Deciphering Douyin users: who’s really using China’s TikTok sibling?

The huge growth of Douyin (TikTok’s China sibling) has led to an increasing number of advertisers using the platform to launch their marketing campaigns.

However, although Douyin has more than 809 million users, advertisers have to take the profile of these users into account to successfully reach their target audience and launch effective campaigns.

Age distribution

According to official data released by Douyin, the age distribution of the ByteDance-developed app’s users is relatively wide, mainly focusing on the 18-35 age group. Within this group, the proportion of users aged 18-24 is the highest, accounting for 35%; the proportion of users aged 25-30 is 27%, and the proportion of users aged 31-35 is about 16%.

The data shows that TikTok’s China sibling is most popular among those born in the 1990s and the first decade of this century, often referred to in China as the ‘post-90s’ and ‘post-00s’ generations. The Post-00s and Post-90s have a longer average daily usage time and high user stickiness. Compared to the Post-90s, the Post-00s are more prominent as “digital natives”, with 173 hours of monthly per capita use of the internet, much more than the 159 hours of the overall population in China, and with a higher activity rate throughout the day than the overall user base, with 30.9% of the user base still active after midnight. Furthermore, some younger individuals only use Douyin when it comes to entertainment, rejecting rivals such as Xiaohongshu.

If your target audience is a young consumer group such as Generation Z or Millennials, Douyin could be a highly useful vehicle for your marketing.

Gender

The male-to-female ratio of Douyin users is about 4:6, which is a significant increase in the proportion of male users compared to the previous 3:7. But there are still more female active users. Beauty and other industries mainly targeting female users tend to put a lot of resources into marketing Douyin for this reason.

Geographical distribution

Douyin users are mainly concentrated in first and second-tier cities in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Among them, Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou have the highest proportion of users compared to other first and second-tier cities in China, with 7.9%, 6.7%, and 6.3% respectively.

Crowd classification

Douyin categorizes its users into eight strategic groups according to their city level, age, consumption power, life stage, and other indicators: Gen-Z, refined mothers, new white-collar workers, urban blue-collar workers, small-town youths, senior middle-class, urban silver-haired people, and middle-aged/old people in small towns.

Generation Z: Generation Z refers to the new generation of young people born into a world of online technology, mainly in third-tier cities and above. China’s Generation Z has been brought up in a world vastly different from that of their parents and grandparents and has a more confident culture, which allows them to pursue higher spiritual needs such as socialization, respect, and self fulfillment. China’s Gen-Z internet population is around 342 million.

Delicate Moms: Compared with the previous generation of mothers, new generations of mothers have unique values and self-consciousness. In addition to meeting their children’s developmental needs, they also pay attention to their children’s education at an early age. Living fast-paced urban lives, they are more enthusiastic about online shopping, attaching particular importance to the health and safety of products, and are also very inclined to buy high-quality milk powder and complementary food products originating from overseas. Their online consumption power is very strong, and in addition to buying just-demanding products on big FMCG platforms more frequently, they are also very concerned about new products with high value and convenience.

New white-collar: Mainly refers to the high-income group aged 25-35, living in first- and second-tier cities, with a young mindset, financial independence, and strong consumption ability. Different from the previous generation, new white collars are more willing to try new things, pay attention to product quality, have higher acceptance of new brands, and love to pay for self-improvement. They are the main force in the consumption of fitness and knowledge products.

Urban blue-collar: More than 50% of urban blue-collar workers are aged 31-40, and more than 70% of them have children. The consumption concept of this generation of blue-collar workers has changed drastically compared to their forebears. They pursue high-frequency and high-quality shopping experiences, pay attention to the quality of goods, and are willing to pay for a high-quality state of life, having a greater demand for non-rigid material goods such as sculpture ornaments, fine dining, and medical beauty and skincare.

Small-town youths: This group mainly resides in fourth-tier cities and is aged 24-40 years old. Small-town youths do not have a high consumption level, but are good at online shopping, keen on promotions, and focus on quality. Small-town youths prefer health care and pets, and they are incredibly fond of cost-effective goods.

Small-town middle-aged and elderly people: This mainly refers to middle-aged and elderly users living in fourth-tier cities; their consumption habits are more arbitrary, and often focus on cost-effectiveness. They attach importance to socializing with acquaintances and have high social needs.

Senior middle class: This group is focused on 35-50 year olds living in third-tier cities and above. The senior middle class has a high consumption level, focuses on quality experience, and pursues luxury.

Silver-haired people: The silver-haired people in urban areas have sufficient income such as a pension. They represent the “second spring of Internet consumption”. According to CNNIC data, those over 50 accounted for 26.3% of the total number of Internet users in Dec. 2020. These users are more inclined to new ways of spending their retirement, taking after the lifestyle of silver-haired influencers on China’s answer to TikTok, and are willing to boldly try new things. They are enthusiastic about novelty products and trying trendy tools, such as using live streaming to talk with young people.

Conclusion

The users of Douyin are mainly young women in first- and second-tier cities. The male user segment is growing fast, however, and the ratio of male and female users on the app is likely to become more balanced in the coming years. In addition, although the proportion of people under 35 years old accounts for nearly 75% of users, the middle-aged and older-aged group is still an indispensable part of the platform that can not be ignored. With a high consumption level, strong consumption ability, and increasing use of the Internet, these groups have great potential.

The wide array of categories and content found on China’s TikTok sibling means that it is important to have precise positioning and targeted content for any marketing strategy. But for those who get it right and who understand the platform’s vast user base, the pay-off could be enormous.

This article was provided to TechNode by Xiaoyan Chen, founder of RougeLink, an agency offering high-performance e-commerce tactics based on data-driven technologies and livestreaming.