There's a terrific post by James Fallows on things everyone in China knows, but that few outsiders have taken in.
They were neatly summarized by Andrew Lih, in a recent SXSW panel that was in turn reported on CNReviews.com.
I'll resummarize as the whole thing is worth quoting. My thoughts added in brackets.
- Voicemail isn't used, instead people pick up their phone in any situation.
- SMS+Instnat messaging is highly popular. [I knew that in reference to protests but though that might have been more a reflection of the mass organizing potential of broadcast SMS.]
- Only 56% of Chinese internet users have email addresses.
- Second and third tier cities tend to have internet cafes and low PC ownership. [I think that may be fairly universal in the developing world].
- In China, social media came before e-commerce in terms of major web trends.
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