The Best Social Platform Alternatives to WeChat for B2B Marketing in China
Most B2B marketers know of China’s behemoth user engagement potential across its social media space, but many are still unfamiliar with which local platforms to target besides WeChat.
And you can’t blame them—after all, WeChat is China’s most popular social app, with over 1.3 billion active users and all-in-one functionality making it a staple of daily life in the country. It’s no wonder why the app is such a critical promotion tool for Chinese brands across myriad industries.
However, the B2B marketing landscape in China is evolving rapidly.
According to a 2024 research report by Kawo, platforms once considered unfit for B2B are now gaining significant traction among B2B companies. Notably, Douyin has emerged as the third most used social network among surveyed multinational corporations, following only WeChat and WeChat Channels.
This shift reflects a fundamental change in B2B buying behavior. According to a report by B2B International, millennials are now well-embedded as decision-makers across companies, and even where they’re not primary decision-makers, firms regularly seek their input as users. This generation stands out for their preference for self-directed research during the early stages of the buying journey, relying heavily on easily accessible information for evaluation. For forward-thinking B2B brands, this presents a strategic opportunity: by building relationships with younger decision-makers early in their careers, they can shape the preferences of tomorrow’s senior buyers.
In response to these changing dynamics, alternative social platforms have emerged that befit—if not better suit—the needs, interests, and use cases of niche B2B audience segments. For brands looking to reach these users effectively, it’s essential to understand the features, target audiences, and content styles of these platforms to determine their suitability.
In this article, discover five alternative social platforms to WeChat that are worth including in your B2B marketing strategy to maximize reach in China:
- XiaoHongShu (rednote, XHS, RED) – Where authenticity meets influence
- Bilibili – The hub of in-depth content and youth culture
- Douyin – Short-form video powerhouse
- Zhihu – Authority building through knowledge sharing
- Maimai – Professional networking reimagined
Here’s a sneak peek of companies that are already making use of these platforms.
1. Xiaohongshu (小红书)
XiaoHongShu (小红书), also known as “rednote”, “Little Red Book” and “RED”, is a social media and lifestyle-sharing platform that includes a wide range of consumer experiences and lifestyle content.
Often compared to Instagram, its user base primarily consists of well-educated individuals who prioritize product quality, healthy living, and sustainability. These users value individuality and self-expression, eagerly showcasing their unique lifestyle on the platform, with 20% comprising white-collar and blue-collar professionals.
Recognizing this sophisticated user demographic, an increasing number of B2B brands have established their presence on XHS.
Notable examples include Thermo Fisher Scientific (life sciences and clinical research), DingTalk (enterprise office systems) with over 800,000 followers, and Schneider Electric (digital automation and energy management).
XHS’s User Demographics
Why should you do B2B marketing on Xiaohongshu?
The growth of social media has transformed how brands reach and engage with their audiences, encouraging them to break away from traditional industry models and embrace new technologies.
As brands seek more authentic connections with users, XHS has emerged as an ideal platform for engaging with and building reputation in the Chinese market.
Here are more benefits of doing B2B marketing on Xiaohongshu:
- Community Engagement: Xiaohongshu users interact frequently within interest-based communities, allowing B2B companies to build stronger connections with target customers through active participation in discussions and topic-driven interactions. This engagement naturally increases brand influence and recognition among key audience segments.
- Smart Content Distribution: Xiaohongshu’s algorithm recommends relevant content to users based on their interests and behavioral habits. B2B businesses can maximize visibility among target customers by creating high-quality, relevant content optimized for the platform’s distribution system.
- Organic Word-of-Mouth Growth: When B2B content resonates with users, it benefits from the platform’s natural sharing culture. Users actively spread valuable content within their networks, creating powerful word-of-mouth momentum that enhances brand reach and credibility.
- Distinctive Brand Storytelling: XiaoHongShu encourages authentic brand expression, enabling B2B companies to showcase their unique story, culture, and innovations. This opportunity for differentiation helps brands stand out from competitors and capture target audience attention.
How to do B2B Marketing on Xiaohongshu?
Established brands can build their presence on XHS by creating and managing official brand accounts.
Unlike WeChat and official corporate websites, brand communication on XHS requires a distinct approach that differs from traditional channels. Content should be more engaging and authentic, featuring conversational copy with emojis, valuable insights, and visually appealing content that resonates with the XHS community
For brands new to the Chinese market, it’s helpful to start by collaborating with KOCs (Key Opinion Consumer)/KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) to generate more posts endorsing your brand locally. Additionally, participating in local offline events creates a dynamic engagement loop, encouraging users to interact with the brand across both digital and physical touchpoints.
