Short-Form Video and Content Marketing in China 2026: The Douyin Era

In 2017, Miaopai was a 10-second short video app. Kuaishou had 109 million monthly active users and ranked fourth in China’s mobile video chart. Douyin had just launched. The article that appeared here described a fragmented mobile video landscape dominated by long-form platforms like iQiyi and Tencent Video. Nine years later, that landscape has been replaced entirely by one created by a single format: short-form vertical video.

What Douyin did to content marketing in China is not a story about a platform. It is a story about a format that changed how brands communicate, how consumers discover products, and how purchase decisions happen. Understanding that transformation is the foundation for any content marketing strategy in China in 2026.

From Video Platforms to Short-Form Dominance

The ten platforms that led China’s mobile video market in 2017 have been radically restructured. Long-form platforms (iQiyi, Tencent Video, Youku) still exist and still serve significant audiences for drama, variety shows, and sports content. But they no longer define content marketing for brands. Douyin and Xiaohongshu define it.

Douyin’s 700+ million daily active users consume short-form video as their primary digital content format. The average user spends over 100 minutes per day on the platform. The algorithm surfaces content based on engagement signals (completion rate, likes, comments, shares) rather than follower count, which means a brand’s first video can reach millions of consumers if it performs well, without any prior audience building.

Xiaohongshu is the complement: where Douyin serves video content to passive viewers, Xiaohongshu serves searchable content to active researchers. A consumer who sees a product on Douyin and wants to learn more before buying goes to Xiaohongshu. A brand that is present on both platforms owns both the awareness and the consideration phase of the consumer journey.

What Content Works in 2026

The content formats that work in China’s video-first environment in 2026 are specific and learnable. The brands that consistently outperform their spend understand these formats and produce to them, rather than adapting Western content for Chinese platforms.

On Douyin, the formats that drive brand performance are: product demonstration videos (showing the product solving a real problem in under 60 seconds), creator-led reviews (a credible voice demonstrating and endorsing the product), live commerce sessions (real-time selling with Q&A and limited-time offers), and brand storytelling shorts (behind-the-scenes, craft stories, founder stories that build identity beyond the product).

On Xiaohongshu, the formats that drive discovery and conversion are: detailed product reviews with specific pros and cons, comparison posts (“I tried X and Y, here is what I found”), routine posts (skincare routines, outfit formulas, workspace setups that feature a brand’s products naturally), and how-to guides that solve a specific problem and embed a product recommendation into the solution.

How Brands Build a Content Engine in China

The brands generating the most organic reach in China’s content ecosystem in 2026 operate content programs, not campaigns. The distinction is critical. A campaign runs for a defined period and stops. A program produces content continuously, learns from performance data, and improves over time.

A content program for a fashion or lifestyle brand in China typically has three tiers. First, brand-owned content: videos and posts produced or commissioned by the brand, published on the brand’s Douyin and Xiaohongshu accounts. Second, creator content: videos and posts from a network of creators at different tiers (macro, mid-tier, nano) who produce content about the brand in their own voice. Third, user-generated content: organic posts from customers who create content about the brand because they genuinely like it. The program’s job is to generate the first tier consistently, seed the second tier strategically, and amplify the third tier when it performs.

Our Douyin content team produces brand-owned video content and manages creator programs for fashion and lifestyle brands. Our Xiaohongshu team handles organic content strategy, creator sourcing, and search optimization for the research-phase content that converts Douyin viewers into buyers.

Video and Live Commerce: The Revenue Layer

The development that was not predicted in 2017 is the fusion of content and commerce. Live streaming commerce on Douyin is a 3 trillion RMB annual market. A brand that treats its Douyin presence purely as a content channel and does not run live commerce sessions is leaving revenue on the platform.

Live commerce works because it compresses the purchase funnel. The consumer discovers the product (organic content), evaluates it (creator’s live demonstration and Q&A), and buys it (one-click purchase in the app) without ever leaving the session. The combination of entertainment, information, and purchase in a single experience has no equivalent in Western markets and no equivalent in the previous Chinese content marketing playbook.

Claire Verot is China marketing strategist at Fashion China Agency. Connect on LinkedIn.

Sources: FCA: Douyin 2026 Fashion Retail | FCA: KOLs and Influencers in China 2026