Top 5 Chinese Music Apps

Spotify had reached 140 million monthly active users (MAU) worldwide. This number fades in comparison to music streaming services in China: the most popular music app in China, KuGou, had almost double the number.

What is interesting about China’s music streaming is that they are all free. Most of the apps make  money by offering subscriptions for better audio quality, ads, concert tickets, virtual gift-giving, and song purchases. Chinese fans are enthusiastic to make the industry successful. In only 3 days of its release, Katy Perry’s album “Witness” ramped up 1.3 million purchases on China’s leading music apps, with NetEase Music taking the lead.

Here is the top list of China’s hottest music apps selected by WeChat Apply team

1. KuGou (酷狗)

KuGou’s karaoke feature (Screenshot from KuGou app)

KuGou, meaning Cool Dog, made its way to the top range by appealing to a very wide audience, in particular those in small towns, according to a report from Sixth Tone. This means that a large portion of their content is dedicated to square dancing tunes and KTV by local hipster population. KuGou has  won users by integrating KTV streaming which enables users to receive “song coins” that can be transferred into real currency. Users can comment on songs through “bullet screens” (弹幕) where comments stream across the video, listen, watch, and interact through the social platform.

Although the app has 228 million MAU, Kugou is still figuring out how to earn money, but it has been earning from their live streaming service Fanxing. KuGou and KuWo are both owned by the China Music Corporation which merged with Tencent’s QQ Music in July 2016.

2. QQ Music (QQ音乐)

QQ is Tencent’s very first social product. It started out as an instant messaging tool back in 1998. Although QQ Music shares some  same features as Kugou, such as radio, KTV, and live streaming. It caters to a more urban crowd. QQ Music also offers articles and enables users to watch music videos, concerts, and interviews with famous musicians, including international stars such as Linkin Park.

The app has 211.43 million users. It owes its success to Tencent’s huge presence in the Chinese market, including WeChat. This enabled the service to strike deals with major record labels and allow its users to buy concert tickets through its payment service.

3. KuWo (酷我)

KuWo is an app with a focus on KTV streaming. The App hosts KTV tournaments with cash rewards. It also streams and broadcasts popular talent shows and comedies. KuWo also reserves a part of its app for China’s rising DJs.

KuWo offers a wealth of video content bordering on trashy which users can comment through bullet screens (Screenshot from KuWo)

Like other apps, KuWo offers song purchases and subscriptions. It tries to make money with in-app gaming and its own brand of headphones and speakers. The app has 107.72 million MAU.

4. NetEase Cloud Music (网易云音乐)

What differentiates NetEase Music from other apps is its stronger focus on indie artists, enabling it to compete with internet giants like Tencent and Alibaba. Besides short videos, the app has social features that enable users to interact with performers which have profiles on the service. It also has a music streaming option for joggers called Run FM (跑步FM) that selects music with a BPM rate that matches the listener’s running tempo. Aside from music, users can listen to podcasts and watch videos.

With 62.7 million MAU, NetEase is the first music service Unicorn securing RMB 750 million in Series A financing in April 2017.

5. Xiami Music (虾米音乐)

Xiami started off as a P2P platform but had to abandon the model due to copyright regulation. Recently the service added more niche content by featuring emerging musicians with original creations. It has launched The Undiscovered Nationwide Spotlight music program, a talent search where users can explore and select their favorite out of more than 6000 artists.

Xiami Music, with 14.4 million MAU, is owned by Alibaba along with another music app called Alibaba Planet (阿里星球).

No different to other online battlefields in China, Music Apps will see more intense competition in 2018. Let’s stay tuned to see who will be up or down the list this year.

About WeChat apply

WeChat apply is an award winning China WeChat digital marketing agency based in Sydney.Working across all aspects of the marketing solutions like WeChat promotion, WeChat Official Account Registration, WeChat KOL, WeChat Mini Program Ad. and so on, we will ensure you have a solid marketing strategy together with perfectly delivered campaigns. Wechat apply  will transform your China online marketing to increase your lead generation, brand awareness and market engagement.

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If you’ve planned marketing activity in China, you’ll know by now that the digital landscape is vast, complex and ever-changing. This month we take a look at a new platform that is a huge player in the youth market.

Douyin, another name Tik Tok, is a short-video App with powerful editing capabilities. It enables users to add music and special effects to their videos to make them more interesting and creative. It is now the No.1 free short-form video streaming app in China.

As the cost of acquiring online customers is getting higher and higher,  it is becoming harder to  to expand the customer base. It is an urgent issue to tangle by offline business to connect with online users and to achieve conversions.

2018 witnessed people’s attention shifting to short video platforms. As a leader in the field, Douyin rises to be a new online traffic hub. How could the businesses catch the bonus of the short video marketing?

On October 30, WeChat Apply representative attended Douyin Blue V Ecosystem Conference in Beijing Hilton Hotel where Douyin introduced its functionality and released a number of case studies of Douyin’s enterprise official account in details. We had some useful take-aways to share with our blog readers. During the conference, Point of Interest (POI) function was referenced to be a sharp tool to help off-line businesses.

POI function enables businesses to obtain exclusive location icon in Douyin video. Click on the icon, users can see all the video content of the account owner.  Businesses can recommend products, coupons, shop events to users through their POI pages.

