WeChat advertising strategy

Speaking the customer’s language, both figuratively and literally, is the first step in making the sale. According to a recent study, 80% of customers prefer to buy products with descriptions written in their own language.

With 27 countries (EU) and 24 different recognized languages, the European market represents a difficult yet rewarding challenge for foreign marketing teams. Successfully translating and localizing for this market requires thorough understanding the region’s various cultures and regulations.

Translation and localization are not only important for adapting your product to a different culture, but also to a different regulatory framework.

For example, nutrition labels that are legally acceptable in China require further detailed breakdowns of carbohydrates when it comes to markets in the EU. Submitting documents that are poorly or partially untranslated can ruin your chances of selling on e-commerce platforms like Amazon.

Even the best products will fail to launch in Europe if translation and localization are not well executed. Find out what the major languages are in Europe and our tips to increase ROI, customer reach, and sales in this market:

Tips for Choosing what Languages to Translate and Localize when Selling Online in Europe

Translating your documents and contents into 24 different languages is expensive. Instead, you could pursue a strategy based on number of speakers. Below, we list the five most spoken languages in Europe to help you get started:

• German: The sole official language of Germany, Austria, and Liechtenstein, German is also a co-official language in Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. There are approximately 95 million German speakers across Europe.
• French: The sole official language of France, French is also a co-official language of Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. There are approximately 80 million French speakers across Europe.
• Turkish: While Turkey is not an EU nation, its large diaspora throughout the region makes Turkish the third largest language in Europe by number of native speakers.
• Italian: The official language of Italy and the Vatican City, Italian is also the third most widely spoken co-official language in Switzerland, after German and French. There are approximately 60 million Italian speakers across Europe.
• Spanish: The official language of Spain, Spanish is the mother tongue of 43 million Europeans.

Use Sworn Translation Services for Your Document Translation Needs

In most of Europe, translations of important legal documents into local official languages must be done by a sworn translator, someone who takes legal responsibility under oath for the accuracy of the translation.

When submitting translated legal documents for use in France or Spain for example, you would be required to provide sworn translations as opposed to certified.

You can request a free quote to translate your document at HI-COM.

What Documents Require Translation before Applying to Online Shop Registration in Europe?

As mentioned previously, you will require a sworn translation of requisite documents in the target language in most EU countries. These documents consist of:

• Articles of Incorporation

• Activation Papers

• Articles of Association

• Business License

• ID/Passport of the Legal Representative

• Consent letter to act as designated representative

• Consent to act as company secretary

• Certificate of incorporation

• Incorporation form

• Tax Information

• Register of significant controllers

What Else Should You Translate when Start Selling in the European E-commerce Market?

Aside from sworn translations of the required business and legal documents, all product and marketing information should be translated and localized. This includes everything from payment methods, currency, product descriptions, and even sizes (shoe sizes for example).

As cross-border e-commerce has accelerated, competition amongst various product categories has become stronger. Localized product descriptions, marketing, and customer support give your product an edge in new markets and encourage more reviews from buyers who speak the targeted languages.

While marketplace e-commerce platforms such as Amazon offer automated translations of product descriptions, it’s never a great idea to rely on machine translation for consumer-facing information. Customers can immediately tell when a brand has put in the time and effort to localize content.

Essential Tips for Translating Your Product Documentation

When it comes to e-commerce, investment in translation and localization result in:

Increased traffic – e-commerce platforms require that keywords, titles, and descriptions be accurately written in the target language. When translations are well localized, your product will get more hits from potential customers, driving traffic to your product.

Increased conversion rate – With accurate translations, your product will appear in more relevant searches, meaning an increased conversion rate. High conversion rates translate into increased sales.

With that said, let’s get started on localization and translation tips for product documentation

Product title and description

Probably the most obvious on the list. Care needs to be put into these to ensure they are translated and localized with international SEO in mind. Do SEO research for each language to ensure keyword translations are accurate, culturally sensitive, and match demand from local consumers.

Product characteristics (Dimensions, Sizing, etc.)

European countries use metric measurements for various product dimensions. UK is the only exception, with various specific instances where imperial measurements are used. Shoe and clothing sizes are also something that must be converted, with the UK using different shoe sizing systems from the rest of Europe, both of which are also different from those used in North America.

User guides and manuals

User guides and manuals have a direct impact on customer experience of the product after purchase. Therefore, clear and accurate translations of user manuals and guides are a must. At best, a bad translation will lead to users ignoring the manual or leaving a bad review, at worst, you could be held liable for damages resulting from incorrect operational instructions for your product. We recommend creating a glossary of commonly used terms in your product line to ensure accuracy and consistency throughout translations.

Payment methods and currency

This is the last step before consumers part with their hard-earned money. Ensure this step is smooth and frictionless for all international customers by localizing for payment platforms commonly used in your targeted regions and by providing prices in local currencies.

FAQs

Build trust with your international customers by ensuring they can find answers to their questions in their native language.

Localization and Translation Tips by Country

Europe is a diverse market, and each of its regions has its own language, culture, and history. This must be taken into account when localizing a product or service and when developing a marketing strategy.

Below, we explore each country’s e-commerce market and their consumer habits and norms:

Germany

Language to localize for: German

Most popular e-commerce platforms: Amazon, eBay, Otto, Idealo, Mediamarkt

Percentage of internet users that bought goods or services online: 80%

Germany boasts the largest economy in Europe, making it an attractive market for brands looking to break into the European market.

A defining characteristic of German consumers is that they are used to paying only when products have been received. This is a reason why certain foreign players are less prominent in the German market.

Germany also has the highest rate of returns in the world. This is due in part due to German consumer protection laws mandating 14 day no-explanation-needed refunds.

Up until very recently, invoices were the standard way German customers paid for e-commerce. Today, Paypal has become the most used payment method, with invoices ranking second ahead of credit card payments.

France

Language to localize for: French (English will not help you here)

Most popular e-commerce platforms: Amazon, Leboncoin, Cdiscount, eBay, AliExpress

Percentage of internet users that bought goods or services online: 78%

The third-largest economy in Europe behind Germany and the UK, France is home to a fast-growing e-commerce market. With a reputation as one of the top fashion capitals of the world, fashion takes the largest market share in France’s e-commerce market.

France is home to the world’s biggest e-commerce flash-sale platform, Veepee. It’s no coincidence then that France has a very discount-oriented consumer base. 80 percent of French shoppers will compare prices when shopping for non-grocery items.

Credit card payments make up the majority share of e-commerce sales in France. Adoption of digital wallets like Paypal is also quickly rising.

Belgium

Languages to localize for, according to percentage of native speakers: Dutch (55%), French (35%), German (10%).

Most popular e-commerce platforms: Bol, Coolblue, Amazon

Percentage of internet users that bought goods or services online: 79%

Belgian e-commerce developed relatively late for various reasons. First is Belgium’s relatively small yet fragmented market. Different regions in Belgium speak different languages and have strong regional identities. To make matters worse, the government did not have the legal requirements in place for e-commerce to take off, with nightwork only becoming legal in 2018.

However, Belgium, like Germany, is centrally located within Europe. It also boasts the most advanced transportation infrastructure in the region, allowing for fast fulfilment speeds.

The most popular and familiar online payment option in Belgium is Bancontact, a digital payment system based on bank transfers. Digital wallets like Paypal are also now growing in popularity.

The Netherlands

Languages to localize for: Dutch, English (acceptable if target audience is 35 and younger), Frisian (if targeting the Friesland province of the Netherlands).

Most popular e-commerce platforms: Bol, Marktplaats, Tweakers, Amazon, Coolblue.

