A Quick Guide to Most Popular Chinese Social Media for Brands — (2022)

The top 3 Chinese social media sites that marketers should consider using

Social media has long become the top channels for brands to reaching new audiences. If you are a western brand owner, you are probably very familiar with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. In China, the social media landscape is vastly different. From WeChat, Little Red Book, to Douyin, China has seen the emergence of many innovative new social channels that have billions active users daily.

According to Statista, the Chinese internet population was around 971 million in 2020 and would surge up to 1.29 billion by 2026. As the world’s largest online community continues to grow, Chinese social media sites have become popular tools to reach Chinese customers. More and more brands have also been using social media as a major marketing tool for brand promotion and other activities.

Here are the top 3 social media sites that marketers should consider using when they first enter the Chinese market.

WeChat

WeChat is a Necessity. More and More NZ Brands are on WeChat

 WeChat is the must-have social commerce platform in China, with over 1.2 billion monthly active users. Chinese users spend an average of over 70 minutes a day within the app. All this amazing data makes WeChat become one of the most popular choices for brands to get started with social media marketing in China.

What NZ Brands Need to Now

1. WeChat estimated monthly active users (excluding tourists) in NZ approx. 200,000+ 80-85% of the total New Zealand based Chinese population. (Source: ePayments, 2019). Top tier corporates has natural advantage at organic follower growth given its brand influence with regular postings. The base subscriber no. expectation in 12 months since account launch is around 1k to 6k. The average reads depends on the content can range from 100+ to 10k +.
2. WeChat Channel is on rise. The number of live-streaming users in China has reached 560 million as of March 2020, meaning that 40% of the Chinese population and 62% of internet users are livestreaming users. Compared with Douyin, the recommendation mechanism of WeChat Channels can fully tap the value of the user’s acquaintance relationship chain and network resources to help brands expand private traffic and influence. WeChat Channels can be linked with Official Accounts and Mini Programs to increase the rate of content seeding to buying.

Little Red Book （LRB）

LRB is the Chinese equivalent of Instagram. It has 100 million monthly active users (MAUs). It’s the best platform to read about product reviews, share outfits of the day, learn about fashion tips, and discover high-quality brands, lifestyle sharing. Since LRB reviews could directly impact sales, it’s one of the most important social media channels for seeding. There are many NZ brands already present on LRB, mostly consumer brands.

What NZ Brands Need to Now

1. LRB is best for KOL Campaigns: As Instagram does, LRB is filled with influencers sharing their product preference with their audiences. For NZ brands who want to tell a local origin story, it is most effective to invite a group of  NZ KOLs to share their product reviews on LRB. Their followers who are living mainly in China will have the NZ origin impression as it conveys.  We have also helped brands who have already selling in China to invite China local KOLs to use products and share reviews. KOL campaigns and seedings is seen very cost effective on raising brand and product awareness.
2. You can have your own brand account: You can create your own company account and share your own content. Having a business account gives you access to the app KOL network but also to their integrated eCommerce feature. On top of that, all reviews can be linked directly to your verified account, great for “recommendation” marketing.

Douyin

The Chinese version of Tiktok has become the unicorn of Chinese social media that has conquered the world. It is the most popular Chinese short video app that features user-generated 15-60s fun videos, livestreams, and viral challenges. It’s among the go-to destinations for marketers looking to connect and engage with Chinese audiences. NZ Locally, most local Chinese use Douyin for short video entertainment. As of 2022, around 48.7 percent of Douyin’s users aged below 30 years old. The video-sharing platform is growing its popularity around the world, and attracted about 600 million daily active users as of 2022.

What NZ Brands Need to Now

1. E-Commerce Integration: Douyin launched its flagship stores in 2021, which created opportunity for brands to making a major step into e-commerce. We have identified the opportunity for AwaRua to sell on Douyin as the early bird NZ brand. We set up a dedicated eCommerce team in China to facilitate the flagship store growth. From brand live streaming, KOL collaborations, to promotion activities,  the Douyin store sales have grown rapidly and reached the GMV of 4.5million after 10 months operation.
2. Build you IP – Compared to “traditional” advertisements, content on Douyin appears more trustworthy for Chinese millennials. Announcement style video is no longer attractive. The young audience will need to deeply engage with the brand on emotional level before purchase. It is an ideal place to create word of mouth and increase brand awareness, especially for smaller or less well-known brands.

 Want to know more about the Chinese social media landscape and insights? Feel free to contact Touchpoint CC’s team by email or phone. Cheers!