Asia's selfie obsession – especially amongst women – is more prominent than ever. In response, there's been an explosion of beautifying apps that automatically detect facial features, and enhance them according to Eastern beauty ideals.

With an increasing number of marketing-savvy homegrown brands taking on China’s beauty market, how can the multinational giants keep up? This report explores how different colours have been used in China’s beauty sector to signify meaning.

At its most basic, having a digital presence is a necessary precondition for inclusion in the economy. A well-managed personal brand can elicit authority and influence over others; and people are beginning to understand this and capitalise upon it.

Crowned 'word of the year' by Oxford Dictionaries in 2013, the selfie has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a niche social media tag. But are selfies just a bit of harmless narcissistic fun, or is there a darker side?