Market Updates
Find out what is happening in the Chinese Digital Market with our Market Updates.
How Maybelline Got the Chinese New Year Right
Every year numerous brands create special limited-edition products to celebrate Chinese New Year, and brands often look to influencers to help promote these products. This year, cosmetics brand Maybelline launched their new “Red on Fire” lipstick series. To do so they created a custom mahjong set, with the traditional symbols on the tiles replaced with lipstick, New York City icons, and the Maybelline M logo on the back. The campaign was a huge success with hundreds of bloggers across all major Chinese social media platforms posting about it. Nowadays, product seeding is a smart way to keep KOLs up to date about new products. But for brands that want influencers to post about their product, the presentation is key for an eye-catching campaign that stands out from the crowd.
ByteDance looks beyond entertainment with a move into education
Beijing is tightening it’s cyberspace controls. This also means short video app operators are required to more heavily censor their content. Perhaps as a result of that, ByteDance, the company behind Douyin and Tiktok, is developing a more serious side to its business that the fun-loving younger generation may not care for – online education. The move is the company’s latest attempt to expand into the education sector. It has even acquired certain patents to “explore the education business”. Is this going to be the next success story for ByteDance? Let’s wait and see what happens!
Gen-Z with Chinese Characteristics
Generation Z was born between 1998 and 2016 meaning the first ones are now turning 21 this year. In China this generation is often referred to as the “spoiled generation”, due to being the only child in their family. The urgency to market to them is mounting, and both brands and retailers need to understand how this generation is different from previous ones. This article references a report based on interviews with 15,500 respondents from 9 countries of Gen-Z members aged 16 to 21. It has some interesting takeaways. Check it out!
Cross-border e-commerce platform NetEase Kaola extends offline presence
Online versus offline was an “either-or” retail equation not long ago. The popularity of new retail is creating a more favorable third option that combines both in-shop and online experiences. All major Chinese tech giants including Alibaba, Tencent, JD, Xiaomi, and Meituan have made similar moves. And now Kaola from Netease, another Cross-border e-commerce platform, plans to open 15 new brick-and-mortar stores during 2019 in a bid to keep up with the new retail boom in China. Not sure what new retail is? Talk with us to find out, or keep an eye on our website for a compact deck after we come back from Marketing2China in Prague!
Will Cross-Border WeChat Selling Be the Next Big Thing for Travel Retail?
First Weibo started gaining ground as the go to Social platform for Travel related posts. And now even Little Red Book is joining the fray with people flocking to the platform for Travel reviews and inspiration. Where does that leave WeChat? It plays its own crucial role in helping brands market to and retain Chinese customers, throughout the customer’s journey. And connects retailers and Chinese customers through its CRM features. Now, with the development of cross-border WeChat shops, brands can sell to Chinese travelers even after they go home. Will this help WeChat stay in the game when it comes to the travel retail industry? Let’s see how things develop.
Little Red Book Now Unmasks KOLs’ Paid Posts
Little Red Book or RED, a social e-commerce app, announced the launch of its “brand partner platform” in January. It helps brands connect directly to the site’s influencers if they would like to arrange for sponsored posts, endorsements or positive reviews. But it also introduced something else. Possibly one of the most important changes that the platform has ever made, it allows users to see which posts are paid content and which are not. This move shows that RED understands the importance of being transparent to its loyal followers. Especially seeing as how their reputation hinges on offering real opinions on brands.
Shopping app Little Red Book opens platform for brand-KOL partnerships
A few months ago RED opened up the shopping cart features, and now it has taken a step towards encouraging partnerships between brands and KOLs. It opened a platform for verified brands and KOLs to search for and find each other. Companies and MCNs can now find influencers by searching content tags and view statistics such as a content creators’ fan count, number of likes, average hits over the past 30 days, and average number of comments per post. Could a next step be that we can match the demographics of the fan base as well? That is still missing in most KOL plans. But this new feature is a step in the right direction for brands, so all in all good news.
