Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Round Table. Child-related consumption has risen to around 30% of domestic spending for many Chinese families.
In shopping malls and at tourist spots, some of the most popular and vibrant businesses are those that attract children and their parents.
Hello, I'm Limeing and this is Round Table.
Today with New Holy and Leigh Eat, let's find out whether this shift in consumption pattern is here to stay and what that could mean for businesses in the future.
Two things we need to highlight before we dive into the discussion.
Number one, we live in the age that's increasingly connected and online shopping is here to stay.
I'm not sure about you guys, but in my home, we've tried going to shopping malls and outlets to look for good bargains and deals, but oftentimes we come home empty handed and my wife would say offline shopping is so boring.
I must prefer ordering things online and if I don't like them, I return them for free.
It's so convenient. Number two is I'm not sure again if you've noticed that everywhere you go in malls or outdoor spaces, oftentimes when you see people congregate, when there is a line, when there is a hustle, then oftentimes it's a business or an activity organized for children and their parents.
I'm not sure if I'm in milk tea shops.
I don't know. I am biased because I have a kid and I do go to different places with my kids.
And if I have to, well, when I say if I have to actually mean what I need to have fun with my kid home is definitely not the best place because the kid is so familiar with the environment and if you take him elsewhere to a playground or to an indoor playground in the mall, it's much easier.
So I am biased. I see the indoor playgrounds all the time because I look for them.
So I want to direct the question to Lee because you do not have a kid.
And do you see more kids in the shopping malls?
Are you bothered by kids?
That's really a hard question for me because I do really often go to shopping malls these days.
But yes, I think there are a lot of kids in the shopping malls and even I think for some new shopping malls, some shopping malls that are newly established around my neighborhood, you can definitely tell that this shopping mall is designed centering around the kids and also their parents.
I mean, there are before maybe like there's a six store six story shopping mall like only one store is for kids, but now it's becoming two and three.
So definitely there are more business in stores for kids.
And I'm sure there's a reason that they're because when you can easily get stuff online and return them when you don't like them.
So I think people, well, most of the shopping demands online, whereas if you have to go to some brick and mortar stores offline, then you are more likely looking for an experience rather than a commodity.
I totally agree. I think before having a kid, the reason for me to drive me into these different shopping malls would be exhibitions in the mall, a theater in the mall, sometimes we would go watch a movie or something and the other one would be the kind of food that are only good if you're having them dine in instead of packaging them home.
After becoming a mom, becoming a parent, yes, the most important factor driving me into these malls would be that I can walk my kid like walking a cat or another cat.
You don't want a cat. You have a unique cat.
If you want a kid. I'm just saying you want to walk your kid in the sense that you want him to walk around having some fun in a safe environment and also with some fun activities that he can enjoy.
So definitely for a lot of families, the reason that you're noticing more kids and more families with kids in shopping malls is that we do need these places to entertain our kids.
You see, I'm really curious here.
I'm just wondering, is it really the need of the babies or the kids?
Oh, definitely the parents.
You see. I think that's the case because I remember when I was small, it's really common for kids to stay at home, especially during summer vacation.
And a winter vacation alone.
It's not really a very strange thing actually because I mean all of your parents, they just need to work during vacation.
So it already expects a lot of company company during this period of time.
Except for the TV. Yes. But now I don't really think it's no longer the common phenomenon here because parents are more than willing to take their kids out.
No matter the age of the kids, they just think there's the need.
Of course, you can argue there are more facilities built for this need and canary for this need.
But I mean, is it also because of this changing mentality about the way of parenting?
I'm not really sure. I'm just curious.
I can immediately think of two things that have changed.
Number one, we have more money in our pockets as compared to our parents a few decades ago because I specifically remember my parents told me that stay away from the TV when we are not home.
Number one is not good for your eyes.
Number two, as to the electricity bills.
And also not good for your homework.
So that's number one, we have more money in our pockets that we are willing to spend for our kids.
And number two is the awareness that is our kids need more stimulus needs more need more experience for them to expand their scope to try to exercise their brains a bit so that maybe they end up being smarter and more successful than us.
