Douyin has a massive influence among Chinese people, both young and adults alike, and a lot of brands have started to make appearances on the platform as well. It only makes sense to take a closer look on how they are leveraging a social media app for their promotion.
E-commerce on Kuaishou
Kuaishou is one of the most famous short video apps in China having more than 200 million daily active users. 80% of the users were born after 1990, among which the average usage time can be around 60 minutes per person per day. Moreover, 19 million people have started to earn regular cash flow from Kuaishou. Looking at the overall user distribution, users in first-tier cities only account for 10%, while users in second and third-tier cities are the main users of Kuaishou.
People record, edit and share their lives through photos, short videos, and live streaming almost every day. E-commerce focuses on turning offline sales into online ones, so Kuaishou has made it possible to turn offline operation mode online with the help of live streaming and short videos.
The rise of short video e-commerce on Kuaishou benefits from three factors:
- Social Participation
People on Kuaishou make high-quality videos and regular quality live streams that receive a lot of social support that turns into profit. There are 4 ways to enable people to participate on the platform:
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- Advertising on short videos, which is a consistent way of generating income but does not guarantee audience interest in the product or conversion.
- Short video e-commerce, which provides value to the products, instigating people to make a purchase just on the product merit. This ensures conversion but lacks a little bit of customer retention and resale.
- Live streaming profits, which are probably the most effective way of conversion, customer interaction and trust-building, which in turn also increases the chances of resale.
- Transparency of Products
With the help of short video and live-streaming, consumers can get a better look at the goods and their source, while sellers can show the characteristics of different products in the videos or streams. Kuaishou always insists on promoting activities related to brand traceability so the buyer is satisfied with the seller and the product before making the purchase.
- Sales Platforms
Kuaishou can connect itself with third-party e-commerce platforms like Taobao, Pinduoduo, and JD by taking advantage of the platform’s interoperability. This helps leverage an already existing e-commerce platform on Kuaishou to enforce a better and more familiar user interface while cutting down on the maintenance and development time.
Implications of the WeChat Ban
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning WeChat in the United States. The order says along with the ban, Americans will be prohibited from carrying out any transactions with Tencent, WeChat’s parent company. This decision to ban the WeChat app will have serious long-term implications on consumers, American companies that have a large and significant presence in China and US-China relations as well.
WeChat is China’s most popular and useful messaging app with a monthly active user base of over 1 billion. WeChat’s popularity makes it the main form of communication among Chinese consumers. Even though many like to call WeChat a messaging tool, it’s much more than that. The app can be used for texting, voice or video calls, reading news, bill payments, taxis, and even games. It’s no wonder why WeChat is called a “super app” in China.
What’s the issue?
According to Donald Trump, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in India had asserted that the Chinese companies Tencent Holdings and Bytedance were allegedly stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data without authorization to servers outside India and that the US needed to ban any transactions on such apps as a protective measure as well. The United States wants “untrusted” Chinese apps to be removed from US app stores. And those “untrusted” apps belong to Chinese companies Tencent Holdings, the owner of WeChat, and ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company. The executive order said the government would ban WeChat and TikTok from operating in the US if they are not sold by their parent companies.
What’s the Impact?
WeChat’s ban in the US would cut off millions of Chinese-Americans from their friends, family and clients. Since WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter are banned in China, WeChat is the only app left the Chinese employees in America can use to communicate with their families back in the Mainland. While TikTok’s US operations may be sold to Microsoft, WeChat is unlikely to get a second chance which means American businesses and Universities will face a lot of issues communicating with their suppliers, manufacturing partners, dealers and even students in China.
Trump’s ban could also harm Apple’s supply chain since most of the company’s products are still assembled in China.
An Overview of the E-commerce Market in China
China is at the top of the e-commerce market with its big players like Alibaba and JD.com.
It has more e-commerce activity than any other country in the world. In the year 2017, China’s e-commerce expenditure was more than $750bn online – more than the UK and US combined.
While some sectors of the economy struggle for survival in a sudden, new, harsh reality, e-commerce is faced with massive demand. Since many of us are confined to our homes, we mostly rely on online shopping, leading to great innovation in e-commerce. There are two key trends that are transforming e-commerce in China by adding entertainment to the mix: social buying and live commerce.
