On December 3, the Cyber Interstellar Hub Special Session on Global Expansion of AI + Smart Hardware, hosted by eclicktech's Cyberklick in conjunction with Yingxiang, Snapchat, Tencent Cloud and PayPal, was successfully concluded in Shenzhen. Focusing on the new opportunities for global expansion marketing reshaped by AI technology, the event featured in-depth sharing and insightful discussions on core topics including how smart hardware brands can leverage AI for growth, connect with Gen Z, and build long-term competitiveness.

01 eclicktech: AI-Driven Growth – Strategic Upgrade from SEO to GEO

Riven, Head of DTC Brand Technology Department at eclicktech, kicked off the event with a keynote sharing titled GEO Growth Hacking for Smart Hardware DTC Standalone Sites in the AI Era, systematically explaining the emerging growth paradigm of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).

Riven pointed out that the market opportunities and underlying logic are quietly changing: in the AI digital era, the traditional logic of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is being overturned. The core of GEO is to enable brand content to be better identified, cited and recommended by AI large models, thereby capturing AI-native traffic.

At the same time, he specifically noted that GEO is currently in a strategic investment window, and early adopters will be the first to seize the brand high ground in the AI digital world and participate in the formulation of industry standards. He recommended allocating around 5% of the total marketing budget to GEO, and running traditional SEO and GEO in a dual-track parallel model. The two have different focus areas in target positioning and KPI systems, and together build an omnichannel traffic moat for brands in both the search era and the generative AI era.

Three Core Differences from Traditional SEO

• Search Method: Shifted from "keyword indexing – user self-screening" to "AI understanding – reasoning and answer generation".

• Optimization Goal: Shifted from focusing on ranking and clicks to focusing on "AI Visibility", placement in AI-generated answers, and citation speed.

• Performance Measurement: Added new measurement dimensions including AI channel traffic, conversion rate and order value.

Finally, Riven proposed an eight-dimensional GEO optimization framework covering citation authority, statistical data, structured data, knowledge graphs, multimodal content and more. As large models are continuously evolving and iterating, brands can develop a 90-Day Action Plan for flexible adjustments: the first month to consolidate the technical foundation and entity definition; the second month to optimize content assets and multimodal presentation; the third month to focus on front-end data accuracy and performance testing, with continuous optimization in subsequent cycles.

02 Snapchat: The Social Code to Connect with Gen Z – Trust, Experience and Authenticity

Gavin Zheng, Business Director of New Business at Snapchat, delivered a sharing titled Growing with Gen Z: New Opportunities for Brand Globalization Driven by Snapchat, providing an in-depth interpretation of how to build deep connections with Gen Z, this critical consumer group.

Platform Ecosystem and User Insights

As a leading close-knit social network platform overseas, Snapchat is deeply loved by nearly 1 billion global monthly active users (MAU) for the authenticity of close friend interactions, the creativity of AR Lens, and the engaging nature of community content. Among them, Gen Z is the largest and most spending-capable generation worldwide. As "digital natives", they reject overly commercialized marketing content and crave brand content that is authentic, engaging and emotionally connected.

Unique Opportunities for Chinese Brands

According to the Top Chinese Global Brands Loved by Gen Z jointly released by Snapchat and Kantar, Chinese brands in digital entertainment, smart hardware (3C) and e-commerce platforms have already occupied an important position in the minds of Gen Z worldwide, widely recognized for their characteristics of "high quality and affordable price, cutting-edge technology, and localized integration".

Three Core Connection Strategies

• Deepen Community Engagement to Build Trust: 77% of users want to build authentic connections with brands. Leveraging brand official accounts and Snapchat's newly launched Sponsored Snaps native chat ad format, brands can integrate into users' social circles in a more approachable way.

• Create Immersive Experiences to Drive Resonance: AR Lens filters are Snapchat's signature tool. Presenting product experiences through AR games, virtual try-ons, 3D interactions and more can greatly boost users' positive sentiment and willingness to share, directly driving word-of-mouth marketing and conversion.

• Leverage the Ecosystem for Close-Knit Word-of-Mouth: Snapchat is a close-knit social platform, and recommendations from friends, family and trusted influencers have a profound impact on purchase decisions. Deep integration with the platform's creator ecosystem is an effective way to enhance brand influence.

