At a time when some of the traditional brands have been weak in growth, a group of “new” consumer brands have come up high and continue to outperform expectations.
In 2025, new consumer enterprises surged in capital markets. Among them, the market value of the three companies, the Bubble Matt, the Snow Group and the Old Store Gold Group, has exceeded HK$ 100 billion, and the industry's crown, known as the “new consumption of three gold flowers”, leads to an annual increase of over 100 per cent in stock prices, leading to three major consumption booms of IP games, flat-priced tea drinks and ancient gold.
Disparities, emotional values, and high value for money are the passwords for this new consumer race. However, multiple thresholds would have to be crossed in order to move from a phenomenon-grade to a “100-year-old shop”.
As a big fan of bubble-mart, Liu Yum-Ting keeps a close eye on the community's Labububu dazzling doll notice. As soon as she receives an irregular “up-to-date” reminder, she will immediately drop everything she has at her disposal and raze her shopping page to the moment when she waits for the “purchase” button to turn on. But even so, it's still hard to get to LABU. In the view of outsiders, such acquisitions are almost “crazy”, but this boom is a vivid example of new consumer brands.
In recent days, journalists have visited a number of bubble-mut-gate shops in downtown Guangzhou, and have made available to the shopkeepers whether there are any LABUBU rubber-flush dolls in the shop. According to shopkeepers in various stores, dolls are not available in the shop, but consumers can join the shop community and wait for notice of new products.
In the area of gold jewellery, old-soldier gold has also become a “rowner” in the mall. In recent days, journalists have seen the only old shop in the city of Taigusi, Guangzhou, where customers lined up in front of the shop, despite working days. Quite often, queuing consumers indicate that it takes hours for customers to enter the competition immediately before a discount, a major holiday or an increase in prices is announced.
It's even more surprising that Michelle Ice is red. The data show that by the end of 2024, the number of its global outlets had exceeded 40,000, with nearly 25 million daily drinks sold and a total of $5.83 billion in final retail sales throughout the year.
While the market is still looking at where young people spend their money, a group of national product cards with new consumer qualities have been cut short and become “new pet” for consumers.
Gold prices have continued to rise over the past two years, with traditional gold shops under pressure to perform. However, the old platitudes of gold, which are the main plating, are growing in reverse. Journalists have learned that, even in the second-hand market, older gold products receive higher premiums than ordinary gold products.
According to interviews with journalists by members of the Committee of Experts on the Information and Communication Economy of the Ministry of Industry and Communications, there is a significant difference between the business model of the old store gold and the traditional gold store: “The traditional gold store relies mainly on `real-time price plus fee' profits, while the old store gold is based on the `save price' model, which raises gold ornaments to the level of luxury through the ancient process”.
Several consumers have indicated that the preference for old-store gold stems from its unique design, and that its most focused evaluation by netizens is “high-faced” and “sophisticated”.
The core advantages of new consumption, as highlighted by Distinction and Distinction, lie in opening new tracks and avoiding homogenous competition. “For example, Bubble Matt has transformed the traditional toy-manufacturing model with the blind box model, while the Meek Ice City has reversed the traditional catering chain through efficient supply chain management to achieve higher value for money.” He pointed out that these innovations had breached the traditional industry model framework.
In sharp contrast to the rapid growth of new consumer brands, the white wine market, once considered to be high-end consumption, is today growing at an overall rate of only around 7 per cent, with a degree of “deepness” in the performance of many enterprises. According to journalist statistics, by the end of the quarter only Guizhou (10.7 per cent) and Go well (10.4 per cent) were left behind in the white wine industry, reflecting challenges to traditional growth patterns in the white wine industry.
“The traditional white wine consumption scene is relatively closed, and there are intergenerational and intergenerational barriers.” Zhou Sunbo, Executive Director of the New Economic Research Institute of the Institute of Integrated Development, stated to journalists. In contrast, new consumer brands are better positioned to use digital tools and social media, to provide insight into the core needs of the younger generation and build emotional connections, leading to the diffusion of fission and rapid exit.