Toutiao Advertising for Businesses in China
If you’re a new business in the Chinese media market, or if you know how the advertising industry works in China, Toutiao may or may not have been one of your top choices for platforms to advertise your business on. Toutiao is a popular destination for finding and curating content, offering a new and fresh way for your business to showcase itself with the help of its unique way of displaying ads.
What is Toutiao?
Toutiao is a news-reading app that runs on AI. The news aggregator organizes daily news from various media sources and gives recommendations on the homepage. Some can even say it’s the “most serious app” in China.
Toutiao Advertising
With over 120 million daily users, Toutiao has a somewhat complex algorithm that offers content tailored to its users based on their interest. On a daily basis, over 200,000 articles and videos are published and these appear directly in the feed of the user. Toutiao content is quite diverse as it is news-based and comes from private publishers, official media, and blogs.
Also, part of the advertising revenue is given to the content creators. What makes the platform even better for advertising is that all featured articles and videos are also selected based on the user location. It’s also important to know that users don’t need to follow your account in order to see your content, which is excellent for brand exposure.
Toutiao Advertising Formats
There are 3 different types of ad formats that Toutiao offers, and supports both picture and video display. Ads can be targeted to specific ages, gender, interests, keywords, regions, weather, time, occupations, phone carriers, phone operating systems, phone brands, and types of internet connection. Such a diverge targeting mechanism opens up a lot of opportunities for creative and effective advertising.
Full cover open ads: They cover the entire screen and include options of a wide large screen banner or a maximum of 3 smaller images.
Feeds ads: These come with several advertising styles including ads with text and an image, 3 smaller images, full-width image, image with call extension and app downloads.
Streaming feed ads: These types of ads blend as video format into the Toutiao feed for seamless user experience.
Charges for Toutiao Advertising?
Along with CPM (Cost per mille) and CPC (Cost per click), Toutiao provides 4 new ways for advertisers to bid on the platform including oCPM, oCPC, CPA and CPV.
oCPM/oCPC: oCPM (Optimized Cost per Mille) and oCPC (Optimized Cost per Click) run on the same ad methodology. They are quite similar to CPC, but also include an estimated conversion ratio which is based on audience behavior.
CPA (Cost per Acquisition): In this case, advertisers only pay when there is definite conversion.
CPV (Cost per View): This method only supports video ads. Here, advertisers pay for the number of views when the video ad plays for 10 seconds.
Benefits of Toutiao Advertising
- Toutiao ads allow brands to target groups that have certain apps on their phones. This is great for brands that want niche customers, but this is currently only available for Android phones.
- Geo-targeting options can bring more sales due to the fact that people living in the same areas usually have similar consumer habits. This can be good for a lot of offline retailers.
- Toutiao’s DMP allows brands to upload the audience traits of their existing followers, which brands could then use to find a similar ‘lookalike’ target audience.
Live Streaming in China
Live video streaming is becoming very popular in China, especially amongst the internet youth. Its popularity is also growing, which could present some fantastic opportunities for companies who are implementing digital marketing strategies in their business plan. More than 400 million online viewers live stream in China, making it one of the most popular video formats. With over 200 livestreaming platforms focusing on different markets and viewers, it can function as a resourceful marketing tool at a fraction of the price.
A Quick Guide to Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) Marketing
Since 2013, Xiaohongshu (also known as Little Red Book or RED) has become one of the fastest-growing platforms in China with over 80 million monthly active users.
But exactly who’s on the platform? And is this a platform you should be devoting resources to?
Xiaohongshu is a curious mix of social media crossed with e-commerce. However, it’s main focus is user-generated content. Users can post their recommendations, demonstrations, and reviews, and they can comment on and save these posts to themed boards.
How To Market YOUR BRAND On BILIBILI?
WHAT IS BILIBILI?
Founded by Xu Yi in 2009, Bilibili is a Chinese video-sharing website based in Shanghai that focuses on gaming culture and anime-related content and is based on the real-time (live) interactive (bullet chatting) video concept.
In 2009, it was initially launched as a prototype website named Mikufans.cn. As the website improved traction, it included the video-sharing feature and was relaunched under the name Bilibili, the nickname of the protagonist in the anime ‘A Certain Scientific Railgun’.
With the growth in popularity, it included a plethora of features including advertising, mobile gaming, and e-commerce and live streaming service where audiences can interact with streamers. Apart from the main themes i.e. anime and gaming, Bilibili also offers videos from various other fields such as science and technology, entertainment, fashion and daily life.
