If you live in China or visit from time to time, you have probably already heard of Sina Weibo. It is one of the biggest tools for digital social networking, interaction and entertainment, and is one of the main players in digital marketing. Hosting more than 521 million monthly active users, Sina Weibo is celebrating it’s 12th years this year (2021). Some say the development was inspired by Twitter, but today it is more like a Chinese Facebook, featuring personal wall, photo and video sharing.

What is the Userbase Demographics of Weibo?

In 2020, Weibo saw 521 million monthly active users and 230 daily active users, a number that ranks it just above Twitter, its oft-cited counterpart.

Launched in 2009, Weibo is one of China’s older internet platforms that has stayed relevant and successful into the present day. As a result, older millennials, who came of age as Weibo started growing, make up the largest proportion of users on the site, with 48% of users being between the ages of 30 and 39. The under 30 age group comprises 30% of users. In terms of gender, the userbase is overwhelmingly female, with men only making up 18.3% of the userbase.

What Industries are Most Suited for Weibo?

Weibo is a platform Chinese facing B2C companies of any size and should consider having a presence on. As the average Weibo user is an educated mid-career woman in her early thirties from a first or second-tier city, the 10 biggest industries using Weibo are beauty, healthcare, fashion, tourism, retail, art, design, education, sport, and food and beverage.

Who posts on Weibo?

Even celebrities post on Weibo, as social networking becomes a way of getting income. Many brands have benefited greatly from highly influential celebrities mentioning products in their posts. Here is the list of the most-followed people on Weibo:

The top 10 most-followed people on Weibo

1. Xie Na 谢娜 – Over 130 million followers
2. He Jiong 何炅 – Over 120 million followers
3. Yang Mi 杨幂 – Over 110 million followers
4. Angelababy 杨颖 – 103 million followers
5. Chen Kun 陈坤 – 94 million followers
6. Zhao Liying 赵丽颖 – 89 million followers
7. Jackson Yee 易烊千玺 – 88 million followers
8. Vicki Zhao 赵薇 – 85 million followers
9. Yao Chen 姚晨 – 84 million followers
10. Deng Chao 邓超 – 82 million followers

So, why not get started with your own page? Here is how you can register an official account, post and analyse your performance on Weibo. It’s a lot simpler than you may think, and all the steps are detailed clearly below in our step-by-step guide.

How to Register a Corporate Account on Weibo in 2021

What’s the difference between a corporate and personal account?

A corporate account on Weibo will have a badge indicating its status as an official account of a corporate entity verified by Weibo. Privileges given to corporate accounts that are not available to personal accounts include professional features such as fan service, event center, data center, and ad center. Other benefits include a personalized page display, data analysis tools, and CRM tools.

Step 1: Getting Started

Go to the Weibo signup page and choose “Official Registration” to fill out the requested information.

Step 2: Send Account Activation Link

Choose your country code and enter your phone number, then fill in the activation code sent to your phone.

Step 3: Activate Your Account

Activate your account via email. Click on the “Check Mail Now” button to be taken to your email account. Click the activation link Weibo has sent to the email address to fully activate your account.

Step 4: Fill Out Your Account Profile

Now that your account is fully activated, you’ll be able to fill in your account profile. The more complete your information is, the easier it is to attract followers to your account.

Step 5: Verify Your Corporate Account

After activating your account and updating your profile, you are now able to begin the verification process for your corporate account. Depending on your organization, you will have to choose from one of three options:

5.1: Registering as an Overseas Company without a Chinese License

Processing time:

10-21 working days

Processing fee:

5000 RMB for intermediate version

9800 RMB for advanced version

Documents required:

• 企业注册证明和中文翻译件加盖公章或法人签字
  The Company Registration Documents with a certified Chinese translation
• 企业授权第三方或者个人维护其微博的授权函加盖公章或法人签字
  An Authorization Letter for maintaining the Weibo account to operation person or third party.
  The document should be with Company’s seal or legal person’s signature.
• 微博帐号联系人及联系方式
  Operation person or team contact information.

After organizing all the documents, send them in an attachment via email to the official Weibo email address corresponding to your company’s country of incorporation listed here: http://company.verified.weibo.com/verify/oversea.

