China is one of the fastest-growing consumer markets with a population of 1.4 billion. With standard Chinese as its official language, the country is home to more than 710 million internet users, paving way for incredible opportunities for entrepreneurs looking to expand their business in China. Nevertheless, launching a foreign business in China can be challenging, as there are several administrative barriers to overcome. The digital marketing environment in China is intricate and diverse. The Chinese consumer market has unique preferences for communication and digital content, which proves to be a huge challenge for foreign investors.

Unique digital landscape

China undoubtedly has one of the largest consumer markets in the world with more than a billion internet users. The majority of internet users spend more than 8 hours on the internet every day and make online purchases. While the rest of the world uses Google to search for products and services, the search engine landscape of China is different as they use their own search engine-Baidu for all kinds of information. Business entrepreneurs who seek to gain a foothold in the Chinese market space must understand the functions and intricacies of the local search engine such as Baidu to gain online visibility and reach out to the target audience.

Different social media platforms

Although the Chinese are internet savvy, their social media platforms are entirely different from the rest of the world. Popular social media platforms and search engines such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook do not exist in China; instead, they use Weibo, Baidu, WeChat, and Youku. Though most of these platforms started as the exact alternative to western social media platforms, it quickly evolved with new and additional features, making them even more distinctive. For example, Baidu is similar to Google but it has a wide range of features that outsmart most of the search engines across the world. Baidu is among the most popular and widely used search engine in China, which allows businesses to penetrate into the Chinese consumer markets, which is otherwise quite impossible.

As millions of Chinese consumers spend most of their time online watching videos, mobile marketing has gained a foothold in China. With more than 200 million smartphone users in China, the digital marketing landscape of China is evolving with each passing day. Chinese shoppers spend hours searching for information related to products and services on their mobiles and even shop through them.

The Chinese market space is complex, diverse, and dynamic. It is not easy to jump on the bandwagon of digital marketing in China but if you are willing to learn with an open mind, it offers an arena of vibrant opportunities to foreign investors from all across the world.

Westwin offers digital marketing services ( Adstochina.westwin/digital-marketing-China ) such as market strategy, search engine marketing, WeChat and Weibo social media marketing, PPC advertising, mobile marketing, website localization, and more in china. To know more, visit Adstochina.westwin/who-we-are.