NetEase: Crafting Visuals with AI Precision

NetEase, a prominent Chinese tech company, has harnessed AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney to revolutionize its e-commerce design process. By generating product backgrounds and enhancing visual content, NetEase has significantly reduced costs and streamlined production. This approach not only ensures consistency but also allows for rapid adaptation to market trends, keeping consumers engaged with fresh and appealing visuals.

Fliggy’s AI-Generated Travel Fantasies

Alibaba’s travel platform, Fliggy, launched an eye-catching campaign featuring AI-generated posters in Shanghai and Hangzhou subways. These posters depicted imaginative renditions of global tourist destinations, sparking curiosity and wanderlust among commuters. By leveraging AI to create captivating visuals, Fliggy effectively engaged potential travelers, demonstrating the power of AI in crafting compelling marketing content.

McDonald’s Cultural Fusion through AI Art

In a creative endeavor, McDonald’s utilized AI to reimagine its iconic products—burgers, fries, and Coke—as traditional Chinese artifacts like bronze vessels and jade carvings. This blend of Western fast-food elements with Chinese cultural symbols resonated with the audience, leading to over 900,000 views. The campaign exemplifies how AI can bridge cultural gaps and create content that appeals to diverse consumer bases.

Shein’s AI-Driven Fashion Forecasting

Fast fashion giant Shein employs AI to swiftly respond to customer preferences, listing up to 600,000 items for a global market. AI aids in reducing inventory waste and operational costs by predicting trends and analyzing consumer behavior. However, this rapid production model has raised environmental and ethical concerns, highlighting the need for responsible AI application in marketing strategies.

Alibaba’s AI Chatbots Enhancing Customer Experience

Alibaba, China’s e-commerce titan, manages nearly one billion active consumers annually. To efficiently handle millions of daily customer service interactions, Alibaba employs AI-powered chatbots. These chatbots provide prompt and accurate responses, enhancing customer satisfaction and streamlining operations.

This case underscores the scalability of AI in managing large-scale consumer engagement effectively.

The Road Ahead: Balancing Innovation with Authenticity

As AI continues to permeate the marketing landscape in China, brands must navigate the fine line between technological innovation and authentic consumer connection. While AI offers tools for personalization and efficiency, maintaining the human touch in brand interactions remains crucial. The future of AI marketing in China lies in integrating advanced technologies with genuine engagement strategies, ensuring that as we traverse this new Silk Road, we do so with both innovation and integrity.

Ready to elevate your brand in China?

At Digital Crew, we specialize in helping brands navigate the complexities of the Chinese market. From leveraging AI-driven campaigns to crafting culturally resonant content, we ensure your business makes a meaningful impact. Contact us today to discover how we can bring your brand closer to Chinese consumers with innovative marketing strategies tailored just for you.

The post AI Marketing in China: Campaigns That Captivated Consumers appeared first on Digital Crew.

The Shanghai-based startup bills itself as the internet home for ACG (Anime, Comics, and Gaming) aficionados. The company offers a platform for China’s Millennials and Generation Z to consume pre-made content as well as produce their own videos.

It’s one of China’s fastest-growing social networks, with a thriving community that marketers can’t afford to overlook. Let’s take a closer look at why.

Chinese Internet Audio & Video Market

While Youku (owned by Alibaba), iQiyi (owned by Baidu), and QQ Video (owned by Tencent) appear to dominate China’s online video business, short-form videos receive the most of the attention these days. It reaches 83% of the Chinese internet population, while other video formats and live streaming account for +70 and +60%, respectively.

Another intriguing trend in China’s internet audio and video business is the increase in users paying for this type of content (as we will see with Bilibili), with more than 45% of users paying. 60% of these users were born after 1990.

Bilibili User Statistics

Bilibili’s unique selling point is its ability to build a highly sticky community in the ACG culture niche market. Because of its rapid user growth, the company has moved into a variety of new industries, including advertising, mobile gaming, and e-commerce.