For overseas companies, registering an official corporate account on Weibo without a Chinese license can be difficult, especially with the majority of the process being in Chinese and requiring certified translations. As a certified Chinese translation agency, HI-COM also has ample experience in Weibo registration and operation. We can help speed up your Weibo corporate account registration process, translate and notarize required documents, and ensure successful verification for your Weibo corporate account.

5.2 Registering as a Company with a Chinese Business License

For companies operating in China with a Chinese business license, the verification process is much faster and more straightforward.

Processing time:

Up to 5 working days

Processing fees:

300 RMB for basic version

5000 RMB for intermediate version

9800 RMB for advanced version

Documents required:

• -Business license

• -Authentication application letter (with official business seal) (downloadable on Weibo)

• -Trademark Registration Certificate
  

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5.3 Registering as a Brand with a Trademark Registered in China

If you have your trademark registered in China, you may open a Weibo account through your official dealer/agent, which costs 300 RMB per year.

Processing Time:

Up to 7 working days.

Processing Fee:

300 RMB

Documents Required:

• -Certificate of the dealership (to prove the legality of your dealer’s or distributor’s operations with your products in China)

• -Chinese business license of your dealer or distributor
  

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How to Get a VIP Account on Weibo

After successfully registering as an official corporate account, you have the option of upgrading to a VIP account. While not a mandatory step, upgrading to a VIP account provides a variety of benefits:

• Being allowed to edit posts after publication.
• Gaining the ability to pin a post to the top of the account profile.
• Ability to customize the account cover image and layout.
• Access to a dedicated service team.
• Receiving a golden crown badge next to your account name.
  

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How to Post on Weibo

As a microblogging platform, Weibo’s posting functionality operates much like Twitter, with a few minor differences. There are a few different ways to get started posting:

Posting on Weibo from Desktop:

Method 1:

Scrolling to the top of your account’s feed, you will see a box for creating a post. As you write in the compose box, the top right corner will display the number of characters you have written. While there is a 2000-character limit, posts longer than 140 characters will be truncated in the feed and only visible in full when users click the 展开or “full text” button.

At the bottom of the post box, there are functions to include a variety of other media, including 表情emoticons, 图片pictures, 视频video, 提到某人tagging, 话题hashtags, 头条文章articles, and 电影点评movie reviews. Clicking on the meatballs menu icon provides further options such as 直播livestream, 地点location, 问答questionnaire, 新鲜事fresh topics, and 微评short reviews. The hashtag tagging functions can also be accessed by typing in the @ and # symbol respectively.

Before publishing, you can set a 时间发 post scheduler to post at a scheduled time. You can also set your post’s visibility options.

The default is for 公开 public release, but you have the option of setting your post to be visible to fans, friends, groups, or only yourself. After your post is complete click the orange 发布 publish button to send out your post.

Method 2:

Another way to post from the desktop is to click the compose icon on the top right of your Weibo page. This opens up a simplified version of the post box from method 1.

While the emoticon, photo, video, and hashtag icons are present, the article function as well as the meatballs menu and its associated functions are absent.

Posting from Weibo Mobile App:

For foreign companies, the advantage of posting from mobile is that the app language can be set to English following the system language of your phone. To post, click on the orange + button and choose the type of post you want to create. Here you have the option of text, photo, video, review, or livestream. To add hashtags, just type in the # symbol for a list of the top hashtags or continue typing to create your own. And just like for desktop, tag other accounts with the @ symbol.

About Hashtags on Weibo:

When inserting hashtags, either by typing the # symbol (desktop and mobile) or clicking on the hashtag icon (desktop only), you will first see a selection of trending hashtags. Hashtags are sorted by category, such as food, fashion, pets, etc. The first tab shows the most recently used hashtags, the second tab shows trending hashtags, and the following tabs are various categories. Hashtags change every week, so these have been left untranslated.

Some of the Best Marketing Practices on Weibo in 2021

KOL Marketing on Weibo

KOL marketing, or key opinion leader marketing, has become the new norm in digital marketing on Chinese social media platforms in the last few years. Weibo is no exception.

By partnering with a KOL to market the brand, brands are able to carry out more organic and engaging marketing campaigns. Finding a KOL with authority and influence over particular demographics allows brands to effectively leverage the KOL’s personal brand to engage target audiences. As one of the most effective digital marketing tools in a brand’s marketing arsenal in China, KOL marketing can complement other tools such as CRM marketing in developing an effective digital marketing strategy.

