China opens a crack on Great Fire Wall
Users in China will have access to previously banned websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram within the country without using VPN. Will it help wine promotions and communications?
A new Chinese website browser called Tuber is causing all the buzz among savvy Chinese social media users, giving Chinese Internet users a sanitized view of “free Internet”.
The web browser allows its users to access currently banned foreign websites and apps in China including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Google and other English language news media such as New York Times, without using a VPN.
However, the contents on these now-available foreign websites are selectively censored to avoid politically sensitive subjects.
Nonetheless, the browser developed by a Shanghai company is approved by Chinese authorities and available for downloads on Huawei, Tencent and Xiaomi app stores for Android users.
Within two days, it was downloaded five million times on Huawai app store alone, according to media reports, even when articles written in Chinese to launch and introduce the browser were subsequently deleted on Chinese social media.
Searches of Tuber on Chinese Sina Weibo, similar to Facebook, rendered irrelevant results, which suggests Chinese censors are working to limit the spread of the browser, though on the sidebar hashtags on the browser’s launch are still visible (see below as tested by Vino Joy News).
But for wineries, wine marketers and promoters who previously can’t rely on Facebook and Instagram to reach Chinese users, the crack will likely give them some excitement.
Registration to use the browser requires a Chinese phone number, which means it requires real identify verification, similar to what’s required for other Chinese social media apps like WeChat and Sina Weibo or Taobao.
The platform could suspend users’ accounts and share their data “with the relevant authorities” if they “actively watch or share” content that breaches the constitution, endangers national security and sovereignty, spreads rumors, disrupts social orders or violates other local laws, according to the app’s terms of service, according to Tech Crunch report.
Let us know your thoughts on the browser. Whether it’s a good tool for you to reach more Chinese wine customers and drinkers using popular western social media apps?
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