03 Ulike: Hands-On Brand Operation – Cost Reduction, Efficiency Improvement and Competitive Breakthrough

Yvonne Yuen from Ulike shared, from the brand owner's perspective, how to achieve refined operation and growth breakthroughs amid widespread pressure on marketing budgets.

Diversified Strategies to Address Rising Traffic Costs

• Closed-Loop SEO Mindset: SEO should not only be the responsibility of the marketing department, but require collaboration with product and content teams to form a complete closed loop from content traffic diversion on platforms such as YouTube and Reddit to final conversion.

• Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC) and Key Opinion Consumers (KOCs): Integrate KOCs into large-scale campaigns. If the volume of content they generate reaches more than 5 times that of official content, it will deliver an exponential increase in brand voice. TikTok is an ideal channel to launch KOC strategies.

• Focus on Communities Such as Reddit: As traffic dividends from the Google ecosystem fade, Reddit, the overseas equivalent of "Tieba + Zhihu", has become a key position for vertical brands to build word-of-mouth and achieve precise reach.

• Pay Attention to Insights into Younger Groups: Even if the target users are not young people, their language system and content preferences can provide key inspiration for product innovation and communication methods, helping brands discover new growth points.

A Rational View of AI: Emotional Insight Integrated into Decision-Making

Yvonne emphasized that marketers should not over-rely on AI. Instead, they should first form their own strategies and creative ideas, then use AI for logic correction and efficiency improvement. The final decision must combine rational data with emotional understanding of the target audience.

04 Roundtable Discussion: The Present and Future of Smart Hardware Global Expansion

In the roundtable discussion moderated by Will, Co-Founder of Yingxiang, guests from Snapchat, eclicktech, Tencent Cloud and PayPal discussed a number of hot topics, with core insights as follows:

• Performance Measurement and Budget Allocation: Riven from eclicktech shared that GEO performance should be evaluated through a combination of qualitative (AI Visibility, brand mentions) and quantitative (AI channel traffic and conversions) indicators. For DTC brands, GEO is an "important but not urgent" strategic initiative, and a 5% budget share is a reasonable investment at the current stage. SEM and affiliate marketing budgets should be dynamically allocated according to the ROI of each category.

• Social Conversion and Trust Building: Smart hardware has a long consumer decision-making journey, making high-trust social scenarios (such as recommendations from friends and family, influencer reviews) critical. Brands need to create highly authentic, immersive content to achieve a closed loop from word-of-mouth building to trust-based conversion.

• In-Depth AI Application and Data Empowerment: Liu Weixing from Tencent Cloud advocated for "full-team embrace of AI", applying AI as an efficiency improvement tool across all positions. Riven from eclicktech is optimistic about the Agency Commerce model, which uses AI tools in ecosystems such as Shopify (e.g., Sidekick) to deliver end-to-end empowerment from data synchronization and intelligent operation to transaction closed loop.

• Payment and Compliance Insights: Steven from PayPal pointed out that Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) can effectively improve the conversion rate of high-unit-price smart hardware, and payment data can in turn provide user insights for brands. At the same time, global enterprises must attach great importance to compliance challenges including content security, privacy protection (such as the General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR), and infrastructure security, which are the cornerstones of the long-term development of brands.

• Localization Mindset for New Market Expansion: When entering different markets such as Europe, the US and the Middle East, it is critical to understand the essential differences in consumption motivations: the former focuses on functionality and brand attitude, while the latter values status symbols. Marketing strategies must be highly localized, making good use of native formats that fit local user habits such as Snapchat Sponsored Snaps and AR filters.

This event clearly outlined a new path for the global expansion of smart hardware: tactically, actively embrace AI-driven growth technologies such as GEO to optimize traffic acquisition efficiency; strategically, deeply understand and integrate into the social context of Gen Z, and build a brand moat with trust and experience; operationally, adhere to refined operation and data-driven decision-making to find breakthroughs while reducing costs and increasing efficiency; holistically, attach great importance to localized compliance and payment experience to ensure the long-term and steady development of the business.

The dual waves of AI and social media are profoundly reshaping the global expansion landscape. Only by deeply integrating technological strength, consumer insight and brand power can brands win the next era of incremental growth in the journey of "making global expansion easier".