The Most Important Chinese Social Media Networks

Chinese social media networks that luxury brands cannot ignore going forward

In 2018, wealthy Chinese who shop and travel worldwide are the biggest growth driver for the luxury industry. A lot of the large luxury investment groups are already heavily invested in China. Apart from owning (often too big) retail networks, they are buying the reach of Chinese KOLs and celebrities and producing collections and holiday specials only to cater to the cultural tastes of their Chinese customers. Social media and specific high-end media buys are a huge part of penetrating this lucrative market.

At High End Consultancy, this is one of the key areas of service that we offer, so I thought it would be time to write an introduction to Chinese social media for professionals who haven’t had the time to explore this space for their business yet.

WeChat 微信

The king of Chinese apps. Text chat, voice chat, file transfer, microblogging, social networking, mini-games, in-app purchases, mobile-payment, eCommerce, business accounts, chatbots. This app can do everything. And this is only the beginning. A large part of our China Marketing service is to set up an official service or subscription account for businesses who need a starting/point up in mainland China.

Weibo 微博

Calling Weibo China’s version of Twitter doesn’t do the social network justice. Be it for sheer news syndication, public relations, promoting eCommerce products or interacting with customers, the gigantic userbase makes this microblogging service the second most important social channel to explore if you want to really start promoting luxury products or services in China.

Youku Tudou 优酷土豆

 

Formerly two separate sites, the merger between Youku & Tudou has created the largest video streaming site in the world. If you are doing video in your luxury marketing mix (hint: you SHOULD do video in your luxury marketing mix), then a solid subtitle translation or Chinese voice over can do wonders on this site. Obviously, this site also offers advertising options (pretty much all networks listed here do in form or another).

Yingke 映客 & Xiandanjia 咸蛋家

 

I would normally recommend these two apps to brands who have the following things in place already: A Chinese website/landing page or wholesale eCommerce presence, an official WeChat account, a well managed Weibo account and a strong video strategy in place. If you want to be truly avant-garde and reach out to your luxury consumer demographic of tomorrow these streaming / social networking apps are the way to go. Like in many millennial / generation Z media these apps need a delicate approach to make luxury marketing or influencer projects work.

Douban 豆瓣

This very innovative site has been called one of the most influential web 2.0 sites in China, for good reasons! Imagine it as a mix of yelp, trip-advisor, internet radio and product review site. If you have a luxury event location, a fine dining restaurant or luxury KTV-club you need to promote, this site can be your best friend or worst enemy, depending on how well you handle it and type of customer service and community management you employ.

The time to get involved in Chinese social media is now!

The digital landscape in China is evolving at an astonishing pace. Mobile is taking over, the society is becoming cashless and new technologies and concepts are going to change the way business interact with this new generation of highly educated, well travelled Chinese millennials. Brands that invest into being present and leveraging these social channels will prosper and grow, the ones that are hesitant and wait too long will eventually decline and vanish. If you want to know what possibilities are out there, click this link and book a China marketing consultation with us. The year of the dog is upon us, time start something new!

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