Best practices for successful B2B marketing on Xiaohongshu include:
- Developing original and engaging video or graphic content to showcase your industry expertise
- Engaging in XHS hashtag topic campaigns to gain access to the platform’s recommendation algorithm on users’ discover pages.
- Interacting with users through the official account by replying to comments, liking user-generated brand-related notes and offering valuable resources to the followers.
- Ensuring content does not contain advertising or prohibited words that may limit content visibility.
Example:
Thermo Fisher Scientific’s XHS account launched an incentive hashtag campaign #我与赛默飞的故事 (#mystorieswithThermoFisher) that targeted their clients. The campaign aimed to build deeper relationships with clients while promoting brand reputation.
Thermo Fisher Scientific’s XHS Campaign: #我与赛默飞的故事 (#mystorieswithThermoFisher)
Share your work stories with Thermo Fisher Scientific and post on XHS to obtain a customized gift. Topics could include: 1. How Thermo Fisher Scientific impacted your experiment or work, 2. Extraordinary experiences with Thermo Fisher Scientific, 3. Unforgettable experiences working with Thermo Fisher Scientific
2. Bilibili (哔哩哔哩)
Bilibili is China’s premier youth culture and video platform, distinguished by its unique danmaku* culture and comprehensive content ecosystem. The platform’s foundation rests on PUGC (Professional User-Generated Content) videos, which deliver more in-depth content compared to short-form videos and require greater creative investment.
What sets Bilibili apart is its vibrant community dynamics, featuring high user interaction rates and the distinctive danmaku culture that encourages active participation. The platform has evolved beyond video-sharing to become a diverse community hub, encompassing animation, gaming, music, dance, technology, lifestyle, and various other interests.
The platform’s user base primarily consists of well-educated Generation Z users, characterized by strong purchasing power and enthusiasm for new experiences
Recognizing this valuable demographic, leading B2B brands such as Siemens (Industrial Technology), ABB Robotics (Industrial Technology), and LianLian Global (FinTech) have established significant presences on the platform, sharing technical tutorials and industry insights.
* Danmaku: Danmaku, or “bullet comments,” is a feature in East Asian video-sharing platforms allowing viewers to post comments that appear over the video in real-time, enhancing viewer interaction. It creates a communal watching experience where viewers can engage with both the content and each other simultaneously.
A screenshot showing the danmaku feature which allows users to leave real-time comments that slide across the top of the video.
Bilibili’s User Demographics
Bilibili homepage (PC)
Why should you do B2B marketing on Bilibili?
Bilibili’s user base consists of young professionals with strong brand loyalty and purchasing power, offering B2B companies a chance to connect with emerging decision-makers.
The platform’s creative nature allows companies to demonstrate their expertise while building a more contemporary and approachable brand image.
Beyond content creation, Bilibili’s format enables meaningful engagement that drives user stickiness. Regular interaction and quality content help build genuine connections with potential customers, fostering long-term business relationships.
Benefits of B2B Marketing on Bilibili
- Showcase Complex Products Through Video Content: B2B products and technologies often require detailed explanation that traditional text and images can’t fully capture. Bilibili’s video platform enables companies to demonstrate features and advantages through dynamic demonstrations, real operations, and case studies. For instance, an enterprise software company can create videos showing interface navigation, data analysis capabilities, and business optimization processes – helping potential customers better understand the product’s value in action.
- B2B companies can precisely reach user groups interested in their specific industry or field. Take an industrial automation equipment company for example – on Bilibili, they can connect with young engineers, technicians, and business owners who follow technology, machinery, and innovation content by presenting content that aligns with their interest.
- Gather Real-Time User Feedback: Leverage the “danmaku” feature to gain insights into user perspectives, questions, and preferences.
How to do B2B Marketing on Bilibili?
Bilibili offers various content formats including videos, livestreams, images, and text. B2B companies can select formats based on their specific needs and audience preferences. For instance, use detailed videos to showcase product applications and operations, or conduct real-time Q&A sessions through livestreams to engage directly with users.
Bilibili users are drawn to creative and entertaining content. Even for B2B companies, it’s essential to present technical information in an engaging way. For example, transform traditional product introductions into storytelling formats, or use animated content to illustrate product features in a more approachable manner.
