So, in this article we will review which Chinese digital platforms are getting the most attention and spending from marketers. 

• Which platforms are hot and get the most attention ?
• How does it reflect Chinese consumers behaviors online ?
• Which digital marketing strategy you should adopt for advertising in China ?

Digital Marketing Spending in China: The Trends 

Before diving into the details, let’s have a look at the overall digital advertising spending in China.

In 2019, digital advertising spendings value will grow over 90 billions of USD with a growth rate of 18%. Today, digital represents almost 70% of the total media spendings in China.

Even if the market speed of growth will decrease in the coming years, we can see the large domination of digital marketing over traditional media in China.

E-commerce in China - A key focus of digital advertising spending.

Today, promotion and media buying in China are directed more and more to e-commerce platforms. The focus on e-commerce is a lasting trend in term of digital marketing. Over the last years, brands have been focusing their marketing spending on e-commerce platforms to impact online sales directly and efficiently. 

As a matter of fact, Alibaba has seen its market share of digital spending growing over the last five years from 21% in 2015 to 29% in 2019. Today, Alibaba is generating 50 RMB by quarter for each daily active user.

Discover the best e-commerce to sale your product in China

Digital marketing video platforms on the rise - Douyin, Kuaishou and Bilibili 

Short video platforms have captured more and more time from Chinese internet users.

As so, Douyin (also known as TikTok outside of China) is on the rise and is attracting more and more money from digital marketing agencies. 

In fact, Bytedance, the owner of Douyin and the news related platform Toutiao, is now the second largest ads platform in China with 18% of the Digital Spending. It quickly rose from only 2% back in 2016.

The popularity of video platforms among advertisers is directly related to the time spent by internet users. Everyday, Douyin users spend 88 minutes on the APP. With 83 minutes, Bilibili is not far behind and even beats the time spent on WeChat (82 minutes).

Chinese Social Media marketing: still an easy way to reach massive audiences

While Tencent (WeChat owner) has seen a slight decrease of 1% of its market share, Sina Weibo remains stable.

Most marketers consider those two platforms to be mature now and will maintain their level of spending as social media allow them to reach very easily massive audiences.

With 765 millions of daily users (DAU) for WeChat and 188 millions DAU for Sina Weibo, both platforms are still very performant to reach audiences from multiple demographics and profiles very easily. Also, the cost of digital advertising can be attractive, especially on Sina Weibo.

Learn how to buy media on WeChat

How to define your advertising strategy for digital marketing in China ?

Deciding where, when and how you should invest your advertising budget is not an easy task. This is especially true in China where the platforms are diverse, versatile with advertising systems not always easy to understand.

As a digital marketing agency in China, Next Ren Shanghai will be looking at those key aspects to help your decision:

• Brand Maturity in China. If you are new to the market, your investment will be strongly different from a more mature brand. As a matter of fact, you should focus your advertising budget on one or two platforms to maximize your impact and build an audience in China.

• Target audience in China. Who are you targeting ? The location and profile of your target audience will have a strong impact on the platforms you will select. Platform will have different targeting system and tools that will impact your advertising campaign. If you are targeting a very narrow audience, you will favor multiple platforms and collaboration with specialized KOL to make sure to reach out this specific target.

How to find KOL in China to promote your brand ?

• Industry specificities in China. Your industry and business will of course be another determining factor. If you are in the travel/ tourism industry, you will need to consider some specific platforms like Fliggy or Qunar.

As you can see, they are a wide range of aspects to consider and discuss. Our digital marketing agency will help you make well informed decisions to grow your digital presence in China. 

Next Ren is a digital marketing agency in Shanghai.

Follow us on LinkedIn and WeChat to stay updated on WeChat trends.

The post Which digital marketing platforms to choose for advertising in China ? appeared first on Next 人.

So, what are the best digital platforms to sell in China ?

1. Alibaba: TMall & Taobao 
2. Jingdong (JD.com)
3. Specialized platforms (Pingduoduo, Suning, Mia.com)
4. Social Media platforms (Xiahongshu -Red, WeChat)

Alibaba, the leader. TMall or Taobao ?