China’s  Young & Dynamic Gen Z Demographic

More than 80% of users are classified as Gen Z, or those born between 1990 and 2009. The average age of current Bilibili users is 21 years old, and the average age of newly registered users is 19.8 years old, with the majority of them living in second-tier cities and below.

All of this is exciting for businesses interested in China’s Generation Z customer, and even more so when considering Bilibili’s user engagement.

Aside from anime and gaming, Bilibili also has beauty, fashion, entertainment, advertising, and digital sectors. Users on Bilibili enjoy live streaming, which opens up potential for companies to collaborate with popular KOLs who are active on the platform.

Whatever industry a brand is in, there’s probably a way to use Bilibili’s strong content culture for customer acquisition and engagement.

Original & High Quality Content

Bilibili is a one-of-a-kind video portal that features both mainstream and non-mainstream anime, as well as original documentaries. In comparison to other video uploading services, this site stands out due to its extensive content offering.

This is due, in part, to Bilibili’s lower investment in original anime production compared to Youku and Tencent. As a result, Bilibili is able to license a wider range of anime than its competitors, which China’s Generation Z customers like.

Bilibili unveiled over 50 new Chinese anime titles during ANIME MADE BY BILIBILI 2021-2022, which took place on November 20 in Shanghai last year. The annual news conference highlights Bilibili’s past accomplishments as well as new plans for Chinese animation. To better encourage industry talent, the business recently developed the “Light Catcher Initiative.”

The great quality of the content is at the heart of Bilibili, and it is the key reason why its user base is not just loyal, but also motivates them to become premium customers.

Strict membership rules ensure passionate and knowledgeable members

Currently, the Bilibili Site is China’s sole large-scale video-sharing platform with rigorous access requirements.

If a new user wishes to become an official member, they must first take a 100-question quiz covering topics ranging from corporate history to Japanese manga artists. Although such a rigorous access method inhibits overall user growth, it essentially ensures the quality of Bilibili users.

These high-end users have strengthened the dynamics of the Bilibili-Platform community culture, which is shown vividly in Bilibili users’ usage time and retention rate.

Core Advantages Of Bilibili

1) High conversion, with the News Feed Ads on the homepage and Traffic Native Ads over the whole website

2) Special CPT(Cost-Per-Thousand) advertising space with competitive daily payment

3) Supports external connections, entry of e-commerce and direct mail for a single product, entry of games, product recommendation by the uploaders, and the conversion driven by fans.

4) Orientation for specified video keyword

A Highly Interactive Same-screen Social Experience Called Danmu

The most distinctive feature of Bilibili is Danmu. This is a user dialogue system designed for Niconico in which time-synced comments are superimposed directly on top of the video as it plays.

Here’s a picture of Danmu.

The Danmu system offers a dramatically social viewing experience akin to being in a boisterous movie theatre: during critical times in a video, reactions flood over the video in a dense tidal wave, frequently completely covering over the source content.

People visit Bilibili for the community as well as the videos. It provides Bilibili an advantage because customers report feeling as if they are viewing their favourite episodes with friends.

Bilibili Target Sectors

One of Bilibili’s primary value propositions is its ability to capitalize on trends that are important to younger Chinese consumers. The platform has its origins in China’s ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) subculture, which has been popular among young Chinese consumers, and it has now extended into more general lifestyle categories such as food, travel, and fitness. With that growing user base has come a torrent of brand investment, particularly in the IT, food and beverage, and sports sectors.

China’s ACG community is expanding steadily across all age groups. Bilibili has also become one of China’s most popular beauty marketing platforms, thanks to its creators’ makeup lessons, cosmetics reviews, unboxing videos, and other content. The number of beauty businesses with an official Bilibili presence more than doubled between June 2020 and June 2021.

