China Skinny’s review of key marketing trends and lessons we observed over the month of October 2024.

Last week saw millions of Chinese kids take the gruelling Gaokao. The average 31 hours a week spent doing homework and extracurricular classes from the age of three, have largely been to prepare for the notorious 9-hour exam which determines the university they get into. Many consider the Gaokao scores to shape the trajectory of their lives.

It was March 2021 when the EU-China agreement protecting geographical indications (GIs) came into force. This aimed to recognise and protect around 200 distinct agri-food producing regions. It included well known specialties such as Feta, Prosciutto di Parma, Irish whiskey, Münchener Bier and Ouzo from Europe and Pixian Bean Paste, Anji White Tea, Panjin rice and Anqiu Ginger from China.

Rising nationalism has been attributed to the rise in Chinese brands, but in many categories imported goods still hold an enviable reputation

Community Group Buying is shaking up grocery shopping in China with the big tech firms all investing heavily, providing lessons for marketers

The telltale sign that China had contained the coronavirus was when children were allowed back to school. It began out west as early as mid-March as schools in Xinjiang started opening their doors again. It was a little longer before schools in China’s wealthy coastal cities were operating again – in April, one Beijing mother whose child had been at home for almost three months noted a popular sentiment in her WeChat mums group was “if the scientists don’t hurry up and develop a vaccine, the mothers will!” Thankfully, by May, most schools across China had welcomed students back, albeit with reduced class sizes, shortened lessons, staggered arrival times and the looming presence of thermal scanners.

China's digital channels have been the talk of the town since COVID-19 burst onto the scene. Online platforms' already-healthy growth rates have switched up a gear, with livestreaming and its big brother, ecommerce, hogging much of the spotlight. Yet behind the big numbers, all isn't what it seems. In 2018, at least a third of internet traffic in China could be considered "abnormal", and still today, few online touch points escape the bot-bombardment, brushing and other fake numbers.

On China's popular reality TV show, You Who Came From Mobile Phones (Láizì shǒujī de nǐ) livestreaming Diva Viya was asked how much she earned. Her reply was "less than ¥10 billion ($1.4 billion)." Anyone who has been following the renaissance of livestreaming in China over the past 18-months - and particularly since the coronavirus outbreak - is likely to have shaken their head if she'd said anything that wasn't in the billions.

Back in 2017, China's ¥30 billion ($4.3 billion) premium coffee scene was unique among major categories in China. Whereas most categories were fragmented with dozens of domestic and foreign brands vying for a share of wallets, one company accounted for 80% premium coffee sales. That company was Starbucks.

Most in China think that the worst is behind them. Yet that sentiment remains tempered by concerns about the spread of the virus in the rest of the world, in addition to asymptomatic cases and a second wave of COVID-19 infections driven by imported cases.

China's economic data for January and February was released on Monday and it wasn't pretty. Retail sales were down 20.5% from a year earlier, following 8% growth in December. Fixed-asset investment dropped 24.5%, property development investment sunk 16.3%, government-driven infrastructure investment plunged 30.3% and value-added industrial output fell 13.5%.

Another Singles' Day and another dizzying array of records: Almost $70 billion worth of goods sold just on China's top two platforms including $38.4 billion on Alibaba and $29.2 billion over the 11-day sale on JD.com. It was a 27% rise across the board from 2018.

Britain’s lively capital, London: Arguably the world’s most international city, its cultural capital, the city with the second-highest private wealth after New York, home to four Unesco World Heritage Sites, more five-star hotels than any other city, and based on measurable and objective data, simply ‘the capital of the world’. It also has similar house prices to China’s tier-3 city of Xiamen.

Chinese Valentine’s Day Qixi fell on Monday with the usual barrage of schmaltzy ads and online deals. Yet not everyone was out spending a month’s wages on heart-themed handbags or posting romantic dinner snaps on WeChat.

A quick Google image search for ‘dogs in China’ will return row after row of horrifying snaps that you wouldn’t show your kids. Yet the reality is quite different in most of China’s cities.

Chinese love property. 90% of families in the country own their home, giving China one of the highest home ownership rates in the world. The majority of Chinese investors’ portfolios are dominated by property.

When a Chinese consumer makes a decision – from picking a bottle of water, to choosing which country will best educate their child – the influence of KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) can be dramatic. A feature of Chinese thought since the days of Chairman Mao, the KOL economy is set to boom; 2016’s value of ¥53 billion ($7.8 billion) is estimated to near double to ¥102 billion ($15.1 billion) next year. To bring some perspective, that is three times the forecasted value of China’s newspaper and magazine advertising in 2018.

Last week Alibaba hosted their first conference outside of China – Gateway 17 in Detroit. China Skinny was there.