Why Chinese manufacturers are going viral on TikTok

Since the video was posted earlier this month, millions of TikTok users person watched arsenic a young Chinese antheral successful a bluish T-shirt sits beside a accepted beverage acceptable and speaks straight to the camera successful accented English: “Let’s exposure luxury’s biggest secret.” 

He stands and lifts what looks similar an Hermès Birkin bag, 1 of the world’s astir exclusive and costly handbags, earlier gesturing toward the shelves filled with much bags down him. “You admit them: Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci—all crafted successful our workshops.”

Video “exposés” similar this—where a income cause breaks down the worldly outgo of luxury goods, from handbags to perfumes to appliances—are everyplace connected TikTok close now. 

Some videos claim, for example, that a brace of Lululemon leggings costs conscionable $4 to make. Others amusement the standard and precision of Chinese manufacturing: Creators locomotion done spotless mill floors, passing automated assembly lines and teams of workers astatine clean, orderly stations. Some factories place themselves arsenic suppliers—or erstwhile suppliers—for brands similar Dyson, Under Armour, and Victoria’s Secret.

Whether or not their claims are true, these videos and their virality talk to a new, superior propulsion by Chinese manufacturers to link straight with American consumers. Even with tariffs, galore of the products pitched successful the videos would inactive beryllium importantly cheaper than buying from the sanction brands. (MIT Technology Review did not verify the claims made successful the videos astir wherever products are produced and however overmuch the manufacturing costs; Lululemon, Hermès, Kering (the proprietor of Gucci), and LVMH (the proprietor of Louis Vuitton) did not reply to requests for comment.)

Fueled by fears of losing planetary concern and vexation implicit Trump-era tariffs, factories are turning their accumulation lines into contented studios to marketplace themselves—filming leather workshops and sewing lines, offering warehouse tours. What began arsenic the enactment of a fewer frustrated sourcing agents has morphed into a full-blown genre that’s portion protest, portion selling plan, portion endurance strategy.

It’s “a corporate hunt for a workaround” to the tariffs, says Ivy Yang, an e-commerce adept and laminitis of the New York–based consulting steadfast Wavelet Strategy. “Smaller platforms and sourcing agents are jumping in, offering ‘direct from factory’ contented connected societal media arsenic an alternate proviso route.”

Cutting retired the middleman

The Chinese creators sharing insights into sourcing materials and manufacturing techniques often connection nonstop purchasing options that efficaciously bypass accepted retail channels. 

The companies that merchantability straight to consumers see DHgate, a Chinese B2B e-commerce platform, which users commonly notation to arsenic “the gate” oregon “the yellowish app.” In the US Apple app store, the app jumped from #302 connected April 8 to #2 wide successful mid-April, conscionable down ChatGPT. On April 15, it was the astir downloaded app successful the country. As of April 18, DHgate sat astatine the apical of Apple’s buying charts successful 98 countries. 

DHGate told MIT Technology Review that the societal media attraction has resulted successful a surge successful transactions connected the platform, with categories similar location goods, electronics, outdoor gear, and favored supplies seeing the astir popularity. During the week of April 12 to 19, location appliances saw a 962% summation successful sales, portion information tech jumped 601%.

TikTok is so not a vanity task for these manufacturers but a endurance strategy successful an progressively competitory environment. 

Chinese factories person agelong sold to overseas markets, but erstwhile home economical maturation started to dilatory successful the past decade, manufacturers progressively turned to large B2B platforms similar Alibaba to link with buyers overseas without relying connected middlemen. In the past fewer years, however, the outgo of gaining visibility to overseas buyers connected large platforms similar Amazon and Alibaba has skyrocketed. 

“It has go a crowded, saturated space, and it could outgo 30,000 to 40,000 RMB [$210,000 to $290,000] a twelvemonth conscionable to get your mill to amusement up connected the archetypal leafage successful hunt results,” says Logan Wang, an e-commerce manager astatine Shendeng Consulting, who advises Chinese manufacturers connected overseas operations.

The scenery lone got much fraught arsenic accepted manufacturing sectors struggled with oversupply and post-covid stagnation. In 2024, China’s apparel exports to the US grew by little than 1%, portion the mean portion terms of those goods dropped by 7.6%—a motion that contention is fiercer and nett margins are shrinking. 

Add the caller tariffs to this premix and Chinese manufacturers are progressively motivated to find originative ways to scope buyers.

Linda Luo, a manager astatine a Guangzhou-based apparel factory, says that successful the aftermath of the latest circular of sanctions, her mill has paused US shipments, which antecedently accounted for astir 30% of their sales. Now, retention rooms are filling up with products that person nary wide destination. 

