Beauty Influencer Melilim Fu shooting one of three beauty films for NBCUniversal’s hit series Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

In China, there has been a mass exodus of talent from industries like print media with many of the professional writers and photographers joining influencer-led creative studios or becoming influencers themselves. China’s influencer industry is sucking up talent, as it is generally seen as more interesting, freeing, and provides better opportunities.

Influencer-created content has one key advantage when compared to traditional production companies or ad agencies: social is in their DNA. Influencers have gone through the grind of developing audiences in a mobile-first social media world, whereas professionals at traditional agencies might have little-to-no hands-on experience with how content will be engaged with or received online. For the employees that work at traditional agencies, their work is their job. For influencers, their work is their life. Influencers are entrepreneurs whose work and personal lives are public for all to see. Their failures will be public. Moreover, the pressure to perform at one’s peak is much higher than the salaried employee at an agency.

It’s an inevitable development among influencer around the world where entrepreneurship is booming, and business models are constantly challenged and disrupted. Professional writers, photographers, and videographers are looking for work as magazines and traditional TV decline. A surge of influencer production studios or influencer-created creative agencies is likely just around the corner in all parts of the world.

Influencer Marketing East and West

Modern influencer marketing is a global phenomenon, and it’s a force that business and the media need to understand.

The range of human interests is limitless and is not adequately served by mass media. With the advent of individualized, or rather social, media people can now form social environments that congregate around niche interests. Every interest niche will have a few experts or entertainers that lead by creating written, visual, or audio content for the community’s education and/or entertainment.

People have been empowered by the internet to create, share, and consume the content they find most interesting, and this is only going to become more entrenched in internet social culture.

It simply does not make sense for any single brand to try and serve the boundless interests of their target customers on social media. Instead, it makes sense to support the people who do.

It is true that China is unique in that Chinese society’s high-context culture and relationships built on reciprocity underpin its thriving influencer economy. However, China has been and is paving the way in social media, e-commerce, and mobile payments, and the rest of the world is following. Brands should not miss this incredible opportunity to communicate with people the way they want to be communicated with. It’s not about being top of mind or being mentioned by an influencer, but about building relationships founded on reciprocity.

Key Takeaways

China’s influencer marketing industry is three to five years ahead of the rest of the world. The advanced functionality and integration of social media, e-commerce, and digital payment in China have enabled business models that are yet to be explored in other countries.

Unlike influencers in the West who rely on the traditional sponsored-post monetization model, many influencers in China have created their own incredibly successful brands, manufacturing and selling their products specifically designed for their audience, achieved through the support of influencer incubators.

For years now, virtually all major social media platforms in China have had full-integrated native e-commerce and digital payment solutions. Conversely, with the rise of ‘retailtainment’, Chinese e-commerce sites have also now transformed into social media platforms.

The traditional internet search engine is already on the decline in China. China’s mobile users are turning to social media and e-commerce platforms to conduct search queries. Social search engines, like the one on WeChat, allow users to search not only the web but social media posts and private conversations. Influencers are big business in China and Chinese social media platforms are starting to monetize off of the success of influencer marketing by charging brands a fee to run a sponsored post with an influencer.

Influencer-led creative studios have started to disrupt traditional ad agencies and production companies in China, directly competing with ad agencies for content creation projects.

Article originally published on Lengow, republished with permission.

Cover image: Melilim Fu