Given that Western social media platforms are inaccessible in China, Chinese consumers rely exclusively on local platforms like Douyin or Little Red Book. So, how can you effectively use Douyin to reach your Chinese customers?

Let's explore.

What is Douyin?

At first glance, Douyin may appear to be China’s TikTok since both are owned by ByteDance and emphasize short videos. However, Douyin is unique in several ways:

Accessibility: Douyin is exclusively available in Mainland China, whereas TikTok is accessible worldwide, excluding Mainland China.
User Base: Douyin has a massive 750 million monthly active users of diverse age groups. Notably, 20% of its users are over 45, and 40% reside in tier 1 cities like Shanghai and Beijing. The gender split is fairly even, with a slight male bias.
Content Focus: While TikTok is known for creative and funny content, Douyin places a greater emphasis on e-commerce compared to TikTok.

Advanced Features of Douyin

Douyin's homepage is a feature-rich experience compared to TikTok. Beyond the typical explore and follow sections, Douyin features many additional categories of content.

Douyin’s in-app stores are its defining feature, allowing brands to promote and sell products directly within the app. This seamless e-commerce integration leverages influencers to drive traffic to brand stores without users ever needing to leave the platform. Initially known for selling discounted products, Douyin now promotes a wide range of goods, including high-end and luxury brands.

Launching Your Brand on Douyin

To establish a brand channel, regularly post new content. Short videos (15 to 60 seconds) are ideal. Posting frequently maximizes exposure since Douyin’s algorithmic approach means new people will see your content even if you have no followers yet. For sales, consider opening a brand flagship store and linking posts directly to your shop.

Collaborating with Influencers

Working with influencers or Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) is essential for boosting visibility and sales on Douyin. Here are three main options:

Direct Search: Search directly on Douyin for content you like and reach out to the blogger who posted it. You can also search for your competitors and see who promoted their products, then contact those bloggers. While time-consuming and requiring active use of Douyin, this method often yields the best and most relevant results.
Douyin Backend Platform: Use the Douyin backend platform to search for influencers. You can filter bloggers by category, follower numbers, past promotions, prices, and more. This allows you to find many bloggers quickly and start collaborations easily. However, be sure to review the bloggers' past content and analyze the data carefully. Many bloggers inflate their numbers by buying fake impressions and comments to boost their profiles.
Agencies: Work with an agency specializing in providing bloggers. They typically share an Excel file with hundreds of bloggers and their prices, making it easy to get started. But again, beware of fake numbers. Many agencies prop up the Key Opinion Leaders they manage by buying fake impressions for them. In our experience, this approach can provide good-looking content in search results, but you can't expect sales from this—only brand awareness.

The content produced by these influencers can vary from soft promotions to direct endorsements. It’s critical to ensure that your content fits the influencers' channels in terms of style and product type to maximize effectiveness.

Livestreaming: An Alternative Strategy

Livestreaming offers a different way to showcase products and interact with followers in real time. Livestreams often start in the late afternoon or early evening and run until midnight, and may feature hundreds of products.

Livestreamers usually work on a commission basis, making it a cost-effective option for repeated promotions without significant fixed costs. This approach is most popular in the cosmetics category but can be applied to various products.

Comparing Influencers and Livestreamers

The first difference is clear: Livestreams disappear after the event. This means that when people search for your name on the platform later, they won't find any evidence of your livestream or any marketing activity. In contrast, videos published by influencers remain on their channel, so whenever people search for your name, they will find these posts. This is beneficial for brand exposure, as you want people to see a lot of your content to create the impression of a well-known brand.

However, there is another perspective to consider. With influencers posting content about you, you don't necessarily have to offer a discount on your products. While offering a time-limited discount can create urgency and improve conversion rates, it's not mandatory. Livestreams, on the other hand, are often built around discounts, and people regularly expect 20-30% off, or even more. If information about these discounts is always online, it may undermine your pricing strategy in China, and people might always expect a discount from your brand. Therefore, it works in your favor when the livestream disappears along with the discount information, as only a relatively small group of people will know about your discounts.

Another major difference is that influencers posting videos typically ask for a fixed fee paid upfront, and sometimes a small commission from sales. For example, a blogger with 100,000-500,000 followers might ask for a 30,000 RMB fee and a 5% sales commission. Livestreamers, on the other hand, primarily work on commission and often ask for around a 20 to 30% sales commission. A fixed fee is usually required for the first collaboration but will be very low. This means you can do repeat promotions without any fixed costs with livestreamers. The downside? Between the discount you have to offer, sales commissions to the blogger, commission to the platform, and taxes, there may not be much margin left for imported brands. However, if the math works in your case, aim to livestream frequently. If you are concerned about your pricing strategy, segment your range so you don't undermine your hero products.

What About Advertising?

For better or worse, paid advertising on Douyin is straightforward. The platform offers several ad formats and types. You can choose your objectives, target groups, and duration. However, much of the setup is a black box determined by the platform. This means the target group cannot be defined in great detail, so you must trust the platform's algorithm to show your posts to the right audience.

Final Thoughts

Douyin is a versatile platform suitable for almost any type of product and service. With its massive user base, sophisticated algorithms, and wide range of bloggers Douyin offers a good opportunity to establish your brand in China.

Get in touch for more details and case studies.

Introduction to Douyin