The Yuanbao Group, in collaboration with the China Insurance and Pension Research Center at the School of Finance of Tsinghua University, recently published the "2022 China Internet Insurance Consumer Insight Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report").

As the economy recovers and market confidence improves, insurance awareness and demand awakened during the pandemic are expected to be unleashed, ushering in a new growth cycle for the Chinese insurance industry, says Li Hong, head of the marketing department at Yuanbao Group.

The Report provides a detailed analysis of the consumption behavior of Internet insurance users, focusing on insurance expenses, purchasing channels, product demand, and claims services while also describing typical consumer demographics in detail.
Millennials Show the Strongest Acceptance of Internet Insurance
Li Hong highlights that among all age groups, Chinese millennials, or those born in the 1980s, have the strongest acceptance of internet insu...

Among the 200 million new middle class in China, the post-80s and post-90s account for 50.8% and 49.2% respectively, according to data from Questmobile.

The New Middle Class is the group of Chinese between 25 and 40 years old, living in tier-1 to tier-3 cities with an online spending power of over 1,000 yuan. Their online consumption willingness is at a medium to high level.

In terms of urban distribution, the top 10 cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Suzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, Hangzhou, and Tianjin, with the number of people reaching 9.03 million, 8.38 million, 6.91 million, 6.38 million, 5.68 million, 4.48 million, 4.42 million, 3.54 million and 3.45 million respectively.

Their population has reached 204 million with 50.8% born between 1980-1989 and 49.2% between 1990-1995.

Compared with other groups, new middle-class Chinese are more active in real estate, automobile, travel, and other related consumption.

Taking June 2021 data as an ex...

In July 2020, food (non-fresh) and non-alcoholic beverages, alcohol, fresh produce, sun protection, and cooling products have gotten more attention from consumers across the country, according to data shared by Jingdong.

The southern provinces of Guangdong and Zhejiang saw alcohol transaction volume increase 60% YoY. In Hubei and Hebei, the transaction volume of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by over 50%.

Beijing consumers opted for more fresh produce, with transaction volume growth of over 130% YoY. Heilongjiang and Gansu provinces saw cooling devices like ACs and fans increase by 110% YoY.

Looking at alcohol consumption by age group, post-90s consumption is increasing the fastest, with these consumers preferring liquor over other alcohols. Post-80s consumers tend to choose cocktails and cocktail mixers while post-70s consumers stay true to Baijiu.

Tibet, Shaanxi, Gansu, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Guizhou, Chongqing, and other areas saw an alcohol consumption increas...

TikTok, known as Douyin in China, announced a new record for its daily active users (DAUs). Its DAU has exceeded 400 million in January 2020, an increase of 60% YoY. Its contents go beyond entertainment; 14.89 million education videos were created in 2019. The top creators are located in Shanghai, Beijing, and the three northeastern provinces.

In-app revenue at TikTok during Q4 2019 surged 310% to more than $50 million according to Apptopia. Tiktok's total market revenue in the Apple App Store and Google play store is around $67 million (net $62 million) in Q4, which does not include China's domestic market according to SensorTower.

460 thousand families used TikTok in 2019 to take family photos, which received a total number of 2.79 billion views and 100 million likes. Parents made 3.98 million videos on TikTok to record their moments with children in 2019.

Teachers received the most likes (620 million) on TikTok in 2019.

China's post-80s (born between 1980...

Four segments of China's outbound travelers are worth noting: high-income group, the backpackers, generation Z, and female outbound travelers.
High-income Group: Experience Focused

This segment of outbound travelers is mostly male (69%), married, and backbones in their companies. Post-80s accounted for 55%. Married users account for 84.1%; 75.3% have children according to data from iResearch.

Managers at the middle level and above account for 33.8%. The average monthly household income of more than 30,000 yuan accounted for 66.4%.

Characteristics: high expenditure, focus on travel quality, love to buy luxury goods, digital enthusiasts.

Outbound tourist with the expenditure of over 20,000 yuan accounted for 61.6%
Tourists who choose Michelin-recommended restaurants accounted for 39.2%
Tourists who choose five-star hotel accommodation accounted for 38.2%
63.9% of tourists spend more than 10,000 yuan on shopping
29.1% of tourists will buy luxury goods
2...

35.7% of China internet users purchased insurance and 33.7% don't have any insurance policies according to a Tencent survey.

