Station B can t give up young people

Visual China.

Text丨Consumption at the forefront, written by Jiang Xinbai.

On January 10, Station B held the 2024 AD TALK Marketing Partner Conference, bluntly saying that young people are the new consumption force and new consumption increment. Then, on January 24th, Station B announced that it had reached a cooperation with the organizer of the world's largest figure model exhibition, Wonder Festiva, and the Japanese toy manufacturer Yoyodo, which seems to be going to carry out the business of young people to the end.

Frankly speaking, the background color of station b has always been younger. In the past few years, station B has indeed enjoyed the dividends of some young groups, and the data shows that station B has maintained a healthy growth for more than ten years: 68% of the users who registered for station B in 2009 are still active in the community; The average age of new users is 22 years old.

Among them, the advertising value of old users has increased by 4 times, and in terms of ecology, 74% of the post-90s generation have contributed commercial value. If in the era of new consumption, station B, which has a large number of young users, has a bright future, but with the new consumption force dying down, the consumption power of young people is seriously downgraded.

Does it still make sense for station b to hold on to young people? This is a question worth pondering.

In the financial report of Q3 of 2023, the game revenue of station B decreased by 33% compared with the same period in 2022.

After all, other ** social platforms, such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, ......I have already begun to work hard in this field. From the current point of view, a large number of active young users have become one of the few advantages of station B's e-commerce, and it is precisely by virtue of this that station B has successfully attracted the first batch of "gold master" brands:

Those traditional domestic brands that urgently need to update their consumer portraits and chase young people have obviously found their comfort zone here at station B. Dong'e Ejiao, Wujiang mustard, white elephant instant noodles, Hongxing Erke ......At least from the perspective of brand communication effect and market adjustment momentum, the young B station has made great contributions.

The data shows that at the end of 2022, Dong'e Ejiao cooperated with Station B's New Year's Eve party for the first time, and in the first January after the party was broadcast, the sales of its main product "Peach Blossom Ji Ejiao Cake" doubled, after this category has not increased sales for 8 consecutive years, and the sales volume in 2022 is even lower than 8 years ago.

In October 2023, Station B will jointly launch two products with new packaging in the name of the "electronic mustard" gathering place. This wave of co-branding has really made the old brands that have been struggling to rejuvenate taste the sweetness.

In the user survey of Wujiang mustard, the main brand consumption is mainly people over 30 years old, and less than half of them are under 30 years old. Within 24 hours of the release of the new co-branded products, the official sales volume of Tmall Wujiang entered the top five, and the cumulative turnover of the Douyin co-branded special exceeded 630,000.

What's more, most of the new customers who have come in are young people. Taking Wujiang mustard on Tmall as an example, the average age of the brand is 10 years younger than the average age of the store's transaction crowd, of which 18-25 years old and 26-30 years old account for 4151% and 2055%, in other words, more than 6 percent of people under the age of 30.

In addition, White Elephant instant noodles also relied on the feelings of old domestic products on station B. Counting the most brands that appear on station B, they are basically some classic domestic products, which are often brutally crushed by the new wave of consumption, and need a fresh market change, and station B has become a good choice for young people.

And station B also happens to need them.

In 2022, Station B will have a net loss of 750.8 billion yuan, an increase of 10 percent year-on-year26%, a record high. The situation in 2023 is also not optimistic, the financial report shows that in the third quarter of 2023, Station B's revenue will be 5.8 billion yuan, and the adjusted net loss will be 8600 million yuan. For a long time, the input cost of station B has remained high.

Self-developed game investment, revenue sharing cost, marketing and promotion cost ......Each item has urged station B to hurry up to commercialization, taking sales expenditure as an example, station B spent 27 in the first three quarters of last year9.1 billion yuan, compared to 365.5 billion yuan. The favor of the brand is extremely important to the B station that is short of money.

This is also the key to station B never giving up on young people. However, as a ** platform, Station B, which is born with a "Buddha system", is far less than the rapid transformation of Douyin and Kuaishou. The stimulus consumption of Doukuai has already invisibly exercised the entire e-commerce market, and the contact path and time between content and commodities at Station B are too long.

