Discussion keeps the world turning.
You're listening to Roundtable, I'm Feifei, together with Yushan and Steve Hathaway.
Coming up, China's ice cream market is cold, but in a different way.
Warehouses are quiet, distributors are nervous, and the old summer rush for frozen trees is losing steam.
Is not just about heat anymore.
It's about health, price tags, and a generation rethinking what cooling down actually means.
From premium gelato shops to sugar-free alternatives, the landscape is shifting.
So is this the slow meltdown of a national ritual or just the next evolution?
And do you have a friend whose profile photo hasn't changed in years?
Or is it you having that same blue sky, green tree or sleepy cat or cartoonish cat facing the world?
For many netizens in China, that frozen avatar is becoming a personality test.
They're now reading the never-changing online face like tea leaves.
Our podcast listeners can find us at Roundtable China on Apple Podcast.
And please don't forget that we want to hear from you.
An email is great, but a voice memo is super great.
Send those our way with your thoughts on any of the issues we discuss on the show or haven't really covered before to roundtablepodcast at qq.com.
And now...
In summer, for decades, the sound of a sliding freezer door was the official opening bell of a Chinese summer.
Across the country, childhood memories began at the local neighborhood mom and pop store.
When the afternoon heat became too much,
Children rushed to the street corner to grab a nice pop.
Parents stocked up on boxes of creamy treats, filling their home freezers to get through the long, humid months.
But if you walk down those same streets today, things feel a bit different.
The freezers are still humming, yes, but the crowds have thinned.
Distributors are reporting quiet warehouses and retailers are noticing that the old ice cream purchasing ritual or bulk purchasing ritual isn't holding the same magic.
So what is happening to China's once beloved summer ritual?
Are consumers simply eating less ice cream or are they experiencing cooling down in a completely new way?
We're talking about the changing of landscape of China's frozen summer Yushan and Steve.
But first of all, I want to talk about the uniqueness of this product.
It's about the individual packaged ice cream that we Chinese love so much, but I don't think it's that popular or common in countries like Canada and United States or even European countries.
What are you talking about?
Like, especially in summers, in the past, from my childhood memory, we buy bulk, like 10, 20 packages of individual ice creams of different flavors, different brands.
But I think for European or American or Canadian families, they like to buy those packages
Big tubs of ice cream.
Those are good.
But that's not the first choice that we would have.
You go for the individually wrapped ones.
Yes.
You really have to look back on the beginning of when this kind of get popular, like the cones.
We're talking about the cones or the bars or some call it popsicles, like those that's shaped as a size of a remote control with a wooden stick in the middle.
So those were so popular in China, especially starting from the 1980s to 1990s.
And around that time, it was the most convenient way of manufacturing and storing desserts like ice cream.
So that was our kind of like a...
Idea of ice cream.
There's no gelato.
There's no jarred or big tubs of ice cream.
You couldn't even find it even if you want to.
So that was how it's been.
So people, for people from like, for example, my generation and the one before us, enjoying something like a chocolate coated bar was the reward during summertime.
So you still see the places on the streets now, right?
They're like little vendors, I guess.
Yeah, convenience stores.
But they're not like brick and mortar convenience stores.
They're located on the sidewalks a lot of the time.
And they'll be a fridge where they'll sell cold beverages.
And then they'll sell- Magazine, newspaper.
Magazine, newspaper stand.
That's what it looks like, a magazine, newspaper stand.
And then there's a freezer.
And then it's filled with these individually wrapped ice creams.
So back in the 80s, 90s, early 2000s, these were like the hot spots.
For people to go?
Especially kids.
Yeah, it's like the social currency even to share this individual packaged ice cream with their friends and chatting about things and playing around in summers.
And I remembered in the past, for my family, we would also bulk buying a lot of these items.
Yeah, me too.
My dad still bought back.
Right, like 10 packages at one time or even 20 and stock up in the fridge back home.
And whenever you feel it, you just open that fridge.
And that's why when it comes to this packaged ice cream, I think it's more than a product on some level that we also have some
Emotional attachment to it.
I guess that's why this is making headlines these days, like the changing of the market.
It might sound like, well, ice cream chain, okay, so what?
But it's because it was so deeply intertwined into the cultural fabric of those decades that changes in the market, it does make big news.
Especially for those popsicles with higher price previously.
So even back then, those ice cream that we have choices on, they were tiered in terms of prices.
Those that are like Meng Long or Zhong Xiu Gao, they're the more pricey one.
You think of it and you know, oh, it's premium taste of chocolate or milk or whatever.
And then there are the very simple ones, like fruit or milk or creamy ones that are very cheap, wanted to eat one.