With the success of KOL marketing, the last few years have also seen an explosion in MCNs, or multi-channel networks, which are essentially KOL agencies. MCNs offer pre-screened KOLs with authentic followers and provide KOLs with the resources to further grow their reach. In 2021, working with a KOL usually requires going through an MCN.

However, if you have no time to read articles, here is the list of most followed KOLs on Weibo in different industries in 2021:

Discover top most creative and influential KOLs in your industry on Weibo that are worth following!

Here is a list of popular KOLs who have the most followers on Weibo:

• Beauty: 土豆Fancy
• Travel: 旅游约吗
• Education: 考研政治陆寓丰
• Car: 萝卜报告
• Science: 无穷小亮微博
• Parenting: 堂堂小方总
• Medicine: 营养师洋洋
• Sport: 长腿姑娘
• Law: 陈越看法

How can you find more good KOLs for your industry? Check our articles out!

Top 34 Chinese KOLs in 2021

KOLs that sell products in minutes

Top 10 affordable KOLs in 2021

Content Planning and Creation

Just like on any other social media platform, an effective digital marketing strategy on Weibo relies on quality and well-timed content.

While Weibo’s post character limit is quite high, its userbase is more receptive to shorter descriptive content (200 words max). Typically, posts with images, infographics, and videos are more popular. Avoid posts with longer written content as it’s just not suitable for the platform. Content such as full-length blogs and articles can be attached as a link, with posts serving to briefly describe highlighted content.

Depending on the type of company you run and the brand image you’re pursuing, the frequency of posts can vary. However, we recommend posting no less than twice a week to keep followers engaged. The Weibo algorithm will favour accounts that post more often.

Public Traffic Pools

Weibo is one of the leading social media platforms in China. Since the start of 2020, Weibo has been used by more than 50% of China’s internet population with over 550 million monthly active users. The Chinese platform connects users based on their focus and interests as opposed to relationships e.g. friends, colleagues and family.

Therefore all users on Weibo connect with each other without strong, pre-existing relationships, which makes Weibo the largest social media platform of its kind with the highest volume of public traffic and resources.

Weibo helps brands and KOLs improve brand awareness and helps to create a high exposure rate allowing every message to be viewed in seconds.

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Target Vertical Markets from a Wider User Base

Weibo categorizes content generated by its users into all types of industries, celebrities and interests. Today, there are over 780 thousand authors, 28 thousand celebrities, 3 thousand MCN brands, 500 TV shows, and 64 vertical fields on Weibo.

The age of Weibo users typically ranges from 19-35. It has established as the key newsfeed hub for Chinese to search and view information about the hottest news, government updates, entertainment and fashion trends. The platform supports content creators and helps them to become KOLs in their specific field and helps brands identify themselves as industry leaders.

Collect market and consumer insights

Benefitting from its rule of unlimited posts, Weibo is a big database filled with customer behaviors and interests and it delivers annual market reports for various industries. Brands with Weibo accounts will be able to understand the market and their customers more in depth and create a more successful marketing strategy with the insights provided by Weibo.

Connect Weibo with social e-commerce platforms: Weibo Mini-Store (微博小店）

Weibo has launched a tool called Weibo mini-store, which allows users to upload products, manage inventories, and process all transactions on their page. The mini-store adds a whole new function to Weibo, making it both a social media and an e-commerce platform. Apart from being an e-commerce platform, Weibo’s live-streaming function is now integrated with multiple major B2C marketplaces in China, for example with online platform Taobao.

The live-streaming content created on Taobao can be synced with Weibo to generate higher exposure rates. This feature has enabled Key Opinion Customers (KOCs) to support brands and convert their Weibo followers into customers via “shopable” posts. The word-of-mouth marketing strategy, applied in private-traffic-based platforms e.g. Wechat, can also be applied on Weibo to support brands wanting to maximize the impact of an advertising campaign.

Advertising on Weibo

For brands just starting out on Weibo, paid ads can be a way to begin growing a following for strong organic reach down the road. With Weibo’s CRM system, advertisers can easily choose specific demographics to target through analytics. Weibo paid ads come in a few different types: splash page ads, in-feed ads, fan headlines, fan tunnels, and search engine ads.

• Splash page ads are ads that show up on the mobile app when users first open the app.
• In-feed ads or display ads show up as sponsored posts within a user’s feed.
• Fan headlines are ads that show up on the top of targeted user’s feeds for 24 hours.
• Fan tunnels are like fan headlines except they target the entire Weibo community.
• Search engine ads operate much like Google ads, appearing when users search for the relevant keywords or hashtags.

