Douyin Archives

GEO in China: 5 AI Crawling Logics You Must Know

September 19, 2025

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is reshaping digital visibility in China. As AI-driven search engines replace traditional keyword-based ranking, brands need to adapt their strategies. Knowing the unique crawling logic of each major AI platform is essential to ensure your content gets discovered, trusted, and recommended.

Below we outline the five leading AI platforms in China, their crawling preferences, and practical GEO strategies to optimize your content.

1. Baidu Wenxin Yiyan: Authority-Driven Crawling

Content Preference: Authoritative, official, standardized knowledge.
Key Sources: Baidu Baike, Baijiahao, government websites, top news portals.
GEO Strategy:
- Build and maintain Baidu Baike entries with backlinks to in-depth website articles or whitepapers.
- Publish analysis on Baijiahao with clear policy- or standard-focused titles.
- Implement JSON-LD structured data across product and article pages.
- Emphasize compliance with standards directly in your content.

2. ByteDance Doubao: Visual Experience Crawling

Content Preference: Short videos, practical tips, lifestyle insights.
Key Sources: Douyin, Toutiao, ByteDance KOL ecosystem.
GEO Strategy:
- Always upload SRT subtitle files with natural keyword integration.
- Optimize video covers with direct problem-solving hooks.
- Split long reports into short-form video series.
- Cross-post text articles with video links on Toutiao.

3. Tencent Yuanbao: WeChat-Centric Crawling

Content Preference: Professional insights and authoritative voices inside WeChat.
Key Sources: WeChat Official Accounts, Channels, Mini Programs, Zhihu.
GEO Strategy:
- Use WeChat Open Tags to signal professional and authoritative content.
- Publish expert-led compliance and industry analysis articles.
- Reference national standards in Zhihu answers.
- Collaborate with recognized WeChat experts to build trust.

4. DeepSeek: Tech and Data-Driven Crawling

Content Preference: Academic research, technical documents, structured data.
Key Sources: GitHub, technical forums, academic publications.
GEO Strategy:
- Host product documentation and APIs in Markdown on GitHub.
- Include clean, referenced code blocks.
- Share Q&A content on CSDN or Zhihu linking back to your docs.
- Support claims with DOI or authoritative references.

5. Kimi: Long-Form Structured Content Crawling

Content Preference: Detailed, structured guides and information-dense documents.
Key Sources: Xiaohongshu, Douban, PDFs, Word uploads.
GEO Strategy:
- Create content with clear multi-level headings (H1 > H2 > H3).
- Turn manuals and evaluations into long-form checklists or guides.
- Keep content concise but data-driven.
- Use listicle-style formats for clarity and higher parsing accuracy.

Final Thoughts

GEO in China is not a one-size-fits-all strategy. Baidu prioritizes authority. ByteDance rewards visual-first storytelling. Tencent favors its closed ecosystem. DeepSeek looks for technical precision. Kimi values long-form structured analysis.

By tailoring your content to each platform’s crawling logic, you maximize your brand’s discoverability and credibility. GEO is no longer an optional tactic—it is the foundation of winning visibility in the age of AI-driven search.

Want to future-proof your brand’s presence in China? Contact us today to design a GEO strategy tailored to your business.

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China Brand Strategy: How to Win in 2025

September 5, 2025

China brand strategy is changing fast. Legacy branding and global fame are no longer enough. A new report by Alibaba and Peking University’s Consumer Brand Index (CBI) analyzes the behavior of nearly 1 billion Chinese consumers. The data reveals five key shifts that brands must act on to stay relevant in 2025 and beyond.

1. Product Performance Wins Trust

Chinese consumers want evidence.

Clinical results now matter more than marketing slogans.
SkinCeuticals gained market share by publishing dermatologist-backed content and using real product data.
It ranked 82nd in the index without relying on celebrity endorsements.

Action: Share measurable product outcomes. Use expert voices and transparent testing to build trust.

2. Local Brands Are Catching Up Fast

Local players are using speed and insight to win.

In pet care, six of the top seven brands are domestic.
Pop Mart grew rapidly by letting consumers shape their own identity through the product experience.

