The number of brands and merchants on the Tmall Global platform as of December 31, 2020, grew over 60% year-over-year, according to Alibaba's announced financial results.

Merchants Growth on Tmall Global

From 2017 to 2020, the number of online businesses on Tmall global grew rapidly, with an average annual compound growth rate of 55.2%

In 2021, 38% users prefer Tmall Global as a top choice for cross-border e-commerce shopping. 24% would recommend; and, 27% like it, according to a survey by iResearch.

In order to better connect international brands with Chinese consumers, Tmall Global continues to innovate in its cross-border logistics solutions.

Brands that do not have a physical presence in China can now store inventory in Alibaba's warehouses located in their home markets, and Tmall Global facilitates export to China when orders are placed.

Purchases of products warehoused and shipped from ove...

China has the largest group of Generation Z (Gen Z) in the world with a population of 149 million. Gen Z is between 15 and 23-year-old and will account for 40% of consumption power in 2020. Their average time spend on mobile internet is 4.7 hours per day. And, they like Zhihu, Tantan, Xiaohongshu more than WeChat.

China's Gen-Z has an average monthly income of 3,501 yuan (US$493), among which the studying group (19-23 years old) has multiple sources of income. Their top interests are video, social networking, music, online shopping, and gaming.

They spend an average of 56.2 minutes daily on social networking and instant messaging. Videos also take a significant amount of their time (over 53 minutes).

Word of mouth through friends is the top source for China's Gen-Z to know products, followed by online ads, shopping mall, TV commercials, and etc.

Gen-Z Sources of Products Discovery: Male vs. Fema...

There are more than 100 million post-00 (those born in and after 2000) mobile users in China; and, the middle-aged and the elderly have more free time. They are important segments in China mobile internet that many Chinese companies compete for. Check out their favorite mobile app categories and apps.

The number of active post-00 mobile users reached 104 million in September 2019, an increase of 44.4% YoY. And, the number of active middle-aged and elderly group has 81 million mobile active users in September 2019, an increase of 8% YoY; the average monthly mobile usage per user grew to 135.9 hours.

There is a strong shopping demand for post-00s who were born in the internet age, with 34 million additional users in September 2019 compared with the prior-year period. Entertainment apps, led by short video, is the second-largest category by total user growth.

The top mobile apps by post-00s user growth in Sep 2019 are led by Taobao, Alipay, WeChat, QQ, and TikTok. Amo...

Among 827 million residents who only received middle school education or lower, excluding those who are still in school and preschoolers, 378 million or 45.7% are online. Furthermore, 40 million or 16.6% of the 241 million silver users aged above 60 years old are online.
Low education users
The internet has greatly affected users' sleeping behavior. Previously, those live in low-tier cities and rural areas were used to sleep much earlier than in so-called night owls in first-tier cities as they get off duty earlier. However, nowadays, a majority of the former have late bedtimes, which is translated as 44% slept late after midnight as compared with 57.5% in first-tier cities.

Speaking of the 378 million users who only received middle school education or lower, in other words, internet penetration has reached 45.7% among this group. Only 34.4% of users with low education background have a steady job compared with 71.8% of users with a bachelor's degree. Only 24% of users with lo...

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...

Centennials is already an economic powerhouse globally as the population born after 1997 now accounts for 35% of the world’s total population. In China, this cohort is generally a combination of post-95s and post-00s. They are quickly becoming the mainstream of Chinese consumers as well. 40% of Chinese consumers will be from these two age groups by 2020– together they form the biggest Centennials population in the world.

To win them over, brands need to start to study their behavior and attitudes now. What does consumption mean for them?
Buy for social
Many people from this age group are the only child of their families, as China’s one-child policy lasted from 1980 till 2015. Even though there were some exceptional conditions to allow a family to have two children, such as if the spouses were the only child themselves, the majority of post-95s and post-00s have no siblings.

This has planted an especially strong need in them for socializing – they want to establish their soc...

Chinese high-end travelers contributed over 80% overall overseas expenditure though they represented just around 20% in the population. Post-90s and post-00s combined accounted for 32% of total outbound travelers. Tier-2 cities showed stronger growth momentum in population and per capita spending than tier-1 cities. 

Chinese went on 130 million person-trips to overseas with a total expenditure of US$115.29 billion in 2017, remaining its position as the biggest source market for outbound travel. This figure was estimated to hit 140 million by the end of 2018, according to the report from Ctrip and MasterCard.

High-end travelers contributed over 80% to overall overseas expenditure, with per capita expenditure four times more than that of overall outbound tourists, though they represented just around 20% of share in the population.

Ctrip made a breakthrough to lead the global online travel market with user transactions reaching 690 billion yuan in the last twelve months ended...

China's post-00s (the generation born in the 2000s) favorites internet slang in order to be social and interact with others. 15% of them place "entrepreneurship" as the future career direction. Social, fashion, and personalization are most-valued characteristics of pan-entertainment products. They are willing to pay for good user experience and high-quality content, according to the report from Sequoia Capital.

China's post-00s is growing with the emerging mobile internet. In addition, as the newborn population has been declining in recent years, post-oos has attracted extensive attention from their families and society.
Get to know post-00s who grow with mobile internet
Internet slang is post-00s' favorite, mainly influenced by the two-dimensional space (nijigen). They use internet slang to be social and interact with friends. Language cosplay is the new fashion.

Post-00s is the second generation of one-child policy, which means both of their parents are the only child...

Chinese post-00s, who were born since the year 2000, are turning adult in 2018. Comparing with post-90s' past consumption, post-00s save more with higher purchasing power and autonomy.
Post-00s has much more affluent material life
The savings of post-00s are around 3 times more than that of post-90s when they were at the same age. The average saving of post-90s was 815 yuan before 19 years old while that of post-00s is 1,840 yuan.

Generally, post-00s have higher household income, which makes it possible for some post-00s to go abroad at their young age. In addition to higher purchasing power, they also have greater financial autonomy and are able to make choices by themselves.

Independent
Since most parents of post-00s received a higher education, they are more open-minded and ready to allow more tolerance to their child. Teachers at school also encourage students to think independently.

Being raised in a more open and inclusive atmosphere, 66% of them are able to m...

Traveling gradually becomes a lifestyle choice for Chinese. In particular, Chinese travelers from tier-1 cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanking have a high demand for parent-child travels, most of them choose to bring parents and children together.

Some like to take pets with them when taking a trip to surrounding cities. Hainan and Shanghai are the most popular domestic destinations for parent-child travels while Singapore and Thailand are the most popular outbound destinations.
"Show you around the beautiful world" becomes a trend
Post-00s is coming of age this year, they have more to say in their families. To some extents, more and more children have become the one who decides the destinations in their families, and their parents are more capable to show them around the world.

Summer and winter vacation are still the peak period of parent-child travels. Other holidays like Children's Day, Christmas, and Mid-Autumn Festival are also the good time for taking a trip. U...