I mean, that at least that's our expectation.
And also with the development of society, we started to have this illusion that we didn't have a rich enough, various enough childhood.
It's not the real case because back then there were not that many activities to take part in.
Even if your parent is the best parent in the world, they wouldn't be able to take you to a VR playground because VR playgrounds didn't exist.
But now with the variety of different activities of children centered photography of being able to host a birthday party in a mall, well actually in a restaurant in a mall that centered around kids or any kind of theme parks that you can invite your whole classmates.
We have we started to have this feeling that if we don't take our kids to these places, if we do not fill their childhood with these whole different and a variety of different activities, we are not being good enough parents.
And that peer pressure definitely is one of the reasons.
And another reason I can think of is that we wanted to spend some quality time with kids for sure.
We want the time to be entertaining, to be educating, to be memorable, and all that cannot simply be achieved by being with your kid at home reading some children's book with them.
You want them to have the immersive experience.
That's why you're taking them out into the malls, into outdoor playgrounds, into theme parks to actually actively looking for these kinds of activities.
And guess what? You can find a bunch.
So you take them there, you enjoy a very good day, you have food in the mall, which by the way is another driving factor for these malls to generate some more profit.
And maybe you take home some souvenirs.
And that's a typical we can for me now.
There has been practically a cultural gap between generations of Chinese people.
In my parents' generation, their idea of keeping the kids entertained was sending him or her to the grandparents' home and making sure that they do their homework.
And they don't drown in summertime, swimming in the river, that kind of thing.
That was their idea of keeping the kids taken care of.
But in our day and age, in our parents, we are much better educated.
We go through that. We read live magazines from the west, we watched TV, and we see the value in taking part and participating in children's event at school, like a recital or a drama night.
We have drama night at home, really?
No, that's cool. We got invited.
And also parents and teacher meetings.
And so we attached much greater importance to that.
That we are there for them.
Means a lot for the kids and for ourselves as well.
And otherwise, why do we give birth to babies?
We want to keep them company.
We want them to keep us company as compared to maybe a generation ago where well, we the most important virtue we'd like to impart on our kids is that we are dedicated to our work.
Parents are daddy and mommy always be at work and they are paying, you know, they're working hard.
They are paying their contribution to the family to the home and to the country.
So this is a cultural gap here already.
Yeah. And also I'm thinking maybe because of also because of like parents changing expectation.
Well, I think this can relate to topic one.
They're changing expectation of potential kids, potential skills that they think their kids should possess.
Yeah, keep people skills.
Yes, I think this is like, emphasize the more than ever because you can tell from different trends in this kind of like parenting kids industry.
You see parents really emphasize about, you know, letting or providing access to kids to see the world to get contact with as many people as possible.
And I think they think it's it can really help kids to cultivate sort of interpersonal skills to know how to communicate with others and don't panic when you are faced with a bunch of strangers and also maybe cultivate some emotional intelligence skills.
And I think that's not really emphasized as frequently as like a few decades ago.
I think that might also contribute to this like rising markets of this difference.
Say parenting or where parents case tourism sector because parents think is the best way to help kids to see the world.
The other thing that I think has changed is that parents nowadays think is important for kids to stand out there to let people know who they are, what the preferences are and what characters they have, that kind of thing.
Just yesterday at a park where kids hang out, I was looking at, you know, some parents hiring professional photographers taking pictures and videos of their kids riding on a bicycle.
This is, you know, in my grandparents' opinion, I think I know pretty well what they think because I was raised by them.
In my grandparents' opinion they would think what the heck is that?
What do you need that for?
My eyes, the camera, that's enough.
A documentary about your five-year-old kid, what do you have that?
What are you intent for that to serve?
Apparently these days, thanks to social media or more intense competition in scoring Roman, some parents think is important for the society and internet users around out there and also teachers and principals to know what the kids are and that they are right, very sporty and they are quite outgoing.
I have learned merits for the school if they put them in the schools bicycle team.
What's with all the sarcasm?
