How To Promote A Destination Using Chinese Short-Video Platforms

In China, short video is not a trend anymore. It’s the main media. Chinese people spend more than 60 minutes a day on video apps. For tourism brands that want to reach Chinese travelers, this is where the decisions get made.

Short-Video Platforms in China: Full List

Short-video platforms each serve different audiences and purposes. Knowing the differences matters before you spend a single yuan on content.

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Key Market Data (2024-2026)

• Douyin has over 700 million daily active users in 2025, making it the largest short-video platform in China (Statista).
• 94% of Chinese social media users watch video content on apps; 62% watch live-streaming.
• Travel is consistently one of Douyin’s top content categories by engagement and ad spend.
• Xiaohongshu crossed 300 million registered users in 2024, with travel content among its highest-performing verticals (Jing Daily).

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1. Douyin (TikTok in China)

• Daily Active Users: Over 700 million.
• User Demographics: Primarily Gen Z and millennials (ages 16-35), but growing across all age groups.
• Content Focus: Entertainment, challenges, lifestyle, travel, and e-commerce.

2. Kuaishou

• Daily Active Users: Over 350 million.
• User Demographics: Broad base, strong in smaller cities and rural areas (ages 18-45).
• Content Focus: Authentic, community-driven content, live streaming.

3. Bilibili

• Daily Active Users: Over 80 million.
• User Demographics: Gen Z (15-30), strong in gaming, anime, and pop culture.
• Content Focus: Long and short-form video, user-generated content.

4. Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book)

• Daily Active Users: Over 50 million.
• User Demographics: Predominantly female (18-35), urban, middle to upper income.
• Content Focus: Lifestyle, beauty, fashion, travel, product reviews.

5. WeChat Channels

• Daily Active Users: Over 200 million.
• User Demographics: Broad, integrated with WeChat’s 1.3 billion user base.
• Content Focus: News, lifestyle, professional content, private networks.

6. Xigua Video (Watermelon Video)

• Daily Active Users: Over 100 million.
• User Demographics: Older millennials and Gen X (25-45).
• Content Focus: Long-form video, news, documentaries.

7. Huoshan Video (Volcano Video)

• Daily Active Users: Over 50 million.
• User Demographics: Smaller cities and rural areas (18-40).
• Content Focus: Short entertainment, live streaming.

8. Taobao Live

• Daily Active Users: Over 30 million.
• User Demographics: Shoppers of all ages, especially women (20-45).
• Content Focus: E-commerce, live-stream shopping.

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Understanding Target Audience, Reach, and Specificities

1. Douyin: Young, urban, tech-savvy users. National reach, strong in Tier 1 and 2 cities. Algorithm-driven, rewards viral and trending content. Best for travel discovery and awareness.
2. Kuaishou: Users in smaller cities and rural areas. Community-oriented, authenticity is valued over polish. Live streaming is core. Good for reaching a wider China, not just the big cities.
3. Bilibili: Niche but highly engaged Gen Z audience. Long-form content works here. Less directly relevant for tourism unless your destination connects with pop culture or anime.
4. Xiaohongshu: Urban, middle-to-upper-class women. Lifestyle and product reviews. Trust and authenticity are the main currency. Strong for travel research and trip planning.
5. WeChat Channels: Broad demographic, integrated with WeChat’s ecosystem. Content shared within personal networks. Good for building relationships and targeting specific segments through WeChat’s ad system.
6. Xigua Video: Older millennials and Gen X. Long-form documentaries and news. Works for destinations with a strong cultural or historical story.
7. Huoshan Video: Lower-tier city users. Short and entertaining. Cheaper to reach than Douyin but smaller audience for international travel content.
8. Taobao Live: Shoppers. E-commerce focused. Relevant if your destination has a shopping or product angle, or if you’re selling tour packages.

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Tips for Marketers on How to Use These Platforms

1. Douyin:
   • Create short, visually strong clips. 15-30 seconds. Hook in the first 2 seconds or you lose them.
   • Work with travel KOLs and KOCs who already have audiences interested in your type of destination.
   • Use Douyin Daka (location check-in) to build UGC from real visitors.
2. Kuaishou:
   • Keep it real. Authentic, unpolished content performs better here than on Douyin.
   • Live streaming from your destination works well. Real-time exploration stops people mid-scroll.
   • Target users in smaller cities who are looking for somewhere different to travel.
3. Bilibili:
   • Long-form storytelling. If your destination has history, culture, or natural drama, a documentary-style video works here.
   • Engage in comments. The Bilibili community rewards brands that participate, not just broadcast.
4. Xiaohongshu:
   • High-quality photos, detailed real reviews, practical travel information in Chinese. Focus on getting saves, not just likes.
   • KOC partnerships over big KOL campaigns. Authentic micro-influencers outperform celebrity posts here.
   • Use trending hashtags and seasonal travel content to stay visible.
5. WeChat Channels:
   • Build content that makes sense for a personal recommendation context. WeChat content travels through friendships, not algorithms.
   • Link directly to booking options or WeChat Pay. Close the loop within the platform.
6. Xigua Video:
   • Documentary and storytelling formats. Longer videos are expected and watched here.
   • Good for niche travel content: historical routes, nature documentaries, cultural deep-dives.
7. Huoshan Video:
   • Short, fun, accessible content. Keep the messaging simple.
   • Useful for reaching audiences in cities that other platforms ignore.
8. Taobao Live:
   • Host live shopping events for tour packages, travel gear, or destination products.
   • Partner with influencers to demonstrate and sell in real time.

