Posts About PDRN in China More Than Tripled in a Year
By Jotham Lim
5 min read
Posts mentioning PDRN on Weibo, RED and Douyin rose from about 79,000 to about 252,000 a year, and they rose on all three platforms, according to Moojing Market Intelligence. Most of the rise came from Weibo, where brand campaigns drive the peaks, so those volumes partly measure marketing.
This article covers the fifth chapter of the full report, China's Online Sales of PDRN Skincare 2023–2026. These are counts of posts, not purchases, and they say nothing about what PDRN or any product does to the skin.
Key figures
- About 252,000: posts mentioning PDRN on the three platforms, October 2025 to September 2026, up from about 79,000
- Just over half: the share of people posting about PDRN on Douyin who are aged 21 to 30
- More than twice: how likely those users are to post about PDRN, against the platform's average user
Method and scope: social listening across Weibo, RED and Douyin from Moojing Market Intelligence, October 2024 to September 2026. It counts posts that mention a keyword, which measures the volume of conversation, not purchases or the number of people.
How fast is the conversation about PDRN growing in China?#
Posts mentioning PDRN more than tripled in a year and rose on all three platforms, with most of the rise on Weibo. Single months carry much of the change: one month held about two-thirds of the earlier year's Douyin posts, and two months over a third of the latest year's Weibo posts. Some posts question whether PDRN is worth the money, and some report PDRN in scalp serums and in supplements. For how these counts are made and what they can show, see our note on social listening.
Exhibit 8. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, social listening, posts mentioning each keyword, October 2024 to September 2025 and October 2025 to September 2026. The left panel shows Weibo, RED and Douyin together, and the right panel shows one platform. Brand campaigns partly drive these volumes. Posts, not purchases.
Are posts about the salmon shot falling?#
On one platform, posts about the salmon shot (三文鱼针), the popular name for PN and PDRN injections, fell from 966 to 397. Posts about plant PDRN rose from 77 to 228 and those about recombinant PDRN from 1 to 112, both from a small base. We describe where those new sources stand in our article on salmon and clinic words.
Who is posting about PDRN on Douyin?#
Users aged 21 to 30 make up just over half of those posting about PDRN on Douyin, and they are more than twice as likely to do so as the platform's average user. We believe users aged 21 to 30 lead the conversation on Douyin, although posting is not buying, and the data cannot show who purchases these products.
Exhibit 9. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, social listening on Douyin, users posting about PDRN by age band and their target group index (TGI), October 2025 to September 2026. TGI is an age band's share of users posting about PDRN divided by its share of all users, times 100. On Weibo, users aged 21 to 30 post about PDRN at or below the platform average. Posts, not purchases.
What do posts about PDRN say about price and proof?#
On one platform, talk of value for money rose faster than most words about proof, and talk of dupes and of "cheap" fell. We counted posts containing PDRN and each word, in the year to September 2026 against the year before. A post is counted if it contains both words, which need not be linked, so these counts show direction and not the size of any opinion.
| Direction | Words paired with PDRN |
|---|---|
| Rose most | Traceability (溯源), from a very small base; repurchase (回购); value for money (性价比); authentic (正品) |
| Rose less | Big brands (大牌); amount (含量); ingredients (成分); source (来源); worth it (值得); tax on the gullible (智商税) |
| About flat | Concentration (浓度) |
| Fell | Cheap (便宜); dupes (平替) |
Exhibit 10, by direction only. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, social listening on one platform, posts mentioning PDRN and each word, October 2024 to September 2025 and October 2025 to September 2026. Selected words from the report's table.
We also read excerpts from posts drawn from six word pairs. The words chosen shape what the posts contain, so they show arguments in use and cannot show how common each one is. Some compare PDRN with a clinic treatment, which suggests that some sellers and buyers weigh a cream against the cost of a treatment as well as against other creams. Others warn of products that add very little PDRN or do not say where it comes from, and others offer a large brand or a product filing as reassurance. Many read as promotion, so they show what sellers expect to persuade buyers as much as what buyers think.
Wider evidence on cosmetics is consistent with this, although none of it concerns PDRN or price. In a 2024 survey of 1,500 consumers by a research centre of China's market regulator, 72% called efficacy very important and 65% said they value efficacy data when choosing cosmetics, and China's fragrance and cosmetics association said in January 2026 that consumers no longer blindly chase big brands and are becoming more rational. No survey we found measures how much more buyers would pay for a stated source or a known brand.
What this means for brands is in four moves for brands, and the full tables are in the full report.
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