Market Updates
Find out what is happening in the Chinese Digital Market with our Market Updates.
Upstart Chinese apps use aggressive clickbait and free cash tactics to win over new users
Acquiring users for a new APP is hard in any market but especially in China. Big players, such as Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu compete for large market shares. And in order to compete, companies need to come up with some good and new ideas. An interesting strategy used by the new generation of Chinese e-companies is to give discounts and coupons for their users in order to establish a better position in the competitive market. This strategy involves paying users to play games, to watch videos or to convince others to join the new app. Although this strategy helps to rapidly increase the number of users, it is doesn’t take away the need for the APP to deliver value in order to have a long term profit.
Twitter of China Weibo eyes expansion to overseas ‘Chinese-speaking world’
Chinese social media giant Weibo, which was launched in 2009 and has more than 400 million monthly active users started to look for the overseas market. The social media platform is considering launching new products in different languages aiming to find new users and new countries. This is the same strategy adopted by TikTok – short form video sharing app – that has become widely popular in other countries this years. However, it is well known that Chinese tech firms are not always welcomed overseas since most of them are known for their censorship and sometimes even fake news, which raises some concerns in foreign countries.
China lifts tax-free ceiling for personal online purchases from abroad
The Chinese consumption patterns have been changing in the last few years, which is reflected in the increasingly willing to purchase more high quality products. In order to adapt to the new trends, the Chinese government announced that they will lift the tax-free ceiling for personal cross-border e-commerce retail purchases. The new regulation will be implemented at the same day as the new Electronic Commerce Law, on January 1, 2019. This change it is expected to have little influence on large international e-commerce players, however daigou – Chinese personal shopper – will be negatively committed.
Paying Tribute to China: How Western Brands Can Avoid Cultural Insensitivity
After the repercussions of the latest Dolce & Gabbana campaign last month, some comments have been raised about the increasingly challenging environment of the Chinese market. However, for some Western brands China’s new generations are not so hard to please, which is reflected in great campaigns that did have positive impact in the Chinese market. Clearly, understanding the gap between the cultural expectations and the current reality is crucial to any business succeeding in China. Additional tips are; focus on the present and the future; explore collaboration with artist or designers; and recognizing the increased awareness of Chinese consumers. All these are important steps to develop a good marketing strategy in China.
Taobao is now testing new feature that includes product reviews from Xiaohongshu
Alibaba’s platform Taobao started testing a new feature last week that includes product reviews from Xiaohongshu (better known as Little Red Book or RED). RED is a growing and promising social media platform where shoppers can write reviews and share previous experiences on a wide variety of topics. With this new feature Taobao aims to provide more product details to consumers. This way they hope to cover the notorious and growing influence of content on Chinese shoppers’ purchase decisions. But the question remains, is this a good or a bad development for RED? We think it might hurt the platforms standing more than it will do good to Alibaba’s Taobao.
Going Deeper than the Buzz: Share the Best Lifestyles on RED
The social media platform RED (or Little Red Book) is an online sharing community which enables users to post their recommendations based on their previous experiences. Unlike other social media, the platform aims to offer more informative and detailed content in order to make it more authentic and build trust with Chinese users. Previously RED was mainly focused on beauty and cosmetics, however it has been expanding to other segments such as fashion, food, traveling and lifestyle. It now even provides the users the convenience to buy the products directly within its own online store. With its unique and consistent brand positioning, it is not surprising that RED has grown so drastically and has become one of the most promising marketing platform for brands.
Dolce & Gabbana’s Brand Reputation ‘In Rags’ Over China Ad Outrage
Dolce & Gabbana has cancelled its biggest promotional event of the year, that would take place in Shanghai, after Chinese celebrities and social media users reacted against the controversial advertising campaign that was posted on D&G’s social media accounts. The campaign shows a Chinese woman trying to use chopsticks to eat some Italian foods while a narrator offers instructions on how to eat them. Many Chinese have accused the luxury brand to reinforce the cultural stereotypes and have alleged no understanding or appreciation of Chinese culture. When doing business in China is important to understand the cultural differences and have sensitivity to create campaigns.
Why shopping on China’s Singles’ Day and US Black Friday differ so much
Two of the world biggest e-commerce festivals took place in November. On the 11th China’s Singles’ Day set a record with US$30.8 billion in sales while on the 23rd the US Black Friday online sales reached around US$6.3 billion (in 2017 it was US$5 billion). This massive difference represents the contrast between US and China retail ecosystems. It shows that the biggest shopping day for the world’s most populous country happens almost exclusively online. Of course helped by the internet and the rapid adoption of mobile phones, which helped to train an entire generation of increasingly affluent consumers to buy online. Furthermore, China’s Singles’ Day is now about more than just sales, it is also a social event for consumers. In contrast, American retailers often merely slash prices or hold stock clearances with discounts.
