MCNs or Multi-channel networks are quite common in China. They are also essential when trying to contact KOLs for your brand. Most KOLs are affiliated with one of these MCNs so you need to understand how MCNs work.
There are hundreds upon thousands of MCNs in China, both large and small, so keep in mind that the following list is not exhaustive and only includes some of the more popular ones with whom businesses can work with.
What and How Do MCNs (Multi-Channel Networks) Work?
China’s MCNs are thriving. There are thousands of them in China and the number is growing. MCNs, or multi-channel networks, work in a similar way to influencer networks. They aren’t as common in the West, but they’re thriving in China.
MCNs are important for content creation because they provide KOLs and influencers with a team of affiliated influencers. They also provide training and even logistical support. All in all, they help consolidate KOL resources across a variety of Chinese social media channels.
If a brand wants to work with a KOL, it’s hard to find a KOL without the help of an MCN.
Types of MCNs
There are three types of MCN agencies in China: e-commerce, content, and marketing.
E-Commerce
E-commerce MCNs support livestreamers with e-commerce skills or their own burgeoning product brands. The livestreamer is generally responsible for product design and content output while the MCN e-commerce department is responsible for logistical, supply-chain and shop operation management.
They work with brands looking for endorsements and sell via social e-commerce and livestreaming. Their slick content production and organized management mean they get a lot of traffic that often converts into e-commerce sales.
Content
Content MCNs attract KOLs who are into content production. They usually produce high-quality short videos for brands.
Marketing
Marketing MCNs provide advertisers with integrated marketing solutions and do multi-channel distribution to reach potential consumers. They also do market analysis in order to recommend the best KOL matrix/combination for clients.
MCN List
E-Commerce Types:
Qianxun (谦寻)
- Website: http://www.qxwhmcn.com/
- Key contact:https://www.linkmcn.cn/#/home
- Email: qianxun@qianxungroup.com
- Based in: Hangzhou
- Founded in: 2017
- Company size: 1,000-9,999 people
- Intro: Currently, it is one of the largest e-commerce companies in China and is also the Top 1 Agency in Taobao Live.
- Services: Livestreaming services, super supply chain, SaaS platform, territory-wide marketing, IP commercialization, new brand incubation
- Platforms: Taobao, Douyin
- Industries served: Beauty, Lifestyle, Food, Clothing
- Key competitive advantages: It has established long-term partnerships with more than 20,000 domestic and international brands, stocked hundreds of thousands of high-quality goods and built a matrix of professional livestreamer in multiple fields.
- Current clients include Ubras, Nars, Kiehl’s, etc.
Mei one (美one)
- Website: https://www.meione.com/
- Email: hezuo@meione.cc
- Based in: Shanghai
- Founded in: 2014
- Company size: 500-999 people
- Intro: MeiONE is an incubation platform for artists and web celebrities, providing them with the tools to build a network of contacts among multi-role users.
- Services: Filming, promotion, anchoring and e-commerce distribution
- Platforms: Taobao, WeChat
- Industries served: Beauty, Lifestyle, Food, Fashion and Electronic goods.
- Key competitive advantages: Meione’s top LivestremerLi Jiaqi has contributed a superb amount of traffic, with more than 1,600 brands working with Li Jiaqi and the highest number of viewers in a single livestream reaching 250 million.
- Current clients include L’ORÉAL, Shiseido, LVMH, P&G, Guerlain, Perfect Dairy, Anta, Joyoung, etc.
Yowant Network
- Website:https://www.ywwl.com/live.html
- Key contact: 0571-88515356
- Email: Dongmiban@yywl.com
- Based in: Hangzhou
- Founded in: 2010
- Company size: 1,000-9,999 people
- Intro: Hangzhou Yowant Network Technology Co., Ltd. is a comprehensive technology company with livestreaming as its core, which laid out the live e-commerce field in 2018 and completed capitalization in the same year by listing on A-share
- Services: Internet advertising distribution, mobile game promotion
- Platforms: Taobao, Douyin, Kuaishou
- Industries served: Internet, Mobile game
- Key competitive advantages: Yowant has more than 100 livestreamers under its banner; at the same time, Yowant Network is also one of the earlier organizations to train celebrity artists, with more than 30 collaborating artists such as Wang Zulan, Cecilia Cheung, etc. The combined fan base exceeds 500 million+, and the monthly exposure is 4 billion+.
