Six most popular body image Weibo trends

Weibo trend #1: hairy armpits selfies

This trend was started by Xiao Meili (first from left), women’s rights advocate, who encouraged women to take selfies of their unshaven armpits and post them on Weibo. Her idea was to challenge common stereotypes of female beauty that pressure women to shave their armpits. Original contest that was viewed almost 2 million times, was followed by selection of 3 winners. The first place winner (third from the left) got a hundred condoms, second place received a vibrator and the third ten winners were awarded with female urination device.

The contest participants have received quite a bit of support from other social media Chinese users and even from those outside of China. Critics, however, were quick to point out that shaving armpits doesn’t have much to do with feminism but a matter of personal hygiene. Others noted the fact is that shaving armpits for women didn’t become widespread in China until the 90s, one of many western trends that took root in Chinese society at the time.

Weibo trend #2: belly button challenge

Participants in this challenge were asked to reach their belly button from around the waist and post the picture of their success. It was mentioned 130 million times and spawned 104,000 active discussions threads on Weibo. Apparently, being able to do so demonstrated one’s skinny figure, the ideal to strive for.

As it later turned out, ability to accomplish this feat had nothing to do with fitness but more with the length and flexibility of one’s arms. The trend was also mercilessly mocked by people uploading their humorous take on the challenge. It also exposed more serious issues related to promoting eating disorder in never ending quest of already thin people to lose even more weight.

Weibo trend #3: coins on the collarbone

This new social media craze took over Weibo just after a week following the original belly button challenge. In order to demonstrate their skinny figures, young Chinese females were taking selfies with stacks of coins standing upright on their collarbones. Some people were able to balance as many as 20 coins on a collarbone.

A well-known Chinese actress, Lu Jiarong, was even able to fit 80 coins (40 on each side) while still managing to take a selfie. Although not as big as other trends, it still attracted over 30 million views and was followed by usual mockery with people balancing everyday objects, such as coffee mugs, eggs and cellphones on their shoulders.

Weibo trend #4: underboob pen challenge

This viral trend has started in Japan and quickly gained popularity among Weibo users in China. It was tweeted with hashtags #carrypenunderbreast or #UnderBoobChallenge which is pretty self-explanatory. Most troubling was the fact that it was often accompanied by caption “pass the challenge to prove you are a real woman”.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the challenge has seen its fair share of mockery too. Few overweight men took humorous selfies with stationary stuck under their “manboobs” while some fit male participants demonstrated their ability to hold pens between their sculpted pectorals.

Weibo trend #5: A4 waist

This challenge that started in February this year required women to take selfies with a piece of A4 printer paper in front of their waists. Being able to completely hide one’s waist behind it was the proof of successfully meeting the test. The width of A4 paper is 8.3 inches which means that a woman waist had to be no bigger than 25 inches.

This trend quickly became as controversial as the previous Weibo trends and was criticized for promoting unhealthy lifestyles. Some women went on to take photos of themselves behind their diplomas to make the point on the superficial nature of this challenge while others covered their faces with A4 sheet.

Weibo trend #6: iPhone 6 knees

The latest of the viral Weibo trends from last month was about being able to hide one’s knees behind iPhone 6 placed on top of kneecaps. This trend was all about promoting pencil-skinny legs – the latest standard of beauty in China. “iPhone6 legs” has already accumulated over 90 million views and 80,000 comments on Weibo.

Although the challenge was supposed to involve standard iPhone, it still isn’t clear whether using iPhone Plus models was considered “cheating”. Some even suggested the next challenge such as being able to completely hide one’s body behind iPad Pro… In China, anything is possible!

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In this post, we are going to review the primary routes for promotion and advertising on Sina Weibo. There are three basic ways to promote a brand on Weibo:

• Weibo Fans headlines (粉丝头条)
• Weibo Fans pass (粉丝通)
• Weibo Micro task (微任务)

Weibo Fans Headlines

This is the simplest way to promote a post by pushing it to the top of followers’ feed. At present, Weibo charges 2.37 RMB per post to be displayed above others in the feed for 24 hours. There is 40% discount for any posts that mention anything related to Weibo itself.

