Market Updates
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Why Natural Skincare Brands are Targeting China
How can one stand out from thousands of skincare products, is it creative packaging or star effect? As it turns out, skin care products with green natural ingredients are the mainstream to win the market at present. Skincare and beauty is big business in China. An AlixPartners survey earlier this year found, 90 percent of surveyed Chinese consumers said purchasing “healthy or clean products” was important to them. As result we can see that the demand for natural skin care products is rising in China. All that is left is to promote them to the right audience through the right channels.
Ant Financial to fully integrate Alipay mini programs with Weibo
Alipay introduced the mini-program feature a year ago and has committed a substantial amount of resources to building out an ecosystem. Recently, Ant Financial company announced that it will fully integrate Alipay’s mini-program feature with Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo. Merchants on the Alipay mini-program platform will benefit from tapping Weibo’s vast social network to expand marketing campaign reach. Alipay mini-program’s rich ecosystem of services will help merchants on Weibo convert content into services and products.
The dark side of China’s beauty boom
$200 may sound like a lot to pay for a whitening serum by Korean beauty brand Sulwhasoo. But for Beijing based Yiyang Li, it’s worth the price. The average Chinese Female Middle Class Consumer uses 14 beauty products for their skin, hands and face, according to L’Oréal experts we have worked with. Young women all over China care hugely about their looks and express themselves through personal beauty. China is now the world’s second largest beauty market, trailing the US. But what’s driving their spending?
Alibaba acquires NetEase Kaola in deal worth $2 billion
Alibaba Group has acquired Kaola from Netease for $2 billion. Tmall Global and Kaola are China’s largest and second-largest cross-border e-commerce platforms, respectively, holding 31.7% and 24.5% of the market. These two businesses together will dwarf rivals like JD Worldwide, VIP International and Amazon China. The move has the potential to turn the cross-border e-commerce market on its head. Alibaba extends its leadership in e-commerce and looks to assert its dominance over arch-rival Tencent.
Weibo testing new social lifestyle app, Oasis
On Monday Chinese microblogging platform Weibo launched a new lifestyle platform, Oasis. It combines social media and forum functionalities. The launch of the new app may help microblogging platform Weibo fend off competition from Xiaohongshu, also known as RED. The app is a hybrid of Instagram and Xiaohongshu in layout and major features. For example, users can browse content based on interests and find like-minded friends in various fields such as fashion, food, travel, and beauty. Currently, it is being tested by invited trial users. Let’s see what suprises Oasis will bring to us in the future!
WeChat restricts controversial video face-swapping app Zao, citing ‘security risks’
A new app called Zao went viral in China this weekend for its realistic face-swapping videos. But after controversy about its user policy, WeChat restricted access to the app on its messaging platform. Where have we heard this story before? It is the umpteenth time WeChat has blocked a popular app. Although this time the reason seems to be legitimate. The hype around the app and its user policies has also focused more attention on general deepfake technology and the risks it poses.
Social Ad spend to triple to by 2023
A new report from Forrester says social advertising spend in China is likely to triple by 2023 as video continues to catalyse revenue per user on social platforms. “China already accounts for 44% of Asia Pacific’s social advertising spend, it is expected to grow from US$9.9 billion in 2018 to US$27.6 billion in 2023 — a CAGR of 22.8%.” China’s key players in the social media market have acquired huge user bases in the past decade and will start monetising them aggressively, according to Forrester. Weibo and Tencent have some of the lowest revenues per monthly active user (MAU) globally, suggesting the Chinese social giants still have room to grow.
Why Ampoules Present a Big Opportunity for Chinese Beauty
Chinese consumers’ new obsession with ‘cosmeceuticals’ — cosmetic products that have medicinal properties — is evident on the shopping app Little Red Book where #安瓶 (#ampoules) was hashtagged over 100,000 times. Cutting-edge beauty products like ampoules are a great example of how Chinese consumers are now demanding sophisticated products and learning how to verify them. Especially the younger generations of internet-savvy female shoppers. However, younger consumers nowadays have shown little loyalty to the brands they buy as compared to older generations. Younger consumers want to see immediate effects, which causes the market to be tough to conquer. But with a digital-first strategy and grassroots KOL campaigns, brands can certainly find the sweet spot with this hot beauty trend.