Action: Shorten your product development cycle. Adapt fast to local needs and behaviors.

3. Niche Beats Mass Appeal

Growth is coming from focus, not scale.

Laopu Gold reached the top 20 by focusing on ancient Chinese craftsmanship.
The brand operates few stores and avoids mass exposure.

Action: Pick a niche. Build depth, not breadth. Elevate cultural or functional value instead of scaling wide.

4. International Brands Must Localize

Global reputation helps, but it no longer leads.

Apple still performs well, but brands like Huawei and Xiaomi are gaining quickly.
Chinese shoppers want quality, but they also expect localized innovation.

Action: Tailor product features, content, and services for Chinese preferences. Don’t recycle global campaigns.

5. Tier-2 Cities Are Now the Growth Engine

Cities like Zhengzhou, Chongqing, and Hefei are outpacing Tier-1 metros.

These consumers expect the same variety and quality but prefer regional marketing and community-driven content.

Action: Invest in local logistics, region-specific campaigns, and city-level insights.

What You Should Do Now

Prove value with measurable results
Localize everything: product, pricing, content
Focus on narrow markets with clear needs
Prioritize Tier-2 cities with tailored outreach
Treat China as a core market for innovation

China brand strategy in 2025 requires agility, insight, and local relevance. Need support adapting your brand for China’s new reality? Contact us to get started.

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China’s Social Media Algorithm Updates: How Brands Can Stay Ahead

August 11, 2025

In China’s fast-evolving digital landscape, keeping up with platform algorithm changes is critical for brands to maintain visibility, engagement, and conversions.

This year, Douyin, Xiaohongshu (RED/RedNote), and WeChat Channels have rolled out significant updates to their content recommendation mechanisms — each influencing how posts are discovered, ranked, and amplified.

Whether you’re in lifestyle, tech, F&B, or B2B, understanding these shifts can help you optimize content for maximum reach and ROI.

Douyin: Prioritizing Long-Term Value Over Quick Wins

Historically, Douyin rewarded short, catchy videos with high completion rates. In 2025, the platform’s focus has shifted toward mid- to long-form videos that serve deep, long-tail, and diverse user needs.

Key Changes in Douyin’s Algorithm:

Behavior Probability Scoring: The algorithm predicts the likelihood of user actions (likes, comments, shares, follows, saves) based on past behavior.
Content Value Weighting: Videos with depth, evergreen relevance, and broader topical connections are ranked higher.
Lower Weight on Completion Rate: Unlike before, a slightly lower finish rate won’t penalize longer videos if they deliver value.

Brand Takeaways:

Create evergreen, reference-worthy videos such as tutorials, guides, or expert explainers.
Use intro slides or text cues to highlight content value early and prompt saves.
Expand beyond narrow niches to satisfy latent user interests.

Xiaohongshu: Matching Precision + High Interaction = Growth

Xiaohongshu’s recommendation engine still relies heavily on content-label matching, but recent updates place greater weight on content quality, originality, and interaction metrics.

Key Changes in Xiaohongshu’s Algorithm:

Higher Standards for Originality: Notes with over 600 words, originality declarations, and minimal duplication receive extra traffic boosts.
Faster Tag Matching: Enhanced indexing speeds mean content is matched to audiences more quickly — making accuracy in topics and tags essential.
CES Scoring Priorities Updated: Comments, shares, and follows now carry more weight than likes and saves.

Brand Takeaways:

Align title, topic, and content precisely to improve tag relevance.
Use specific, niche keywords instead of broad terms to dominate smaller search pools.
Drive meaningful comments through questions, discussion hooks, and community engagement.

WeChat Channels: Social Connections Drive Visibility

WeChat Channels’ traffic sources are more socially driven compared to Douyin or Xiaohongshu. In 2025, the platform has increased the weight of “likes” (♡) — especially those coming from friends.