Growing visitor volumes on video platforms have prompted organizations to reassess their traditional digital marketing efforts and shift their focus to this medium of communication. Most businesses in China have already adopted ByteDance’s Douyin and WeChat’s Channels. But, there is still an unexplored video platform that luxury brands can look to leverage. That platform is Bilibili.

Ads & Mini Programs

There is also the option of placing ads in KOL channels or running typical display ads to market products on Bilibili. This assists advertisers in gaining the attention of their target demographic.

Since Alibaba’s investment in Bilibili in April 2019, the platform’s focus has shifted from user acquisition to e-commerce. This is primarily due to the introduction of new e-commerce miniprograms on Bilibili, which are now the most efficient way to sell on the platform.

Bilibili also started a mini-program in 2019 where celebrities sell cosmetics.

Some Tips To Summarise

1) Users can purchase things by clicking on the “commodities” column on the homepage, rather than going to third-party websites. So, make sure you open a store in this column.

2) Creators of content can include links to their products in “Danmu” or under the videos.

3)Collaboration with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) or Key Opinion Customers (KOCs) might be an excellent way to market your company on Bilibili.

4)The collaboration between Taobao and Bilibili gives the latter the opportunity to investigate “content-related e-commerce,” allowing Bilibili to employ Taobao analytics tools to improve the user experience.

And finally, when it comes to your Bilibili marketing strategy, we say- If you’re going to do it, do it well. To generate winning video content, you need a competent team. If you want to see viral videos on your channel, you must have the correct director, scriptwriter, actors, equipment, and storytelling. Contact us today to get started.

The post Bilibili Marketing – A 2022 Guide appeared first on Digital Crew.

Brands are now paying more attention to private-domain traffic, as they look to build direct communication channels with customers and engage them directly to drive repeat purchases.

Rising Cost Of Customer Acquisition Amid E-commerce Slowdown

The overall growth of China’s internet is moderating as the penetration rate peaks. In e-commerce, this is reflected by the slower increase in gross merchandise value for major e-commerce platforms. Meanwhile, brands find themselves paying higher fees to the platforms for marketing services to acquire traffic to their stores.

The Solution: Private Domain Traffic

Companies have turned to marketing strategies around “private-domain traffic” to build direct communication channels with customers and engage them directly to drive repeat repurchases.

Platforms enabling private domain traffic are the ones with free and user-friendly features that allow brands to build their own communities and communication channels with their users, and launch direct marketing campaigns. These platforms enable 2-way communication between brands and customers, facilitating engagement and efforts to drive repurchases,

WeChat has been a dominant source of private domain traffic, thanks to its large userbase, as well as its comprehensive ecosystem encompassing message, social, e-commerce and payment functions

How Perfect Diary Used Its Private Traffic

Home grown cosmetics brand Perfect Diary has been lauded for its sales and marketing strategy relying on private domain traffic. Private domain traffic is estimated to have contributed 15% of the brand sales.

Step 1: An invitation comes along with the shipment of perfect diary products. You can scan the QR code to follow its WeChat public account or add the personal account of one of its beauty advisors. A code at the end allows you to win random “red packet” money.

On its public account, Perfect Diary posts promotional messages and a QR Code allowing you to add the personal account of one of its sales staff. Whereas, through the personal account, the beauty advisor invites you to one of its promotional WeChat groups. You can gather more information about the product.

Step 2: Once in the WeChat Group, you will receive information on its products & promotional activities like live streaming events. With a simple click, one of the posts will lead you to its e-commerce platform, built as a WeChat mini program. You can purchase directly within its mini program. Instead of paying with Alipay, as you do on Tmall or Taobao, you can pay with Tencent’s WeChat Pay.

Need to strengthen the communication channels with your customers using private traffic. Digital Crew is a Chinese digital agency that can help you hit your private traffic goals. Get in touch with us today.

The post A Growing Focus On Private Domain Traffic in China appeared first on Digital Crew.

