As the pandemic has reshaped our daily lives and the way we interact, all businesses worldwide face an unprecedented challenge. The consumers' needs are constantly changing, so it is crucial to keep up with new trends and modify business strategies accordingly.
In Australia, the number of people who speak mandarin has increased dramatically in recent years. They are considerable in number and are known for their strong purchasing power. However, many local businesses do not perceive them as part of their target demographic, due to either a lack of knowledge and awareness about this group or inability to utilise their social media platforms as a communication channel.
Therefore, to help you understand the Chinese-Australian market, we have conducted a demographic analysis to suggest critical social media platforms to reach them properly and gain new customers for your business.
Chinese-Australian Demographic Analysis
Total Population
In 2019, over 7.5 million migrants were living in Australia. China (677,000) has been ranked 2nd place since 2017 and has grown enormously since 2002. It is worth noting that the migration growth rate from 2014 to 2019 was almost twice that from 2009 to 2014.
Distribution of Cities
According to the 2016 census, Sydney remained the largest habitat for the Chinese community, among other capital cities.
Age and Gender
The median age of migrants from China was 33 years old in 2016, which was relatively young compared to 44 years old of all migrants from other countries and 38 years old for the total Australian population.
There were 224,148 males (44%), and 285,409 females (56%). The gender ratio was 79 males per 100 females.
Visa Types
The table below demonstrates the new migrant numbers in 2018-19. Based on our current analysis of the Chinese-Australian market, we can find that a significant proportion of successful PR applicants are skilled migrants travelling with their families. Besides, most of these migrants work in career fields that provide a stable income, such as accounting, IT, or engineering. These professions also have access to higher levels of disposable income which makes them our target audience.
Australia's permanent migration program integrates economic and family migration. Regarding the table, new migrants are relatively young, and most are professionals with a stable income. Some of them bring the family along when they migrate to Australia. Their purchasing decisions could also influence their parents and children, which indicates that they are consumers with considerably high affordability.
The vast majority of migrants that arrive in Australia are temporary visa holders. The data shows that a substantial number of temporary migrants come to Australia consistently every year, so even targeting a portion of this market could prove profitable
How to Reach Chinese-Australians Using Social Media platforms?
Now that you understand this hidden market, we're going to show you how to reach Chinese-Australians and convert them into your customers.
According to Statista, mainland Chinese Internet users spent approximately 6 hours on the internet every day. On average, half of this time is spent browsing through social media platforms. Utilising the algorithm of these platforms, we will be able to target Chinese-Australians as our consumers.
Each of the Chinese social media platforms attracts a different demographic of users who created close network connections. We're going to cover an overview for 3 platforms, including WeChat, Weibo, and RED.
WeChat Platform Analysis
WeChat is a multifunctional messaging, social media, and mobile payment application. With 619.6 million users log on and use various functions to perform daily tasks. It is also the primary form of communication for business and personal conversations.
Users Statistics:
Monthly active users: 1.2025 billion (Q1 2020)
Average Daily Active Users (DAU): 619.6 million (Sep 2019)
Daily active users of WeChat mini-programs: 400 million (Q1 2020)
WeChat penetration rate among 16-64 years old in China: 78% (Oct 2018)
Critical Features for Business:
Advertising
WeChat provides 2 types of advertisements on its platform.
Banner ads: placed at the end of the article.
Moment ads: placed on the Newsfeed, similar to Facebook and Instagram.
QR Codes
WeChat automatically creates a QR code for each official account. Business can utilise these codes in all the marketing channels, such as posting the QR codes on other social media networks, product packaging, and company brochures to promote your brand. So brands can boost both the number of sales and followers with a simple scan.
Store
WeChat store is a brand's primary way of obtaining sales through the in-app function since WeChat does not allow any links from external shopping platforms.
Influencer Marketing
Known as Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), WeChat influencers can help brands to break into new markets by sharing sponsored posts.
Mini Programs
WeChat Mini Program is the in-app application in the WeChat ecosystem. Brands can use mini-programs to provide a customised user experience. For example, the business could adjust the program's design and colour to match the company's branding. It also supports the member centres function where you can offer special promotions, interactive games, and search engines to allow users to look up specific content within your account.
Three Types of WeChat Official Accounts
Subscription Accounts
Focus on information and brand communication, like the daily news.
Enterprise Accounts
Mainly used for internal communication. and management, it's similar to Facebook's Slack and Workplace.
Service Accounts
Provide many useful functions, including customer service, API integration, e-commerce, and CRM.
(An Example of the Power of WeChat Codes)
Weibo Platform Analysis
Sina Weibo (or Weibo) is a micro-blogging platform launched in China in 2009. Weibo is one of the most popular social media networks in China. It is usually considered as a combination of Facebook and Twitter. Weibo is a popular platform for brands in social media marketing.