Weibo currently charges for paid ads through two billing rates, CPM and CPE.

CRM and CPE Advertisement Rates on Weibo

CPM billing:

CPM or cost per mille is when the platform charges per thousand exposures. The billing is based on how many thousand exposures an ad receives and does not take into account its effectiveness. The CPM price on Weibo is 5 RMB, meaning if 1000 people see the ad placement on Weibo, you will be charged 5 RMB, regardless of engagement.

CPE billing:

CPE or cost per engagement is when the platform charges only when customers engage with the ad. This way, you only pay for an ad if it has been effective in getting Weibo users to click on, share, like, or comment on your post. The minimum price for each engagement on Weibo is 0.5 RMB, with each effective engagement on ad placements incurring corresponding fees. For example, if out of 1000 ad placements, your ad receives 50 engagements, you pay Weibo 25 RMB.

About English Search on Weibo

Weibo has probably the worst search engine ever created by anyone! If you are not searching for a specific hashtag, you most likely will never find what you were looking for! Weibo is trying to constantly update the algorithm and separate the search from user names to pages and other search elements, but it still remains not as useful. The important thing to remember, people go to Weibo to check for the latest social updates and entertainment, but not for searching brands, campaigns and products. So when you do a Weibo English search for “Mac Lipstick”, the platform will present all the latest posts that include this reach enquiry, but might not include the brand’s page, or related campaigns.

And that’s understandable, if you would like to search for products in English or Chinese, check RED/Little Red book app, China’s cross boarded e-commerce app.

One of the most popular yet not completely accurate Weibo related opinion in the western worlds is that Weibo is a copy of Facebook or Twitter. Even though it has starter as a very similar to Twitter platform, and went on to a more Facebook side, these days it is quite a different tool altogether.

Differences between Weibo and Facebook

Facebook is a social media platform based on closed-relationships such as families, co-workers, schoolmates and friends. Weibo however, is established on focuses, interests and open traffic.

Of of the fundamental differences between Facebook and Weibo is, Facebook is an online social networking platform with a social media function, whilst Weibo is a social media platform with interacting and messaging functions. This key difference means:

1. Users can only view the activities of people that they are connected with as “friends” on Facebook, whilst on Weibo, users are able to view the activities of people they are not already connected with.
2. Weibo is used as a newsfeed platform that allows users to search, view and collect key updates from governmental policies, entertainment, fashion and social events. This means that Weibo can provide key advertising products for brands whilst Facebook is more of a social networking platform keeping users updated on their friends’ activities.
3. On Weibo, users may be drawn to a product or service as a result of a recommendation by a KOL. Whist the same marketing strategy can only be applied on Facebook when users are connected with the KOL, therefore brands have a better chance to become more visible on Weibo than on Facebook.

In comparison to Weibo, Facebook is a giant influencer.

It has over 2.6 billion monthly active users whilst Weibo has 521 million.

Both Facebook and Weibo have entered the e-commerce market, however there are some minor differences of how these two platforms operate:

1. Facebook plans to cooperate with existing main stream B2C e-commerce platforms, e.g. Amazon and Walmart
2. The live-stream feature currently present on Weibo (syncing with other platforms) is not yet available on Facebook
3. Facebook allows its users to create co-live-streaming with other users, whilst Weibo doesn’t
4. The advertising programs on Facebook provide larger flexibility for brands. For example, Facebook charges advertising fees based on performance, including CPC, CPA, CPM and OCPM. Whilst Weibo charges are based on scope, targeted users with specific interests, age, location or industry

More about other Chinese social media channels.

Social media strategy is something you cannot easily set up alone. In China’s mobile phone dominant social media market, managing Chinese accounts for foreign brands is becoming more and more difficult. Not only do you need to pay attention to trends, content styles, and creative ideas for different types of social media platforms, each one has it’s own analytics and data processing tools. Mastering your Chinese social media skills is therefore crucial for branding and community management in China.

Social media strategy for foreign brands

Before you even start choosing what platform to register your brand with, think about your goals. Let’s say you attracted 100k people with your first post; that’s great, but what’s next? How will you go about acquisition and sales? Will you need to provide a local payment service? Should you localize your website to Chinese, or lead shoppers to a local online retailer? Your Social media strategy starts with answering these important questions.