Best practices for successful B2B marketing on Bilibili include:
- Maintain High Content Quality: Maintain high content quality and professionalism in your videos, especially when demonstrating technical features or providing detailed product interpretations. Low-quality or irrelevant content can negatively impact your brand image.
- Collaborate with Content Creators: B2B brands can partner with KOCs/KOLs on the platform to create promotional content that resonates with Bilibili’s audience.
Example
Siemens China launched a series of original content on their BiliBili channel, creating office culture videos, engineering lessons, and technical product tutorials in both short and long formats. Their content strategy targeted Bilibili’s Gen Z audience, who showed strong interest in animation, education, and technology.
Siemens China’s BiliBili Video Series
3. Douyin (抖音)
Douyin, often described as the Chinese version of TikTok, is a short-form video platform that enables users to create and share daily life moments, creative content, and knowledge through videos ranging from 15 seconds to several minutes. Major brands like JLL, JD Enterprise Purchase, and ZTE have successfully leveraged this platform to showcase their corporate culture, technological innovations and industry insights.
The platform’s sophisticated recommendation algorithm ensures content reaches the right audience by accurately matching videos with interested users, significantly enhancing content visibility and improving overall reach.
Douyin’s User Demographics
Douyin interface (PC)
Why should you do B2B marketing on Douyin?
Douyin’s massive user base and effective recommendation algorithm provide B2B brands with immense exposure opportunities. By publishing high-quality short video content, brands can quickly increase their visibility and attract potential customers, breaking through traditional marketing’s geographical and industry limitations to expand their influence across wider markets.
Here are more benefits of doing B2B marketing on Douyin:
- Rapidly increase brand awareness: Due to the huge user base on Douyin, the dissemination of Douyin short vides is wider than other platforms and can quickly increase brand exposure.
- Direct visual display: Douyin’s short video format is highly engaging and effectively showcases a product’s features, benefits, and usage scenarios intuitively
How to do B2B Marketing on Douyin？
- Focus on Short-Form Videos: Short videos are the heart of Douyin. Create concise, creative videos such as product demos, customer case studies, or quick industry insights that engage viewers while highlighting your brand’s features, benefits and value.
- Embrace Storytelling: Unlike traditional marketing approaches, Douyin content works best when it tells a story, creating stronger emotional connections with viewers. Connect with your audience by sharing brand stories, customer experiences, and employee narratives.
- Add Fun and Creativity: Douyin users love entertaining and creative content. Present your professional content in engaging formats like animated videos, situational comedies, or creative demonstrations. This approach helps attract attention and encourages users to share your content.
Best practices for successful B2B marketing on Douyin include:
- Focus on Visual Quality: Douyin users have high expectations for visual content. Make sure your videos feature high-quality visuals, seamless editing, and appropriate special effects to meet user expectation. The better your content looks, the more likely it is to engage viewers.
- Prioritize User Interaction: Douyin’s comment section and direct messaging features are key to building relationships. Actively engage with users by responding to comments and messages. Remember, Douyin offers higher user engagement compared to other platforms, so make the most of these interactive opportunities.
- Stay Current and Timely: Content moves quickly on Douyin, and users are always looking for what’s new. Keep your content fresh by sharing the latest industry trends, product updates, and market activities promptly. Regular, timely updates help maintain audience interest and engagement.
Example:
JLL focused on building individual professional IPs for their consultants on their Douyin account, helping users connect more personally with experts. With this approach, consultants gained more trust and likes from users, benefiting both consultant credibility and brand reputation.
JLL Douyin Account: Consultant-Focused Videos
4. Zhihu (知乎)
Launched in 2011, Zhihu (meaning “do you know”) is China’s largest Q&A platform—and its equivalent of Quora—where you can post questions that other users can answer or form into a discussion.
As of Q2 2024, it has over 81.1 million monthly active users (MAU), primarily composed of mature individuals between 18 to 40 years old with medium to high incomes.
As such, Zhihu is one of China’s most credible, expert-led social networks, whose users have high search intent for well-informed content and insights from industry experts for various topics.
This stands in stark contrast to WeChat’s private domain channels—including official accounts, group chats, and WeChat Moments—where followers are typically existing customers without active search intent. By comparison, Zhihu allows companies such as Huawei, NVIDIA, and 3M to engage users who are actively seeking information about their products and services.