Key Changes in WeChat Channels’ Algorithm:

Private Domain to Public Domain Flow: Content that gains initial traction in private networks (Groups, Official Account followers, Moments) can quickly spread to public recommendations.
Friends’ Like Tab Boost: The “Friends ♡” tab on the homepage prominently showcases videos liked by multiple friends, increasing organic reach.
Integrated Recommendation Paths: Social engagement triggers inclusion in both friend-based and interest-based feeds.

Brand Takeaways:

Leverage private domain audiences for a strong cold start — but share selectively to relevant groups for precision targeting.
Incorporate socially shareable elements such as emotional storytelling, practical value, or identity-driven messages.
Add summary slides, checklists, or infographics to boost screenshots, shares, and likes.

How to Apply These Updates to Your 2025 Campaigns

To win in China’s competitive digital space this year:

Douyin → Focus on depth, evergreen value, and multi-topic expansion.
Xiaohongshu → Double down on originality, precision tagging, and comment-driven interaction.
WeChat Channels → Build social momentum via private domain activation and shareable assets.

Need help optimizing for these algorithms?

Our team specializes in China social media strategy, content localization, and cross-platform growth campaigns.

📩 Contact us to turn these algorithm shifts into your competitive advantage.

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From AI to O2O: 7 Key Media Trends in China

June 27, 2025

As the digital media ecosystem in China continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, understanding emerging trends is crucial for brands looking to thrive in this competitive market. Starcom, the media arm of Publicis Groupe, recently released its latest report, “Increased Integration and Depth in China Media Market”, identifying seven pivotal trends that are redefining consumer behavior, content distribution, and brand strategy across platforms. Here’s a breakdown of the most important insights and how brands can prepare.

1. Cross-Platform Integration: Breaking the Walls Down

China’s once siloed internet ecosystem is transforming into a landscape of collaboration. In 2025, we’re witnessing platforms like Tencent and Alibaba opening up to one another: Tencent Games content appears on Douyin, Taobao accepts WeChat Pay, and JD.com integrates Alipay.

For brands, this “horizontal integration” means smoother customer journeys and opportunities to execute truly omnichannel strategies. Cross-platform compatibility also improves user experience, leading to better engagement and conversion rates.

2. AI-Powered Search and Intelligent Interactions

Search is no longer just about users looking for information. With generative AI entering the scene, proactive content delivery and conversational search are reshaping digital marketing. The search engine market in China is expected to surpass RMB 300 billion by 2029, with mobile-based search playing a major role.

Brands must rethink their search marketing by aligning keywords, content, and SEO strategy with evolving AI-driven behaviors across Baidu, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and other platforms.

3. Online and Offline Synergy: The New O2O Loop

Marketers are rediscovering the power of offline media, especially when amplified by digital interactivity. In 2025, 28.3% of advertisers are increasing their offline ad spend. Campaigns like Xiaohongshu’s user-generated content (UGC) billboards and McDonald’s programmatic subway ads show how to turn physical placements into interactive, trackable experiences.

Successful brands are integrating data capture tools, experience design, and social buzz triggers into their O2O campaigns to drive conversion.

4. Social-Powered Closed-Loop Commerce

Social media platforms are becoming e-commerce ecosystems. Xiaohongshu leads the way with interest-based group chats, offering exclusive promotions, live previews, and direct links to virtual stores. The results are impressive: 2.5x higher repurchase rates and 300x better conversion rates in private domains.

Brands must build community-focused strategies and activate users through content that fuels interaction and loyalty.

5. Value-Driven E-Commerce Over Price Wars

As consumer preferences shift from discounts to experience, platforms like Taobao and JD.com are focusing on enhancing logistics, customer service, and product quality. Features like Taobao’s hourly purchase service and JD.com’s “24-hour delivery in counties and towns” reflect this evolution.

To remain competitive, brands should deliver value through exclusive products, flexible services, and premium experiences instead of relying solely on low prices.

6. Diverse Content Channels: From Podcasts to Micro-Dramas

China’s content landscape is rapidly diversifying. Podcasts now reach over 220 million users, with 71.6% influenced to make purchases. Meanwhile, micro-drama users account for more than half of the internet population, with the market expected to grow 35% year-on-year to reach RMB 50.44 billion.