Ideally, your brand will have all the digital marketing tools ready to reach your target Chinese audience. Localizing your website for the Chinese market will also require Baidu SEO optimization and possibly, some PPC activity (at least for your brand name keywords). Don’t forget about UX – Chinese consumers don’t like to look for ways to buy products – the whole process shall contain 3 clicks or less. And no, Paypal is not popular in China. But these are just some elements of your Social media strategy.

First steps in your Social media strategy implementation

When choosing how to start working on your Social media strategy, always go with the simplest solution. What is available to you today? If all your international content is created with videos, don’t start with WeChat, as Youku (Chinese video platform similar to Youtube) is the main video publisher in China.

Check if your company license is legally valid for opening a Chinese social media account. Unfortunately, if you want to have an official account, you will need to provide official documents, including the ID of your Social media manager, who will be legally responsible for your content.

Registering Chinese social media account with a foreign business licence

Since 2018, WeChat has provided a way for foreign brands to register an official account by using foreign company licenses and foreign IDs, but this will limit your WeChat payment solution (liquidate it). To enjoy WeChat’s full force, it is recommended to register an account with your supporting Chinese documents, or documents of your partners/agents. To see more details please check WeChat registration page.

Weibo has similar rules, but the foreign company registration fees are as high as 1,000-2,000 USD per account depending on your location, and requires up to 3 weeks of registration time.

Overseas Enterprise Weibo Account Verification list of documents: 

1. Company Registration Documents with certified Chinese translation copy. The Company’s seal or legal person’s signature should be included.
   
2. Application letter and third party authorization letter. The Company’s seal or legal person’s signature should be included.
3. Operations person/team contact information. Note: There will be a verification service charge which may vary by country or region.

If you wish to proceed with your application and need help, just drop us a line!

Other platforms such as Dazhong Dianping, have different solutions for foreign brands; some have representative offices in foreign locations that handle listings and account management.

Choose one platform at a time. It is better to do one well, than do several badly. To achieve this, learn the audience demographic and preferences of each platform. To check the details of each platform please check out this article.

Localizing your content for Chinese social media platforms

The next step in your Chinese social media journey is publishing. Before jumping into translating your western social media posts, do some research on the hot topics and trends in China. Just like in the West, people in China are always chasing new and interesting content.

This is important so you don’t waste time and money on content that will be useless for the local market. Also, think about creating content just for the Chinese audience, even if it’s filming/interviewing your Chinese guests buying your products in European locations.

Localizing your social media campaigns can be extremely useful, but make sure it is handled by a professional, since the Chinese e-world has its own language (internet slang).

And finally, you need to consider creating tailor-made content especially for Chinese market – something unique and emotional that will speak to your audience. Taking a local approach, using HTML5 supportive templates, and following the local trends should be seen as priority tasks for a brand’s content production.

Social media planning

Just like your western platforms, Chinese social media should be organized. Creating your social media editorial plan will help you a lot, not only to organize your publications but also to prepare for events in the future. Visualizing your communications this way will help your team to adjust and fix things as you go, since at the very beginning you might miss some big dates in your industry. Since Chinese e-commerce giants are constantly creating new shopping festivals, you need to be prepared for sudden changes in your publishing schedule. There are planning solutions tailored for China market, such as Kawo.

Chinese Social Media Analytics and Targeting

Just like on Facebook and Linkedin, most Chinese Social media platforms try to monetise their business via ad managers. Weibo even goes one step further and sells your data analytics back to you! The free version only covers the data from the last 30 days.

Wechat has quite a strong data processing approach, which will help you to analyse in detail your audience demographics, your posts behaviour, your menu analytics etc.

WeChat: for more information on how to create target ads please click here.

Dianping: for more information about how to manage your back office in English please click here.

Weibo: for more information about how to use Weibo please click here.

You won’t be able to achieve any ROI if you don’t have a Chinese social media strategy

The most important thing for foreign brands entering China is a clear Social media strategy. If you think posting here and there few times a week will bring you instant fame and millions of sales, then it’s highly unlikely things will work out. If you are a famous brand – your products are already selling in China, whether you know it or not. But if you are a small or unknown brand – there may be no one out there waiting for you in China, and you will have to fight for every like, click and sale just like in other markets.

