis.

Data for both platforms were collected in two weeks: January 10–16, 2018 and April 18–24, 2018. All tweets and Weibos posted during these two weeks were included in the corpus. In total, we analyzed 5277 tweets and 543 Weibos by Western companies, and 1541 Weibos by Chinese companies, accounting for a total of 7361 microblogs (see Table 1).

Coding scheme

A coding scheme was constructed with three main categories, based on and adapted from previous research. For the microblog content, we used the comprehensive framework by Zhang, Gosselt, and de Jong (2020) as a starting point. The framework consists of three main categories (corporate, marketing, and technical communication), possible combinations of these categories (e.g., corporate and technical communication; corporate, marketing, and technical communication), and 18 subcategories (see Appendix A).

For message elements, we focused on deviations from plain text, distinguishing the following features: hyperlinks, hashtags (#), mentions (@), visuals, videos, and emojis.

For communication strategies, we used the framework developed by Lovejoy and Saxton (2012), consisting of three main categories (information, action, and community) and eleven subcategories. We used the subcategories as a starting point but inductively created new subcategories when needed.

Inter-coder reliability

Two coders coded a random sample of 150 microblogs independently. Each microblog was coded for its content, message elements, and communication strategy. After two rounds of coding, Cohen’s kappas were 0.88 for content, 0.92 for message elements, and 0.87 for communication strategies.

Results

Below, we will first discuss the way the companies arranged multiple microblog accounts. We will then analyze the characteristics of all microblogs (content, message elements, and communication strategies).

Number and types of corporate microblog accounts

Table 2 gives an overview of all microblog accounts found. Western companies on Twitter had the most accounts (n = 108), followed by Chinese companies on Weibo (n = 75); Western companies on Weibo lagged behind (n = 35). The discrepancy between Western companies’ Twitter and Weibo accounts might reflect the difference between the home platform and the platform abroad: The companies were not prepared to maintain the same comprehensive network of accounts on Weibo as they had on Twitter.

Furthermore, Western companies on Twitter showed the most diversity in types of accounts. The accounts appeared to use three principles to help users navigate them: a product orientation, a stakeholder orientation, and traditional organizational conventions (Zhang, Gosselt, and de Jong 2020). Western companies appeared to limit themselves to smaller numbers of essential accounts on Weibo. In contrast, Chinese companies on Weibo had a strong product orientation, with less attention to the other categories, particularly news and CSR.

A more detailed difference involved the labeling of accounts for stakeholders. Western companies on Twitter generally used neutral terms, such as “IBM Developer” or “Microsoft Partner” as account names. Chinese companies on Weibo labeled their accounts as communities, alliances, or clubs—e.g., Huawei Developer Community (华为开发者社区), Huawei Developer Alliance (华为开发者联盟), and Huawei Fan Club (花粉俱乐部).

Microblog content

As shown in Table 3, all companies on both platforms posted microblogs within the domains of corporate, marketing, and technical communication, as well as in combinations of these categories.

We conducted chi-square tests to check whether the distribution of microblogs over the three domains differed. For this analysis, we collapsed the microblogs from the two mixed categories into the original domains of corporate, technical, and marketing communication: Microblogs categorized under corporate and technical communication, for instance, were counted for corporate and for marketing communication. An overall chi-square analysis showed that the three groups had significantly different distributions of microblogs over the three domains [χ² (4) = 466.8, p < .001]. Pairwise chi-squares revealed that there was no significant difference between Western companies’ Twitter and Weibo microblogs [χ² (2) = 4.5, p = .11], but that the Western tweets [χ² (2) = 315.6, p < .001] and Western Weibos [χ² (2) = 105.3, p < .001] both differed significantly from the Chinese Weibos. On the level of overall domains, Western Weibo accounts thus remained close to the Western Twitter approach, without culturally adapting their overall content.

Differences were found for all main categories. Corporate communication was the main content category in all three groups but was even more prevalent on Weibo accounts of Chinese companies than on Western Twitter and Weibo accounts. Chinese companies’ attention to corporate communication can be largely attributed to the “community relations” subcategory, which was far less prominent on Western Twitter accounts. Western Weibo accounts took an in-between position, which might indicate an attempt to culturally adapt. Three other conspicuous differences, in the opposite direction, involved posts about CSR, business insights, and research & development, which were considerably more represented on Western companies’ Twitter accounts than on Chinese companies’ Weibo accounts. Regarding CSR and business insights, Western companies on Weibo followed Chinese practice, paying less attention to both topics than they did on Twitter. Regarding research and development, however, they stuck to the Western tradition of posting about it.

