China has been the world’s largest outbound travel market since 2013 and expected to reach US$ 365 Billion by 2025. Here are some highlights of China’s digital marketing environment and trends that help you tap into China and reach the Chinese travellers more effectively. Get yourselves ready for the tourism recovery!
Internet users in China
China is a digital savvy country with 854.5 million internet users, which is 59% of its population. To target the Chinese, social media is a must have platform as there are 1.04 billion active social media users with a penetration rate of 72%. Mobile marketing is undoubtedly the mainstream of digital marketing and there are 1.61 billion mobile phone connections in China.
Source: datareportal
Online Content
85% of the respondents said they watched video online. Video is dominating the digital market and we can see this trend from the raising of video apps such as Douyin and Kuaishou. Short video and live streaming are the popular formats in China.
Source: datareportal
Social Media Trending
Unsurprisingly, the top most-used social media is WeChat, followed by Sina Weibo, Baidu Tieba, XiaoHongShu and Tencent Weibo. The popularity of video platforms such as Kuaishou and DouYu are rising, with a percentage of 32% and 20% respectively.
Source: datareportal
Ecommerce Activities
73% of the respondents said they would search online for a product or service to buy. 78% of them purchased a product online and 64% are purchased via a mobile device. For travel, a total amount of 228.5 billion spent in ecommerce in 2019.
Source: datareportal
Sources of New Brand Discovery
Word of mouth marketing is an essential brand-building tactic to build positive brand image and credibility in China. 27% of the respondents said they discover new brands and products through word of mouth recommendations. Another 27% of respondents found new brands through search engines.
Source: datareportal
Summary
From the above figures, we can see that mobile-friendly is a primary factor for a marketing campaign to succeed in China. Is your booking system in Chinese? Is it easy to make booking and payment via smartphone? How about your video? Is it vertical for mobile view? Video content is also welcome in the Chinese market, especially short video and live streaming. Collaboration with KOL/influencer is a smart option to boost your brand awareness in a short time. It helps to create more user generated contents with positive comments and reviews.
If you need more China marketing advice, please feel free to contact info@nijital.com and talk to our China marketing specialist.
