How powerful is social media today?

There is no doubt that social media has been given more power with the advent of the Internet. Five years ago when I first came to the United States, I heard about eBay where people can purchase online. Since I am not a trendy person, I had no idea whether China had similar platforms for consumers to conduct transactions at that time. Five years later, not only Chinese “eBay” websites are emerging at a fast speed, but also consumers’ decision making on shopping is influenced by social media.
In the article Social Media Affects Awareness and Purchasing in China, Thomas Crampton draws highlights of a report regarding how social media affects Chinese consumers. I would not say that social media in China is entirely different from that in the United States, but some indigenous factors influence the way how Chinese views things and make decisions. For instance, Chinese consumers like to refer to consumer reviews and ratings of items they would like to purchase online, but their US counterparts seem to pay little attention to this. This difference revealed in this article may stem from the core cultures of these two countries: China is perceived as a collectivist society where relations with others are more valued than a society dominated by individualism such as the United States. Chinese consumers prefer to buy things that receive more comments and higher ratings from others. This is a critical point that public relations professionals have to take into consideration when launching a product or campaign.
Despite that China is still a developing country, it catches up with media trends very fast and even surpasses their counterparts in the developed world. There is an eBay in the United States, Chinese “eBay” followed the transaction model and has gained popularity in China; when Facebook, blocked in some developing countries like China, is expanding its business around the world, Chinese Facebook has caught the attention of younger generations (For more information about Chinese Facebook, please see Why Renren is Better than Facebook.). Social media is not only influencing people’s decision making, but also changing the way that business was once conducted.