Zhihu’s results page for queries related to search term: “International schools”
Zhihu’s User Demographics
Why should you do B2B marketing on Zhihu?
Zhihu’s unique positioning as a knowledge-sharing platform poses several potential benefits for B2B brands.
For one, brands can better target niche audiences on Zhihu based on their query-based intent and deliver content tailored to their search needs.
Due to the longer average engagement time of interested users, longer-form content, in particular, tends to perform better on Zhihu.
At the same time, there is the option for brands to actively answer user questions to build customer rapport and enhance their own credibility in their niche.
Here are more perks of doing B2B marketing on Zhihu:
- You can foster a loyal customer base with frequent and direct communication with your customers
- You can soft sell your products or services as you build better customer rapport
- You can increase the likelihood of your Zhihu content ranking higher on search results across search engines, like Baidu, and social platforms with in-built search, like WeChat Search. So, optimize your Zhihu content around keyword themes to maximize your reach.
An example of a top-ranking Zhihu result on Baidu’s (left) and WeChat Search’s (right) search results
How to do B2B Marketing on Zhihu?
To start posting content on Zhihu, you must register for a brand account—available only to businesses registered in China—and complete its signup and verification process.
You can begin posting once your account is verified, by which time ZhiPlus (知+) will also be available for you to apply for if you wish to run paid ad campaigns and promote posts.
PageGroup’s brand account page on Zhihu
However, note that brands from the finance/investment/trading, cosmetics/medical, franchising, and psychotherapy industries have restrictions imposed and are not permitted to post on Zhihu.
Best practices for successful B2B marketing on Zhihu include:
- Creating well-researched, educational content to showcase your industry expertise
- Actively engaging with users who have commented or reacted to your posts
- Encouraging users to ask more feedback questions to generate back-and-forth discussions that resonate with them
Example:
NVIDIA China’s Zhihu account actively engaged with users by answering their questions and initiating discussions. The account shared new ideas in a Twitter-like style, demonstrating the brand’s commitment to user connection and enhancing its reputation.
NVIDIA’s Zhihu account answered 539 questions, proposed 14 questions, and shared 755 ideas.
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5. Maimai (脉脉)
Maimai (脉脉) is China’s most used professional social networking site—more so than LinkedIn—and has now accumulated tens of millions of users since its founding in 2013.
There are 11 million companies registered, and 98% companies with over thousand employees covered. Its users are predominantly entrepreneurs, managers, and white-collar workers from the Internet, media, and finance industries, 49% of whom reside in first-tier Chinese cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
But unlike most professional networking platforms, MaiMai lets users comment anonymously in chat forums under aliases like “Employee of Alibaba” (after they’ve verified their employment status), which, in turn, can encourage higher user engagement. (e.g.) For example, employees from companies like Xiaomi, Tencent and TP-Link often share work experiences, fostering discussions that provide valuable perspectives for job seekers and industry professionals
Maimai’s User Demographics
Why should you do B2B marketing on Maimai?
Maimai business account provides brands with profile features like the ability to write company bios, post updates, communicate with users in a comments section, view follower analytics, and more. On the user engagement side, it lets brands post content across a range of formats (images, video, long-form content etc.), operate private channels like group chats, and target audiences with paid campaigns.
Hence, if your primary target audience is active on Maimai, it could be an ideal brand awareness tool to attract new customers.
Here are more benefits of doing B2B marketing on Maimai:
- You can run targeted lead-gen campaigns
- You can understand who your followers are based on their profiles
- You can filter your audience targeting by local region or city if you wish to concentrate your B2B marketing efforts by location
Tencent’s business account page on Maimai
How to do B2B Marketing on Maimai?
Best practices for successful B2B marketing on Maimai include:
- Engage with your employees with Maimai accounts to amplify your brand page and grow its following
- Regularly publishing high-quality posts to stay on top of your target customers’ minds
- Leveraging Maimai’s various media formats to appeal to all your ideal customers’ consumption preferences
Example:
TP-Link’s Maimai account showcased company culture with popular hashtag topics like #印象最深的一次年会 #你的公司有哪些别出心裁的团队建设活动 (#impressivecompanyannualmeeting and #unexpectedteambuilding), which can increase content exposure and brand awareness.
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To succeed with your B2B marketing in China hinges on being present on the right platforms where your target audience is most engaged and, in turn, optimizing your content for those platforms.
