With the arrival of the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday, QuestMobile data shows that the average daily active user scale during the 2024 Chinese New Year holiday reached 908 million, breaking the 900 million mark for the first time in history, with a year-on-year growth of 1.8%. At the same time, user engagement continues to rise, with the average daily usage time per person surpassing 7 hours. Among these, short videos and social networking account for 31.0% and 25.6% respectively, collectively capturing over 50% of users' attention.
According to the report, the primary consumption patterns have effectively boosted the usage time share in areas such as mobile shopping, travel services, digital reading, and lifestyle services. This article will delve into three parts, thoroughly analysing insights report to understand the comprehensive user data across various consumption patterns.
Part 1: High-Quality Consumption as Gifting
Health supplements: There was a continued growth in health-related demands, with user attention on health supplements. The ongoing refinement and expansion of health-related needs have sparked a surge in the trend of "presenting health" during festive occasions. Across the entire internet user spectrum, there is a notable preference for nutritional supplements such as vitamins, collagen, and probiotics. Furthermore, the act of visiting relatives and friends often involves gifting brain-enhancing products to pregnant women and infants, with particular attention being given to DHA.
Liquor: On the other hand, traditional consumption related to social gatherings and liquor, such as clothing and accessories, cosmetics, and alcoholic beverages, received significant attention during the Chinese New Year holiday. Leading brands in the liquor category, including Maotai, Wuliangye, and Fen Jiu, continued to maintain their dominance. This heightened the intensity of Chinese New Year Eve’s "shopping battle." Apart from e-commerce platforms continuing to offer billions in subsidies, cross-store discounts, live broadcasts, and Spring Festival Gala activities, instant retail platforms also joined the fray. Customised Chinese New Year goods, high-end gift boxes, and 30-minute home delivery during the Chinese New Year emerged as popular strategies.
Online Shopping: Users purchased Chinese New Year goods such as decoration, snacks, clothing and home goods through Taobao, PDD, and JD.com, especially on Chinese New Year Eve, when the platform's traffic peaked the day before Chinese New Year's Eve. According to the data, on Chinese New Year Eve, users heavily relied on online shopping services, with Freshippo recording a remarkable 1,052 users.
Part 2: Robust Demand for 'Returning Home + Travelling'
Travel, lifestyle, entertainment: The strong demand for "returning home and traveling" during the Chinese New Year is driven by entrenched family reunion customs, extended holiday periods, cultural celebrations, leisure pursuits, and enhanced transportation infrastructure, coupled with promotional incentives, rendering travel more attainable. The emergence of user interest in exploring local traditions and enjoying diverse flavours and cuisines, along with the widespread discussion and increasing popularity of topics related to the Spring Festival Gala and Spring Festival movies across online platforms, has led to a surge in traffic in the cultural travel, lifestyle, and entertainment sectors. Travel increased by 34.3% year-on-year, and the movie box office increased by 18.5%.
Transportation service: The Suanya 12,306 application gained a daily active user base of 39.79 million on January 12 when Spring Festival train tickets went on sale, with traffic during the Spring Festival period surpassing 50 million. Continuing to drive the growth in holiday traffic for aviation travel platforms and airline apps, the aviation travel platform reached a peak of 3.31 million users, with airlines attracting up to 790,000 users.
Part 3: Local life services Overview analysis
Delivery app: During the Chinese New Year period, both the Meituan app and the WeChat mini-program experienced peak traffic on February 14, with over 130 million and 18 million users, respectively. Similarly, on the final day of the Chinese New Year holiday, the Ele.me app and the Meituan Delivery app each gained daily active users surpassing 18 million and 15 million, respectively. Additionally, Wechat mini-programs for amusement parks and museums on WeChat continued to surge in popularity, with Shanghai Disneyland Resort, Universal Studios Beijing, Chimelong Tourist Resort, and others attracting peak daily active user numbers exceeding 800,000, 140,000, and 180,000, respectively.
Short video platform: During the Chinese New Year period, various platforms under Douyin collectively garnered a peak traffic of 490 million. They conducted a series of lifestyle-oriented and fun activities, such as grabbing a Chinese New Year coupon, playing with the auspicious dragon, and taking AI-generated group photos, continuously stimulating interaction and sharing among users from various circles.
In summary, the internet industry showcased a thriving developmental trajectory during the 2024 Chinese New Year, exhibiting significant vitality and potential across various sectors. With ongoing technological advancements and evolving user demands, the future outlook for the internet industry appears even more promising.
Ready to harness the burgeoning digital landscape revealed in our "2024 Chinese New Year Holiday Report"? Contact us today to transform insights into action for your brand's success, we can help you navigate China's complex market dynamics and tap into this unprecedented growth.