Half a year has passed since Fan Bingbing’s brand opened an account on TikTok. Recently, Fan Bingbing released a video announcing her new move in the cross-border e-commerce sector: her beauty brand Fan Beauty Diary has officially joined TikTok Shop, garnering attention from many industry insiders.
Before joining TikTok Shop, Fan Bingbing’s brand had already joined Lazada, indicating her focus on the potential for development in cross-border e-commerce and her continuous investment in this area. Cross-border e-commerce has become a new growth point for foreign trade in China. In recent years, the country has introduced multiple measures to promote the development of cross-border e-commerce, with traditional foreign trade and China domestic e-commerce businesses transforming into cross-border operations. China’s influencers like Xinba and Li Jiaqi are also expanding their overseas business strategy. (Joining TikTok Shop, Amazon, Temu, Lazada, and other cross-border e-commerce platforms to explore global business opportunities, the 2025 Global Store Opening Season starts now!)
Fan Bingbing Brings Her Own Brand to TikTok Shop
Six months ago, on TikTok, Fan Bingbing’s brand Fan Beauty Diary posted a short video featuring Fan Bingbing announcing the official entry of her beauty brand “Fan Beauty Diary” into TikTok, where she will share her favorite beauty and skincare products. The industry generally believes that Fan Bingbing is paving the way for cross-border e-commerce business.
However, in the three months following Fan Bingbing’s announcement, Fan Beauty Diary did not achieve particularly outstanding results.
As mentioned earlier, Fan Beauty Diary’s opening of a social media account on TikTok may have been just to add a new overseas marketing channel for the brand and to pave the way for cross-border e-commerce business.
As expected, half a year later, Fan Beauty Diary officially entered TikTok e-commerce. On December 19, the TikTok account @fan.beauty.diary posted a video in which Fan Bingbing announced that her beauty brand Fan Beauty has officially joined TikTok Shop, choosing Singapore as the first location.
Fan Beauty is a makeup and skincare brand established by Fan Bingbing in 2018, mainly selling facial masks, skincare products, shampoo, etc., with prices ranging from 30 yuan to 800 yuan. Since its establishment, it has rapidly risen to become a well-known Chinese brand with its unique product positioning and Fan Bingbing’s personal influence. During the 2019 “Double 11” shopping festival, Fan Beauty Diary achieved a transaction volume of 40 million yuan in just one hour, thus establishing Fan Bingbing’s position in the beauty industry.
Previously, Fan Beauty has achieved a GMV of over 300 million in 2021, over 800 million in 2022, and over 1.1 billion in 2023, standing out among many celebrity beauty brands. At the end of May 2024, Fan Beauty Diary officially announced its entry into the Lazada platforms of Singapore and Malaysia, officially starting the brand’s overseas journey.
Collaborating with “Singapore’s Li Jiaqi” for Live Commerce
Fan Beauty Diary disclosed on its TikTok account @fan.beauty.diary that it will start its live debut at 9 pm on December 20, collaborating with the live commerce influencer @Fredyjays Maxx, known as “Singapore’s Li Jiaqi”.
Reports indicate that earlier this year, Fan Beauty’s team contacted TikTok officials about cooperation and decided to choose the Southeast Asian market as the first stop.
TikTok Shop Singapore was officially launched in June 2022, and in March 2024, the TikTok Shop Mall brand mall was officially launched in Singapore.
For Fan Beauty Diary to choose Singapore as the first stop, Fan Bingbing mentioned in the TikTok video that the reason is the enthusiastic friends and skincare-savvy consumers here. She looks forward to bringing high-quality beauty products to local consumers through live broadcasts. Industry insiders believe that the specific reasons may mainly consider the following points:
Strong Growth in E-Commerce Market
According to GlobalData, Singapore’s e-commerce market had a compound annual growth rate of 25.3% between 2020 and 2023, with a market size of 21.2 billion Singapore dollars (about 15.8 billion US dollars) in 2023. It is expected that Singapore’s e-commerce market will continue to grow at a rate of 11.7% in 2024, with a market size of 23.7 billion Singapore dollars (about 17.6 billion US dollars), and the market size is expected to reach 33.3 billion Singapore dollars (about 24.8 billion US dollars) by 2028. The rapid growth of Singapore’s e-commerce market is mainly due to its high penetration rate and high consumption capacity. Singapore’s e-commerce user penetration rate is as high as 74%, ranking first in Southeast Asian countries. The Singapore government actively promotes the development of e-commerce, providing a good policy environment and support.
During the recent Double 12 promotion period, TikTokShop’s battle report showed that on December 12, the GMV of TikTokShop Singapore increased by 127%, and the GMV of live commerce increased by nearly 160%. Since the promotion season this year, TikTokShop has set off a live broadcast craze in the Southeast Asian region, and the high sales conversion brought by it has continued to be strong in December.
Strong Beauty Consumption Capacity
Singapore is the most developed country in Southeast Asia, with low user education costs, strong brand awareness, and strong consumption capacity, making it an international and mature beauty market. Local consumers are influenced by global trends and like to try the latest and most fashionable beauty products, which gives international beauty brands and products great market potential in the Singapore market. According to TikTok’s official data, the total GMV of live commerce on Singapore’s TikTok Shop increased fourfold in the second half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, accounting for most of the total GMV.
Beauty is a High-Potential Category on TikTok
Beauty and personal care have always been a hot category on TikTok. According to GoodsFox’s global purchase insight data, in September this year, the advertising exposure of the beauty and personal care category on TikTok reached 4.7 billion, with an average daily advertising volume of more than 449,000, both ranking first.
In 2023, TikTok Shop’s GMV was 11.09 billion US dollars, of which the beauty and personal care category created a GMV of 2.49 billion US dollars, accounting for 22.5% of the total GMV.
Previously, Li Jiaqi’s company MeiONE also officially started the layout of overseas business and established an international development department, releasing several positions related to the international development department, including live broadcast technology, live broadcast control, influencer live broadcast operation, senior cross-border e-commerce operation, business operation, and TikTok account operation. Among them, the position of “live broadcast control” especially emphasizes the ability to speak Indonesian, and it is obvious that MeiONE’s first overseas stop is likely to be in Indonesia.
China’s domestic beauty sellers have a special preference for the Southeast Asian market when choosing overseas markets, but opportunities are often accompanied by challenges. Overseas live e-commerce needs to follow local market rules and consumption patterns. With the influence of the star IP Fan Bingbing, how far can the beauty brand Fan Beauty Diary go in the field of cross-border e-commerce? We will wait and see.