ABC Index: The ABC index reveals results from Chinese respondents that were surveyed across Chinese cities – Beijing, Guangdong, Hebei, Shanghai, Shanxi and Tianjin. The respondents were ranked according to 8 attributes that involved reliability, professionalism, quality, trendiness, social responsibility, Traditionalism, Familial influence and everyday suitability.

9000 Chinese respondents were surveyed according to their age, income, habits and location. These respondents presented their views about Australian brands with respect to wines, education, FMCG, health & baby, travel & tourism, beauty & cosmetics, education and property & real estate.

• The percentage of beauty & cosmetic consumption in this sector was equal among the two genders according to the graph
• Tourism brands were popular among women because of the increased ratio of working women in China
• Five beauty and cosmetic brands ranked within the top ten for men and one appeared for women
• The survey results thereby indicate that it is the Chinese men driving the beauty market in China

These insights thus indicate a new target market for Australian brands like Aesop, Nude By Nature, Sukin, A’kin and other beauty brands that were mentioned in the survey, to rise up in the hierarchy. The Index also suggests that one of the many reasons Chinese women don’t favour as many beauty brands as men over other brands is because of a major communication gap. This increase the scope for Australian brands to improve their communication to Chinese women and regain their share of the beauty market.

Another important finding from this survey indicated that 18-35-year olds were driven by trends, while 74.3% of the group cared more about the brand’s social responsibility than how on-trend it was. The findings make it extremely important for Australian brands to communicate their CSR activities to the younger Chinese audience.

Conclusion

Any brand that wants to grow in markets like India and China needs to understand the importance of segregating the audience because of its diversity and localising the communication in order to successfully garner a commendable share of these large markets

Download Our ABC Index For More Insights

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The post ABC Index Reveals Equal Demand For Cosmetics From Men & Women appeared first on Digital Crew.

Digital Crew arranged for Media support at Austrade’s Festival Of Australia that took place between May 20^th to June 2^nd at the Asia-Pacific Culture Communication Centre. Many notable guests like Mr Paul Sanda, Martin Ferryerya, Joey Qlu – senior business development manager and Calvin Gung – the MLA of cooking demonstration from Austrade.

The Multilingual Digital Marketing Agency along with its crew of multi-talented individuals not only arranged for the press but also organized the event. The Proactive and combined efforts of the team didn’t leave a single table unturned at the event.

Digital Crew designed visual elements for the event that included Booth signatories. They also set up the dining area, the stage and digital screens for media usage.

The backdrops, photobooths and props that the visitors interacted with at the venue.

The Crew set up the dining area along with the dining stalls and equipment that hosted more than a 100 visitors

Digital Crew also designed the creatives for the backdrop of this digital screen and coordinated the functioning of the setup.

They set up booths for the merchants for them to display their products and interact with customers.

Digital Crew managed the overall end-to-end coordination and organization of the event that was acknowledged by the visitors and guests present at the venue.

The post Digital Crew Organized The Event For The Festival Of Australia appeared first on Digital Crew.

Australia’s biggest media and marketing event, Mumbrella 360, a much-awaited convention is back with a bang and ready to take over Sydney, from June 4^th to 6^th at the Hilton Hotel. The event will be hosting some of the most prominent names in the industry from Australia and other parts of the world, welcoming thought leaders from London, Los Angeles, New Delhi and New York to impart breakthrough ideas in the media and marketing sphere.

Digital Crew’s co-founder, Ophenia Liang, a Chinese digital marketing specialist brings years of academic and practical experience across the APAC region. She has helped major global brands enter and grow in the thriving Chinese market with her strategic planning, execution and evaluation. She has delivered Chinese digital marketing insights at the China Gateway Summit, The Australia-China Trade Summit, AustCham and many other conventions.