Making a post more prominently displayed can be an effective way to attract clicks from brand followers by having them notice the content as soon as they log in. The obvious disadvantage is the fact that it only improves your content’s visibility with your existing followers and does little to acquire new ones. On the other hand, the price for this type of promotion is fairly affordable.

Fans Pass

This type of promotion involves an ad campaign and can be initiated and managed with an ad account. The ad account opening process requires local ID and usually takes about 3 days to complete the approval process.

There are two pricing models: CPM (cost per thousand impressions) and CPE (cost per engagement) which are determined by automated bidding process, similar to the familiar Google Adwords.

CPM prices start at 5 RMB per CPM and can be increased by bidding up with 0.1 RMB increments.

“E” in CPE type of Weibo advertising stands for “engagement” that can be either click, a forward, a like or a follow. The initial price is set to minimum 0.5 RMB per CPE and can be increased at 0.01 RMB increment. The final price will be ultimately determined by quality of the content and competitive offers. If the price is set too low and the content is not engaging enough, the ad may not receive enough exposure, so setting the right bid and making adjustment to the content takes a bit of tweaking.

Weibo ad account provides some analytics tool to judge the effectiveness of an ad campaign but finding the right combination of all the parameters takes some skills and experience.

Micro task

The third type of promotion, which is also unique to Weibo, is called Micro Task and involves engaging KOLs, or Key Opinion Leaders.

KOLs are basically people with a lot of followers and are considered to be authority figures in their areas of expertise. Some KOLs have millions of followers which enables them to broadcast a targeted message to a very large audiences.

Depending on a specific industry, Weibo offers a range of KOLs to choose from. Typically, those with the largest following are more expensive to engage.

Working with KOLs requires opening an account and paying a deposit that is currently set to 2,000 RMB for companies. Once a suitable KOL is chosen, you can set a task (hence the name of this feature – “micro-task”) that normally involves posting your content in KOLs account that should appear at the time of your choosing and remain visible for a set period.

Depending on a specific KOL and the type of promotion task he/she receives, the price is set by Weibo automatically.

Individuals (as opposed to companies) can also use micro-task to promote posts. There is no deposit for individual account and you pay as you go per each task. On the other hand, individuals can’t pick KOLs that will be assigned by Weibo automatically.

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Marketing on Douban offers some unique opportunities for brands targeting niche audiences and could present an interesting opportunity to explore. In this post we are going to have a closer look at the options.

Of course, compared to Weibo, WeChat, Renren or Qzone, those are fairly small numbers but what sets Douban apart is the unique culture created by a core of dedicated users. Unlike Weibo, it appeals to white collar, sophisticated Chinese urbanites. According to Doctor Yang Bo, the founder of Douban, most of the users live in major big cities of China. They are office workers, artists, freelancers and students who share common interests in arts, culture and lifestyle.

Douban is a truly unique Chinese social media phenomenon which can be loosely described as a sophisticated hybrid of Amazon’s book reviews, IMDB.com, Blogger, MySpace, Pandora and Pinterest wrapped up into one platform.

The main core of the site is its communities grouped into:

• Books section, where people review and discuss books and can buy them directly from Chinese version of Amazon. This is one of the revenue sources for Douban;
• Movies section. This one is similar to imdb.com (which is periodically blocked in China) and is the main forum for movie reviews and latest gossip. Here users can book tickets and even book seats in cinemas nearby;
• Music section is, perhaps, the most popular one and it provides a platform for young musicians to post and promote their works. It is somewhat similar to what MySpace is all about these days;

The other part of the site features Groups which are, in turn, categorized by interests such as fashion, entertainment, photography, technology or lifestyle.

Next section is called City which features various events nearby, such as festivals, exhibitions, film screenings, theater performances etc. There is a section for people willing to get together for games, group shopping, dating or any other other local activity.

Next one is Douban.FM which is a music streaming service. In its structure and functionality it is similar to Pandora. It streams music that matches listener’s taste based on his/her history of favoring  or skipping tracks.