FUTILITY OF THE TRADITIONAL MARKETING METHODS
Because of its unique features and interactive model, traditional marketing models don’t usually work on Bilibili.
User preferences are an essential part of the platform which not a lot of mainstream marketers and brands fail to understand. McDonald’s and KFC both were unable to find success on the platform but Alibaba, Xiaomi and Tencent quickly captured a lot of followers.
BILIBILI AS A MARKETING CHANNEL
Here are 3 ways for marketing your brand on Bilibili:
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Feed your audience
Study your audience and user preferences thoroughly. It is important to your viewers that the content they are watching is a balance between what they would expect from the platform as well as the brand. Keep provided relevant content as and when possible, mostly in the form of live streams.
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KOL Marketing
With the increase in video marketing over the years, the shift from text content to photo/video content has been quick, mostly because of vloggers or influencers (KOLs). Partnership and cooperation with KOLs is a very wise choice for new brands since KOLs already have a trusted group of followers and they know how to produce user-friendly content.
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Live Streaming
The key differentiating point Bilibili has is its loyal and active viewer base. The types of unique content that can be used while live streaming is:
- Bullet screen – live commenting that enhances active engagement
- Animated content – most animations are available to the users free to use
- Autotune – This is the type of content that has the potential to go viral if used correctly
- Gaming – Mostly for mobile. Gaming brands (or any brand) can easily launch their game or mini-game and receive a high number of views.
Establishing A Presence on Xiaohongshu, China’s Popular Fashion Platform
With e-retailers struggling to win over young Chinese consumers, it seems that Xiaohongshu is standing out. Looking into Xiaohongshu’s business model, it’s evident that it’s a great platform for foreign beauty brands that are targeting young Chinese women.
Xiaohongshu is a social media and e-commerce platform and it’s growing fast. Founded in 2013 as a community for users to find recommendations about foreign fashion and cosmetics, it has garnered more than 70 million subscribers and developed its own cross-border site called Fulishe, China’s cross-border e-commerce platform.
A Promising Future For Fashion
Demographics: Mao Wenchao, Xiaohongshu’s co-founder and CEO, revealed in 2015 that
- 70 to 80 percent of the site’s users are female
- More than 50 percent of Xiaohongshu’s users are students and office ladies
- Age – 18-35
- Living in first and second-tier cities
Girls are big purchasers of cosmetics and fashion. Xiaohongshu’s conversion rate is as high as eight percent, as compared to only 2.6 percent on Tmall, the biggest e-commerce platform for official Chinese brands. Also, every customer on Xiaohongshu makes three orders per month on average.
How Can Your Brand Establish A Presence On This Site?
Xiaohongshu has two sections: the user community and the e-commerce platform.
In the e-commerce section, qualified brands and retailers can submit an application through the official website.
As Xiaohongshu perceives itself as a first-party distributor, brands only need to sell their products to Xiaohongshu without any worry about the delivery and customer service. All that is handled by the platform.
The high engagement in its user community is what sets Xiaohongshu apart from other e-commerce platforms.
UGC And Micro-influencers
Xiaohongshu is a platform for girls and women to discuss fashion and beauty the same way they would with their friends offline (Peer Influence), making influencers on Xiaohongshu much more powerful than on other social media and e-commerce platforms.
Every single user who’s willing to share their real and comprehensive experiences can become a micro-influencer. On the platform, a lot of established influencers and celebrities share their personal favorites with their fans and their posts generally have high engagement (more than 1,000 likes and 10,000 saves).
Brands that want to try influencer marketing on Xiaohongshu need a translator or Chinese team to help them communicate with an influencer on the site with a decent following and one that fits the brand’s voice, tastes and target group.
In Conclusion
Xiaohongshu is a perfect choice for new overseas brands that want to test out the Chinese fashion market, particularly if they are targeting young Chinese women. Social listening is a major part of the community because the notes and comments are users’ feedback according to their first-hand experience. It becomes easy to understand the actual needs of the young Chinese female community and see whether your products can succeed in China.
5 types of Rewardable Behaviours on WeChat
The saturation of brands in China paves the way for an overwhelming array of choices in almost every industry segment. Businesses, especially on WeChat, tend to differentiate themselves through various strategies, such as WeChat loyalty programs. The concept of loyalty programs has taken off quite well in China as it helps in generating sales from returning customers. Loyalty programs are exclusive programs and mostly unique to the brand in question. They give brands a competitive advantage, reducing the likelihood that a customer may switch stores.