China’s consumers focus now on emotional gratification – Ashley Dudarenok

 

Ashley Dudarenok

The demands of China’s consumers have changed profoundly, says marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok, in an interview at CNBC. “People are not just buying things,” she said at CNBC in a phone call. “They’re buying feelings, they’re buying identity, they’re buying a sense of connection.”

CNBC:

“People are not just buying things,” said Ashley Dudarenok, founder of digital consultancy ChoZan told CNBC in a phone call. “They’re buying feelings, they’re buying identity, they’re buying a sense of connection.”…

Over the recent Chinese New Year holiday, data from ChoZan shows that consumers spent significantly less on traditional staples like festive food gifts (known as nian huo), and more on unconventional expenses, like travel experiences and cosmetics compared to the same period in 2023.

“What people used to buy back in the day, like liquor and bulk nuts … were all about social obligations and tradition. Right now, people buy gift boxes, they buy designer toys … and people don’t frown upon that,” Dudarenok said.

This shift from obligatory to more discretionary spending over China’s largest holiday exemplified broader shifts in consumer norms, according to Dudarenok, with Chinese consumers increasingly looking to satisfy desires for personal fulfillment, over more “rational” purchases…

China’s rising costs of living have also dovetailed with record low birth rates in 2025, adding to a growing sense of loneliness among many in the country.

Compounded, these pressures have instilled in the average Chinese consumer “a sense of crisis,” Dudarenok said, pushing many to redirect spending toward things that “bring [them] joy.”

More at CNBC.

Ashley Dudarenok is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more consumer experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

How a US financial crisis can make China the largest economy – Shaun Rein

 

Shaun Rein

Shanghai-based business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The Split: Finding the Opportunities in China’s Economy in the New World Order,  dives into the upheaval in the Middle East and explains how a possible US financial crisis could make China the world’s largest economy, as he tells in a discussion with David Lin. Chinese feel Trump is the best thing that could happen to China, he adds.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request list.

Are you looking for more strategic experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

4 Chinese social media campaigns to learn from – Ashley Dudarenok

 

Ashley Dudarenok

Hong-Kong-based marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok dives into four different social media campaigns Western brands cannot ignore, he explains on her website Chozan. “Successful campaigns in this environment rarely rely on simple advertising. Instead, they’re bespoke experiences: they speak the language of local memes, festivals, and internet jokes, and they invite users to participate rather than passively consume content,” she says

Ashley Dudarenok:

Chinese social media is a fast-moving universe. To understand how brands succeed in this environment, many marketers study Chinese consumer behavior and the digital ecosystems shaping modern retail. With over 1.3 billion WeChat users and more than 1 billion short-video users across platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou, brands can no longer treat the country as an afterthought.

Consumers spend an extraordinary amount of time online. The average Chinese internet user spends over 5 hours per day on mobile internet, much of it on social and video platforms. Just as importantly, trust in social recommendations is high—49% of Chinese consumers say influencer recommendations directly affect their purchasing decisions, far higher than in many Western markets.

By 2026, the Chinese digital landscape will have matured into a dense ecosystem of super-apps, niche forums, and seamless social commerce. Western platforms like Facebook and Instagram remain blocked, while local platforms such as WeChat, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu (RedNote) dominate everyday digital life.  These platforms operate inside a broader ecosystem of social commerce in China, where consumers discover, discuss, and purchase products without leaving the same app.

Even smaller vertical platforms command massive reach. For example, Xiaohongshu alone surpassed 260 million monthly active users, becoming one of the country’s most influential lifestyle platforms.

Successful campaigns in this environment rarely rely on simple advertising. Instead, they’re bespoke experiences: they speak the language of local memes, festivals, and internet jokes, and they invite users to participate rather than passively consume content.

The full story at Chozan.

Ashley Dudarenok is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more marketing experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

How China will push ahead with AI under the new 5-year plan – Winston Ma

 

Winston Ma

AI was a keyword in China’s 15th five-year plan, running from 2026 to 2030. “These are kind of concrete examples that big tech companies are taking actions to try to engage everyday people with advanced AI,” said Winston Ma, author of “The Digital War” and adjunct professor in the global AI-digital economy at Bastille Post.