Decide exactly what you want to achieve, make sure it is realistically achievable, and set up your time frame and budget. Despite the common belief, the Chinese market is not a “magical” place where brands sell out stock in seconds. Yes, it does happen, but not without months of preparation, hundreds of people involved, and huge budgets.

The best way to measure your social media campaign is not by engagement levels, but by conversion. You can buy tons of traffic coming to your platform, but still have zero conversions. Especially, with the fact that more that 30% of all social media traffic is not authentic.

If you don’t know China, the way people live, interact and shop, make sure you look for some professional advice. Your first priority should be focused on setting up a strategy that will work on the Chinese market. It is ok if the logic is not the same as in your other locations; the only thing that matters is that it has to work in China! Brands who are not flexible in China, often end up failing there.

Is your information legal?

Since 2015, Chinese authorities have been getting stricter about what can be published online with the intrusion of advertising or selling. Our Guide to Advertising in China covers the areas you should be paying attention to when working on marketing copy, product descriptions or websites. You can also find information about the penalties issued in the event of an infraction.

Chinese KOL in cosmetics are taking over China’s beauty market. They are making the most out of the visually-oriented Chinese youth environment, producing watch-and-learn videos to share the most important tips and tricks on how to always look 100%. At Hi-COM we have carefully selected these profiles for the foreign brands to consider when promoting skincare and cosmetics brands, as well as entering the e-commerce market or dealing with health-related products in China. These 8 popular Chinese influencers are talented, hard-working and have been widely recognised by China’s social media market with various awards.

Chinese cosmetics influencers are taking over China’s beauty market. They are making the most out of the visually-oriented Chinese youth environment, producing watch-and-learn videos to share the most important tips and tricks on how to always look 100%.

At Hi-COM we have carefully selected these profiles for the foreign brands to consider when promoting skincare and cosmetics brands, as well as entering the e-commerce market or dealing with health-related products in China. These 8 popular Chinese influencers are talented, hard-working and have been widely recognised by China’s social media market with various awards.

#1

Kevin

Followers: 54.65million on SinaWeibo

Mr. Kevin Chou is a famous stylistin Taiwan and one of the hosts on Taiwan’s hottest variety show “WQueen”. Zhou was deemed “makeup king” by the industry. He created his own brand,BeautyMaker, which is tailor-made for Asian women’s skin and ivory toned skin color. It can take into account the skin and skin color of Asians and he currently resides in Taipei, Taiwan. In 2005, he entered the “WQueen” team and became a makeup icon in both Taiwan and mainland China. In 2008, his book, “Bare Makeup Bible and Beauty Make-up Collection”, which took him over a year of painstaking efforts, was published and sold more than 130,000 copies in three months. This book became the best-selling fashion lifestyle book in Taiwan in five years after “Beauty King“.

#2

Doctor P

Followers: 36.04million on Sina Weibo

Doctor P was born on February 8th in Taiwan. He is known as a makeup artist, skin care specialist and also an image designer. Having built up an incredible following, he is now invited by numerous beauty TV shows including “女人我最大”， “我要你最美”， “今夜女人帮”， “美丽俏佳人” and “我是大美人”.Hegives accurate and special advice for beauty and image design and also to tell women how to deal with their skin or hair problems. He is also the founder of “媲美网” and a makeup brand named JMIXP to provide Asian women with trendy, simple and practical makeup solutions. In addition to that, he has his own signature columns in several magazines including  “时装L’OFFICIEL” (Fashion L’OFFICIEL),  “时尚COSMO” (Fashion COSMO) and others.

#3

MOMO

Followers: 7.40million on Sina Weibo

MoMo was born on December 29, 1991 in Beijing. She is the founder of Mo Amour Essential Oil and is a popular Weibo blogger. In 2010, she founded MmeAmore Cosmetics (Beijing) Co., Ltd., and for the first time presented “one to one Aromatherapy customized skin care” in China. In 2014, she established “MeiMoDream Fund” for the urban women’s beauty and dream. This post-90’s beauty has been famous on the Internet for a long time. The reason for her fame is because she is absolutely shocking and glamorous. She is a member of the Baidu MCC Hall of Fame, SinaWeibo celebrity, Renren.com beauty, and CJ ShowGirl. As a famous taobaogirl, her popularity on the Internet has always been high because she shared her beauty with many people. She is also a British IFA aromatherapist, the founder of MimoEmalcosmetics, the owner of Mo Amour Essential oil shop, and the founder of Mo Amour essential oil.

