Despite their best efforts to enter, Google and Facebook are blocked in China and so have no presence there. Chinese media companies don’t face similar censorship obstacles when it comes to expanding abroad and are setting their sites on new markets.
Not only is Douyin a top app in China but its international version TikTok has risen to become one of the most popular new apps globally—the two versions combined now have 500 million users. WeChat and Kuaishou have also seen success in gaining audiences in other Asian markets.
And, coupled with the rise of Chinese global tourists (and migrants), Alipay and WeChat Pay have also been successful in expanding outside of China.
It’s not entirely a one-way street though, as LinkedIn and Amazon still operate successfully in China. LinkedIn has 42 million MAU’s in China, making China its third largest market. Amazon holds less than a 1% share of the ecommerce market in China but is an important cross-border channel, fulfilling orders by Chinese from global merchants.
It will be interesting to chart the success (or lack there of) of Global players in China and China players, internationally.
Tencent - Has a bevy of business interests with cross-border ambitions. WeChat is the most prolific. Of its >1.0 Billion MAU’s more than 10% are now coming from outside of China - mostly from other countries around Asia.
Together with WeChat, Tencent is looking to export WeChat Pay, as a package linking mobile, social and commerce in a tight bundle. Until now, WeChat Pay- outside PRC - has been mostly implemented to support Chinese overseas. But look for WeChat Pay (and Alipay) to expand further if Apple and Facebook can’t provide wider mobile payments coverage (eg. in emerging markets).
JD.com (much like Alibaba’s Tmall, also has designs on being an inbound conduit for global brands.
LinkedIn - Often forgotten about amongst all the stories touting China’s ban on Western social media, is the fact that LinkedIn remains unblocked (although, to stay there LinkedIn does self-censor).
LinkedIn has 42million MAU in China as of Q3 2018 and China is LinkedIn’s third largest audience market after the US and India (India MAU = 50million).
LinkedIn also often gets overlooked by advertisers, when, in fact, it represents an interesting opportunity for both B2B and some B2C brands to target a professional, affluent audience set in China. After all LinkedIn’s 42million MAU are mostly professionals and pretty international in mindset.
ByteDance - Has excelled in both China and overseas. They are perhaps the best example of a company who has leadership potential on both sides of the Great Firewall.
ByteDance runs Douyin, which has become the most successful short video app in China. Globally, they run TikTok (which was rebranded from Musical.ly in 2018). Together, Douyin and TikTok have MAU’s of 500million.
In China, Douyin is seriously eating into WeChat’s share of time on mobile. Globally, TikTok is being lauded for its success in re-igniting mobile short video (sorry Vine!).
Facebook - is well-known for being blocked in China, with little hope of being made available to audiences there. Despite being blocked in the World’s most populous nation, Facebook has still amassed a colossal audience of 2.72 Billion MAU globally.
Ironically, China is Facebook’s second-largest market for advertising after the US. According to a report in 2018 by Pivotal Research, nearly 10% of Facebook’s ad revenue (~US$5.0Billion) comes from companies based in China. Ecommerce, mobile app developers and technology brands are the key advertisers - all targeting global audiences to continue brand growth beyond China.
Weibo - has persisted as one of the most important channels in China - a foundational piece for brand building - with 446m MAUs. Weibo has monitored the international success of Douyin (TikTok) and WeChat closely together with the overall rise in global travel from China and is now eyeing international expansion. Company officials have stated intentions to offer international apps in Chinese, English and other languages - to couple with China’s increasing globalization.
Despite the rise-and-fall-and-rise of new competitors, Weibo is the central platform for KOLs, the place that audiences go, to discover and discuss news in realtime ...and as a connection point for a wide range of video and ecommerce links (namely those from the Alibaba family of platforms; Tmall, Miaopai, Youku etc).