Following Campaign’s recent op-ed on influencers encroaching on agencies’ territory in China, new research shows the rest of Asia is catching up, albeit unevenly. Totem, in collaboration with Rakuten Insight Global, has surveyed 3,813 consumers across seven key markets, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and India, and 54 brands, revealing striking differences in how influencer-led commerce is evolving across the region. Campaign Asia-Pacific gained early access to the report. Key findings with implications for marketers below:
The study highlights Asia’s lead in social commerce, driven by livestreaming and influencer-led engagement, but also exposes a considerable investment gap: only 0.75% of Asia’s US$800 billion social commerce GMV goes to influencers, compared with 6.8% in the US.
"The study found that Asian consumers are driving the shift towards influencer-led commerce. From livestream shopping to community-driven recommendations, it's clear that the consumer is no longer a passive audience but an active participant shaping the future of marketing," Ayaz Akhtar, regional head of Greater China at Rakuten Insight Global.
With deep reach into 12 APAC markets, Rakuten Insight "surveys combine rigorous sampling with cultural relevance — we ask the right questions in the right way for each market, ensuring insights that brands can act on, " explained Akhtar regarding the survey approach.
Mature markets stay cautious, emerging markets jump ahead
The survey ranks enthusiasm for social commerce by market. China, Indonesia, India, and the Philippines are leapfrogging legacy retail thanks to digitally-native habits and TikTok’s relentless push. But Japan and South Korea are outliers, with low enthusiasm for influencers, livestream commerce, and peer-to-peer selling.
“Japan, for instance, shows the least enthusiasm for most key activities—particularly for influencers, livestream commerce, and peer-to-peer selling,” says Chris Baker, founder of Totem. “This isn’t about economic maturity. It’s about cultural inertia and digital habits that are hard to shift.”
Looking ahead, he said, “China may be slowing down, while other markets catch up—some faster, like Indonesia, India, and the Philippines; some much slower, like Japan.”
Baker’s point is clear: “As with most tech adoption, there is leap-frogging: mature habits are hard to break in mature markets, while less developed markets adopt quickly because the new is often far better than incumbent routines.”
For marketers, this means a one-size-fits-all influencer playbook is dead on arrival. The leapfrog effect means that what works in Jakarta or Mumbai might flop in Tokyo or Seoul.
Gen Z drives the shift
Except for the online marketplace, Gen Z consumers across Asia are increasingly shifting their focus to other channels, particularly those rooted in social commerce. The gap between Gen Z and older internet users is narrower in Asia than in the US or EU, because older Asian users are already familiar with influencers and social commerce.
“In Asia, the shift will be much more subtle, owing to the fact that social commerce is already so fundamental to the digital landscape,” says Baker. For brands, this means influencer marketing isn’t just a Gen Z play; older segments are in the game too.
Categories that win include fashion, beauty and luxury, basically anything with high visual and aspirational appeal.
"We have found that Gen Z consistently over-indexes in online shopping, from this and previous research in the region. Categories with high aspirational or visual appeal, such as fashion, beauty and luxury, are clear leaders across all markets," said Akhtar.
The research is unequivocal: live commerce in Asia is significantly ahead of the rest of the world, with 84% of surveyed consumers having watched and/or purchased from a livestream. The study also analyses that Gen Z have a higher propensity to buy from livestreams, across all categories. While brand points of sale are the primary checkout sites, influencers play a definite role in supporting the final sale. Influencers play a crucial role in this process, with larger, more high-status influencers leading the way.
Bigger is still better: Status trumps micro-influencer trend
One of the most counterintuitive findings: Consumers across Asia still associate higher status and trust with large influencers and celebrities, flying in the face of the global micro-influencer narrative.
Baker explains: "There is a good place for all sizes, profiles of influencers within a brand’s goal setting. Our results suggest that brands need to more carefully consider this move to smaller influencers - especially when building status and “influence” is at stake - such as with launching a new product, a repositioning (eg, A move upwards in position), or with a large sale/promotion."
While influencers are turbocharging the rise of social commerce, the numbers don’t lie: Asia’s influencer investment is still a rounding error compared to the opportunity. If Asia moved to US levels of influencer spend relative to GMV, it would unlock $54 billion in new investment and that would be a market-defining moment for agencies, platforms, and brands.
Lessons from China: The future will look more like Douyin than DTC
As China sets the trend in social commerce and influencer marketing, the study raises important questions about whether the rest of Asia will develop a marketing ecosystem similar to China's or evolve as a mix of both Chinese and American characteristics. It predicts that "more like Asia (ex., Japan and Korea) will end up looking more like China than the US when we project forward into the next 5-10 years. "
Baker noted that "the systems of marketing (social commerce), together with key channels (marketplaces and TikTok), together with proximity and shared cultural references (think K-pop) mean that there is a lot more sharing of routines and experiences."
He further explained that "one of the most important insights from our analysis is that TikTok is a major driver of social commerce enthusiasm. Markets where TikTok is well established and fully functional (with shops) outpace markets where TikTok is limited. This trend on its own suggests that Asia will move more closely to the China model of digital marketing in the years to come."
Despite the hype, DTC is still a sideshow in Asia.
86% of consumers use e-commerce marketplaces; only 59% use brand websites. Baker points to deep structural barriers like fragmented markets, logistics and habits that keep marketplaces firmly in the lead.
Baker attributes the slow adoption of DTC to structural challenges. "For a full-DTC approach to succeed across the region, it would be necessary for brands to have more centralised Websites and logistics setups," he said. Consumers need to be accustomed to buying mostly from branded websites. "Right now, most consumers in the region prefer to buy from a marketplace."
Over the next 18 months, 80% of surveyed brands plan to increase spend on ecommerce marketplaces; 74% on influencers.
"As a result, brand directors in the region are favouring activities that are more closely connected to commerce, such as marketplaces and influencers (for selling), along with other initiatives that can be more directly linked to return on investment (ROI)," explained Baker.
