8 Takeaways from Digital Marketing on Chinese Social Media for 2022
Ten years ago in early 2011, WeChat did not even exist. And now it has more than 1.2 billion monthly active users, which hard to find a Chinese adult who is not using it. A recent Westlife live stream concert on WeChat Video Channel quickly got 28 million viewers online. Millions of people and businesses thrive on this single app - then how about JD, Tmall, TikTok/Douyin, and more? China's social media and the digital landscape are still fast developing and are, in a way pioneering the whole world. Here are 8 key takeaways of China's social media development and digital marketing for the new year. But bear in mind, things are changing every single minute.
1. Short Video Marketing Continues to Grow in 2022
As of September 2021, Statista shows that Douyin and Kuaishou are the main short video platforms in China with over 100 million monthly active users. The exponential growth in the number of users in these apps made short videos an essential marketing tool in 2021. Also according to Statista, the popularity of short video marketing is expected to continue in 2022 with an approximate 34% increase in the annual revenue of the short video advertising market in China forecasted for next year.
Due to limited time and content for short videos, brands are forced to deliver specific and concise messages to their target audiences. It can be also considered more feasible for its lower budget and higher interaction rate than long films. As we are moving into 2022, more short video apps or features featuring the format on existing social media platforms in China are expected to be further developed. Hence, it is important to understand which platform suits your brands’ target audience. For example, Kuaishou has a larger user base outside the 1st tier cities, TikTok and Douyin are for global players and various audience groups, WeChat Video Channel is catching up integrated with the whole WeChat ecosystem, while Bilibili is also gaining popularity continuously among the younger generations and being regarded as an important “middle” video length platform.
2. The Growing Challenge of the Live Streaming Industry
Since the boom of live streaming in 2020, Chinese giant tech firms such as Alibaba, Tencent and Bytedance continue to develop and implement live streaming functions into their services such as e-commerce, gaming, and social networking. However, China's explosive growth of live streaming results in more strict guidelines and new regulations for live streamers. Especially towards the end of 2021, China’s third most famous live streamer was fined over $200 million for tax evasion which has brought a further halt to the growth of the e-commerce live streaming industry. Additionally, China’s internet watchdog implemented new rules on trial this year to better regulate the live streaming marketing industry and better monitor content created by live streamers.
On the other hand, Chinese consumers are also spending more money on live stream shopping than any other market in the world. The question comes to how to navigate the live streaming presence of the brand and campaign smartly.
Chinese consumers are also spending more money on live stream shopping than any other market in the world.
3. WeChat ecosystem has become a Social CRM
Today, it is indispensable for brands operating in China to have an official WeChat account. WeChat allows brands more than only promoting their services or products. The more advanced WeChat approach takes full advantage of WeChat’s functionalities and connects all stages of the customer journey. For example, brands can build a better understanding of their follower base and engage with them more personally for a better lead conversion rate with Social CRM platforms. While platforms like Hubspot and Salesforce are heavily built on email marketing communications, the Chinese B2B inbound marketing and marketing automation is built on WeChat since for many, email is no longer a preferred way of professional communication in China. WeChat is the all-in-one app for digital B2B marketing in China, unlike many other countries where firms would use several platforms as part of their B2B marketing.
4. Businesses Need To Comply With the New Data Privacy Regulations
The most effective marketing strategy is to tailor your brand’s marketing to your target customers. However, in recent years, there has been a rise in new laws and regulations that cause many big tech companies more difficulty to obtain and utilize customers’ personal information. For example, China’s new Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) which was taken into effect in November 2021, has hindered several tech companies’ growth and caused challenges in developing new digital marketing tools on social media apps. It is important that your marketing strategies comply with the new regulations to avoid any violation which may lead to administrative fines up to RMB 50 million or 5% of revenue in last year.
China’s new Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) which was taken into effect in November 2021
5. Influencer Marketing in China: Are KOLs or KOCs still relevant in 2022?
Recently, many platforms in China such as Kuaishou, Red, and DouYu have invested resources to help brands expand their KOC (Key Opinion Consumer) base. For example, Red, a social media platform with approximately 100 million active users in 2020, has developed a feature to rank the quality of KOC’s posts. This not only increases traffic for brands but also attracts more people to become KOCs themselves. Today, more brands are shifting from using KOL (Key Opinion Leader) to KOC since it is getting more efficient and more popular, especially among the growing population of the younger generation in China who tend to listen more to KOCs’ opinions. Additionally, the challenge of using KOL marketing is growing as the concerns on performance transparency and accuracy - why spend a large amount of marketing budget on the project that you are so sure about the results.
But it’s not dying though, KOL marketing is still a HUGE thing in China. In 2022, both KOL and KOC marketing will play an essential part in the brand marketing structure, especially for consumer brands. Then the key tasks will be how to better select, arrange, execute, promote and monitor the campaigns.
6. Expanding Audience In Lower-Tier Cities
As the economic growth and consumption rate in China’s tier-1 and tier-2 cities are slowing down statistically, many businesses are moving to target markets in lower-tier cities or even rural areas. 2021 is the first year of China's 14th Five-Year plan, the government started to focus more on economic growth especially in tier-3 and lower cities, aiming for a prosperous society at the same pace. This makes lower-tier cities a new targeting market for many businesses mainly because of the rapid growth in expenditure rate of the lower-tier city population. This is not just an issue to target different market regions geographically, but more about jumping out of the traditional idea of targeting Beijing and Shanghai young audience segments only.
For example, several social media platforms in China developed “lite” versions of their original apps to attract a different user base. The lite version of China’s social media apps such as Baidu Lite, Toutiao Lite, and Douyin Lite only keeps their original apps' core features, making them more suitable for cheaper phones and slower loading speeds or older user groups who are not so familiar with other heavy functionalities.
7. The Rise of Community Group Buying
This is not a super new thing in China though. With China having the greatest number of internet users in the world, it makes China particularly effective for the community group buying model. Customers can easily share or promote the products or services they purchased through social media apps on other social platforms such as WeChat for special deals or discounts. Several apps in China have recently developed features like group-buying in response to the growing accessibility of the internet and social media apps, especially in lower-tier cities. For example, Pinduoduo, an e-commerce platform where users can get cheaper prices through sharing deals with friends and growing a lot in the past few years, and Meituan Youxuan, a delivery app that serves local communities with group-buying groceries services.
China has the greatest number of internet users in the world, which makes China particularly effective for the community group buying model
8. Free Flow of Traffic between Big Tech Firms
As of September 2021, China’s relevant government bodies proceeded to stop big internet platforms from blocking rival links and services to be shared on their platforms. Before the implementation of new rules, there were several blockages between social media apps to prevent users from easily jumping from one app to another app. For example, WeChat users were not able to access direct full links from Taobao and Douyin. This lack of fluidity not only lowered customers’ engagement with the brands, reduced lead conversion but also caused frustration to customers’ experience. However, under new regulations, brands can focus more on creating marketing content to match their target groups rather than platforms, and consumers can also better enjoy their experience across different apps by sharing with their personal networks.