Liang will be unveiling the ABC Index report, curated by Dr Eugene Chan from Monash University’s Business School and financed by Digital Crew. The study canvassed 102 Australian brands across 8 industries (Tourism & Airlines, FMCG, health, beauty and cosmetics, property and investment, food and beverage, education, banking) that surveyed nine thousand Chinese men and women across tier one and tier two cities to reveal findings about the perceptions that Chinese consumers have about Australian brands.

The research is the first of its kind to monitor Australian Brands In China to reveal Chinese consumer insights, this time advising Aussie brands to focus on their ‘Value-for-money’ aspect coupled with quality in their products. The study reveals that 42.6% men and 57.4% women within the age bracket of 24 to 67 years from tier 1 and tier 2 cities preferred brands that offered quality, convenience, trustworthiness and innovativeness on the attribute scale.

‘Australian brands need to establish their dominance and prevalence over other foreign brands in the world’s largest economy and in order to be successful in China, Australian brands need a long-term strategy’ says Ophenia Liang, Digital Crew’s co-founder.

About Digital Crew

Digital Crew, Australia’s leading cross-cultural marketing agency has bridged linguistic and cultural gaps with their team of multilingual experts. The agency of 50+ employees across Australia, China, India, U.S. and Japan have helped over a 100 brands go global and enter markets with the biggest potential. The firm has been acknowledged for its commendable work with the NSW business awards 2017, Westpac Business of Tomorrow 2018, Australia-China business awards 2017 and has been recognised as finalists for the ACBA awards in 2017 & 2018 for excelling in business innovation and creative industries.

Would you like to know more about cross-cultural marketing?

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The post Ophenia Liang To Unveil The ABC Index at the Mumbrella 360 Convention appeared first on Digital Crew.

The Chinese consumer is aware of trends all over the world despite the unavailability of Google, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. By trends, we mean fashion, technology, beauty, health, property, travel and many other sectors that they access online. According to mainstream media, all we know about the Chinese are their famous cuisine and of course in recent times their wealthy lifestyle (Thanks to Crazy Rich Asians).

Most Westerners assume that Hong Kong represents most of the Chinese population but in reality, those from mainland China are completely different from their Hongkong and Taiwanese brothers. Who then are your Chinese consumers? Do they think like us? What are their browsing patterns?

Difference Between A Chinese and HongKonger

For the sake of this article, we shall keep the economic and political differences aside and only focus on the behavioural difference. Hongkongers have a history of being ruled by Great Britain for years, while Mainland China has had a communist rule all along. Hongkongers have a more globalised approach towards consuming content while the Chinese from Mainland China follow a different pattern. The Taiwanese have a different story altogether With China being home to a huge number of minority groups, perhaps the biggest difference between the two cultures is apparent in their ethnic minorities. The indigenous people of China have vastly different cultures to Taiwan’s aboriginal tribes who are, in fact, are more closely related to Pacific Islanders

What device do they use to consume content?

The Chinese skipped an entire desktop revolution and turned to mobiles when they were introduced. A mobile phone is their portal to the digital world and they access all the information through their pocket-friendly device. They use it for hailing a cab, shopping, banking and a host of other services.

Where do they consume their content from?

WeChat – The 900+ million users on WeChat scroll through their feeds, Moments (stories) and spend a lot of time using Mini programs. Users from various age groups are the most active on WeChat because it’s a one-stop-app. This the best platform for you to roll out both your visual and written content and did we mention that videos and live streams are hot here?

Weibo – Weibo is where the Chinese from the Mainland get their world news from all the other digital platforms. The platform is like twitter (but with more features). This platform is like the daily newspaper for the Chinese and If you want to capture trending attention, this is the one you must resort to.

Why Are Chinese Websites Cluttered?

A lot of Westerners get repelled with the thought of placing too much content on one webpage, but the Chinese think otherwise. According to them, the website is not cluttered but rather very informative. They enjoy the ‘Chaotic Bazaar’ experience when they visit a website, so they appreciate rich media, links, content, a ton of visuals etc.