Percentage of internet users that bought goods or services online: 91%, second after the UK

With robust internet and transportation infrastructure for e-commerce, Netherlands nevertheless has lagged behind other advanced EU countries in e-commerce development and is only now catching up.

In the Netherlands, the dominant online payment method is via iDEAL, a domestic e-commerce payment system based on bank transfer. It makes up over 60% of online transactions while credit card and digital payments fall far behind.

Denmark

Languages to localize for: Danish, but also 52% of the population can speak English and 30% can speak German.

Most popular e-commerce platforms: Elgiganten.dk, Haraldnyborg.dk, Bilka.dk, Zalando.dk

Percentage of internet users that bought goods or services online: 90%

While not one of Europe’s largest economies, Denmark boasts a strong e-commerce market with consumers ready to spend. With high population density, advanced internet and logistics infrastructure, Danish consumers have high expectations for speedy fulfilment.

Online payment methods are predominantly card-based in Denmark.

Switzerland

Languages to localize for, according to percentage of native speakers: Swiss German (60%), Swiss French (20%).

Most popular e-commerce platforms: ricardo.ch, Amazon, migros.ch, anibis.ch

Percentage of internet users that bought goods or services online: 90%

Switzerland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. When it comes to e-commerce, Swiss consumers are known for spending large sums in one order.

PostFinance, a digital payment system based on bank transfer, is the leading payment method in Switzerland.

Spain

Language to localize for: Spanish (while there are other co-official languages, Spanish is spoken by 99% of the population.

Most popular e-commerce platforms: Amazon, Aliexpress, Milanuncios, Elcorteingles, eBay

Percentage of internet users that bought goods or services online: 67%

E-commerce development has been slow to start in Spain, allowing foreign platforms to take much of the market share in the country. Things are slowly changing now.

Paypal is the preferred online payment system in Spain.

UK

Language to localize for: English

Most popular e-commerce platforms: Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Wayfair, OnBuy

Percentage of internet users that bought goods or services online: 92%, the highest in the entire Europe region

While no longer in the EU, the UK is still one of the most important markets in Europe. It has the largest e-commerce market in all of Europe.

As an English-speaking country, English speaking brands won’t have to worry as much about translation so much as localization. Product dimensions, certain keyword choices, and UK spelling are the key for UK localization.

In the UK, Paypal is the most commonly used online payment method, ahead of credit cards.

Use HI-COM to translate your product descriptions and user guides

The translation of product descriptions and user guides for European market is a service that HI-COM has been providing for many years. We only use experienced and native translators of the target language. Our translation teams are made up of a project manager, a translator and a proofreader. We can also call upon a graphic designer if necessary.

Thanks to our expertise we have been able to satisfy many customers. The translation of your product sheet involves not only selecting the best translator to meet the specific needs of your request, but also adapting your content, taking into account the legislation, culture and buying habits of consumers in your target countries in European market.

HI-COM is a digital marketing agency dedicated to providing China-specific strategy, social media communication and e-commerce marketing services to businesses around the world. Working with more than 100 brands, HI-COM is the go-to partner of companies that want to enter China market!  Contact us for your free consultation today!

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What documents and steps are required to get married or divorce in China? How can expats arrange their marriage contract? Get all answers here!

How to Register Marriage in China

Chinese-Foreign Marriage Registration

Congratulations! You found your one true love and want to get married / 结婚 jiehun. The rules may vary depending on your nationality and under which jurisdiction you want your marriage to be recognized under.

Where

Marriage registration office of the local civil affairs bureau, (民政局Min Zheng Ju) in each jurisdiction.

What documents are required to get married in China?

For Both Partners

• Marriage registration application form
• Registration fee

For Chinese Partner

• Certificate of birth
• Hukou
• Healthcare certificate (can obtain from the nearest hospital)
• Signed statement of non-family relations within 3 generations with a future spouse
• Certificate of Marriageability

For Foreign Partner

• Current passport
• Health certificate from a Chinese hospital designated by the marriage registration office
• Residence permit
• Certificate of marriageability*
• Visa
• For those who have been married before: divorce certificate*

*Documents that may requiring translation

What documents have to be translated before applying for marriage?

• Certificate of marriageability
• Divorce certificate (For those who have been married before)

You can translate these documents at HI-COM, all what you need to do is simply shoot us an email! All our quotes are free of charge.

Contact us at: contact@hicom-asia.com

About certificate marriageability:
One requirement that is generally applied to all people wishing to be married in China is the need for a Certificate of Marriageability. No this is not a certificate stating you are a good catch and would make an excellent husband or wife. It is proof that you are single, and not currently married. The Chinese is 单身证明 (danshenzhengming), which translates literally to “single certificate”.

It can be in the form of a statutory declaration, affidavit, or a certificate issued from your home country, depending on the rules applicable to where you come from. If you have previously been married, you will need certified and notarized translations of any applicable divorce papers or death certificate of your former partner, to accompany with your Certificate of Marriageability.

Marriageability certificate translation sample

About Foreign-Foreign Marriage Registration in China

Since March 2019 Civil Affairs Department cancelled that provision. Nothing more recent suggests that the government notice has been lifted/amended. For the latest information, you should contact your local registry office (Civil Affairs Office or 民政部).

Arranging a Prenuptial Contract in China

Starting a family with a foreigner is of course very exciting, but legally speaking, things may not always run so smoothly. And when it comes to preparing a prenuptial agreement or ‘prenup’ (also called a marriage contract), it may cast a few negative shadows in the minds of those planning to tie the knot.

But nevertheless, it is a good idea to protect both of your assets from any not-so-happy endings. Signing a prenup not only will protect your existing assets and inheritance, but also will protect your spouse from any future debts you or your business may have.

Prenuptial Contract Preparation I Chinese-Foreign Couple

Step 1. Go to lawyer’s office

The process begins in lawyer’s or notary’s office. As the marriage will be legal in your country (and in China), you will need to have a lawyer or a notary who will draft a contract in your native language.

When it comes to a marriage contract, only the native language of you and your spouse counts (so for a French-Chinese marriage for example, no English documents are necessary).

The draft will be signed by the notary or a lawyer, as he/she will be liable for any mistakes in such an important document.

Step 2. Translate your marriage contract

The second step is to translate your prenup to Chinese (language of your spouse). For this you will need to call upon the services of a sworn translator who also has to sign the document and mark it with their official seal.

Step 3. Sign up

Congratulations! You are able to to sign your prenup! Remember to sign it before you sign your marriage license, otherwise this contract will have no legal effect.

Have already completed step 1 and in need of a sworn translator? Get your translation at HI-COM! Contact us today for your free quote!

Contact us at: contact@hicom-asia.com

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Prenuptial Contract Preparation I Foreign-Foreign Couple

If both of you are foreigners who live in China, and you are not from the same country, you still can prepare a prenuptial agreement in China.

As long as foreigner-foreigner marriage cannot be registered in China these days we will talk about the postnuptial agreement. Below are the steps of preparing your marriage contract in China.

Step 1. Go to lawyer’s office

To prepare a prenup, one of the spouses must contact a lawyer/notary of his/her home country or an embassy/consulate. The lawyer/notary will draft a prenup in the native language of one the applicants.

Step 2. Translate your prenup

After that the marriage contract shall be translated to the native language of the second spouse by a sworn translator.

For this step you need a sworn translator means a translator authorized by the Court, the only actor capable of translating a document with a legal value.

Contact us today to hire one! All quotations are free of charge.

Our email: contact@hicom-asia.com

Step 3. Go to your local consulate or embassy

After translation and sealing done, both parties can schedule a meeting with the notary at one of their consulates, where all parties will sign it.

