More Aussie travel companies are establishing a presence on Chinese social media platforms to attract business from the 235 million users.

With Facebook and Twitter unavailable in China, Mailman director of online communications agency Andrew Collins explained Australian businesses are moving onto sites including Q-zone and Weibo to engage with social media users in the Asian country.

Targeting students and tourists, Mr Collins added that establishing a business on the sites would help reach those 81 percent of Chinese youth who check online comments before securing a purchase.

“With 235 million people on Chinese social media platforms, they are growing at a rate that surpasses many of their western equivalents - and in terms of scale they are among the most significant platforms in the world. More importantly, Chinese social media users interact and engage with brands much more than the users of Facebook or Twitter do,” Mr Collins continued.

The director of online communications added that logging onto a Chinese-based social media site would also help close the link between the 670,000 people of Chinese birth of descent living in Australia as well as help reach Tourism Australia’s 2020 expenditure growth.

“The combined effect of a large Chinese population in Australia and the huge Chinese tourism and student market means Aussie brands can’t really ignore the opportunity to market to a high-volume and highly-engaged online audience,” Mr Collins explained.

According to Mailman half of China’s social media users are in the 20s with up to 34 percent logged in every single day and 27 percent signed up on five or more sites.