China Digital Digest Weekly: Exploring the Chinese Digital Landscape

Hi folks, we are back with our weekly edition of China’s Digital Digest, wherein we bring you weekly updates on China’s digital space. The report takes a quick glance at China’s complex and rapidly evolving social media landscape by providing updates on the latest happenings across the social media industry. Here are the major highlights of the report.

1. China Cracks Down On ‘Fan Culture’, Arresting Woman For Social Media Posts

https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/olympics-paralympics/20240807-203513/

Authorities in Beijing have detained a 29-year-old woman for allegedly posting slanderous comments about athletes and coaches on social media.

The statement released by the Public Security Bureau of Beijing’s Daxing district did not confirm which athletes and coaches had been targeted. As it stood, police confirmed that the case remained under investigation. He, the arrested individual whose first name has not been revealed, was accused of “maliciously fabricating information and blatantly slandered others”, soon after the Olympic table tennis women’s singles final, according to the Beijing police.

2. Tencent Enhances WeChat User Experience with Breaking News Alerts

https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/tencent-beefs-range-content-super-093000540.html

Video gaming and social media giant Tencent Holdings is testing breaking news alerts on WeChat, as the Chinese super app bolsters its role as a major information platform for its more than 1.2 billion users.

The new feature has been made available for testing to a small number of users, some of whom said the breaking news bulletin – mostly from official media outlets on the mainland – can be seen via the app’s subscription account page after a recent system upgrade. Before the latest feature, WeChat users need to follow an organisation’s subscription account, a blog-like tool within the app, to receive posts that include news from media outlets. WeChat’s breaking news alerts will also show content from publishers that users do not follow.

3. Chinese Suppliers Storm Temu Office In Guangzhou to Protest ‘Harsh’ Policies

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/01/tech/china-temu-suppliers-protest-hnk-intl/index.html

Hundreds of Chinese suppliers on Temu, the overseas shopping app run by PDD Holdings, staged a protest at the e-commerce giant’s office in Guangzhou, alleging unreasonable platform policies, according to merchants and local Chinese media reports.

Dozens of protesters stormed the PDD office, according to video clips posted on social media, which were confirmed as authentic by merchants. However, a spokesperson for Temu disagreed with the scale of the protest, saying “a dozen sellers,” mostly clothing sellers who also operate on rival Shein, gathered in Guangzhou. The spokesperson added that the sellers had declined to resolve the disputes through the normal arbitration and legal channels stated in seller agreements.

4. Online Sales Of Sporting Goods Surge As Chinese Consumers Celebrate Gold Medals

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202408/1317865.shtml

Paris 2024 women's tennis singles gold winner Zheng Qinwen of China has fueled a nationwide trend in tennis sportswear and related fashion.

Searches for tennis and table tennis-related products on Tmall, Alibaba’s premium shopping platform that mainly hosts established brands, surged by 300 percent and 234 percent, respectively, compared with the same period last year. Small items like hair clips, slippers, and manicures from lesser-known brands dominate the top-selling lists, rather than professional sports gear. These small commodities are easy to produce and lack brand premiums, making them affordable for average viewers who prefer owning the same products as their favorite athletes without spending much on professional gear.

5. Chinese Sneakerheads’ Favourite Shopping App Dewu to Cut 500 Jobs As Weak Spending Persists

https://www.livarava.com/finance/p/4045226

Shanghai-based e-commerce app Dewu, a popular option among young Chinese consumers looking for niche brands, will trim its workforce by 5 percent amid weak Chinese consumer spending, according to an internal letter to employees.

Dewu employees who received the letter said the job cuts will affect approximately 500 positions out of the total payroll of 10,000. Dewu – which started in 2015 as an online community sharing data about sports, shoes and fashion – has decided to cut jobs as it tries to suspend or reduce resources used for “low-yield” projects amid a grim market environment, according to the letter. Dewu confirmed the lay-offs in a statement and said that it will hold one-on-one talks with affected employees and provide severance packages.

6. US Sues TikTok And China’s ByteDance, Claiming They Failed to Protect Children’s Privacy

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/aug/02/us-sues-tiktok-bytedance-child-privacy

In the latest legal action confronting TikTok, the US Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission filed a civil suit against the short-video app and its Chinese parent company ByteDance, claiming they failed to protect children’s privacy.

The government said TikTok, which boasts about 170 million US users, violated a law that forbids using, collecting or disclosing personal information from children under the age of 13 without parental permission. The DoJ said TikTok knowingly allowed children to create regular accounts on the app and retained their personal information, such as email addresses, without parental consent and frequently failed to honour account-deletion requests from parents.

7. TikTok’s Parent Company Debuts New AI Text-To-Video Generation Tool

https://www.zdnet.com/article/tiktoks-parent-company-launches-ai-text-to-video-generation-tool/

TikTok could soon have its own, in-stream text-to-video creation tool, with parent company ByteDance launching a new app called “Jimeng AI” in China, which enables users to create short videos via AI, based on written prompts.

The platform enables users to create very short video clips (most are less than 5 seconds long) based on whatever text prompts they choose. You can also create images in the same app. Despite being free to download, the app offers several subscription tiers, including a monthly subscription of ¥69 ($9.65) and a yearly subscription of ¥659 ($91.77), as seen by its Apple App Store listing. With the plans, users can generate roughly 2,050 images or 168 videos monthly, according to the report.

8. TikTok Solidifies Gaming Link With Gamescom Partnership

https://www.thinkwithniche.com/blogs/news/tiktok-strengthens-gaming-ties-with-major-gamescom-partnership

TikTok has announced that it’s an official partner of Gamescom 2024, which is one of the world’s biggest gaming conferences.

TikTok will host a range of tie-ins for the event, including an IRL activation at Gamescom, which is hosted in Germany, with live streaming rooms, a dedicated event stage (where it will host talks and panels) and a Pokemon Go Gym activity. TikTok will also add various in-app tools to help users engage with the event. TikTok launched its first-ever global gaming event back in 2022, then followed that up with its “30 Days of Gaming” showcase last year, enhancing its focus on gaming-related content.

Wrapping Up

The vast and diverse nature of the Chinese Social Media space makes it incredibly challenging to keep a tab on the rapid developments taking place. However, China’s Digital Digest brings you all the latest updates from there to keep you abreast of all the evolving trends.

To delve deeper into the findings of our latest report, click here.