Best Social Media Agencies in Shanghai (2026)

Introduction

Shanghai is where most international brands run their China social media, and the seven agencies below all manage WeChat, Xiaohongshu, Douyin and KOL programmes from offices in the city. They range from a luxury influencer specialist to bilingual boutiques that help foreign brands launch their first official accounts.

The platforms themselves are close at hand. Xiaohongshu and Bilibili are both headquartered in Shanghai, and the city’s beauty, fashion, luxury and sportswear clients plan much of their China content here. Social work in China runs on separate platforms, separate creator networks and separate advertising tools from the rest of the world, so brands usually need a team that writes natively in Chinese and can report back in English. The network side of the market also shifted in 2025 and 2026, after Omnicom completed its acquisition of IPG and retired several agency brands.

Every agency here showed an active Shanghai office on a page we checked in 2026. The list leans towards agencies that work with international brands, since that is who most readers of this page are. It runs in no fixed order of merit: the right choice depends on your category, your platforms and how much of the work you want handled in China.

The best social media agencies in Shanghai

1. Qumin

Independent · Jing’an · qumin.com

Qumin describes itself as a boutique, independent agency for global creative and communications, with more than 15 years in the business and a Shanghai studio on Chengdu North Road in Jing’an. It sits alongside three sister brands: DAO Insights for China market insight, Etch for audience research and 666, which connects brands with creators. Its awards page lists a run of Drum, W3 and BIMA wins, including Drum Top Digital Agency.

Work shown on its site includes Stone Island, Funko, Vuori, Glashütte, Marriott’s Moxy hotels and Manchester United. The creator arm makes it a reasonable fit for brands that want KOL work and content production under one roof.

2. Sekkei Digital Group

Independent · Changning · sekkeidigitalgroup.com

Sekkei Digital Group has worked in China since 2010 under founder and CEO David Henriques, with its main team in the Shanghai Mart building on Yan’an West Road and further offices in Paris and Manila. It covers social media, KOL campaigns, WeChat content, Xiaohongshu, Douyin and Baidu search, along with website localisation.

Clients include Solvay, whose WeChat content programme the agency says produced more than 950 qualified leads, Ligne Roset, Marriott, Veja and the Region of Valencia, which used WeChat, Weibo and Mafengwo for destination awareness. It also ran a Bilibili livestream for the game Riftstorm. Sekkei suits B2B and travel brands as much as consumer ones.

3. YKONE

Founder-led, Paris-headquartered · Shanghai · ykone.com

YKONE is an influencer marketing agency founded in Paris in 2008 by Olivier Billon. It opened its Shanghai and Hong Kong offices in 2021, and YKONE China is run by CEO Julien Gaubert Molina. The group has kept expanding through 2026, acquiring the Italian agency Digital Dust and announcing a Tokyo office in October.

Its client list is heavy on luxury and beauty: Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Burberry, Lancôme and Estée Lauder among them. China work on its site includes Prada’s 2025 Qixi Festival campaign, Nespresso’s Chinese New Year collaboration with designer Angel Chen and Gucci’s La Famiglia. For a luxury house running creator campaigns in China alongside other markets, YKONE gives one agency across both.

4. PingPong Digital

Independent · Jing’an · pingpongdigital.com

PingPong Digital is a UK-registered China marketing agency with its Shanghai team at 696 Weihai Road in Jing’an and further offices in London, Birmingham and New York. It handles WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu and Toutiao accounts, paid social and KOL campaigns, plus Chinese websites and WeChat stores.

Client logos on its site include Gymshark, Hugo Boss, Molton Brown, Deliveroo, Vestiaire Collective, Galeries Lafayette and Manchester United. It also has a long list of university clients, which makes it a common choice for student recruitment on Chinese social platforms.

5. Shanghai Jungle

European-owned · Shanghai · shanghaijungle.com

Shanghai Jungle was founded in 2013 and describes itself as European-owned, with European management and a Chinese team in Shanghai, plus offices in Copenhagen and Stuttgart. Its social team creates and manages content on WeChat, Xiaohongshu, Douyin and Weibo, and runs KOL and KOC campaigns that it says are negotiated directly with creators, without an MCN in between.

Named clients include LVMH, BMW Group, ECCO, Mercedes-Benz and Pandora. The agency also runs Tmall, JD and Douyin stores, so it fits brands that want social content and e-commerce operations handled by the same team.

6. HI-COM

Independent · Shanghai · hicom-asia.com

HI-COM is headquartered in Shanghai, with an office in Hong Kong and two in France. It was co-founded by CEO Stephane Choury and Robert Harrison, and its marketing team covers Douyin, WeChat and Xiaohongshu, KOL and influencer campaigns, livestreaming, PR and event support.

Logos on its site include Airbus, Decathlon, Kering, Accor, The Economist and Bilibili, and recent work includes support for exhibitors at World Seafood Shanghai 2026. HI-COM also runs a large translation and interpreting service, which helps brands that need technical or legal content adapted before it goes on social.

