In a country evolving as quickly as China, it’s no surprise that the fast-moving influencer industry would develop at an even more frenetic pace. Birthed alongside social media and initially helmed by migrants from traditional media circles — those with celebrity contacts, brand relationships and an ability to create content — today the landscape has bifurcated into a higher and lower professional class of influencer. At the mass level are many thousands of KOLs — as influencers are known in China — who are increasingly scouted and signed to “incubators.” These incubators work in a few different ways, but most behave like a talent agency, signing a multitude of pretty faces and helping brands connect with them en masse. But the professionalization of influencers in China has also bred a new generation of independent voices, those with a unique point of view or offering that cuts through the noise surrounding the Key Opinion Leader marketplace here. The increasingly discerning eyeballs of Millennial consumers peruse not only major platforms such as Weibo and WeChat, but also Instagram (using a virtual private network to access the blocked site from within China or checking in when they are traveling, working or studying outside their home country) and
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