China's pre-school parent-child market is expanding rapidly, as a growing number of young parents take a more scientific approach to parenting.

(Photo/People's Daily)

"We spend a large portion of the family budget on raising our kid," said Ma Xin, who lives in Dongcheng district, Beijing, and has a 4-year-old daughter. The couple spend almost half of their income every month on better raising their daughter.

"Besides the basic expenses such as food and clothing, we also spend money on buying cartoon books and toys, watching cartoons and early education courses," Ma said.

The investment in preschool parent-child consumption has been increasing year on year for new parents born after 1995, with annual compound growth of per capita consumption on Tmall, an e-commerce platform, reaching 61 percent in the past three years.

The structure of preschool parent-child consumption is moving from daily supplies to the fields of education and entertainment. A Tmall report showed that parental investment in early education is coming very early on in children, and sales of toy books and educational toys are growing rapidly.

The preschool parent-child consumption market is characterized by high user stickiness, different buying and consuming groups, and a strong sense of science and technology, according to Cai Liuyang, a professor of psychology at Tsinghua University.

Meanwhile, one mother in Shanghai pointed out that the key for preschool parent-child consumption is edutainment, where children can learn as well as can play, and parents also can participate.

As more and more audio programs have become popular with parents, sales of intelligent speakers featuring children's mode and voice control on Tmall have increased by 121 percent in the past three years.

Data from market consultancy company iiMedia Research indicated that the number of children aged from 0 to 6 reached 100 million in 2018, and the number of clients in early education institutions has also been increasing.