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The most common question people ask Edouard de Mézerac, Artefact APAC CEO, is what kind of data a company or brand can access about consumers in China. Many people believe that China is completely closed.
But it turns out that this is not the case. If you look at the digital ecosystems and where Chinese consumers actually are, there are three types of ecosystems and three levels of openness.
Tencent: A completely open ecosystem
The first ecosystem, Tencent, is completely open. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Shenzhen, China, Tencent is one of China’s largest technology and cultural enterprises, delivering e-commerce, cloud computing, entertainment, internet platforms, operational platforms, and business solutions. The company develops and delivers game-changing products, including the social communication platforms Weixin/WeChat and QQ used by over a billion people.
If you are a brand in the Tencent ecosystem with a mini program or an official account on the WeChat ecosystem, it’s as good as having your own app or your own website. It allows you to collect behavioral data on your consumers when they have given consent, so they are bound to you as a brand, as an operator of the mini program, and this touchpoint. Tencent ecosystem, completely open. You have full visibility and access to your data, which of course helps you build your private domain.
Tmall and Jing Dong: A semi-open ecosystem
There’s a middle group, which is neither completely closed, nor completely open. This includes the e-commerce platforms Tmall and Jingdong. Tmall, owned by Alibaba, operates as a marketplace where brands and merchants can set up their own online storefronts, giving them more control over their branding and customer experience. Jing Dong, or JD, operates more like a traditional retailer, owning inventory and operating its own warehouses and distribution centers. This means that businesses selling on JD.com may have less control over their branding but can benefit from JD.com’s reliable logistics network.
As a brand selling on these platforms, the only customer data you can collect – assuming you have an integrated CRM program on Tmall or JD.com – is transactional data. You only have the phone number and what that person actually bought. You have no data on what the consumer saw in terms of media on the platform. You have nothing about their individual behavioral data on the platform. As a result, JD.com and Tmall are the ones who will monetize the behavioral insights of the groups of consumers on the platform, but that’s aggregated data, not individual data.
Search and social media: A completely closed ecosystem
The third group of ecosystems is a completely closed ecosystem. This group includes Little Red Book, Baidu, Weibo, and Douyin – the local version of TikTok. We’ve already discussed Little Red Book in an earlier article. Baidu is the dominant internet search engine company in China. Its features and services are similar to those of Google, but its focus is on China. Baidu censors search results and other content in accordance with Chinese regulations. Weibo is a microblogging platform and one of the largest social media platforms in China. As for Douyin and TikTok, while both originate from the same company, ByteDance, Douyin is available exclusively in China.
In these ecosystems, brands cannot collect individual consumer data. They can only gather aggregated views of who is actually following them today. In other words, there is no way to get behavioral data or transactional data at the individual level today.
Adaptation: The way to gain customer insights
Navigating the landscape of consumer data collection in China requires brands to adapt to the unique characteristics of each digital ecosystem. While the openness of Tencent’s platform offers comprehensive access to behavioral data, the semi-open nature of Tmall and Jing Dong limits brands to transactional insights. On the other hand, the closed ecosystems of platforms like Baidu and Douyin present a challenge by restricting access to individual consumer data. To effectively gather and utilize customer data, brands need to develop nuanced strategies that align with the specific opportunities and constraints of each ecosystem. By adopting this approach, brands can gain valuable insights and build stronger relationships with Chinese consumers in a compliant and innovative way.
