Source: Money Weekly
Recently, there have been two topics around the consumption of "young people" before and after Weibo, one is "why young people are reluctant to change their mobile phones", and the other is "Do young people really want to buy a car".
Although netizens have given their own reasons for these two hot searches, or complained. But what makes people wonder is why young people, as the group with the strongest consumption power, suddenly do not love consumption?
Young people have the strongest desire to consume
It is not clear how big the "young people" referred to in these two hot searches are, but this article is temporarily defined as 18 to 35 years old. And people in this age group, compared with middle-aged people and the elderly, are the group with the strongest desire to consume.
The preferences of young, middle-aged and elderly people in terms of consumer spending are completely different. For different age groups, the "rigid" and "optional" they consume are also different. For example, the most important "rigid" consumption of young people is rent, middle-aged people are children's education and mortgages, and the elderly are pension and medical care.
In contrast, mobile phones and cars can only be counted as "just needed" in "optional", even if the update iteration is fast, they will not be the first consumption to be ensured for middle-aged and elderly people.
Instead, people in the 18- to 35-year-old age group place more emphasis on entertainment and early adopters. Some of them are not married, some are not buying a house, some are not raising children, they are in good health, and for them, the main expenses in life are rent and daily food, clothing, and housing.
Moreover, some of them also have access to financial support from their families, and some of them are already on track with their jobs and their incomes raised. Many of them are in the stage where it is often said that "one person has enough to eat, and the whole family is not hungry". Therefore, in addition to the basic expenses of daily life, they will think more about how to meet their own hedonic needs.
At the same time, because I am young, I am full of curiosity about many things that I have not experienced, full of freshness, and I want to take the initiative to explore. I am also willing to give time and energy to trial and error, to experience, to taste. The surplus money in their hands is used to enjoy life.
Why don't young people like to buy cars and change their mobile phones?
If young people have the strongest spending power, why are they still reluctant to consume cars and mobile phones? Through the comments of netizens under the two hot searches, we were surprised to find that their reasons were surprisingly consistent.
First, the product is not attractive.
Although Huawei, Apple, Xiaomi, the annual new product launch, has rarely seen refreshing features. It can be said that the smartphone industry has now entered a bottleneck period, whether it is the processor, battery and camera technology, there has been no change that is more liked by ordinary people. The design is also lacking in novelty, even the color is not spared, the only difference is that the beautiful color name is more.
Although cars are more attractive to the public than mobile phones, the consumption of young people has become more rational, and in addition to considering the price before purchasing, they will also consider many aspects of parking, traffic jams, car maintenance and so on.
In large cities with perfect public transportation, young people think that the cost of raising cars and parking is higher than buying a car, or that buses and subways are convenient, and they are not stuck in traffic on time.
In some small cities, the basic traffic is underdeveloped, and with the increase in urban car ownership, what is more annoying than parking and maintaining cars is the problem of traffic jams. As netizens said: "Whether it is going to work or buying vegetables, it is most convenient to drive a small electric donkey." ”
Second, fear of trouble.
Some young people are most afraid of changing mobile phones is to migrate data, address books, and re-enter the account passwords of major apps, of course, with the emergence of various cloud storage and migration apps, this trouble has been solved.
In fact, in a deep dive, young people are afraid of dealing with their own emotional troubles, some netizens said: "If after using these migration apps, a newly bought mobile phone will instantly become the previous mobile phone, then the freshness will disappear." ”
And the car is more troublesome, learn to drive, take the driver's license, shoot the license, buy the car, do the settlement, buy insurance, do maintenance... In contrast, young people prefer to sleep on the bus subway and brush their phones in the back row of the ride-hailing car. The idea of buying a car to support the façade has no meaning for them to drive purchasing power.
Finally, poor! In the final analysis, today's young people do not have enough money to spend is the most essential reason.
In the past three years of the epidemic, most young people have faced difficulties in income growth, but consumption has become higher and higher. As the global economy decelerates, young people are not only experiencing a slowdown in income growth, but also face the risk of losing their jobs anytime, anywhere.
At the same time, the cost of various raw materials has risen, resulting in higher consumption costs for young people, the new generation of mobile phones is more expensive than the generation, and the rent has only increased, plus it is difficult to alleviate the pressure of buying a house and raising children.
When it is difficult to have spare money in hand, these can be exchanged or not, and the things that can be bought or not bought are, of course, not changed or bought.