"I don't know about Labububu. I can't keep up." Today, the purchase of a Labububu doll is far from being as simple as the purchase of a “fashion item”. As an important symbol of the new generation of global tides, it carries the values of “identity” and “tide belonging”, which are far beyond the physical function itself. The responsible person for Bubblemart said that, as the times evolved, the primary purpose of consumption was no longer limited to functional functions, and that the emotional value of the product became more important in connection with emotional connections.
According to Li Hai, manager of the Chongtai consumer fund, the Chinese consumer market is large and there is still a huge demand for consumption in the sinking market and in rural areas in general. Enterprises that seize these opportunities are showing strong new growth momentum.
Michelle Ice City is a case in point. Today, it has jumped to the largest number of existing drinking brands in the world. Consumers have indicated to journalists that the main ice cream and lemonade at 2 and 4 dollars for Michelle Ice City is only one third or a quarter of the other brands. At the same time, its intensive network of shops has achieved “buy-and-take-all”.
This quest for value for money and easy access also reshapes other areas of consumption. The Zero Food Dealer, represented by a “blowing busy”, quickly spread new products to a wide area with deep penetration in the sinking market, showing that the company had 14,000 stores in 2024.
According to the National Statistical Office, the total retail sales of social consumer goods in April 2025 amounted to 3.72 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.1 per cent over the same period; consumption has become an important engine of economic growth.
A fund investment manager stated to journalists that while traditional consumption tracks were under overall pressure, a few enterprises had achieved growth beyond industry through differentiated innovation. Against this background, only firms with core advantages such as product innovation, brand barriers and so forth can succeed. An analysis of Quetai Haitong securities indicates that the scale dividend of traditional consumption is retreating and that value premiums for new consumption are rising, focusing on three main directions: brand, mood and technology.
The policy dimension also provides impetus for new consumption. Last year my country proposed a major boost to consumption, a comprehensive expansion of domestic demand and an initiative to develop a “start-up economy”. New shops, new products and new IPs in the new consumer sector continue to lead the tide, becoming fertile ground for the “first-generation economy”.
Zhou Xiongbo said: “If new consumer firms are to fully release the `market dividend' of the initial economy, they will need to scale up innovation and create the diffusion effect of innovation in the initial economy, driving high-frequency consumption with new products, brands and scenes.”
The “new” of new consumption is indeed “young”. In the history of brand creation, the founders of new consumer brands are generally below the age of 50, the youngest are in the early 30s, and most brands have been in existence for only about 10 years. This “young” attribute also reminds some of the short-term consumption phenomena such as the “screw shoe tide” and fears that the new consumption boom will also be silenced by the short-lived wind.
There are divergent views within the industry. Pan Joon, investment manager of the Cheese Fund, stated that the new consumption targets, represented by bubble-mart, old-store gold, Brooke and others, already had a strong brand-consumer mentality in some of the break-down tracks, and that it was temporarily difficult for the new spoilers in the industry to shake their position.
It was also noted that some new consumer brands were over-reliant on marketing head and hunger marketing strategies, resulting in a failure to synchronize their product and innovation. In the long term, this model poses enormous challenges to brands ' creative reserves, research and development capabilities, supply chain resilience and financial power. For example, there are bubble-mart consumers who reflect problems with the control of purchased dolls, such as crooks, open wires, paints, etc., leading many consumers to indicate that they will “return”. There have also been complaints from consumers about the loss of drilling and colour of gold products purchased.
However, the demand for consumption, which is dominated by youthful expressions, extreme value for money, and strong emotional values, has become clear, regardless of the permutation of individual brands.
“If new consumer brands are to live longer, not only the `explosive singles' logic, but also the ability to grow sustainably, the core is to match supply and demand with precision and maximize multi-dimensional utility, with insight into changes in rejuvenation, diversification, and value for money over consumption preferences.” Chow Sun-Bo indicates.
It is only by reshaping product power with a “skiller spirit”, by confronting time cycles with a “cultural gene”, and by replacing flow dependence with a “user asset”, that the phenomenon level can be transformed into an age brand. Multi-threshold thresholds are also needed for new consumer brands that aspire to become “100 years old”.