The latter might relate to the attention paid to technical communication. Western companies on Twitter and Weibo posted many microblogs on technological developments and user instructions, while Chinese companies paid substantially less attention to the technical communication domain. This might indicate that the Chinese companies profile themselves less technologically. It may also have to do with the status of technical communication as an emerging discipline in China (cf. Dong and Gao 2023).

Marketing communication content was more prominent on the Chinese companies’ Weibo accounts than on the Western companies’ Twitter and Weibo accounts. This difference mainly involved two subcategories: sales promotion and product launches, which might refer to a different marketing eco-system in China, which Western companies are only beginning to understand. On Weibo, Western companies paid slightly more attention to these subcategories than on Twitter, without getting close to their prevalence on Chinese companies’ accounts.

A final observation was that the two platforms differed in the number of reposts. For Western companies on Twitter, it was quite common to retweet messages posted by others: 23% of their tweets were retweets. On Weibo, reposting messages was very rare: Both for Western and for Chinese companies, reposting occurred in <1% of all Weibos. This significant difference [χ² (2) = 549.4, p < .001] is remarkable because Weibo offers more possibilities to keep original message elements and add new ones when reposting.

Message elements

Table 4 gives an overview of the message elements used. We only focused on original micro­blogs, leaving out all reposts. For each message element, we conducted a chi-square test comparing the three groups, followed by pairwise comparisons in the case of significant differences.

In line with previous research, hyperlinks were most frequently used by Western companies on Twitter and least frequently by Chinese companies on Weibo [χ² (2) = 2352.0, p < .001]. Western companies on Weibo took an in-between position, significantly differing from Western companies on Twitter [χ² (2) = 685.8, p < .001] and from Chinese companies on Weibo [χ² (2) = 92.7, p < .001].

Hashtags, too were used most by Western companies on Twitter, significantly more than by Chinese companies on Weibo [χ² (2) = 154.2, p < .001]. Remarkably, however, Western companies on Weibo used hashtags even less than Western companies on Twitter [χ² (2) = 491.4, p < .001] and Chinese companies on Weibo [χ² (2) = 110.2, p < .001]. The foreign context might play a role here: Western companies might see fewer opportunities to connect to relevant Weibo threads.

A similar pattern was found for mentions, albeit with much lower frequencies overall. Western companies on Twitter used mentions significantly more than Chinese companies on Weibo did [χ² (2) = 31.5, p < .001]. Western companies on Weibo used them even less than Western companies on Twitter [χ² (2) = 90.0, p < .001] and Chinese companies on Weibo [χ² (2) = 38.6, p < .001]. Again, it seems most likely that they saw fewer opportunities to publicly connect to persons or organizations in the Chinese context.

Although earlier research suggested a strong visual orientation within the Chinese culture, our results showed that Western companies on Twitter used more visuals in their tweets than Chinese companies on Weibo [χ² (2) = 132.5, p < .001] and Western companies on Weibo [χ² (2) = 61.1, p < .001]. There was no significant difference between the two types of Weibo accounts [χ² (2) = 0.0, p = .95].

A completely different pattern was found for the inclusion of videos. Western companies on Weibo used relatively more videos than Western companies on Twitter [χ² (2) = 22.2, p < .001] and Chinese companies on Weibo [χ² (2) = 8.5, p < .005]. This might be caused by the lower number of microblogs on Western Weibo accounts, which led to a relative prominence of Weibos with video. The difference between Western companies on Twitter and Chinese companies on Weibo was not significant [χ² (2) = 3.5, p = .06].

Finally, the use of emojis followed the expectations based on earlier research. Chinese companies used most emojis, significantly more than Western companies on Twitter [χ² (2) = 1303.7, p < .001]. Western companies on Weibo took an intermediate position between Western companies on Twitter [χ² (2) = 204.8, p < .001] and Chinese companies on Weibo [χ² (2) = 86.6, p < .001].