POI page establishes a bridge between offline businesses and online users. While guiding users to browse videos, it helps users get the relevant information about the business. It shortens the time for users to explore. It improves conversion efficiency and effectively guides users to the offline stores. We summarised 3 effective approaches in this blog.  Hopefully they would be helpful on your China marketing practice.

Approach 1: POI + DOU Paid Ad: Let more target users see your store

Flowery Courtyard was a local holidy inn in Xishuangbanna, a forest region in South West China, It had no regular customer base and lacked online tractions before they launched their Douyin Campaign.

Flowery Courtyard uses the daily life of a budding pet as an unique video content and uses POI function to publish video with store information. To enhance the exposure, the business also uses DOU paid ad function to amplify the promotion content. The DOU paid ad function was purchased to push recommended content to those interested users selected by Douyin smart big data demographics. During the 3 month period,  23% of new customers were converted via this combination approach.

Tips: The core competence of POI with DOU paid ad function is based on high-quality content relevant to user’s preferences. It has to be accurate targeted and then improves the probability of fans coming to the store to consume. It is a good choice for offline stores to get exposed widely and to find target people quickly and accurately.

Approach 2:  POI+ Online Coupons, close the user consumption loop

The Old Wharf is a 17-year-old hot pot restaurant chain in China. It has nearly 100 stores in the country. The chain is proud of its wide brand distribution, high visibility and high frequent customer visits. During the National Day season, the Old Wharf made a good use of  the POI function and online coupon function. The campaign led to a significant increase of guests numbers in restaurants nation wide.

The Old Wharf firstly chose a 200k fans base dining related KOL  to preheat the campaign. the KOL draw users to to visit their Douyin POI page. Upon arriving at the page, customers can get online coupons to be redeemed at the Old Wharf selected offline stores.

Through the combination of displaying online coupons and POI, the Old Wharf attracted users enter their offline stores repeatedly. the guests were encouraged to shoot and share their own video inside the restaurants. It worked very well on attracting young consumers.

One of the Old Wharf restaurants got more than 13,000 visits in 20 days. The store sales increased rapidly.

Using the combination of “POI + card vouchers”, online traffic is successfully converted offline, stores won by gaining store consumptions and customer won by enjoying discount coupons.

Tips: The core of POI + voucher sits in the display of campaign activities and specific store information, which triggers users’ willingness to purchase. the following case study Black Valley will show you how to riase relevant topics, then integrate businesses’ selling points with your target users’ interest points.

Approach 3: POI+ Topics, Use hot topics to attract user generated content

Black Valley is a tourist attraction in Chongqing, a tire 1 city in China South West.  They raised keyword topics such as “heat dissipation”, “red seedlings”, “cooling down” and so on. Users can see the store POI page when they participate in the topics. Users can see the scenic intro, photos, address, business hours, and can call up for inquiries. Black Valley invited local KOL Miss Red Miao to shoot live videos on site and interact with the passing-by tourists. They also encourage tourists to shoot the imitate videos at the same shooting spot where the really hot KOL video was firstly shot. Black Valey gave those participants incentives to share their imitate videos, therefore increasing users  creativeness and sharing.

One piecd of user generated video reached 2.5million times. With high participation topics and interesting video content, Black Valley successfully spurred fans’ interest, shortened the communication path and increased online conversions.

Tips: POI+ Topics work well for the brands relevant to hot topics. The hot topics can attract online users to participate, then push up the topics to be an explosive one, therefore gathering high visits and exposure.

Conclusion

Online users’ behavior path is see-attention-interest-search-action. Douyin simplified this process, enabling business  to reach users directly.  The introduction of the POI function not only shortens the brand marketing path but also improves communication efficiency.

As the short video becoming more popular, Douyin’s commercial ecosystem are closing the loop from marketing to sales, empowering businesses to keep progressing in marketing. Overseas brands should definitely keep a close watch on how Douyin’s commercial value is unfolding.

About WeChat apply

WeChat apply is an award winning China WeChat digital marketing agency based in Sydney. Working across all aspects of the marketing solutions like WeChat promotion, WeChat Official Account Registration, WeChat KOL, WeChat Mini Program Ad. and so on, we will ensure you have a solid marketing strategy together with perfectly delivered campaigns. Wechat apply  will transform your China online marketing to increase your lead generation, brand awareness and market engagement.

The post How Douyin Helps Driving Stores Sales appeared first on WeChat Official Agency.

Products sourced from Europe
Promotion in Australia
End market in China

WeChat Apply team has discovered a trend of Tens of thousands miles of sales journey. The strategy has proved successful to some emerging brands in the cross-border trade sector between China and Australia in 2018. Interestingly the product themselves may not be traditional Australian products which have been proud by Australians.

It is brainstormed and tried out by a bunch of really intelligent Australian based business entrepreneurs who have gained a global vision of product selecting, duo-market experience, most importantly they know how Chinese consumers think and behave better than their peers in the western market.

Welcome to the hybrid of Australianised European Product designed to sell to Chinese. Australia has a strong ego of Australian made concept, Australian made represent genuine, good quality, natural and truthful character. But Australian made also means high production cost, pricy logistics, low volume output and long turn around times.

