Tmall Global Launches Influencer Incubator for Overseas Brands

Tmall Global’s conference in Hangzhou was introduced a new solution for overseas brands.

Tmall Global is a cross-border e-commerce platform (different from the domestic one- Taobao), and their new idea is promoting overseas brands to Chinese consumers using both foreign and Chinese influencers. They even created a new name for that. Online celebrities in China are called 网红 (wanghong, literally “Internet red”); Tmall Global’s influencers will now be referred to as网紫 (wangzi, literally “Internet purple”).

The platform has already started cooperating with certain international brands as a part of the Influencer Incubator plan, with the brands owned by Kim Kardashian, Miranda Kerr, Rihanna, Huda Kattan and Charlotte Tillbury acting as the Incubator ambassadors.

the Incubator is obviously promoted on social media platforms through influencers’ accounts (mostly Weibo).

One important takeaway here is that the importance of influencers and even more- MCNs (multi-channel network) that manage them have peaked. For Alibaba, it started with live-streaming that has grown into an indispensable part of Taobao. Now, Alibaba wants to expand it to other platforms.

Platforms such as Douyin, Weibo and Bilibili are getting crowded with influencers constantly raising benchmarks and prices. Becoming a KOL (key opinion leader) has become a major goal for young people all over the world, and China is no exception. We’ve already noticed that Weibo’s influencers are losing on their power, and I suspect it may soon happen to other platforms as well. For huge brands it may not matter that much- they work with influencers with tens or hundreds of millions of followers anyway.

The “Purple” Influencers (网紫 wangzi), based on Tmall’s idea, will be focused on expanding the reach of importers and helping Chinese consumers explore global goods. Their main role is to connect overseas brands to Chinese consumers. The influencers are chosen based on factors such as: “International Commodity Index”, “Global Impact Index” and “Consumption Leading Index of Overseas Shopping”.

The new ecosystem consists of over 500 domestic and global influencers, over 50 MCN organizations and 10 countries and regions for now. The key element is that the brand will not only be able to sell their products in their stores but also through influencers’ flagship stores. Which means that brands will be able to access the vast follower base of popular KOLs.

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