In “Chinese Whispers”, we share the biggest news stories about the luxury industry in China that haven’t yet made it into the English language.
In this week’s edition, we discuss:
- WeChat bans sharing of a viral Douyin campaign video,
- JD.com launches marketing platform "Jinsight", and
- Fendi opens a pop-up shop on JD.com's Toplife.
1. WeChat Allegedly Bans Viral Douyin Campaign Video - Toutiao#
On May 18, Chinese news aggregation platform Toutiao reported WeChat had banned the shares of an H5 campaign video from Douyin to WeChat's Moments feed, after the video went viral on WeChat. The news wrote "on the second day of the launch of the video, Douyin received reports from users that they were no longer able to share this video on WeChat. Douyin later confirmed it."
The viral video is a part of the marketing efforts to celebrate the 42nd International Museum Day. The youth-oriented short video app Douyin has collaborated with seven national museums to promote the Chinese heritage culture. The video incorporated a number of elements popular with Chinese millennials - including hip hop and street dance - to promote the traditional culture of the museums. The amusing video had been highly popular since its launch.
Douyin and its parent company Bytedance has had a rocky relationship with Tencent for a long time. Two days ago, Douyin filed a lawsuit against Tencent for defamation to the court in Beijing's Haidian district. Last July, two companies fought over a similar copyright issue.
Background#
In less than two years, Douyin has become the trendiest short video app for young Chinese people. Lately, it even became the most downloaded app in the Apple Chinese App store. Its sharp rise poses a threat to many existing social media platforms like WeChat and Weibo. In the luxury marketing arena, brands such as Dior and Michael Kors have worked with the platform to better target a young audience.
2. JD.com Launches a Marketing Platform "Jinsight" - Data100#
On May 15, China's second-largest e-commerce company JD.com released its own marketing platform "Jinsight" during a summit. The platform is said to apply the latest artificial intelligence technology to data analytics, which will empower the marketing decisions of brands. The summit also introduces a new index that is calculated based on consumer sentiment and user experience reviews.
Background#
Besides JD.com, other tech and e-commerce giants in China have also released marketing tools and platforms to serve the increasing needs of brands in recent years. The country's largest e-commerce company, Alibaba, started to promote its "Uni Marketing" system in mid-2017. Tencent is also reported to be in the process of stepping up its marketing and advertising business, after appointing new advertising talents last March.
3. Fendi Opens Pop-up Store on JD.com's TopLife - TopLife#
On May 18, the Italian luxury powerhouse Fendi released its latest capsule collection on JD.com's luxury portal TopLife. The new collection is themed around Fendi's logo #FFReloaded#. Consumers can access the whole collection by visiting TopLife's mini-program and placing orders directly.
Background#
Fendi becomes the latest luxury megabrand to work with TopLife, representing a big step forward by JD.com in expanding into the luxury arena. Launched in November 2017, TopLife has quickly grown as a trusted e-commerce platform by a variety of international brands.
