Three influencers popular on leading platforms RedNote & China’s TikTok tell their story.

China’s Social Media Powerhouses

RedNote (Xiaohongshu) is China’s most popular social media platform for search and the number one platform for travel/tourism search topics with more than 500 million posts tagged with tourism content. It has a monthly active user base of over 350 million and is dominated by female Chinese users, 72%, who are the key household decisions makers. Douyin (China’s Tik-Tok, as Tik-Tok is blocked in China, both owned by ByteDance) is China’s leading short-video and live-streaming platform with a monthly average of 1 billion users and is ranked as China’s second largest merchandise sales platform responsible for around R7 trillion in sales.

Big numbers, but more excitingly, despite being foreigners in a strange land, three South Africans content creators are starting to get noticed on these and other leading Chinese social media platforms. Their online success has allowed them to monetise their digital presence for Chinese entities but only one has ties to South Africa Inc. I took time out to tell their story.

South African Influencers Making Their Mark in China

Jannelize Bessenger

“Lizzy”, Jannelize Bessenger, originally from Phalaborwa, Limpopo, has been living in Kunming (capital of Yunnan province) for 8 years. Starting as a teacher, by 2024 she wanted to stay in China but out of the class room so she established her own company and started YouTube-ing. Today Lizzy is on FaceBook, RedNote and Douyin and has around half a million followers combined. She is part of the YouTube partnership program but is also paid by Chinese city and provincial governments to promote their destination to the world. Her most viral video has been of herself walking around a food market at night highlighting how safe it is for women to be alone, to live and do whatever they wish in China. Her objective is to share the reality of life in China and to dismantle the lies that people outside of China believe.

Charl Albertyn

Charl Albertyn is from Cape Town and has lived in China for 6 years, mostly in the commercial capital of Shanghai. Starting out in marketing, PR and digital strategy consulting work, he started RedNote posting around the time of Trump’s Tik-Tok ban when a lot of international users migrated to the said platform, know as the "Tik-Tok refugees" in early 2025. He explains “it became clear that RedNote had potential to become a 'global village with Chinese characteristics'. RedNote has also always been the predominant Chinese platform of choice for higher income female urban users, so brands started taking foreign creators seriously at this time too.” Newer to the game, Charl’s follower figures remain impressive: RedNote 80,000 followers; Douyin 70,000; WeChat Video Channels 40,000; Bilibili (also video sharing) 24,000 and Kuaishou 8,000 followers and as a consequence has monitored his digital presence by working with truly incredible brands in China including Alibaba’s Qianwen AI, Trip.com, Meituan, Midea, Ritz Carlton China, Tencent's Yuanbao AI, Knorr China, Atour Hotels and even mega celebrity Jackie Chan. His most viral video to-date has received 200,000 likes, reached 3.3 million views and has an advertising value R5 million.

Kieran van Zyl

Kieran van Zyl is from Cape Town and has lived in both Beijing and Shanghai for almost ten years. Starting his professional career at the South Africa-China consulting company, The Beijing Axis, today he serves as head of the China office for Rooibos Ltd. He started his influencer work to specialise in Africa and African products following collaboration with one of his e-commerce clients. Kieran has an impressive online following with 76,000 followers on Kuaishou (no. 2 China video sharing platform), 10,000 on Douyin, 19,000 on RedNote and 6,000 followers on WeChat. He has had posts receiving 30,000 like and at least 2 videos gaining over 1 million views but interestingly he cautions and advises “although they got lots of views, they didn’t succeed in bringing myself or my JV any real economic value. I have since transitioned to making content that is targeted at B2B buyers in my niche sector. These videos don’t need many views or likes to bring in business and value.” He has monetised his accounts is through making content about Africa and about the products he sells such as Rooibos and other products and has been offered the opportunity to do on demand live-streaming of various health products with a sales objective.

Do Opportunities Exist for South African Companies or Products to Enter the China Market?

According to Kieran the answer is yes, especially those that have something unique that cannot be fully replicated in China. Rooibos is a prime example. Foods that can be stored and transported at relatively low expense could also be an opportunity.

How Can South Africa Benefit from China?

Kieran believes that in the long term South Africa Inc also needs to move up the value chain, so large Chinese firms can also invest in building factories in the country and help with South Africa’s industrialisation and global business network development. Charl believes that South Africa’s business sectors can offer Chinese enterprises a strong runway in which to commercialise their products, and to help them scale across the African continent, “this will probably be of greatest benefit to South Africa.” But he goes further: “The South African government and South Africa Inc. should seize the golden opportunity they have at hand: a West that is in denial about China's inevitable geopolitical and economic centrality in the next 75 years. South Africa now holds relative leverage to learn, transfer technology and expertise around key technology from China, to forge relationships with the most innovative companies in the world right now. Decision-makers in South Africa should have their attention fixed on Zhongnanhai and Zhongguancun as much as Wall Street, Silicon Valley and the White House. Whoever gets the best deal today secures their seat at the table tomorrow.”

What Are Our Successful Influencers Willing to Do for South Africa?

Lizzy says that precisely because she is a South African living in China for so many years, she can bridge the gap between the two countries better. On the trading front Kieran says that as he is directly promoting South Africa by promoting South African products and while the majority of his time is spent on promoting and selling Rooibos, he is open to promoting uniquely South African goods that have appeal to Chinese consumers. For the overall perception of traveling to South Africa, Charl believes that South Africa has a great story to tell, and South African influencers like himself stand ready to highlight a more human and authentic part of South Africa.

South Africa Has Its Own Champions in China

Take it from somebody who has over two decades of working experience in China and having engaged with untold local and foreign influencers, online and traditional travel agencies, communications agencies and consulting companies, South Africa Inc has its own champions in China whether they be bankers, insurers, trading companies, consulting companies, marketing agencies and indeed, social media influencers, they are trustworthy, inexpensive, flexible and very effective. To date, I have not met a single South African in China who is not overly patriotic and willing and able to go the extra mile to assist a fellow South African or South African entity.

About the author

Michael Jones is from Somerset West and is co-founder of China Create Consulting, a leading country branding marketing agency with a focus on China outbound tourism, trade and investment with a team located in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Kunming.