In its latest attempt to generate more revenue, Douban has added a section simply called Stuff (东西) which is still in beta. It is all about discovering and shopping for cool things but it is quite unlike a bazaar style of Taobao. The closest Western equivalent would be Fancy.com which resembles Douban Stuff’s type of merchandise and presentation. Items can be reviewed by users, favored, added to wish list or a shopping card and purchased. The Stuff section is somewhat a fresher and more sophisticated version of an online shopping site targeting buyers looking for individual style and less focused on searching for the cheapest bargains.

In the past, Douban has been criticized for slow user base growth as well as for failing to properly monetize its service by restricting its ads. It is true that advertising options are somewhat limited on the community pages with very little screen real estate dedicated to ads. Also, those spots tend to be quite expensive selling between 15 to 20 RMB per CPM, an order of magnitude higher than on comparable sites.

With the addition of the new Stuff section, Douban seems to have found a potentially lucrative formula to keep its distinct and sophisticated character and yet take advantage of the desire of the urban elite, its main user base, to express their individuality through buying unique things.

Overall, in terms of marketing value, Douban seems to be one of the most underrated  Chinese social media sites with great potential. Besides of obvious option of promoting products thorough its new Stuff section, marketing on Douban could be an excellent option for a more sophisticated promotion campaign targeting upscale urban consumers through its communities and groups platform.

Several high brands have also established what is called a brand stations on Douban. One example is of Adidas that features its collections but also actively promoting the brand through completions and events.

For example, visitors and followers get engaged in viewing and commenting on user generated content that feature Adidas brands that is often unique and visually appealing. Below are just a few examples from Adidas brand station on Douban:

Marketing on Douban: Adidas

User generated content featuring Adidas brand:

Video stories on artists creating “Adidas inspired” art:

Corporate content featuring Adidas latest collection:

Contest by Adidas prompting users to submit their stockings and socks footwear matching design:

In conclusion, Douban, being a one of a kind social media site in China, is often overlooked by marketers as an alternative venue to appeal to increasingly sophisticated big city based users. It has recently developed more marketer-friendly platforms and tools that facilitate marketing on Douban and can be effectively used to target niche sectors of Chinese online community.

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In China, Sina Weibo and WeChat are two most popular platforms. Sina Weibo has evolved around desktop use while WeChat only works with mobile. I have already those platforms in much more details in this blog. For now, suffice it to say that, for the purpose of market research, Weibo is much more suitable and this is what I will be focusing on.

Using Chinese Social Media Channels for market research

First of all, searching for something like “sunglasses” on Weibo is unlikely to be a very useful exercise – most results would probably quite irrelevant returning mostly some news or pictures of people wearing sunglasses.

While searching Chinese social media channels, it is much better to make a more focused searches such for specific brand names of competitors for example.

In any case, when it comes to searches for social mentions Weibo is fairly similar to Twitter with the difference that instead of preceding a term with #, it should be enclosed with # like this: #太阳眼镜#.

One useful aspect of a search for a broad term is finding out who is advertising with that keyword. Here is the screenshot of a sample search results with the ads shown on the right panel:

The best way to use social media search is to find out about the competition and how they are using this channel. For example, let’s search for one of the famous brands for sunglasses – Oakley (the brand name searches don’t require #):

The first result would usually be the official brand account followed by news and social mentions which also can be quite useful.
While browsing competitors accounts it is a good idea to note how many followers they have, how frequent they post and whether they receive engagement on their tweets.

In the above example, Oakley’s account reveals a fairly active channel with over 80K followers and 5.5K tweets (as of November 2015). The company seems to be engaging in promotions via sponsored sports events and many tweets feature new designs and product launches:

In summary, social media searches on Weibo are best for researching competitors and their ways of using this highly effective marketing channel. It can help you to figure out how much emphasis on social media your marketing campaign should include and what you should be tweeting about to keep your targeted audience engaged.

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Momo (陌陌)

Momo is, by far, the most popular Chinese dating app and by the number of users this mobile app is only second to WeChat. In the last couple of years Momo has been trying hard to improve its past seedy reputation re-positioning itself more of an interest based social app rather than purely a hook up service. It has added some shopping elements, games, groups etc. Those changes also made it harder to navigate – it is sort of all over the place nowadays. Nevertheless, when it comes to Chinese dating apps, Momo is the first one that comes to mind of most singles in China. Unfortunately, it is only available in Chinese – the English version was discontinued 3 years ago, although the company promises to launch an international version in the future.