Some parents speaking, I am one of the some parents and some parents is telling you that.
You're making documentaries about your two-year-old son.
I have hired professional photographers and I do not regret doing that for what?
For my kids one-year-old birth date party.
Was that something to you?
No, I think that just makes sense because a very important occasion in the life of your son.
But not for bicycling. The point is after having the experience of hiring professional photographers, only taking pictures of the one-year-old birthday, you get addictive.
You want to hire the professional photographers to do everything because they are really good.
Captures the cutest smile on your baby's face and they capture the vital moments that you wish you can remember forever and guess what?
Kids are different every single day and they grew so fast and you do forget certain important moments.
No matter how great your memory is, you do forget certain moments.
The final line between giving the kids the necessary thing to look back to and absurdity is hiring somebody to ride on an electric bike very fast in front of a kid, your kid that's riding on a bicycle.
It's very professional and it was absurd.
It's not absurd. It's the kind of service that you wish you would have once you were a kid.
If I were a kid and I had my first bike experience documented, I would be thrilled.
I would be happy. And I know it's debatable.
We can still talk about whether or not it's reasonable or necessary to document every single first time if your kids growing up.
But the key thing here is there are parents who would like to do that and there are services that they can actually go to and enjoy.
This is precisely the kind of character or trait or virtue that I was referring to.
In my grandparents generation, what we think that such behavior like taking photographs or a kid riding on a bicycle encourages the vanity on the part of the kids.
Whereas perhaps in our generation, parents think it's important for kids to really be out there and let people know what they're good at and that kind of thing.
So this is a cultural gap as well.
Yes. And in the meantime, I wanted to talk to those who do not have kids and those who are listening but is currently outside of China do not understand the current situation.
What I'm trying to say here is that the child centered or child-friendly activities we're talking about here are actually fun to parents as well.
You can take your kids to enjoy the VR theme play.
You can take your kids to feed little animals.
You can take your kids to enjoy certain kind of exhibition.
And the tour guide explaining each and different item telling you how to be a subject to certain kind of harmless, well, harmless scientific experiment can be quite fun not only for kids but also for parents.
And I think some of them are kind of scientific experiments.
It's just standing in the center of an equipment and touch certain things and see the phenomena and then you can have someone explaining the phenomena or the principle behind the phenomenon.
And it's just something fun not only for kids but also for parents.
But that's educational.
It is educational. It doesn't encourage any vanity or any type.
Hold on. I think there are parents who don't really find those child-oriented activities fun and interesting, right?
Because in your home maybe your son is lucky enough to have a parent like you.
You know, you can have some very similar activities you can share with each other.
But I'm thinking because when I'm listening to you guys I'm talking about like taking your kids to maybe different countries for tourism and also different activities, like dedicately designed for kids to help the kids to learn and communicate and show him or herself and present everything.
I'm just thinking, is it also to like demanding for parents as well?
Oh, because there's a lot of work to do for parents here.
And I mean, is there like too much attention given to kids?
I'm not already sure. Limey is staring at me.
You're angry when he's sound how?
It is a lot of work. I have to be.
Even for someone who don't really care that much about, you know, given the children the opportunity to shine in front of the general public, is a lot of work for them to, you know, to be with them, to show them around, to give them the opportunity to learn new things and build their character.
It's a lot of work. But then again, the statistics from parents spending and from also from our observation shows that Chinese parents in our generation are willing to spend the time and money to be with their kids.
And the last question before we move on is that how are businesses adapting to this change?
I mean, other than malls having more businesses oriented to creating that experience for children and their parents.
Well, I think one trend is that there are like different more specialized sectors.
One example is amusement parks.
I mean, obviously there are different.
I mean, very specific or amusement parks or theme parks that are catering to very, very specific themes.
For example, there could be park for you for a case to get closer to nature, to have some nature education for a case.
So there are some like zoo or parks that we offer a chances for a case to better communicate or sort of interact with animals or at least learn something about animals.
And also there are like camping site designed for parents and kids.
So there are like different very specific scenarios that are catering to this rising industry, I guess.
