In 2020, China was the only major economy to produce economic growth. It’s not surprising, then, that it was also the only major national market to see an increase in total media ad spending. Girded by this economic strength, China’s digital ad market hardly missed a beat.

The rest of the world is waking up to the potential of shoppable livestreams, but it’s old news to China’s short-form video players and ecommerce platforms. Short-video leaders Douyin (TikTok’s sister app) and Kuaishou (known outside of China as Kwai) have been expanding their social commerce operations, not just to sell products, but to provide services and other forms of content as well.

For years, luxury brands around the world have been slow to adopt digital. But the pandemic has sped up the process, forcing many to pivot and innovate during a time when a large number of transactions are happening digitally.

Livestreaming has become a prominent feature across the social media and digital video landscapes. Here’s how marketers are taking advantage of opportunities within the space.

After the COVID-19 shock of H1 2020, everyday life in China has gradually returned to the pre-pandemic norm, and economic activities have been on the rebound.

As WeChat enters its second decade, Allen Zhang Xiaolong, chief architect of the super app, pledged at an annual conference to make videos its cornerstone in the coming years. More specifically, Zhang spotlighted Channels, its short-form video feature, and a more seamless user experience with official accounts and miniprograms (lightweight apps within WeChat that require minimal downloading and disappear after use).

TikTok’s user base will increase substantially in 2020. Despite a ban on the app in India and efforts to restrict it in the US, TikTok will continue to expand in many countries in 2021.

The pandemic has fueled greater social media usage worldwide and prompted revisions to our earlier forecasts. We now expect the total number of social network users to rise 8.1% in 2020, to 3.23 billion—equivalent to 80.7% of all internet users.

The first reported cases of COVID-19 were in Wuhan, China, in late December 2019. The government then issued a mandatory quarantine order on January 23 that confined the city’s inhabitants to their homes, and other cities soon followed with their own lockdowns. With little to do and nowhere to go, media usage in China spiked.

Among holiday shopping events in China, many outside the country have probably only heard of Singles’ Day. However, 618—which ecommerce giant JD.com launched to commemorate the company’s founding day—is gaining popularity. And given the global interest in a post-pandemic retail rebound, this year’s event was particularly worthy of attention.

Already No. 1 in ecommerce, China will overtake the US this year to become the world’s largest overall retail market for the first time.

This report explores our latest forecast for time spent with media in China, and how the coronavirus pandemic will impact our forecast for 2020 and beyond.

The Chinese-owned short-form video app TikTok exploded onto the social media landscape worldwide in 2019, but roadblocks could keep it from rapidly expanding its user base in 2020.

How will social network ad spending and social usage change in 2020? And what will happen in hot-button areas, such as privacy, ad targeting and political advertising in social media? Here’s what we think lies ahead.

Douyin, TikTok’s equivalent in China, will grow 27.8% to 442.58 million users this year, which means that more than half of China’s internet users will use the short-form video app, according to eMarketer’s new estimates. Growth will slow to 7.3% in 2020 and continue to drop in the next few years.

Short-form video apps arrived in China in early 2017 and have established themselves as viable entertainment options, allowing users to create content in 15- and 60-second spurts. In fact, we estimate that average daily time spent with short-form video among mobile internet users has risen from 9.9% of total mobile internet time in Q3 2018 to 13.5% in Q2 2019. Meanwhile, time spent on over-the-top (OTT) apps experienced a slight decline.

China has proven to be a hotbed for digital innovations, especially in the past few years. During this time, marketers worldwide have observed the latest trends coming out of the country, applying what they learn to their own markets.

eMarketer senior forecasting analyst Oscar Orozco breaks down our adoption estimates for Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and reasons behind its popularity.

In 2019, 94.5% of internet users in China will be social network users. That amounts to just 59.0% of the country’s population. This report covers the trends shaping the market, as well as our first-ever user forecast for the popular short-video platform Douyin and updated estimates for WeChat and Sina Weibo.

In 2019, the number of social network users worldwide will grow by 5.9% and approach 3 billion. By 2023, almost 80% of the online population will visit social networks at least monthly.