Approaching the Spring Festival, the housekeeping service market ushered in a peak consumption season, and related orders on multiple platforms ushered in a substantial increase.
Meituan data shows that in the past two weeks, the search volume of door-to-door housekeeping and cleaning increased by 150% month-on-month, and the number of orders for "deep cleaning"** increased by 130% month-on-month.
Recently, data released by 58 Daojia shows that due to the impact of the traditional housekeeping season, the demand for housekeeping on the eve of the Spring Festival in 2024 will increase significantly, and the number of housekeeping service orders is expected to be 40% compared with the same period last year, an increase of about 30% from the previous month; Whole house cleaning, glass cleaning, range hood cleaning and other sub-categories have become "big hits" booked before the Spring Festival.
According to CCTV News on February 3, big data shows that since the beginning of the month, the search related to housekeeping services has increased by 416% year-on-year and 81% month-on-month, among which, the user search volume in Guangdong, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Henan is the highest. Housekeeping apps have become popular apps, and big data has analyzed the activity of nearly 20 housekeeping apps and mini programs, and the usage traffic of such apps has more than doubled compared to the same period in 2023 (1081%）。The data shows that sub-categories such as whole-house cleaning, glass cleaning, and range hood cleaning have become "big hits" for appointments on the eve of the Spring Festival.
In fact, with the change of consumption concept, housekeeping and cleaning services have increasingly become the "New Year's goods" favored by young people, and the popularity of the housekeeping market before the year ago is a major manifestation of the growth of such demand.
In addition to housekeeping services, on the whole, China's domestic service market has broad prospects and continues to grow. In October last year, iiMedia Consulting released a report showing that the scale of China's domestic service market increased from 277.6 billion yuan in 2015 to 1,089 billion yuan in 2022, an increase of nearly three times, and will maintain a steady growth trend in the future, and the scale of China's domestic service market is expected to exceed 1.3 trillion yuan in 2027. With the aging of the social population and the impact of the opening of the three-child policy, the consumer demand of users is increasing, and China's domestic service industry, as a sunrise industry and people's livelihood industry, has considerable development prospects.
It is worth mentioning that the pace of digital transformation of the industry is accelerating day by day. Taking the participation of housekeeping service providers in online live broadcast as an example, since mid-January, Meituan Life Service Channel has launched a series of live broadcast activities of "Spring Festival Cleaning", linking businesses in 69 cities across the country to provide services such as in-depth cleaning and glass cleaning.
iiMedia Consulting also believes that with the diversification and specialization of consumer needs, the future of housekeeping services will gradually expand the scope of services, more subdivided projects, and more professional services. With the support of the development of information technology such as mobile Internet and big data, the digital transformation of the industry will be accelerated, and online functions such as digital operation, digital customer acquisition, and intelligent customer service will be rapidly promoted.
From a policy point of view, in recent years, a number of departments have issued relevant documents, and the development of the domestic service industry has ushered in favorable policies. In February 2023, the State Administration for Market Regulation (Standards Committee), the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the "Special Action Plan for the Standardization of Elderly Care and Housekeeping Services" to further promote the professionalization, standardization, standardization, branding, digitalization, and large-scale development of the housekeeping industry, and actively promote the transformation and upgrading of the housekeeping service industry to a high-quality direction.
On December 19, 2023, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce and other six departments issued the "Guiding Opinions on Supporting and Guiding the Transformation and Development of the Employee System in the Domestic Service Industry", pointing out that promoting the transformation and development of the domestic service industry to the employee system is an important reform measure to improve the quality and expansion of the domestic service industry. It also proposes to increase financial support. Expand diversified financing channels for employee-based domestic enterprises, and support qualified employee-based domestic enterprises to go public for financing and issue bonds.
Recently, the General Office of the People's Republic of China issued the "Opinions on Developing the Silver Economy and Improving the Well-being of the Elderly". At the regular policy briefing held by the State Council Information Office on January 22, Zhu Guangyao, head of the Department of Service and Commerce Service of the Ministry of Commerce, said that at present, there are about 30 million employees in the domestic service industry, and the actual demand exceeds 50 million, which is a big gap. In recent years, the Ministry of Commerce, in conjunction with relevant departments, has implemented comprehensive policies to continuously promote poverty alleviation and rejuvenation of agriculture through domestic economics for seven consecutive years, and expand and optimize the supply of domestic services.
In the next step, we will promote the quality and expansion of the domestic service industry and strengthen development support. Implement the action of rejuvenating agriculture in housekeeping, start from the supply side, encourage and guide housekeeping practitioners to actively participate in the care services of the elderly at home, carry out the 'life service recruitment season activities' and 'housekeeping attendant skills improvement action', expand the supply of housekeeping services, improve the quality of housekeeping services, and provide strong support for community care and home care. Zhu Guangyao said.
The reporter also noticed that many A-share listed companies are also increasing the layout of the housekeeping service market. Taking the home (000785) as an example, on September 9, 2023, Wang Linpeng, chairman and CEO of the house, said at the opening ceremony of the home economics and home furnishing research center that housekeeping services will become part of the layout of the home furnishing. The ideal of the home is to train 2,000-5,000 senior housekeepers every year; In the next 5 years, it will seize the mid-to-high-end housekeeping market in Beijing; Strive to use 2-3 years to make home delivery service empower merchants and improve efficiency.