Sailing Global: HI-COM at MCN Shanghai

Last week, the 2025 Shanghai International MCN Conference was held in Shanghai. As a leading multilingual communication company, HI-COM Asia was honored to participate in this grand event. The conference, themed “Unbounded Vision: Elevating the Live Streaming Economy with a Global Perspective”, gathered numerous industry leaders and experts to explore the development of the digital advertising industry and the opportunities and challenges faced by Chinese enterprises in their global expansion.

Keynote Speeches: Alibaba International Station’s General Manager for East China, Hou Ye, shared insights on how AI empowers the development of cross-border e-commerce. Against the backdrop of accelerated global trade restructuring and profound digital technological changes, he emphasized leveraging AI intelligence to achieve “wave-breaking” in going global. For instance, Alibaba International Station’s “AI Business Assistant” has significantly reduced the threshold for cross-border e-commerce and attracted over 100,000 small and medium-sized enterprises.

Content Ecosystem Development: Ma Baoyun, the person in charge of JD Retail’s content ecosystem growth and commercialization, focused on the strategies for breaking through content ecosystems. He explored how to enhance the scale and efficiency of the marketing ecosystem by transforming roles, building new platforms, and other dimensions. This highlights the growing importance of content ecosystems in driving e-commerce development and provides valuable references for enterprises going global to enhance their brand influence through content marketing.

Alibaba International Station: As a leading B2B platform in China, it provides a suite of intelligent tools such as the “AI Business Assistant” and the AI search engine “Accio” for overseas buyers. These tools help sellers acquire new traffic and orders. Its marketing strategies primarily focus on leveraging AI technology to provide precise matching between buyers and sellers, improving transaction efficiency, and offering services like online storefront decoration, product display, and customer acquisition for enterprises.

JD.com: JD.com is one of China’s major e-commerce platforms, emphasizing the construction of a content ecosystem. Through high-quality product recommendations, live streaming, and other content formats, it attracts consumers and enhances user engagement and brand loyalty. It also provides various advertising formats, such as showcase advertising and keyword advertising, to help enterprises increase brand exposure and product sales.

Douyin (TikTok China): As China’s leading short video platform with over 700 million monthly active users, its algorithm recommendation mechanism enables content to spread widely. Users can showcase creativity through 15-second to 1-minute short videos and gain significant attention. The platform’s short video and live streaming features offer unique marketing opportunities for brands, particularly in interactivity and entertainment. Advertising strategies on Douyin include branded challenges, stickers, and creative ads, allowing brands to leverage the platform’s traffic for promotion.

WeChat: As a super app with a vast user base, WeChat provides multiple marketing entry points, such as official accounts, mini-programs, and Moments. Brands can publish high-quality content through official accounts to attract followers and build brand awareness. Mini-programs enable businesses to create their own online stores for selling products and services. Social advertising in Moments allows for precise targeting of ads based on users’ demographics, interests, and other factors, helping enterprises achieve effective brand promotion and user acquisition.

Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu): Primarily targeting young female users, Little Red Book is highly popular among beauty, fashion, travel, and lifestyle brands. Its marketing strategies focus on KOL collaborations and user-generated content (UGC). Brands can partner with platform KOLs for product reviews and sharing to leverage their influence and build trust. UGC encourages users to share product experiences, creating natural word-of-mouth传播 and further enhancing brand credibility and interaction.

Google Ads: Based on a bidding ranking system, advertisers compete for positions in search results by bidding and ensuring ad quality. It offers a wide range of ad formats, including search ads, display ads, video ads, and app ads. Advertisers can precisely target audiences based on keywords, locations, and demographics. Google Ads covers a vast global audience, with ads appearing on Google Search and YouTube, making it one of the most effective overseas advertising platforms for businesses to increase brand exposure and drive traffic.

