China's new ad rules just broke the funnel model

China's cyberspace administration just issued new guidelines on algorithmic advertising. The rules target how platforms use recommendation engines to push products to users — specifically the way they collect data, personalize feeds, and decide what to show next. The government says the current system is too aggressive and needs tighter controls.

The framework hits at the heart of the funnel model that every marketing tool has been built on: capture attention, retarget, convert. Chinese platforms like Douyin and Xiaohongshu have been pushing this harder than anyone, using the same kind of recommendation algorithms that power Meta and TikTok's ad engines. Now the state is saying those engines need to be less manipulative and more transparent about how they're deciding what you see.

For the global ad-tech stack, this is a stress test. The same companies selling algorithmic targeting tools in Silicon Valley — the recommendation engines, the retargeting pixels, the attribution models — are being asked to slow down. The rules don't ban the technology; they just change the terms of engagement. Advertisers who rely on aggressive personalization will need to recalibrate.

Why this matters for us: The funnel model that powers our ads is getting questioned everywhere — when the rules shift, the tools we've been using to reach people change too, and the ones that survive will be the ones built for trust, not manipulation.