Tencent’s WeChat lowered its SMB fees in response to a government directive, and CBDC adoption may complicate business further.

TikTok’s ecommerce priorities are clear with expansion into Southeast Asia: Parent company ByteDance hopes to turn social media users into social commerce adopters.

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.

In Southeast Asia, total media ad spending snapped back to pre-pandemic levels in 2021 and will continue rising strongly this year. The growth in digital ad spending, though tamer in 2022, will again outpace that of the overall ad market.

China’s tech giants are racing to own the technology of the metaverse: Tencent, Baidu, Oppo, and Huawei are beating US counterparts to the AR/VR patent punch.

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.

Shake-ups in the new year will include hyper-personalization, tech companies venturing further into embedded finance, and the prospect of super apps in Western countries.

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.

Mobile payments are near universal across use cases in China, thanks to high mobile penetration and the rise of a wallet duopoly that’s made them accessible, affordable, and convenient.

Singles’ Day, the online shopping festival invented by Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba and held on November 11, is widely known in the West. Now, a series of similar “double-digit” shopping festivals from digital powerhouses Lazada and Shopee are driving ecommerce growth in Southeast Asia.

China catches up in data privacy: Its new laws give consumers similar levels of data protection in the private sector as the EU's GDPR, which could help streamline data usage guidelines worldwide.

China’s efforts to roll out a CBDC could create more competition for mobile payment giants like Ant and Tencent, which are already under serious regulatory scrutiny.

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.

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 digital divide has widened, particularly over the past year, and left seniors worldwide in the lurch. This issue takes on added urgency in China, where gender imbalance, delayed marriage, and a declining birthrate only exacerbate the rapid aging of its population. In November, the government urged tech companies to cater to the elderly, and China’s digital giants are now tapping into the so-called silver market.