Today, Alibaba eco-system is dominating the Chinese e-commerce and represents a market share of more than 55%. The two key platforms of Alibaba are TMall and Taobao. 

First, Taobao is a generalist platform and you can find almost anything you can imagine. As such, it is the most popular online e-commerce platform in China. However, you need to have a Chinese company business licence to operate on the platform, so if you are outside of China, Taobao would not be a good match. 

Second, TMall is a more premium version of Taobao. Even if the 2 platforms can look very similar, TMall made an effort to have a more modern design and interface. It highlights the genuity of the products on the platform by being more welcoming to international brands, including cross border selling option.

As such TMall has quickly became the place to be for international brands who want to sell online in China. TMall is the favorite platform for brands across all industries. Today, important brands have their own shop on the platform like Adidas, Burberry, or Samsung.

Jingdong: The No. 2 by Tencent (WeChat Owner)

Jingdong, owned by Alibaba, is the fierce competitor of TMall and Taobao, owned by Tencent. Also known as JD.com, Jingdong has a market share of 16% of the online shopping in China.  Those two internet giants are fighting hard to gain market share using the resources of their other holdings.

As TMall, JD is selling all types of products and is very welcoming to international brands : the platform even has an English version and allows cross borders sellings without having a company in China.

Today, JD positions himself has a technology leader and innovates with high techs solutions including AI or autonomous delivery systems (Drones).

TMall vs. JD.com: which e-commerce to choose for your brand?

The selection of your e-commerce platform is key for the online future of your brand. It should be integrated in your global digital marketing strategy and be adapted on how you want to promote your product and build your community.

For example, TMall and the Alibaba ecosystem are more powerful to give visibility to your product through a SEO strategy. On the other hand, the Alibaba ecosystem is blocked by Tencent so it’s impossible to promote your TMall shop on WeChat. As such, if WeChat is a key element of your digital marketing strategy, JD.com will be a better fit.

Specialized platforms, the best for niche products or specific target audience

If your company plans to sell a specific category of products or targets a niche target audience, some e-commerce platforms can be the perfect fit and will definitely be the one to choose to launch your brand in China.

Pinduoduo - Affordable e-commerce

Pinduoduo is a fast growing e-commerce platform with 7% market share in China ! If your company is selling affordable or cheap products, this is the platform to use. With low cost deals, coupons and grouped purchases, Pinduoduo is a price-driven platform and is the place to be to target smaller cities in China (Tier 3 & 4 cities)

Suning - Electronics e-commerce

Suning is a Chinese e-commerce platform specialized in electronics and home appliances. Even if it can only be used by brand’s official retailers with a presence in China, it is a good example on how finding a platform that perfectly fits your product category can help you meet the right Chinese consumers.

Mia.com: Maternity & Baby product e-commerce

Mia is a Chinese ecommerce platform specialized in maternity and baby products. With more than 30 millions users and 1,300 brand collaborations, the platform is a key player for this industry. Also this platform is very welcoming to foreign brands as over 70% of the product are imported.

Social Media: the e-commerce expansion

Over the years, in China, social media platforms like WeChat have had the ambition to become a one stop all-in-one solution for the users, including e-commerce.

WeChat: Mini-programs for e-commerce

For example, WeChat build Mini-program to facilitate e-commerce. In the meantime, e-commerce third parties solution like Youzan (Example of WeChat e-Shop), allows brand to sell directly on WeChat. Now, brands can sell directly to their community on WeChat without having to be on a dedicated e-commerce website.

XiaoHongShu

Another example of a social media and e-commerce mix is XiaHongShu (Red) where the user can directly buy the product displayed in the post on the platform.

If you want to build your e-commerce in China, reach out to Next Ren team to define your digital marketing strategy.

Next Ren is a digital marketing agency in Shanghai with a strong e-commerce experience.

Follow us on LinkedIn and WeChat to stay updated on China Digital Marketing trends. 