Brands need to leverage these formats to tell compelling stories, connect with niche audiences, and reinforce product relevance in immersive, culturally attuned ways.

7. AI’s Expanding Role Across the Funnel

AI is no longer a backend tool; it’s front and center. From predictive CRM and personalized content generation to dynamic bidding and campaign automation, AI is transforming the entire marketing stack. China is also exploring frontier technologies like brain-computer interface advertising.

Brands must embrace AI to improve media planning, content production, customer segmentation, and real-time campaign optimization.

Conclusion: Be Adaptive, Be Integrated, Be Smart

In today’s media landscape, success is no longer about mastering one channel or trend. It’s about understanding how technology, platforms, and content work together to shape consumer expectations.

By staying ahead of these seven trends, brands can craft adaptive, AI-enhanced, and experience-driven strategies that resonate in the ever-shifting Chinese digital ecosystem.

Need help navigating China’s evolving media landscape? Contact our team to explore how we can localize your strategy, enhance your platform presence, and drive smarter, performance-driven campaigns tailored to the China market.

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AI Tools, Smarter Discounts & Winning Plays: 618 Strategies for Beauty Brands

June 13, 2025

The 2025 618 Shopping Festival has revealed not just the strength of China’s e-commerce, but a strategic shift powered by AI, refined platform tactics, and tighter content-commerce integration—especially for the beauty sector.

AI Takes Center Stage

AI quietly became the engine of this year’s festival. Platforms like Taobao and Tmall deployed advanced tools such as Quanzhantui, which assisted 1.4 million merchants in campaign performance optimization. Their new “Image-to-Video” feature alone generated over 1.5 million videos in the run-up to 618, allowing beauty brands to scale production with unmatched speed and consistency.

In May, over 100 million pieces of AI-generated content were created by Alibaba platforms, helping brands reduce costs and maintain high engagement velocity.

Rule Changes and Real Impact

This year, Taobao and Tmall simplified their promotional mechanisms by eliminating complicated cross-store discounting. Instead, a universal 15% discount and category-specific vouchers created greater transparency and increased conversion rates.

The simplified pricing approach also helped:

Increase basket size
Lower cart abandonment
Improve campaign forecasting and marketing ROI

Still, users could stack up to 4+ coupons, leading to ongoing complexity and risks of exploitation via returns.

Return of International Beauty Brands

International giants reclaimed dominance during 618:

L’Oréal, Estée Lauder, Lancôme, and SkinCeuticals surpassed 100M RMB in sales within 30 minutes.
Local brand Proya was the only domestic contender in the same range.

Why? Cleaner inventories, global price-matching, exclusive discounts, and better member engagement strategies re-energized consumer trust.

Platform Differentiation Defines Strategy

Each platform reinforced its unique edge:

Tmall/Taobao remain brand-building powerhouses (45.1% market share, +8.5% YoY growth).
JD.com leaned into sustainable luxury with its “Green Impact Initiative.”
Douyin capitalized on algorithmic DTC performance.
Xiaohongshu (RedNote) emerged as the go-to discovery engine for functional skincare.

Content-Commerce Convergence

Cross-platform integrations like Tmall × Xiaohongshu’s “Red Cat Plan” created seamless discovery-to-checkout flows. Brands embedding Tmall links into RED posts saw a 27% lift in click-through-to-conversion.

Livestreaming’s Evolving Role

While year-round livestreaming is now common, 618 remains a high-intensity branding moment. Brands leverage the event for:

Launching new SKUs
Testing pricing elasticity
Generating strategic insights ahead of Double 11

Premium brands are more cautious with discounts, using livestreams strategically rather than constantly.

What This Means for Beauty Brands

618 is no longer just a discount-driven spike—it’s a mid-year strategy checkpoint. Success now depends on a refined mix of:

AI-powered content production
Platform-specific strategies
Transparent promotions
Commerce embedded in community

Want to future-proof your brand’s 618 strategy or improve your China e-commerce game with AI and integrated platform tactics? Contact us today to craft a data-backed, conversion-focused strategy tailored to your needs.

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