User Statistics:
Monthly Active Users (MAU): 515 Million (Q1 2020)
Average Daily Active Users (DAU): 241 million (Q1 2020)
Mobile Monthly Active Users – 94% (Q1 2020)
Average Visit Duration: 8 minutes 48 seconds (Dec 2018)
Critical Features for Business:
Content Sharing, Visibility, and Community Building
On Weibo, users can post content such as articles, pictures, or videos, and other users can discover new content through a keyword search or recommend by the system.
Customised Homepage
The Weibo recommendation algorithm creates custom Newsfeed. There are 'Following' and 'Hot' at the bottom of the Weibo application's homepage.
The 'Following' page displays the latest and most popular posts of the accounts users are following.
The 'hot' page showcases results based on the user's browse and searches history. Other sorting algorithm features (such as 'nearby', 'ranked list' and 'food') also ensure that the most popular and up-to-date contents are displayed on the homepage.
Discover
The 'discover' function acts as a comprehensive search engine within Weibo, grouping popular topics and categorising them into different categories. Users only need to insert keywords for relevant search results.
(An Example of Weibo KOLs)
RED (Xiaohongshu) Platform Analysis
RED is a social media platform that combines many features commonly found on social media. The platform encourages user-generated content sharing, which affects users' purchasing decisions with products recommendations. Users can post their content or post comments to join discussions. RED used to be a female-oriented platform, with most of its content focused on fashion and beauty at the beginning of its release. Now, RED focuses on diversifying its content categories to attract a broader audience.
User Statistics:
Average Monthly Active Users (MAU): 250 Million (June 2019)
Per cent of Users Identified as Female: 85% (June 2019)
Brands Registered on the Platform: 29,000 (June 2019)
Critical Features for Business:
Socialise and Interact
The verified brands can manage an official brand account to promote their brands and interact with customers. It is also a popular and effective platform for influencer marketing.
Browse and Research
It recommends users to checkout the most-searched posts and hot topics within the platform. Users can also search for specific information regarding a topic, the RED search engine would present the result based on various kinds of post tags.
Targeted Audience
With nearby function, users can look for the content that is posted by other users locate near them.
Indexed in search engine
Red's content can be searched and seen on various search engines like Google and Baidu. Therefore, business can strategically place keywords in their post to boost the visibility on both the platform and search results.
Online shopping
RED's seamless in-app shopping experience is one of the key marketing strength for sales conversion growth.
(The Core Business Logic of RED)
How to Utilize Chinese Social Media to Gain New Customers? - Our Services
Utilising Chinese social media platforms is the key to attracting Chinese consumers. The Chinese community's culture is very different from Australia, so your brand needs to launch a transparent, strategic, and tailored marketing approach on these platforms. With more than 10 years of experience, MediaMo aims to help ambitious businesses to tap into the Chinese market in Australia, Here are the services that we provide:
Account Management
We can manage all of your Chinese social media platforms, including WeChat, Weibo and RED. Having a dedicated company account allows you to directly communicate with your current customers and attract a new segment through useful content.
Content Creation
Creating high-quality Chinese content is essential to educate new customers about your brand and keep them engaged with interesting contents. The content can be informative and creative. Most importantly, we ensure them to be consistent in quality and frequency to maintain your fan base and attract new followers.
It is essential to understand social media users' demographics and characteristics to create compelling content for the brand. Our team of talented writers compose captivating articles and posts with the target audience's preferences, age and gender distribution in mind. Apart from the text and graphics, we also ensure appropriate format and layout and the best publishing time to maximise the reach.
Multimedia Production
Multimedia content can help your business stand out. Consumers' attention span is becoming shorter and shorter. Therefore, photos or videos are the best for capturing a user's attention. With a team of professional photographers and videographers, we can customise the most suitable content plan and manage the whole project for you, from the pre-shooting planning to the final edits.
Check out our past projects:
WeChat Mini Programs
Any business can set up its own WeChat mini-programs, enabling customers to interact with the brand directly. For example, in mini-programs, users can now receive coupons, search for product information, and users can even purchase directly through WeChat Pay. Therefore, this is an in-app program that benefits both consumers and businesses with an efficient buying process. We can also set up a multifunctional program based on your needs.
Branding & Design
We can brainstorm and develop your unique brand identity. Our creative designers can create websites, logos, posters, and many more.
If your business does not have any Chinese social media presence yet, we can help set up your accounts according to your branding guidelines. We can open up the Chinese market for you with our one-stop service.
Check out our past projects:
Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs)
Influencer marketing has become a trend in digital marketing. By partnering up with influencers, you would gain massive exposure to your target audience and have a much higher engagement rate.
According to your budget and goals, we can source the most suitable influencers to promote your business. We will track your campaign's progress as it starts; evaluate the impact and analyse it in a detailed report after the campaign, to guarantee your investment is worthy.
Check out our past project:
Very useful, thanks!