Yelling you are Australian Made is far from enough to sell well in China. Unless it is hard to replace, with high production barrier, or it is a top luxury brand, the product has to be cheap, meaning price affordable by 80% of the population, fast delivery, quick order response, and large production volume.

Australia is the no.6 trade parter to China, while China is the no.1 trade parter to Australia. Similar situation to New Zealand, which geo location is even worse, at the world’ far edge.

For centuries, Europe leads the world civilization and culture. the products made in Europe have been naturally regarded as high quality in Chinese consumers mind. They represent traditional, advanced in technology, highly branded. In short, hey admire European stuff.

Chinese Australian population is so active and effective on conveying and convincing their relatives and friends back in China. Smart brand marketers have seized the matured Daigou channel and pumped effective marketing engagement into this channel and let Daigou do the last leg of message delivering to the ears and eyes of the end consumers in China.

Contributed by more direct and frequent flights, and year on year tighten logistic connections on trade, also driven by Chinese Australian Daigous selling activities, Australian to China air freight and shipping costs much lower than below. Freight cost is even significantly cheaper than Australia -Singapore or NewZealand to China.

Here are the 4 steps of how the strategy could work well.

0. Build distribution network, or you already have a one able to take your product and sell.
1. Source products made from with an economical scale, European gene is the starting point.
2. Utilize the large crowd of Australian Chinese community, in particular, Daigou community via a series of marketing activation campaigns, as an outcome, these products are getting known to Chinese consumers.
3. Let them know they have to purchase either from their Daigou directly shipped from Australia or buy from the online shops which store ship-from-Australia.
4. Lastly use all round marketing resources to hammer the market in a short period of time, normally 3 months.

An skin care and fast fashion entrepreneur who has adopted the strategy and applied really well, has told WeChat Apply team that they achieved an over a million items of sales within 3 months of continuous event marketing and promotions, one of their core brand activation activities was the fashion night organized by WeChat Apply Duobright team.

In addition to managing online marketing campaigns, WeChat Apply has commissioned a growing number of brand activation events which emphasis on educating distributor representatives purposely flown by brands from China, they enjoy their Australian trip while receiving product education via attending cruise parties, entertained dining and highly brand exposing activities.

“Daigous are our speakers and screens,

distribution network both in Australia and China is our cash cow”

By offering free gift bags in exchange of their social following, wow them with state of art entertaining performance and scatter rounds and rounds of small lucky money envelopes in the on-site real-time WeChat chat group, the engaging environment is created, Daigou would do the important part- pull out their phone and share what’s going on in the event.

“We are broadening our target market, we are not talking about tens of millions, we are talking about 100 million. We are in the era of surplus, everything become so accessible. Consumers have so many choices. we have to do all means to let them pick ours from others. “

Price has to be set competitive, good quality, something new, distribution network and never-ending marketing campaigns that may include the ones as big as thousands-guests entertaining launch with top celebrities invited in town, presenting well in trade expos, disciplined approach of following actions:

Keep value for money murmuring to as many people accessed.
Routine WeChat original edited content publishing
Daily or bi-daily WeChat friend circle (moment) updating
Create promotional content for resellers to grab and use

Brands who are good at making most out of the strategy, are shifting their focus to distributor and reseller network in China from relying on Daigou to sell directly. They are lining up to gain product entry approval, building their own warehousing or patterning local warehouses in free trade zones, strengthening their relationships with concentrated powerful trade distributors.

WeChat Apply DuoBright has gained thousands of Daigou contacts in our database which is a goldmine when it comes to amplifying the marketing messages to China market. Want to learn more or do more about leveraging this channel to help to fire up your export to China, feel free to have a chat with us!

About WeChat apply

WeChat apply is an award winning China WeChat digital marketing agency based in Sydney. Working across all aspects of the marketing solutions like WeChat promotion, WeChat Official Account Registration, WeChat KOL, WeChat Mini Program Ad. and so on, we will ensure you have a solid marketing strategy together with perfectly delivered campaigns. Wechat apply  will transform your China online marketing to increase your lead generation, brand awareness and market engagement.

The post Australianise Before Sell to China appeared first on WeChat Official Agency.

130+ countries and regions

270,000+ square metres exhibition area

3000+ business and organisations exhibitors

200+ World Top 200 enterprises

100+ events, seminars and activities

On 5th November 2018, the China International Import Expo kicked started her 5 days massive trade show which is expected to be even bigger than the World Expo Shanghai in 2010. The CIIE was proposed and announced by the Chinese President Xi in 2017. It is viewed by some observors as a counter measure for China response to US led Trade War, by promoting China’s market and replacing products formely imported from the US with products imported from other countries.

President Xi of China delivered a key speech at the opening ceremony of the First China International Import Expo, CIIE in Shanghai on Monday.

Here are the highlights of the speech which represent the highest level of China  ‘s attitude towards global trade strategy.

“The Chinese economy is a sea, not a pond. Storms can overturn a pond, but never a sea.”

More opening-up

The China International Import Expo is a “trail-blazing” move in the history of international trade development. The CIIE is the first-ever import-themed national-level expo.Economic globalization is an irreversible historical trend and provides strong momentum for the world economic development. All countries should be committed to opening-up and oppose protectionism and unilateralism in a clear-cut stand. All countries should stick to innovation and accelerate the transition with traditional growth drivers being replaced by new ones. All countries should uphold the principle of inclusive development and shared benefits, in order to realize common development.

