China News This Week: Wednesday 13 July 2022
This week's news and trends in China:
Sport
Cycling Picks Up Speed as a Serious Hobby on Xiaohongshu (RED): Young Chinese consumers have upgraded cycling to a serious hobby. 18 to 40 make up the main audience in the cycling industry, accounting for 77.45%
Cycling in Vogue Across Chinese Cities with Healthy Living in Focus: One major feature of the current fad on wheels is that shoppers are eyeing high-end product offerings, mostly sold by a string of foreign brands from the US and Europe.
Sports Industry Innovation First: In 2020, 37.2% of residents aged 7 and above regularly participated in physical exercise, an increase of 3.3 percentage points from 2014. The “National Fitness Plan (2021-2025)” proposes that by 2025, the proportion of people who regularly participate in physical exercise in China will reach 38.5%, driving the national sports industry to reach ¥5 trillion ($746 billion).
Can Keep, An Online Fitness App, Help Luxury Brands Seize China’s Fitness Craze?: Keep is a one-stop solution featuring all kinds of exercise activities, from short exercise videos to joining live interactive classes, to personalised training via an extra membership fee. It has amassed 300 million users since its launch in 2014. The platform has recently expanded to sell mid-price sports goods such as fitness equipment, athleisure and healthy snacks.
Chinese Consumers
Average Life Expectancy in China Hits 77.93 Years: China’s life expectancy has grown 1.43 years since 2016 when it was 76.5 years.
China Services Recovers Stronger Than Expected: Caixin PMI: China’s services activity beat expectations in June and jumped to the highest level in nearly a year, the Caixin PMI index showed. This is the latest sign that easing Covid outbreaks and restrictions have boosted consumer sentiment. The index grew to 54.5 in June from 41.4 in May. China’s Small Medium Enterprise (SME) index was also up in June for the first time since January.
China Offers Women Perks for Having Babies. Single Moms Don’t Qualify: China is trying to reverse its historically low birth rates by doling out tax and housing credits, educational benefits and even cash incentives to encourage women to have more children. Yet the perks are available only to married couples, a prerequisite that is increasingly unappealing to independent women who, in some cases, would prefer to parent alone.
Nearly 70% of Respondents Do Not Agree that Wives Should Obey their Husbands: A survey on women’s social status in the wealthy eastern province of Zhejiang found 58.9% of respondents disagreed that “men should focus on society while women should focus on the family,”; 85.7% disagreed with the statement “it is only the mother’s responsibility to take care of children,” and nearly 70% disagreed that “wives should obey their husbands at home.”
Digital China
Alibaba Leverages Customer-Centric Strategy to Stay Ahead in China’s Ecommerce Race: To retain online customers over the long term, ecommerce retailers must provide a frictionless customer experience with a high-performing search platform, accurate product descriptions, and easy returns. Taobao’s entire business philosophy involves honouring the delivery of goods, but Alibaba is fine-tuning processes to ensure that ecommerce operations were more service-oriented. Alibaba’s push into consumer engagement content is evident with increasing initiatives such as the launch of its content-centric app, Taibang, in April, currently requiring an invitation code to access.
Food & Beverage
Chinese Food Firm Maiquer Under Investigation Over Milk Additive: China’s market regulator says food solvent propylene glycol was found in batches of milk in Zhejiang.
Nestlé Puts Freeze on Plastic Pollution in Hong Kong with New Paper Packaging for KitKat Ice Cream: 74% of Mainland Chinese consumers say paper packaging has good or excellent recyclability. However, 78% believe the same about plastic packaging. Some 66% say plastic packaging offers good or excellent product protection, while 55% say the same about paper packaging.
BAP Survey Suggests Chinese Seafood Buyers Embracing Certification Over Food Safety Concerns: A survey of mainly under-40 year old Chinese consumers found that 81% intend to eat more seafood in the future. 65% said price was a key influence on purchasing, 56% said hygiene in processing, 51% said the environment the seafood was produced in, and 41% noted drug use in the farming of the seafood. Just 17% identified the environmental sustainability of the seafood as a top priority.
Decline in Counterfeit Cherries After Digital Fingerprinting: Tasmanian cherry grower Reid Fruits has been applying Laava’s Smart Fingerprint technology on its cherry boxes for 20 export markets since the 2019-20 picking season. The fruit exporter went from experiencing potentially thousands of counterfeits per season to having 10 cases automatically stopped by the Laava service in 2019-20, and only three in 2020-21.
Health
COVID Crushed China’s Condom Industry: The COVID-19 pandemic was widely expected to result in a surge in sexual activity and huge demand for condoms, with people locked down in their homes and with not much to do. Instead, the opposite has happened. Since 2019, 43,200 domestic condom manufacturing companies have closed down. For many of the domestic condom manufacturers that have survived, switching to latex gloves is the only way out.
Cars
Five Trends Shaping Tomorrow’s Luxury-Car Market: In the above-$80,000 price tier, McKinsey expects China to increase its global share from 24% in 2021 to about 35% at the end of the decade. Chinese car buyers view luxury through a wider-angle lens compared with their peers in major developed automotive markets worldwide. Traditional elements such as craftsmanship and quality remain powerful buying factors. However, Chinese car buyers are highly interested in technology, especially when it comes to powertrain functions, digital interactions, connectivity, and ADAS features. 84% say that the ability to personalize their vehicle is important or very important. 70% of Chinese customers would prefer to access post-purchase upgrades through subscriptions or pay-per-use plans for EVs.