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Each platform has its own logic. The mistake most foreign tourism brands make is treating them as one thing. They’re not. Chinese social media requires a platform-specific approach, with content created for each one separately.

Why Short Video Should Be the Core of Your China Social Media Strategy

In China’s digital world, short video is the main content format. Platforms like Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu are not just apps. They shape what Chinese consumers want to do, where they want to go, and what they buy.

Chinese people spend more than 60 minutes each day on short video apps. For tourism brands targeting this market, that’s where your potential customers are spending their attention.

Short video aligns with how Chinese consumers research and make decisions. A clip of a beach, a safari, a hot spring, a food market. If it looks good in 15 seconds, it can drive thousands of bookings. That is not an exaggeration. Some destinations have gone from obscure to overbooked because of one well-timed Douyin video.

As the data shows: 94% of all Chinese social media users open apps for video content, and 62% watch live-streaming regularly. If you’re not producing video content in Chinese for these platforms, you’re simply not part of the conversation.

The Most Popular Short-Video Platforms in China

Douyin: China’s Number One Short-Video App

Douyin is the benchmark for short-video marketing in China. 700 million daily active users, a powerful recommendation algorithm, and a strong travel content category make it the first platform any destination should be on.

Most loved by Gen Z and millennials. Its algorithm actively surfaces new destinations if the content quality is good. Duets, AR filters, time-sensitive challenges, and the Daka check-in feature all create interaction opportunities. The Maldives Tourism Board worked with influencers to spotlight their beaches on Douyin and saw a direct spike in Chinese booking inquiries as a result.

Kuaishou: Douyin’s Main Competitor

Kuaishou is different. It’s not about polish and trends. It values authenticity. It’s strong in smaller cities and with audiences who find Douyin a bit too curated. Community feel is central to the platform, and genuine content performs better there than anywhere else.

New Zealand Tourism used Kuaishou to highlight natural beauty and cultural experiences. The campaign resonated because it felt real, not like a broadcast from a tourism board.

Xiaohongshu: The Top Platform for Travel Research

Xiaohongshu (RED) sits between social media and search engine. It’s where Chinese travelers go when they’ve decided they want to visit somewhere and need to know what to actually do there. Product reviews, travel diaries, practical guides, real recommendations.

User-generated content is the engine here. The Paris Tourism Board’s campaign showing romantic Paris experiences worked because users shared their own stories alongside it. The integrated shopping feature lets users go from inspiration to booking without leaving the app.

WeChat Channels: Built-In Distribution

WeChat Channels builds on WeChat’s 1.3 billion users. It’s newer than Douyin but its integration with the WeChat ecosystem makes it powerful. Videos can link directly to booking platforms or payment gateways. Thailand Tourism used it to offer a full experience: local festivals, food, attractions, and an easy path from watching to booking.

Practical Steps to Promote a Destination with Short Videos

Show what’s unique, not what’s generic

• Visually strong content: Landscapes, cultural moments, food. Capture things that don’t look like every other travel destination on the internet.
• Show variety: Historical sites, local markets, outdoor activities, cuisine. Different types of content attract different audiences.
• Tell a story: A traveler’s day in your destination, told through real moments, connects better than a highlight reel.
• Captions in Chinese: Explain what viewers are seeing. “This is the only place in the world where…” type framing works well.
• Real visitor testimonials: A Chinese visitor saying “I loved this” is worth more than ten polished ads.

Know your Chinese audience

Chinese travelers want real experiences. Immersive cultural engagement, food they can actually eat, activities they can participate in. Hands-on experiences like local cooking classes or traditional craft workshops show up consistently in high-performing travel content from China.

Don’t just describe your destination. Show what a Chinese traveler would actually do there, from arrival to the last day.

Authenticity over polish

The best performing destination content on Chinese platforms is real. A day in the life of a local fisherman beats a drone shot of the harbor. Working with local content creators brings an authenticity that is immediately visible to Chinese viewers who can spot staged or generic content.

