China’s growing army of online influencers are gaining ever more sway over its consumer sector — and attracting Beijing’s attention in the process.
Influencers, also known as Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) in China, help to sell products directly to consumers who watch their content on social media and live stream apps such as Douyin, Taobao, and Xiaohongshu. Promoting products from cleaning sponges to Dior handbags, KOLs have quickly come to dominate retail marketing. The KOL industry is dominated by celebrity live-streaming, which two years ago was estimated to be worth $30 billion.The China Association of the Performing Arts estimated it as $30 billion in 2020 and some analysts say it may top $100 billion in 2022.
However, the sudden online disappearance of three of China’s best known KOLs in recent months has sent a shiver through the industry, while the government’s introduction of a new code of conduct could complicate its future too. This week, The Wire takes a close
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
In public, Chinese diplomats and climate negotiators deny that they see any link between climate change and geopolitics. But there is a deeply cynical consensus within China’s academic and policy communities that climate change creates geopolitical opportunities that China can exploit — and must exploit before its rivals do. Greenland was the proof of concept for this strategy. And it caught the U.S. flat-footed.
The EU Chamber of Commerce in China president talks about China's self-inflicted problems; how he gets away with being so outspoken; and why he believes in China's comeback gene.
