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I’ve always been quite fascinated with names and the first thing I think of when I know a new baby has been born, apart from “Is he or she healthy?”, is “What’d they call him/her? God, I hope it doesn’t suck.” And if I know the person well or the information has been made public prior to birth, I want to know; I need to know. I can’t help it; I’m a bit of a name snob.

I have my own definite taste and I know it’s not for everyone, so I obviously get that people have different ideas about what to call their kids. But some names should never, ever be given to a child. Ever. Or, at the very least, there should be some kind of spelling regulation. I have posted about this topic before, but I have a few new ‘gems’ from the unusually-spelled-names mine.

I’m not a name history buff so I’m not sure if there is a ripe history of coming up with one’s own ‘creative/kre8tiv’ spelling for fairly usual names, but it seems to be an increasing trend in various part of the English-speaking West. Here we might refer to unconventional alternative spellings as being ‘Bogan’/’Westie’, which is basically our version of ‘white trash’, except the color of one’s skin doesn’t matter.

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Part 2 about Social Media in China. Contents:

-Government Control
-Entertainment Focused
-References

Government Control

Background
There has never been any doubt surrounding the government’s ability to censor and control the internet. With regular blocking of Google, continued blocking of Western SNS sites such as Facebook, Twitter and even Chinese SNS websites such as Fanfou.com.cn, the government have control of social media.

This control has become even more obvious in recent months, with the government developing internet legislation research departments, potentially enforcing website blocking via the Greendam Mandate, and even introducing new SNS regulation law. The latter point I will elaborate, as it involves the creation of a law allowing for the greater potential of Government buy-in within China’s SNS (this is in stark contrast to the West where government buy-in to SNS would meet with social uproar):

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So how different is Social Media in China? Our team in China have put together a nice piece together (based on research, case studies and in-house insights from the Middle Kingdom’s social hotpot) to consider how it is different, identifying several key elements which underline and explain why media agencies/buyers and clients should consider China an extremely unique climate for social media marketing.

As well as describing the background facts and figures surrounding each featured element unique to China, we also provide possible implications into how they may better instruct future social media campaigns here and how it will affect the gender gap in China.

Contents
-A Huge Social Media Community
-The Netizen
-Social Anonymity & Avatars
-Archaic Social Media Prevails: BBS

A Huge Social Media Community

Background

BBS (Bulletin Board System) was launched in 1994, marking the beginning of the Chinese Internet Community. Today the Chinese internet population is the largest in the world with over 298 million users (Source, iResearch). Astonishingly this may only reflect an internet penetration within the country of 15-22% (Source, CNNIC). Figures suggest next year may see a massive increase yet again in internet population to over 389 million users (Source, BDA).

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