China deems personalized recommendations discriminatory and harmful to user well-being: The new law could discourage users from spending time—and money—on retail and social media platforms.

China continues to lead the world in all things ecommerce, including innovation. Social commerce livestreaming is just one of many new stories for 2021 and beyond.

Kearney’s China Diversification Index, which analyzes the shift of US manufacturing away from China to other low-cost countries in Asia, saw the US import value from China decrease from 66% of the total in 2018 to 55% at the end of 2021. “Made in America” will shift from a consumer preference to a business imperative.

Ecommerce transactions on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, tripled to $77.48 billion (RMB 500 billion) in gross merchandise value (GMV) in 2020, per a report by Chinese news outlet LatePost. (More recent figures are not available.).

Asia-Pacific will no longer produce huge increases in new social network users, but the sheer scale of the region means it should remain front and center for social media marketers. Facebook will remain on top, but TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat are making waves.

ByteDance properties Douyin and TikTok have been making waves inside and outside China for several years. Their combined spectacular growth will result in ad revenues of more than $30 billion for their parent company in 2022, leaving ByteDance in fifth place among ad publishers worldwide.

Meta’s campaign against TikTok will do little to hide its own issues: Negative stories about rivals won’t fix its longstanding advertising and content issues.

Read the latest stories from Insider Intelligence about artificial intelligence in social media.

China joined 16 other countries when its powerful Personal Information Protection Law came into effect in November 2021. The law gives consumers even more opt-in rights than GDPR, and regulators in China have more leeway in enforcement.

Chinese companies can learn much about metaverse from US counterparts: Heavy tech regulations in the country have slowed tech firm’s ventures into the virtual world.

It’s hard to imagine US mcommerce approaching 40% penetration of retail sales anytime soon, but China still holds lessons for the US. Some trends in China eventually found their way to the US, including:. Mobile payments. Social commerce. QR codes. Which trends in China are happening now and have a decent chance of similar uptake in US mcommerce? Livestreaming shopping channels.

Rounding up news from the last days of 2021: The news cycle didn’t stop over the holidays. These are some of the most notable stories from the last two weeks.