Despite its widespread appearance, the meaning of duang is unclear; "What's the meaning of duang" became the main topic on Weibo. Although there seems to be no meaning at all, many people still continue to use it in their everyday conversations. The BBC has suggested that the word is an example of onomatopoeia, a word phonetically imitating a sound. While Jackie Chan used it as a "cartoonish sound-effect", as Ad Age puts it, some have used it in the same spirit while others have adopted it as an intensifier; for instance, something might be "duang cute" or one could be "very duang confused". Based on the words spoken by Chan in the shampoo advertisement, duang has been defined as meaning "add special effects" (Chinese: 加特效; pinyin: jiā tèxiào) in some Chinese sources.
The meme has been picked up by a variety of advertisers, including Bawang itself, which has released its own spoof video, in addition to KFC, PepsiCo, China Eastern Airlines and Taobao. Durex issued an animated GIF showing a buzzing rabbit vibrator with "duang" as the caption. The meme's lack of any defined meaning has enabled advertisers and Internet users to create their own version of "duang" and define it as they wish. Foreign Policy noted that while Chinese Internet users had a tradition of inventing new words or slang to get around government censorship, the Chinese government had lately managed to push back against this practice; it was thus perhaps "inevitable that a new word would emerge that simply meant nothing at all."