The Bastille Post:

Signs of the AI push are already visible in the private sector. During the country’s recent Spring Festival holiday which marked celebrations for the Chinese New Year, major companies distributed traditional red packets — or lucky money coupons — through AI-driven apps, a consumer-level case study of how policy is meeting practice.

“These are kind of concrete examples that big tech companies are taking actions to try to engage everyday people with advanced AI,” said Winston Ma, author of “The Digital War” and adjunct professor in the global AI-digital economy.

Ma believes that wider adoption of AI among consumers will also generate vast amounts of data, fueling improvements in AI products and services.

“You have more than a billion internet users that are integrated by the same language, same culture, and the same mobile payment. So, every day there is tremendous amount of data accumulated at the digital platforms. So, the next step is to better utilize the data, organize the data, and put the data into work by AI to generate value,” he said.

That value is increasingly visible in intelligent products, most notably robots. At the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas back in January, Chinese firms dominated the exhibition floor with machines and high-tech robots of every shape and size, performing not only acrobatic displays but also practical tasks that underscored their commercial potential…

“There will be a huge range of embodied AI. But overall, China has the advantage of the manufacturing process developed here in the “Made in China” expansion the last three decades. Essentially, Chinese manufacturing power can be combined with Chinese open source models to develop a huge industry, relating to industry robots as well as humanoids,” Ma said.

Ma noted that this year’s “two sessions” could extend the technology agenda “Beyond AI,” encompassing quantum computing and biomedicine to lay the groundwork for next-generation industries.

More in the Bastille Post.

Winston Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

US-Iran war unlikely to derail Xi-Trump meeting – Arthur Kroeber

 

Arthur Kroeber

China protested against the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, but economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®  does not think this major upheaval will derail the planned meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, he says at CNBC.

Arthur Kroeber is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more stories by Arthur Kroeber? Do check out this list.

What Western companies get wrong on China’s AI strategy – Sharon Gai

 

Sharon Gai

Western companies systematically misread the AI strategy of China, says former Alibaba executive Sharon Gai in Computer Weekly. “The practical takeaway is not that Western companies should replicate China’s model. The regulatory, cultural, and political contexts are too different for direct imitation. But there are strategic lessons worth absorbing,” she writes.

Sharon Gai:

The practical takeaway is not that Western companies should replicate China’s model. The regulatory, cultural, and political contexts are too different for direct imitation. But there are strategic lessons worth absorbing.

First, stop treating AI deployment as something that happens after the model is “ready.” The companies gaining the most ground, in China and increasingly elsewhere, are the ones deploying imperfect AI in controlled but real environments, learning from live data, and iterating rapidly. Waiting for perfection is a luxury that the pace of competition no longer affords.

Second, invest in the integration layer. The model is only as valuable as the ecosystem it connects to. Western organisations that focus exclusively on procuring the best model while neglecting the workflows, data pipelines, and cultural changes needed to make that model useful will find themselves outpaced by competitors who build tighter loops between AI and operations.

Third, develop genuine China literacy within your strategy teams. Too many Western companies rely on surface-level reporting or outdated assumptions about Chinese technology. The executives who will navigate the next decade of AI competition successfully are those who invest in understanding what is actually happening on the ground, not what fits the familiar narrative.

The AI race is not a single sprint with one finish line. It is a complex, multi-front contest where different strategies can win in different domains. Western companies that continue to misread China’s approach are not just underestimating a competitor. They are misunderstanding the game itself.

More at Computer Weekly.

Sharon Gai is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more experts on innovation at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

The year of the fire horse explained – Zhang Lijia

 

Zhang Lijia

Is 2026, the year of the fire horse, going to bring dramatic change, as people in China say? Journalist Zhang Lijia, author of “Socialism Is Great!”: A Worker’s Memoir of the New China, dives into the meaning of the year of the fire horse. Happening once every 60 years, the previous year of the fire horse was 1966, marking the start of the Cultural Revolution, says Zhang Lijia at the China Decode.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

 Are you looking for more experts on cultural change at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.