Like a strawberry ice bar or something like that.
Could be, could be, yeah.
But we see now that there's been a drop on both tiers.
For example, the average price for the cheaper ones has dropped from 2.92 yuan, that's almost 3 yuan per 100 gram in 2023, to 2.22 yuan.
In this year
So that's a drop of about 24 percent
And then in the premium market share that's the the ones that's over 30 rmb per ice cream the
The drop ratio for that one is nearly 40
So doubling on the um decline for the average one
So we see that the traditional
Packaged ice cream sector is indeed undergoing a massive price correction with the high-priced ones, the hyper-premium ones are falling faster and facing the fierce pressure.
Yeah, and there's a problem for the distributors as well.
Nanchang, for example, I don't know if that's like an ice cream hub in the country or not in terms of distribution.
It's in the southern part and southwest part of the country.
One of the distributors there said that his store's June revenue plummeted by 50% almost from the year prior, talking about an income of 40,000 yuan or revenue from 40,000 to 20,000 yuan.
That is a huge drop in sales.
And I guess we can attribute this to a change in, well, actually, is it about how people see ice cream?
Yeah.
Is it about how they value ice cream?
Or I don't really get why all of this has suddenly happened.
I start to remember about a few years ago, we have the topic that really trended as well as about the ice cream assassin.
That these kind of packaged, still packaged, individual packaged ice cream, but they are priced most of the time out of the expectation of the consumers.
And that's why they're called assassins.
They basically assassinate your wallet.
Like how much?
For something that you expect could be five kuai for instance and then when you add the cash out at the counter you found out it's like 30 40 kuai
It's like six dollars
Yeah five six dollars for one ice cream bar
It's more expensive than my lunch
Yeah yeah
I was really popular a few years ago, one or two, three years ago.
Was it like a status symbol kind of?
Like you'd show it, you know what I mean?
It's a label that you'd like to wear or put on as a symbol of, yeah, I am enjoying the best of the best of the taste and quality in terms of ice cream.
Yeah, and then you take a picture and put it on social media.
Yeah, I tried this flavor.
Yeah.
It was really nice and people praised that, but I prefer this one, stuff like that.
And also they embedded sort of traditional cultural elements to the design of the bars and making you want to take photos of it.
But now, apparently people are not buying into this kind of branding anymore.
When we look at the numbers that the cheaper options on the market, the three to five Kuai price range is still one of the populars.
On the packaged ice cream market.
And in fact, a lot of those assassin brands, they've already broke, went bankrupt, fell bankruptcy.
People kind of, well, people, because oftentimes those more expensive brands, the quality will be better, right?
Or at least it can taste better.
Or, yeah, at least that's kind of the image they're trying to sell.
Yeah, right.
And this is what happens in the West too, right?
We have brands that are more expensive than other ones.
But usually with those brands, I'm thinking of the HD brand.
It's kind of perceived as luxury ice cream, but still people are willing to pay for it.
But not everybody and also not every time.
It's like a special treat.
And also on the side note is that I think when it comes to this luxurious packaged ice cream, they're facing pressures also from a newcomer onto the market.
Yeah, because nowadays, it's not like people stop eating ice cream in general in China, we're just shifting to another trend.
That's the fresh made ice cream chains.
So and that's also kind of apparent, as we can see from the sales numbers.
So in the first half of 2026, more than 10 major freshly made tea and coffee chains, including
They all unleash nearly 100 freshly made ice cream products.
And one big leading company in that sense, it's also kind of a new brand that emerged just in recent years called Ye Ren Xian Sheng.
This one had also achieved explosive expansion.
They're opening so many different divisions, especially in malls and places where young people gather.
And as of April 2026, its nationwide store count has already surpassed 1,372, with over a thousand new stores added in just one year.
So these stores, if you want to look for a Western equivalence, it could be Dairy Queen.
Oh, Dairy Queen.
Yeah.
So these kind of fresh ice cream stores that you kind of have to order and then go pick and expect to eat it within like 10 minutes before it melts.
This kind of new style of chasing ice cream has become the mainstream.
Like a Baskin Robbins, you know what I mean?
Yeah, or the gelato shops that you can find.
Dedicated ice cream shops.
Yeah, you can see buckets of different flavors laying in front of you.
Then why are consumers buying these kind of fresh-made products instead of the prepackaged ice cream that they used to love in the past?
Free samples.
Yeah.
Y'all do that, right?
Actually, yeah.
Can I try this one and that one and this one and that one?
After 10 samples.
I still can't decide.
Very experienced, Steve.
But one big reason would be, yeah, we can see what's in the cup.
