What are young people paying for in the future?

You may have heard about young consumers in china engaging in what's known as "consumption downgrade" or even "reverse consumption".

At the same time, chinese consumers are queueing for the latest coffee or tea collab, paying premiums for rare la bubu toys and cheering for brands such asxiaomi,jd.com and pangdonglai.

The secret, according to douyin, tiktok’s chinese sister app, is the power of “emotional consumption”.

In mid-june, douyin mall (抖音商城), the chinese version of tiktok shop, released its on what it calls “emotional consumption”.

The idea behind it is consumers are willing to pay a premium for the emotional value of a purchase.

The decision stage of the customer journey is driven by the emotional value attached to products or services.

According to a report, nearly 30% of purchases made by young consumers are for their own interests.

According to the reports, emotional consumption is a large part of the healing economy and will reach 7 trillionusd in 25 years.

The top sectors in the market are travel, pets, and food and beverage.

According to the report, a majority of young people see unique merchandise as an important factor.

Creative and unique designs have become a part of their social identity and are a way to express their personal taste.

These young people enjoy rewarding themselves whenever they have a chance.

They like well-designed items which embrace the self-care or "self-pleasing" philosophy, popular since last year.

They look for the release of pressure in the workplace.

They take pleasure in the experience and can be found in buddhist and taoist decorations in their homes.

They want to try every innovation.

Loop, one-stop shop, starting from “seeding” all the way to transaction.

There were 388 hot new trends on douyin mall in 2024, and 852 were in the first half of 2025 alone.

A new content ip called “playing with something very new” (玩一个很新的东西) was it was launched in february and gained over 71.4 billion views with 3.67 million posts.

It is natural to want to look after one's own mental well-being.

There is a wave of change in consumer mindsets.