What Language Does the Chinese Internet Recognise?

The Chinese internet recognizes Pinyin, that is the romanization of Chinese characters based on their pronunciation. In Mandarin Chinese the phrase ‘Pin Yin’ translates into ‘’spell sound.’’ Its basically spelling out Chinese phrases with letters from the English alphabet For example:

Characters – 学习中文

Pinyin – xué xí zhōng wén

Pinyin is the universal internet language that is recognised by Baidu as well so if you want your content to be recognised by the Chinese search engine, Pinyin is your dialect.

 Conclusion

In addition to keeping these key points in mind while you create content for your Chinese target audience, you have to keep up with Chinese news, social media trends, new policies and many other factors that a localized expert can support you with. Once you have figured out what your audience in China wants, you have to maintain consistency with your content and make sure it hits the right channels

Want To Know More About The Chinese Consumer?

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The post The Chinese Consumer Trends: How Do They consume content? appeared first on Digital Crew.

Chinese millennials dominate 400 million out of the total 1.4111 billion people in the market. Brands all over the world target this millennial population in most countries by ringing in elements through their brand communication that is familiar with this age cohort.

The young Chinese adults have coined terms for the exclusive lifestyles they have devised for themselves. The terms are bound to give marketers thoughtful insights on how they should curate their content to appeal to the eyes of their 20 something viewers

1.Pretty is power

Chinese millennials correlate appearances to higher chances of social acceptance and success. Chinese millennials believe they live in a time of the appearance economy – A time when prettiness translates into serious social capital. Watchwords like “pretty is justice” (颜值即正义) are more than just socially acceptable: On Weibo, the hashtag #prettyisjustice has been invoked more than 93,000 times.

A popular Korean T.V. series ‘What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim’ has greatly influenced the “pretty is power” mindset of the Chinese millennial. As a result, both the male and female consumers invest heavily in fashion, cosmetics, wellness etc. giving the beauty and fashion industry a major boost.

What Marketers should incorporate in their strategy: The audience is looking for social validation from the highest authority and marketers should leverage mediums like the little red book to impart their brand communication and get a gist of their insights from demands for products on that platform

2.Slashers

The Chinese millennial unlike his baby boomer cohort identifies with more than one personality and occupational trait. The term “slash” was coined in 2007 by Marci Alboher, a columnist at the The New York Times and book author, to describe someone who has more than one identity, job, or occupation (and might introduce themselves as an artist/personal trainer/yoga instructor, for instance).

What Marketers should take away from this identity learning: Slashers dress for many different scenarios and want the brands they buy to be as versatile as they are. The luxury brand consumer may work a 9-5 job from Monday to Friday but take up DJ/Art/teaching gigs on weekends to fuel his/her passion. Hence, we see a chunk of luxury brands collaborating with streetwear brands including Louis Vuitton x Supreme,  Jimmy Choo x  Off-White and many others yet to arise.

3.Buddha Youth

This term was first coined in a 2017 WeChat article titled “The First Group of Post-’90s are Already Becoming Monks” and has since gone viral. In fact, the piece inspired many people to share the Zen way they live on social media, which they describe as non-disruptive, peaceful, loving, and non-materialist. It’s a reaction that’s been attributed to the radical change in wealth and technology China’s seen over the past decade.

What insights can marketers can absorb: At first glance, the Buddha youth might seem like a red light for luxury brands. But Amrita Banta, Managing Director of Singapore-based Agility Research & Strategy noted that Chinese millennials are still very interested in luxury brands — they simply won’t prize material objects over everything else. To resonate with them, brands need to fully discover the consumer’s emotional needs and form bonds with them on a deeper level.

4.China Hip

“China hip” refers to the trend of combining streetwear – a fashion style that’s huge with young Chinese consumers now – with the aesthetics of China’s rich heritage. While reality TV shows like Rap of China and Street Dance of China have brought streetwear fashion from obscurity to the mass market, various TV dramas set in ancient China have also captured a wide audience by introducing consumers to their own cultural roots.

