Downpatrick man Dillon big hit in China selling whiskey

Downpatrick man Dillon big hit in China selling whiskey

20 March 2024

A DOWNPATRICK man has accumulated more than a million followers on social media after becoming China’s top whiskey influencer. 

Using the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, Dillon King has created a lucrative business selling 6,000 bottles of whiskey a month directly to customers.

The 36 year-old operates in a small studio in the basement of an office building in Beijing’s Chaoyang district.

Live-streaming seven hours a day, four days a week, he has built a large and dedicated following. Known as Lao Jin, Dillon also records videos in which he tastes a number of whiskeys or other spirits and offers his unvarnished opinion.

“I use a lot tasting references which Chinese people will understand,” Dillon explained.

“I tend to focus on ones which are relatable and I also use colloquial Chinese and slang.”

The business model depends on China’s ecommerce infrastructure, which is more advanced and extensive than its counterparts in Europe and the US.

The process of clicking and buying on screen during his live-streams is simple and streamlined, and the product Dillon is talking about is delivered to the customer’s home within three days.

He has been in the whiskey business since he arrived in China 15 years ago working as a brand manager for a number of companies before striking out on his own.

Apart from his live-streaming and social media videos, Dillon acts as a consultant to brands hoping to enter a Chinese whiskey market that has transformed over the past decade.

“Before we had sort of an hourglass figure, where you had the really expensive 50 year-old stud and then you had your dirt cheap one and in between nothing was selling, whereas now what we’ve got is more like a healthy pyramid,” Dillon explained.

“There’s a lot of cheap stuff and now that the economy is where it is, which is to say not good, a lot of people are trading down, so you’re seeing in the mid-range and the lower mid-range, your entry level really that the volume is picking up.”

He continued: “That’s driven by the same guys who were drinking it before and now younger consumers because whiskey’s got a bit of traction.

“It’s now pretty normal in a TV show or in a film or in a web series to see people drinking whiskey.”

Japanese brands and Scotch are most popular, although there is a growing market for Chinese whiskey and last December, Pernod Richard opened a $100 million distillery in Sichuan to produce the Chuan, a prestige single malt Chinese Whiskey.

Jameson is sold widely and at a very low price throughout China, but higher end Irish brands have struggled to compete.

Dillon points to Teeling as an independent Irish brand that has taken the right approach by putting in years of effort in the market in China and is now making an impact.

But while Diageo and other corporate giants led the charge for Scotch in China, no big brand has invested such resources on behalf or Irish whiskey.

Dillion says some producers also have unrealistic expectations about how much they will be able to sell in a market as big as China.

“It is huge, but it’s also a black hole for marketing,” he continued. “You can take whatever marketing bucks you’ve got and you can just throw it air China and it’ll just disappear and you won’t see much – it’s terrifying. The landscape changes every six months.

“Someone will say why don’t you just go and spend €128,000 on TikTok. But if you don’t have the infrastructure in place then TikTok’s useless. When people see they need to be able to search it on platforms.”

Dillon’s advice to small Irish producers is to take a booth at one of China’s whiskey shows without the help of an importer and offer people a taste.

“Honestly that’s the best feedback you’re going to get because you can go and talk to an expert agent but the guy’s probably got one importer that’s already tasted six different Irish brands and you’re just getting lost in the noise.”