Another week and a big week for the folks at Sina Weibo. Figures released this week announced that as at June 30, there were 368 million registered Weibo users, showing healthy growth in spite of well publicised censorship-blips on the service. Chinese users realise this is a necessary evil of using Weibo and it seems to have had little impact on the Weibo's increasing influence for China consumers. On the subject of consumers, this week's skinny has some insightful news, advice and opinions including understanding Chinese consumers, branding, retail, luxury goods, outbound tourism, health & fitness and cars in China.
Understanding Chinese Consumers
Decoding The Chinese Consumer: China remains a nation of savers relative to Western consumers. But it's not all stuffed under the mattress. Here's some useful analysis for when they are spending.
Learning Curve For Consumers: Chinese consumer characteristics in the eyes of a Chinese expert – the disparity between cities is exaggerated, differences in post-90s born and the older and more.
To Understand China’s Consumer Class, Watch Their Travel Habits: No need to leave home to learn about Chinese consumers – just study their travel habits.
The Huge Gap Between Chinese and American Consumers: Although everyone's been talking about the rise of the Chinese consumer – they've still got a lot of catching up to do until they have pork parity with their American cousins – nice infograph
Branding in China
Baidu, Lenovo Top Chinese Brand Charts: Who said China doesn't do brands?
Retail in China
China, the People's Republic of Discounting: Chinese retailers slashing prices as consumers get cautious over slower GDP growth (a meager 7.6%).
Luxury Goods
Luxury Houses Set To Raise Prices in Europe: Luxury brands are claiming sales in China are slowing down because consumers can get them cheaper in Europe. This contradicts the Ruder Finn/Ipsos 2012 Survey which claims Chinese are buying more luxury goods on the mainland. Regardless, having a store front in China certainly helps global sales.
Chinese Outbound Tourism
China Consumers Counter Economy Gloom With Travel Boom: Chinese international travel is taking off- doubling in 5 years. Although the top 7 destinations are all close by, with the exception of Hong Kong, they're spending more in the US and Australia.
Health & Fitness
The Chinese Are Searching For The Body Beautiful: Will the Olympics inspire more Chinese to get fit at the gym? Currently 1.05% go versus 18.1% in the US, indicating there could be room for growth.
Automobiles
Chinese Consumers Rebell Against Channel Stuffing, Punish Carmakers: Chinese car buyers are less tolerant of crappy service (and share it on Weibo) – Audi comes in top in the service survey.
That's the skinny for the week! If you've missed earlier news or need to learn more, there's a trove of information about Chinese consumers in prior China Skinny Weeklys right here. You can have this delivered to your inbox each week by subscribing for email updates, or if you prefer hearing about these by social media, please follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In or Google+, or subscribe to our RSS feed. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future articles, please let us know.
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