How China’s KOLs convert fans to sales, creating a nearly $9b industry
The Kardashians may have been able to create an entertainment phenomenon in the US by revealing their luxurious lifestyle through a long-running reality TV series, but Chinese key opinion leaders (KOLs) have been able to convert fans and generate sales on a level their Western peers can only dream of.
While Western influencers are mostly video bloggers on Instagram or YouTube, Chinese KOLs can be columnists, socialites, photobloggers, or short-video creators – and they have multiple channels through which they can become famous, including social media platforms WeChat and Weibo, social networking service Douban, and video platform Douyin – known as TikTok overseas.
With more than 7.5 million combined followers on WeChat and Weibo, Becky Li is one of China’s top fashion bloggers, able to convert followers to sales through posts on her WeChat public account.
In 2014, Li quit her job as a reporter for a local Chinese newspaper to become a full-time blogger on WeChat. Three years ago, she partnered with American fashion brand Rebecca Minkoff for a limited-edition purse with the label of “Miss Fantasy.”
A year later, she collaborated with iconic British car brand Mini to promote a limited-edition vehicle through WeChat, and her followers snapped up 100 cars in five minutes. Last year, she was invited to attend the world’s biggest fashion events in Paris, Milan and New York.
For the Lunar New Year in February, WeChat Pay hired Li to be “chief experience officer” for its overseas payment service.
“I thought WeChat would hire a celebrity,” said Li in her office, decorated in pink with atrovirens, in the heart of Guangzhou. “Maybe they chose me because I shop a lot overseas and my readers also buy a lot of things outside China.”
Li’s influence in the consumer world did not happen overnight. In the early days, she was working alone and writing from her own home. Now she has a company with around 70 staff and has incubated three other lifestyle-related WeChat public accounts.
“When you have your own taste and it remains consistent, readers who share similar tastes will eventually find you,” she added.
But Li was not content with just boosting sales for brands, for which she receives a commission. At the end of 2017, she launched her own clothing brand, which shares the same name as her public WeChat account.
The first new products rolled out in December 2017, including a cashmere sweater and black gauzy skirt, reached sales of 1 million yuan (US$149,000) within seven minutes and were sold out in the first day. Li said she never meant for them to sell out so quickly, but it was caused by supply chain constraints.
“We’re still a relatively small brand,” she said. “When you are a big brand, you have a much bigger say when it comes to suppliers,” she added.
“Common KOLs are not worthwhile investments. Only those "who are" able to become a media outlet in a niche market and convert content into products are worth investing in,” said Fan Weifeng, CEO of Gaozhang Capital, a venture capital firm focusing on new media startups.
Chinese blogger Zhang Dayi also created her own clothing and beauty brand which she sells on Alibaba Group’s Taobao ecommerce platform.
Her team gauges consumer sentiment towards certain products by analyzing data and follower comments collected from social platforms like Weibo as well as by using sales data from her Taobao shop.
Zhang’s sales volume on Singles’ Day in 2017 alone hit 170 million yuan, according to Chinese news portal Sohu.
Then it shifted its focus to recruiting talent to work as bloggers and helped them grow their fan base, eventually converting massive numbers of fans into consumers during shopping festivals like Singles’ Day.
One reason why Chinese influencers are better than their Western counterparts in generating direct sales is because in China, social media and ecommerce are integrated, so the line between entertainment and commerce is more blurred, said Elijah Whaley, chief marketing officer, a KOL marketing agency in China.
For example, platforms like WeChat and Douyin allow product links inside their apps. Users can open the links, select an item and pay for it while they are reading a post or watching a video. In contrast, an Instagram influencer cannot embed a URL in a post.
More than 70 percent of Chinese Gen Z consumers – or those born after 1995 – prefer buying products directly via social media than through other channels, compared with the global average of 44 percent, according to a recent study by global consulting firm Accenture.
In the US and the UK, online influencers who do not disclose a sponsored ad are in violation of advertising regulations, whereas in China, KOLs are not legally obliged to disclose if the content is paid.
“In the West, bloggers should be discreet about their sales pitch or completely forthright,” said Whaley.
More than 60 percent of Chinese consumers are receptive to online influencers compared with 49 percent in the US and 38 percent in Japan, according to consultancy A.T. Kearney.
Chinese consumers “have been through all sorts of scams, fake companies, fake products, fake services, etc. They have reached a point where they don’t trust what a brand says about itself,” said Hamza Ouarit, marketing director at Shanghai-based Gentleman Marketing Agency.
That is where a trusted KOL can help – but the job is not always easy.
Chinese KOLs are often under pressure to stay “pretty and slim” to appeal to their followers. Martial arts blogger Mi Ya, nicknamed MMA (mixed martial arts) Sister, said she has not eaten a burger or fries in two years in an attempt to stay under 55 kg.
“I know my fans like me because of my sense of humor, but they also like me because I look good,” Mi said.
Becky Li, however, said she was not too fussed about maintaining her appearance because she is more of a fashion writer, but says she is constantly under pressure to generate good content.
“When I feel I’m not able to write good content, I’ll start shopping and experience what a normal girl would go through in her life,” she said. “That has brought me closer to my readers.”
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