Banned in China but Instagram the key to reaching its big spenders (2024)

On paper, Instagram should be a nonentity in China – as popular as Donald Trump or cheese in a can.

Not only is the social media platform banned by the Chinese government, but Chinese platforms have proliferated in the vacuum created by the shutdown of most American-owned social media sites in the country, gaining millions of followers by bringing together all the best attributes of Silicon Valley but for a local audience.

This is why many international brands understandably fail to market their wares to Chinese customers on Instagram, choosing instead to work with KOLs (key opinion leaders) on Chinese platforms such as Weibo, WeChat or Little Red Book.

But what sounds logical could be a major mistake, as Instagram has risen to prominence in the last few years to become one of the best marketing tools in China, with a waiting audience consisting of some of the richest, most sophisticated customers in the country.

“Most international brands tend to isolate China as an independent ecosystem due to the Great Firewall,” explains Charlie Gu, a marketing consultant based between Shanghai and San Francisco, referring to China’s online censorship system. “But Chinese consumers are more mobile and more global than many brands realise. Despite being restricted in China, Instagram still has approximately 4 million monthly active users from the mainland – and as a result, I really believe Instagram is a missed opportunity for many Western brands.”

While that might sound a lot, it is nothing compared to the over 200 million daily active users Weibo has. However, Instagram is favoured by a significantly richer section of society, with much more disposable income to spend on luxury goods than many other people on the planet. In fact, they are the exact target market Europe’s high-end brands need to be appealing to – and failing to do so is like giving away a golden goose.

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“Chinese users on Instagram tend to be more tech-savvy, more sophisticated and have a better command of English than those on Weibo or Little Red Book,” Gu says. “Many of them take pride in their eclectic taste. Because Instagram is banned in China, it is almost perceived as a ‘forbidden fruit’ – inaccessible and yet enticing.

“There is a bias among young Chinese elites that content posted on Instagram is just more visually appealing than anything on Chinese social media sites. There is even a term coined specifically to describe the more subdued and yet sophisticated aesthetic: Instagram Style.”

Users have usually learned about “Instagram Style” in real life and on screen by travelling abroad. This means they are well off enough to either travel extensively or live and study overseas – suggesting a high disposable income.

“These are seriously desirable customers we’re talking about here,” says Melody Yeh, a marketing director at Emerging Communications, a London-based intelligence firm specialising in Chinese retail. “Chinese students abroad almost always have big spending power – international fees cost a lot, so to be able to come to the UK, for example, to study, they need wealthy families.

“We’ve calculated that the annual disposable income of Chinese students in the UK is £28,236 [US$37,500]. We’re not talking about accommodation or fees or bills here, just personal spending on goods.”

Gu agrees that whether they are at home or abroad, these users often represent some of the wealthiest people in the world. He adds that Chinese students abroad are early adopters and “mini ambassadors” for Instagram in China. “Many Chinese students end up being Instagram influencers among their community and most Chinese students living overseas use Instagram more frequently than Chinese platforms.”

But while brands like Aspinal of London have learned how to target Chinese Instagram users when they are on European turf, many of them fail to continue marketing to them once they return home. Studies suggest that most students keep their accounts, no matter whether they live in China again or not, suggesting brands are letting an opportunity slip.

“This group of consumers doesn’t mind the extra steps to see content on the platform,” Gu says, referring to the VPNs needed to view the content in China, which can make images upload more slowly. “The key [for brands] is to partner with the right influencers and content creators who are popular among this demographic on the site.”

Instagram doesn’t release any figures about use in China – VPNs allow users to set their location anywhere in the world, so any data it has would be unreliable anyway – which makes it difficult for Western brands to build coherent marketing plans, or justify pouring money into working with KOLs on the platform. This is why brands need to get teams on the ground who understand which content to push when – and how to create Instagram-friendly campaigns that will appeal to a local market.

“If you want to reach China’s sophisticated elite, Instagram is a gold mine,” Gu says. And in a year where luxury brands have struggled to keep their heads above water in Europe, this should be like music to their ears.