China News This Week: Wednesday 10 August 2022
This week's news and trends in China:
Chinese Consumers
Food Safety, Real Estate Top China’s Consumer Complaint List: Food safety offences mostly involved poor product quality - especially for fresh produce and groceries bought online - and illegal or excessive food additives. For imported goods, a lack of Chinese language labelling and hygiene licenses were the most frequent complaints. About 68% of the 551,780 consumer complaints in the first half of 2022 were about food issues. Complaints grew 5.7% overall from 2021.
Fortune Global 500 2022 | Full List of Rankings: 145 companies from Greater China made the Fortune 500 list, with the US registering 124 companies. Walmart and Amazon topped the list, with three Chinese companies rounding out the top-5. Chinese companies contributed 31% of the total revenue of Fortune 500 companies, and US companies contributed 30%. However, the average profit of the Chinese companies in the list was $4.1 billion, lower than the global average of $6.2 billion and 2.5 times lower than that of US firms.
China IPO Market Trounces the World With Record $58 Billion Boom: From London to Hong Kong, large initial share sales have all but dried up across the world’s major financial centres this year. But the market in China is bustling with activity. IPOs in Mainland exchanges have climbed 44% to $57.8 billion so far in 2022, the largest ever for such a period. Five IPOs have been above $1 billion. IPOs in the US have dropped 92% to $19.1 billion.
On China’s Internet, Fury at Pelosi’s Visit to Taiwan Turns to Frustration: Chinese social media was awash with calls for strong action, some of which later curdled into discontent at the perceived meekness of Beijing’s response. Over the course of Mrs. Pelosi’s 19-hour stay in Taiwan, Beijing unleashed sanctions on imports of fruit and biscuits from Taiwan and exports of natural sand from China, while announcing its large-scale military drills. “There’s apparently an overreaction by the foreign media and also by policy experts in the US,” one Taipei-based political scientist said.
Sport
How Three Chinese Women Fell in Love with Esports: Females account for 30% of esports fans in China. Women made up 22% of esports fans worldwide in 2019 and 17% in the US.
China Turn to Ex-England Rugby Sevens Star Ollie Phillips, with New Coach Targeting Asian Games gold, 2024 Olympics Spot: The former World Player of the Year will have former England stars Dan Norton - the leading all-time try scorer in sevens - and Tom Briggs as assistant coaches. Phillips said the three coaches would be looking to "maximise the potential of the playing pool" already available to them, as well as looking to unearth new talent as they target Olympic qualification.
Food & Beverage
Chinese New Style Tea: Innovative Products Reshaping Tea Market: After drinking tea for more than 2,000 years, Chinese people are now embracing new styles of the traditional beverage. From bubble tea, cheese-foam tea and lemon tea to coffee-chai, the market is booming with multiple chain brands springing up across the country. China's new-style tea market is expected to reach ¥117 billion ($17.3b) by 2022 and grow to around ¥338 billion ($50b) by 2025.
China’s Booming Ready-Meals Industry Shows How Pre-Cooked Food Options are Here to Stay: Pre-prepared dishes raked in a whopping ¥550 billion ($81.5b) in China last year, and the industry’s rapid growth rate could see it surpass 1 trillion yuan in just a few years. The trend reflects a change in Chinese people’s lifestyles during the pandemic, but more regulations are needed.
Bel Group Expands in China through Shandong Junjun Cheese Co.: French cheese giant the Bel Group has acquired a 70% stake in Junjun, allowing the company to accelerate its products' time-to-market. Cheese sales in China are forecast to grow 8% a year from 2020-2025, with demand expected to outstrip supply. Cheese is the preferred snacking category for over 50% of Chinese in 2021, with a strong focus on processed cheese, according to Bel Group. The key to opening the market rests on offering innovations adapted to Chinese consumers' tastes and preferences, while exploring untapped trends, flavours and formats for all snacking occasions.
Beauty
Alternative Strategies to Trademark Enforcement against Parallel Import of Cosmetics by Unauthorised Sellers: If your brand considers the daigou trade to be an issue, initiating actions against importers that violate the white label regulations appears to be an effective strategy.
Luxury
Qixi Festival Proves a Luxury Luau as Leading Labels Appeal to Romantics: Last week's Qixi Festival - Chinese Valentine's Day, saw a number of international luxury brands debut limited edition products tailored for the festival. Brands had been building buzz for the festival since early July, with more than 800 limited editions launching on Tmall. Between July 29 to August 2, sales of luxury bags grew 248% year-on-year on JD. Belt purchases jumped 296% and accessories soared 338%.
When It Comes To Hard Luxury, China’s Digital Natives Want Real-Life Experiences: While some brands have opted to open permanent cafés within their China locations in recent years, hard luxury brands are increasingly considering short-term pop-ups and exhibitions to entertain and educate young consumers.
Environment
China Warns that its Temperatures are Rising Faster than Global Average: China's average ground temperatures have risen much more quickly than the global average over the past 70 years and will remain "significantly higher" in the future. Temperatures have risen 0.26 degrees Celsius a decade since 1951, compared to the global average of 0.15 degrees. China recorded a 7.9% increase in vegetation cover in 2021 compared to the 2001-2020 average.
Cars
Visualizing 10 Years of Global EV Sales by Country: An interesting visual illustrating the scale of EV sales globally over the past decade. Chinese customers bought more EVs than the rest of the world combined in 2021. There are more than 300 EV models available for purchase in China - greater than any other country. July sales of EVs grew 117.3% from a year ago, accounting for 26.4% of total car sales. Forecasted EV sales for the year have been increased to 6 million units, from the earlier 5.5 million expectations.
