https://news.sina.com.cn/sx/2026-04-17/detail-inhuuyih1020163.shtml
According to figures from the General Administration of Customs, trade volume reached 2.63 trillion yuan in 2024. Growth in the sector has not made overseas expansion any easier. Platform policies are tightening, customer acquisition costs are rising, and compliance becomes harder to manage as companies enter more markets.
For many of these companies, export sales alone rarely create a lasting international brand. Companies also need customer relationships, operating systems and market knowledge that they can retain and develop over time.
From Marketplace Sales to Owned Customer Data
Chinese companies have used two main routes to build overseas sales over the past decade. Many began with third-party marketplaces, which offered access to overseas buyers but gave sellers limited control over the customer experience and, in some cases, little basis for building a distinct brand. Companies later diversified across more platforms and traffic sources, but the underlying infrastructure still belonged largely to those platforms. An algorithm update, fee increase or rule change could quickly affect sales.
The industry now commonly refers to a third phase as “Going Global 3.0”. Its emphasis is on longevity: building a recognised brand, sustainable operations and customer assets that the company controls.
BINGO Digital’s 2024 “Digitalisation of Chinese Companies Going Global Survey” suggests that many companies remain some distance from that model. Among nearly 200 international firms surveyed, 76% had mature operations on third-party platforms. Fewer than 20% had launched a functioning independent DTC site, while under 5% had fully integrated customer data across their sales channels.
In the interview, BINGO(HK)’s Operations Director said that dependence on a single platform affects both the cost of traffic and a company’s access to its own customer relationships and data.
“Real long-term growth needs every part of the chain to work in sync — from the brand experience customers see, to supply chain, payments, logistics and CRM,” the director said. “Data has to become a core business asset, not just a set of traffic numbers controlled by someone else’s platform.”
Connecting Operations Before Scaling AI
Overseas teams often divide website development, advertising, logistics and compliance among different vendors. Each supplier may use a separate system and reporting format, leaving internal teams to reconcile campaign, customer and sales data by hand.
The practical problem is attribution. A company may know its total advertising spend without being able to identify which campaign, audience segment or customer interaction led to a sale. Testing another market then brings another set of suppliers, systems and reporting requirements, adding cost and operating risk.
BINGO(HK) addresses this by bringing site development, technical implementation, media buying, day-to-day operations and performance optimisation into one data framework. Marketing decisions, customer management, supply-chain adjustments and compliance checks can then draw on the same operating data.
AI is used within that framework to handle work that becomes difficult to manage manually at scale. BINGO Digital says its in-house AI marketing system was developed using years of cross-border operating data. The system supports the bulk production of multilingual, locally adapted creative, the optimisation of advertising assets, real-time campaign monitoring and continuing adjustments to campaign strategy.
Compared with traditional manual workflows, the company reports a 90% reduction in creative production costs and an improvement of more than three times in advertising efficiency. According to BINGO Digital, this allows teams to spend less time on repetitive production and more time on market analysis, planning and customer management.
The operational value lies in connecting data across the customer journey. When campaign, transaction and customer records can be read together, teams can identify performance changes and respond with less manual reconciliation.
Local Market Operations and Compliance
Overseas expansion depends on decisions that cannot be settled through website translation or campaign adaptation alone. Buying behaviour, cultural expectations, platform use and regulation vary by market, and each can change how a company should launch and operate.
Priorities also differ by business model. An emerging DTC brand may begin by testing demand before committing substantial capital. An established manufacturer moving beyond OEM production may concentrate on establishing its own brand internationally. A mobile app developer is more likely to prioritise product localisation and visibility in app stores.
These differences limit how far a successful strategy can be copied from one market or company to another. Consumer behaviour, competition and platform use need to be assessed locally before budgets and operating processes are set.
Compliance belongs in the same planning process. Changes in US tariff policy, the EU’s GDPR framework and VAT rules across different markets have raised entry requirements. Companies that enter without adequate preparation risk frozen funds, held shipments or suspended platform accounts.
“Compliance isn’t something you fix after a problem hits,” the Operations Director stressed. “It has to be built into the initial design of a company’s digital infrastructure.”
In practice, that means accounting for data privacy, taxation and intellectual property protection when systems and operating procedures are first designed. Companies can then update those procedures as policies change instead of rebuilding them after a disruption.
Supporting Chinese Brands’ Global Growth
BINGO Digital said the issues covered in the Sina News interview reflect challenges shared by many Chinese companies operating overseas. They also align with the group’s work in digital infrastructure, AI-supported marketing and local market operations.
The group plans to continue developing its technology products and service capabilities while working with Chinese brands on international expansion. Its stated aim is to help companies establish digital operations that can support steady growth across multiple markets.
About BINGO Digital
BINGO Digital is a global digital marketing services group that works with Chinese brands expanding overseas and international brands entering China. It positions its role as a strategic partner for cross-border growth, with a focus on the digital systems needed to support long-term operations.
Its team includes former executives from global advertising agencies, former Alibaba technology professionals and big-data specialists from Deloitte. The group combines international market experience with its own technical infrastructure and links its services to measurable commercial results.
BINGO Digital says it has invested tens of millions of yuan in its R&D centre. Its proprietary AI marketing platform was built using data from commercial use cases and supports market analysis, media planning and campaign optimisation.
The company bases its service model on three principles: commercial outcomes, privacy-by-design architecture, and standardised, scalable use of AI. These principles inform its delivery standards and compliance boundaries across markets.
BINGO Digital operates 15 service locations worldwide, including 10 in major Chinese cities. It holds official partnerships with WeChat, Douyin, Xiaohongshu and Baidu in China, as well as Google, Meta and TikTok for Business internationally. Its wider network includes tens of thousands of KOLs in domestic and overseas markets.
Its services cover brand awareness, audience engagement, traffic conversion, customer operations, e-commerce transactions and online-to-offline integration. The scope extends from initial market entry to the management of long-term customer value.
Brands seeking a tailored assessment of their international expansion plans can contact the BINGO Digital team to arrange a one-to-one consultation.