China will not close its door to the world and will only become more and more open.

Measures to promote opening-up

1. Imports

China’s initiative to expand imports is not a makeshift, but long-term consideration of embracing the world and future while promoting common development.

2. Market access

China’s imported goods and services are estimated to exceed $30 trillion and $10 trillion, respectively, in the next 15 years.

Measures announced in April to relax market access have been so far implemented. China has further simplified negative list of foreign investment, reduced investment limits and lifted the level of free investment.

China is taking solid steps to expand financial opening-up, continue to advance opening-up in the service sector, deepen opening-up in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and accelerate the opening-up process of sectors including telecommunications, education, medical treatment and culture.

3. Business environment

Every country should strive to improve their own business environment and solve their own problems.

4. Free trade port

China will speed up the exploration of the building of free trade ports with Chinese characteristics.

5. Multilateral, bilateral cooperation

China will push forward multilateral and bilateral cooperation in pursuit of development.

China’s economic prospects

A fully optimistic attitude can be held toward the prospects of China’s economic development.

The Chinese economy is a sea, not a pond. Storms can overturn a pond, but never a sea.

Shanghai’s role in opening up

China will give better play to the important role of Shanghai and other regions in opening up.

Sources: chinadaily.com.cn/Xinhua

About WeChat apply

WeChat apply is an award winning China WeChat digital marketing agency based in Sydney.Working across all aspects of the marketing solutions like WeChat promotion, WeChat Official Account Registration, WeChat KOL, WeChat Mini Program Ad. and so on, we will ensure you have a solid marketing strategy together with perfectly delivered campaigns. Wechat apply  will transform your China online marketing to increase your lead generation, brand awareness and market engagement.

The post President Xi Keynote Speech Highlights at Import Expo Shanghai appeared first on WeChat Official Agency.

The 8^th August every year is the National Fitness Day for China. 2018’s one is the 10 year anniversary since the setup of the National Fitness Day. Variety of national fitness activities have taken places throughout the country to encourage more people to join the national fitness program. In the past, people are showing off food and selfies, it is now more of fashion to show off the hiking routes, running maps and real-time competitions at WeChat friends moment. The sports and fitness lovers have integrated their sports and fitness hobbies into their travels, greatly enriching their travel experience.

Fitness tourism is the most popular

According to a report by Donkey Mum Travel Network that in the first half of 2018, the number of people who chose sports tour products increased significantly, which was about 24% higher than the same period in 2017. 2018’s World Cup in Russia pushed Chinese sports tourism to a new peak. During the tournament, more than 100,000 Chinese tourists traveled to Russia.

In sports tourism, fitness related is the most popular category, accounting for 70% of the total Chinese visitors; the extreme sports account for 20%, and game watching is 10%. Fitness tourism represented by

Bushwalking, mountain hiking, bike riding are widely welcomed most of the tourists and have become the main stream fitness activity nation-wide because these activities are experience oriented, relatively low cost, easy to participate. According to the data of the mother, the number of fitness trips in the first half of this year increased by 35% compared with the same period of last year, and the public’s awareness of fitness increased

The data shows that Mountain attractions such as Huang Mountain黄山,Mount Tai泰山, Mount Heng衡山, Mount Emei 峨眉山and Tianmen Mountain天门山 are the most scenic spots for hikers. Participants’ age group spread out from primary school students to the retired elderly. They all participate in the love of the majority of tourists.

Sports tourism is growing rapidly and has great potential

With the enhancement of people’s physical fitness awareness and the enthusiasm for sports events, the market for sports tourism has expanded year on year.

According to the forecast released by the National Tourism Administration, by 2020, the total number of Chinese sports tourists will reach 1 billion, accounting for 15% of the total number of Chinese tourists, they are expected to spend over 1 trillion yuan (200billion Australian dollars) yearly.

With the rise of the middle class, China’s tourism pattern has been shifting from traditional sightseeing to combined tourism model that takes into consideration leisure and fitness.

In recent years, China has vigorously developed sports industries, and sports facilities and conditions have been greatly improved. The infrastructure improvements have paved the pass ways for the rapid growth of fitness tourism. Zhao Yong, deputy director of the State Sports General Administration, said that accelerating the development of the sports tourism industry is a key measure to implement the Strategy of Nationwide Fitness, promote people’s livelihood and increase people’s happiness level.

Australian or foreign brands should seize the opportunity of this round of growth.

Celebrities are massively influential, however, it could backfire and hurt the sponsoring brands, particularly we have seen some backslashes historically. The latest backslahs was a headline news Swisse had to suspended the sponsorship of Fanbingbing, Chinese highest paid actress after she confessed to paying a huge tax bill in this October. Brands do need to be cautious of the risk to engage those high price asking celebrities under China’ current tensed political attitude towards the entertainment industry.

While selecting sports and fitness stars to work together on a Big Health or National Fitness Concept is what Chinese central and local authorities are welcoming. It is not only politically right but also it fits in Chinese market organic demand of combined lifestyles of leisure and fitness.

Compared with millions of dollars commitment fees for those sky-high pricy entertainment stars, those Chinese Sports and fitness famous are a really good value for money with everything welcomed by the market.

Want to find your perfect matching Sports or fitness famous to represent your brand to attract the massive consumer crowds? Come on to talk to us.

