Young Chinese seek better connection between digital and offline worlds: Enovate

The 2011 Digital Lifestyles Report found mobile to be the preferred online access point for young Chinese by a clear margin. More than 75 per cent of respondents under the age of 22 would be willing to give up their computer and rely on their mobile devices for all aspects of online access and communication. Nearly 60 per cent of those aged between 22 and 30 expressed the same sentiment. 86 per cent of respondents said they had purchased a smartphone in the past six months.

John Solomon (pictured), Enovate’s founder and managing director, predicted that mobile TV and on-demand streaming apps would grow dramatically over 2011 and 2012 due to aggressive marketing activity by content streaming companies such as Xunlei and PPTV and the continuing consumer migration to 3G networks. He added that young people did not want to be tied to their computers.

“We believe that young people in China, while extremely digital, are actually looking for offline experiences that are engaging and get them away from their computers and homes,” Solomon said. “We see youth frustrated with the increasing amount of free time they have, and they often defer to digital due to boredom and a lack of ‘offline’ activities.”

Linked to this is a decrease in activity around social gaming. Solomon said that the “legions of bored white collar professionals” that had become hooked on social networking games over the past several years were now returning to more straightforward socialising across various platforms online.

“Young people have given up 'carrot smuggling' for the power to share articles, photos and status updates instantaneously on micro-blogging platforms and QQ groups,” Solomon observed. “SNS gaming is now the least preferred activity online as young people are too busy scrambling to stay on top of the latest gossip.”

He indicated that the trend was driven by the desire for peer acceptance and “ego-affirmation”: Over 75 per cent of respondents stated that the people they were most eager to impress were their friends.

In conclusion, Solomon urged marketers to concentrate on bridging the on and offline worlds, rather than concentrating too heavily on digital per se. He pointed to Nike as an example of a brand that has successfully engaged people in both spaces by offering incentives to take part in real sporting activities and subsequently share those experiences in online communities.

“The use of offline ‘gamification’ techniques drive youth into the offline space while allowing them to connect back easily to build their social currency online,” he explained. “The opportunity with youth today is not the fact that they are all online but that they desire offline activities and events they can share and propagate instantly.”