Foreign influencers in China

Background of the era

In recent years, the widespread penetration of global mobile internet has made short-video platforms a new medium for cross-cultural expression. The algorithm-based recommendation mechanisms of platforms such as Douyin and Bilibili enable content created by foreigners documenting life in China to quickly reach the public.

As of 2025, China's visa-free policy covers 54 countries, with 38 million foreign entries and exits in the first half of 2025.

Many international internet celebrities have flocked to China – top American influencer "IShowSpeed" attracted 47 million viewers in a single live broadcast, and his China travel videos have surpassed 100 million global views.

Many foreigners who have settled in China also choose to become foreign internet celebrities.They shoot various types of videos and upload them to the internet.Eastern and Western cultures are undergoing unprecedented collision and integration through digital media, forming a unique landscape of cross-cultural communication in the new era.

(The source of these pictures： The self-media of the TikTok account owner.）

Vlog live streaming

Funny category video

Experience culture video

Delicious food video

Life experience video

Travel video

Data distribution

In recent years, the number of foreign internet celebrities in China has been gradually increasing over the past five years, showing a continuous upward trend. As of 2024, there are 15 foreign internet celebrities with over 10 million followers across China's entire network, and more than 100 with over 1 million followers. Moreover, these foreign internet celebrities in China come from all over the world, and their distribution proportions also vary. The left graph is a trend chart of the number of people based on the reference value of over 100,000 followers, while the right graph shows the distribution of people by different continents.

(All data are sourced from the official survey conducted by Tencent Research Institute in conjunction with New Rank: https://m.sohu.com/a/861486918_114911/?pvid=000115_3w_a&strategyid=00014, https://www.huxiu.com/article/2636848.html）

Case Analysis

Sofiane, a young Algerian, has studied in China for seven years, spending his undergraduate and postgraduate days here. He loves shooting videos to record his life, sharing the Chinese culture he has experienced,so he also actively manages his TikTok account. At present, his Chinese version of TikTok account has exceeded 100,000 followers, with video views surpassing 5 million.

This story tells how Sofiane and his friends create content on TikTok, how they solve the difficulties in shooting short videos, why he wants to do TikTok, and what he has gained from it.

During his seven years in China, Sofiane has also taken on some part-time jobs. Including as a model and an actor.About two years ago, he participated in the filming of the very popular Chinese TV series The Story of Roses. He has lived in Beijing for a long time and is very familiar with the city, so he works as a tour guide to introduce it to foreigners. At the same time, he is also involved in foreign trade, selling goods bought in China back to his own country. Therefore, he has accumulated rich work experience.

Sofiane appeared in the TV drama The Story of Roses.

Sofiane worked as a tour guide in Beijing.

In 2024, Sofiane began to create Tiktok content in China.

As Sofiane put it, for foreign internet celebrities living in China, in addition to documenting their lives and sharing cultures via TikTok, making money is also of crucial importance. Therefore, it is only natural for them to choose to create content that Chinese audiences can understand and love. Only in this way can they gain more followers.

When it comes to content creation, Sofiane has mentioned that cultural differences make it the biggest challenge to produce content that is accessible and appealing to everyone. Regarding how to create such content, Sofiane and his team have put in a great deal of effort. To address this issue, apart from having Chinese short-video directors and screenwriters provide creative ideas, another approach is to have experienced bloggers with a large number of followers collaborate on video shooting with those who have fewer followers. Jia Fei is exactly such a blogger—he has over 1 million followers on TikTok. As a result, they often co-create videos, which not only eases the difficulty of content creation for Sofiane but also helps him gain more followers.

With the efforts of Sofiane and his team, the followers of their videos is getting better and better. He is becoming more and more skilled at shooting funny jokes that Chinese people can understand.Currently, the quotation for one of his advertisements ranges from 5,000 to 20,000 RMB.He said: "I will keep shooting, spread interesting cultures, and hope that everyone can get happiness through my videos. Here are several videos shot by Sofiane and his team, each with more than 5 million views.

(Source of the video: Downloaded from Sofiane's TikTok account.)

Summary

In the current era of deep integration between globalization and the Internet, the phenomenon of foreign influencers in China has become quite common. This includes both established foreign influencers who often embark on "China trips" and foreigners living in China who work as local influencers. The content created by these foreign influencers on short-video platforms has brought numerous positive impacts to themselves and the global community. China's massive short-video user base and its 5.3-trillion-yuan live-streaming e-commerce market have enabled foreign influencers to earn substantial rewards; they achieve commercial monetization through various business models, improving their personal lives while boosting economic development. More importantly, through their unique perspectives, foreign influencers showcase China's cuisine, technology, culture, and more, helping the world understand the real China. Their distinctive form of cultural communication has shortened the distance between people around the world and made significant contributions to global cross-cultural exchange.

(The following photos are generated by AI)