Social apps are blowing "Chinese style" overseas! Tapping into the Huge Overseas Incremental Space

With the acceleration of globalization, China's application software continues to go to the international market. Use TikTok to swipe short videos, Bigo Live to watch live broadcasts, StarMaker to sing ...... Mobile applications (APPs) from China have created a digital "Chinese style".

According to data.ai, global spending on social apps has tripled over the four-year period 2019-2022, and the amount of consumer spending on short videos, social dating, and video sharing is still on the rise. In order to help overseas enterprises seize the new wind mouth of pan-entertainment social overseas, Flat Ads recently linked with Huawei Cloud and Instant Construct to organize a salon event in Shenzhen, which triggered the whole scene.

Flat Ads VP Wang Ruocze brought the topic of "New Path of Overseas Customer Acquisition for Pan-Entertainment Social APP" on the spot, and gave insights into the broad prospect and customer acquisition strategy of Pan-Entertainment Social APP with intuitive data and industry experience. The following is a summary of the dry goods organized by the editorial team.

01

Trend of China's Pan-Entertainment Social Apps Going Overseas

As a provider of products and services, Chinese enterprises are considered strong players in almost all overseas markets, especially the pan-entertainment social APPs that are constantly iterated and optimized under the rapid development of the domestic Internet.At present, Chinese developers have started the craze of live broadcasting overseas, short video overseas, game social overseas, 1V1 video overseas, and audio social overseas around the innovation of social pan-entertainment.

In 2023, going overseas has basically become a mandatory option for many Internet enterprises. The domestic social product market is gradually saturated, but enterprises still have a strong brand advantage and cultural soft power, and can realize innovation for the overseas market, with huge potential for overseas technology. At the same time, the domestic application payment consciousness compared to Europe and the United States, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and other regions is relatively weak, APP cash effect is poor, turn to overseas can get more users and business growth opportunities.

So why has the social track become a new wind port for overseas? Because the social needs of human beings are the underlying needs of human nature, and the essential demands of billions of users around the world for social entertainment have given rise to unlimited commercial possibilities. Especially in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and other emerging markets, its digital entertainment industry has been developing rapidly in recent years, and the restrictions of the Muslim culture have also made the online social interaction of some of the people in the region a necessity.

02

Analysis of Key Markets for Social APP Going Overseas

It is the right time to enter such a hot overseas wind mouth. According to market research firm Grand View Research, the global market size of social apps still maintains a rapid expansion trend, and it is expected that by 2030, the global market size will exceed $310 billion (about 2 trillion yuan).

However, compared with developed markets, emerging markets, where there is more incremental space, are more suitable for China's social apps to enter and seek development. Because the population penetration rate of social networks in developed markets such as Europe and North America has already reached 70%-80%, the degree of coverage is high, and the room for growth is limited.

On the contrary, in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Central and West Asia, Africa and other emerging markets, the penetration rate of social networks is relatively low; and from the point of view of the number of users, within five years, the number of social network users in the two Indies, Vietnam, Nigeria and other countries is expected to increase dramatically, and the growth rate has reached a higher level, so there is a greater space for incremental growth.

According to the statistics of Sensor Tower, at present, the popular social APPs of Yalla, Bigo live and other overseas enterprises are focusing on the layout of Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as the Middle East, such as Pakistan and Turkey, and India.

Let's first look at Southeast Asia, in the demographic dividend period, the user structure is relatively young, the total population of the region is about 690 million people, the population growth rate is more than the world's average, and the demographic dividend is characterized by obvious features, which is usually the first choice for Chinese enterprises to go overseas.

It is worth mentioning that the proportion of young adults (16-65 years old) in key countries in Southeast Asia is more than 70%, and the proportion of people under 35 years old is more than 35%, with a youthful demographic structure and a strong demand for pan-entertainment and socialization. Meanwhile, due to the existence of multiple religions in Southeast Asia, Thailand and the Philippines have a more open social atmosphere, while more than 80% of Indonesia's population is Muslim, the world's largest number of Muslim countries.

Therefore, interactive social games such as Monopoly and Werewolf Killing are popular among Thai and Filipino people, while voice socialization is more popular in Indonesia due to the inconvenience of direct video interaction. Therefore, the APP should also differentiate its strategy for different country markets.

As we all know, the Middle East and North Africa region has a rich and diverse culture and historical traditions, a total of 24 countries, the population is mainly concentrated in North Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria, as well as Saudi Arabia in the Middle East. In recent years, the Internet social networking industry has shown a strong growth trend, full of huge business opportunities. Among them, Saudi Arabia not only has a large number of young people, but also has "money and leisure". Because of its strong economic strength, Saudi Arabia's infrastructure is relatively well-equipped, and data reports show that its Internet penetration rate is as high as 98%.

Under the influence of Muslim culture, Saudi Arabia's laws are very strict on entertainment content, and only in 2018 did it open the country's first movie theater. The lack of entertainment resources and a relatively young demographic have created the current Saudi Arabian market: consumers have a strong demand for entertainment, but policies, cultural.