7. Gentlemen Marketing Agency

Independent · Shanghai · marketingtochina.com

Gentlemen Marketing Agency (GMA) was founded in Shanghai in 2012 and works from the Jingu Central Building. Its social offer is detailed by platform: WeChat official accounts, mini-programs and private-traffic CRM; Xiaohongshu account verification, search-led content and KOC seeding; Douyin short video, creator campaigns and live commerce; and Weibo campaign bursts.

The agency says it has launched more than 1,500 brands into China, though its case studies are anonymised (a European beauty brand, an imported food and drink brand and a B2B supplier). It suits smaller brands that want a platform-by-platform plan and a fixed scope.

What to look for in a Shanghai social media agency

Start with the platforms that matter for your category. Beauty and fashion brands tend to lead on Xiaohongshu and Douyin, gaming and youth brands on Bilibili, and B2B or travel brands often rely on WeChat official accounts. An agency that names the platform teams and shows recent results on the ones you need is a better bet than one that lists every channel.

Ask how creators are sourced and paid. Some agencies book KOLs and KOCs through MCNs, while others negotiate directly or use their own creator networks. Both can work, but the route changes the cost, the speed and how much control you have over the brief and the usage rights.

Check how the agency reports. Most international brands need monthly reporting in English with data pulled from Chinese platform dashboards, and someone in the Shanghai team who can explain what the numbers mean. Agree the metrics before launch, whether that is saves and comments on Xiaohongshu, completion rates on Douyin or leads from WeChat.

Look at how content gets approved. Social calendars in China move quickly around festivals such as Chinese New Year, Qixi, 6.18 and Double 11, and a bilingual approval chain can lose days when drafts, videos and comments are spread across email and chat. Agencies with a single place for the content plan, the latest cuts and client feedback make those peaks easier.

How Fabric helps social media agency teams

Fabric gives a social team one workspace for its content, client feedback and account knowledge, with AI search across all of it. The setup for social content agencies keeps each client’s briefs, creator assets, videos and reports together, which suits agencies running several brand accounts across Chinese platforms at once.

Short-form video takes up most of the storage. Fabric’s cloud drive streams files on demand, so they take no local disk space, and editors can open large video files without a full download. Audio and video transcription makes the spoken content of uploads searchable, and search works by meaning across documents, images and transcripts, so a team can find last year’s festival content or a creator’s past video by describing it.

For review, share a file or folder with the client as a commenter. Shared links work without sign-up. Through annotations, the client can leave timestamped comments on a video, draw on a frame to show what needs changing and draw on images to mark up a key visual. The team marks each comment completed as it is fixed, so feedback works like a checklist. Threaded comments and @mentions keep the bilingual conversation next to the file. Finished assets can be published as a web page for view-only access.

Content calendars fit naturally in Fabric’s Kanban boards, where any folder becomes a board whose cards are the files themselves; there is more in content planning with Fabric. On Team plans, self-writing docs can maintain a page for each client from meetings, Slack and the workspace, covering decisions, deliverables and open items.

Password protection and link analytics are included on Pro and Team plans, and self-writing docs on Team plans, which start from $125 a month. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best social media agency in Shanghai?

It depends on the brand and the platforms. YKONE has the strongest luxury and beauty client list among the agencies here, Sekkei Digital Group has a long record with B2B and travel clients on WeChat, and Shanghai Jungle suits brands that want social and e-commerce handled together.

Which social platforms do Shanghai agencies manage?

The main ones are WeChat, Xiaohongshu (also called RED or RedNote), Douyin, Weibo and Bilibili. Most agencies also run KOL and KOC campaigns and paid advertising on those platforms, and some add livestream commerce.

Do I need a Shanghai agency if my brand already has a global social agency?

Usually yes, for China. Chinese platforms are not covered by most global social teams, and content, creator contracts and reporting all run in Chinese. Many brands keep their global agency for strategy and creative direction and use a Shanghai agency for local execution.

What is the difference between a KOL and a KOC?

KOLs (key opinion leaders) are established creators with large followings, while KOCs (key opinion consumers) are everyday users with smaller audiences whose posts read as personal recommendations. Xiaohongshu campaigns often combine a few KOLs with a larger number of KOCs.

Where can I find agencies that also run performance media and e-commerce in Shanghai?

Full-funnel performance and e-commerce operators are covered on our list of the best marketing agencies in Shanghai. Some agencies on this page, such as Shanghai Jungle, also run Tmall and Douyin stores.

Related lists

Social media agencies in other cities: New York · London · Singapore · Hong Kong · Los Angeles

More in Shanghai: Creative agencies · Marketing agencies · Advertising agencies · Content studios · Video production · Branding agencies

Run your agency on Fabric: Fabric for social content agencies · Fabric for agencies · Best social media scheduler for agencies