Health-conscious young Chinese reshaping industry

BEIJING, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Li Tong, a 31-year-old office clerk in north China's Tianjin, takes a pack of seven tablets to work every day. The tablets, meticulously collocated with different effects, are consumed to maintain good health instead of treating disease.

"The purple tablet is made of substances extracted from blueberry, which is good for eyes, and the soft capsule contains DHA and hydroxytyrosol, which can activate my brain and raise work efficiency," said Li, who believes these nutritious pills are a convenient and time-saving option to improve her sub-health status.

Li's daily "nutrition pack" is a fashionable wellness product that combines multiple health-care elements, ranging from vitamins and calcium to fish oil and collagen. Such products are particularly sought after among young consumers, who are eager to maintain their well-being but prefer a low-effort way.

Living with better education and life conditions, today's young people pay more attention to their wellness, while the trend of chronic disease incidence increasing among younger populations also sounds the alarm for them, said Zhang Yongjian, a senior research fellow with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

A white paper about Chinese people's consumption in 2023 revealed that more than 40 percent of Gen Z purchased functional health-care food or devices, and about one-third of those aged below 30 once bought nutrition supplements.

On Xiaohongshu, an online lifestyle-sharing platform popular among the youth, there are about 2.5 million posts about "nutrition packs." Many users share their experience of having health-care food in the comment section. "If you often feel tired, try Vitamin E." "Vitamin D can save you from losing hair!"

In China, health-care products used to be associated with elderly people. However, with higher health awareness, stronger purchasing power, and the willingness to try new products, young Chinese are gradually becoming main consumers of such products, experts say.

More importantly, their diversified and personalized needs are stimulating the upgrading of the health industry. In addition to such common effects as supplementing vitamins and boosting immunity, Li hopes future products can work in resisting tiredness, protecting skin, and regulating mood.

Manufacturers are redoubling efforts to develop new products to cater to young customers' fresh tastes. For example, some ingredients are processed into chewable tablets and soft sweets, making the taking as pleasant as having snacks.

Wan Yanjing, a senior executive of Bayer Healthcare in charge of e-commerce, is amazed by how today's consumers can be "professional."

They will independently search for information about the ingredients of health-care food from social media, even from authoritative journals and theses, and they will follow up on the changes in the indicators evaluating their health conditions after taking the products. "This means that we must offer more competitive products," Wan said.

With a thriving consumption demand, China's wellness product market has maintained steady growth, worth approximately 328 billion yuan (46 billion U.S. dollars) of market size in 2023, and is estimated to reach 423 billion yuan by 2027.

But the "nutrition pack" is not yet the whole picture, as the improvement of consumption level and health consciousness of the Chinese residents is seen as a great opportunity for the booming of the health industry.

A report released by China Consumers Association (CCA) in August showed that China's big health industry will hit 9 trillion yuan of revenue this year. The industry, which covers medical and health products, nutritious food, medical and wellness devices, as well as health management and consulting, is projected to exceed 17 trillion yuan by 2025 and 29 trillion yuan by 2030.

While some young Chinese like Li turn to nutrition supplements to keep healthy, others draw wisdom from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) that advocates disease prevention.

The trending topic of "TCM clinics outperform milk tea stores" on the X-like social media platform Weibo offers a glimpse into the popularity of TCM-based health-care drinks among young people.

This summer, a tea-substituting TCM drink prescribed by the provincial hospital of TCM in east China's Shandong Province, priced at 2 yuan a set, was snapped up by over 3,000 sets online and offline daily. Similarly, a hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, rolled out a tonic diet targeting different seasons, which also became a sensation among young people.

Looking forward in the industry, experts have called for setting a unified industrial standard. The CCA proposed developing a system for quality management and leveraging high-tech to improve the product manufacturing process to provide high-quality products for consumers.

"Young Chinese consumers pursue a model of keeping healthy that is totally different from the older generation, bringing huge potential and broad space for our investment," Wan said.