Branded Content Is the Path to Gen Z in 2021
Brands have been turning to platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram to reach younger consumers through content partnerships with popular creators, a trend that led Facebook to announce plans for a “branded content marketplace” on Instagram to help match influencers with sponsors. To incentivize the production of high-quality content, Douyin plans to invest more than $1 billion in traffic resources to help creators double their income to RMB 80 billion (12.3 billion) in 2021. Video streaming platform Bilibili, a favorite of China’s Gen Z, launched its own influencer marketplace last year, and has operated a paid incentive program for popular “uploaders” since 2018 to attract new users and encourage them to produce engaging content. Read more Jing Daily
China’s Innovation Dilemma
Tech advances have been impressive, but constraints on business productivity and imagination are a major obstacle. It has long been conventional wisdom that China would struggle to become an innovative nation. China’s controlled society, with lack of freedom of speech and expression, propaganda and censorship, together with an education system that emphasises rote learning and memorisation have been judged to limit creativity and the development of new ideas. And yet much evidence suggests that China has become an innovative economy, and increasingly so. This year China ranked 14th in the “Global Innovation Index,” a study conducted since 2007 and co-published by Cornell University and the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organisation. Read more Lowy Institute