Why Natural Skincare Brands are Targeting China
How can one stand out from thousands of skincare products, is it creative packaging or star effect? As it turns out, skin care products with green natural ingredients are the mainstream to win the market at present. Skincare and beauty is big business in China. An AlixPartners survey earlier this year found, 90 percent of surveyed Chinese consumers said purchasing “healthy or clean products” was important to them. As result we can see that the demand for natural skin care products is rising in China. All that is left is to promote them to the right audience through the
Ant Financial to fully integrate Alipay mini programs with Weibo
Alipay introduced the mini-program feature a year ago and has committed a substantial amount of resources to building out an ecosystem. Recently, Ant Financial company announced that it will fully integrate Alipay’s mini-program feature with Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo. Merchants on the Alipay mini-program platform will benefit from tapping Weibo’s vast social network to expand marketing campaign reach. Alipay mini-program’s rich ecosystem of services will help merchants on Weibo convert content into services and products.
The dark side of China’s beauty boom
$200 may sound like a lot to pay for a whitening serum by Korean beauty brand Sulwhasoo. But for Beijing based Yiyang Li, it’s worth the price. The average Chinese Female Middle Class Consumer uses 14 beauty products for their skin, hands and face, according to L’Oréal experts we have worked with. Young women all over China care hugely about their looks and express themselves through personal beauty. China is now the world’s second largest beauty market, trailing the US. But what’s driving their spending?
Alibaba acquires NetEase Kaola in deal worth $2 billion
Alibaba Group has acquired Kaola from Netease for $2 billion. Tmall Global and Kaola are China’s largest and second-largest cross-border e-commerce platforms, respectively, holding 31.7% and 24.5% of the market. These two businesses together will dwarf rivals like JD Worldwide, VIP International and Amazon China. The move has the potential to turn the cross-border e-commerce market on its head. Alibaba extends its leadership in e-commerce and looks to assert its dominance over arch-rival Tencent.
Weibo testing new social lifestyle app, Oasis
On Monday Chinese microblogging platform Weibo launched a new lifestyle platform, Oasis. It combines social media and forum functionalities. The launch of the new app may help microblogging platform Weibo fend off competition from Xiaohongshu, also known as RED. The app is a hybrid of Instagram and Xiaohongshu in layout and major features. For example, users can browse content based on interests and find like-minded friends in various fields such as fashion, food, travel, and beauty. Currently, it is being tested by invited trial users. Let’s see what suprises Oasis will bring to us in the future!
WeChat restricts controversial video face-swapping app Zao, citing ‘security risks’
A new app called Zao went viral in China this weekend for its realistic face-swapping videos. But after controversy about its user policy, WeChat restricted access to the app on its messaging platform. Where have we heard this story before? It is the umpteenth time WeChat has blocked a popular app. Although this time the reason seems to be legitimate. The hype around the app and its user policies has also focused more attention on general deepfake technology and the risks it poses.
Social Ad spend to triple to by 2023
A new report from Forrester says social advertising spend in China is likely to triple by 2023 as video continues to catalyse revenue per user on social platforms. “China already accounts for 44% of Asia Pacific’s social advertising spend, it is expected to grow from US$9.9 billion in 2018 to US$27.6 billion in 2023 — a CAGR of 22.8%.” China’s key players in the social media market have acquired huge user bases in the past decade and will start monetising them aggressively, according to Forrester. Weibo and Tencent have some of the lowest revenues per monthly active user (MAU)
Why Ampoules Present a Big Opportunity for Chinese Beauty
Chinese consumers’ new obsession with ‘cosmeceuticals’ — cosmetic products that have medicinal properties — is evident on the shopping app Little Red Book where #安瓶 (#ampoules) was hashtagged over 100,000 times. Cutting-edge beauty products like ampoules are a great example of how Chinese consumers are now demanding sophisticated products and learning how to verify them. Especially the younger generations of internet-savvy female shoppers. However, younger consumers nowadays have shown little loyalty to the brands they buy as compared to older generations. Younger consumers want to see immediate effects, which causes the market to be tough to conquer. But with
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