Last Updated on August 29, 2024
Chinese consumer behavior evolves at a pace faster than other global markets. This trend is primarily driven by the increasing role of e-commerce and social media platforms in everyday life.
As omnichannel shoppers, local consumers tend to transition from one online platform to another. The country’s widespread digital adoption has also made it easier for them to interact with brands using different mediums, from personalized messaging to real-time engagement.
As these consumption patterns diversify, the way Chinese internet users utilize online platforms also changes.
Now, how does the development of digital media consumption in China affect foreign brands in the long run? Let’s find out.
Overview of Today’s Digital Media Consumption in China
The latest data shows that most digital Chinese consumers spend approximately 5 hours and 33 minutes surfing the internet daily. Looking at the previous numbers, it’s around 7 minutes more than the results from last year’s survey.
This consumption rate is mainly due to the widespread internet adoption in the country, which has reached over 1.09 billion virtual consumers. It’s also a notable demand predominantly from first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
Another contributing factor to the changing preferences in China’s digital ecosystem is the country’s high social media adoption. The popularity of these platforms has penetrated around 74% of the country’s overall population.
The digital media market is predicted to generate an impressive revenue of $135.70 billion in 2024. Beyond the prevalence of China’s social media users, video games are the leading drivers of this growth, with a projected market volume of $94.49 billion.
What are the New Digital Media Trends in China?
-
Continued Diversification of Super Apps
Most Chinese social media sites are no longer restricted to community-building and user engagement features. With super apps like WeChat monopolizing the limited attention span of internet users, other platforms are following suit and diversifying their services.
For example, Little Red Book has shifted its focus from a community-centric social media platform to an all-in-one e-commerce hub. Thanks to Xiaohonghu’s amplified live-streaming features, the app generated a 5x increase in order volume from in-store real-time broadcasts.
Xiaohongshu 618 Festival Shopping Recommendations (Source: Jing Daily)
On the other hand, e-commerce platforms like Taobao are diversifying their features to cater to the continued local demand for content and live streaming.
Their attempt to combine entertainment with e-commerce has led to the launch of “Night Taobao.” This campaign encourages participants to visit business establishments for photo opportunities. It’s specifically created to promote local commercial activities and foster user engagement through live streaming.
By now, there’s no denying that China’s social media users are more drawn to interactive content. In fact, around 96.4% of local internet users are already consuming short videos daily. Because of this, it’s not a surprise WeChat also shifted its focus to video-based e-commerce trends.
With the launch of Channels in 2020, WeChat made sure that this feature seamlessly integrates into the app’s e-commerce platform. This decision allowed the super app to triple the gross merchandise volume (GMV) specifically coming from this segment.
WeChat Channels Live Stream with Product Links
As top social media platforms expand to new business sectors like e-commerce and built-in search engines, China’s digital media consumption is becoming more centralized than before.
This development is helpful for digital marketers trying to engage with Chinese consumers because it eliminates the limitations of the media types they can utilize. It also shortens the typical marketing and sales journeys, with more engagements and transactions happening in a single platform at once.
-
Cross-Platform Partnerships Between Tech Giants
In the past decade, China’s stringent privacy and data security laws have led many social platforms to censor external links from third-party sources. Even the country’s biggest super app, WeChat, once had strict regulations on how and where external content can be accessed within the platform.
External link restrictions imposed by WeChat in the past (Source: Jing Daily)
These restrictions did not ease until 2021 to 2022. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized an official meeting, urging platforms to remove the blocks and establish specific standards for any imposed censorship.
In response to this directive, WeChat started to lift its external link barriers. One of the first external data sources they allowed was the platform Taobao. Alibaba-owned apps like Youku and Ele.me followed this example by activating WeChat Pay as an e-wallet option.
Today, most mobile apps are willingly cooperating to establish stable traffic ecosystems. Major WeChat features like Moments and Mini-Programs now allow direct links to Tmall stores and Taobao live-streaming sessions.
Tencent even partnered with Douyin, giving its rival live-streaming rights to popular game titles like Honor of Kings and League of Legends. This unprecedented move is despite the lawsuit between the two tech giants regarding the same rights.
Source: Sixth Tone
Back then, top social media platforms are focused on establishing a closed ecosystem. With the barriers slowly breaking down, these tech giants are realizing the perks of borderless digital landscapes.
The interconnectivity between these apps expands the limitations of typical ad planning tools, broadens your audience reach, and provides more advertising formats brands can utilize.
-
Shortened Online Consumer Journeys
Younger generations who grew up in the golden era of content sharing no longer go through the typical purchasing journey. With the lowered platform barriers, local social media users are also experiencing diverse content needs.
To cope with this demand, it’s evident that personalized marketing messages have become a way to attract traffic and initiate conversions.
Regardless of which social media platform you use, chances are e-commerce touchpoints are integrated within most content you click. With these features readily available for small businesses and foreign brands, introducing products to Chinese consumers has become more accessible than ever.
Typical vs. New Consumer Journey in China
China’s borderless digital ecosystem came at the cost of traffic dispersions, which means the explosive growth from viral content may be harder to come by.