Facebook Ads: Facebook, the world’s largest social media platform, boasts billions of monthly active users. Its advertising platform allows for precise targeting based on users’ gender, age, interests, and more. Ad formats include image ads, video ads, and carousel ads. Facebook Ads enable businesses to effectively reach target audiences and boost brand awareness and product sales. Additionally, Facebook’s audience network extends ads to Instagram and other platforms, maximizing reach and impact.

Instagram Ads: As a visually driven social platform under Facebook, Instagram is ideal for fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands. Its unique “friend circle-style” ad experience allows brands to showcase stories in a natural and engaging way. Ad formats include image ads and video ads, which leverage precise targeting and interest-based tags to enhance brand recognition and user engagement. With a high proportion of young, high purchasing-power users, Instagram Ads are highly effective for brands targeting this demographic.

YouTube Ads: As the world’s largest video-sharing platform, YouTube attracts hundreds of millions of daily users. Through YouTube Ads, businesses can create compelling video content to capture potential customers’ attention. Ad formats include TrueView In-stream ads, Pre-Roll ads, and Bumper ads. By utilizing YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, businesses can expand content reach and increase brand exposure. YouTube Ads are particularly suitable for product launches, brand storytelling, and tutorial videos, helping businesses build deeper connections with users.

TikTok Ads: TikTok, a globally popular short video platform, attracts a large young user base with its unique algorithm and creative content. Ad formats include in-feed ads, branded challenges, and TOPVIEW ads. In-feed ads seamlessly integrate with user content for native promotion; branded challenges encourage user participation to boost brand interaction; and TOPVIEW ads offer exclusive ad placements for maximum visibility. TikTok Ads help businesses quickly gain user attention and enhance brand popularity.

Cultural Differences: Differences in values, social norms, and aesthetic preferences across countries can lead to misunderstandings or lack of acceptance of advertising content. For instance, ads emphasizing individualism and personal achievement may resonate more in Western countries, while ads focusing on family and group values may better suit some Asian cultures.

Language Barriers: Language is a significant hurdle for Chinese enterprises going global. Inaccurate translations or misinterpretations of advertising copy can result in communication gaps or distorted messaging. For example, Chinese idioms and colloquial expressions may lose their original meaning or cultural essence when translated into other languages.

Learn more about cultural do’s and don’ts in this article.

Legal and Regulatory Differences: Each country has its own advertising laws and regulations. Chinese enterprises may inadvertently violate local laws due to unfamiliarity, leading to legal risks and financial losses. For example, some countries have strict rules on advertising claims and evidence, while others impose specific requirements on ad placements and formats.

HI-COM Asia‘s Global Platform Strategies

HI-COM Asia, with extensive experience and expertise in cross-border marketing, adopts diverse strategies to help Chinese enterprises overcome language and cultural barriers and achieve successful global expansion.

In-Depth Research on Target Markets: Our professional team conducts thorough research on the cultural, social, and consumer behavior characteristics of target markets. This enables us to develop tailored marketing strategies that align with local market demands. For example, we adjust advertising content and formats based on cultural differences in different countries to enhance ad relevance and appeal. Read more about it here.

Leveraging AI Technology: We utilize advanced AI tools and data analysis platforms to gain precise insights into overseas market trends and consumer needs. This helps us deliver personalized advertising experiences for global users. By collaborating with platforms like Alibaba International Station, we integrate AI technology into our marketing strategies to improve campaign efficiency and effectiveness.

Building a Global Media Resource Network: HI-COM Asia has established partnerships with major overseas media platforms, such as Google and Facebook. This allows us to provide one-stop cross-border marketing solutions for Chinese enterprises, including ad placement, content creation, and brand promotion. Our media resource network ensures maximum brand exposure and marketing impact in global markets.

In the journey of Chinese enterprises going global, HI-COM Asia will continue to play a pivotal role as a professional advertising partner. By leveraging AI technology and our global media resource network, and by deeply understanding cultural differences, we will help enterprises navigate language and cultural barriers. Our goal is to enable Chinese enterprises to shine on the global stage and achieve cross-border success.

Reach out to discuss more!