Respond to comments

Replying to comments improves algorithm visibility on all Chinese platforms. It also builds the kind of interactive presence that Chinese users associate with genuine brands. If someone asks “how long is the flight from Shanghai?” and you answer within 24 hours, that reply is read by many more people than just the person who asked.

Use platform-specific features

Each platform has tools built for engagement. Douyin’s special effects, AR filters, and challenges. Kuaishou’s stickers and community tags. Use them. A challenge where users recreate a dance at your landmark gets participation that generates content you didn’t have to pay for.

Use Douyin Daka for location content

Douyin Daka is a check-in feature that lets users tag specific locations. Encouraging Chinese visitors to check in at your destination creates a content library you didn’t have to produce. Each check-in adds your location to Douyin’s geo-discovery, making it easier for other Chinese users to find content about your destination organically.

Localize your content properly

Content that is clearly made for a Chinese audience outperforms translated English content every time. Mandarin captions, Chinese cultural references, local trending sounds and music on Douyin. Collaborating with Chinese content creators who understand the audience is the most effective shortcut here.

Know the Chinese holiday calendar

1. Chinese New Year: Late January to mid-February. Travel volumes are enormous. Start your campaign 4-6 weeks before.
2. Qingming (Tomb-Sweeping Day): Early April. Domestic travel peak. Less relevant for international destinations.
3. Labor Day Holiday (May 1-5): Significant outbound travel window. Good timing for short-haul international destinations.
4. Dragon Boat Festival: June. Smaller window but active travel period.
5. Golden Week: First week of October. One of the biggest outbound travel moments of the year. Your campaign needs to be fully operational well before October 1.
6. Mid-Autumn Festival: September/October. Family travel. Good for nature and cultural destinations.

O2O (Online to Offline) Tactics

Getting Chinese tourists to your physical location from digital content requires a clear, friction-free path. Offer promotions or experiences that can be booked online and redeemed offline. WeChat mini-programs are well-suited for this: a user watches your Douyin video, searches your destination on RED, then books a tour package through a WeChat mini-program. Each step should be connected.

Connect with existing Chinese communities

Most destinations have some Chinese community already present. Students, workers, expat business people. These people are credible, they speak the language and they’re already posting about living there. Engaging with them to produce content about your destination is more authentic and cost-effective than any agency campaign.

Short Video Content Ideas That Work for Destinations

• Hidden Gems: Lesser-known spots, local markets, off-the-beaten-track places. Chinese travelers post these because they feel like discoveries.
• A Day in Local Life: A fisherman’s morning, a chef preparing a regional dish, a potter at work. Real local life is compelling content because it lets viewers imagine themselves there.
• Cultural Moments: Local festivals, traditions, unique events. How locals celebrate their holidays is particularly interesting to Chinese travelers who want experiences that feel different.
• Interactive Questions: Ask viewers what they’d want to do or see. “Which of these would you visit first?” gets comments, and comments improve reach.
• Influencer-Led Days: Let a KOC plan and document a full day at your destination. Their genuine reactions are more convincing than scripted promotional content.
• Platform Feature Challenges: Use Douyin’s special effects to add visual drama to your landmark. Launch a challenge. The best user-submitted content becomes organic promotion at scale.

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GMA Services: Short Video Marketing for Destinations

Douyin: We produce short-form travel content for your destination, manage Douyin accounts, and run paid campaigns that reach Chinese travelers by interest, city, and travel behavior. Douyin is the fastest way to generate awareness and trip search volume for a new destination. See our Douyin marketing services.

Xiaohongshu (RED): We manage RED accounts for destinations and run KOC campaigns that produce the kind of content Chinese travelers search for during trip planning. Travel research on RED directly translates to bookings. More at our RED marketing page.

WeChat: We build and run WeChat official accounts, produce WeChat H5 campaigns, and create mini-programs for booking, maps, and guides. WeChat is how you stay connected with Chinese visitors before, during, and after their trip. Full details at our WeChat marketing page.

Ready to start? Visit our services page or contact us directly.

We’ve built a real presence in China’s digital world: platform partnerships, content creators, and a team that lives and works here. Our work with destinations across Europe, Africa, and Asia has given us a clear picture of what works and what doesn’t. Contact us and let’s look at what your destination needs.

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Platform Comparison: Quick Reference

Platform	Best For	Key Strength
Douyin	Awareness, discovery	700M DAU, powerful algorithm
Xiaohongshu	Research, planning	Trust, saves, trip planning content
Kuaishou	Tier 3-4 cities, authenticity	Community feel, live streaming
WeChat Channels	Relationship, conversion	1.3B WeChat users, booking integration
Bilibili	Gen Z, cultural content	Long-form, engaged niche audience

Oliver Verot is the founder of GMA (Gentlemen Marketing Agency), based in Shanghai since 2012. He works with tourism boards and destination brands to build their presence with Chinese travelers through digital platforms. April 2026.