However, the personification of consumer touchpoints has led local internet users to spend less time researching what they want to buy and move straight from product discovery to the purchasing process.
Does a shorter consumer journey mean more sales conversions? Not always. Nevertheless, it caters to China’s fast-paced digital business scene, where consumers expect efficiency and convenience in every transaction.
-
Effective Strategies for Local Brand Recall
Local brand recall is crucial for businesses aiming to succeed in China’s highly competitive market. With consumers bombarded by an overwhelming amount of information, brands must implement strategies that capture attention and create lasting impressions.
Product placement, or embedding products within popular content, is the most effective strategy for brand recall in China. It’s often seen on popular TV shows, films, and digital videos where the product is naturally integrated into storytelling.
Why does it work? Chinese consumers are highly influenced by the content they consume, particularly when it comes to entertainment.
Live streaming is also an effective local brand recall tool. The real-time interaction during live streams builds a sense of urgency and authenticity. Consumers often perceive live streamers as trusted figures, which can enhance business credibility and recognition.
Influencer collaborations also work well when boosting local brand recognition. KOLs are seen as authorities in their respective niches, and their endorsements carry significant weight. This trust helps consumers to remember and consider brands recommended by their favorite online personalities.
Lastly, creating or participating in trending topics on social media platforms is still a strategy many brands find helpful in staying relevant in the Chinese market. It often leads to higher brand recall as consumers are repeatedly exposed to the brand within contexts they find interesting or important.
How to Effectively Manage the Fast-Changing Digital Media Consumption in China?
1. Build a private domain traffic source
With rapidly changing social media marketing trends, digital platforms have become increasingly saturated, and competition for consumer attention is fiercer than ever.
If you want to stay afloat amidst these growing challenges, focusing on building a private domain traffic source is a crucial step to consider.
Private domain traffic refers to customer traffic businesses can control and directly engage with, often through platforms like WeChat Official Accounts, mini-programs, WeCom, and other proprietary apps.
Private domain traffic offers brands greater stability than public channels, especially since it doesn’t need to conform to social platform’s algorithms and policies. By creating personalized experiences from user acquisition to referral, brands are bound to adapt quickly to changing consumer behaviors and preferences.
Moreover, in an environment where acquiring new customers is becoming increasingly expensive, maximizing the value of existing customers through private domain channels is cost-effective and efficient.
2. Start working with Key Opinion Leaders
With more apps diversifying their content creation tools, influencers are also given more creative options for expanding their digital audience reach. As a result, they can amplify their appeal to regular consumers, giving them the power to sway their purchasing decisions.
The good news is brands can leverage the authenticity and trust these figures have built with their audiences to enhance local visibility and credibility.
Working with KOLs or KOCs gives businesses a chance to examine how specific consumer segments behave. With their authenticity and relatability, these campaigns can drive engagement and conversions more effectively than traditional advertising.
3. Optimize for Platform-Specific Algorithms
Each digital platform in China has its own algorithm, which dictates the visibility and reach of content. Understanding and optimizing content for these algorithms is critical for success.
For example, Douyin’s algorithm heavily favors content that generates high engagement in a short period, while Weibo prioritizes posts from verified accounts and those that have been shared widely.
Brands must tailor their content strategies to meet these platform-specific requirements, ensuring that their content is not only relevant but also likely to trigger the algorithm in their favor.
4. Focus on Localized Content Creation
Localization is crucial for resonating with Chinese consumers, who value content that reflects their culture, language, and daily experiences.
Beyond mere translations, brands that succeed in China often invest in creating content fully adapted to regional dialects, cultural references, and even local trends that may vary significantly from one part of China to another.
This level of localization requires brands to work closely with local teams or agencies who have an intimate understanding of the region’s culture.
Brand localization examples for the Chinese New Year
China is a vast and diverse country with a population exceeding 1.4 billion. Therefore, a one-size-fits-all approach to content creation can be ineffective.
While digital media consumption trends may change rapidly, Chinese consumers are highly receptive to new ideas and innovation. To maintain relevance, brands need only be proactive in identifying and integrating these trends into their content strategy.
Quick Q&A
How big is the Chinese digital market?
Around 77.5% of China’s population are internet users ready to consume digital media and purchase online, accounting for more than 20% of the global online user base. In 2022, China’s e-commerce market generated around $2.8 trillion in sales, outpacing the combined markets of the U.S. and Europe.
Your Trusted Social Media Marketing Partner in China!
The changing consumer needs and competitive business landscapes are only two of the many factors that will cause digital media consumption in China to continue to evolve. With the Chinese government pushing more initiatives to support the market’s current trajectory, the battle to capture the local audience’s interests can only go fiercer from here.
You may also want to read:
At Sekkei Digital Group, we understand the local trends that shape the consumption patterns of Chinese social media users. With our team’s extensive industry experience and expertise, we’re ready to assist your brand in becoming a formidable entity in China’s competitive digital business landscape.
Whether you want to localize your brand or simply conduct in-depth research for your impending market entry in China, we have all the digital solutions you need. Send us a message, and let’s plan a marketing strategy that suits your business needs.