Tantan (探探)

After Momo, Tantan is the second most popular Chinese dating app. It doesn’t have a great deal of features focusing on just one mission – being a purely a location based hook up app. In terms of design, Tantan is a shameless Tinder rip-off taking advantage of its famous trademark feature – left or right swipe. Two users that “liked” each other can start a chat and there is a daily limit on how many profiles can be viewed. Similar to Tinder, more features can be unlocked with premium membership which is how the app makes money. Although Tantan is almost exact copy of Tinder (it also can be used in English), the western original has only itself to blame for not making it in China. By linking itself to Facebook as the only way to create an account, it has locked itself out of Chinese market from the start.

Baihe (百合)

Baihe takes looking for a date onto a whole new level. It targets people who are serious about finding the right match and are not there just looking for a booty call. In fact, users’ info in Baihe look more like job resumes rather than typical dating profiles. All users must use real names and have to pass verification to ensure there are no fakes. They are also encouraged to list assets like housing and cars with the proof that they really own them. Educational credentials such as diplomas and certificates as well as credit score are also common profile features. Dating is a serious business on Baihe and this attitude is what sets it apart from other Chinese dating apps.

QingChiFan (请吃饭)

QingChiFan literally means “invitation to a meal” which is already self-explanatory name for this Chinese dating app. The idea is that getting to know each other over a meal is the most natural form of dating. Typically, guys would be the ones offering dinner invitations and it is up to a girl to accept it. Of course, the opposite is also possible although much less common. User can also choose to extend invitation to a group as well as set the time frame within which the offer is valid: only for today, tomorrow or within a week. The “inviter” can narrow down the criteria for invitees based on age, profession and even zodiac sign. QingChiFan seems to be a great concept with a lot of potential and, for a change, without a direct equivalent in the West as far as we know.

Maohu

Most recently, Tencent has launched Maohu, a new video-centered dating app.

Users are matched based on gender (only heterosexual matching is allowed), location, interests and dating preferences. Once matched, users can only communicate via video in 5 minutes “dating sessions” while wearing a “mask”. Mask is removed for male users after 5 minutes while females can wear it indefinetly. Once the mask is removed, the beauty filters are applied automatically.

The app can be considered using a “slow dating” approach – only 3 conversations per day are allowed. “Only video” dating app is a fresh idea in the market but with the popularity of live streaming, it seems to be catching on.

Qingliao

Tencent is determined to establish itself as the top player in mobile dating market with another app called Qingliao that is being marketed as “high quality socializing”.

In essence, this is another Tinder clone – users are matched if they like each other, the only difference is that instead of left or right swipes users tap a “heart” or a “cross”. Tencent puts an emphasis on verifying members which can be done by linking to user’s verified WeChat account or sumitting photo ID.

Qingliao also limits the total number of profiles users can view within 18 hours period: 15 profiles for men and 22 for women. Most likely, paid members will be able to increase that limit but this option was not yet available when we reviewed it.

Blued

No list of Chinese dating apps would be complete without mentioning Blued, the most popular service for gay community. It is also available in English. Upon registration, users are required to upload a short video of themselves which will be manually matched with uploaded photos by Blued team. This way, the app attempts to make sure that only real people are allowed to use it but without having them to use real identities – a valid concern for many gays living in a fairly conservative Chinese society. Although it is still the most popular Chinese dating app for gays, Blued may soon find itself fighting a strong competitor – the majority stake of Grindr, the most popular Western equivalent, has recently been acquired by a Chinese billionaire.

WeChat

WeChat isn’t typically considered a dating app, although it is often used as one. The popular “Search nearby” feature allows looking for profiles within a short distance filtered out by gender preference. Users have to enable the feature first before they can be found, which means that everyone who shows up in search results is making him or her visible on purpose. Moreover, no matter what dating app one uses, once the match is found, sooner or later, they would move to WeChat anyway – it’s just easier and everyone has it anyway. So, although WeChat isn’t a dating app, it can rightly be considered to be a part of the overall dating ecosystem in China.

