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China Marketing Insights

Real China digital-marketing problems, broken down: GEO and getting recommended by AI assistants like DeepSeek and Doubao, making Baidu, Xiaohongshu and Douyin work, nurturing leads in WeChat and WeCom, and building a China market entry strategy. Methods, data and views from our own project work.

CHAGEE's Olympic pop-up tea bar in front of Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris, with more than 1,200 visitors on day one China market strategyCommentary CHAGEE's Paris Olympic Pop-up: How a Chinese Tea Brand Got Noticed at Gare Saint-Lazare During the Paris 2024 Olympics, CHAGEE ran a three-week pop-up tea bar in front of Gare Saint-Lazare. Day one brought more than 1,200 visitors and 5,300 interactions. The project was delivered by Brainsonic Live, Dékuple Group's team in France. Dékuple China Editorial Team
Central air conditioning in AI search cover: 1,138 citations from 108 questions on four AI platforms GEO & AI searchData report Central Air Conditioning in AI Search: A GEO Analysis of 108 Questions and 1,138 Citations Across Four Platforms Boson Yang · 2026-11-13 DeepSeek and Doubao citation study cover: 18 electric SUV questions, only one page cited by both GEO & AI searchData report DeepSeek and Doubao Barely Cite the Same Pages: A GEO Analysis of 703 AI Citations on Electric SUVs Boson Yang · 2026-11-13

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GEO & AI search

9 pieces

GEO (generative engine optimization) and AI search marketing: assistants like Doubao, DeepSeek and Yuanbao now shortlist brands for buyers. How to get seen, cited and recommended.

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WeChat & SCRM

3 pieces

WeChat marketing and SCRM: Official Accounts, Mini Programs, WeCom and private traffic — turning WeChat traffic into customers you can nurture and convert.

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China marketing platforms

7 pieces

Baidu, Xiaohongshu and Douyin marketing: how China's marketing platforms work — rules, audiences and ad buying — and how they differ from the West.

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China market strategy

16 pieces

China market entry strategy: consumer journeys, industry trends, positioning, localization and growth paths for international brands in China.

