Group-centric community marketing experiments were popularized in China in 2019. Around that time, China’s online population growth was hitting a natural ceiling with 1 billion people online, or about 70% of the country. Meanwhile, Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu had each captured more than 90% of existing internet users. As room for user growth start... See more

Tencent, Bilibili, and Kuaishou all rely heavily on “value-added services”—things like micropayments and subscriptions and virtual currencies. More Western companies will turn to VAS, particularly if Apple and Google reduce the 30% tax they take on every digital economy. Already, Discord and Clubhouse have eschewed ads and Facebook, Snap, and... See more