What information should luxury brands partake from this insight: Luxury brands might add traditional elements to their products or stories to please this generation, but they can also risk being called out for cultural appropriation or could appear outdated, losing their “cool factor.” As we mentioned in our previous blog, many luxury brands practically died because of inappropriate marketing. Brands should show respect to China’s cultures by working with local experts and craftsmen to help give their brand an authentic Chinese identity.

5.Checking In

Since the ultra-connected 90s-born generation strongly shares the “FOMO (fear of missing out)” mentality, sharing check-in posts on social media has become a popular way to prove that they have a very real and active social life. In the report, data from Ctrip showed that going to museums, watching popular TV shows, and attending sporting events are the top three activities ’90s-born consumers like to check in from. When it comes to choosing travel destinations, they are drawn to locations from popular TV shows or books.

What marketers can incorporate in their strategy: Brands could generate buzz from interactive events and incentives to the audience in association with checking in. A ton of professionally shot pictures is a priority for many young millennials to post on their social media and brands could fill in this gap by exploring the opportunity.

6.Lazy Economy

The so-called “lazy economy” refers to a new type of consumption that’s about saving time and energy. This term came about as the pace of life accelerated because of technology, forcing people to spend more and more time on working and social life and less on activities like brick-and-mortar shopping, cooking, and cleaning. The research shows that in 2018, twenty-something consumers liked to buy high-tech home goods and beauty products that emphasized quick and easy tutorials for gaining popularity.

What brands can learn: Beauty and luxury brands can take advantage of this trend by creating innovative products that embrace the digital channels that the ’90s-born generation loves.

7. Dinkwads

Chinese millennials are now saving up to live their life by investing in experiences like travelling, concerts, sporting events etc. Dinkwad is an acronym which stands for “Double Income No Kids With A Dog.” As the only-child generation, ’90s-born consumers are willing to invest in a pet’s food, accessories, and cleaning products to fulfill their own emotional needs. The CBNData shows that the growth rate of consumption on pet products among the ’90s-born generation is almost twice that of the whole population.

Insights for marketers:  The rise of pet owners is about the ’90s-born emotional need for companions, and luxury brands can better market their products or services by tapping into those feelings.

The post Decoding Chinese Millennials And Their Milieu Of Buzzwords appeared first on Digital Crew.

Dolce & Gabbana faces a major backlash from their Chinese audience for their insensitive racism displayed in a video that was released around the event on weibo, followed by racist comments from designer Stefano Gabbana’s Instagram account

The backlash has resulted in a boycott of products from the brand and the cancellation of an entire fashion show that was going to host 1000 notable personalities from China. In our previous blog, we mentioned the Brands That Have Failed In China and Dolce & Gabbana lands up on that list.

The Unfortunate Racist & Sexist Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RWbk29b9Hs

The latest controversy erupted on Wednesday over an ad campaign featuring clips of a Chinese model in a red, sequined D&G dress struggling to eat Italian dishes like spaghetti and cannoli pastry with a pair of chopsticks. They featured traditional Chinese music and a suggestive voiceover from a male narrator, who asks the actress trying to eat the cannoli: “Is it too big for you?”

The Brand’s Response To The Video Worsened The Situation

The racism took an intense route when screenshots of Stefano Gabbana’s racist commentary on his Instagram account were captured and floated all over the internet

Boycott Of Dolce & Gabbana Goods

Cross-border e-commerce site Yangmatou said late Wednesday night that it had taken down 58,000 D&G products, stating that “the Motherland is more important than anything else.” NetEase Inc. said all D&G items have been removed from its Kaola shopping platforms.

A search for D&G items on China’s e-commerce retail giant Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. & JD.com’s websites both in English & Chinese produced no results.