About WeChat apply

WeChat apply is an award-winning China WeChat digital marketing agency based in Sydney. Working across all aspects of the marketing solutions like WeChat promotion, WeChat Official Account Registration, WeChat KOL, WeChat Mini Program Ad. and so on, we will ensure you have a solid marketing strategy together with perfectly delivered campaigns. Wechat apply  will transform your China online marketing to increase your lead generation, brand awareness, and market engagement.

The post National Fitness Program Drives Explosive Growth in Chinese Sports Tourism appeared first on WeChat Official Agency.

WeChat Moments Ads 

Moments in WeChat is like a cross between Facebook’s page and its newsfeed. It allows users to share their status, photos, articles, etc. with their WeChat contacts. The WeChat Moment Ads here look like normal Moments posts but with an additional “Sponsored” tag in the upper right corner.

Moments ads can be used to promote an official account or a campaign, encourage users to download an app, distribute coupons and launch location-based promotions. For Moments ads, advertisers can define their target users according to their gender, age, location, industry, marital status, education level, etc.

We have seen Tourism Australia, BMW Australia , Huawei Australia, some  travel business have performed their Moment Ad Campaign in 2018. However, the Ad adoption has been super slow and very limited in Australia and NZ region, perhaps largely due to the small market size compared to the huge China’s domestic market  and other heavy Chinese tourist zone such as US, Japan or Korea. WeChat oversea team lacking the processing workforce capability is also a bottleneck that we do not forecast would be resolved in short future.  Currently WeChat has outsourced the WeChat Moment Advertiser qualifying and applying process to the third party overseas agency partner, and WeChatApply team has been proudly selected as one of the few.

WeChat Brand Zone

Brand Zone places brand’s WeChat activity in a one-stop-place, giving users quick access to brands’ official WeChat accounts, online stores and tailored content. The feature appears within in Search area and is triggered by search term. It would appear on the very top of the page in an eye catching position.

The function allows brands to redirect visitors to different destinations and is an ideal first step in commercialize the online traffic. Importantly, the Brand Zone gives brands exposure to users that aren’t following its official account. For instance, Cartier uses the new feature to redirect visitors to its H5 store for direct sales while Gucci simply redirects visitors to its own website. On the other hand, Longchamp links its boutique store to its WeChat mini-program for direct sales.

The WeChat Brand Zone displays the official information and services of the merchants. It is an important source for users to obtain business information and services. It also supports a built in mini-App type micro homepage. Opening the micro homepage helps to establish a brand image and strengthen user connections.

Smart brands do not miss any possible contact point or scenario of communication with users. WeChat official Brand Zone is a gateway which integrate different scenarios , giving multi dimensions that could link WeChat moment ad, friends comments and organic content all together.

A recent successful campaign was Huawei’s latest Mate20 launch campaign. Huawei used WeChat Moment Ad, Brand Zone and Outdoor LED ads, opening up multi online and offline exposure and access points for the end users in its latest Mate 20 Mobile Phone Launch Campaign.

Visitors can click on the video to watch the product launch conference in London, or click on Huawei’s official account to read related articles or go straight to online store mini App for pre ordering. The user experience is seamless.

The brands who have gained the Brand Zone right also takes advantage of implementing WeChat themed campaigns and customized services in Search and Brand Zone. As long as an user arrives the Brand Zone via Search, the user is exposed with more seasonal special promotion related gifting offers.

Quick Questions:

Who can have this exclusive right of official Brand Zone? 

Brands have to already have an certified WeChat official account, their trade mark are registered in China.  Brands can not be in medical or in financial industry due to the WeChat industry restrictions.

Why Official is always mentioned when it comes to WeChat Brand Setup?

Official, as a term, bears heavy weight in Chinese mindset. China has long history of powerful central governmental systems where private business sectors had been alienated. Since Chin’s “opening and reform” for 40 years, Chines private business sector has been criticized by making fake products and fraudulent brands that’s why a genuine brand needs to have “official” mark displayed on all your online identities to win end consumers’ trust from their first glance.

Feel free to email or chat with our friendly team to explore how you could make the most value out of your WeChat brand account by taking advantage of the latest functions offered by WeChat.

About WeChat apply

WeChat apply is an award winning China WeChat digital marketing agency based in Sydney.Working across all aspects of the marketing solutions like WeChat promotion, WeChat Official Account Registration, WeChat KOL, WeChat Mini Program Ad. and so on, we will ensure you have a solid marketing strategy together with perfectly delivered campaigns. Wechat apply  will transform your China online marketing to increase your lead generation, brand awareness and market engagement.

The post WeChat Moment Ad Works Well with WeChat Brand Zone appeared first on WeChat Official Agency.

2018 China GDP September quarter was reported at 6.5% growth rate, significantly slower than the average rate of the past 30 years. Retail shopping has slowed with it. The stock market is slumping. China’s currency has lost some of its value. The trade war launched by US President Trump has left many Chinese feeling less optimistic than before. Anxiety, aging issues, sky-high housing prices are among the frequently referenced terms.