On WeChat, Daigou Get Creative to Skirt New E-Commerce Law
Daigou (cross-border personal shoppers) are affected by the changes in the Ecommerce law but they seem to be at a loss on where to start to comply with it. Instead they are trying to “stay low” through all kinds of tactics including hand drawn pictures of the products they sell and writing the description in different languages. How long do you think it will take for WeChat to crack down on them?
How Maybelline Got the Chinese New Year Right
Every year numerous brands create special limited-edition products to celebrate Chinese New Year, and brands often look to influencers to help promote these products. This year, cosmetics brand Maybelline launched their new “Red on Fire” lipstick series. To do so they created a custom mahjong set, with the traditional symbols on the tiles replaced with lipstick, New York City icons, and the Maybelline M logo on the back. The campaign was a huge success with hundreds of bloggers across all major Chinese social media platforms posting about it. Nowadays, product seeding is a smart way to keep KOLs up
ByteDance looks beyond entertainment with a move into education
Beijing is tightening it’s cyberspace controls. This also means short video app operators are required to more heavily censor their content. Perhaps as a result of that, ByteDance, the company behind Douyin and Tiktok, is developing a more serious side to its business that the fun-loving younger generation may not care for – online education. The move is the company’s latest attempt to expand into the education sector. It has even acquired certain patents to “explore the education business”. Is this going to be the next success story for ByteDance? Let’s wait and see what happens!
Gen-Z with Chinese Characteristics
Generation Z was born between 1998 and 2016 meaning the first ones are now turning 21 this year. In China this generation is often referred to as the “spoiled generation”, due to being the only child in their family. The urgency to market to them is mounting, and both brands and retailers need to understand how this generation is different from previous ones. This article references a report based on interviews with 15,500 respondents from 9 countries of Gen-Z members aged 16 to 21. It has some interesting takeaways. Check it out!
Cross-border e-commerce platform NetEase Kaola extends offline presence
Online versus offline was an “either-or” retail equation not long ago. The popularity of new retail is creating a more favorable third option that combines both in-shop and online experiences. All major Chinese tech giants including Alibaba, Tencent, JD, Xiaomi, and Meituan have made similar moves. And now Kaola from Netease, another Cross-border e-commerce platform, plans to open 15 new brick-and-mortar stores during 2019 in a bid to keep up with the new retail boom in China. Not sure what new retail is? Talk with us to find out, or keep an eye on our website for a compact deck
Will Cross-Border WeChat Selling Be the Next Big Thing for Travel Retail?
First Weibo started gaining ground as the go to Social platform for Travel related posts. And now even Little Red Book is joining the fray with people flocking to the platform for Travel reviews and inspiration. Where does that leave WeChat? It plays its own crucial role in helping brands market to and retain Chinese customers, throughout the customer’s journey. And connects retailers and Chinese customers through its CRM features. Now, with the development of cross-border WeChat shops, brands can sell to Chinese travelers even after they go home. Will this help WeChat stay in the game when it comes
Little Red Book Now Unmasks KOLs’ Paid Posts
Little Red Book or RED, a social e-commerce app, announced the launch of its “brand partner platform” in January. It helps brands connect directly to the site’s influencers if they would like to arrange for sponsored posts, endorsements or positive reviews. But it also introduced something else. Possibly one of the most important changes that the platform has ever made, it allows users to see which posts are paid content and which are not. This move shows that RED understands the importance of being transparent to its loyal followers. Especially seeing as how their reputation hinges on offering real
Shopping app Little Red Book opens platform for brand-KOL partnerships
A few months ago RED opened up the shopping cart features, and now it has taken a step towards encouraging partnerships between brands and KOLs. It opened a platform for verified brands and KOLs to search for and find each other. Companies and MCNs can now find influencers by searching content tags and view statistics such as a content creators’ fan count, number of likes, average hits over the past 30 days, and average number of comments per post. Could a next step be that we can match the demographics of the fan base as well? That is still
On WeChat, Daigou Get Creative to Skirt New E-Commerce Law
Daigou (cross-border personal shoppers) are affected by the changes in the Ecommerce law but they seem to be at a loss on where to start to comply with it. Instead they are trying to “stay low” through all kinds of tactics including hand drawn pictures of the products they sell and writing the description in different languages. How long do you think it will take for WeChat to crack down on them?
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