Upstart Chinese apps use aggressive clickbait and free cash tactics to win over new users
Acquiring users for a new APP is hard in any market but especially in China. Big players, such as Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu compete for large market shares. And in order to compete, companies need to come up with some good and new ideas. An interesting strategy used by the new generation of Chinese e-companies is to give discounts and coupons for their users in order to establish a better position in the competitive market. This strategy involves paying users to play games, to watch videos or to convince others to join the new app. Although this strategy helps
Twitter of China Weibo eyes expansion to overseas ‘Chinese-speaking world’
Chinese social media giant Weibo, which was launched in 2009 and has more than 400 million monthly active users started to look for the overseas market. The social media platform is considering launching new products in different languages aiming to find new users and new countries. This is the same strategy adopted by TikTok – short form video sharing app – that has become widely popular in other countries this years. However, it is well known that Chinese tech firms are not always welcomed overseas since most of them are known for their censorship and sometimes even fake news,
China lifts tax-free ceiling for personal online purchases from abroad
The Chinese consumption patterns have been changing in the last few years, which is reflected in the increasingly willing to purchase more high quality products. In order to adapt to the new trends, the Chinese government announced that they will lift the tax-free ceiling for personal cross-border e-commerce retail purchases. The new regulation will be implemented at the same day as the new Electronic Commerce Law, on January 1, 2019. This change it is expected to have little influence on large international e-commerce players, however daigou – Chinese personal shopper – will be negatively committed.
Paying Tribute to China: How Western Brands Can Avoid Cultural Insensitivity
After the repercussions of the latest Dolce & Gabbana campaign last month, some comments have been raised about the increasingly challenging environment of the Chinese market. However, for some Western brands China’s new generations are not so hard to please, which is reflected in great campaigns that did have positive impact in the Chinese market. Clearly, understanding the gap between the cultural expectations and the current reality is crucial to any business succeeding in China. Additional tips are; focus on the present and the future; explore collaboration with artist or designers; and recognizing the increased awareness of Chinese consumers.
Taobao is now testing new feature that includes product reviews from Xiaohongshu
Alibaba’s platform Taobao started testing a new feature last week that includes product reviews from Xiaohongshu (better known as Little Red Book or RED). RED is a growing and promising social media platform where shoppers can write reviews and share previous experiences on a wide variety of topics. With this new feature Taobao aims to provide more product details to consumers. This way they hope to cover the notorious and growing influence of content on Chinese shoppers’ purchase decisions. But the question remains, is this a good or a bad development for RED? We think it might hurt the
Going Deeper than the Buzz: Share the Best Lifestyles on RED
The social media platform RED (or Little Red Book) is an online sharing community which enables users to post their recommendations based on their previous experiences. Unlike other social media, the platform aims to offer more informative and detailed content in order to make it more authentic and build trust with Chinese users. Previously RED was mainly focused on beauty and cosmetics, however it has been expanding to other segments such as fashion, food, traveling and lifestyle. It now even provides the users the convenience to buy the products directly within its own online store. With its unique and
Dolce & Gabbana’s Brand Reputation ‘In Rags’ Over China Ad Outrage
Dolce & Gabbana has cancelled its biggest promotional event of the year, that would take place in Shanghai, after Chinese celebrities and social media users reacted against the controversial advertising campaign that was posted on D&G’s social media accounts. The campaign shows a Chinese woman trying to use chopsticks to eat some Italian foods while a narrator offers instructions on how to eat them. Many Chinese have accused the luxury brand to reinforce the cultural stereotypes and have alleged no understanding or appreciation of Chinese culture. When doing business in China is important to understand the cultural differences and
Why shopping on China’s Singles’ Day and US Black Friday differ so much
Two of the world biggest e-commerce festivals took place in November. On the 11th China’s Singles’ Day set a record with US$30.8 billion in sales while on the 23rd the US Black Friday online sales reached around US$6.3 billion (in 2017 it was US$5 billion). This massive difference represents the contrast between US and China retail ecosystems. It shows that the biggest shopping day for the world’s most populous country happens almost exclusively online. Of course helped by the internet and the rapid adoption of mobile phones, which helped to train an entire generation of increasingly affluent consumers to
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