The data shows that in the goods brought by station B, the goods between 100 yuan and 300 yuan can only have an instant conversion rate of 50% through a 6-8 minute or so; For more than 300 yuan, it will take about 10 to 15 days to plant grass.

Today, the first platform disrupts e-commerce consumption, and the emphasis is on "speed", which is the weakness of station B, so station B clearly understands that youth is its only advantage in facing the consumer market. Especially for domestic products, the data shows that behind the booming sales of domestic products, the consumption of domestic products after the 90s and 00s accounts for 62%, becoming the absolute main force of domestic consumption.

Even if it is to keep the gold owner, Station B will always be young.

Station B now has to face a problem: although the young group still has a certain commercial value, the consumption power is not as good as before. In the era of new consumption, the consumption vitality of young people can easily support a new brand, and today, Internet celebrity restaurants have ...... tea and dim sum shopsThey all fell into the cold wind.

The commercial value of young people's once gods has been greatly reduced.

In fact, "refinement" has become the key word of consumption in 2023, with more than 92% of young people saying that they need to plan or reduce consumption more finely. Specifically, the consumption habits of young people in various fields have also undergone certain changes: according to statistics, in the first quarter of 2022 alone, the sales of snack scraps of a certain treasure and a cat increased by 17 times compared with the previous year; CIC's user survey data shows that more than 90% of users are willing to consider second-hand electronic products with quality assurance.

It is worth noting that there is a trade-off in the consumer market. The young group began to cut back on food and clothing, and the consumption enthusiasm of the middle-aged and elderly groups with certain savings was revealed. According to the 2022 "Silver-haired" Consumer Trend Report, in the first eight months of 2022, the number of transactions, the number of shopping users, and the per capita order volume of "silver-haired people" reached 3 times and 1 times that of 2018, respectively8 times, 17 times.

2023 will continue to inherit the trend of the previous year: in terms of consumption, in September 2023, the proportion of online consumption of silver-haired people in the range of 1000-1999 yuan will be 325%, a year-on-year increase of 06%, and the proportion of online consumption in the range of 2000-2999 yuan is 84%, a year-on-year increase of 08%。

In this context, it is impossible for Station B, which has not been able to break the circle, not to be anxious. Even if you ignore the spending power, the middle-aged and elderly groups are also the only remaining growth drivers in the Internet, and the sixth annual survey of short** users from September to October 2023 shows that short** has a balanced penetration among users of all ages, of which the highest proportion is 30-39 years old, which is 218%, and the 40-49 and 50-59 age groups add up to 347%, and the proportion of young users aged 20-29 is only 155%。

Previously, Station B had openly recruited silver-haired people, trying to further find an incremental market, and the content was also intended to support the silver-haired culture and the middle-aged and elderly UP owners in the station. Obviously, in the consumption winter, the possibility of station B to be commercialized only by young people is becoming more and more slim.

Compared with the "frustration" of the lack of middle-aged and elderly users at station B, Kuaishou and Douyin have been able to skillfully apply the silver-hair ecology. The data shows that Douyin has always ranked among the top 3 apps used by middle-aged and elderly users. Middle-aged and elderly users on Kuaishou are also one of the main groups of the platform, with 51+ people accounting for 237%, 51+ women account for 26 of all female users4%, more than a quarter.

When the huge user consumption power is released, the effect is remarkable. Taking Douyin as an example, in June 2020, Douyin e-commerce was officially established, and a year later, during the Douyin 618 Good Things Festival, the turnover of people over 50 years old reached 5 billion yuan, of which the total number of orders for silk scarves alone reached 840,000.

The imperfection of the user ecology of station B limits the commercialization process of the platform to a large extent, and the young group is certainly sought after by some brands, but it has to be admitted that the consumption behavior promoted by station B is often linked to feelings and stalks, and domestic brands are typical examples.

The success of Dong'e Ejiao at Station B is indispensable to the blessing of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" that young people have dialed countless times; Wujiang mustard echoes the electronic mustard of station B......But once the emotional value is detached, young people may not be able to support the little-known "old domestic products" for a long time, and the "2022 People's Better Life Insight Report" shows that the post-60s generation is the main consumer of domestic products, accounting for more than half.