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On the other hand, many foreign brands, who want to jump in on WeChat, don’t realize that the platform comes with the number of limitations. While in some cases and if done right, WeChat marketing can be incredibly effective, in other cases the results can be quite disappointing.

5 Common Misconceptions about WeChat Marketing

#1 Followers will find you

Unlike other popular social networks, WeChat’s private nature makes discovery quite difficult. WeChat’s own search function only allows looking for an account containing the exact match to a specific word. Even with that, the search results are often inaccurate. There are only a few ways you can acquire a follower:

• Have them scan your QR code placed on other media (website, banner ad, print, billboard etc.);
• Have someone forward a link to your account on WeChat to their friends (essentially word of mouth);
• Having someone to post a nice comment about you in their feed (moments) with the link to your account (KOL);
• In-app advertising – more about it below;

Here is more about getting WeChat followers organically.

#2 No one else can use my brand

Many popular brands who are just getting around starting their WeChat marketing campaigns in China often find out that someone else is already using their brand name and logo. Once an account has been created by someone it can be quite hard to have WeChat remove it. However, ignoring the problem is not a good idea either.

If, following the complaint, the owner of “squatter” account is refusing to comply by changing their WeChat account’s name and logo, it is possible to file a complaint to Tencent by filing proper paperwork. To be successful, the legitimate brand owner has to prove their ownership of the trademark in China which is the whole new topic. More on registering trademarks in China can be found in one of my favorite resources online at China Law Blog.

#3 In-app mobile advertising within WeChat is effective

In fact, advertising within WeChat is notoriously ineffective while also extremely expensive. Click through rate (CTR) of such ads is usually quite low for a number of reasons. The main problem is that once clicked, the user than will be taken out of the app elsewhere, usually to a built-in WeChat browser. Since most people don’t casually browse WeChat but have some purpose while using it, they wouldn’t typically abandon their activity in the middle to be redirected elsewhere.

The ads within user’s Moments (WeChat’s version of feed), are also rarely relevant and are not displayed consistently. Here is my other post about the issues with WeChat advertising.

#4 Recycling of posts from my other social media channels will do just fine on WeChat

Although, it could be an effective strategy to reuse content from other social media channels or blogs for WeChat, the posts are often not optimized for this platform. For example, articles that are too long or those relying too much on the graphics may not render well on WeChat’s smartphone screen.

One of the keys for WeChat marketing is figuring out the posts format that is just right in both size and layout. The graphics should be clear enough while displayed as a thumbnail in multiple picture posts while not looking pixelized when extended to the full screen. That would require some tweaking and testing to get everything right.

Also, if there are external links, they should lead to properly responsive pages that are optimized for mobile.

#5 WeChat marketing allows accurate targeting

We wish that one was true. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to segment WeChat marketing messages, which is also true for its advertising. On the most basic level, the followers can be segmented only by their location and gender. Even the location is based on whatever WeChat subscriber has set and not on the actual geolocation. Whenever a more granular approach is needed,  each individual follower can be tagged and grouped. This would allow sending more targeted messages to a specific audience.

Such segmentation can be either manual – often an extremely time and labor consuming effort, or automated with some 3rd party backend platform customization. The biggest disadvantage of the platform, as compared to other popular social media channels, is its lack of tools to target followers based on their behavior, a crucial component in many effective digital marketing strategies.

In conclusion, while WeChat can be a powerful marketing tool in China, it’s important to realize what it can and cannot do. The best use of WeChat would be to deploy it as a one of the marketing elements, closely integrated with other channels, not in isolation.

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Eight years of Facebook’s absence in China gave more than enough time for local competitors to emerge and, ultimately, dominate the market. While some of the earlier Facebook Chinese clones fell into relative obscurity, WeChat and Weibo took the lead and have reached the position of almost unrivaled dominance.

Does that mean that Facebook marketing in China is doomed forever? Not necessarily.

First of all, there is still a significant Facebook audience who uses VPN to access the platform regularly. The exact number is unknown because Facebook doesn’t release statistics of users by country outside of US. Even if they did, VPN itself, by definition, makes it impossible to find out the actual traffic origin. It is however, safe to say that the vast majority of Chinese expat population still uses Facebook. The same is also true for a large proportion of sophisticated English speaking Chinese urbanities.