For instance, there's nothing to hide and you see exactly what you're purchasing.
Even some of them even showcase how they make it.
So that's a big add up to the brand value.
And then there's also the flexible price points.
There are the more pricier options.
Yeah, and Samsung could be there.
The pricey ones.
Yeah, while you can also turn to the cheaper ones and just to save money and also try out different brands.
I think one that's very popular in China nowadays are the ones with yogurt.
Frozen yogurt?
Yeah, something like that.
I think, too, part of the attraction is it almost feels like it's made to order.
I mean, it's sitting there in front of you in a freezer in a tub.
It's just when the person working takes their scoop...
And then, you know, drags it along and you get to witness the curling of the ice cream as it goes into the spoon.
It feels like they're making it especially for you.
I think that's part of the attraction, too.
And also they have these customized experiences.
They'll ask you, do you want it in a cup or in a cone?
And when it comes to the cones, they ask you, do you want chocolate chip flavored cones or strawberry chip flavored cones?
You made a lot of choices and then you go to pick one.
The ice cream flavor itself, but you can also get to taste, to sample one bit before actually making a decision.
Compared with packaged ones, you are sort of buying
That's why the people call it assassins because you don't know first of all the what the flavor tastes like and then sometimes you're not really sure about the price tax
But with this kind of fresh made options you're not only aware of the prices they are going to pay you're also quite sure about the flavor you are picking
Yeah
Ice cream's like steak.
If they don't show you the price of the steak on the menu, do not order that steak.
You learned that lesson?
More than once.
Also, ice cream.
If you don't see the price of the ice cream, order a different one.
Don't assume it will be a five kuai option.
It also has something to do with young, especially young people's pursuit of healthy dieting style.
Ice cream and dieting?
I know, like, traditionally for those bars and cones, we tend to think it's just cream plus sugary artificial ingredients.
But for example, for gelato, or even for frozen yogurt.
Blizzard from Diary Queen, I think that was like highly praised online too.
They actually use high density of real milk.
And for gelatos, you can see all the cubes of fruits they add in.
And even some niche brands, they're...
Pushing out the, what is it called again?
TCM style of ice cream.
They add goji berry and huangji, like other type of Chinese herb into their ice cream.
You knew TCM was going to get in there somehow.
Of course.
People are not going to let go of those innovative thoughts once they're there.
And it's a trend.
It's a trend.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's a trend, but it's also maybe helped with the resurgence, I think, of the classics because the classics are ultra affordable, right?
You can get them for one, two, three, four yuan, whatever.
Very cheap.
And with the change in the market towards these fancier like gelatos or dedicated ice cream shops, it's almost helped the image of the old school ice creams.
You know like those old milk bars?
Yeah, that's my favorite.
Right?
It's simple.
It's simple.
It's with everything you expected.
Yeah, but if the market didn't change in a fancier direction, I wonder if we would still feel the same about those old school milk bars.
Because we wouldn't have that sense of nostalgia if the market didn't go in that direction.
You know what I mean?
That's true.
So in a sense, it's kind of helped out the older brands.
After you've been assassinated by a few new brands, you start to miss the old Lao Bing Guo, the old Xiao Bu Ding, the milk flavor, different bars.
But nostalgia for whom?
Only for people who grew up... Old people.
That was not what I was about to say.
Only for people who experienced that when they were younger, but for...
Young people born after 2000 who didn't grow up eating.
Why is this milk frozen on a stick, mom?
But they're still very popular among Gen Zers and even people young.
My daughter loves those kind of older, old school popsicles.
Even sometimes more than the trendy gelato ones.
It's because there's a 20-pack in the freezer, probably.
That's true.
That's what we buy.
But also on the flavor, because it's mostly juice mixed with water.
And so sometimes it feels fresher than the gelato, really milky and heavy ones.
So we can see that in China's summer, people are making their decisions out of different reasons, out of different age groups, choosing their own products.
But people are continuing eating a lot and more ice cream.
And you're listening to Roundtable coming up.
Think about it.
When was the last time you changed your profile photo on social media?
Stay with us.
It's the Hour of Roundtable with myself, Fei, Steve and Yushan.
Remember you open a chat with a friend and see the same cartoon cat avatar they've been using for years and you start to wonder...
When was the last time they actually changed it?
And recently, this is the topic that people online here in China are talking about.
Those people who never update their social media profile photos.
Some people see it as a sign of laziness.
Others believe it shows confidence, consistency, and even emotional attachment.
I don't think so.
Digging behind your profile.
It's total laziness.
Really?
I think so.
Well, I haven't changed my...
