How Brightly Coloured Bicycles Represent Chinese Consumer Trends
This time last year bike lanes in China's big cities were the realm of migrant workers, with the occasional expat or hipster local on a single speed pedalling among the peasant peloton. For many Chinese, bicycles were for poor people and a cold or sweaty reminder of when few could afford a car and cities had no subways. In Beijing, just 12.5% of residents cycled in 2015, versus 38.5% in 2000.
Thanks to investments of more than $200 million, technology advancements and widespread adoption of mobile add-ons such as payments, China's bike-sharing schemes have changed the face of city streets. Bike lanes in cities like Shanghai and Beijing are unrecognisable from 12 months ago.
At least eight bike-sharing start-ups have come to the fore. Launching just eight months ago, Mobike already has four million monthly active users of its 100,000 bikes across five cities. Urban middle class Chinese in suits and Hello Kitty knits now ride among those migrant workers and foreigners, in streets that resemble a Copenhagen with Chinese characteristics.
The overnight adoption of cycling is a testament of just how open Chinese consumers are to new things, particularly when they conveniently fill a need or want, and are assisted by some sort of mobile tech.
Talk of the orange, yellow and other jelly bean-coloured bike sharing schemes seems like a fitting prelude to talk about what else is changing in China and trends for 2017, particularly in the marketing and sales space. Of all the years that China Skinny has been crystal ball gazing, 2017 is looking like the most exciting yet. Here are our top-8 predictions.
We'll leave you with that to ponder as this will be our last Skinny for 2016. The China Skinny office will be open for the rest of the year so please get in touch if there is anything we can do to help grow your brand and sales in China. For our readers who are celebrating, we wish you the Merriest of Christmases, and a Happy New Year to all!
Here are this week's news and highlights for China:
Chinese Consumers
China Skinny’s 8 Trends for Selling to Chinese Consumers in 2017: The 8 most important trends to be aware of when marketing and selling in China next year.
Apps Ride High on Bicycles, May Help Depollute Cities: Possibly China's best start-ups yet - the bike sharing schemes. Flush with cash, brands like Mobike and ofo offer bikes for less than 10c an hour, helping millions of urban Chinese on their last mile of commuting. Mobike has deployed around 100,000 bikes across the five cities so far, with competitor ofo having more than 190,000 ofo bikes out there.
Slam Dunk: Michael Jordan Wins Trademark Dispute In China: China's Supreme People's Court has overturned a previous ruling from a lower court handing Michael Jordan a victory in a long-running trademark dispute over the use of his name by Chinese company Qiaodan. The company used Jordan's old jersey number 23, basketball player logo and even names of his children, doing hundreds of millions of dollars of business annually from some 6,000 locations in China. It can no longer use the simplified Chinese name, but can use the word "Qiaodan" in Roman letters. In other trademark news, Tencent is suing China's Trademark Review and Adjudication Board for denying its signature sound's trademark.
4 Factors That Are Driving China's Consumer Surge: Social and cultural factors at play driving consumer spending are 1) Consumerism as freedom - the right to consume and expression through it; 2) a statement of success; 3) the triumph of me-ism; and 4) collective experience.
Digital China
Infographic: Top Baidu Searches 2016: With 667 million people searching a month on Baidu (China's Google), the popular keywords are a great barometer for what Chinese consumers are interested in.
Emotion the Key for Marketers on Chinese Social Media: Less than 2% of China’s social-media users share offers from brands on their social networks, compared to 51% who share their personal feelings and emotions and 35% who share articles they’ve encountered online.
China is a Relatively “Brand Content Friendly” Market: 30% of Chinese consumers feel 'constantly followed' by online advertising, with 24% actively ignoring branded content - lower than the global rates of 34% and 36% respectively. 31% of 16-24 year old Chinese trust what people say about a brand more than 'official' sources versus 40% globally according to Kantar TNS.
Apple Expects These 5 Rewards From Its Investments In China: Apple is plotting two research and development centres in China, which it hopes will lead to 1) more iPhone sales following a 33% fall in Q3 versus the same period of 2015; 2) the image that it’s tied to China’s economy; 3) a better idea of what Chinese users want; 4) a lead over Google; and 5) reliable relationships with suppliers.
Food & Beverage
Infographic: The Great Underperformance of Imported Milk in China: There is no category in China where domestic brands have such a trust deficit as milk, but remarkably, domestic brands still command a higher price per litre than imported brands. Many of the reasons are applicable across most food & beverage categories.
“Alligator Pears” are China’s Newest Superfruit: Avocado imports to China jumped 375% between 2014 and 2015, as health-mad consumers look to see what is cool in the West in food and beverage. Specialty fruits supermarket Pagoda saw avocado sales soar after it started giving out recipes, preparation instructions, and free samples.
Chinese Tourists
Currency and Security are Top Concerns for Chinese Tourists: For travel to the US, Chinese consumers are more concerned about the exchange rate than Trump being elected. Unless he changes visa policies, he is unlikely to have an impact on tourism. In Europe, security issues in France, Belgium and other Western European countries have caused a shift in European itineraries, to favor locations in Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, and the UK.
British Villagers Are Baffled by Flocking Chinese Tourists: Busloads of Chinese tourists are stopping in the sleepy, nondescript English village of Kidlington, about five miles north of Oxford. The visitors baffled, annoyed and delighted locals, with coverage sweeping the world. The mystery of the sudden rise now looks to be solved.
Sports
Canadian Businesses Set to Score in China’s Emerging Hockey Industry: Beijing’s drive to boost hockey culture before the 2022 Winter Olympics brings overseas opportunities, with China asking for Canada’s assistance to help strengthen the country’s hockey culture and its hockey capabilities.
Investments & Finance
China Outpaces London, New York and Silicon Valley to Become Undisputed Global FinTech: Chinese consumers are underserved by China’s incumbent banking system. Local fintech companies are flourishing due to limited legacy infrastructure or regulatory constraints, assisted by supportive Government policy, rapid urbanization, ecommerce growth, the explosion in online and mobile phone penetration, and a large base of tech-savvy consumers eager to try new innovations. 40% of Chinese consumers use new payment methods compared with 4% in Singapore. China’s GDP is almost as big as the next 10-largest emerging markets combined, creating an enormous market for it.
China's Big Savers Are Racking Up More Debt: 94% of Chinese consumers used a credit card or loan in the past year, up from 85% two years ago. Peer-to-peer lending via online lenders jumped, while car loans and mortgages nearly doubled. China's outstanding household loans are expected to double in the next five years according to Mintel.
That’s the Skinny for the week! See previous newsletters here. Contact China Skinny for marketing, research and digital advice and implementation.