This means that if a company is looking to target this type of audience, Facebook marketing in China can still be an effective tool. Examples of common products and services advertised on Facebook in China include expat services (health insurance, visa services etc.), VPN services, local events and venues targeting foreigners and upscale Chinese and so on.

Secondly, Facebook never abandoned hopes of reentering the market with Mark Zuckerberg embarking on a charm offensive with the goal to make that happen. He has visited China multiple times and had personally met with the Minister of Propaganda, China’s internet czar as well as Premier Xi Jingping himself. Mark Zuckerberg has even mastered a decent of level of Chinese surprising a lot of people by delivering speech in Mandarin in front of Chinese student audience followed by questions & answers session.

In this well publicized and mercilessly mocked photo, Zuckerberg was photographed running in Beijing despite Beijing’s Air Quality Index climbing past 300 on that day:

Most analysts believe that Facebook return is just a matter of time, although it is unlikely to threaten the current local market leaders.

In fact, if Facebook ever relaunches in China, it will be a much more sanitized version of the network, forced to play by local rules that regulate everything from the content to who can use it for advertising. Chinese Facebook will most likely be quite different compared to the type of platform we are familiar with today.

If that eventually happens, advertisers considering Facebook marketing in China will have to go through similar approval process as it is the case for local platforms like WeChat, Weibo or Baidu with locally registered business being favored compared to foreign ones. On top of Facebook’s own guidelines, advertisers will have to comply with much stricter Chinese regulations that, over time, tend to get tighter rather than relaxed.

It is also very likely that Facebook, rather than going to China alone, will have to partner with a local company, perhaps even with one of its current competitors. This is often the case of large western companies entering Chinese market and is even more common for business in the areas social media or messaging like LinkedIn or Line.

Two more factors make Facebook return to China ever more likely: first, bringing back a censored and government-friendly version of Facebook will constitute a big victory for Chinese internet authorities, second, Mark Zuckerberg indication of his willingness to compromise.

In any case, if Facebook is allowed back in China, it will most certainly become another effective marketing channel. Moreover, the competition for advertisers’ dollars (or rather yuan) is also bound to intensify, hopefully resulting in more options and features from the existing channels like Weibo, Baidu and WeChat.

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What is unique in China’s millennials who are born around 90’s is the their size – 211 million which is already 5 times larger than their US counterparts. Perhaps not surprisingly, they are also glued to their phones – 50% reported checking their cellphones every 15 minutes.

Social media is the main source information for 70% of Chinese millennials and they spend almost twice the time of Americans watching online videos.

Although Chinese and US millennials online behaviors are similar, the sites and platforms they are using are completely different – primarily due to the fact that all major Western social media platforms are blocked in the Mainland.

They are also big on online shopping and, primarily on mobile and they prefer branded products. Here is more on that.

Chinese millennials market and online behavior infographic

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A growing internet user base means a smaller world for marketers. How can marketers break into markets like Japan, China and Germany? Marketing News spoke with experts from across the world to find out. The first interview about breaking into Chinese market is with Val Kaplan, author of Doing Business in China Online:

Basic facts:

China GDP: $11 trillion

Chinese advertising spending (per ZenithOptimedia): $74.4 billion

Q: What’s the top marketing challenge in China?

A: The complexity of the entry requirements for marketers who are unfamiliar with the local market. This is especially true for online and digital marketing, where most of the action takes place. For example, if an American company wants to advertise its product with a search engine in a German market, all it would need are a Gmail account and a credit card. In China, that company would have to first register an overseas advertiser’s account with search engines such as Baidu (Google has near zero market share and is blocked here), pass verification that can take several weeks, pay fees and place a deposit. Other marketing channels — such as the hugely popular WeChat — do not accept foreign advertisers at all. Therefore, registering a legal entity in China is often the first step before one can take advantage of the tools used by marketers. These regulations have to do with the fact that the internet in China is tightly regulated by the government and the grip is getting tighter every year.

Q: What is the top trend in Chinese marketing?

