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.

China is often seen as the wild west of privacy protection, where unscrupulous companies collect and trade personal data as regulators and consumers stand idly by. The Chinese government has been trying to change that, most recently by drafting a privacy law akin to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). While the implications for businesses are still murky, it’s clear that China is determined to tackle this issue its own way, at its own pace.

In April 2016, WeCom launched as WeChat Work in China, to only moderate success. The pandemic has turbocharged its user growth, however. The app’s integration with WeChat and arsenal of business features will make it a valuable asset for marketers even after offices reopen.

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.

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.

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.

Programmatic advertising will account for 71.0% of the digital display ad market in China this year. Mobile programmatic growth, as well as gains in private marketplaces and programmatic direct play a role. This report features our latest programmatic display forecast for China and explores these and other factors shaping the market through 2021.

Though TikTok has become a craze among some younger Americans over the past year, recent headlines over a US government investigation into the platform’s Chinese parent company ByteDance regarding national security concerns have some marketers worrying.

TikTok, the Chinese short-video app, is taking off in the US, India and elsewhere. It offers many unique marketing opportunities, such as the Hashtag Challenge, but marketers should take note of some risks.

This report covers key events in the global social media market, new data, trends and business activity in Q2 2019. It also includes our updated forecasts for social network users in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and worldwide.

Adults in China spend more time on digital than they do with any other media. Moreover, time spent on digital will continue to grow at a rapid pace, encroaching on time spent with traditional media.

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.

No social app since Snapchat has succeeded in capturing significant usage in the US. But the Chinese-owned, short-video app TikTok is enjoying sudden growth in popularity. Can it buck the trend and challenge the existing social networks?