It is a well-known fact that every other teenager in China wants to become an “influencer”, “KOL” or “WangHong” (网红): a social media personality with a large following and glamorous lifestyle. But how much do influencers make in China? And how does that compare to the revenues of Western influencers? Revenues of influencers outside China Instagram influencers The average rate …
Baidu Stock Price Dropped 36% in a year, Why? – The Downfall of a Tech Giant
Baidu saw a fast and steady decline of its stock price over the course of 2018, from 254.14 USD on the 25th of January 2018 to 162.7 USD on the 24th of January 2019. How to explain this 36% decline in stock price? What is causing the fall? What is causing this drop in share price? Baidu has been subject …
Why Does WeChat Block Competitors, While Facebook Doesn’t?
On Tuesday 15th of January, WeChat blocked 3 competing Apps on their launch day: Liantianbao (聊天宝) – formerly called Bullet Messenger, Duoshan (多闪) – launched by Tencent’s archenemy ByteDance, and Matong MT (马桶MT) – launched by Ringo.AI. Is this approach to competition specific to WeChat? To the Chinese market? And how do Chinese and Western companies differ in their growth strategies? …
New e-commerce law of China: how will it impact Daigou, Taobao, and WeChat stores?
We received many questions from clients and readers asking about the effects of the new e-commerce regulation in China that became effective from January 1st, 2019. Many worry that individuals will no longer be able to run WeChat stores anymore and that daigous will no longer operate their Taobao stores. We look into the regulation and here is the summary: …
Weimob IPO – a peek into the biggest WeChat 3rd party solution provider
With a reported 15.3% market share, Weimob is the largest provider of WeChat solutions for small and medium companies in China. The Tencent-backed company filed for its Hong Kong IPO on the 31st of December 2018. The data disclosed provides an interesting outlook into the world of WeChat 3rd party solution providers. Weimob performance Weimob has shown very positive performance …
A simple guide to Douyin Store – Case studies and how to create one
Douyin is taking another big step towards e-commerce. Now any user who uploads over 10 videos can create a Douyin Store to sell products. Earlier in December, the requirement was to have over 8,000 followers in order to launch a store. How does Douyin Store work? As you might know already, Douyin is now the largest short-video platform in China. …
WeChat Mini-programs Attracted 4.3 billion RMB of Funding in 2018
According to a recently released Newrank.cn report, from the 1st of January to the 14th of December 2018, WeChat Mini-programs attracted 4.3 billion RMB of funding, as part of 130 different funding rounds. This is 6 times more than the amount in 2017. Let’s have a closer look at this Mini-program investment boom. Investment focused on e-commerce and services Most …
Interview with a WeChat blogger – tips for KOL Marketing
I met with Juju for coffee in HK last weekend. She is a casual fashion blogger with 140k WeChat followers. In one post, she helped one of our clients sell 75k RMB of products within 24 hours. How did she get there? From 0 to 1, grow followers via cross-promotion Q: How did you grow your follower base from scratch? …
Taobao integrates with Xiaohongshu to move into content generation
On November 27th, Taobao started integrating with Xiaohongshu on its product description page. Earlier in May 2018, Alibaba led the 300 million USD funding round of Xiaohongshu. The marriage of the 2 platforms is inevitable. But how exactly will this impact the social commerce space? Taobao’s first attempt to connect to Xiaohongshu The “Mega-Mashroom treatment lotion” from Origin was one …
Tencent Q3 earnings releases show a changing company
Tencent released their Q3 2018 earnings, and they show a transformation into a new company: away from gaming, and toward online payments. But why is this change happening? Tencent Quarterly results Tencent earnings reflected a healthy growth of revenue (with a 24% increase YOY). Profits grew at a slightly slower pace of 22% YOY. Although this performance appears as reasonably …