#4

Jun

Followers: 3.94million on Sina Weibo

Jun is the founder and CEO of the JUNPING brand. He was born in 1981 and graduated from the Department of Journalism and Communication of Zhejiang University’s School of Humanities and Communications. After graduation, he worked for well-known Internet companies such as Sohuand Object Software and was responsible for the operation of online games. Throughout working in Shanghai, Beijing and other places, he is getting familiar with the aromatherapy and beauty fashion industry. He later returned to Hangzhou to establish the FAC HuajianMiyuAroma Life Concept Store and the JUNPING brand.

#5

Amiu

Followers: 3.68million on Sina Weibo

Born in 1992, Amiu is a famous Model at taobaogirl ShowGirl.  In the past ten years she was earning her living by modelling for car exhibitions and gaming events, as well as winning a few talent awards, bringing her fame and business in the Influencer market.  Nowadays she is one of the most recognised beauty industry influencer, working with many cosmetics and skincare companies, including Meitu Beauty.

She is:

2012 Most Popular taobaoGirl

Rayli10th Cover Model Competition All-Art New Talent Award

RayliStar 2010 Hangzhou Runner-up

#6

Chony

Followers: 3.01million on Sina Weibo

Features: fashion favorite, beauty blogger

With a social influence of 3 million Weibo fans and 3.3 million live broadcasters, 2.76 million fans in seconds Chony also has an amount of 9.99 million fans in the US. Her cooperations with the magazines “Yi Zhou”, “RuiliCostume Beauty”, “City Beauty” and brands, such as  L’OrealParis, Givenchy, CHANEL, SISIDYLL, TOM FORD has increased her influence dramatically in the past year, brining great gigs for way, such as an invitation by L’OrealParis (2016) to participate in Paris Fashion Week, recorded with Akasaka Sakai, and China’s Hunan Satellite TV’s 2017 New Year’s Concert.

Awards:

• May 2016 Shortlisted  BeautyBeautyBlogger

• December 2016 Beauty V Awards China’s Top 10 Beauty Makers Award

• August 2017 Fashion Reds Summit “Fashion Elite” Award

• December 2017 The Top 10 Beautifier Awards for Beauty V-Awards

• September 2017 Invited to participate in the Global Fashion Elite Summit

#7

Pan

Followers: 2.59million on Sina Weibo

Pan is a blogger and a V-award influencer in Makeup category, at the age of 18 she has a clothing store and beauty shop, in the year of 2015 won the cutting-edge fashion star. Through the sharing of personal love and use of things on Weibo, she created the first-ever “Little-Pan-loved-things” monthly video section. With the influence of individual fans at the same time, Weibo brand promotion reached tens of millions of readings. In the year of 2017, she won Super Star Festival and Top 10 Beauty Makers and scored the second place in the Influencer Value in a Beauty Category.

#8

SHU

Followers: 2.05million on Sina Weibo

She was the first beauty makeup queen in the entire network, has a variety of styles, and has strong beauty skills, especially fashion imitation makeup and creative makeup. Her content is distinctive in style with great affinity and strong fan appeal. She has brand cooperation experience, a high conversion rate, and is loved by first-tier brands.

She has participated in major fashion weeks, filmed Dell’s promotional video, and also participated in URBAN DECAY’s events with idol Ruby Rose. It is not too much to say that her fans are “winners in life”.

We are now seeing brands move away from ‘super’ KOLs, whose follower numbers are in the millions. There is a suspicion of ‘fake follower numbers’ as well as a view that their followers are not actually that engaged or loyal, meaning there will be less of an influence. These days, brands are focusing more on the KOLs who appear to have a more genuine followership; a more real connection to their followers. While their follower numbers may not be as high as those of the ‘top KOLs’ of China, these lesser known (and less expensive) KOLs have a more genuine connection with their follower base, meaning more influence and impact for KOL campaigns.

We are now seeing brands move away from ‘super’ KOLs, whose follower numbers are in the millions. There is a suspicion of ‘fake follower numbers’ as well as a view that their followers are not actually that engaged or loyal, meaning there will be less of an influence. These days, brands are focusing more on the KOLs who appear to have a more genuine followership; a more real connection to their followers. While their follower numbers may not be as high as those of the ‘top KOLs’ of China, these lesser known (and less expensive) KOLs have a more genuine connection with their follower base, meaning more influence and impact for KOL campaigns.

