Differences Between Chinese and Western Influencer Market

There are many similarities between Chinese and Western platforms, especially when it comes to their young, entertainment-hungry audience. However, their platforms differences mean that influencers need to subtly change their content strategies when making content for the Chinese market, especially when it comes to influencers marketing, or KOL marketing, as it is usually called in China.

Due to major differences in consumer cultures and audiences, the West and China have very different marketing platforms and techniques.

In Chinese marketing, brands are more important than products. Chinese consumers are more brand-oriented and use brands and products to show their socioeconomic status. Chinese consumers have had bad experiences with influencers content and product manufacturers, so emphasizing the brand rather than the product is another reason. In the beauty market, Chinese influencers, brands, and platforms sell products for Asian skin or traditional Chinese medicine. Due to Korean pop culture's influence on Chinese men, the market for cosmetic content has expanded to gentlemen. Skin care products are becoming more popular among young, wealthy men.

Because Western consumers care about how reliable and useful a product is, Western influencers put more emphasis on how a product works than on its brand. Unlike Chinese consumers, Western consumers trust their products to be high-quality, so they don't just buy luxury companies. It's "normal" for influencers and celebrities to wear affordable clothes in public. Recently, luxury brands have been deemphasized. The goal of beauty products content marketing strategy is to show they're useful.

Interestingly, the Chinese beauty industry has recently expanded to include men. American beauty ads on platforms and by influencers rarely feature gentlemen on the cover, but European ads do. Men who advertise beauty products aren't typical Americans. American ads and influencers feature makeup-loving men who wear makeup in public, while Chinese ads target average men.

China and the US have similar consumer cultures. Due to Americans' poor spending habits, the US economy is struggling. Being the best—and having the best things—is the main motivation. Consumers in these two different countries spend a lot. Western online shopping is rising (Durkin, 2019), but China's 24-hour Singles Day outspent U.S., German, Canadian, and UK Cyber Mondays. Both countries spend a lot because their Consumer Confidence Indexes are similar.

When compared to the tens of thousands of dollars earned by Western influencers for each Instagram post, Chinese KOLs or influencers can earn over a million RMB in sales revenue per minute during live streams on platforms. On the 21st of October, during a six-hour and twelve-minute live stream and content, Li Jiaqi made an average of 1.77 million RMB (about 250 thousand USD) in sales revenue per minute. Second place goes to Weiya, which on that same day averaged 1.64 million RMB in revenue per minute or roughly 234 thousand USD.

TikTok and Taobao Live Broadcast are two of the most popular live-streaming platforms, where Chinese KOLs and influencers are especially active. As far as influential Chinese celebrities go, Li Jiaqi and Weiya stand out as the most prominent examples of influencers. Weiya, "the most powerful promoter," broke a record by selling over 267 million products in a single, two-hour live broadcast, while Li Jiaqi, "No. 1 Lipstick Sales," sold 15,000 lipsticks in just five minutes. Ahead of the Double 11 pre-sale on October 20th, Li Jiaqi once again surpassed Weiya on the ranking list of the hottest Chinese influential leaders. Weiya eventually topped the most popular list of influencers, drawing 550 million viewers for its live broadcasts.

Chinese KOLs like Li Jiaqi and Weiya can supply a lot of manufacturing plants. Wei Ya has stated that she will continue working no matter how wealthy she becomes. A lot of plants could shut down if she didn't keep broadcasting live content. They also earn commissions in addition to their advertising revenue. Earnings from a single live broadcast for Weiya are estimated at 2,370,000 RMB, while those for Li Jiaqi stand at 3,150,000 RMB.

The way influencers marketing grew in the Western was very different from how it grew in China's landscape. This is mostly because advertising tools were available on Western platforms from the start as effective ways to reach audiences. These tools were not available in the early stages of Chinese platforms development. Influencers are another name for KOL, which stands for "key opinion leaders" in China's scene.

Outside, there are some circumstances in which an influencers campaign is not required. If you are looking to expand your content reach in a direct way, purchasing advertising might be a efficient, secure, and cost-effective option for you. If you really want to leverage the creativity of the influencers and you need a shortcut to the trust of the people in your target audience, then you should think about working with content influencers.

Even though there has been a significant loss of integrity in China, consumers in Western countries are still more skeptical when it comes to endorsements from influential people. Be sure to choose influencers who align with your brand's values and co-create content in a way that shows your genuineness.

China's social platforms scene has stood out from the rest for quite some time. Because of this, Western content brands have developed strategies for the Chinese industry that are specific to the country. Get ready for the opposite effect, because it's coming.

Your platform strategy, on the other hand, is unlikely to change, even though the ideas behind your message and creativity must be changed for each of your many international target markets. Even though there are other channels, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have become the leaders in most markets outside China's area. If you master just one platform, you can enter dozens of different niches. These platforms make geo-targeting particularly simple. For example, a large international airline that works with Ogilvy talks to dozens of markets through a single webpage.

This opens up possibilities for business. "Hubbing" in a single industry, where key content assets are created, and then localizing in the target markets is a successful strategy for many brands. For example, the airline's content for six Asian markets is made in Beijing, but local teams in each industry translate and manage the conversation around the content to make it more relevant to that region.