Viola! Now you are safe from unexpected moments if you would be divorcing.

How to Get Divorced in China?

How can you apply to divorce in China?

First things first, can expats apply for divorce in China? The answer is yes, no matter if your marriage is foreigner-foreigner or foreigner-Chinese.

Below we describe the procedure and what documents you may need to get divorced in China.

How to Get a Divorce in China I Foreigner-Foreigner Couple

If your marriage is a foreigner-foreigner is considered as a “foreign-related marriage’ in China, hence divorce has to be processed with the court.

You can also apply for both types of divorce, namely “divorce by agreement” and “divorce by litigation”, but no matter what type of divorce you want to proceed you still have to go to court to get civil meditation statement a certificate that proves that divorce is legal.

Requirements to apply for a divorce as an expat in China

To apply for divorce in China at least one of the spouse must either obtain a foreign permanent residency in China and be physically present in China or resided continuously for one year.

What documents are required for divorce in China as an expat couple?

• Divorce agreement signed by both parties
• Marriage certificate*
• Passport
• Residence permit or visa
• Police registration certificates
• Property ownership certificates (for Chinese real estate only)
• Birth certificates (for minor children only)

* Certified translation is required if you obtain a marriage certificate or birth certificate that was issued abroad of China.

Contact us today to get your translation done! All quotes are free of charge. Our email: contact@hicom-asia.com

How to Get Divorced in China I Chinese-Foreigner Couple

For the couple where one of the spouse is Chinese citizen and application type is “divorce by agreement” going to court might not be nessesary. Couple can register divorce in the marriage registration office instead.

However is allocation type is “divorce by litigation” further steps mignt be finding a lawyer and file with the court.

What documents are required for divorce in China as a Chinese-foreigner couple?

For Both

• Divorce agreement signed by both parties
• Marriage certificate*

For Chinese Partner

Hukou and ID card

For Foreign Partner

• Passport
• Residence permit or visa
• Police registration certificates
• Property ownership certificates (for Chinese real estate only)
• Birth certificates (for minor children only)

* Certified translation is required if you obtain a marriage certificate or birth certificate that was issued abroad of China.

Contact us today to get your translation done! All quotes are free of charge. Our email: contact@hicom-asia.com

Marriage certificate translation sample

What documents may require certified translation for foreign nationality children in China when Going to School

China does not automatically recognize the authenticity of a given legal document, be it a diploma or school report, in its original language. Whether applying for kindergarten or school, it’s often required that a translation is made of requisite documents and that it is made by a company that has been vetted, and is licensed, by the Chinese government.

After years of experience, HI-COM is able to clarify what kind of documents may require translation for non-Chinese children living in China. To remove any unwanted surprises, below is a list of examples where a certified translation is needed in China.

List of documents

• Certificates of previous vaccinations
• Academic transcripts
• School reports
• Diplomas

What documents may require certified translation when applying for a bank loan from outside of China

If you are applying for loan outside of China, but from a Chinese bank, you may be asked for translated and certified documents such as bank statements. A full list of documents is below:

List of documents

• Bank statements
• Evidence of any additional income
• Payslips & tax returns
• Proof of home address

What documents are required to be translated for foreigners to inherit property in China and abroad when in China

• Death certificate
• Kinship certificates
• Inheritance certificate

How to Get a Document Notarized in China

As the Chinese economy grows, and more education and business opportunities open up, more and more people from countries all over the world are coming to study, work, and build a life for themselves in China. This has led to a sharp increase in the number of Chinese diplomas, birth certificates, marriage certificates, visas, and residence permits being issued to non-Chinese nationals. If you belong to this growing group of people, your home country may require you to have your official Chinese documents translated into your home language and also notarized by the Chinese authorities.

Cases when you may need notarized translation

1. A potential employer in your home country would like to check that your diploma(s) you obtained in China is genuine and official.
2. You got married in China and you need to make the marriage legally recognized in your home country.
   However please note that marriages registered in China may already be legally recognized in your home country without the need for a translation – please check this with your consulate or local authority.
3. Birth certificate. Your children were born in China and you intend to move them to your home country in the future.

Before taking any concrete actions, it is important to find out whether your translated documents need to be notarized at all. It may be sufficient just to have them certified by a translation agency, the details of which can be found in this article.

If you are certain that your Chinese documents need to be notarized, then it is first of all important to note that any document that was issued by the Chinese Government and originally drawn up in Mandarin must be notarized in China by an officially recognized notary.

To ensure you are completely clear on the process, HI-COM did some thorough research for you and visited three different notaries in China, to ensure the information received was consistent.

Here is how to notarize a document in China

Step 1:

First of all, you will need to head to your local notary in China. You will need to go there in person with your passport and the original copies of the documentation that requires notarization.

Q: But what if I can’t get there myself? Is there a solution?

If for whatever reason you cannot go in person, someone must go to the notary on your behalf with a letter of authorization written in Chinese and signed by you. An example of this authorization letter is shown below:

Q: It’s ok, I can get there myself – do I need to book an appointment?

Normally it is not necessary to book an appointment with the notary, but you may need to wait in a queue for some time before you get served.

Q: I don’t speak Chinese, will this be an issue when I visit the notary?

If your level of Chinese is on the low side, we strongly recommend bringing a native Mandarin speaker with you, or someone with a very high level of spoken Mandarin, to make the process as smooth as possible.

Step 2:

After you have explained your requirements to the notary, they will then take care of the entire translation and notarization process. Therefore you cannot bring a translated certificate to the notary and then have it notarized. To notarize Chinese documents you shall provide the original copies.

How much will it cost?

The cost of the translation will range between 60 to 1000 RMB, depending on the size of the documents to be translated. The cost of the notarization will range between 100 to 600 RMB.

Also make sure you allow at least seven full working days for the translation and notarization process.

Q: What languages can be handled in this process?

Most notaries can notarize Chinese documents as well as prepare the translations from Chinese into English, French, German, and Spanish. For other languages, you will need to check with your local notary.

We hope you find the above information useful, and if you need any help finding a notary near you in China, shoot us a mail and we will do our very best to help!

Please note: all the above information was deemed correct at the time of publication, and may be subject to change at a later date.

Once again, if your documents do not require notarization, a certified translation will most likely be sufficient. More about Certified translation

In need of certified or sworn translation services? Contact us today to get your translation done! All quotes are free of charge. Our email: contact@hicom-asia.com

In 2021, Xiaohonshu has become a focal point for digital marketing campaigns of lifestyle brands in China. With approximately 100 million monthly active users, of which just under half are 18-24 and over 70% being born after the 90s, this booming Chinese platform is a crucial for reaching the next generation of China’s consumers.

What is Xiaohongshu?

Translated from the Chinese “Xiaohongshu” the term means “Little Red Book”. The English app is also called “RED”. “Xiaohongshu” is an app created in 2013 by Miranda Cui Fan and Charlene Mao Wenchao. It was originally intended for users to post reviews of products and services purchased abroad. It was made at a time when travel was usually made by only wealthy people. The app formed a community of residents of first and second tier cities.

In 2021, the app boasts over 300 million users, including over 100 million monthly active users. The app spans 200 countries and regions, providing its customers with an efficient service to deliver the best products from around the world.

What Is the Userbase of Xiaohongshu Like?

Xiaohongshu’s userbase is overwhelmingly female, white-collar, and young. A staggering 87% of users on Xiaohongshu are female and 61% are under the age of 30. In addition, close to 40% of the userbase hails from China’s tier-one cities.

