A multi-platform analysis of e-cigarette online marketing in China (2024-2025)

Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) marketing drives product uptake and use. As internet infrastructure has advanced and smartphone adoption has become widespread, enterprises and merchants have increasingly leveraged online platforms to conduct diverse e-cigarette marketing campaigns. This study aim to characterize the platforms, tactics, and other content features of e-cigarette marketing across Chinese internet platforms and to provide evidence-based recommendations for strengthening regulatory oversight. From September 2024 to January 2025, marketing instances were collected from seven platforms: Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Bilibili, WeChat, Weibo, News websites/APPs, and Online Forums. A China-specific codebook was developed, and the DeepSeek large language model provided auxiliary coding support. Descriptive analyses were performed using frequencies, proportions, and rates, while chi-square tests evaluated differences in tactic selection and publisher distribution across platforms. Among 3596 marketing instances, Xiaohongshu accounted for the largest share (n = 2496, 69.4%), followed by Douyin (n = 508, 14.1%) and Bilibili (n = 318, 8.8%). Direct marketing tactics (n = 2164, 60.2%) outnumbered indirect marketing tactics (n = 1432, 39.8%). Individual sellers constituted the most prevalent publisher type (n = 2604, 72.4%), whereas enterprises were the least common (n = 18, 0.5%). Product description (n = 1033, 39.7%) and community marketing (n = 743, 28.5%) were the two most frequently adopted tactics among individual sellers. Marketing tactic selection differed significantly across platforms (χ² = 1283.8, P < 0.001). Despite China's ban on online e-cigarette advertising, this study reveals that publishers continue to employ product descriptions to attract users and leverage community marketing as a covert promotional strategy. Regulators urgently require enhanced monitoring tools to address these increasingly diversified and subtle tactics.