Communication strategies

Table 5 presents the results regarding the communication strategies used. A chi-square analysis showed that there were significant differences regarding the use of the three main categories (information, action, and community) between the three groups [χ² (4) = 490.7, p < .001]. Pairwise chi-squares showed significant differences between Western Twitter and Chinese Weibo accounts [χ² (2) = 469.1, p < .001], between Western Twitter and Western Weibo accounts [χ² (2) = 120.0, p < .001], and between Western Weibo and Chinese Weibo accounts [χ² (2) = 21.8, p < .001]. Differences mainly involved the information and community strategies. On Western Twitter accounts, providing information was substantially more prevalent than on Chinese Weibo accounts; the Western Weibo accounts took an in-between position. On Chinese Weibo accounts, building community was considerably more widespread than on Western Twitter accounts, again with Western Weibo accounts taking an in-between position.

The frequency of the action strategy was similar in Western companies’ Twitter accounts and Chinese companies’ Weibo accounts; Western companies’ Weibo accounts used the strategy somewhat less frequently, which might be attributed to the foreign context in which they had to operate. Looking at subcategories of the action strategy, some differences between Western Twitter accounts and Chinese Weibo accounts stood out. Promoting events and providing instructions were more prevalent on the Western Twitter accounts than on the Chinese Weibo accounts. The Western Weibo accounts paid even less attention to promoting events than the Chinese accounts, which might reflect fewer opportunities to organize events abroad. Providing instructions corresponded to Western Twitter and Weibo accounts’ attention for the domain of technical communication. Chinese Weibo accounts, on the other hand, offered many sweepstakes, whereas we did not find a single example of sweepstakes in the Western tweets. Western Weibo accounts showed a cautious attempt to use sweepstakes, by no means proportional to the Chinese use of sweepstakes.

Discussion

Main findings and implications

This study analyzed how large Western IT companies localize their microblogging practices on Twitter to the Chinese Weibo platform. We also compared their Weibo activities with those of similar Chinese IT companies. Such comparisons lead to insights into cultural differences and cultural adaptation practices. Table 6 summarizes our findings, which boil down to many differences between Western and Chinese companies’ microblog practices and many different ways in which Western companies tried to respond to the Chinese context. Below we will focus on the more generic lessons that can be learned from our research.

Differences between Western and Chinese microblogs (the third column in Table 6) appear to be multifaceted and comprehensive. We compared Western and Chinese microblogs on four main aspects (arrangement of accounts, microblog content, message elements, and communication strategies) and found clear differences for every aspect. Some main findings confirmed earlier research outcomes—especially the importance of community building in China and the Chinese orientation on products and marketing (even though the literature is not unanimous about the latter). Also in the use of message elements, we saw some previous findings confirmed: Chinese companies used fewer hyperlinks, hashtags, and mentions and used more emojis than Western companies did. Regarding visuals, however, our results contradict earlier findings: Not Chinese Weibo accounts but Western Twitter accounts used more visuals.

Our findings suggest that different microblogging practices originate from a broad constellation of factors. Only few of the differences found (community relations and community strategies) could be related to one of Hofstede’s (Hofstede 2001; Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov 2010) cultural dimensions: the individualism-collectivism continuum. Some other differences, which have to do with competitiveness, might relate to the masculinity-femininity dimension, but according to Hofstede-insights.com (n.d.), China and the U.S. have similar scores on this dimension. Instead, many differences seem to relate to much broader developments. Differences in corporate communication—most notably regarding CSR communication, research and development, and business insights—suggest that sharing such types of corporate information may be less common in the highly competitive Chinese business environment. Differences in technical communication suggest that Chinese IT companies are less inclined to profile themselves as technological enterprises and may also reflect the current status of technical communication as a recently emerging academic and professional discipline in China. Differences in marketing communication practices—with sales promotion, product launches, and sweepstakes as relatively prominent ingredients—might refer to different marketing eco-systems, in which the best way of raising consumers’ purchase interest has developed in different directions.

Regarding the way Western companies try to adapt to the Chinese context on Weibo (the fourth column in Table 6), we found three basic strategies. The first is adapting to the Chinese way of communicating. We can see this strategy, especially in Western companies’ increased attention to communities on Weibo. This cultural difference is quite clear and prominent in the literature and connects well to Hofstede’s individualism-collectivism dimension, which may have resulted in a strong awareness among Western companies to focus more on communities in Chinese contexts. Other possible examples are the downplaying of CSR and business insights, which Chinese companies only included sporadically on their Weibos.

The second strategy is not adapting to the Chinese way of communicating. The clearest example involved the technological profile of the companies. Whereas Chinese companies’ attention to the technical communication domain, including research and development and user instructions, was relatively limited, Western companies on Weibo followed their practices on Twitter and paid ample attention to it. In the same vein, they kept a broad orientation in types of accounts and content categories and did not seem to follow the dominant product orientation of Chinese companies on Weibo. Not adapting was usually chosen when adapting would require discarding essential company characteristics, such as its self-identity or its conception of relevant stakeholder relationships.

