What is Zimeiti? The commercial logic of content provision on China’s social media platforms

Abstract

“Zimeiti” (we media or self-media) is a buzzword in China that has never been clearly defined. It generally refers to non-institutional content providers on social media platforms such as WeChat and Weibo. I conducted a systematic analysis of metadiscourse about zimeiti, including industry reports and conference speeches by important figures in this community. I found that zimeiti is mainly seen as an emerging commercial sector monetizing user attention. Its boundaries are set loose enough to include any new forms of monetization on social media platforms, while at the same time strict enough to exclude discussions on social and political implications. To legitimize this industry, the community adopts depoliticization strategies that emphasize market mechanisms. Based on the findings, I propose a “push and pull” model to explain the variances in politicization/depoliticization across media types. The findings provide an important reality check on the zimeiti community and help us gain insights into China’s restricted yet highly commercialized online content ecosystem.

Keywords:

• social media
• monetization
• boundary work
• metajournalistic discourse
• depoliticization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 See http://www.wemedia.cn/.

2 See https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-03-18/popular-wechat-account-valued-at-2-billion-yuan-snapped-up-by-education-firm-101393812.html.

3 “Paying for knowledge” (zhishi fufei) refers to a popular business model in the Chinese internet. Users pay for quality content such as summaries of books and online courses. See https://www.ft.com/content/add21080-0ace-11e7-97d1-5e720a26771b.

4 See http://tech.china.com.cn/internet/20210201/374143.shtml.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kecheng Fang

Kecheng Fang is an Assistant Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include journalism, political communication, and digital media. Before joining academia, he worked as a political journalist at the Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly.