According to the most recent data, WeChat has passed a milestone of a billion users which puts it far ahead of any other Chinese social media platform. Measuring trends on such an enormous network could potentially bring the most statistically accurate data to marketers.

Up until a few weeks ago, it was not possible to get a hold of such metrics on WeChat. Fortunately, the platform has just released a new WeChat Index tool that allows viewing some basic trends on keywords.

The good news is that, from marketers’ perspective, WeChat is finally moving in the right direction. However, the bad news is that the data that is generated by WeChat Index is very limited. There are no any equivalents to options available from the previously reviewed tools: Baidu Index, Qihoo Index and Weibo Index.

In order to access the tool, user has to enter Chinese words “微信指数”into the search bar and tap on the first result. This opens up the prompt as shown above.

If one is planning to use WeChat Index frequently, it easier to simply pin this page to the top of the chat sessions by choosing option “Sticky on Top”.

Typing the keyword “iPhone8” returns the search trend graph:

Just like with the other index tools, the data can be viewed for 7, 30 or 90 days but there is no option to customize the date range:

It is still not clear what the total number (350,016 in this example) actually represents. In fact, it remains the same no matter what date range is chosen (a bug?):

Although, WeChat Index is a good start, in its present form, it can hardly offer any useful information. Also, it seems that only popular keywords, probably those with high enough search volumes, can be viewed.

Despite the fact that WeChat could record all the search and user related data, WeChat Index doesn’t display any geographical distribution, audience analysis or related keywords. So, essentially, it is only good for getting an idea on general search trends within the network for certain popular keywords.

Release of WeChat Index to the public is still a very good start and points to the possible course correction by Tencent. It has started to move, albeit slowly, from a private communication network to discovery platform.

Also, WeChat search function now has more options and is increasingly used for searches on wide range of topics. In order to read the articles from the search results, one has to follow the account it was posted on which opens another route for official WeChat accounts to acquire new followers.

Here are our tutorials on China keyword research tools:

Keyword research on Baidu: Baidu Index

Keyword research on Qihoo: Qihoo Index

Keyword research on Weibo: Weibo Index

Keyword research on WeChat: WeChat Index

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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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5 unique Taobao app features that drive its mobile sales

Picture search function

Imagine you are in a store looking at a really nice watch that would be just perfect for you. Unfortunately, you can’t be sure that you are getting the best deal on the price. That’s when Taobao app picture search comes really handy. All you have to do is snap a photo directly from within the app, or load previously taken image, and within seconds Taobao app displays the matches from its vast database.

This powerful functionality enables users to instantly compare online prices while browsing for goods in a physical store or, practically, anywhere they come across something they would like buy. In most cases, Taobao prices will also be lower which, in effect, threatens to turn some traditional retailers with brick and mortar stores into nothing more than showrooms.

Package tracking system

All online marketplaces have some type of shipment tracking system but only Taobao app takes it all the way to the new level. As soon as a seller ships the product you have just bought, it will be tracked at every point along its journey regardless of what delivery service was used.

Tracking packages is being updated within minutes which makes it really easy to figure out where it is and when it will be delivered. Finally, when it arrives, Taobao app will send you a push notification and, in some cases, SMS message as well.

Alipay payment integration

Alipay, Taobao payment system, is the principal technological enabler of the platform and the integral component of Chinese ecommerce landscape. Alipay provides an extremely easy and secure way to pay for purchases both online and offline.

Practically, everyone with a smartphone and a bank account in China has Alipay account which is also widely used to pay for purchases in physical stores, restaurants and even in the government offices. When used within China, Alipay doesn’t charge any fees except for very large transactions. Paying with Alipay is also very secure, convenient and fast. In effect, Alipay acts as a personal bank account in and of its own, complete with monthly statements and spending breakdowns.

Although, some Taobao vendors still accept cash on delivery, it is hard to imagine Taobao achieving such popularity without Alipay being its integral part.

AliWangWang instant chat

Chinese online consumers overwhelmingly expect Taobao vendors being able to answer questions and reply to inquiries within the shortest time possible. Also, the vendors realize that responding to inquiries from potential buyers in real time significantly increases chances of closing the sale. This is why Taobao integrated live chat app called AliWangWang, has become another important component of Taobao platform.

Customers can initiate chat sessions with sellers directly from the mobile app while sellers can use AliWangWang as a stand-alone app running on mobile or computer. It offers an easy way for both parties to communicate and not only serves as an effective pre-sale tool but also goes a long way in building trust.

Push notification remarketing

Almost all mobile apps use push notification in one way or the other. What makes it different in Taobao case is that the push notifications are tailored to each user and are made relevant to them. The way this is done is by taking into account users’ product search history, content of their wish list and past purchases in order to deliver tailor made messages that are most likely to pique their interest.

Also, unlike in the case of other apps, users tend not to disable push notifications from Taobao on their phones because they don’t want to miss messages related to product deliveries or any issues related to their purchases in progress

Mobile app makers are well aware that sending too many push notification can quickly annoy users. This why Taobao typically limits them to no more than once per day.

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Douyin, which literally means “shaking sound” (or “vibrato”) in Chinese, has, without a doubt, created some major shockwaves in Chinese digital world and has become the top success story, particularly in short videos space. In June 2018, the app reached 150 million daily active users and has established itself as the world’s fastest growing app, with the biggest music video community globally.

Zhang Yiming, founder of Toutiao – another hugely popular news aggregator with over 120 million active daily users – is the man behind Douyin success. The technology behind both platforms is underpinned by AI-based algorithms that are designed to learn user preferences in order to fine tune serving the most suitable content.

PHOTO: Zhang Yiming, founder of Beijing ByteDance Technology Co.(Photo by Giulia Marchi/Bloomberg)

Douyin is a deceptively simple app allowing users to do basically do these three things:

1. Watching 15 seconds long video clips that run as a never-ending feed;
2. Shooting and editing 15 seconds videos directly with the phone;
3. Adding filters and special effects to the videos and secretly hoping that they will go viral.

How does an app, which was virtually unknown a year ago, become such a sensation practically overnight? How did it manage to beat the earlier and already quite popular short video apps?

Here are the main reasons for Douyin success:

Technology is the key

Douyin main advantage lies in the technology under the hood. Although, it may seem ridiculously simple, there is a lot of intelligence packed into the platform. It uses sophisticated machine learning algorithms deciding which videos should be served to users, so no two feeds are ever the same. The goal is to hook the users serving them videos that they are most likely to enjoy.

Serving it straight

Rather than focusing on refining the search function, the app developers were betting on having a continuous stream of clips with minimal user control. Only watching the full video or skipping it advances you to the next one. Those choices themselves provide the necessary feedback to the app, which is, in turn, used to further refine the feed.

Tapping into the right demographics

Douyin has been marketing the app for just the right audience: young people in their early-to-mid-twenties, living in 1st and 2nd tier cities and primarily females. As the app popularity continued to rise, now about half of the users come from 3rd and 4th tier cities and the gender split is getting more even.

As it is often noted, with all the entertainment options around, the attention span of that particular demographics is notoriously short making bite-sized 15 seconds clips especially easy for consumption.

Unleashing creativity of common people

The vast majority of the clips are produced by ordinary people using their phones, most typically shot over a popular song’s background. The app makes it super easy for anyone to come up with original content – video editing function are easy to use and by adding special effects and applying original filters, the clips can be made ready for sharing within minutes.

In fact, most of the videos that went viral on Douyin were the dorkiest ones imaginable.

Moreover, in order to stimulate creativity, Douyin often runs contests asking users to shoot videos on a particular topic.

Nurturing early adopters

Douyin has understood the importance of getting creative early adopters on board as early as possible. It reached out to artists and internet celebrities generating the pool of loyal content creators who could produce high quality clips.

As the user base grew, more and more people saw the success of those early adopters. As a result, the prospect of stardom drove even more users to the app, creating a powerful network effect.

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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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WeChat, Chinese mobile “super app” by Asia most valuable company Tencent, is perfectly positioned to consolidate and strengthen its dominance over China’s mobile marketing landscape in 2018. Having reached one billion active users in 2017, the app is used by practically everyone in China as the primary social media channel as well as shopping and entertainment outlet. When it comes to mobile marketing, whatever direction Tencent takes will determine its development.

Based on what we have seen so far and the technological innovation already introduced, here are our top four mobile marketing predictions for China in 2018:

#1 Accurate location based triggers for serving mobile ads

One of the most underutilized mobile marketing potential capabilities is location based targeting. Thanks to WeChat’s popularity with users in China and the fact that it is only used on mobile phones, the app always “knows” the current location of its users. Therefore, it is possible serving highly targeted ads based on users’ real-time location. In such scenario, when a user is in the proximity of a point of sale of a specific product, he/she would get a special offer like a discount coupon or another incentive to visit a store.

Moreover, more shopping outlets and even individual stores can now track visitors with extremely high precision via apps or mobile floor guides. For example, many modern shopping malls in China encourage users to connect to a floor guide via WeChat allowing them to track those users throughout the mall. Serving them the most relevant ads based on the accurate location and time holds a huge potential for businesses.

So far, WeChat hasn’t taken full advantage of this possibility, although it is certainly within Tencent’s technical capabilities to implement. Location based triggers advertising adds another dimension to mobile marketing and it is likely that Tencent is working on ways to capitalize on such technology in near future.

#2 AI based big data processing

Tracking users online generates enormous amounts of data for marketers. In case of mobile, adding a location dimension creates even more information that can be extremely useful. The challenge lies primarily in analyzing huge amounts of data and automating the whole process. AI holds a lot of promise in meeting those challenges. Big industry players have been heavily investing in AI, driving the field’s rapid development in the last couple of years. Once again, Chinese companies like Baidu and Tencent, with the government support, have been on the forefront of innovation in AI.

Being able to efficiently process vast amounts of data generated by mobile devices will further advance targeting capabilities of mobile marketing and this is what AI is very likely to be able to accomplish for those companies in the next year going forward.

#3 Individual user targeting

Marketing efficiency is, essentially, all about targeting accuracy and market segmentation is the way to make such targeting more precise. Creating a persona representing each segment allows marketers to design a specific approach that would be most suited for the members of each group. The smaller the segment – the better it can be defined.

Unfortunately, it also makes marketing much more complex, and, in many cases, unmanageable. This is all about to change with the introduction of AI based data processing and analysis when segmentation can potentially become even more granular, all the way down to individual level. This would potentially allow marketers to tailor the message targeting each individual rather than a segment. When this become possible, mobile devices will be a natural channel to reach users on that level.

Our next mobile marketing prediction: we are going to see more of such highly personalized marketing in 2018.

#4 Facial recognition

Facial recognition is another maturing technology that is likely to get widely adopted by marketers in 2018. Although not without a controversy, facial recognition adds new level to personalized marketing that can be delivered via mobile. The advantage of facial recognition vs. other tracking and identification methods lies in its non-intrusive nature because it can be done without close physical contact with users. For better or worse, facial tracking doesn’t require users’ consent (at least not now), so people can be tracked remotely and even matched with their public social media profiles.

For example, when a visitor to a physical store expresses interest in a product but, ultimately, decides to pass on a purchase, facial recognition would allow finding out who that person is, and then retarget them via other channels by offering a similar product or a discount on the original one.

It is very likely that regulators and consumers groups will start campaigning against such methods, citing privacy concerns, however, it is reasonable to assume that the technology is here to stay regardless. When it develops further, perhaps it will even become possible to identify and record shopper’s facial expressions to figure out the overall sentiment towards a brand or a product. This would represent the next frontier in mobile marketing.

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Communication, browsing mobile internet, listening to music and watching videos are the most common activities of Chinese mobile users. Not surprisingly, companies who traditionally dominated those niches on the internet have also been the leading providers on mobile.

Interestingly enough, not only that there isn’t a single non-Chinese app in the top 10 list, they don’t even make the first 50. In fact, the only foreign app that enjoys some popularity in China is Google’s mobile Chrome browser.

Top 10 Mobile Apps in China

#1: WeChat

Having been installed with almost every Chinese smartphone, WeChat is the undisputed leader of mobile apps in China. WeChat user base has recently passed 700 million and continues growing. Tencent, WeChat developer, is one of the most innovative Chinese tech firms and is part of the so called BAT – the acronym for Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

#2: QQ

QQ is another hugely popular messaging app that has been the flagship Tencent product before WeChat. In fact, it is still the most popular communication tool on desktops and, is, perhaps, the most well known Chinese internet brand. Overall, its migration to mobile has been largely successful as offers a simple alternative to WeChat, although most people still use both. In fact, you are unlikely to meet a Chinese person below 50 who doesn’t have a QQ number.

#3: Mobile Baidu

While Baidu holds “only” about 60% of desktop search market in China, it completely dominates mobile with about 90% market share. Baidu mobile app is the third most used mobile app in China. It is also well designed, very fast, and accepts multiple input modes. Baidu is another part of BAT mentioned earlier.

#4: Taobao

When Chinese are not chatting or searching mobile net, they are shopping. Browsing Taobao app, is one of the most favorite pastimes for millions of people and it is often highly addictive. It is not uncommon to notice people shopping on their phone with Taobao app while eating, riding a subway or even driving…

#5: UC Browser

UC Browser is a mobile browser developed by Chinese mobile Internet company UCWeb. UC Browser claimed to have reached 500 million users in March 2014 majority of which were in China. It is still the most popular mobile browser here despite 2015 leaks linked to whistleblower Edward Snowden revealing some serious security weak points of UC Browser.

#6: QQ Browser

QQ Browser is the second most popular mobile browser across all mobile platforms. Tencent, has been leveraging their browser app installation using their other popular platforms mentioned earlier.

#7: Tencent Video

Watching videos is another most popular activity of Chinese mobile users and QQ video has been their platform of choice. Tencent video app has recently surpassed YouKu, the most popular Chinese video platform, in terms of mobile market share. Most commonly, it is used for watching TV soap operas and TV game shows while on the go.

#8: Sogou Mobile Input

Initially released in 2006, Sogou Pinyin is the most popular Chinese input software. It makes use of its search engine techniques which are the analysis and categorization of the most popular words or phrases on the Internet. Its mobile app version can be used with both Android and iOS devices offering dozens of colorful keyboards with hundreds of popular emojis and stickers that are so popular with Chinese mobile users.

#9: 360 Mobile Security

This app serves as both antivirus and memory management app and is most popular with Android devices, although it can installed with iPhones as well. It was developed by the second most popular Chinese search engine, Qihoo, also known as 360 Search. Qihoo 360 security software has a large install base on desktop, largely thanks to its free antivirus software.

#10: YouKu

YouKu is the largest video hosting platform and is among most popular video mobile apps in China. Although, it has been losing its mobile share market to Tencent, YouKu isn’t too far behind in terms of popularity. Often associated with pirated shows and films in the past, YouKu has largely cleaned up its act and now claims to only host legitimate content. Millions of Chinese tune to YouKu for their favorite TV shows everyday.

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In this post, we would like to share the latest infographic by WebsiteBuilder.org featuring over a hundred facts about email marketing and why it works.

The facts in this extensive infographics is grouped by various categories such as “stats by type of emails”, “most used email marketing techniques”, “psychology of email recipient”. There is a special section on mobile emails stats and spam, insight into reasons why people choose to unsubscribe, email engagement figures and more.

Before embarking on your next email marketing campaign, make sure to check out this infographic.

119 Facts About Email Marketing

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It has achieved 2.5 percent penetration rate which is no small feat in the crowded app market in China, although it still dwarfs in comparison with WeChat with over 80 percent penetration.

While WeChat and QQ are for connecting with friends, Momo is an app for connecting with strangers based on interests and location.  Its closest equivalent in the Western market would be Tinder or Grindr. The app has been gaining in popularity in the recent years, transforming itself from a hook-up app into broader social network Designed to connect people based both location and interests, by the end of 2014 it claimed to have 180.3 million registered accounts, 60.2 million monthly active users, 25.5 million daily active users.

The company started monetizing also in 2014 but hasn’t been profitable. After IPO, things have began to change and in Q1 2015, Momo achieved total net revenues of US$26.3, up 383 percent on the same period last year. US$6.1 million of that was from social gaming, US$13.0 million from paid memberships, and US$1.1 million from paid emoticons and the gifting feature.

The app managed to make a net income of US$6.7 million in Q1 2015, compared to a net loss of nearly US$3 million at the end of 2014.

Unlike WeChat, Momo doesn’t have an English version – it was shut down earlier with the promise to come back one day. At the moment, Momo has decided to stay focused on domestic market and Chinese communities overseas.

The app is free and its revenue comes primarily from gaming, premium membership fees (it has 2.3 million paying membership subscribers), emoticon sales and advertising. In fact, advertising seems to be one of the most promising routes to generate revenue – Momo has also launched a new advertising platform for offline retailers.

One of the potential advertising possibilities are around targeting customers through location based service. For example, while users are scanning for people to connect with, an interest-based ad of a store or a club can be inserted with the results. It could be offering a discount or a free drink, inviting people in the area to pay a visit.

Advertisers would simply specify the geographic area and the time period of ad placement and Momo would display it based on those settings. Currently, it charges 10 RMB each time user interacts with an ad. It is very likely that Momo will continue adding services that allow business to advertise and target users based on their profiles.

In August 2014, Momo Inc. launched Dao Dian Tong, a marketing tool for local merchants. Through Dao Dian Tong, local businesses and merchants can construct profile pages that allow Momo users to find them with the Momo’s LBS. Members can see the businesses just as they would see other Momo users. Momo Inc. plans to further monetize user traffic by referring users from the Momo platform to e-commerce companies.

There is little doubt that Momo’s user base, just like WeChat’s, will continue growing in China, especially considering the fact that Chinese government started to gradually shut down foreign based messaging apps. This year, Line and Kakao Talk got blocked and Viber has been experiencing periodic disruptions on the Mainland. Whatsapp is still working in China but  its users may be quickly moving to a more stable and features-rich WeChat, and, possibly Momo as well.

2015 was all about live streaming in China and Momo has also added live-streaming function which helped it gaining more users and revenue around it.

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In China, smartphones are involved in every step of the typical sales funnel – from discovery and research to payment and feedback. As a result, Chinese m-commerce has been undergoing meteoric rise in recent years.

According to recent KPMG online consumer behavior report, smartphone remains the primary device for online purchases – well ahead of other countries, while laptop and desktop PC are used the least.

There is a number of main drivers behind Chinese m-commerce rapid development:

1. Highly developed mobile payment ecosystem.
   The primary systems are Alipay and WeChat Pay which are ruling Chinese m-commerce as well as becoming an increasingly common payment method offline. They also enjoy high degree of consumers’ confidence in payment security;
2. Large number of mobile users.
   According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China’s mobile users exceeded 1.3 billion at the end of 2015, with 29.6 percent of them using 4G. Furthermore, China sold 457 million smartphones in 2015, up 17.7 percent from 2014;
3. Convenience and accessibility.
   Chinese m-commerce has leveled the playing field for all types of consumers regardless of location. While physical stores of some brands may not be available in 3rd and 4th tier cities, the shoppers can still gain the same access to brands as that available to people living in major cities;
4. Continuously growing economy.
   Last but not least is the fact that, despite the recent slowdown, Chinese economy continues growing at about 6.7 percent rate. In recent years, this growth has been primarily driven by local consumption with e-commerce being large part of it.

KPMG survey shows that more than 90 percent of the respondents made at least one online purchase using a smartphone in the past 12 months:

Consumers often research products using smartphones while in physical shops. In China, nearly 70 percent of respondents have looked up a product on their smartphone or tablet while being in a brick and mortar store. While this figure is still slightly smaller compared to other parts of the world, it is higher than the previous year. Also, this type of consumer behavior is likely to be gaining momentum after rolling out the new feature of Taobao and Tmall mobile apps allowing instant product search from a photo:

Market research company eMarketer estimates that Chinese m-commerce sales accounted for almost half the share of e-commerce sales in 2015. This year, retail mobile commerce sales in China are forecasted to grow by 51.4 percent to account for 55.5 percent of retail ecommerce sales in the country in 2016. By 2019, mobile users in China are expected to spend nearly $1.5 trillion on m-commerce:

Finally, China’s mobile commerce is another reason for the popularity of O2O concept. Companies, both local and multinational, are constantly on the lookout for more innovative ways to engage Chinese mobile consumers from all the angles.

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