HI-COM sits down with one of these rising stars in the KOL scene, Rebecca Gao, for an inside look at the life of a KOL. Having started just two years ago, Ms. Gao’s Weibo account already boasts 60,000 followers and her WeChat account is growing quickly with almost 10,000. Last year she was invited to be a KOL Presenter at the Omega China VIP events in Shanghai, Chengdu and Changping, an invited KOL for Thailand Elle Fashion Week, and was the bilingual travel KOL presenter for Tmall’s ‘Taste New Zealand’ campaign, attracting more than 100,000 livestream viewers.

Question 1:

Please give us a brief introduction and how you became a KOL?

I’m a fashion and lifestyle KOL, but not that big yet. Why I became a KOL? I started in the US about two years ago. My friend and I thought, “Well, why don’t we start writing articles about things we enjoy, let people know about us”.

Question 2:

In your own words, can you please explain to us what a KOL is?

People are always talking about KOLs or “Key Opinion Leaders”. In my view, a KOL is just a blogger that tells you the real picture, the real view of their life. If you have something even just a little bit special to share about your life, you can be a KOL. Anyone can be a KOL.

Question 3:

In your experience, how has the marketing environment in China changed or developed in the last few years, with the increased presence of KOLs?

For Chinese marketing, all brands and companies are searching for the perfect KOL to help them to sell. This is a really key point in marketing right now. Before, brands only cooperated with celebrities or models. Now, they are not just looking for celebrities or movie stars. They are looking for the best KOL to represent their brand. When a KOL is used in marketing, it is much more involved. You are much closer to all your followers. It is more real and genuine.

Question 4:

In your view, what do you think is the future of KOLs in China and the rest of the world?

KOLs will become more and more powerful, with more and more followers. The trend of livestreaming through different platforms an apps will be keep growing.

Question 5:

How do you think KOLs can help foreign brands with their China entry for their products or services?

So many foreign brands or international brands have already been using KOLs in their marketing strategy for a long time. Last year I cooperated with Omega, who put on three VIP events in three different cities: Shanghai, Chengdu, and Changping. They invited fashion bloggers to give live demonstrations on how they accessorized their outfits with their watches. They invited both celebrities and KOLs, but KOLs had a more active involvement in the events. Many of the fashion brands used to only use celebrities as their VIPs. Now, you will find fashion and luxury brand bloggers as the VIPs.

Question 6:

Do you think the impact of KOLs is limited to luxury brands and premium goods, or can they also be effective for marketing in other industries?

Yes, KOLs can enter different categories. Someone can be a fashion blogger, but they could also write an article about baby and mother care. The market can be really big. As long as they really enjoy what they are talking and writing about.

Question 7:

How do you think KOLs can create a social impact or bring positive social change? Can you think of any examples?

If people are in the public and have a lot of people following them and knowing about them, then they need to take care about their language and what they are saying. They have a responsibility. More and more KOL can use their influence for good. It is not just about showing off beautiful and creative things. They can drive positive changes in society. There are these livestreaming shows on apps and some people have built up many followers. A lot of the teenagers have crushes on them and I think that it can be quite dangerous. These KOLs might use bad language, and really influence all the young people that are watching them and following them and influenced by them. They need to manage their behavior. It [whether the KOL can have a positive impact or not] depends on the KOL’s personality. The KOL industry still needs some education.

Question 8:

What makes you follow someone?

Because I am interested in the fashion industry, I follow many fashion bloggers. I follow anyone that has their own opinion, and shares their culture, their perspective about life. [They are] not just posting photos of themselves wearing an outfit. They post about why they are wearing it and what they think. This makes them more real.

Question 9:

What are your next steps? How to you plan to grow your follower numbers?

In April I will organize an event. A ‘Meetup event’. I have my own brand, so I will put on a small showroom and invite all my followers for them to see our new clothing releases. We have a special new print we have designed and put on hoodies.

Question 10:

What advice would you give to someone wishing to become a KOL?

You have to be ultra confident about yourself, and have something special about yourself. Like, have a special hobby such as writing articles or making videos, and put more effort into it and focus on it. Then share them and publish them on the different channels. You need to be sociable and be able to speak with different people. You need to sell yourself and make yourself interesting.

Thank you for your time!