Welcome to China’s “consumption downgrade”,  a potentially worrisome development for Beijing and the world. For years, the conversations in China were about “consumption upgrades”. As the economy took off, China’s middle class — now more than 400 million strong and still growing —  spent those bigger paychecks. It traded up from local brands to Nikes, from cheap phones to iPhones, from tea to $5 Starbucks lattes. Not to mention those security guarded long queues in front of Chanel Louis Vuitton and Gucci stores in Hongkong, Europe, and Australia.

Multiple aspects of consumption downgrade 

There isn’t a universally agreed definition about the term among Chinese media and business landscape. There are indeed some aspects of consumers behavior change.

Buy cheap to save money. Consumers choose the products with cheap price and average quality. Taking a comparative example here in Australia, A mum may be more inclined to take one dollar bottle water Woolworth’s brand water off the supermarket shelf than two-dollar Mount Franklin bottled water. In this scenario, the quality level drops as prices drop.

Be selective on what to spend what not.  Economic conditions are not ideal, people have to be more diligent on living expenditure, choose cut consumption items, or be selective on what to and what not to. For example, those “monthly emptiness”, referring the people running out their money before their next salary pay, may not turn up at a friend gathering of spending over 150RMB, 30 dollars. In this scenario, experience level drops as prices drop.

Consuming concept changes. Some consumers are no longer have the strong willing to pay a premium price for premium brands. Interestingly, this kind of mindset shift occurs after the increase of living standard. Initially, consumers are not used to or have not purchased those premium brand products, they believed the pricier the better. Until they realized that quality of premium priced product and mid-level priced product are not much different. Therefore they changed their mindset and are more inclined to make purchases of higher quality-price ratio. Coach bags have gained much more growth comparing with Chanel bags in China for the last 24 months.

Consumers buy in different ways.  Consumers would buy in group purchase model to gain an advantage of low price thanks to the mobile app technology which is making the group purchase with anonymous people a no-brainer task.

Winners of Consumer Downgrade

Consumption downgrade is a change in the buying structure, habit and shopping concept for some consumers not for everyone. However, it is not that scary as it may sound to brands and manufacturers. It occurs at the same time while some customers are upgrading.

On the flip side, consumption downgrade creates massive commercial opportunities, especially for China’s hugely populated market. Who are the winners in the wave of consumption downgrade?

Pin Duo Duo, a group buy APP.

Pinduoduo is a group buy App,  users can launch group buys with friends, families, workmates or neighbors or even the people unknown, to buy stuff at cheaper prices. Pinduoduo’s daily active users, daily transactions surpassed JD.com, becoming the 2nd largest Chinese eCommerce platform next to Alibaba.

65% of Pinduoduo sales come from regional areas and 3^rd tiered cities and below where 50% JD.com’s sales come from 1^st and 2^nd tier cities.

To most city dwellers, it is a comprised action to cope with ever-increasing economic pressure by shopping on Pinduoduo. While those consumers in rural areas have benefited from gaining cheap, affordable access to a variety of products offered across the country which would have been impossible without Pinduoduo’s group buy model.

MINISO fast fashion store chain.  While you probably like shopping in 2 dollar stores in Australia for Halloween, Christmas or birthday party gigs, China’s counterparts have gone far massive scales. MINISO is known to sell a majority of its products priced at 10 RMB. The brand expanded to 2000 stores in China within 3 years, sales reaching 10 billion RMB, 2 billion Australian dollars.  It is a legendary record in the retail industry. 50% of their 5000 categories of product are priced under 10 RMB.

Many companies are trying to grab the commercial opportunities driven by so-called “ the era of consumption downgrade”.

Conclusion

Chinese consumers are now away from a single-minded direction. It can be complicated, it can be a mix both consumer upgrade and consumption downgrade, and even in different dimensions.

We have heard optimistic comments made by marketing peers and some Australia brands that that mid-class, residents in tier 1 and tier 2 cities and post 90, and post 2000, they are in the process of consumer upgrade, so they are going to welcome foreign goods, particularly Australian consumers goods are highly appreciated. This insight is only partially true, idealism and romantic. Simply putting up a shingle and yelling your brand offers Australian premium made product hoping to have people lined up to pay a higher price, has become a naive imagination.

Australian businesses need to put in more effort to dig further about Chinese consumers behaviors and reconsider the core of business: to provide value, scalable and affordable product and services to your customers. We, WeChat Apply team are the specialized experts who know what’s happening in China with first-hand insights, feel free to get in touch with us.

About WeChat apply

WeChat apply is an award-winning China WeChat digital marketing agency based in Sydney. Working across all aspects of the marketing solutions like WeChat promotion, WeChat Official Account Registration, WeChat KOL, WeChat Mini Program Ad. and so on, we will ensure you have a solid marketing strategy together with perfectly delivered campaigns. Wechat apply  will transform your China online marketing to increase your lead generation, brand awareness, and market engagement.

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Mum and Child market in China has been top hunter-fields for those overseas brands in the health sector. putting extra fuel in the fire, China as a whole nation is promoting Big Health strategy. Post-90s, a Chinese way to label those who were born after 1990, have entered the birth-giving age range. What is the trend of China’s Mum and Child consumption market?

In recent years, China’s population suffers declining newborn numbers and ratios,

while new births are not obvious after abolishing one child policy 3 years ago, and any birth stimulation measures will not take effect in short term.

While young families are more and more hesitant to raise more than 1 child due to complex reasons, Parents do really have stronger willing and financial ability to spend more on high quality for their sole child.

