SOCIAL ADVERTISING IN CHINA FOR WESTERN BRANDS

The Link Between Yoola, Social Media in China, and Western Content

The Connection

Local social media platforms and Yoola are currently collaborating on providing content from Russia and the United States to China through the use of social media. The goal is to benefit Chinese social media users by providing them with evolving content. Yoola is a digital content distributor network that cooperates with a variety of YouTube channels offering them advice on many topics ranging from content programming, to audience development, to monetizing services, as well as much more. They are responsible for managing over 70,000 channels and 650 million subscribers.
Through a process known as localization, or preparing content for another network, Yoola plans to develop a working advertising strategy to “bridge international content gaps”(GOH). They point out that there is a substantial difference between culture in the East and in the West, which is why the localization process is so important. With it, they hope to break through cultural and lingual barriers to find a way to advertise Western content in an effective manner in China. The first step Yoola plans on taking is to adjust to the Chinese market by better understanding it.
One substantial difference between China and the West is that in the West, most of the revenue comes from the use of video advertising and in China they prefer digital gifting, e-commerce, and brand integration over video advertising. Yoola, claims that they are continuing to research better advertising methods for Western Content in China and may even try utilizing live streaming.

Yoola and YouTube Stars

Yoola does have one definitive method that they are employing to distribute Western content in China, utilizing social media stars. Yoola is selecting internationally popular video content that is visually based over audibly based. The purpose of doing this is to ensure the message of the content isn’t lost in translation. YouTube, as well as many other common Western social media platforms are banned in China. This is why currently, Yoola is working with a variety of different Chinese social media networks. Some of them are Weibo, Youku-tidou, and Meipai.
One of the Youtube stars that Yoola is promoting on Chinese social media is Slivki Show. He is from Ukraine and his channel provides life hacks in English. He has over 800,000 subscribers and over 100,000,000 channel views. Only two months after his videos had been translated with Chinese subtitles by the Yoola team in Beijing, he had acquired over ten million views. This is only one example of what Yoola is capable of. With their far reaching company managing over 70,000 channels, their goal is to do the same thing with other western stars, as they did with Slivki Show.
Currently, Yoola is not profiting from the Western content that is being played in China. The end goal to build revenue is expected to be through building a fan base and supporting Western social media stars in China, and then using the preferred methods of building revenue, which are branded content, digital gifting, and e-commerce. This is the method of adding a link to a video or video description that links to a shop.

Marketing strategies for western companies in China

As of right now the only channels that are being offered in China on Weibo are the Room Factory, Roman Ursu, and Slivki Show. The Room Factory makes videos of dating jokes, and Roman Ursu has a life hack channel. They have also localized the channel So Yummy on Chinese social media sites as well.

For marketing services in China we rely on Digital Crew which is one of our trusted agency partners based in Sydney Australia. They are experts when it comes to planning and implementing effective marketing strategies for the Chinese market. If you want more information you can contact Ophenia, the CEO of Digital Crew.

Digital Crew Pty. Ltd.

Phone: +61 2 8964 6936
+61 2 8581 5474
Email: hello@digitalcrew.com.au

Sources:

Chen, Yuyu. “Western YouTube Stars Look to Crack the Chinese Social Networks.” DIGIDAY. Digiday, 13 Apr. 2017. Web. 29 June 2017.

Goh, Melissa. “Western Content Is Heading to Chinese Social Media Feeds.” CNBC. CNBC, 13 Apr. 2017. Web. 29 June 2017.