Show Cancellation

D&G was forced to cancel the fashion show in Shanghai on Wednesday, hours before it was due to begin, as celebrities said they would not attend. A commentary on the WeChat account of China’s People’s Daily said the government issued a cancellation notice for the event and warned: “If one is not willing to understand China, eventually it will lose the China market and the benefits arising from China’s growth.”

Singer Karry Wang Junkai, who was ambassador for the Asia-Pacific area, announced on Tuesday that he would stop working for Dolce & Gabbana.

“Relationships must be based on an exchange between equals and mutual respect, the respect for the history and culture of the other side. The motherland must not be violated and she is above everything else,” the singer said.

A brand that secured 1/3^rd of its revenue from China, has now lost the entire market and many other affiliated businesses have pledged to boycott the brand’s good and services.

A Brand’s Responsibility While Doing Business In China

Digital Crew is a multilingual agency that helps brands expand into the Chinese horizon with their multilingual communication services that localise a brand’s communication objective while keeping in mind Chinese sentiment. The agency with offices worldwide understands ‘Guanxi’ which means maintaining good relationships, that is a basic Chinese fundamental while doing business. The multilingual experts and Naati certified translators don’t just translate words but also emotions, culture & traditions that the Chinese respect above all things.

Get In Touch With Us To Understand The Chinese Market

The post Dolce & Gabbana Faces A Chinese Racism Scandal For The Third Time appeared first on Digital Crew.

The Golden Week holiday is a seven-day national holiday in China, and there are typically two of these a year. The most recent one just came to an end, and adding up the post-holiday figures, Golden Week proved an excellent one for Alipay, who reported some big new numbers for Chinese travellers spending overseas with the week off.

Over the last 15 years, mobile payments in China have grown into a $16 trillion market dominated by China’s two biggest tech giants – Tencent and Alibaba.

Tencent and Alibaba’s competing mobile payment apps – WeChat Pay and AliPay, respectively – are used by just about everyone in China, from fancy restaurants and high-end designer boutiques down to street vendors, taxi drivers, and even pan-handlers.

The mobile payments infrastructure in China will only keep experiencing a spike upwards because:

• Mobile payments are as common as possessing a mobile in India. Everybody has it right from the vegetable vendors to top businessmen
• Paying by phone became popular in China in part because credit cards never gained the popularity they see elsewhere in the world, and because the infrastructure for mobile payments was already in place
• Phone-scannable QR codes also mean that anyone can become a merchant, since you don’t need any hardware like a card or chip readers

There were some positively massive increases in overseas spending, in fact, with Alipay reporting that the Sydney Airport in Australia saw spending levels through Alipay that were 55 times higher than last year. In Osaka’s Dotonbori zone, the Alipay spending was up fully 70 times over last year. Just to top it off, the UK’s Bicester Village outlet shopping centre in the UK saw levels climb to 90 times the previous year’s figures.

Tencent did not release detailed data related to the holiday, but it reported some spending trends through its mobile payment service. The company noted that 52 percent of WeChat Pay transactions during the holiday were at duty-free shops.

Those were just some of the high points; while other locations didn’t see such pronounced gains, locations from Bangkok to Paris to Toronto all saw some numbers jump.

Regardless of the figures, one thing was clear: Chinese customers are increasingly comfortable with using mobile payments systems via their smartphones. Word from Nielsen notes that 90 percent of Chinese users will turn to a smartphone first to make payments. Most of these users will turn to either Alipay — who has around half of the country’s mobile payment market sewn up or WeChat Pay, who holds fully 39 percent of the market. The remaining 11 percent is split between a host of competitors, from big names like Apple Pay to comparatively smaller entries.

Conclusion

About 61 percent of the traveller population in China were between 31-40 years aka those with the spending power and merely 20 percent of travellers were the older, retired lot. The population ratio is one of main reasons that contribute to an increase in mobile payments.

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