A: A general trend over the last few years has been continued domination of the mobile element of Chinese marketing. WeChat, the biggest social media platform with more than 900 million active users, is exclusively mobile. Most internet searches are done via mobile. More products are sold from mobile e-commerce apps than PC-based browsers. In fact, the smartphone was the primary device people used to get online in China a few years before it happened in the West. There is no doubt that this trend will continue for the foreseeable future.

As for the hottest trend in the past year, it would probably be live streaming. This market has grown at an astonishing rate, giving rise to an entirely new ecosystem of related technologies, services, platforms and an army of influencers who are called KOLs (key opinion leaders) in China.

Q: What’s the biggest difference between marketing in the U.S. and marketing in China?

A: The most obvious difference would be a completely different set of tools. While Google and Facebook dominate the American digital advertising market, they are irrelevant in China. The largest search engine in China is Baidu, which holds about 60% market share, but there are others as well. In social media, WeChat dominates mobile space and Sina Weibo, a local hybrid of Facebook and Twitter, already has more users than Twitter. More than 70% of the e-commerce market share is held by Alibaba, which sells more products from its Taobao and Tmall platforms than Amazon and eBay combined. JD.com, another e-commerce giant, holds 25% of that market. The Chinese marketing landscape is completely different from what American marketers are familiar with.

Marketing expert Val Kaplan on China’s education market

 

Q: What’s the hottest technology in China right now? How do marketers use it?

A: WeChat is the hottest technology on the market right now. The sheer number of users, which now stands at about three times the entire U.S. population, is mind-boggling. WeChat offers companies a possibility to connect with an enormous user base via official accounts and, most recently, with mini-apps. On the downside, acquiring followers on WeChat is not as straightforward as other channels due to the private nature of the platform and limited advertising options. The quality of followers tends to be higher on WeChat versus other social media networks, which is what makes WeChat marketing an essential element of overall strategy for Chinese marketing. Today, it is hard to find a single company in China that doesn’t have a WeChat channel. Some new companies even forgo setting up a website altogether in favor of a WeChat official account.

Q: What’s the one thing an American marketer looking to launch or market a campaign in China needs to know?

A: The first thing to know is that the marketing tools at one’s disposal are going to be completely different: Baidu and Qihoo are the main search engines, Weibo is an equivalent of Facebook/Twitter, Youku is “Chinese YouTube,” and WeChat is a whole new beast without a direct equivalent in the U.S. market. In addition, none of those channels offers an English backend control, so unless you are fluent in Chinese and familiar with how they operate, you’d need to find experts to run them for you.

If you are planning to sell directly to Chinese consumers, keep in mind that the payment systems are different, too. Alipay and WeChat Pay are the dominant payment methods online, on mobile and increasingly offline as well. Practically no one in China has heard of PayPal, and very few use credit cards for online purchases. Localization takes a whole new meaning for the Chinese market compared to Europe or even Japan.

Q: Would it be easy for an American company to roll out in China?

A: It won’t be as easy as entering other markets, but as long as they know what they are doing, they are going to be fine. Essentially, it comes down to committing a larger marketing budget up front. Setting up a local business entity would open marketing options that are unavailable to companies that are only registered overseas. Testing the market is almost impossible on a bootstrap budget: There are no options to run a Facebook campaign on $50 per day to “test the waters” to decide whether the Chinese market holds enough potential. Unless a company is committed to spend up front to register a company, set up local marketing channels and find experts and consultants to run them, there aren’t many options.

Q: What does the short-term future hold for marketing in China? Any guesses for the long-term future?

A: Short-term, it’s safe to say that WeChat will continue on its path to dominate the market by expanding its capabilities. One such trend has become evident since the launch of WeChat’s enhanced search function, which set the platform on a collision course with traditional search engines like Baidu and Qihoo. New functions are being gradually integrated within the app that will offer more advertising and analytical tools to marketers. E-commerce powered primarily by Alibaba will probably see more integration with other online properties that it owns in video, social and entertainment spaces.

It’s much harder to predict the long-term future. If I had to guess, I’d say that the competition within the notorious BAT — the name for three Chinese tech giants Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (the maker of WeChat) — is going to intensify. They would probably diversify into more areas, taking advantage of their unique strength: Baidu will start reaping benefits from its early investment in AI technology, Alibaba will consolidate its shopping and entertainment empire, and Tencent will connect people with technology through WeChat. One can only imagine what new marketing tools and possibilities we are going to see then.

