Video Marketing | How Douyin (TikTok) is changing the game

In Janury 2020, Douyin (Chinese version of TikTok) reached 400 millions daily users. This is a significant milestone for this short video APP owned by ByteDance. Of course, the popularity of the APP catched the attention of brands for video marketing opportunities.

So, how to do marketing on Douyin (Tiktok) ?

First, we will explore how Douyin gives some great insights about Chinese people online behaviors and preferences. Also, we will see the evolution of Chinese consumers online habits. You can do marketing on Douyin (Tiktok) by listening and learning about your customers interests.

Second, we will review the video marketing opportunities for brands in China. You can do marketing on Douyin (Tiktok) by sharing and advertising on the platform.

Douyin: Chinese Consumers Insights and Behaviors

Early January 2020, Bitydance released on their WeChat account a detailed report on Chinese users behaviors and preference on the APP. This report in Chinese gives a great glimpse on how Chinese consumers behave online and what their preferences are.

The report is structured around 6 main parts:

Chinese daily life: what do Chinese users share and like on Douyin
Chinese preferences in terms of music and topics depending on their generation
Travel favorite destinations for Chinese consumers
Favorite food for Chinese consumers
What Chinese are learning on Douyin
Cultural interest of the Chinese people

To start, we can see that family is at the heart of the APP with parents releasing over 3.08 millions videos every day with their children. Important moments of life are also celebrated - wedding is the most popular with 7 millions videos, followed by birth with over 1.7 millions videos.

Also, Chinese people love their pets, and the favorite dog of the platform was the Husky ! From a job perspective, teachers got the most attention followed by nurses.

In the meantime, the report shows that interests vary with age. For the ones born in the :

60's : Dancing & Weddings
70's : Food & Crafting
80's : Parenting & Scenic views
90's : Scenic views & City Exploration/Shopping
00's : Animation & Pets

Travel is also a very popular topic, with over 660 millions check-in. Bangkok, Seoul and Tokyo are the most popular cities abroad on Douyin ! Paris only comes in 9th position behind London (7th), Dubai (6th) and Singapore (5th).

Finally, Education is a key behavior on Douyin. We observe that influencers (KOL) with more than 10,000 followers released over 14,89 Millions of videos with an average of 100,000 views. Cooking is the most popular topic for educational videos, followed by language learning.

How to do marketing on Douyin ?

With such popularity in China, Douyin is a platform that is attractive to do digital marketing. So how to start doing digital marketing on Douyin ?

First, you need to create short and impactful video contents. The most popular formats are short video around 15s. You will need to work with a video marketing agency, like Next Ren, to create some video content. You will need to create a significant volume of short videos to increase the chance of one of them going viral.

Then, to maximize the views on your content, you should work with influencers and key opinion leaders that are officially registered on the platform. You can work with an Influencer/ KOL agency, like Next Ren, to help you identify the right partners.

To conclude, Tiktok has a lot of value when you are a marketer interested in the Chinese market. First, it helps you understand trends in the market and how young generations behave (Chinese millenials, Gen-Z). Keep in mind that over 42% of users are less than 25 year old. Second, you can create viral content on the platform and can collaborate with influencer and KOL to get more exposure.

Next Ren is a digital agency in China who can help you build your campaign on Douyin.

Source: Bytedance article on WeChat