Still Stuck on WeChat? You Need to Learn About the New [OASIS] Social App by Weibo
There’s a new social platform in the Chinese social media space, now available by invite only and day by day all the celebrities in China are signing up for the platform.
“Lv Zhou” which translates to Oasis in English, is a social media app recently launched in Beta mode by Sina Weibo, and the user interface definitely reminds us of other highly visual platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and much closer to home in China, RED “XiaoHonShu”, where users share their lifestyle photos mostly related to beauty, fashion, brand name purchases, travel, and food.
Left: Profile of a celebrities Oasis account.
Center: Where users can gain water droplet ‘rewards’ to level up their account and earn points to unlock app functions.
Right: The app has a whole recommended section dedicated to ‘Good Looking People’. No joke.
Since it launched in Beta mode just less than two months ago, big name celebrities like the country’s hottest celebrities Xiao Zhan, Wang Yibo, Yang Mi, Yang Zi and more, have been sharing tidbits of their daily lives with their fans, who are now all flocking to the platform to stay up to date with their idols’ whereabouts and latest news.
So what’s different about Oasis versus other popular social media platforms in China? Here’s how we see it.
WeChat: staying relevant to your friends’ updates through WeChat Moments, reading long(er) form articles on WeChat official accounts, and shopping through WeChat Mini Programs.
Douyin (TikTok): video-based content. Popular content involves much more work, with influencers creating videos with trick shots, selecting accompanying music, etc. Advertisers are able to do in-video ads that direct users to their official store on e-commerce platforms like T-Mall and Taobao.
Weibo: a platform for breaking news where celebrities and brands make official announcements. Popular content is more focused on consumer goods and high-end retail. Again, advertisers can run targeted advertising campaigns through sponsored posts, landing page takeovers, profile boosts and more, to direct users to their e-commerce platform official stores. Brands also work with celebrities and influencers for branded content, live-streams and other interactive elements on the WeChat platform to engage fans. Mega-Influencer Li Jiaqi sold over ¥100M in 6 minutes!
Xiao Hon Shu: often compared to a Chinese Pinterest, where users share photos of their purchases, popular content on this app is focused on beauty, fashion, and luxury goods. The user interface is highly visual and in a grid-style layout like Pinterest. Clicking on items could lead users directly to a “buy now” page to encourage purchases. Fashion and Beauty Influencers are engaged but brands to promote products on this platform as well.
Oasis: also a highly visual platform where users share photos of their daily lives with user, topic, and location tagging capabilities. As the user base grows, more functions such as online stores and e-commerce capabilities will be released.
The Oasis mobile app user interface categorizes content by Celebrities, Fashion, Food, Travel, and even has a category for ‘Good-Looking People’!
One of the things we like about the platform from a marketer’s perspective is that it has built-in tools to make the app sticky. For example, at this stage in the platform’s growth, they are encouraging users to stay engaged on the app with action-based rewards, such as ‘water droplets’ that are generated every 4 hours, and users have to log in to the app to collect these water droplets to level up their profile, the higher the level the more functions you unlock as a power user. Liking and commenting on other users’ posts also help to generate more water droplets to help users level up faster. With these incentives, 1/ users will want to check in frequently to collect water droplets, because they disappear after 3 days (this also helps to encourage more daily active users, which is a key reporting stat to gauge success for social platforms) and 2/ it encourages power users to engage more with the app. The more time spent in-app is another key reporting metric for social apps.
Whereas others would say this tactic creates a highly-addictive app and therefore an unhealthy social environment, the Chinese consumer is not offended by such overt marketing tactics, given they feel it gives them yet another platform to get to know the brands and celebrities that they love.
Haven’t had a chance to check out this new platform yet to figure out how it could potentially benefit your personal or company brand? Here’s a referral code RKSS6Q you can use to register for the platform to check it out for yourself! 18 invitations remaining! Have fun surfing the Oasis!