Station B is also quite helpless, who would have thought that he would always be "young".

Young people's money is far less profitable than it used to be, and this seems to be the consensus that has been stamped and certified by the consumer market. But station B is obviously still continuing to tap the economic value of young people, if this is a desperate gamble, what are the chances of winning at station B, which is crowded with young people behind it?

In the past year, the consumer market in the wave of recovery has clearly grown in several areas: such as male consumption, personality consumption, emotional consumption, ......Taking emotional consumption as an example, young people have always been willing to pay for emotional value, and Meituan's consumption data shows that during the New Year's Day period alone, the number of orders for leisure and entertainment such as party, tea brewing around the stove, and livehouse increased by 225% year-on-year.

According to the 2023 Youth Consumption Survey, young people's consumption spending on durable goods such as automobiles, household appliances, household necessities, books and stationery has not changed much, and there has been a significant decline in beauty and personal care, clothing, shoes and bags, and the most obvious is that in service products such as tourism, performances, and medical beauty experiences, spending has increased.

Although "rationality" has gradually become the key word that young people have to mention at this stage of consumption, but at a deeper level, social, self-pleasing and other symbolic emotional attributes of consumer behavior still account for an important proportion of the daily life of this generation of young people, the survey shows that more than seventy percent of consumers' main consumer demands for interest consumption, the average monthly expenditure accounted for 276%。

Camping, citywalk, special forces tourism and other consumption methods spread rapidly among young people, and eventually became a young cultural phenomenon chased by the whole network. It can be seen that although young people have lost their once strong consumption power, they still have a strong consumption appeal.

In the entire e-commerce market, there are many platforms that have begun to build consumption scenarios around emotions and interests, and Douyin's continuous efforts to "interest e-commerce" just confirm this. In the field of the Internet, compared with Kuaishou and Douyin, the biggest advantage of station B is the gathering of interests, especially the stickiness of young users is not comparable to Douyin.

As of the fourth quarter of 2022, the daily active users of station B reached 92.8 million, a year-on-year increase of 29%, and the number of monthly paying users was 28.1 million, a year-on-year increase of 15%.

In the 2023 Youth Consumption Survey, there are four **income**, and six** spend more than last year. This may be the top priority of whether Station B can use young people to break through.

At present, Station B is also trying to build an e-commerce link that triggers consumption emotionally. For example, young people fall in love with tourism, and Station B has established cooperation with the OCT Cultural Tourism Festival; The Z generation is keen on the second dimension, and Station B has created a "magic reward" based on figures, various dolls, headphones, and keyboards, among them, the "Vegetable Elf" series of blind boxes sold 250,000 "rookie dogs" in only 28 days, and crowdfunded 13.9 million.

In addition, station B also deliberately distinguishes itself from the entire e-commerce market in node marketing, compared with 618 and Double Eleven on other platforms, station B pays more attention to characteristic nodes such as college entrance examinations, graduation seasons, and Qixi Festival. Feigua data shows that during the 2023 college entrance examination, the popularity of the label of "college entrance examination" has increased significantly in the past 7 days, ranking second only to high-frequency hot words such as funny and mobile games.

The popularity value of the "college entrance examination" in station B once reached 15423. Related ** Submissions 120,000, the number of ** is as high as 27.3 billion times. Once liberated, the students' consumption potential exploded in an instant, and they ...... travel and play, fashion wear, and beauty and skin careare all target consumer markets, and many up owners of station b have received brand promotion such as games and mobile phones with the content of the college entrance examination.

From a certain point of view, B station, which has a large number of young users, should indeed have a place in the consumer market. However, the survey data shows that the top 5 shopping software that consumers use more frequently in 2023 are: Pinduoduo (45.)8%）、40.3%), Douyin (299%), JD.com (28.com).1%) and Xiaohongshu (175%）。

The road of e-commerce is long and long, and there may not be "rivers and lakes" where there are people.