- Current clients include: Unilever, Armani, Kiehl’s, Sulwhasoo, Dove, Kans, 3M, P&G, etc
Wuyou Media
- Website:https://www.wuyoumedia.com/about
- Key contact: 17076772255
- WeChat: joymedia_013
- Based in: Hangzhou
- Founded in: 2016
- Company size: 1,000-9,999 people
- Intro: The company has main businesses in
- Services: Livestreaming, short-form video, commercialization, e-commerce and shop operation, integrated marketing, music production and distribution
- Platforms: Douyin, Taobao
- Industries served: Beauty, Lifestyle, Travel, Fashion
- Key competitive advantages: The company has over 90,000 signed artists, 3,000 partner brands and over 1.8 billion fans. In particular, the company’s top sports livestreamer with a maximum of 52.567 million viewers in a single livestream.
- Current clients include Whoo, Su:m 37, Belif, Maotai, YaYa, Media, zwilling, etc.
Ruhan (如涵)
- Website: http://www.ruhnn.com/
- Email: media@ruhnn.com
- Based in: Hangzhou
- Founded in: 2014
- Company size: 1,000-9,999 people
- Intro: Listed on the Nasdaq, Ruhan is one of the biggest KOL MCNs in China that nurtures KOLs and enables influencers to sell through e-commerce. Its most famous KOL is Zhangdayi, one of China’s most successful and famous KOLs.
- Services: KOL Incubator, KOL e-commerce, KOL marketing
- Platforms: Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili
- Industries served: Beauty, Fashion, FMCG
- Key competitive advantages: The biggest share of KOL marketing in China and the only MCN to acquire Alibaba shares. As the largest platform of KOL marketing of e-commerce in China, Ruhan has the most KOLs in the industry and is engaged in strategic cooperations with Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili and other platforms.
- Current clients include: Burberry, Lancôme, Watsons, La Mer
Pan-Content types:
Onion Video
- Website: http://www.onion-inc.cn
- Key contact:028-85121170
- WeChat: 13678163360
- Based in: Chengdu
- Founded in: 2016
- Company size: 500+ people
- Intro: With the mission of “Live Better”, the platform focuses on serving the needs of the younger generation. The “Life+” group, pursues quality of life and are keen on new things, with its main direction being “pan-life planting”, delivering a good lifestyle, leading the trend of a good life, and incubating new consumer brands.
- Services: Content IP development, KOL incubation, short video, livestreaming service provider
- Platforms: Douyin, Kuaishou, Momo
- Industries served: Food, Beauty,
- Key competitive advantages: Onion Video has over 1,000 artists with a cumulative fan base of 150 million and has produced videos with over 100 billion views.
- Current clients include McDonald’s, Mengniu, Yili, Wang Laoji, Zhong Xue Gao, Sony, etc.
Ergeng（二更）
- Website: https://www.ergengtv.com/
- Key contact:+86 15267008822
- Email: help@ergengtv.com
- Based in: Hangzhou
- Founded in: 2015
- Company size: 500 – 999people
- Intro: ErGeng is a new media and video content company that provides travel, culture and food videos via various platforms, including WeChat, Youku, and Weibo. Its revenues mainly come from advertising.
- Services: KOL Livestreaming, KOL Marketing Campaigns, KOL Marketing Strategy
- Platforms: WeChat, Weibo, Youku
- Industries served: FMCG, Fashion, Food, Beauty, Vehicles
- Key competitive advantages: As an MCN with a huge influence on all the big platforms, Ergeng is not only capable of providing KOL resources but also creating good-quality content for customers.
- Current clients include Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, BMW, MAC, SK-II, JD.com, Pingan, Huawei, Lee, Tmall, Midea, Vanke.
Dayu Media (大禹)
- Website: https://dayukeji.com/
- Key contact: AD@dayukeji.com
- Based in: Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province
- Founded in: 2011
- Company size: 1,000-9,999 people
- Intro: Positioning itself as a company striving for better and more quality content, Dayu Media is one of China’s largest MCN organizations. At the moment, Dayu is certified by Tencent as one of the top developers in the market, consistently ranked in the top three on lists of new media platforms like Weibo, Tencent and Tiktok. Besides, the company is one of Weibo’s four strategic partners in video production.
- Services: MCN Media, ACG, KOL Promotion, IP(intellectual property) collaboration
- Platforms: Douyin, Kuaishou, Weibo, QQ, WeChat
- Industries served: Beauty, Media Promotion, Animation, Gaming
- Key competitive advantages: With a broad business scope covering ACG (anime, comics, games) culture, makeup, games, their KOLs are from all walks of life that can satisfy various promotion needs. They also produce original comics and cartoons that are popular among young people.
