The Study On Market Competition Between Different Social Media In China

Social media is the new media in the Internet ’s impact on the real background of the growing penetration occurs, which is used to share ideas, insights, experiences and perspectives of tools and platforms.Since social media generation, it has been the protagonist of Internet applications.In recent years, with the escalation of the network environment and the rapid growth of mobile Internet users, a variety of social media platforms has been developed.Its market structure constantly changing, and competition between various social media has become intense.In this paper, the research framework build by means of the integration of niche theory and the “uses and gratifications”theory. Then we measured the niche breadth, overlap and competitive advantages of the gratification obtained of the use of three kinds of social media users(Q-zone,Sina-Weibo and Wechat)by collecting empirical data to reveal a picture of the current social media competition. Firstly, by the literature study and in-depth interviews,we found the main six kinds of the gratification obtained,including fashion,self-presentation, social interaction, recreation, getting information and tools utility.Secondly, based on the niche theory paradigm,the study measured the competition of the above six kinds of the gratification obtained. The study found that Wechat had the widest audience resource,and can meet the needs of the audience to a greater extent.The competition between Sina-Weibo and Q-zone on the gratification obtained of audience are very intense. But the three kinds of social media in the gratification obtained of audience have their own advantages.According to the niche measurement of three kinds of social media and their respective features, strong development of Wechat does not produce substitute for competition on Sina-Weibo. And Q-zone which has similar resource with Sina-Weibo is its biggest rival. In the fierce market competition environment, innovation,widening the niche and meeting the new needs of users are the core competitiveness of the future development of social media.