蘑菇AV

As China鈥檚 retail media advertising market begins to mature, off-site channels鈥攊ncluding WeChat and Douyin, TikTok's sister app in China鈥攚ill increasingly drive growth.

Douyin investments are helping P&G shore up China sales: It鈥檚 taking advantage of the platform鈥檚 popularity among deal-seeking shoppers to boost its brands鈥� profiles.

Retailers adjust China strategies to coax cost-conscious shoppers to open their wallets: Ikea and Pizza Hut will open more small-format stores to reach new customers, while H&M set up shop on Pinduoduo and Douyin.

The new leadership structure gives ByteDance鈥檚 Chinese executives an opportunity to exert more control over the US business鈥攁lthough it should be noted that what worked for Douyin in China is not so easily replicated stateside. TikTok鈥檚 US position is precarious. While a ban looks increasingly unlikely, so too does a sale of the company鈥檚 US business.

Douyin, TikTok's Chinese sibling, is about to become China鈥檚 largest social platform. It's also crashing the country鈥檚 ecommerce party. Already the fourth largest online shopping platform by sales, its market share is rapidly approaching JD.com's.

Those surveyed were asked if they used any international or domestic platforms, including Baidu Tieba, Dewu, Douyin Huoshan, Inke, Meipai, Qzone, Sina Weibo, and Yizhibo. The survey found that 97.1% of respondents used a messaging app. That was up by 0.7 percentage points YoY. Like other pervasive media formats, usage rates didn鈥檛 differ greatly across incomes and household locations.

In 2024, sales via Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu will account for 14.3%, 7.0%, and 1.0%, respectively, of total retail ecommerce sales in China. Douyin is approaching JD.com (16.5%) and Pinduoduo (16.4%) but is still far behind Alibaba (39.8%). However, the growth of the social commerce trio is approaching saturation.

Douyin, China鈥檚 version of TikTok, has been the fastest riser among the country鈥檚 online shopping platforms. Market share will climb from 14.1% in 2024 to 14.8% in 2026 due to the platform鈥檚 still-growing user base and the emergence of livestreaming as a mainstay. Outpacing Alibaba and JD.com, Pinduoduo retail ecommerce sales grew by 12.5% in 2024.

Pervasive super apps like WeChat and Douyin skew China even more toward mobile than other markets. Still, smartphone ownership is ubiquitous in every region, and consumers average more time per day with their phones than with other devices everywhere except Western Europe, per GWI. This year, programmatic advertisers worldwide will spend over three-quarters (76.4%) of their budgets on mobile ads.

After the self-inflicted stagnation of 2022, China鈥檚 retail and ecommerce sales growth is somewhat back on track. At the company level, Douyin has burst onto the scene as a major retailer, and Pinduoduo鈥檚 ascent continues.

After a rapid rise in China, Douyin is now seeking to increase revenues per user. TikTok鈥檚 sister app Douyin had a meteoric rise in China. By the end of this year, 4 in 5 social network users in China will use Douyin. However, user growth will slow to 5.8% YoY in 2024.

Note that the chart below excludes platforms that are overwhelmingly China-centric, such as WeChat (835.2 million users in China) and ByteDance鈥檚 Douyin (838.4 million users in China). Click here to view our full forecast for social network users worldwide, by platform. Facebook has a huge advantage in emerging markets.

TikTok sister app Douyin is a livestream behemoth in China, where nearly 40% of internet users also engage in livestream shopping, according to our forecast. But in the US, the format hasn鈥檛 caught on in the same way.

TikTok Shop became available across the US last week. The social video platform has a lot to gain in retail and ad revenues, but it risks facing the same challenges Meta has had with social commerce on Instagram鈥攗sers' reluctance to actually complete purchases in app. But with sister app Douyin setting the blueprint for TikTok鈥檚 social commerce endeavors, the platform isn鈥檛 starting from scratch. Here鈥檚 a look at TikTok鈥檚 social commerce strategy and potential in five charts.

While the retailer recorded considerable losses on both transactions, it鈥檚 betting that a more streamlined business will help it make up ground lost to newcomers like Pinduoduo, Kuaishou, and Douyin. Our take: Geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty are forcing retailers to rethink their approach to China.

Douyin, the ByteDance-owned sister app to TikTok, drove $500 billion in social commerce sales in 2023. TikTok, meanwhile, fell short of $4 billion. The Black Friday sales figure and increase in shoppers show that TikTok is making inroads with US consumers and getting them more comfortable with shopping in the app.

Pinduoduo is projected to generate $22.4 billion in ad revenues this year, capturing 15.7% of China's digital ad market鈥攖railing only Alibaba and Douyin. In ecommerce channel advertising specifically, PDD now commands a 35% share, dwarfing JD.com's 11%. PDD's international expansion through Temu highlights its ambitions beyond China.

YouTube has more users than Facebook, Netflix, or Spotify. But its advertising revenues do not match its vast reach. This report contextualizes the opportunities and scope for growth in various media spheres.