China internet users buying insurance for the first time are getting younger. Post-60s and post-70s, those born between 1960 and 1979, were over 30 years old at their first purchase. For post-80s, the average first-time insurance purchase age dropped to 26.7 y-o; and 21.7 y-o for post-90s.

Chinese consumers place higher priorities of buying insurance policies on children (74.8%) and parents (67.4%) first; insurance for oneself (31.1%) and spouse (26.7%) is on low priorities.

Insurance in China is facing high awareness but low understanding. 82.2% of China internet users are aware of insurance without much understanding while 14.6% of users understand insurance and 3.3% understand little.

The awareness of buying an insurance policy is rising; and, the most recognized insurance types are medical insurance and critical illness insurance. Life ins...

Many Chinese consumers have the impression that most users of Pinduoduo are housewives, middle-aged, or elderly people who live in third-tier or fourth-tier cities. They are highly consistent with users of Kuaishou and have extraordinary sensitivity to low price. They are more willing to ask people for help bargaining in WeChat group in order to save a few money.

But in the real world, the situation is more complicated than the general view.

On 7th of May, Aurora big data released "2019 Q1 mobile internet industry data research report", showing that by the end of the first quarter of 2019, 44.2% of the new users of Pinduoduo, the new e-commerce platform, come from the tier-1 and tier-2 cities. The amount of user has continuously grown since then.

According to a report released by Trustdata, among the new users of Pinduoduo, nearly half of them are from first-tier and second-tier cities, with Beijing ranking first, followed by Chengdu, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Hangzhou.

...

The higher educated Chinese are the least likely to be attracted by incentivized sharing. Nearly 90% of users with middle school or lower education spent less than 40% of the monthly expenditure online. Over 50% of the 40 to 49-year-olds choose to buy home appliances and digital equipment online.
A comparison of online shopping behavior

Taobao, Tmall, and JD have the broadest user reach than other e-commerce platforms in China. Nevertheless, Pinduoduo is the only platform with more low education background users. Both Amazon and Dangdang are much less popular among users with middle school education or lower.

The daily active users of Pinduoduo and Qutoutiao increased by 97% and 137%, respectively, in roughly a year.

Under the prevalent incentivized sharing model, users are encouraged to invite friends, check in daily, and share links with others, etc. The higher educated people are the least likely to be attracted.

Among users of Pinduoduo and Qutoutiao, price and c...

China's retail market is estimated to hit US$6.77 trillion by 2019 with e-commerce representing 14.46% of this market. The population of post-80s and post-90s totaled nearly 411 million, more than that of North America. As the millennials group is becoming stronger in consumption and disposable income, brands come to treat them as target customers. 92% of consumption will come outside of tier-1 cities between 2016 and 2030. The integration of online and offline channels in retail becomes a reality.
China's retail market trend
China has surpassed the US to be the largest retail market worldwide. The total retail sales of consumer goods amounted to 34,509.3 billion yuan (US$4,995.92bn) for the past 11 months in 2018, up by 9.1% year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. In the US, the estimated retail sales (not adjusted) was US$6,810.87 billion in the same period, an increase of 5.2% year-on-year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

China is also the world's...

More and more marketers' attention in China is shifting onto post-95s, the elderly population, and lower-tier cities. A total of 1,309 apps have more than one million users as of June 2018, an increase of 11% year-on-year. The app opens increased by 8% quarter-on-quarter and the average daily usage duration on a single app decreased by 12%. UGC-based social e-commerce platforms proved that content was the perfect traffic entry.

China had 986 million mobile internet users as of June 2018, 15.25 million or 1.57% more than that in 2017, according to the report from Analysys. Both the social interaction and video have been a saturated market in China as its user base nearly reaching the summit. In contrast, video & audio entertainment, mobile shopping, and news information all maintained strong growth momentum in obtaining users.

Users' attention has been turning from basic functions to entertainment. More and more attention had been shifted into post-95s, the elderly pop...

In China, the generation born in the 1980s (referred to as "Post-80s") are facing growing responsibilities. They are now dually burdened with caring for young children and elderly parents. 94.9% of this population is in the habit of financial management according to an iClick survey.

90.7% proactively manage their finances by carefully selecting investment options and comparing financial products to maximize profit. Most of them have some awareness of risk spreading, holding 2 to 4 different types of financial investments. Strategic allocation of wealth has helped the post-80s generation to balance their checkbooks and better cope with increasing financial pressure.

