China was the first in with the effects of the coronavirus, but also the first out. It has surfaced as one of the bright spots in a largely gloomy economic outlook, with consumption back on a growth trajectory. Next year China’s retail market is expected to expand in double figures. Although geopolitical challenges still loom, China’s standout growth and subsequent opportunities have attracted many brands to prioritise China further, accelerating competition from both foreign brands and a new breed of domestic players. As a result, it’s more important than ever for brands to have their strategy optimised to navigate the new normal in China.

When Chinese consumers are looking for facts, Baidu is the go-to for many. Here’s a list of the most-searched items of the year on China’s leading search engine which may give you some clues into the thoughts and interests of Chinese consumers

Christmas is just around the corner and for many people in the west that means spending time with family, gaining a few extra kilos from festive feasting, and perhaps a visit to church to celebrate the religious significance of the holiday season.

Last month’s epic IPO of Chinese beauty conglomerate of Yatsen, driven by the Perfect Diary brand further highlights how far Chinese brands have come. There are several reasons for the rise of Chinese brands, a trend which is expected to continue over the next decade and beyond.

The OECD has joined the string of global organisations forecasting that China will lead economic growth in 2021 , growing 8% to account for around one-third of the world’s economic recovery next year. The way China has contained the global pandemic, and bounced back economically, has boosted the country’s confidence – at a consumer, business and governmental level.

China has the largest climate variance of any country in the world, which means that weather conditions are an important factor for brands to account for.

It’s been three weeks since Singles’ Day smashed records with sales topping $116 billion just from Alibaba and JD. At China Skinny, we’ve been busy analysing the results and trends – many of which apply to year-round marketing strategies to reach and connect with Chinese consumers.

Both China's elderly and its millennials and gen-z consumer segments are among some of the most lucrative segments globally, this will help you understand them.

On November 21 2020, Mei Wang who manages talent training programs at MI Group, made a comment at an annual China Human Resource Management Annual Conference in Beijing, saying “MI Group thinks who wins Diao Si who wins the world.” In short, their most valuable customers are losers. She then noted that “when they grow out of their diaosi stage, the company will consider making expensive smartphones.”

If you’re not living in China, you probably haven’t heard of the sugar-free beverage brand Genki Forest. It’s unlikely that you’ve come across women’s underwear brand Ubras, or had a cup of Saturnbird instant coffee as you munched through a bowl of Wangbaobao cereal. Like in many markets, they are part of an increasingly-common genre of new brands who have quickly eroded market share from the big, established brands in their category. These disrupters should provide both inspiration and lessons for small-medium enterprises already selling or planning to launch in China.

Excellent Singles' Day and Q3 results won't be enough to cancel out draft antitrust legislation for China's big tech firms.

Few exporters have had as much to celebrate as Australia’s collective wine exporters. In 2014, Australian wine sold to China was just 40% of the value of French wine. In the space of five years, Australian wine exports have flown past the French to become the top selling wine in the world’s largest red wine market. For every dollar that Chinese drop on imported wine, they spend 35 cents on Australian wine versus 29 cents on French wine. Australian wine also commands the highest price per bottle among the top-10 wine exporters to China.

Throughout the ages people have engaged in commerce to exchange goods and services for payment. Yet it wasn’t until around 1,100 BC when China introduced the first standardised currency. The money was miniature replicas of tools cast in bronze, before being replaced by more-practical, rounded metal pieces. This was followed by other iterations including leather, such as white deerskin bills a foot in length. Then around a thousand years ago, during the Song Dynasty, China introduced the world’s first paper money.

For a culmination of most of the big digital trends in China, look no further than Double-11 or Singles’ Day. Nothing quite illustrates China’s infatuation with all things online and the might of its consumer classes quite like the world’s biggest dedicated shopping festival. But much like with Christmas Day, where the festivities begin weeks ahead of December 25, consumers are bombarded with Singles’ Day promotions before November 11 – more so every year.

Beijing and Shanghai may be the first cities that most people associate with China, yet no city embodies the meteoric rise and confidence of modern China quite like Shenzhen in the south. Pre-China opening up, Shenzhen was described as a ‘backward fishing village,’ but after being designated as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in 1980, its proximity to Hong Kong’s entrepreneurs and capital, coupled with the ambition and scale of China’s migrant workforce have seen it transform into a dynamic metropolis at a scale that is unmatched in world history.

The ever-popular pastime of singing in front of your friends and strangers with the help of words on the screen has continually evolved in China. Karaoke, or KTV, has long been one of the most popular forms of entertainment, and in recent years has become online as well, with more than 200 million users.

On Tuesday, Facebook said it was launching a new global policy that bans ads that discourage people from getting vaccines, while it will still allow ads that advocate for or against legislation of government policies around vaccines, including the Covid-19 vaccine. Things in China look quite different.

Welcome back, we hope you had a great break if you’re based in China. As many of the 637 million trips were ending last week, so to was Jack Ma’s board position at Alibaba Group, as he took a further step back from the company he co-founded in 1999. Under Ma’s leadership, Alibaba became one of the world’s most dynamic companies and one of its most valuable – worth $826 billion as of yesterday, not to mention the $200 billion that Ant Group (of Alipay fame) could be worth after its imminent IPO.