Pedestrian street seeks to be more youthful
Shanghai's Nanjing Pedestrian Mall is to cooperate with Douyin to promote the digital transformation and innovation of the business area.
The Shanghai Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street Enterprises Association signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Shanghai branch of Ocean Engine, an advertising service under Chinese Internet technology company ByteDance, which integrates the marketing capabilities of platforms such as Douyin.
The street said it will join forces with Ocean Engine to organize a series of promotional activities to make it more youthful and energetic, thus boosting the development of the online economy.
The century-old street is home to more than 20 time-honoured Chinese brands and a large number of international brands. Annual sales on the street exceed 18 billion yuan (US$2.55 billion) and, last year, it attracted more than 200 million tourists.
The highest number of daily active users on Douyin, a mobile app popular with young people, has exceeded 400 million, and it has successfully promoted a number of well-known tourist attractions at home and abroad.
The agreement will provide an opportunity for the business area to make another transformation and innovation, said Zhou Lan, deputy director of the city's commerce commission.
"At present Shanghai is actively fostering and strengthening the development of emerging consumption. By playing the role of large platforms and their large data steams, it enables the digital transformation of traditional commercial enterprises and business areas," Zhou said.
Chen Yong, president of the Nanjing Pedestrian Mall Enterprises Association, said the transformation of the business area has accelerated significantly, and the street will introduce a number of new stores and first stores of well-known brands.
With Douyin, it is hoped that young people will be kept abreast of the changes to the street, thus attracting more local consumers as well as tourists to visit and enjoy new experiences, Chen said.