The post What are the best E-commerce websites in China ? TMall, JD, PingDuoDuo… appeared first on Next 人.

• First, reviewing the current challenges and issues RED is facing
• Then, analysing the strengths of the XiaohongShu and the digital marketing opportunities for brands
• And, finally giving our opinion on how and when a brand should consider leveraging the Little Red Book in China 

RED: content quality and platform management is under fire

A few days ago, XiaoHongShu has disappeared from Android stores in China. This situation fostered a lot of discussion online in China with close to a million discussions on Sina Weibo.

In the meantime, Netizens used this opportunity to be very critical of the platform. They feel the content quality dropped and the volume of ads and fake reviews increased.

This suspension of RED from the android platforms is happening a bit more than a month after the platform being warmed by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on user data collection. This situation make you wonder if the two are connected ? Is RED in serious troubles ?

The Little Red Book management team is well aware of those challenges. They already have intended to improve the quality of the platform with a serie of measures. In January, they created a brand partner program so paid marketing post by influencer appeared as such on the platform. They continued their “cleaning” effort in May by busting over 10,000 key opinion leaders with less than 5,000 followers.

Authenticity and trusted user generated content are the key values for users to come and spend time on the platform. As such, the recent backlashes might have a direct impact on the growth and the engagement of XiaoHongShu community.

XiaoHongShu: A mix of Social and E-commerce full of digital marketing opportunities

For foreigners, RED can be seen as a mix of Instagram for the user interface and Amazon for the customers review.

Born in June 2013, RED, is now 6 years old. It has attracted a community of 200 millions users with 80 millions active users. 

So far, XiaoHongShu did not grow as fast and as quickly as WeChat. And it has a long road before reaching the billion users. However, it has reached a point where it is ticking a lot of boxes to attract brands.

Red was initially design to help Chinese easily shop foreign products abroad. But it has quickly become a place where users reviewed, discussed and buy foreign products. This mix of social discussion and e-commerce is one the key value of XiaoHongShu for digital marketers.

RED discussions focus  mainly on cosmetics and skincare. But, now they expanded to other topics like travel, food, sport and of course fashion.

Today, this XiaHongshu user is a young and urban woman in China. 88% of its community is female, 60% is less than 30 years old and 57% live in the top-tier city. This demographic mix of millennials and Generation Z is the key target audience for most brands in China.

With its user generated content DNA, RED is the place to be for influencers (Key Opinions Leaders - KOL) in China. Today, the platform hosts thousands of influencers. They leverage their reach to negociate paid post with brands. Some KOL are charging 1,500 USD for one post to a community as small as 10,000 followers !

Leveraging KOL in China has been a challenge for several years. The results for brands are not always been great, with a lot of fake engagement and followers. RED is no exception to those challenges. It has become one of the key platform for brands and KOL collaboration in China.

With those strengths, the platform has know attracted over 6,000 brands including Fendi, MAC, Yves Saint Laurent or Shiseido.

RED: when and how to leverage it for your digital marketing ?

The more your brand / company is matching the following statements, the more RED should be part of your digital marketing approach in China:

• RED community match your brands target audience profile: young urban Chinese Woman.
• Your brand is related to the skin-care, cosmetics or fashion industries
• You are a foreign brand looking for e-commerce options in China
• Your company has already built a strong presence and engagement on WeChat and Sina Weibo
• KOL and influencers in China is part of your strategy in China

Here at Next Ren, we believe XiaoHongShu like WeChat in the past is at a turning point. It must find the right balance between marketing / monetization and value creation. He will also need to garantee a safe environment in term of data collection to keep user trust. 

Today, brands can already leverage XiaoHongshu to build their digital marketing strategy in China. But they must keep in mind the maturity and the size of the platform is not comparable to the bigger brothers like WeChat or Sina Weibo. 

RED is not niche anymore but as some way to go before becoming as mainstream as WeChat.

Contact us at Next Ren Shanghai to discuss your digital marketing in China and how to include RED

The post Is XiaoHongShu (RED) relevant to market your brand in China ? appeared first on Next 人.