Younger generation of Chinese consumers develop taste for wider variety of carbonated beverages featuring healthier formulas

A healthy formula and the infusion of nutrients have become important factors affecting younger Chinese people’s choice of carbonated beverages as they seek a way to beat the summer heat, with younger consumers paying increasingly more attention to their quality of life, Beijing Youth Daily reported on July 10.

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The younger generation of Chinese consumers today has more expectations when it comes to carbonated beverages. They hope that such beverage options can help them to both cool off on hot days and delight their taste buds while also not causing them to worry about extra calories, according to a survey conducted by a WeChat account that focuses on the various trends in the lives of young people in China.

The survey found that sugar-free and calorie-free carbonated drinks, low-sugar beverages of various kinds, and drinks featuring real fruit juice and milk are more well-received among young people in China than other drinks in the same categories.

Carbonated drinks are the first choice of beverages for more than 60 percent of young Chinese, suggested the survey, which showed that more than 50.3 percent of the respondents drink carbonated drinks at least once a week; 22.5 percent of the surveyed young people reported enjoying such drinks four to six times a week; and 7.7 percent of the respondents drink them more than seven times a week.

Among all the different age groups comprising the younger generation of Chinese people nowadays, the post-2000s group of young people in China favor carbonated beverages the most, with 80 percent of them saying that they enjoy such drinks more than four times a week, according to the survey.

The survey also revealed that the top five factors affecting young people’s choice of carbonated beverages include taste, cost-performance ratio, sugar content, calories, and brand awareness.

More than 90 percent of the surveyed young people hope that the price for a bottle of a carbonated drink is less than 10 yuan (or about $1.49), while nearly 60 percent of the respondents indicated that they hope the price can be kept within 5 yuan, as revealed in the survey.

According to the survey, the three most popular carbonated beverage flavors among young Chinese people are fruit, soda, and milk, in descending order.