The post-90's generation: Managing finances to better pay for hobbies

Of the post-90s, 89.7% value having a rich and multi-faceted life outside of work.

They have diverse interests including movies, traveling, working out, reading, anime and board games. These hobbies grow out of personal interest, but the...

Private customized travel has become increasingly popular with Chinese in 2017 and it is no more a privilege just for the rich. Ctrip had over one million customized orders and saw a 200% increase in revenues in 2017. There were 1658 users from different places chose the private customized travel with destinations covering 141 countries.

The first tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen were still the biggest source of users with customized travel need while the second and third tier cities had the most rapid growth rate in users.

Though it sounds like a high-end way of traveling, customized tour tend to have a cheaper price. In 2017, the per capita spending of the inbound customized tour was 3,200 yuan, decreasing by 20% year-on-year. The same figure for the outbound customized tour was 7,800 yuan, decreasing by 8.2% year-on-year.

In terms of top 10 most favored inbound customized travel destinations, Beijing topped the list. Consumer had the m...

China’s movie box office revenue hit 55.911 billion yuan in 2017, soaring to a greater height. The number of movie screens reached 50.8 thousand, more than that in North America for the first time.

For Chinese moviegoers, female accounts for 55% and male 45%. The young under 30-year-old accounts for 49%; users with Bachelor's degree or above accounts for 75%; users with an annual net income of more than 100,000 accounts for 41%; and, those having children account for 41% according to Pintu Media.

China’s movie market saw robust growth in the number of released movies, movie theaters, and movie screens in the recent 5 years. In 2013, it only saw 29 million movie show times in China while in 2017, this number grew to a height of 75 million. In 2017, the number of movie theaters reached 8,576, nearly doubled that of 2013.

With the increase in numbers and improvement in quality, the movie theater has provided the better experience of watching movies for consumers. ...

31% of Millennials in a KPMG survey expect a significant increase in their income over the next five years compared to just 18 percent of non-Millennials. Their rise to become a key component of China’s retail market is therefore underway.
Millennials: A generational shift
Currently, the average monthly income of Millennials (RMB 11,738) is lower than the rest of the population (RMB 12,423), with close to two-thirds of Millennial respondents earning less than RMB 10,000 a month. In addition, their average monthly spending is also lower at Rmb5,565 a month. It also goes to show that Millennials in China are, in general, quite prudent spenders, with their average monthly spending at less than half of their income.

To cater to a wider audience, businesses operating in China are increasingly adopting a multi-brand strategy. They are marketing a variety of products under different brands, with each targeting a specific set of customers in order to maximize their coverage.

It is ...

China’s automotive market in 2017 reached record-breaking sales of 28.879 million units with an increase by 3%, having maintained its position as the world’s largest car market for the ninth consecutive year.

China new energy automotive sales saw a 53.3% growth in 2017 on a year-on-year basis; the market share of own brand passenger car increased by 0.7%. China’s used car market is expected to keep strong growth momentum with sales totaling over 1,200,000 units, a 20% increase year-on-year.

In the past eleven months of 2017, car retail sales value reached 3.8 trillion yuan, accounting for 26% of the total retail sales value of consumer goods above designated size with a year-on-year increase of 6%.

The Internet has become the number one channel for automobile advertising spend in China, accounting for 37.8% of total in 2017 and followed by TV (29.2%) and outdoor (20.7%) according to iResearch.

China's automotive advertising market reached 15.07 billion yuan (US$2.37...

The proportion of lifestyle content sharing from mobile apps in China kept increasing in the twelve months ending in March 2017 while games and shopping categories shrank.

WeChat is the top channel of mobile sharing in China. The number of sharing to WeChat friends (chats) exceeded that of WeChat Moments (social networking section on WeChat) in June 2016.

Post-90s account for 63.6% of total mobile social sharing users in China, followed by post-80s (19.6%). Male users account for 64.2%.

Morning and evening saw higher social sharing with the peak between 9 and 10 in the evening.

Those who only shared once account for 48.4% of total users contributing to 8.1% of total shares in China. Those who shared at least 10 times account for 10.3% contributing to 67.4% of total mobile social sharing.

Over 68% of mobile social sharing users to QQ and Qzone are male. More female social sharing users are on Weibo (45%).

Female users tend to share more shopping rel...