Emotional value drives booming consumer market
情感价值驱动消费市场蓬勃发展
Emotional consumption took off on Chinese social media at the start of 2026, emerging as a new way for young people to express themselves and find comfort.
2026年初，情感消费在中国社交媒体上迅速兴起，成为年轻人表达自我、寻找安慰的新方式。
"On weekdays, I'll treat myself to a newly launched co-branded milk tea, and on weekends, I take classes to learn traditional intangible cultural heritage crafts. That routine helps me unwind," said Qiao Ziyan, who was born in the 1990s and currently works in Beijing.
“工作日我会犒劳自己一杯新出的联名奶茶，周末则去上课学习传统非遗手工艺，这样的节奏让我很放松”，目前在北京工作的90后乔紫妍说道。
A 2025 report on emotion-driven consumption among Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012), jointly released by the Shanghai Youth and Children Research Center and other organizations, identified five top categories that deliver emotional value. These include physical products such as plush toys, aromatherapy items and stress-relief gadgets; experience-based spending like concerts, stand-up shows and psychological counseling; social consumption; digital consumption; and purchases of co-branded products and IP collaborations.
上海市青少年儿童研究中心等机构联合发布的《2025年Z世代（1997年至2012年出生）情感驱动消费报告》指出了五大类最具情感价值的消费类别，包括毛绒玩具、香薰产品、减压小工具等实体商品；音乐会、脱口秀、心理咨询等体验型消费；社会型消费；数字消费；以及联名产品和IP合作消费。
Consumers select blind boxes at a Pop Mart store in Xidan Joy City, a shopping mall in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 28, 2024. (Xinhua/Shi Yifei)
2024年12月28日，消费者在北京西单大悦城的一家泡泡玛特门店挑选盲盒。（新华社/史逸飞）
Perler bead crafting is catching on among young people. Whether made for themselves or given as gifts to friends, the handmade pieces are fueling a growing market that combines emotional value with commercial potential.
拼豆手工艺在年轻人中流行起来。无论是为自己制作，还是作为礼物送给朋友，这些手工作品正推动一个融合情感价值与商业潜力的市场不断壮大。
Data from China's e-commerce platform Meituan show that searches for perler bead crafting on the platform have surged more than tenfold year on year since the start of 2026, while transaction orders have doubled. People aged 20 to 25 account for nearly 40 percent of those searching for the activity. Meanwhile, searches for pet photography have also risen by more than 40 percent year on year.
国内电商平台美团的数据显示，自2026年初以来，平台上“拼豆”的搜索量同比增长超十倍，交易订单翻了一番。其中，20至25岁的年轻人占搜索用户近四成。同时，“宠物摄影”的搜索量也同比增长超过40%。
Online video and audio content has become a key channel for sparking and amplifying emotion-driven consumption. The historical epic TV series "Swords into Plowshares," which premiered at the start of this year, has boosted sales of related books. Creative cultural products inspired by the bronze fish-shaped tally, an official ID token featured in the show, sold several million units within 24 hours. Meanwhile, the filming location, Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province, saw travel bookings rise by 31 percent year on year in the run-up to the Spring Festival.
在线视频和音频内容已经成为激发和放大情感驱动消费的重要渠道。今年年初首播的历史史诗电视剧《铸剑为犁》带动了相关图书的销售。剧中出现的官方信物：青铜鱼形符，衍生出的文创产品，在24小时内售出数百万件。与此同时，该剧的取景地浙江杭州在春节前的旅游预订量同比增长了31%。
Short videos and micro-dramas also experienced explosive growth in 2025, with the domestic user base approaching 700 million and the market value surpassing 100 billion yuan ($14.52 billion).
短视频和微短剧在2025年也出现了爆发式增长，国内用户规模接近7亿，市场规模突破1000亿元人民币（约合145.2亿美元）。
Market research firm iiMedia Research reported that the market scale of China's "emotion economy" reached 2.3 trillion yuan in 2024 and is projected to exceed 4.5 trillion yuan by 2029.
市场研究机构艾媒咨询报告显示，中国“情感经济”的市场规模在2024年达到2.3万亿元，预计到2029年将超过4.5万亿元。
In 2024, the market scale of the "guzi" economy — a catchall term derived from a phonetic pun on the English word "goods" that refers to spin-off merchandise linked to anime, music and gaming — reached 168.9 billion yuan, up 40.63 percent year on year.
2024年，“谷子经济”（源自英文“goods”的谐音，泛指动漫、音乐、游戏等IP衍生品）的市场规模达到1689亿元，同比增长40.63%。
"Developing creative cultural products based on IPs is an important way to energize emotion-driven consumption," said Zhou Zhiqiang, a professor at Nankai University.
南开大学教授周志强表示：“围绕IP开发文创产品，是激活情感驱动消费的重要途径。”
The guzi economy uses IPs to turn emotional resonance in the virtual world into real-world consumption. Through collectibles, interactive experiences and other activities, it meets Gen Z's needs for emotional support, self-expression and a sense of belonging.
谷子经济通过IP，将虚拟世界的情感共鸣转化为现实世界的消费。借助收藏品、互动体验等形式，满足Z世代对情感支撑、自我表达和归属感的需求。
"Emotion-driven consumption goes beyond a market activity; it also acts as a carrier of cultural identity," said Bai Xue, head of the Data Innovation Lab at the Shanghai Youth and Children Research Center.
上海市青少年儿童研究中心的数据创新实验室负责人白雪表示：“情感驱动的消费不仅仅是一种市场活动，也承载着文化认同。”
Looking ahead, she emphasized that harnessing China's rich traditional culture and transforming it into modern, emotionally compelling IPs will be a major engine for innovation in emotion-driven consumption.
展望未来，她强调，挖掘中国丰富的传统文化资源，将其转化为具有现代感和情感吸引力的IP，将是推动情感驱动消费创新的重要引擎。
Emotion-driven consumption is also transforming commercial spaces, industrial ecosystems, and models of employment and entrepreneurship, injecting fresh momentum into regional economic growth.
情感驱动消费也正在重塑商业空间、产业生态以及就业与创业模式，为区域经济增长注入新鲜动能。
By introducing guzi stores, night schools and stress-relief venues, older shopping malls such as Bailian ZX Creative Centre in Shanghai have doubled or even quadrupled revenue per square meter. Data from Douyin's e-commerce arm show that over the past year, more than 9,800 businesses in the emotion-driven consumption sector have grown sales from zero to several million yuan.
通过引入谷子店、夜校和减压场所，上海百联ZX创趣场等老牌商场实现了单位面积营业额翻了一至两番。抖音电商部门的数据显示，过去一年，情感驱动消费领域已有超过9800家商家实现了从零到数百万元的销售额增长。