This demographic, with its high levels of disposable income and cultural openness, makes Xiaohongshu a prime platform for attracting young and wealthy customers.

What Industries are Most Suited for Xiaohongshu?

While the userbase’s interests vary widely, due to the demographics, the most popular content on Xiaohongshu predominantly caters to the interests of the demographic segment mentioned above.

According to a 2021 report from qian-gua.com, the most active interest categories for Xiaohongshu users are makeup (6%), skincare (6%), and fashion (5%). The next seven most popular categories are meals (4%), weight loss (3%), hairstyling (2%), photography and videography (2%), fitness (2%), personal hygiene (2%), and restaurants (2%).

Therefore, brands operating in beauty, healthcare, fashion, lifestyle, food and beverage, sports, hospitality, and parenting sectors the most suited for Xiaohongshu. This is not to say other sectors should not consider marketing on Xiaohongshu – the “other” category makes up the remaining 66% of interests.

Is Xiaohongshu Good for Foreign Brands?

For foreign brands entering China, Xiaohongshu’s recent dominance of the social recommendation market niche means it’s important to build a strong presence on the platform, especially if your brand plans on reaching younger audiences.

Being a social recommendation platform, Xiaohongshu is extremely suited to KOL marketing. Major international brands such as Louis Vuitton, L’Oréal and Haagen-Dazs have already been working with Xiaohongshu KOLs to stake out their brand presence on the platform.

Are there any other platforms good for foreign brands? Of course! Check best Chinese social media in 2021 for your next marketing campaign!

What is Xiaohongshu’s Place in the Chinese Cross-Border E-commerce Market?

Xiaohongshu’s share of the cross-border e-commerce market has skyrocketed to 25.9% in 2021 from 6% just two years ago.

As a social recommendation platform with e-commerce features, Xiaohongshu is more similar to Douyin than it is to its other cross-border e-commerce competition such as Kaola and VIP.com. As such, its influence in the cross-border e-commerce market goes well beyond the market share of goods sold.

In the cross-border e-commerce market, Xiaohongshu has positioned itself as the go-to review website. KOL and KOC (key opinion consumers) on the platform review products and users engage with their posts. It’s in this metric we see Xiaohongshu’s impressive reach – 8 billion post impressions per day.

Not only is it popular amongst brands and consumers, it is also backed by a variety of big names and institutions. In June of 2018, Xiaohongshu completed a US $300 million funding led by digital Chinese giants Tencent and Alibaba, with major firms such as GGV Capital, ZhenFund, Tiantu Capital, K11 Adrian Cheng, and Genesis Capital participating. In 2020, the platform launched talks to raise a further US $400 million to $500 million in new funds.

How does Xiaohongshu Work?

Xiaohongshu is a visually-oriented social recommendation platform, with picture and video posts, which are dubbed “notes”. Its homepage layout is visually similar to Pinterest, with an infinite scroll of double-columned tiled visual notes. Pages for accounts are laid out similar to Instagram, with basic account statistics, a follow button, and a self-description.

The platform itself has four main functions

1. E-Commerce

Xiaohongshu’s e-commerce functionality can be accessed in app via the shop feature. It has similar functionality and layout to its competitors Taobao and JD.com, supporting payments via both Alipay and WeChat. Livestreaming is an important component of its e-commerce feature, with recommended product livestreams on the homepage.

2. Browsing and Searching

The homepage of Xiaohongshu provides three tabs for browsing for content, “follow” for your network’s content and “explore” for nearby or recommended content. The search function allows for searching by keyword and hashtag, with results split into content and products.

3. Socialization and Interaction

As a Chinese counterpart to Instagram and Pinterest, Xiaohongshu’s socialization and interaction features are similarly oriented towards liking, sharing, tagging, and messaging. The app includes story features similar to Instagram and allows for pinned posts for accounts. Verified brands can also promote their brands and engage with customers through their official accounts and hashtag campaigns.

4. A Product Discovery and Recommendation Search Engine

In public interviews, Xiaohongshu representatives have stressed that it is a social recommendation platform first and foremost, not just an e-commerce platform.

As a social recommendation and product discovery platform, the app is driven by a strong product recommendation search engine. During 2019’s Double 11, activity on Xiaohongshu skyrocketed as it became the top search engine tool for consumers looking for products reviews and recommendations.

To develop an SEO campaign that takes advantage of Xiaohongshu’s recommendation engine, brands need to understand why users flock to the Xiaohongshu platform – to make rational and informed decisions when buying products. Content that succeeds on the platform is high in both utility and entertainment.

In many ways, Xiaohongshu can be compared to Pinterest. Users search for key terms or specific items, and when they engage with posts they like, the platform’s algorithm will immediately customize the feed to show similar posts. The bottom of every post also shows further recommended similar posts.

To appeal to on-page SEO algorithms for Xiaohongshu, you should formulate one to three keywords or a keyword phrase and have them appear in the title and first paragraph of your post. Just like the SEO of traditional search engines, long-tail key words can help companies occupy their niche in the market.

Off-page, the Xiaohongshu SEO algorithms take into account shares, collects, likes, views, and especially comments. Ensuring high engagement within the first 24 hours of your post is the key to an effective SEO campaign on the platform.

Why is Xiaohongshu the Most Trusted Platform in the Chinese Digital Ecosystem?

In the last few years, Xiaohongshu has successfully carved out its own niche in the highly competitive environment of the Chinese digital ecosystem. By appealing to a high income, high education demographic, Xiaohongshu has been able to attract a userbase that provides high value user generated content.

As a product review platform, it has created an environment encouraging detailed and reliable reviews of services and products. In addition, with its mature social networking features, users are able to spend time on there even if they’re not looking for specific products or services to buy, as the platform contains a wide range of interest-based educational content as well.

Due to its success as a review platform, Xiaohongshu has grown into a general entertainment app combining social media and ecommerce. With a highly active userbase due to the platform’s plethora of engaging features and strong algorithm for up-to-date content, Xiaohongshu has become the go-to app for many of China’s urban middle-class youth.

How Do You Register a Store on Xiaohongshu?

Xiaohongshu first set up e-commerce functionality on its platform in 2014, focused on connecting its platform’s userbase to retailers from around the world as a cross-border e-commerce platform. Since then, it has fully integrated e-commerce functionality with the platform’s various social media and search functions.

To take advantage of Xiaohongshu’s native e-commerce capabilities, you’ll need to register your store on the platform first. The prerequisite to registration is having opened an official account for your brand on Xiaohongshu.

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Step 1: Opening an Official Account on Xiaohonshu

To open an official account head to Xiaohongshu’s official account application page.

The main documents required for opening an account on Xiaohongshu are

1. Business registration papers
2. Certificate of incorporation
3. Customs registration form

In addition, you’ll need to provide the following supporting documents

1. Company information
   • For businesses registered outside of China: You must download the authorization letter from Xiaohongshu. Once you have filled out the form with basic information regarding the company name, holder’s name, and company address, you must scan it and upload it. Once that is complete, you will be able to download the other documents, which must be filled out in Chinese
   • For businesses registered inside China: You must download the commitment letter, fill it out, scan it, and upload it.
2. Logistics commitment letter
3. Store operation authorization letter
4. Brand information
5. Application form
6. Authorization form
7. Trademark authorization

While there are many documents listed above, many are provided by the Xiaohongshu platform. Note that the registration process is only offered in Chinese.

Once you have submitted your documents, Xiaohongshu will process and audit the documents before providing a contract for you to sign.

Types of accounts you can register on Xiaohongshu:

When you register for an official account, you will be asked to select the type of account you wish to open: Enterprise Account, Advertising Account, Merchant Account, and KOL account.

