Generation Z
China’s first well-off generation challenges consumerism stereotype by saving more
China’s Generation Z is challenging conventional buying and spending norms by being careful in their choice of products and avoiding wasteful expenditure, much against the belief that teens tend to splurge, a survey has revealed.
Despite belonging to richer families, those born after 2000 have higher savings and don’t like impulsive purchases, according to a latest survey on the post-2000 generation conducted by Tencent.
This generation differs from millennials (born between 1990 and 2000) who love to squander and have a fancy for good brands. Generation Z does not believe in living from paycheck to paycheck and has a better understanding of how to save.
Generation Z’s average savings are three times the previous generation’s, according to the survey sent to the Global Times on Monday by Tencent, one of China’s biggest internet companies.
Although the study failed to explain how Generation Z, the oldest among which would be just 18, is already capable of making money, it said they are born to richer families than the millennials.
Members of this age group are inclined to earn extra themselves, adding to the pocket money they receive.
“I worked part-time at Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai during summer vacation, and earned some 4,000 yuan ($621),” Xiao Xiong, a 16-year-old Shanghai high school school student, told the Global Times.
The hard work was put in only to buy electronic devices he longed for.
“But I will never buy something beyond my purchasing ability.”
Being richer and the first group to have been born into a modern China, Generation Z has developed its unique consuming behavior.
Quality conscious
The Tencent survey said that over half of these post-Millennial generation respondents believe foreign brands are no better than domestic ones, and that an overwhelming 84 percent is willing to buy goods within their purchasing ability.
Some 60 percent respondents even require their favorite brand to have unique perspective and achievements in their fields.
The generation Y and Z is emerging as the next engine of consumption in China, according to a report released by global management consulting firm McKinsey and Company in November 2017.
The report said that this consumer cohort will account for more than 20 percent of total consumption growth, higher than any other demographic segment.
Forty percent of the group focuses more on quality than brand, and the majority prefers environmentally friendly products, Lan Luan, an associate partner in McKinsey China’s Consumer and Retail practice, said in the report. More than half of respondents of the Tencent survey said that products designed and made abroad are no longer deemed better than Chinese goods.
Studying abroad
Not only is their consuming behavior changing the market, Chinese Generation Z may also shake up the country’s traditional education system to its core.
“Most of my classmates are preparing for short study tours in English-speaking countries such as the UK and US…and some are planning to study abroad for their bachelor’s degree or even in high school,” said 13-year-old Yueyue, a Beijing junior school student.
According to the Tencent survey, Generation Z has more opportunities to travel abroad. US, Canada and the UK are their top three favorite destination. Moreover, 66 percent said they can make important decisions by themselves.
This is the first year for China’s Generation Z to take gaokao, the national college entrance examinations. Unlike their predecessors, who deem this as a life-changing, and even class-changing opportunity, half of the examinees told China News Service that the test simply enriched their life experience.
The China News Service report also said some students choose to study abroad after graduation.
Li Nong, a Chongqing student who took gaokao this year, said that he also participated in some universities’ autonomous recruitments.
An overseas study adviser surnamed Ye from Taisha, one of the largest institutes to help students apply for overseas studies, said that many Chinese students choose to go abroad at an early age, as the competition of getting admitted to Chinese universities is fierce. “Students can have more ways to go to university than attending gaokao. We also have more autonomy of deciding where we want to go, apart from letting the scores decide where we should go,” he said.