Niche Influencer Categories on the Rise in China

There’s no doubt that people both in China and all around the world have been spending far more time at home than usual recently. Inevitably, that means people are spending more time with their phones. During this year’s Spring Festival celebrations in China, screentime was up by 26 percent compared with the figure for 2019, according to mobile big data platform Aurora Mobile Limited, we can also see from the DAU increase of top 10 apps in China. at the same time, there are some niche influencer categories that are on the rise.

No surprise, perhaps. But the circumstances of coronavirus-enforced quarantine is such that people have been spending their time at home—including screentime—very differently from normal. There have been improvised at-home substitutes for regular activities, and people have been learning new skills and streaming more entertainment to fill the long hours, days and weeks indoors.

Chinese people have been searching for mobile content that responds to the impulses of life under quarantine, and they’ve flocked to short video platforms like Douyin and Bilibili to find it. These explorations are fueling the meteoric rise of KOLs in a range of niche categories, including some that brands might have thought of as unlikely vehicles for reaching their target consumers. Let’s take a look at some of those niche influencer categories that are on the rise from China’s experience with coronavirus quarantine.