China consumer market appears stable, Mum and Child market continues to grow 

According to the data released by the China Statistics Bureau, the Consumer Confidence Index for the 1st quarter of 2018 was 115, and by the 2nd quarter of 2018, the figure was 113. Despite a slight decline, the overall trend was stable. In 2016, China’s Mum and Child market grew by only 3.9%. In 2017, it reached 123.3 billion yuan, an increase of 11% year-on-year. As researchers are talking more about consumer downgrade trend in wider sectors in China’s economy, consumption upgrade and the acceptance of new products are the two core drivers for the sales of Mum and Child consumer goods.

Compared with other matured markets, China’s per capita consumption of Mum and Child consumer goods remains at a low level with a large room for growth. In baby formula sector, the consumption per capita is in the US is 7 times more, France is 2.2 times more and Spain is 1.4 times more than China’s.

More high-end consumptions, led by post-90s mums

According to Nielsen’s research, the proportion of sales of cheap products in Mum and Child consumer goods categories has been decreasing; mid to high priced products are significantly growing. Post 90s’ consuming characteristics are reshaping Mum and Child market.  They want to try new, value their own personality. Their purchases are more ignited by environment and surrounding. They are tech passionate, service oriented. These are their key points of difference from their previous generations.

The brands knowing their post 90s customers characters have used New product launch as their key driver of the sales growth with systematically planned and executed marketing activation campaigns.  They try to match their consumer’s demand with the new concepts such as gut caring, organic certified. these hot spots are where the future growth comes from.

In 2018 We have seen an accelerated trend of new products releasing from Australian Child former makers’ camp. Nestle, Bayer, Wattle Health, Aptamil, A2, Bubs, all of which have launched their new product series in the year targeting the post 90s mums and to-be mums. In particular, A2 has been focusing on an organic concept with a carpet sweep style advertising campaign both in Australia and in China. Their premium baba formula market share has improved significantly.

Online and offline integration is the trend

According to Nielsen data, the growth rate of brick & mortar Mum and Child stores has maintained a double-digit growth with 13% in 2015, 10% in 2016 and 11% in 2017. However, the fragmentation characteristics of the Mum and Child stores lead to fierce competition and short life cycle.

The advantage of the offline Mother and Child stores are their experience and professionalism. They provide consumers with a one-stop service with a full range of categories, fine environment, and personal warm assistance. At the same time, the current online channels also have the advantages of being conveniently accessible, price comparability and richness of marketing means. The amalgamation of online and offline is the trend of the industry.

For baby formula products, genuine quality and safety is two undebatable priorities for a brand to survive in China market. Utilizing WeChat moment ad, banner ad, online store voucher, drive online traffic to the physical stores, convert office customers to be the loyal and repeating customers by offering online content engagement and interesting online theme campaigns.

Key influencer testimonials, live streaming on a brand event, WeChat content push message, WeChat moment sharing, user experience share at e-Commerce sites,  all of these have been influencing consumers behaviors,

Conclusion

Chinese consumers in Mum and Baby sector have become more mature as purchase capability increasing, which helps to fire up sales growth and expansion of premium segment. The market still has a good space to grow. WeChat is one of the key gateway connecting brick & mortar stores and online world. Manufacturing brands need to make effective WeChat presence, making sure their WeChat assets continue to bring value to the supply chain and supporting your resellers, paving well distribution network, adding more consumer value when building and growing your China brand and market share.

Talk to us about how to make most value out of your WeChat assets today.

About WeChat apply

WeChat apply is an award winning China WeChat digital marketing agency based in Sydney.Working across all aspects of the marketing solutions like WeChat promotion, WeChat Official Account Registration, WeChat KOL, WeChat Mini Program Ad. and so on, we will ensure you have a solid marketing strategy together with perfectly delivered campaigns. Wechat apply  will transform your China online marketing to increase your lead generation, brand awareness and market engagement.

The post Post-90s becoming main buyers, Where does the China Mum & Child market go? appeared first on WeChat Official Agency.

Know How~about Quora in China.

The Chinese version of Quora, the service with 43 million monthly active users have added a host of additional interactive features.

Originally established as a basic question and answer platform, Zhihu, Chinese words as for “ Know how”,  has since evolved into a diversified functioned social media site.

Bigger Than a Q&A Service

Zhihu’s features are similar to those offered by its counterpart Quora. Users can ask and answer questions, vote for the most relevant responses, and subscribe to a certain topic or question. However, Zhihu has expanded on these and taken the basic question and answer service to a new level. These advanced services include:

Zhihu Daily

One of Zhihu’s frontline services, Zhihu Daily publishes a selection of articles, answers, and news to its users. Updated 3 times a day, the service provides high-quality content which users spend an average of 21 minutes per day consuming. This is compared to an average of five minutes per day that Chinese internet users spend on news apps in general.

Zhihu Live

Zhihu Live allows experts on specific topics to host an online Q&A session. Hosted on one of the apps chatrooms, users can pay to participate in the session.

Zhihu Special Column

Allowing users to launch and maintain their own column dedicated to a specific subject, Zhihu Special Column acts as the service’s blog platform. Users are permitted to subscribe to columns and submit relevant content of their own.

