The market for luxury goods in China has been growing for years and the government has enacted multiple bans on advertising for those goods in an effort to reduce corruption and promote a certain kind of values for its people.
The recent ban on radio and television advertisements for luxury goods has had an interesting result. Instead of reducing their sales, as was the goal of the campaign, the ban has simply caused a shift in advertising from radio and television to the internet. According to Jing Daily, the shift to the internet has happened more quickly because of the bans:
"China’s relatively young luxury consumer — far younger than their counterpart in the West – has, by and large, turned to mobile devices for luxury news and e-commerce, getting product information and brand updates in bite-sized pieces via social media platforms like Weibo and WeChat."
The people who rely on radio and television advertisements do not make up a large percentage of the luxury goods customers.
WeChat is going to be the very important for luxury goods marketing in China: "In the year ahead, premium brands will expand strongly into mobile marketing and e-commerce, and for many of them, WeChat is already a must-have."
According to the Wall Street Journal, "Beijing's efforts to squeeze luxury adverts off television may push some big marketing budgets online." The luxury brands know that they have customers in China who are ready to buy - if they can't reach them through television or radio, they will move to the next logical place: the internet.