I think I changed my profile photos for like three times after I have this WeChat account.
Right.
So does that signal your confidence and consistency?
Or I'm lazy?
Exactly.
Exactly.
I changed my WeChat profile picture two weeks ago.
And before that two weeks ago.
From witch cat to witch cat.
The same cat.
That's you in the lead of the cat avatar.
It's just a different picture of the same cat?
Yeah.
It's like graphical it's designed it's generated by AI out of the same cat
It's just previously he looked more sleepy and now he's like majestic
And why did you change you know that avatar so often
Is there a reason or just feel like it
Do you want the honest answer
Or of course honesty is our brand
It's just simultaneously happening
Well there's a good photo so oh that looked good
My son my son looks handsome
Yeah i call i call my cat my son by the way
So yeah we just we just kind of jump to the the the best looking picture from time to time and
We don't really think it's something by we.
I mean, a lot of the young people that I'm trying to speak on behalf of, we don't really think too much before changing.
Yeah.
I mean, I was a little bit serious before when I said, oh, it's just being lazy.
But a lot of people disagree.
People get really attached to it.
Online netizen comments.
Here we go.
Here's one.
I don't really know why i haven't changed it after using it for so long i've developed a special attachment to it
Why would i casually change my face online and of course you know some people would agree
Many people actually agree with what that person said
Yeah, actually, that's one of my reasons of not changing my profile photos on WeChat a lot.
Because that is one of my images that I put out professionally.
Like I add a lot of work related people on WeChat.
And if I change frequently my avatar on WeChat, first of all, sometimes it confuses people.
People forget who you are.
And you sort of lose contact gradually with that person.
And that can be a very important person in the future.
And secondly, sort of, I think, well, at least in my personal opinion, changing your WeChat photos too often sort of diminish your professionalism on some level.
I'm not sure.
I can understand that.
It was funny because we were chatting about this before the show and I don't really look at people's pictures that much because you just don't bother.
Well, I'm always talking to the same people.
It's either you guys or my community group chat.
And beyond that, that's about it.
So I paid attention before the show and I noticed something weird.
All the expats, their WeChat picture is their face facing the camera.
And all my Chinese WeChat friends, it's either a picture of a cat, a plush toy,
Or the back of their head or at least a side profile of their face, but their face is kind of hidden while they're looking off distantly into the sky, like pondering life or something like that.
That's me.
Yeah, that's yours.
I know.
So there's something cultural there.
There must be, right?
Because it's literally every expat that I'm friends with on WeChat, it's a front facing photo.
And all my Chinese contacts, there are zero front facing photos.
I think there could be some cultural connotations behind this choice.
I mean, for me at least, the reason I'm not choosing a frontal picture of me is that I don't want to be too direct, if you get what I mean.
In the sense of creating my own image online?
Yeah, I agree.
I deeply agree with that.
Because according to my observation, the Chinese people who tend to use their own front face as the profile picture seem to be those who kind of utilize their...
The whole image itself as a selling point.
For example, online influencers, or TV hosts, or people who need to show up.
Salesperson.
Yeah, salesperson who need to show off, if not, their identity.
And those people need to stay on a high profile
Just so that it's convenient.
But for the rest of us, for example, Chinese people tend to lay low and keep a low profile, not only out of the fact that... Privacy?
Yeah, I was just about to get there.
Not only out of the fact that we don't really want to, like it's not that necessary,
But also, yeah, other privacy.
We don't want strangers on WeChat to add us just because, oh, you look nice or, oh, you look strange.
Because, you know, at least in China, the online life and offline life are so closely embedded with one another.
Yeah.
For example, the WeChat account we have is sort of semi-online, semi-offline platform for us.
We know a lot of people that we add on WeChat, but we also have a lot of WeChat friends we don't know in real life.
So there can be a privacy concern when it comes to... Keep your distance.
An avatar is an avatar.
Let's keep it that way.
Yeah, and that's precisely some of the reasons behind the choices when the frequency of updating.
I haven't really checked with you, Steve.
Did you change your profile photos on any social media, not only WeChat?
No, I just asked you to take a new picture for me before the show today.
I'll be updating my WeChat profile photo as soon as the show is finished.
It is a photo of the back of my head.
Direct from back of your head.
If you can't beat them, join them, as the expression says.
Blending into the Chinese place.
Congratulations.
I'm in a very Chinese time of life.
And having the back of your head as your profile photo can be one choice.
And I do encourage a lot of our listeners out there, audience out there to check your profile photos and tell us what you think.
On behalf of Yushan, Steve and the whole Roundtable team, thank you for tuning in.
I'm Fei Fei.
See you next time.