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All insights

  1. China market strategy Commentary CHAGEE's Paris Olympic Pop-up: How a Chinese Tea Brand Got Noticed at Gare Saint-Lazare During the Paris 2024 Olympics, CHAGEE ran a three-week pop-up tea bar in front of Gare Saint-Lazare. Day one brought more than 1,200 visitors and 5,300 interactions. The project was delivered by Brainsonic Live, Dékuple Group's team in France. Dékuple China Editorial Team
  2. GEO & AI search Data report Central Air Conditioning in AI Search: A GEO Analysis of 108 Questions and 1,138 Citations Across Four Platforms When buyers ask AI about central air conditioning, the four main Chinese assistants recommend very different brands for the same category, and brand websites make up only 17.4% of cited sources. Brands need to plan by platform, category and region, and make their own sites readable for AI. Boson Yang
  3. GEO & AI search Data report DeepSeek and Doubao Barely Cite the Same Pages: A GEO Analysis of 703 AI Citations on Electric SUVs Asked the same 18 electric SUV questions, DeepSeek and Doubao cited 429 pages and shared only one. Half of Doubao's citations come from ByteDance properties, DeepSeek leans on auto media and complaint sites, and brand websites are largely absent from after-sales answers. Boson Yang
  4. GEO & AI search Tool tutorial How to Use Baidu's AI Traffic Analysis: Citations, Impressions and Clicks from Baidu AI Answers Baidu Search Resource Platform's AI Traffic Analysis lets a website see, for the first time, how often Baidu's AI answers cite it and how many people see and click those citations. It covers Baidu search only, not DeepSeek or Doubao, so treat it as your Baidu-side GEO baseline. Dékuple China Editorial Team
  5. GEO & AI search Commentary SEO is more than "adding more keywords": how experts and non-experts see it SEO looks simple but isn't easy. Keywords are a small part: search intent, crawling and rendering, content structure, entities, internal links and schema, third-party authority, and now AI citations decide whether a brand gets seen. Dékuple China Editorial Team
  6. China marketing platforms Guide China websites: should Baidu Tongji replace GA, and how to speed up a site hosted abroad Install both Baidu Tongji and GA on a China website: Baidu integrates Baidu ads data, while GA analyses better but is often disrupted in mainland China. No tool fixes slowness from overseas hosting; move servers, add a CDN and optimise the site. Boson Yang
  7. WeChat & SCRM Guide B2B lead management in China: why use SCRM, and what to build lead forms with B2B brands generating leads digitally in China need SCRM in the long run, because WeChat's own data and features can't nurture users well. Build lead forms in SCRM or marketing automation, so the data can be reused to nurture and score leads. Boson Yang
  8. China marketing platforms Guide Is WeChat official account content worth it for B2B brands? It depends on focus and data Whether WeChat content works for B2B depends on focus and data. Give every piece a clear stage and target audience, then use SCRM to segment followers, score behaviour and trace sources, so content stops being guesswork. Boson Yang
  9. China marketing platforms Guide Should B2B brands do content marketing on Zhihu? Six signs it fits Zhihu can work for B2B brands, but not for all. Its value lies in search weight, education and reputation. Invest when you have solid expert content, your audience uses Zhihu or competitors are already visible there, and prepare properly. Boson Yang
  10. China market strategy Guide What content wins B2B leads in China? Fair value exchange and instant trust The content that wins B2B leads makes people willing to fill in a form. It usually does two things: offers a fair value exchange by solving a real problem, and builds instant trust through credible authorship and clear data protection. Boson Yang
  11. China market strategy Guide B2B content marketing in China: three questions on starting, tone and expertise B2B digital work should start with content, because long buying cycles need steady nurturing. Professional doesn't mean serious: content must be precise and still interesting. An agency adds value by getting purpose, message, audience, channel and style right. Boson Yang
  12. China marketing platforms Guide Baidu SEM for B2B: where the leads come from, winning over HQ, and the four phases Baidu is still China's largest search engine, but B2B brands mostly reach smaller companies there. To win over headquarters, compare SEM with what Google search does for them abroad, then run it in four phases and allow 2–4 weeks to open the account. Boson Yang
  13. China market strategy Commentary Dékuple Group and ESCP Business School: three years of partnership, 46 students on agentic AI, M&A and MarTech Dékuple Group and ESCP Business School are in their third year of partnership: 46 master's students spend a month on three real Group challenges (agentic AI, M&A and loyalty, international MarTech), with a final defence on 20 November. Dékuple China Editorial Team
  14. China marketing platforms Tool tutorial Your Google Analytics is probably under-reporting. Here's how we fixed one in a day After a site relaunch, GA4 showed organic search down about 65% while Search Console showed only 20%. The cause was measurement, not marketing: a cookie banner blocking analytics by default, leftover tags and unfiltered internal traffic. Seven steps fixed it in one working day. Boson Yang
  15. WeChat & SCRM Data report WeChat 10w+ marketing review: what marketers read, liked and shared over 30 days From mid-September to mid-October 2026, AI tools produced the most 10w+ posts among marketing trade accounts and the highest likes, but breaking news, emotional topics and brand collaborations drove sharing. Only a handful of trade accounts produce 10w+ posts consistently. Boson Yang
  16. GEO & AI search Event replay AI search and GEO: from being seen to being recommended — Dékuple China at CCI France Chine GEO is not just about being seen by AI but about making its shortlist. China's AI platforms draw on different sources, so brands need a localised multi-platform strategy, treat GEO as long-term work and judge it by business results. Dékuple China Editorial Team
  17. GEO & AI search Guide Getting Cited by AI Search: A Practical GEO Guide GEO makes your content reliable material for AI answers: lead with a takeaway, source your data, structure Q&A, complete your schema markup, earn corroboration from authoritative third parties, and keep measuring your mentions and citations in each AI assistant. Boson Yang
