China’s online healthcare market is estimated to reach 17.7 billion yuan (US$2.61bn) with a YoY growth of 17.2% in 2018 and grow to 20.4 billion yuan (US$3bn) by 2019 according to data from iResearch. B2C medicine e-commerce contributes the largest share of the total market size (89.2% in 2017), followed by advertising revenues.

Many Chinese Internet companies attempted in the healthcare market with “big data + AI” in recent years. Alibaba concentrated on the midstream of the industry chain with cloud computing services and AI technology. Tencent invests more in application development and has built some online healthcare service interface a series of related offline services. Baidu applies AI technology in new medicine development after its strategic adjustments in the healthcare business in 2017.

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Although the concept of January 1 bringing in the opportunity to start or stop something to improve one’s life was not historically common in Asia, 93% of people in China said that they will have a New Year’s resolution for 2018.

Lightspeed conducted a study of 1,000 men and women across tier 1 to 3 cities, on Kantar’s behalf, in which participants were asked to state up to 3 resolutions for 2018. Fitness and getting in shape is the No. 1 with more than half of women claiming this is their goal for 2018, and 43% of men. Next most popular on the list for both sexes was travel more (35%) and make more money (28%).

What is interesting is where the sexes differ. Men are obviously concerned about getting more time with their family. 29% of men had this as focus for 2018 vs. 21% for women. But equally men seem concerned about getting more “me time” with 13% stating this as their key wish for next year. What made me smile is that 6% of men plan to have better sex in 2018 but that’s only a priority for 2% of women. Good luck, Guys!

Where the ladies differ from the men are in areas such as weight loss (20% for women vs. 14% for men) and, one that I found interesting, was that 18% of women plan to become more confident and take more chances, whereas this is only important for 14% of men.

When one categorizes all the resolutions, the most dominant by far, is health and wellness-related goals. In fact, 39% of women and 34% of men stated that their health is worse now than it was one year ago. The opportunity for companies to tap into this every growing trend in China is definitely clear.

In fact, 68% of Chinese say that they expect to spend more in 2018 on achieving their Health & wellness goals than they did in 2017. But how can a company define where to play and how to win in this often undefined sector? Kantar TNS’ Health and Wellness report shows that there are 5 core needs that are prevalent across the Chinese population for brand owners to consider when developing their product innovation and marketing plans:

Safe Quality Defense

68% of Chinese are very concerned about air quality and the impact it has on their health. They continue to look for safe quality defense both in home, at work and whilst they’re out-and-about.

High Health Impact

2.8 million people participated in a Marathon in China in 2016, a seven-fold increase since 2011. (Source statista.com)

Looking and Feeling Good

37% of Chinese consumers take multi-vitamins regularly whilst other commonly used supplements for the health of skin, hair and nails include Birds Nest (11%), Fish oils (14%), and Cordyceps ( 8%).

Enjoyable restoration

10% of Chinese would like a miracle cure to ensure they have a great sleep every night. 38% of people complain of feeling tired all the time.

Physical & Mental Rejuvenation

15% of consumers consider their mental health to be poor. Men especially (70%) will try to resolve the issue themselves whilst keeping it a secret from others. Some women are the same whilst others, 34%, will seek help from family and friends. Even more, 38%, use shopping as their form of stress relief!

Also read: China online luxury consumption trends 2018

The post was originally published on Kantar.com