Chinese consumers' "domestic pride," real estate market, and job market trends - Charts of the week

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Welcome to this week's edition of "Charts of the Week." In today's newsletter, I will cover one of the most notable trends in the Chinese consumer market: the growing preference for domestic products. Additionally, I will discuss recent trends in the real estate market following the announcement of supportive policies, as well as the overall employment market and youth employment—two pillars that will significantly influence household expectations and domestic consumption. I've screened and picked the key charts for you! Let's get started!

Social sentiments: growing preferences for domestically made products

Box office: Among the top 10 most popular movies in 2024 so far, only one is a foreign movie (Godzilla vs. Kong), whereas the rest are all Chinese productions, according to data from Maoyan, China's biggest online event ticketing service. In a previous post, we also found that the share of domestic movies in the overall box office revenue has continued to climb since 2019, while the box office revenue for imported movies is on the decline.

Revival of the artisanal traditions: The topics related to "intangible cultural heritage" have been trending up on social media platforms, with many netizens discussing China's traditional craftsmanship, art, and artisan designs.

The growing preferences for domestically made products are influencing the business environment and marketing strategies of merchants. Many historic and cultural institutions, such as the Forbidden City Palace and local museums, are introducing their own creative products.

Various international luxury giants like LVMH are integrating Chinese elements into their product designs to attract Chinese consumers, and "intangible cultural heritage" is just becoming the new localization strategy of these international brands.

Even if a business does not directly sell intangible cultural heritage products, they are leveraging its popularity for its own marketing strategies. For instance, Chinese retail chain MINISO (NYSE: MNSO) ran a marketing campaign where consumers could experience writing the 江永女书 (Jiangyong Women's Script) in their offline retail stores. The successful marketing campaign combined two elements that have become very popular in China's consumer markets in recent years: "women empowerment" and "intangible cultural heritage."

MINISO's offline marketing campaign

*Jiangyong Women's Script is a unique syllabic script used exclusively by women in Jiangyong County, Hunan Province, China. It symbolizes women's empowerment, as it was created and used exclusively by women in a patriarchal society from ancient times with limited educational opportunities and social freedoms. It provided a private means for women to communicate, share stories, express emotions, and pass down knowledge, fostering community, solidarity, and intellectual independence among them.

Buying domestic products: Across China's major social media platforms, people are increasingly discussing domestic products. Many are seeking domestic alternatives that offer the same or better functionality and better value for money. Domestic brands such as Proya and Giant Biogene have been growing rapidly in the past few years, with many netizens referring to these products as the "glory of domestic products."

One notable example is that domestic electronics are increasingly replacing their international counterparts. On social media, more netizens are discussing "Huawei" over "Apple" when it comes to mobile phone purchases. The online sales growth of Apple has noticeably slowed down since the second half of 2023, while the sales of Huawei products have increased.

I published a related newsletter discussing how the rise of domestic preferences is reshaping the business environment. Interested readers can read it here:

Nationalism in China: A business strategy over political discourse

E-commerce giants scored subdued sales growth

"Price for value" remains a priority for domestic consumers. Online sales in April for JD.com and Alibaba's Tmall barely grew year-on-year, whereas the live-streaming e-commerce platforms Douyin and Kuaishou maintained double-digit growth.

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