Enterprise Account on Xiaohongshu

An Enterprise account allows for companies to establish their official brand presence on Xiaohongshu, with their account displaying a blue checkmark indicating an enterprise account. Other privileges include being able to enter the Brand Cooperation platform on Xiaohongshu, gaining extra functions and tools to interact with fans, and gaining access to multidimensional data reports and analytics.

How to submit an enterprise account on Xiaohongshu

You will need a Chinese mobile phone number. Account name shall be based on trademark, website, or software application.

Documents needed:

• Trademark registration certificate or ICP record screenshot, or computer software copyright registration certificate.
• For Chinese Enterprises: Coloured Scan of Business license.
• For Overseas Enterprises: the original color scan of the valid business registration document, which shall be stamped with the company’s (colored) official seal or signed by the company’s person in charge and indicate the position in signature.
• For all: Letter of authorisation filled out account to the provided draft and sealed with company seal.
• Other information: Other documents might be needed according to specific industry qualification requirements.

Application validation shall take 3 business days.

Advertising Account on Xiaohongshu

An Advertising Account is a Brand Station account with an additional function for running ads. Advertising accounts are charged a minimum non-refundable capital of 20,000RMB, with ad payments being deducted from this account.

How to submit an ad account on Xiaohongshu

Log in to business.xiaohongshu.com, enter “advertising qualification certification” in “qualification management”, and submit relevant qualifications for review. After the approval, the right of advertising can be obtained.

This function is available for cross-border account, but you might need to contact customer service.

Advertiser can be registered as a brand itself or a brand representative/agent.

This process takes up to 5 business days.

Merchant Account on Xiaohongshu

A Merchant account allows brands to start selling products and services with Xiaohongshu’s native e-commerce functionality. In 2020, Xiaohongshu has loosened restrictions to opening a merchant account, which previously only were open to companies with a registered trademark. Today, as long as a company has a valid business license, either in China or abroad, the platform will allow them to open a merchant account.

How to submit a merchant account on Xiaohongshu

Brands can create a merchant’s account directly or via an agency. One can start by registering using an email account via this link.

KOL Account on Xiaohongshu

A KOL (influencer) account on Xiaohongshu can be identified by a red check. On a KOL account profile, the red check will be followed by the occupation of the account owner. For example, Fan Bingbing’s account lists her as an actress while lipstick KOL Austin, aka 口红一哥, has makeup blogger listed next to his name.

Step 2: Opening an Online Store on Xiaohongshu

Now that you’ve successfully registered for an account, you can begin the process of opening your online store on Xiaohongshu.

Before you open your online store, you need to choose the type of business model that your company will run on the platform.

There are two options:

• Xiaohongshu supports your products and buys them in advance

• The company creates its own store

Below we list the steps leading to the opening of your store on Xiaohongshu

1. Sign up for Xiaohongshu via company email.
2. Fill in registration information, including:
   • Basic information about the company (responsible person, trading model, headquarters address)
   • Company qualification (business registration or registration certificate)
   • Financial information (bank name and address, currency for calculation, SWIFT code and IBAN)
   • Additional documents for companies selling products of various brands: power of attorney from brand owners to sell products on Xiaohongshu (with the official seal of the company)
3. Once these steps are complete, Xiaohongshu will analyze your registration application and process it.
4. The final step is to sign the agreement online and the paper version.
5. The company has access to its online store, as well as to various training modules on the management platform Xiaohongshu
   

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How Will the Official Account and Store on Xiaohongshu Look Like?

In general, this trading platform is similar to any other platform. The real value of posts on the platform is that the products placed on it are directly related to the online store. This is the home page of the brand’s official account with a small entry, consisting of its history and products, as well as posts and articles from buyers.

Best Marketing Practices on Xiaohongshu in 2021

KOL marketing on Xiaohongshu

A ubiquitous marketing term in China, KOL stands for key opinion leader. They are the Chinese counterpart to influencers in the West. Their audiences trust their taste and recommendations. They serve as a bridge between brands and their massive following, often from a specific demographic.

As a social recommendation platform, Xiaohongshu is the perfect platform for KOL marketing. Not only does Xiaohongshu have a platform culture that encourages authentic and in-depth content, but also an algorithm calibrated to connect audiences to exactly the content they want to see. This has made KOL marketing on this platform a highly effective digital marketing strategy for brands.

Xiaohongshu lets your brand interact directly with KOLs

In 2019, to combat a rise in fake products and reviews on the platform, Xiaohongshu implemented higher standards for KOL accounts. This led to what was eventually termed the “KOL purge”. Along with these new guidelines, Xiaohongshu launched a new tool to help brands and KOLs find each other, the Brand Cooperation platform. KOLs now are managed through multi-channel networks, or MCNs, registered with Xiaohongshu to guarantee quality.

Why choose KOL marketing on Xiaohongshu?

KOL marketing is one of the most important aspects of making Xiaohongshu work for your brand. KOLs have an audience that trusts their taste and recommendations. As consumers in China are shifting more and more to word-of-mouth recommendations when they look for products to buy and trends to follow, KOLs provide the leverage for your brand to become one of their audience’s talking points.

To get the most out of KOL marketing, it’s important to pinpoint your product’s target demographic. By choosing a KOL that belongs or is influential to that target demographic, your brand messaging will resonate with audiences through your KOL’s own image and style.

Advertising on Xiaohongshu in 2021

Xiaohongshu offers two types of native ad placements: pop-up and integrated advertisements. With the recently announced Athena ad system on Xiaohongshu, brands now have more marketing options, such as bidding on top rankings for keywords. However, it is important to note that Chinese consumers, and especially the demographics on Xiaohongshu, rarely trust in-app ads – they trust their KOLs.

Sales Strategies on Xiaohongshu for 2021

There are endless marketing possibilities on Xiaohongshu, and international companies are advised to partner with local marketing and communications agencies to ensure the best results. New to Xiaohongshu? Check our Most Cost Efficient Marketing Strategies on Xiaohongshu guide

1.Use both components of the platform

As noted, Xiaohongshu is both an e-commerce platform and a social network. In this regard, one cannot separate one from the other: it is important to use a single marketing strategy that includes both components of the platform – social and commercial.

Work with Xiaohongshu is divided into 4 stages.

An average user behaves in the following way: First, viewing of the platform.

Then, identifying interests (certain posts/articles). This leads to the third step – buying.

Finally, once the product has reached the recipient, the final stage of the cycle is writing a review/comment regarding the purchase.

2. Know your target audience

The company should know its target audience well. The Little Red Book Community is mostly young women.

And although this trend is beginning to change, as the number of users from third tier and lower tier cities is increasing, brands still need to adjust their products to the needs and interests of their target audience.

3. Attract Key opinion leaders to your marketing companies

As explained earlier, Xiaohongshu is the best platform for holding KOL companies and getting quality content tailored to your target audience.

Firms should therefore work with influential media personalities to ensure that their target audience receives quality and relevant content.

4. Focus on creating your content

On Xiaohongshu, content plays a crucial role. Companies should make sure the content is of a high quality.

Write detailed articles about product values, how to use products. Also, make sure you choose the most appropriate images that will emphasize the merits of the brand.

Do not hesitate to write long posts – the key to success lies primarily in deep analysis of user preferences, and in the proximity and relevance of their content.

5. Take advantage of holiday sales

The Chinese e-commerce industry boasts a large number of events and holidays that companies can use to increase brand awareness and sales. The most important dates for Xiaohongshu are as follows:

The most famous day is Singles’ Day (or 11/11 – 11th of November). Usually on this day companies arrange incredible discounts and special promotions. A month later, there are also big sales (12/12), but not as large as those on 11th November.

