【英文】2022中国社交媒体营销终极指南（114页）

While the web quickly took off in the West, it didn’t quite catch on in China until 1994. The  growing number of public internet cafes or wangba across big cities played a major role in  extending the Internet’s reach in China — these became the bridge to the world for many  young Chinese. And with first Internet users, local companies such as Sina, Sohu and  NetEase opened for business…  While in the early days, China was playing catch up, its tech sector is now leading the world  with innovations that are distinctly Chinese.As internet penetration has grown there has been a significant  shift in the types of new users coming online. Long before  affordable mobile devices and high speed data were widely  available, the internet was only accessible to the “elite”. Nearly  60% of internet users in 2000 were college-educated, many of  these likely university students with access through computers on  campus. 20 years later, the share of internet users with a college  degree has dropped to just 10%. In 2020, nearly half of internet  users had only the 9 years of mandatory education.The ubiquitous QR originated in Japan in  the mid-90s, initially aimed at helping  factories with manufacturing [S]. 

Having  seen slow adoption everywhere else in the  world, QR codes are an essential part of  daily life in China, seamlessly connecting  offline with online.  QR codes are often criticized for being ugly,  but their true beauty lies in their simplicity  and how easily recognizable they are.  Unlike overseas payment methods that use  NFC, QR codes are dead simple, they can  easily be printed on a basic printer and  everyone knows what to do with a QR code  as soon as they see one.As COVID cases surged, China turned to its  big tech companies. While the rest of the  world tried to develop their own national  systems to tackle the pandemic, the  Chinese government deployed their preexisting tech solutions, which needed little  adjusting. Fast Implementation of QR codes In order to curb the spread of the virus,  citizens were assigned a QR code based  on their recent movements.  Generated in WeChat and Alipay,  a green code (see right) meant an  individual is not at risk, while  amber and red codes mean a  person may have been exposed to  COVID. More recently, people's vaccination status is also shown  on the health code.