Hal Conick is a staff writer for the AMA’s magazines and e-newsletters. He can be reached at hconick@ama.org or on Twitter at @HalConick

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Leading to US election last November, US president elect Donald Trump has been a fairly popular figure in China. According to the most recent poll before the election, 39 per cent of Chinese preferred to see him as the next US President – a surprisingly large percentage given his relentless China bashing on campaign trail.

Before the Republican nomination, Trump was relatively unknown figure to an average Chinese. Some would recognize him as a reality television star or a successful businessman, but he wasn’t someone people would know much about.

The reasons of fascination with Trump in China

Despite Trump blaming China for stealing American jobs, currency manipulation and even inventing “global warming hoax”, he has enjoyed mostly favorable media coverage. There are several reasons for such positive sentiment towards his candidacy as opposed to Clinton’s.

First, he was perceived as someone who would rather discuss trade and economy than human rights and political freedoms which are sensitive topics for China. Hillary Clinton on the other hand, was viewed as someone who would be more inclined to focus on those issues.

Trump “could in fact be the best president for China,” Hong Kong Phoenix Television political commentator Wu Jun said during a recent on-air discussion. “That’s because the Republican Party is more practical and Trump is a businessman who puts his commercial interests above everything else,” Wu said. Clinton, on the other hand, “might be the least friendly president toward China.”

Another positive prospect of Trump’s presidency as far as China is concerned was his repeated criticizing the Trans Pacific Partnership — a multi-nation trade deal proposed by US administration which specifically excludes China. Trump’s intention to cancel the treaty would undoubtedly strengthen China’s influence and standing in the regional economy.

Clinton on the other hand, was seen as one of the architects of Obama’s “pivot to Asia” which, as many Chinese believe, aimed at containing China’s regional and global ambitions.

Finally, Donald Trump is still seen by many as someone who is going to weaken America rather than strengthen it – another welcome prospect for China.

Why the popularity of Trump in China is fading quickly

In the last few weeks however, there are signs of rapidly changing attitudes towards Trump in China. His hostile rhetoric has only intensified and now many believe that the trade war between the two countries could become a very likely prospect.

China is currently American number one trading partner – the value of US-China trade currently stands at $663 billion, the all-time high. Obviously, trade war in the form of import tariffs as Trump was suggesting is going to hurt both economies but would carry significantly more impact for China rather than US.

Another frequently repeated claim by Trump in the series of recent tweets is accusing China of currency manipulation. Although Chinese currency was, rather unexpectedly, allowed to weaken by the central government throughput 2016, Trump and his advisors continue to claim that it is still overvalued.

Moreover, Trump’s unprecedented phone call with Taiwanese president who congratulated him on his presidency win infuriated China. From that point on, the local media fascination with “the Donald” started to wane quickly.

A couple of weeks later, Trump has appointed the economist Peter Navarro, a fierce critic of China, as the head of a new national trade body. He will lead the White House National Trade Council, and serve as director of trade and industrial policy. Peter Navarro is the author of books with the titles like “The Coming China Wars” and “Death by China” which already says quite a bit.

Recent Chinese press is gradually becoming more hostile towards Trump. Although Trump’s authored books and books about him are still country’s top bestsellers, the official media is now much less inclined to offer him praises.

On the contrary, stories of his numerous failures and gaffes seem to be much popular these days both in Chinese official channels as well as in social media. Fan pages set for Trump in China  on Weibo now seem completely dead. Chat groups such as “Donald Trump Super Fans Club” and “God Emperor Trump” have been silent since the end of November.

Is the love affair with Trump in China over? The answer appears to be yes. Now, many Chinese have begun to realize that Trump’s presidency could in fact be a nightmare scenario for China. His recent tendency to follow on threats worries both businesses and officials and the possibility of his actions damaging Chinese economy are becoming all too real.

On top of it, unlike his predecessor, Trump seems to be favoring better relations with Russia on the account of China. His administration is now seen as more likely to pivot to Putin rather than Xi Jingping.

One thing is certain – 2017 is going to be full of surprises.

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