Other services offered by Zhihu include an e-book store, a paid consulting marketplace, and online expert discussion board.

The Last Battleground of Non-paid Organic Space

as weibo and weChat have becoming heavily commercial oriented and monetizing their online traffic since 2017, it is getting harder and harder for organic content provider to survive in the pricy paid KOL dominating online world, however Zhihu has not that too thirsty for monetarize the platform, therefore it provide a really short windowed opportunity for brands to take as part of the content marketing strategy.

Zhihu boasts one of China’s most educated and informed online audiences. According to a report by iResearch, most of Zhihu’s registered users live in the first-tier city and over 60% are higher educated. Here how you could start with to make the most of Zhihu and build your own community on the app.

1. Create your own official account

Brands can set up their own account to establish a number of avenues of communication with customrs. They can provide insight and consumer advice through published articles. They can ask questions to their consumer audience, collaborate with KOLs, and generate discussions. In addition, it is also an avenue for customers to pose questions to the company.

Through their official Zhihu account, Siemens have responded to 20 consumer questions and written 26 articles. One of its article, about dishwashers, has gained more than 3700 likes and nearly 900 comments.

2. Publish your articles

Brands can publish highly informative articles regarding a specific subject to drive interest and traffic. For example, AB Inbev has published an e-book on Zhihu regarding beer selection. The book has been read by 18000 users and attracted over 500 likes.

3. Host Zhihu Live Events

Brands can broadcast audio and visual content to its users via Zhihu Live. They can invite KOLs to host sessions on specific topics and entry for customers is free. Japanese automotive brand Infiniti hosted a video live that gained over 470,000 viewers.

WeChat apply team as helped a number of overseas clients build their presence at Zhihu for the last couple of years, free to reach out if you feel your brand voice need to be heard at this platform in China.

About WeChat apply

WeChat apply is an award winning China WeChat digital marketing agency based in Sydney. Working across all aspects of the marketing solutions like WeChat promotion, WeChat Official Account Registration, WeChat KOL, WeChat Mini Program Ad. and so on, we will ensure you have a solid marketing strategy together with perfectly delivered campaigns. Wechat apply  will transform your China online marketing to increase your lead generation, brand awareness and market engagement.

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For What products can

WeChat marketing be effective?

WeChat has been a hot searched term word when it comes to China marketing for many marketers. It creates some illusion that as long as a business, that sounds too simple and too good to be true.

Then what are the products that are suitable for WeChat marketing?

Generally speaking, many products and enterprises can do online marketing.  But promoting your offer at WeChat requires different approach and mindset

Whether this product can do well at WeChat depends on the nature of the product and the influence of the product in the market. There are mainly several kinds of products that are suitable for WeChat marketing:

1) FMCG

Some products that need to be used in ordinary life include products used in food and clothing, such as clothing, household goods, etc., this type of product is easy to do WeChat marketing because these products are what people have to buy regardless. If your WeChat marketing is sound,  there will be a lot of customers to buy you.

2) Service and  Intangible products

This type of product is mainly embodied in Takeaway food, Flower reservation, hotel booking, concert ticket order, flight booking and so on. The products of these services can be propagandized with the help of WeChat marketing, and provide more convenient and quick service.

Recently a “running leg” company has appeared on WeChat. They are providing a service to a large number of WeChat friends, business is doing errands service, if it is raining outside or things do not go out to buy things, you can call this room, they will serve you.

3) Computer hardware and App products

According to the analysis of market data, the sales of this kind of products on WeChat are considerable. Why is it so popular with WeChat users? First, some users of the network are most keen on this type of product, and as the product continues to upgrade, the market of this kind of product will never decline. The advantage of the retreat, can engage in some promotional activities to attract the interest of consumers, such as: free use, free gift, and so on, in the use of the wrong, will decide to buy software, as long as WeChat marketing, sales will be.

4) Online learning course

Online learning course has really hit people’s pain points in current fast-evolving mobile time. Because of things are developing so fast, people are more and more worried about their inability to keep up with new things. People are badly thirsty for new knowledge and skillsets.

2017 has experienced an explosive growth of mobile learning courses. Stories after stories were surfaced that the organizer of online course cashed in millions of dollars within 7 days of a viral WeChat marketing approach. The logic is, as long as you can invite your friends to sign up and pay for the online course, you can get it for free, even once your invitation converts to a set number, you can even get a revenue cut from your friends’ payment.

5) Women’s products

It is interesting to found that most of the customers are women in China digital world, whether they are Taobao or micro business, and women are naturally fond of shopping. Many data show that women are the most important consumer groups, whether they are visitors or purchase rates, consumption, or other data. Some women’s products are very suitable for WeChat marketing. As long as you do well in WeChat marketing, sales will continue to increase.

The above is suitable for the WeChat marketing of some products, want to do a good job of WeChat marketing needs to continue to learn how others get success and the latest technique being adopted by the top marketers in China.

About WeChat apply

WeChat apply is an award winning China WeChat digital marketing agency based in Sydney.Working across all aspects of the marketing solutions like WeChat promotion, WeChat Official Account Registration, WeChat KOL, WeChat Mini Program Ad. and so on, we will ensure you have a solid marketing strategy together with perfectly delivered campaigns. Wechat apply  will transform your China online marketing to increase your lead generation, brand awareness and market engagement.

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