  18. China market strategy Commentary Dékuple China signs strategic partnership with Shanghai's national IP operations platform Dékuple China has signed a strategic partnership with Shanghai International Intellectual Property Operation Management Co., Ltd., combining IP operations with AI brand technology to help Chinese companies build brands abroad. Dékuple China Editorial Team
  19. GEO & AI search Commentary Good partnerships put the client centre stage: three years with Mersen, from website to GEO A good partnership doesn't make decisions for the client; it gives them the judgement to decide. With Mersen we went from a 2024 website SEO rebuild to 2025 training and a 2026 GEO project covering 150+ questions. Dékuple China Editorial Team
  20. GEO & AI search Commentary GEO class: auto media platforms move from selling traffic to being the source When AI answers car-buying questions, it mainly cites specialist auto media. Their value is shifting from traffic to being cited, so carmakers and Tier 1 suppliers should store data there in AI-readable form and monitor results. Dékuple China Editorial Team
  21. GEO & AI search Commentary GEO class: do Tier 1 auto suppliers need GEO too? Tier 1 suppliers need GEO too. B2B buyers now use AI to pre-screen suppliers and drivers care about component brands. AI trusts verifiable expert content, so turn test data and white papers into sources it cites. Dékuple China Editorial Team
  22. China market strategy Guide Marketing Strategy for China: Building a Brand for a Chinese Audience A China strategy starts with research, not translation. Almost everyone is online and on mobile, so the real work is choosing platforms, defining precise personas and making content discoverable on social, search and, increasingly, AI assistants. Benoit Raoult
  23. China market strategy Commentary The Chinese Consumer Journey: Why It Is a Loop, Not a Line In China the consumer journey is a loop driven by social proof. People discover, evaluate and often buy inside social platforms, then post reviews that start the next shopper's journey. Brands that plan for every stage, including advocacy, win repeat purchases. Benoit Raoult
  24. China market strategy Guide Chinese student recruitment cheat sheet: digital platforms and a year-round communication timeline Recruiting Chinese students depends on platform choice and timing. WeChat runs through every stage, Q&A and forum sites serve the research phase, video and Xiaohongshu build awareness, and communication for a September intake should start a full year ahead. Benoit Raoult
  25. China market strategy Guide How to attract Chinese students: planning every touchpoint with the recruitment funnel Attracting Chinese students is not about posting on one platform. It means designing touchpoints along the funnel: social and search for awareness, website and Q&A content for comparison, and the website and WeChat for applications and enrolment. Benoit Raoult
  26. WeChat & SCRM Guide WeChat SCRM in China: A Practical Guide from QR Codes to Segmentation In China, social CRM runs on WeChat. Official Accounts, WeCom and Mini Programs capture users, parametric QR codes and dynamic tags record every interaction, and segment-based journeys turn followers into members and repeat customers. Wanting Zong
  27. China marketing platforms Guide A Guide to Baidu's Ecosystem: Search, Baike, Zhidao, Baijiahao and AI Search Baidu is still a key place where Chinese users actively look up brands, but it is far more than a search box. Baike, Zhidao, Baijiahao and the Baidu app together shape how a brand appears in results and AI answers, so manage them as one system. Boson Yang
  28. China market strategy Commentary China's Snack Market Trends: Healthier Snacks, Discount Snack Chains and Online Growth China's snack market is large but fragmented, and growth comes from healthier products, discount snack chains and online channels. Imported brands are losing their edge to good-value local products and must win young consumers with clear positioning, the right pack sizes and social proof. Benoit Raoult
  29. China market strategy Commentary The Rise of Coffee in China: Market Size, Key Players and the Yunnan Supply Chain China's coffee market is still growing, but the race has shifted from opening stores to winning on efficiency and price. Starbucks now runs China through a joint venture, Luckin leads on digital scale, and Yunnan is moving upmarket. Cate Liu
  30. China market strategy Commentary Customer Journey Mapping: Your Customer-Winning Formula for China There is no single formula for marketing in China. A customer journey map is how you build your own: it shows, persona by persona, which platform, message and moment move people to buy, and where they drop off. Benoit Raoult
  31. China market strategy Commentary Is Coffee the New Tea in China? How Coffee and Tea Cultures Meet Coffee will not replace tea in China, but it is entering daily life by borrowing the new-style tea playbook: milky and fruity drinks, seasonal launches and app ordering. Brands compete for occasions, not for coffee versus tea. Cate Liu
  32. China marketing platforms Commentary Navigating China's Digital Landscape: Benoît Raoult's 2024 Perspective In 2024, Benoît Raoult argued that in a tougher Chinese market, return on investment drives digital decisions, and that brands must adapt tools, platforms and compliance to China's own ecosystem rather than copy what works in Europe. Cate Liu
  33. China market strategy Commentary Performance marketing for business schools recruiting Chinese students For business schools recruiting in China, reputation is the base and performance marketing the amplifier. Send Baidu search ads and social campaigns to dedicated Chinese landing pages, and time messages to the student and parent journey, to turn attention into measurable applications. Benoit Raoult
  34. China market strategy Commentary The BCP Marketing Pathway: Build Walls, Collect Grains, Push to Private Pool for B2B in China B2B digital marketing in China takes three steps: build solid owned channels, keep publishing expert content that earns leads, then nurture those leads in a private pool. All of it should start with a full digital footprint audit. Boson Yang
  35. China market strategy Event replay Webinar recap (9 November 2023): recruiting Chinese students, best practices and mistakes to avoid This 2023 webinar helped European schools prepare their September 2024 intake from three angles: trends in Chinese families' study-abroad decisions, a digital marketing timeline for 2024, and social media best practice. Benoit Raoult

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