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Leveraging Chinese Social Media to Accelerate Brand Building

By June 2019, China's had 854 million internet users, and the internet penetration rate had reached 61.2%. Social media is gradually commercialized and has become a powerful tool for brands to advertise and promote products.

By June 2019, China's had 854 million internet users, and the internet penetration rate had reached 61.2%, according to the 44th Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet. The popularization of the internet has made social media an indispensable part of the lives of Chinese people. Different from the old days when social media was just a tool for emotional expression and value sharing, today, social media is a powerful business tool.

Development history of social media in China

Social media in China has gone through five distinct stages of development in China, greatly changing the way users get access to information and communicate and share with others.

StageRepresentativesFeatures
Social network BBS forum stage (the mid-1990s)Tianya, MopNetizens discuss designated official topics and elaborate on their views.
Recreational, social media stage (since 2000)Blog, QQ zone, RenrenNetizens have fixed space  to express their mood and lifestyle through text and pictures. The space is relatively private.
Information social media stage (since 2009)Sina Weibo, BilibiliSupport text, pictures, audio, video, and other multimedia forms, and the content is open to all and can be forwarded and commented on increasing interactivity.
Mobile social media stage (since 2011)Wechat, Little Red Book, DoubanSocial networking is instant, portable and convenient.
Live streaming & short video social media stage (became hot since 2015)

Live-streaming: Douyu, YY Live

Short video: Kuaishou, Douyin (Tik Tok)

Live-streaming, KOLs, and influencers gain popularity and become web celebrities.

What has changed?

  • The way of socializing has transformed from PC to mobile.

  • The explosive growth of short video and live streaming apps symbolizes the transition from text to multimedia.

  • More professional and vertical social media apps appeared, aiming at niche segments.

  • Social media is gradually commercialized and has become a powerful tool for brands to advertise and promote products.

How to do marketing?

Take advantage of social e-commerce. 

Social media has been closely linked with e-commerce. Social e-commerce uses social interaction, user-generated content, and a high flow of internet traffic to allow brands to funnel traffic towards retail platforms, advertise and develop consumer awareness. China's social e-commerce entered a period of rapid development in 2015 and reached its peak in 2017, with the market size reaching 2.06 trillion yuan in 2019, up 63.2% [1].

Stellar examples include WeChat’s third-party shopping platform Weidian (WeShop) and Little Red Book's combination of social networking and e-commerce, etc. Also, social media such as Douyin (Tik Tok) and Douban are also constantly trying to integrate with e-commerce. Sina Weibo is not only equipped with its shopping window but also funnels traffic and referrals to more traditional e-commerce platforms like Taobao and Tmall.

There is another brilliant example that perfectly combines social media with e-commerce -- Pinduoduo (founded in 2015). Compared with traditional e-commerce, Pinduoduo is distinctive and pioneering because it does not passively wait for consumers to search and buy on the shopping platform. Instead, it actively spreads its products through social channels such as WeChat and QQ, and consumers themselves help expand the user group through group buying and group discounts. As of March 2, Pinduoduo’s market value has exceeded $43.6 billion, making it the 5th largest internet company in China after Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, and Jingdong.

Harness the power of “Content + KOLs."

Content marketing has a wide scope and includes media such as graphics, live-streaming, audio, short video, and film, etc. Of all the content types, video is the most interactive one and, therefore, the most promising one. According to a survey by Cisco, 82% of all online content is video. To align with this trend WeChat also recently launched a short extension into its existing digital infrastructure.

Douyin (Tik Tok) and Kuaishou are two major players in the short video sector, with DAU reaching 400 million and 300 million, respectively. By constantly adding new content forms like medium-and-long video, live-steaming, e-commerce, games, and knowledge sharing, etc., they can remain relevant and maintain steady growth.

In China, live-streaming is experiencing rapid growth, with the market size expected to exceed 106 billion yuan by 2020 [2]. In the 2019 11/11 shopping festival, nearly 20 billion yuan of sales were realized through Taobao live-streaming, with the TOP 2 prominent anchors Wei Ya & Li Jiaqi respectively attracting 43 million and 36 million viewers.

Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya are two of China’s most prominent KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders). They have a large group of fans and followers, which allows them to do targeted marketing, promotions, and funnel traffic towards specific brands or products.

Consider the importance of private domain traffic.

In 2019, in addition to e-commerce live streaming, there is another buzz word -- private domain traffic. As traffic on e-commerce platforms reaches saturation point and competition intensifies, many brands have turned to develop private domain traffic in which they curate special interest groups dedicated to their brand on social media platforms like Wechat. Private domain traffic is owned by the brand, helping build stable links between brands and consumers through social media. Private domain traffic is also sometimes referred to as fan operation or consumer communication.

Chinese domestic cosmetics brand Perfect Diary is a testament to the power of private domain traffic. It uses a whole string of tactics to build up this private domain traffic, primarily through WeChat. These services include after-sale service, cosmetic skills teaching, and a host of sales promotion events, live streaming, tutorials, offline and online social events, etc. It now has 6 million users in its private domain consisting of individual WeChat account, Circle of Friends, WeChat Group, Mini Program, and official account followers [3].

During China’s peak COVID-19 outbreak, bricks and mortar businesses were hit hardest. At this time, brands focused their efforts on online sales, particularly sales driven through WeChat Groups and WeChat Mini Programs. Official data from WeChat showed that from New Year's Eve of 2020 to the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, sales of fresh food through Wechat Mini Programs grew by 149% year on year, and the number of transactions of community e-commerce increased by 322% year on year. In 2019, WeChat Mini Program recorded more than 300 million daily active users, and the annual trading volume was as high as 80 billion yuan [4].

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