How do cross-cultural differences shape the perceptions of the fall of a real estate empire? An exploration of social media analytics through framing and spiral of silence theories

The collapse of Evergrande challenges the notion of “too big to fail”. While there is ample housing research, studies on public perception of sporadic incidents such as the fall of a large-scale developer are scarce. How the public perceives the real estate industry and investment is directly associated with the individual large-scale company and is shaped by cultural differences. To fill this research gap, this study analyses 7038 Chinese comments and 4727 English YouTube comments under the cultural lens. The semantic network analysis shows that Chinese comments emphasised the impact on society and the Chinese government. In contrast, the English comments emphasised financial loss and housing problems, such as “tofu-dreg” and “empty apart(ment)”. The sentiment analysis reveals that Chinese comments were more polarised than English ones. Collective cultures suggest that people often follow the group's acts, which are heightened by the spirals of silence: individuals feel comfortable expressing their opinions only when they align with the group or prefer to keep silent. On the other hand, the English comments display individualistic culture and focus more on negative aspects, as seen in Poe and Perkins' framing study. The regression results show that videos with higher engagement metrics attract more views, consistent with the spiral of silence Theory. This study extends traditional real estate literature by offering a public perception lens alongside financial indicators, uncovering how cultural framing affects public opinion and the spiral of silence theories during the fall of the real estate empire. It also extends the spiral of silence theory, which studies how collective opinions about a giant company collapse and intensify in social media, highlights the importance of monitoring public opinion in rebuilding trust in similar events and emphasises the significance of implementing policies that facilitate global communication to bridge cultural divides and improve public views during a crisis. • Chinese and English YouTube comments on the Evergrande crisis differ, reflecting distinct cultural values and media framing. • Chinese discussions focus on the government, whereas English discussions focus on financial concerns. • Emotionally appealing video titles and engagement metrics drive public discourse on urban financial instability. • Sentiment and social network analyses reveal public concerns during a large-scale collapse of a real estate company. • Extend the real estate literature by linking digital public discourse to housing policy.