March 8th is Women’s Day (“NuShengJie”), which is one of the most important for Xiaohongshu, as the main audience of the platform is women.

On Xiaohongshu, “Black Friday” transformed into “Red Friday”.

The anniversary of the creation of Xiaohongshu (June 6) and other events are celebrated on the platform by holding various actions.

6. Learn how to use SEO on Little Red Book

As noted earlier, SEO strategy is very important in order to increase the visibility of the brand on the Internet. Xiaohongshu or Little Red Book is a very competitive platform, so you need to pay close attention to every detail. Keywords should be appropriate and not too popular.

HI-COM is a multilingual communication agency dedicated to providing professional content, social media management and expert consultation to businesses around the world! We help companies enter the Chinese digital ecosystem without much fuss, so be sure to Contact us for a free consultation!

Dazhong Dianping has been called the Chinese version of Yelp. However, its services go well beyond its counterpart, incorporating elements of Groupon, social media, delivery apps, and more.

Starting out as a movie and restaurant review platform in 2003, by 2015, Dianping merged with Meituan, one of China’s largest food delivery networks, integrating the functions of both companies while retaining separate apps. With backing from Tencent, Dianping has also become part of the WeChat super eco-system.

In 2021’s Q1, Meituan saw food delivery business growth of 99.6% year over year to RMB142.7 billion. With the close connection between the two apps, Dianping’s influence in China’s F&B and entertainment industries will only continue to grow. The app has also become more and more popular overseas among Chinese tourists, asserting a growing influence on businesses abroad. With that said, let’s take a look at how to grow your business on Dianping.

How to Open a Business Account on Dianping

Account Types on Dianping

When registering your business on Dianping, you will have two options, to have a FREE and PREMIUM account. Now, the first thing to know: in China (unlike other locations) you cannot list your business by yourself, you must call a hot line (China hotline: 101 00 011) and have an operator register one for you. After the simple FREE account will be done (2-3 working days), the operator will provide information for PREMIUM package, which will include various promotional activities, and the price will vary by your location.

Registration Process on Dianping

• Download the Dianping app or go on 大众点评网-快速注册 (dianping.com) to create an account
• After creating an account:

Registering Your Business Account on Dianping I Mobile

For mobile users, click on the hamburger menu on the top right-hand side of the homepage and click on 添加商户 “Add Merchant”.

Registering Your Business Account on Dianping I Desktop

For desktop users, on the homepage, click on 商户服务 “Merchant Services” and select 商户合作 “Merchant Collaboration”. Follow the prompt and select the type of business you are registering.

Fill in the relevant business information according to the prompts. For the mobile version, you will be able to first register your storefront and then separately choose the “Merchant Collaboration” option granted criteria are met for the type of business you operate. “Merchant Collaboration” allows your business to access Dianping promotional advertising services outlined in the Advertising on Dianping section below.

6 Best Marketing Practises on Dianping in 2021

Dianping at its core is a review platform for customers. As such, the goal of any business on the app is to garner as many positive reviews as possible to drive visibility on the app.

For a successful marketing strategy on Dianping, businesses need to understand what drives positive customer engagement from offline to online. This will involve optimizing online presence in tandem with offline customer experience to effectively increase growth at both points of customer engagement. Below we have listed some tips to expand your business on Dianping to create a strong pipeline between your business’s online and offline presence.

1. Optimize Page Design

   As your business’s digital storefront on Dianping, your business’s page should reflect the branding and packaging you have worked to implement at your business’s physical location(s). Aside from ensuring all store information is filled out accurately, visuals and text should work to drive engagement. For example, header images/video should include text providing customers an active call to action, while different sections of your page can offer various campaigns and promotions visually coded to stand out from each other.

2. Improve POI (Point of Interest)
   

   While you may have attracted users on the app to your business, getting them to your physical store may be challenging if your storefront is located in a less conspicuous location. Ensure your POI data, otherwise understood as location information, is correct and up to date, with detailed information on how to get to your store.

3. Update Activities/New Store Opening Activities
   

   Store openings and events are a big driver of foot traffic to brick-and-mortar shopfronts. Online promotional activities should be planned ahead of time to increase hype leading up to the event. Make use of your header banner space and business profile picture to promote your events.

   In addition, consider driving offline to online interactions at events by encouraging reviews on Dianping during your events.

4. Increasing Data Points
   

   For online sales numbers and reviews, more is more. High sales and review volumes reflect well on your product, encouraging more users to buy from and engage with your business.

   On Dianping, in-app promotional coupons display half-yearly sales volumes. By ensuring quality and offering good deals on these promotions to drive sales, transaction volumes will be directly reflected on the app.

   Reviews are another data point on Dianping. As user-generated content, this sort of organic engagement gives potential customers a third-party perspective of your business. Other than ensuring good service and products, businesses can offer rewards for visiting customers to leave reviews.

5. Paid Promotion
   

   Promotions through back-end Dianping is one of the ways businesses can pay to attract traffic on the Dianping platform. Merchants can set advertisements to appear within certain timeframes and distances from storefronts to maximize effectiveness.

6. Attract KOC (Key Opinion Customers)
   

   For review platforms such as Dianping, KOCs are the equivalent to the much-hyped KOLs (key opinion leaders) of social media.

   On Dianping, users are rewarded by other users for quality reviews and are also assigned a level based on how often they review. The top reviewers or KOCs are known as V达人or “V experts”. Their reviews are often featured and appear on Dianping’s homepage.

   By attracting these “V experts” to your store, you can increase your store’s visibility on the Dianping app. Such product seeding can take the form of eye-catching storefronts, gifts for reviewing, and photo-op worthy décor backed up by quality products and services.

What are other apps in China that can help you promote your business? Check this guide out!

How can you measure your success on Dianping? Read our guide about back office of Dianping!

Advertisement on Dianping

Dianping has its own system of native advertisements, with varying prices depending on industry. To access advertisement functions on Dianping, businesses must register for “Merchant Collaboration” on the Dianping platform.

Dianping’s advertisements offer tight integration with app functionality to complement brick-and-mortar operations. The four main types of advertisements on the platform are keyword promotion, group buy promotion, targeted advertisements, and digital membership cards.

Keyword Promotion

Much like other search engine-based marketing, Dianping’s keyword advertisements push your business to the top of keyword related searches. This allows your business to accurately target ad spend on customers who are looking for your services.

According to Dianping, 60% of a business’s in-app visitors are directed to the page through searching keywords, while businesses who have paid for keyword promotion see an average of 4.2 times more exposure.

Group Buy Promotion

Much like Groupon’s promotions for group buying, Dianping’s group buy promotions offer discounts when a group of people are buying together. These are displayed prominently on business’s Dianping page. By lowering the cost barrier for larger groups of customers, these in-app coupons allow businesses to attract new customers. Dianping’s group buy promotions allow businesses to explain their offerings with text and visuals, while also displaying half-yearly sales volume to users.

According to Dianping, 83% of sales of group buy promotions went to first-time customers. The average volume of first day sales for the group buy promotions is 100, while the highest record is 30,000.

Targeted Advertisements

With vast troves of personalized user data from reviews and purchases, Dianping has a robust system to help businesses place effective targeted ads. These ads are displayed natively in-app as Dianping recommendations. By analysing user generated data, the platform algorithm is able to identify both the unique specialties of businesses and the personalized tastes of individual users to facilitate effective discovery.