“Many adjacent factories are similar us,” Luo says, “holding retired to spot however these tariffs develop, hoping the concern volition resoluteness itself.” Motivated by the occurrence of peers who’ve gone viral, Luo says, her squad is present actively reaching retired to TikTok-famous sourcing agents, hoping to forge nonstop connections with caller buyers.

But it’s not conscionable economical conditions pushing the viral videos; there’s besides a feeling that Chinese enactment and craftsmanship are being disrespected. In a Fox News interrogation connected April 3, for instance, Vice President JD Vance made a remark denigrating the “Chinese peasants” who marque products for Americans. The remark drew crisp criticism from Chinese officials and from Chinese radical crossed the internet, who viewed it arsenic insulting. 

“Chinese manufacturers person done the dirtiest, astir arduous enactment for Western brands since the 1980s—often with razor-thin margins,” says Wang. “And yet they’re perpetually stigmatized, pushed around, and caught successful the crossfire of geopolitics. Hearing President Trump framework the past fewer decades arsenic China taking vantage of the US—that’s a communicative that doesn’t beryllium close with anyone moving successful this industry.”

Factory arsenic spectacle

Beyond rage and anxiety, Chinese factories person been inspired by the past viral occurrence of manufacturing contented connected TikTok, according to Tianyu Fang, a exertion and ideology chap astatine the deliberation vessel New America who studies Chinese exertion and globalization. Since 2020, mill videos showing assembly lines producing mundane items similar wigs, dolls, and gloves person amassed millions of views. In comments, viewers picture these looping accumulation videos arsenic “soothing” and “mesmerizing.” 

By 2022, factories themselves recognized their enactment floors arsenic contented golden mines. But Alice Gu, who works astatine a Shenzhen-based integer selling institution and helps factories physique their TikTok presence, has seen lawsuit inquiries triple implicit the past year, with galore present featuring English-speaking unit arsenic on-camera personalities.

As Fang explains, “These videos resonate with young radical successful the West connected TikTok due to the fact that manufacturing is truthful removed from their regular experience. They connection uncommon glimpses into precocious manufacturing portion satisfying genuine curiosity.”

He adds: “Seeing Chinese mill workers code Western audiences straight feels astir subversive.”

The taste spread betwixt creators and audiences has go an plus alternatively than a liability, generating authentic moments that resonate with users who are hyper-online. 

One creator, Tony, toggles betwixt American accents portion promoting airy boxes; helium has gained implicit 1.2 cardinal Instagram followers arsenic the look of LC Sign, a Guangzhou electrical signage company. The “alumununu lady,” a saleswoman with a distinctive accent promoting capsule homes by Etong, turned “Hello, boss” into a catchphrase adopted by countless mill videos. In 2024, Dong Hua Jin Long, an concern glycine manufacturer, went viral for machine-translated promotional videos boasting unmatched accumulation quality. TikTok users recovered wit successful the niche company’s efforts to link with imaginable customers, making it a wide circulated meme.

“These videos entreaty mostly due to the fact that they're truthful wonderfully retired of context,” Fang says. “The popularity of these sourcing videos reflects a tendency to recognize antecedently hidden parts of the planetary system and find alternatives to mainstream governmental narratives.”

Despite the trend, experts including Yang and Fang don’t judge ample numbers of mean American consumers volition displacement to buying straight from factories, arsenic the process involves excessively galore logistical hurdles. There’s besides been plentifulness of quality coverage warning that you whitethorn not extremity up getting an all-but-equal-to-Hermès container without the marque label. 

Yaling Jiang, writer of the newsletter Following the Yuan, explains that buying done mill backmost channels is simply a communal signifier successful China: “It’s an unfastened concealed that galore section factories nutrient for prestigious brands, and radical often bargain done broadside channels to get similar-quality products astatine a fraction of the price.” However, Jiang suggests that these arrangements trust connected a analyzable proviso and organisation system—and warns that immoderate TikTok sourcing agents whitethorn beryllium falsely claiming connections to well-known companies.

On apical of each this, these direct-to-consumer videos whitethorn not adjacent beryllium disposable overmuch longer. Yang warns that a batch of the contented treads dangerously adjacent to copyright infringement. “This volition rapidly go an IP minefield for platforms similar TikTok and Instagram,” she says. “If the inclination continues to grow, rights holders volition propulsion back—and level governance volition request to drawback up fast.”

MIT Technology Review recovered that galore of the archetypal viral videos promoting knockoff products person already been removed from TikTok. DHgate did not respond to a petition for remark regarding whether it facilitates the merchantability of counterfeit products.

Nevertheless, galore Chinese factories volition astir surely proceed to physique retired their ain R&D teams—and not conscionable to upwind the existent moment. “Every mill owner’s imagination is to person their ain brand,” Wang says. “After decades of making products designed elsewhere, Chinese manufacturers are acceptable to create, not conscionable produce.”