Luxury and Beauty Audience Consumption Insights: How Bilibili’s High-Value Consumers Think, Choose and Buy

China’s luxury and beauty market is no longer only a story of spending power. It is increasingly a story of how consumers think before they buy, what they need to believe, and which brands earn the right to enter their lifestyle. Bilibili’s Luxury & Fashion Consumer Behavior Insight Report frames this audience as a high-value group of more than 58 million people who are not just watching luxury and beauty content, but using it to understand taste, identity and value.

The sharper question for brands is no longer simply how to reach them. It is: who are they, how do they think, why do they choose, and how should brands start a deeper conversation with them?

Who they are: not just wealthy, but culturally engaged

This report shows that luxury and beauty consumers are not a narrow group of “wealthy shoppers”. They are a multi-layered audience made up of high-net-worth consumers, quality-focused new middle-class consumers and emerging elites. Their premium consumption is shifting from pure identity signalling towards experience, cultural recognition and personal values.

That makes them commercially interesting because luxury is only one part of a much wider lifestyle system. According to the Kantar quantitative survey cited in the report, their past-year consumption was broad and highly lifestyle-oriented.

This shows a consumer who is not only buying luxury for special occasions. They are building a premium lifestyle across personal care, food, technology, sport, fashion and beauty. Beauty and luxury sit inside everyday life, not outside it.

How they think: consumption is becoming self-expression

Consumption is increasingly about “what this says about me”. The report notes that luxury and beauty consumers use knowledge to cultivate taste and treat consumption as a vote for brands that match their personal spirit.

That mindset is visible in their lifestyle attitudes. The report shows strong curiosity, self-improvement and aesthetic awareness among this group:

• 38.1% pay attention to healthy eating and have strong interest in baking or food

• 37.8% want to keep enriching themselves and enjoy learning in their spare time

• 31.3% care about life details and a sense of ritual

• 29.3% pursue beautiful things and have their own appreciation of art

  
  

This matters for brands because it changes the role of marketing. A product story must do more than show desirability. It needs to explain why the product fits a life that is thoughtful, aesthetic, informed and emotionally rewarding.

What they pay attention to: knowledge, beauty and lifestyle

Luxury and beauty consumers are active content learners. Their daily attention is spread across knowledge-based, beauty-related and premium lifestyle themes.

The report’s daily interest chart shows strong attention to:

• Variety, film and drama interpretation: 61.2%

• Documentaries and knowledge popularisation: 53.0%

• Beauty and skincare sharing or reviews: 44.7%

• High-end digital and technology products: 42.0%

• Health management: 40.0%

• Overseas travel: 38.1%

• Fashion shows and fashion weeks: 28.6%

• Celebrity interviews and podcasts: 25.7%

• Luxury goods stories and jewellery: 22.0%

• Michelin or high-end restaurants: 21.9%

  
  

This is a useful signal for content strategy. The same consumer may watch a skincare review, a documentary, a fashion week breakdown, a technology review and an overseas travel guide. Their luxury and beauty decisions are shaped by a wider cultural and lifestyle information diet.

What they buy in luxury: iconic, but usable

The most interesting luxury insight is that this audience wants products that are both symbolic and practical. The report shows that bags and accessories have the highest ownership rates among luxury categories:

• 52.7% own luxury bags

• 42.6% own luxury accessories

• 38.4% own watches

• 36.4% own jewellery

• 34.2% own luxury clothing

• 22.5% own luxury shoes

• 12.4% own luxury homeware or home accessories

  
  

The report’s interpretation is especially useful: these consumers want a signature item that can represent “who I am”, but they also want it to be used often and styled easily in daily life.

That is the consumption tension luxury brands need to understand. The product must feel special enough to signal identity, but not so distant that it feels detached from real life. The winning luxury item is not only a trophy. It is an everyday badge of taste.

Why they choose: beauty is emotional, but also highly rational

High-end beauty consumption is also changing. The report frames premium beauty as moving from brand-driven buying towards a dual engine of professional, segmented efficacy and emotional value. It also notes that 73% of surveyed luxury and beauty consumers are willing to pay for beauty products or services that bring joy, confidence and happiness into daily life.

That balance is critical. Beauty consumers want results, but they also want the product to feel good, look good and support self-reward. This creates two parallel jobs for beauty brands:

• Prove efficacy: ingredients, texture, skin suitability, long-term use and visible results.

• Create feeling: confidence, comfort, ritual, pleasure, identity and emotional release.

  
  

The best beauty content therefore needs to be both credible and sensorial. It should satisfy the rational need for proof while also showing how the product fits into a more enjoyable personal routine.

How brands should talk to them

The report makes clear that this audience does not respond well to flat product broadcasting. They are active explorers, deep viewers and community participants. They want cultural fit, emotional resonance and trustworthy explanation.

A stronger brand conversation should do five things:

• Speak to identity: show how the product helps consumers express who they are.

• Explain value: make design, craft, formula, materials or efficacy easy to understand.

• Respect intelligence: give detail rather than relying only on celebrity, logo or campaign visuals.

• Create emotional relevance: connect luxury and beauty with confidence, self-care, ritual and belonging.

• Fit the community: use deeper content culture rather than importing a generic advertising tone.

  
  

This is where “deep attention” becomes commercially relevant. Luxury and beauty consumers are not simply scrolling past products. They are learning, comparing, interpreting and deciding.

The new consumption playbook

This report shows how premium consumption is evolving in China. These consumers buy personal care, food, outdoor products, digital goods, fashion, beauty and luxury as part of one connected lifestyle. They are informed, aesthetically aware and increasingly motivated by self-expression rather than status alone.

For brands, the message is clear:

• Do not only sell status; sell meaning.

• Do not only show products; explain why they matter.

• Do not only chase attention; earn trust.

• Do not treat luxury as distant; make it usable, personal and culturally fluent.

• Do not separate beauty from emotion; make proof and pleasure work together.

  
  

The future of luxury and beauty growth will belong to brands that understand how these consumers live, think and choose — and that can hold a deeper, more intelligent conversation with them.

Contact us and discover how your brand can build deeper connections with China’s luxury and beauty consumers.