(Yicai) Sept. 2 -- Marketing channels, such as content creators, distributors, and media outlets, have evolved into out-and-out infrastructure ecosystems to meet demand from Chinese brands expanding overseas, as large language models play a more prominent role in purchasing decisions and customer acquisition costs continue to rise.

Chinese brands going global now need to manage a “partner portfolio” comprising distributors, content creators, authoritative media, discount and cashback platforms, and service providers rather than a single sales channel, Alan Gu, founder and chief executive officer of Chinese end-to-end software solutions and services provider PartnerBoost, said at the 2026 PartnerBoost Evolve Summit held in Shenzhen on Aug. 27 and 28, which drew more than 3,000 attendees.

The relationship between brands and ecosystem partners is being redefined. Creators are no longer seen as “one-off traffic hunters” but as a “trust infrastructure,” Mark Grimshaw, executive vice president of partnerships at Nomix Group, said at the summit. Nomix is a commerce technology company that aims to transform how brands, consumers, and publishers interact with the digital economy.

Affiliate ecosystems not only drive conversions but also provide genuine market feedback and product insights that propel new product development, representatives from Chinese handset maker Blackview, children's shoe brand Taranis, and smart home and pet care technology brand Neakasa said at a roundtable talk during the summit.

Generative artificial intelligence is reshaping consumers’ purchasing process, with more and more turning to LLMs such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity for shopping advice. Brands' marketing tactics are shifting accordingly, from keyword-based search engine optimization to generative engine optimization and the pursuit of AI visibility.

LLMs form their recommendations primarily by drawing on media coverage, expert review, forum discussions, and professional creator content, said Adrian Fagerlund, co-founder and chief revenue officer of Linkby, a platform connecting e-commerce brands with premium publishers. This means that brands consistently discussed by high-quality third parties appear more in AI-generated answers, he noted.

Conversion rates driven by LLMs are nine times higher than those from traditional SEO, Fagerlund added.

After expanding coverage by high-quality affiliates and media, brands’ mention rate in AI chatbot responses can increase to 43 percent from 18 percent, according to data from PartnerBoost.

AI is reshaping not only the consumer side but also companies’ operations as they expand overseas. “Sellers don’t lack data, they lack answers,” said the head of products at SellerSprite, an all-in-one tool for product selection, market analysis, keyword optimization, and product tracking for Amazon sellers. “AI is evolving from helping you find data to helping you make decisions.”

PartnerBoost signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Tencent Cloud at the summit. Tencent Holdings’ AI workplace product WorkBuddy is gradually taking over analysis and task execution to support teams expanding overseas, said Zhai Kun, deputy general manager of smart retail and life solutions at Tencent.

PartnerBoost also unveiled new AI product capabilities at the summit, including AI Center, which embeds AI into the entire chain of alliance marketing, from observation to decision-making and execution.

Now that generating content has become cheaper, information overload has made authenticity scarce, which is changing how capital markets value companies expanding overseas.

As traffic alone no longer guarantees success, the standard for assessing a brand’s competitive moat has shifted from short-term sales growth to technological capabilities, brand equity, and global organizational structure, Capital Nuts, Yunmu Capital, and other venture capital firms said at an investor roundtable during the summit.

Because of external uncertainties, such as tariffs and rising costs, companies mostly need to build the ability to connect emotionally with overseas customers, the chief marketing officer of cross-border e-commerce firm Beijing Huaqing Technology said. The price premium that brands communicate is the long-term asset that helps them withstand risk, he added.

"Performance marketing and brand marketing are converging,” Gu said. “A high-quality review can both build brand credibility and directly drive sales."

Chinese brands' traditional core strengths -- product, supply chain, and engineering efficiency -- are no longer sufficient to form a competitive barrier, Gu noted. The next stage of competition will depend on whether companies can convert efficiency into global influence, moving from following industry rules to formulating them, he added.

Editor: Futura Costaglione