Ocial Media and New Age marketing for university students in China Literature review

Ocial Media and New Age marketing for university students in China - Literature review Example There has been a 462% increase in the number of internet users within a matter of seven years, i.e. from 2004-2011 (China Internet Network Information Center 2012). High-speed internet is easily accessible at subsidized rates in China, thereby enabling easy penetration of the Internet throughout the country. Secondly, the number of users who shop online is also experiencing a remarkable increase. While less than 10% of the Chinese population shopped online in 2006, by 2015 the online shopping population is expected to increase to 44%, four times the current figure (Salans 2012). The total number of Chinese users who shop online would increase from the present figure of 160 million to 231 million by 2013 and 329 million by 2015 (EU SME Center 2012; Salans 2012). Online shopping in China is becoming popular because third party payment systems like Alipay and platforms like Taobao are making Chinese consumers more comfortable with spending online (EU SME Center 2012). The Chinese govern ment is also playing an active role in the growth and expansion of E-commerce. The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) of China aims at driving more than 80% of China’s large enterprises into adopting E-commerce (Salans 2012). Online shopping is becoming increasingly popular and businesses are leaving no stone unturned in their bid to tap into this opportunity. It is therefore necessary to study consumer behaviour and preferences regarding online shopping websites or e-stores. While people shop online because of the ease and convenience of shopping from the comfort of their own homes, several studies and reports suggest that online shopping may also prove to be a disadvantage. It is suggested that the existence of online shopping websites causes impulse buying and that the payment methods of online shopping websites lead to overspending. Moreover, it is also believed that traditional shopping behaviour will subsequently be replaced by online shopping. Each of these notions will be dis cussed in the following sections based on information available from literature. 2. Online Shopping Trends Worldwide Online shopping is fast gaining popularity all over the world. According to a Global consumer report by the Nielson Company, which was based on a March 2010 survey, Korean and Chinese consumers are the most frequent online shoppers in the Asia Pacific region, with 95% of the internet users intending to make a purchase online in the next 6 months (Nielson 2010). In Europe, around 79% of internet users intend to shop online in the next 6 months. Shopping on the web is highly popular in North and South American countries as well. The Middle East, Pakistan and Africa are the least frequent consumers of online shopping. The report, which surveyed more than 27,000 web consumers in 55 markets all over the world, also points out that one-third of the global online consumers prefer retailers, such as Amazon, that primarily have online presence only. Sixteen percent of the resp ondents said they never shopped online. While half of all North American consumers state they mostly purchase from stores that are exclusively online, one-third of Latin American consumers mostly purchase from sites that accompany traditional offline stores. The global consumption based on site preference is shown in figure 1. Fig. 1: Graph showing site preferences for online shopping of consumers in AP (Asia Pacific), EU (European Union), MEAP (Middle East/Africa/Pakistan), LA (Latin America), NA (North America (Nielson 2010, p. 3) Another