Alibaba holds the largest Taobao Maker Festival in eight years

Taobao kicked off its annual Maker Festival. Festivities for the eighth edition started from April 29th to May 1st, focusing on the theme “Uncovering Infinite Lifestyle Possibilities on Taobao." Like past iterations, the idea was to showcase the shopping preferences of young Chinese consumers. 

This year's Festival, held in 10 cities across China, including Shanghai, Xi'an, Chengdu, Xiamen, Wuhan, Nanjing, and Changsha, was the biggest ever in geographical reach. It centered on four rapidly growing local consumption trends: interest, pleasure, health and family. In addition, each city worked on promoting Taobao’s most creative merchants, allowing shoppers a fully immersive and innovative experience. 

Eco-friendly and handmade products from Cold Brew Ink, handbags and wooden fish lanterns were displayed to push the 'interest' theme. For the ‘pleasure’ trend, art and pets are featured to appeal to the Gen Z cohort. Traditional Chinese garments, or hanfu, that have become uber popular with young consumers were also a key attraction. 

‘Health’ is a core consumption trend among young Chinese. Adding a new spin to it, 3D-printed superfood brand Moodles integrated 3D printing technology and molecular gastronomy techniques to create delicious and healthy food. Also, ZeroZero Technology created a lightweight, portable, foldable drone that instantly shares photos on social media.  

As an annual bazaar celebrating youth creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, the Taobao Maker Festival started in 2016. In addition to the consumption trends above, this year’s Maker Festival included three uniquely themed cities, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Chongqing, bringing together artisans, food, products related to ACG (anime, comics, games), futuristic technology and fashionable trends.