The third strategy is cautious adaptation. This means that companies moved a little in the direction of the way Chinese companies manifest themselves on Weibo, but did not do this wholeheartedly and convincingly. Examples of this included using sales promotion and product launches as marketing tools, using fewer hyperlinks, using more emojis, limiting the strategy of providing one-way information, and offering sweepstakes. In all cases, Western companies changed their microblog practices but stayed far removed from the Chinese companies’ communication on Weibo.

In all, adaptation to the Chinese context appeared to be a mix of cultural assumptions, self-identity considerations, and contextual factors. Some of the cultural assumptions are based on established, value-based cultural dimensions. In particular, the increased attention paid to community-building seems to reflect canonized knowledge about differences between individualistic vs. collectivistic cultures (Hofstede 2001; Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov 2010). Other differences are less theoretically supported and might be more superficial than the value-based differences, involving customs that people got used to, which raised their expectations of companies’ microblogs. Such assumptions might go back to (more or less systematic) observations and input from local experts. Examples include the use of sweepstakes or emojis in posts. In some respects, Western companies seriously adapted their SNS strategy, in other cases, their attempts at adapting were so cautious and reluctant that they were not very likely to have effects. Self-identity considerations were clearest in al differences regarding the companies’ technological profile: The Western companies treated providing technological information and support as a core element of their identity and did not follow their Chinese counterparts in drastically reducing these types of information.

Contextual factors largely involved limitations of operating in a foreign context (Florenthal and Chao 2016b). We can see the influence of this factor in the numbers of accounts and numbers of posts: It may not be feasible for companies to maintain the same number of different microblog accounts and post similar numbers of microblogs in a foreign context. Likewise, it may also be harder to meaningfully connect to earlier online discussions (using hashtags) and persons or organizations (using mentions) in foreign contexts, which would require detailed insights into the media dynamics at hand. Availability of visuals might also be a problem, especially when they are combined with texts (e.g., infographics).

Limitations and suggestions for future research

Several limitations should be kept in mind when interpreting our findings. The most important limitation is that we only focused on companies’ microblogging practices, not on perceptions of or effects on users from the two different cultures. An interesting alley for future research would focus on the user experiences of Western and Chinese people. Such research could be conducted in artificial (experimental) contexts. An alternative option would be to analyze established indicators of user engagement (e.g., likes, reposts, replies).

A second limitation is that we only focused on companies’ manifest microblogging accounts, setting aside all motives, considerations, and doubts regarding the posts. Future research focusing on the way Western and Chinese communication professionals decide on microblogs and on cultural adaptation, similar to Cui and Lin (2015) study on journalistic microblogs, could further enrich our findings.

A third limitation is that we selected one particular company type for our research. We only focused on large IT companies and it remains to be seen whether our findings also apply to other types of businesses, smaller companies, or government or nonprofit organizations. It seems plausible that the technical communication content will play a less prominent role in many other contexts, but what about the other findings? Future research replicating our study in different types of organizations would be an important new step.

A fourth limitation pertains to the quantitative nature of our study. We tried to make sense of the microblogging activities of IT companies by categorizing the characteristics of their microblogs. In practice, however, the devil might be in the details. It would be very interesting to complement our quantitative insights with more qualitative and detailed insights exploring the exact ways in which companies communicate in their microblogs.

Practical implications

Despite the limitations mentioned, our study already offers many detailed insights companies can use when developing their microblogging presence abroad. Knowing how the Chinese Weibo platform differs from the Western Twitter platform can be equally useful for Chinese companies that want to establish or improve their Twitter accounts as for Western companies that want to use Weibo for reaching consumers or other stakeholders in China. In addition, our findings can serve as a mirror to reflect on microblogging practices in their own culture. Chinese IT companies, for instance, might want to consider whether more attention to the technical communication domain could work for them as well. Western companies, in turn, might want to learn from the community focus Chinese companies realized on Weibo. Finally, our findings help in reflecting on cultural adaptation. Decisions to adopt or not to adopt certain characteristics can be based on a multitude of valid or less valid considerations. The category of cautious adaptations, however, seems to be in need of critical consideration: Nudging a little to the other culture without wholeheartedly adopting change might just be symbolic instead of having substantial effects.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Appendix A

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.