Most-followed influencers on Douyin in China 2023

As of August 22, 2023, Yang Ge, also known as Crazy Xiaoyangge, was the most popular influencer on Douyin with 118 million fans. Half Past Six of Chen Xiang, a family-style situation comedy directed by Chen Xiang took the second spot with 69 million followers. The third place went to Ares Cheng and his wife Yan Zhen.

Douyin and TikTok

Douyin, literally meaning “shaking sounds” in Chinese, is the sister app of TikTok. Introduced by ByteDance in China in 2016, Douyin created a new digital phenomenon in the short videos space. In less than three years, the app had reached 250 million daily active users in the Chinese market. After Douyin’s success, ByteDance acquired the lip-sync app Musical.ly in 2017. The move has strategically migrated Musical.ly’s large teenage userbase in the United States and Europe to TikTok, bringing the latter to the top of global social media.

Douyin influencers and e-commerce

Douyin has also become an important platform for e-commerce and marketing. Li Jiaqi, who used to be the fifth most-followed influencer on Douyin, has been using the platform to promote various beauty products. The most successful Douyin livestreamers can generate over 200 billion yuan of sales revenue in a month. Luxury brands like Dior and Coach have also launched their marketing campaignson the short video app.