Digital Membership Cards

As it is based on Dianping’s own infrastructure, Dianping’s digital membership cards allows businesses implement membership systems without having to create and maintain their own from scratch. Membership cards allow for businesses to conduct a more accurate survey of their customer demographics and execute personalized promotions through in-app notifications and text messages.

According to Dianping, the average business has 1000 customers with membership. Businesses that have implemented membership cards see a twofold increase in in-app exposure. Membership cards also allow businesses to see a distribution of customers by age, gender, and membership tier.

Can You Use Dianping to Promote your Business outside of China?

As stated at the beginning of this article – Dazhong Dianping is available to use outside of China. Let’s look at it from a Chinese tourist perspective.

Slide one tells us that we have picked Paris as a destination of interest.

The main orange menu will provide options on sightseeing destinations, shopping spots, restaurants and hotels. One can also get a map and a city guide provided by Dianping.

On the right side of the main banner, one can check the most popular experiences, or the experiences that might interest Chinese tourists, like cruising on the Seine, some shopping or even napping outdoors!

Scrolling down on the same page, Dianping will bring you to the hottest topic of Chinese culture – dining choices!

Here we have all the typical French foods – foie gras, snails, macarons etc.

Straight after you have the restaurant list. The top restaurants are the ones that been voted for by users of the app, as well as those that are just famous for other reasons. Right here you can also search for a hotel (menu on the right).

Below are a few fun options.

So let’s click on one of the hot eating topics – Snails or L’escargot.

After the main description by Dianping writers, one can check all restaurants that serve snails, their rating (number of stars), and the first few words of the last visitor’s review. Of course, there is also a map.

Want to know if Chinese tourists are already talking about your business online on Dianping? Ask us and we’ll check that out for you!

So let’s go to the first restaurant and see how are they’re doing.

L’escargot Montorgueil has 732 comments, the average price per person is 289 RMB (37 Euro), the taste score is 7.8 out of 10, Environment 8.2 and Service is 7.4. These are the average numbers right next to the stars, and are calculated taking into account all voters.

On the first page you can see the menu – and photos of the dishes taken by app users themselves, for anyone can add a photo and a review. This section also displays all the dishes most recommended by visitors.

Next is the environment – one of the top criteria of any dining experience. In this case you can see the photos of the interior, and the view from outside.

And last but not least – the bill! Yes, people talk about money openly in China, and will show exactly how much their dining experience cost. This section also serves as a preview of the menu.

So that’s more or less it for the restaurant information, now it’s time to review and vote! In the section below we can see the visitor based experience overviews and photos. Anyone can react to the review (even a restaurant manager), click to “like” this review, add this advice to favorites or even report it.

Respectability and trust is highly valued on Dianping, so the more Dianping is used by one person and the number of reviews grow, the higher the user’s rank in the app community will be. This is shown in diamonds, hearts or medals.

So that’s it for the restaurants. For hotel reviews it is quite similar.

In any case, being on Dianping will dramatically increase your business visibility and bring tons of curious people your way. Ask us how can you start your journey on Dianping, install WeChat Pay or Alipay or anything else you found interesting on our blog!

HI-COM is a digital marketing agency dedicated to providing China-specific strategy, social media communication and e-commerce marketing services to businesses around the world. Working with more than 100 brands, HI-COM is the go-to partner of companies that want to enter China market!  Contact us for your free consultation today!

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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.

Guangzhou has one of the most impressive public transport networks in the world. The metro system alone has 14 lines, covering a whopping 478km; it is the third most expansive in China, and 10th in the world. It can take you to local nature spots like Baiyun Mountain, and hotspots like Shamian Island, but anyone having an extended stay in the city will soon find there are places of curiosity beyond its reach. If you want to go off the beaten path, explore the small towns and countryside nearby, or perhaps take an aimless trip down the coast, the best option is to drive.

There’s no need to own a car when you live in Guangzhou, and fortunately if you do wish to venture out, rental cars are quite affordable. Split the cost between a few friends, and you have a great, inexpensive road tripon your hands. International driving licenses, however, are not recognised in China. The process of getting a locally-recognised driving license may seem off-putting at first, but really it’s not too hard, and certainly pays off.

Since September 2019, the process has been made significantly easier. Expats are now able to get a temporary driving permit that requires no exams, no medical check, and is valid for up to a year (and can be renewed!). It’s so smooth that you can be in and out of the office within one hour. Here’s how.

Getting a Driving Licence in Guangzhou: Step One

Get some documents in order. You’ll need to present your passport and visa, and photocopies of both. You’ll need to show your French driving license, as well as a translation of the license from an accredited translation agency (this typically costs 400-600 RMB).
Pick a Chinese name if you don’t already have one, and make sure it corresponds with the translation of your license. Make sure you know your phone number, and have your address ready in Chinese. You may or may not need to present your temporary residence permit – to be safe, prepare it, along with a photocopy. The last thing is two one-inch colour portrait photos, which you can get made in most metro stations for about 40RMB.

Getting a Driving Licence in Guangzhou: Step Two

Book an appointment with the Guangzhou traffic police (广州公安局交警支队车管所), by calling 020-87220001. Their office is located in Tianhe District, at 1732 Huaguan Road (天河区岑村华观路1732号).

Getting a Driving Licence in Guangzhou: Step Three

Turn up for your appointment, with all the required documents, and you’re pretty much done! The fee, at the time of writing, is just 30RMB. It’s a good idea to take a Chinese-speaking friend with you, in case there’s an extra requirement, but as of the time of writing, this is all that’s needed.

Is it really that easy? Yes.

What if I want more than a year?

You can renew your temporary driving permit, if you have a residence permit. Alternatively, you can go through the process of getting a driving license that is valid for up to six years. This is a bit more expensive, requires more documents, and also requires that you pass a theoretical and medical exam. For expats who intend to stay in China for some time, and who don’t mind potentially having to pay a few visits to the traffic police instead of just one, then this is perhaps a better option.

What if I don’t have a driving license from France?

You will need to sign up to a driving school, take lessons, and pass both the practical and theoretical test in the same way anyone else would here. Courses run around 2000-3000RMB.

In need of certified translation services in China? Not sure if you need a certified or notarized translation? This list of 21 situations might help!

I’M FREE! Where should I go?

There are so many great road trips you can go on from Guangzhou. You could take the coastal roads down to Zhuhai, continuing on to the stunning scenery of Yu Tang Mountain. Thrill-seekers might seek out the giant glass bridge in Gulong Canyon. Or, for a combination of nature and culture, head north to Nanling National Forest Park and visit the impossibly beautiful mountain-top pagoda.

HI-COM is a multilingual translation agency dedicated to providing professional translation services to businesses around the world. Contact us for your free consultation today!

If you’d like more information, feel free to get in touch as we’d be delighted to hear from you!

Other articles:

All you need to know about NAATI Certified translation

Types of Legal translation

A few months ago, HI-COM felt it was time to start exploring the world of livestreaming. In China, live streaming is an important element of every influencer’s toolbox, which they use to sell products or entertain their Chinese consumers and fans.

As we are based in China, livestreaming was for us a new way to explore Chinese social media and reach out to other professionals, especially foreigners based here. The aim is not to focus on one particular field of industry, but instead explore various professions and activities from sport, to animals or even magic.

Our live stream program and community goes under the name of “HI LIVE”, billed as an independent live stream-based community for international professionals and expats living and working in China. A New live show with special guests is broadcast from HI-COM’s Shanghai Headquarters every Monday night.

