China’s total media ad spending and digital ad spending will both grow at their lowest rates since we began tracking them in 2012, but the ad industry is nonetheless set for an eventful year in the world’s second-largest market.

Alibaba’s stranglehold on ecommerce in China is loosening: The company’s earnings disappointed amid weakening consumer demand, robust performances from rivals, and more scrutiny from Beijing.

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.

AirAsia, one of the world’s largest budget airlines, is on a mission to build a regional super app. While it follows in the footsteps of titans like WeChat in China and Gojek in Southeast Asia, if AirAsia succeeds, it will blaze a path for travel and other industries not endemic to the mobile space.

In 2022, China’s tech sector will continue dealing with a new regulatory climate, resulting in some new winners and a few familiar losers. Short-form video will make gains with commerce, and the metaverse will rear its head.

Every national market in the world will finish this year with more ad spending than in 2020. In most categories, worldwide growth records will be shattered. But 2021 was a very unusual year, following a very unusual 2020.

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.

Last year, China was the only market to see overall ad spending growth, although digital ad spending performed well almost everywhere. This year, every country will see growth in almost every category.

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.

As shelter-at-home and quarantine measures keep consumers in China at home, brands ramped up their efforts to meet consumers' high expectations for digital services by offering free online tools and courses, streaming live events and adopting new ecommerce strategies.

As the coronavirus continues to spread, China's status as the epicenter of major supply chains is causing significant changes to businesses and consumer behavior. This is not only putting a strain on multiple industries within the country, but multinationals operating out of and doing business in China are feeling the effects as well.

Despite a faltering economy and subdued growth across traditional media, total media ad spend in China will maintain strong growth on the back of increases in digital and mobile, where the top digital publishers will maintain their dominance.