News

China Meet-Up: about trends and policies

Published on
May 16, 2019

WUR is organizing China Meet-Ups to present and exchange information on China related activities . What are the major developments in China in terms of its domestic policies and major trends? And what are the implications of these changes to Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and to the Dutch economy at large?

The China Meet-Up discusses topics regarding current developments and activities in China relevant for WUR. These Meet-Ups are in English and free and open to all campus residents who are interested in the WUR activities in/with China and organized three times a year. It is an unique opportunity to meet members of the network of Wageningen communities as the Province of Gelderland, Yili, FrieslandCampina, Gemeente Ede, Gemeente Wageningen, WUR China Office.

The subject of the coming China Meet-Up of Tuesday 18 June 2019 are the trends and developments of digitalization in Chinese society and the impact of social media on daily life. No one but Manya Koetse, China's social trend watcher and Chief Editor of What's on Weibo, will attend this meeting to share her experiences on this topic.

The Chinese social media landscape is arguably the most dynamic, unique and fascinating in the world. Social media in China has grown phenomenally with the rise of Weibo (China's answer to Twitter) and WeChat (arguably a fusion of Facebook and Whatsapp). This is because of an increasingly high internet penetration rate with just under 50% of the total Chinese population online. There are now 634 million Chinese internet users, that's over twice the population of the US. It is therefore not surprising that social media has become a key target for marketers and businesses across the globe.