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.
About this 2024 video
In 2024, Benoît Raoult, speaking as co-founder of Dékuple China, recorded a video presenting the team's mission and its strategic focus for the year. He is now Dékuple's Global Business Director. This article summarises the video as a 2024 perspective; what has changed since is noted at the end.
The mission he described was to support companies operating in China, or preparing to enter, in their digital transformation. At the time the work was organised in three areas:
- Consulting: strategic guidance on the specifics of the Chinese market and tailored solutions for digital transformation.
- Strategy: helping companies understand the dynamics of the Chinese business landscape and improve their return on investment.
- Agency: putting digital strategies into practice to strengthen clients' presence and efficiency online.
Why ROI dominated the 2024 agenda
Raoult described a Chinese market that was contracting in 2024, and said return on investment had become the central topic in his conversations with CEOs. The focus was therefore on companies already present in China and on protecting what they had built.
- Support through difficult phases: helping companies during periods of cost control by deploying a team quickly to complement in-house staff.
- Tools and processes: putting in place tools and workflows suited to China's ecosystem, to raise efficiency and return on investment.
A separate digital ecosystem
China's digital ecosystem sits behind the Great Firewall and runs on its own platforms. Raoult's point was that tools that work in Europe do not transfer directly: Google gives way to Baidu, Instagram to Xiaohongshu (RED), and the same holds for messaging, video and e-commerce.
Doing well there takes a detailed understanding of each platform. He noted that European brands, and French brands in particular, often need guidance through these differences.
Two legal frameworks: GDPR and PIPL
Data regulation was the other theme. Europe works under the GDPR and China under the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL). A global digital strategy has to respect both, so European headquarters and Chinese teams need a shared understanding of what each framework requires.
In the video, Raoult presented cross-cultural advisory as the bridge between the two: helping French and Chinese teams align tools, platforms and compliance into one coherent strategy.
What has changed since 2024?
The core message still holds: China needs its own digital approach, and budgets have to show a return. Two things have moved since the video. AI assistants such as DeepSeek, Doubao and Qwen now shape how people search for and compare brands, adding a new layer to the ecosystem Raoult described. Xiaohongshu has also grown into a key search surface, not only a social platform.
Dékuple China's services have developed with these changes, including generative engine optimization (GEO) for visibility in AI answers. The China team is led by Cyril Nawawi, General Manager, China.
Key Data & Sources
| Data | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Benoît Raoult, video presentation of Dékuple China (2024) | Video, 2024 | https://6834626.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6834626/Qui%20sommes-nous%20Dekuple%20China.mp4 |
FAQ
Who is Benoît Raoult?
Benoît Raoult is a co-founder of Dékuple China and spoke in that role in the 2024 video summarised here. He is now Dékuple's Global Business Director.
Why does PIPL matter for European brands in China?
PIPL is China's Personal Information Protection Law. Brands that collect customer data in China must comply with it as well as with the GDPR in Europe, which affects CRM, data transfers and the tools teams can use.
Is the 2024 advice still relevant?
The main points are: focus on ROI, adapt tools to China's ecosystem and handle GDPR and PIPL together. They still apply. The ecosystem has since added AI assistants and Xiaohongshu search as important places where brands are discovered.