- Current clients include: Chanel, Armani, SK-II, VS, Sohu, Toyota, Samsung, Fotile, Tencent Games, Alibaba, Dove
Marketing Types:
Hive Media（蜂群文化）
- Website: http://www.hivemedia.cn/business
- Key contact: 0755-85295625
- Email: fengqunshangwu@hivemedia.cn
- Based in: Shenzhen
- Founded in: 2014
- Company size: 100-999 people
- Intro: Hive Media is a content marketing MCN company established in 2014. With its sophisticated use of new media means, like content creation with KOLs and online video production, and a strong emphasis on nurturing self-media talent, the company has become one of the most critical players in the Chinese new media market.
- Services: KOL Marketing Campaign, Brand Design, Product Promotion, Online Marketing Campaign, Offline Arrangements, Video Production and Promotion
- Platforms: Weibo, WeChat, TikTok, Toutiao , Kuaishou,Meipai, Yizhibo
- Industries served: Video Production, Gaming, Music, E-Commerce, Fashion, Food, Beauty, Celebrities, Comics
- Key competitive advantages: Exclusive signing of around 1000+ high-quality KOLs, emphasis on the content’s authenticity.
- Current clients include: China Resources, Cheers, Huawei, PizzaHut, Burger King, Taobao, Olay, P&G, Durex, Lancôme, Skyworth, JD.com, Bilibili
Papitube
- Website: https://www.weibo.com/u/5932557435?is_hot=1
- Email: schz@papitube.com
- Based in: Beijing
- Founded in: 2016
- Company size: 100-499 people
- Intro: Papitube is a short video MCN platform established by Papi Jiang (Papi酱), a famous short video blogger. Papitube finds and incubates video bloggers to help brands effectively promote their products.
- Services: KOL Marketing Campaign, KOL Marketing Strategy
- Platforms: Weibo, Douyin, Bilibili
- Industries served: Beauty, FMCG, Tourism
- Key competitive advantages: Humorous and highly-qualified short video content with a matrix of KOLs. KOLs in Papitube would repost each other’s posts frequently, which results in high interaction and exposure.
- Current clients include: Tmall, Buick, Singapore Tourism Board
Ividea (青藤文化)
- Website: https://ividea.cn/
- Email: contact@ividea.cn
- Key Contact: 0 1 0 – 8 5 3 7 6 8 9 8
- Based in: Beijing
- Founded in: 2011
- Company size: 100-499 people
- Intro: It is a well-known new integrated media company in China which has received investment from Balance Capital, Tencent and Bilibili. Ividea has served 500+ brands and organizations and is the annual frame and S-level service provider for many Internet and FMCG brands.
- Services: KOL Marketing Strategy, Content production, digital video production, design services
- Platforms: Bilibili, WeChat, QQ, RED
- Industries served: Beauty, food, pets, mother & baby.
- Key competitive advantages: Ividea has produced 3 S-class variety shows and 5,000+ episodes of short videos and has signed up 300+ celebrities and accounts across the internet, gathering nearly 100 million followers.
- Current clients include: Perfect Diary, Manzanita, Mead Johnson, Corecon, KFC, Yili, Hisense, Taobao, Tmall, QQ Music
GuMaijiahe (古麦嘉禾)
- Website: https://www.gumaijiahe.com/
- WeChat: gumai111
- Key Contact: 17660689893
- Based in: Qingdao
- Founded in: 2011
- Company size: 100-499 people
- Intro: Gumaijiahe has been working on the mobile internet for many years and is a leading online celebrity agency and short video content production company in the industry, specializing in incubating super IPs and is committed to providing a wide range of quality short video content to our users.
- Services: IP production, Short Video Production, Livestreaming
- Platforms: Douyin, Kuiashou, Weixin, Weibo, Meipai
- Industries served: Internet, Mother & Baby, Beauty & Gaming, FMCG
- Key competitive advantages: Gumaijiahe has an excellent short video talent cultivation, incubation and development mechanism, from pre-mining, image positioning, account promotion, video planning, platform operation and other aspects. They provide a full range of help and support for its talent anchors. The agency’s Douyin’s fans number around 400 million. It is also the entire platform for TOP3 level strategic cooperation MCN agencies.
- Current clients include: Tmall, JD, Taobao, VIP.com, PDD, Tencent Games, Amazon, Media, Haier, Hisense, China Mobile, AUX
To get deeper insights into Chinese social media marketing and utilizing it to serve your business, contact us at ChoZan.