Launched in July 2020, the primary aim of HI LIVE is to bring together international professionals and expats living and working in China and give them a platform on which they can talk live online about their experiences of living and working in China, and also promote their business and social activities. They can also discuss their activities with other members of the community in the popular HI-LIVE Community WeChat groups. The weekly live show is currently broadcast on the Yizhibo platform every Monday evening, and in its first four months, has already covered an extremely wide range of topics relating to expats and their lives in China, such as pet care, gaming, boxing, kids’ football, health, fitness, personal development, and jewellery.

You can find our livestream on WeChat or directly on the YIZHIBO app!!

Scan this QR CODE to have join the HI-LIVE WeChat community.

New live show with guests every Monday night, stay tuned for more details!

You missed one of our live streams? Watch them again on our YouTube channel! 

HI-COM is a multilingual translation agency dedicated to providing professional translation and interpreting services to companies all over the world. Working in over 40 languages, HI-COM is the localization partner for hundreds of companies and brands. Contact us today for your free consultation!

If you would like more information regarding the translation of your documents, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

If you decide to work or live abroad, or simply start a visa procedure, you will probably need to translate certain documents.

HI-COM is an official translation agency, and we provide a variety of certified translations.

HI-COM is able to provide you with official certified translations, as well as sworn translations. But, how do you decide? You must define your real translation needs.

1) What is a certified translation?

A certified translation is a translation carried out by a professional specialist agency. The certified translation document produced by a translation company will be sealed.

• How do you recognise a certified translation?

A certified translation will include a statement proving that it is a correct and true translation of the original document, as well as the translator’s signature and stamp.

A certified translation is an official translation commonly used for legal administration purposes.

• What is a sworn translation?

A sworn translation is an official document as it is carried out by a translator who is legally registered with the Ministry of Justice of the country concerned. Only translators who have taken an oath before a court of law can use their stamp to seal a sworn translation.

2) Certified Chinese is different in France

Every country has its own rules regarding official certified translation.  For example, the role of the person authorizing and the forms provided, are likely to vary from country to country.

It is therefore the client’s responsibility to enquire about specific requirements with the authority for whom the translations are intended, particularly with regards to “legalization”.

In France for example, the title of an Expert Translator is regulated and protected by law.

Need a translation from France?

• Certified translation in France: If the administration is requesting a certified translation in French, you can do it here with us at HI-COM. The general procedure is straight forward, just simply send a scan to one of our HI-COM representatives, and wait until the certified translation is completed!

• Sworn translation in France: This type of translation is often requested by the French administration, or more specifically, the court. The process is much more long-winded and complicated than that of a certified translation. But in order to obtain a French sworn translation, the original must be sent directly to France by registered post (HI-COM will take care of the shipments).

Need a translation from China?

• Certified and sworn translations must be carried out by a professional translator (legal expert), appointed by a Court of Appeal or the Court of Cassation.

3) What documents are required for a certified translation?

When mightn’t you need a certified translation in China?

Find out more in our article on certified translation in China:

• Chinese work permits

When applying for a work permit, you may need several documents, including documents such as letters of recommendation from former employers, CV’s, diplomas, school reports, and criminal records, etc.

• 1000 Internships visa (China-France visa program)

This type of visa is issued to a limited number of young French students, allowing them to intern in China. With this visa, it is only possible to obtain a work permit + a category C residence permit. The duration of the internship can vary from 3 to 6 months, and only students enrolled in a French higher education establishment, can apply for it.

France considers a trainee as a trainee, whilst China considers a trainee as a short-term employee, therefore remuneration is compulsory. This visa also allows students to travel to and from China, making the procedure almost as complex as that of a work visa.

Here are the steps to obtain this visa:

1. Send the documents to a company in China for translation into Chinese. The two most essential documents to be translated are the criminal record and the internship agreement.
2. Register the company at the Labour Office. Apply for a visa in France and then register it definitively after medical examinations in China.
3. Apply for a residence permit.

• Certified translation for a loan application from a foreign bank

When applying for a mortgage loan in France, the United States, and other countries, it is necessary to provide several bank statements and pay slips. However, people working in China will need to translate these documents first. Chinese pay slips, bank statements and tax records are all necessary documents when in need of a bank loan, which is why they too must be translated and certified by an approved translation agency.

• Health booklet for children

Any trip to a hospital in China may require a medical records of the child in order to present it to the doctors and facilitate their work. However, a health record in English, German, or French (or in any other foreign language) will not be useful, so it is recommended to have the health record translated into Chinese beforehand to prevent any problems.

• Translation of the Chinese business license/ foreign business license

When a company registered in China seeks to advertise abroad or apply for any program abroad, it is necessary to have the commercial and foreign licenses translated.

For example, if you have a tender from a European institution, it is necessary to have the commercial license translated into the European language or English, therefore, a sworn translation is required.

If you need to have your foreign commercial license translated into Chinese, a sworn translation is required.

• Enrolment in a Chinese university

To enroll in a Chinese university, you will need to provide certain documents translated from French/English into Chinese. In this case, a certified translation is required. It is often mentioned that a degree is awarded in partnership with foreign universities, which can make the process easier. However, even in the case of a partnership, the classic direct application is common and you may be asked to provide the translation of transcripts and diplomas in digital form as well as the application form.

In addition, it is necessary to present the original documents and translations on the day of arrival at the university.

4) What are the advantages of using HI-COM? 

 Some of your translations may need to be certified, notarised or even carried out by a sworn translator. Don’t panic, HI-COM are extremely experienced in these services!

At HI-COM, our sworn translators each have the required qualifications and certificates that can be presented upon request. Each sworn or certified translation is sealed with our official stamp “Official Translation Company”, or the stamp of the sworn translator.

Copies of your translated original document can also be delivered to you upon request.

HI-COM is a multilingual translation agency dedicated to providing professional translation and interpreting services to companies all over the world. Working in over 40 languages, HI-COM is the localization partner for hundreds of companies and brands. Contact us today for your free consultation!

If you would like more information regarding the translation of your documents, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

How to china is an educational lab aiming to help foreign brand owners and managers to understand the Chinese Social Media ecosystem.

We share professional information about the Chinese digital world, host workshops, talks, and support everyone who is interested in digital marketing in China.

We cover a lot of topics related to digital marketing in China such as:

• KOL Marketing
• Live-Streaming business in China
• The Chinese E-commerce Boom
• Chinese product and content localization
• Building social media campaigns in China

In our club we do workshops, interviews, infographics, articles, china to-do marketer’s list.

Looking to understand more about Chinese social media and how to behave on them?

Want to perfect your marketing strategy for your brand? Join our club!

Last week, we had the chance to host our first “How to China workshops” on October 28^th.

The Workshop was about “Choosing the right social media channel for your business in China”. It was an hour and a half practical session on the Chinese social media management essentials. This workshop was organized and presented by Kate Chernavina, our Marketing Director and Olivia Liu our Digital Marketing Strategist at HI-COM.

During this workshop, we presented China’s social media landscapes to better understand all the possibilities we have as a company or person to appear on Chinese social media.

We then analyzed the most common daily mistakes that foreign businesses  make on Chinese social media.

In fact, when you are not familiar with the country, the culture and especially how the locals communicate, it’s easy to make mistakes and it can be really harmful for the reputation of your brand.

Then, as a foreign company it’s important to be on Chinese Social Media if you want to exist on the Chinese market. This is why we also explained how to choose the right social media channels for your business.

Finally, we presented an overview of a native promotion and marketing tools on WeChat, RED & Weibo which are the most important social media in China.

This workshop was an opportunity to explore and compare different social media platforms in China, learn about platform possibilities, hot topic tracking and more!

We are delighted to have created this club and we hope it can help many people to better understand China, its social media platforms that are not so common in other countries, and its marketing perspective.

Contact us for any request !