And in the meantime, we see businesses expand their service offerings, specifically opening more kids indoor playgrounds.
And we see different restaurants rolling out specific packages or combo of food for kids.
And also we see the enhance of experience quality with the technology and AR and VR being in place.
And there have been more personalized activities and services cater to the needs of different parents.
And for different actually, I feel like for the business it's a good thing because there are one there is one more reason for the whole family to visit their malls.
And that is why they're making these changes to cater to the needs.
Even as the general trend points to more involvement and spending on the part of parents in their kids development.
And I think it's still important for businesses to be alert to the more specific demand that they're rising in this regard.
For instance, I think it's lazy to rest on a very simple business of providing electric vehicles in malls for kids to ride on.
But I think it's more proactive to keep an eye on development in, for instance, winter sports to obviously this growing demand for parents to train their kids in winter sports.
And such there are more such facilities being set up in malls, at least in Beijing, that's what we observed.
So maybe a little more attention given to more specific trends in order to survive the shifting paradigm in child care and consumption.
You're listening to round table up next Motivation Monday.
Motivation Monday. Welcome back to Motivation Monday.
We begin this week with New Holy.
Yeah, my Motivation Monday today focus a little bit more on career than work.
Well, then family life.
It exists because I lack work life balance.
No, you're very capable.
Well, thank you. But it's okay to say that I lack work life balance because recently I've been watching this video, short videos of different people.
And I see someone saying, yes, I love my work.
I'm a work colleague. And I don't even eat and rest when I'm working.
I just forget about it because when I'm working is kind of like I am playing video games.
And it's easy for you to get into the flow of video games.
And for me, working is like that.
I'm not saying I'm like that.
I'm just saying it's nice to see different people being so proud of who they are.
Nevertheless, my vote of Motivation Monday today is careers like rockets don't always take off on time.
The trick is to always keep the engine running.
What I'm saying here is no matter if you're someone who is a work colleague or you are someone who understands the beauty of work life balance or you just feel like you want to do the bare minimum in your work and you want to devote more in your family life.
It's fine. It's all fine.
It's your choice. But as long as you pick a lane and be consistent and remember whichever lane you pick, the kind of success that you wish for, that you work for, might not come just in time as you planned.
And it is okay. You should always be persistent.
Stay in that line and continue to work for it.
And just like you want to keep the engine running.
And when the time comes, when the opportunity comes, you have the ability to seize the opportunity.
It sounds like always working hard.
The question for NewHoling is, has she put her hand on the pedal of work-life balance?
That's an engine too. I'll find a motivational Monday quote related to work-life balance next week.
You can wait for it. It will be good.
Thank you. And my quote, I think you're just a beloved about this quote.
It's something like, your life does not get better by chance.
It gets better by change.
Things like you're a master of your own life and also shaping your own destinies.
I think it's really important.
I think it's about sometimes we would just have a expectation that things would just go red naturally.
So we want some terrible circumstances or a terrible environment so that you can work in minimum.
There are no troubles, there are no challenges at all.
I think it's just very beautiful illusion.
But the meantime, I think it's also important for you to grasp the chance of your life and to make certain changes that can help really build up your expectation and to help you follow the path you want to go with.
That's also very important.
So we are talking about hard work, we are talking about making proactive actions, and also we are talking about emphasize personal growth.
I think that's also something this quote trying to tell us.
Look for change rather than chance because there's no guarantee that any chance event will happen in your life, but you can proactively pursue changes in whatever you do.
My quote this week is, well, an instrument or a continuation of what I shared last week from the modern literature prize winner, novel, ordinary world by Lu Yao and here is another passage about youth based on the discussion we had in the first topic and the author wrote here youth or youth, whatever failure and frustration you're experiencing, you must hold on and hanging there because you absolutely will have the opportunity to rebuild your life.
All on as you don't lose heart, every failure is but an ordinary roadblock on your way to a new level of life, a failure never delivers a fatal, fatal blow.
I think it's important for young people to realize that there is bound to be challenges and frustrations in your career or in your life because like I said at the very beginning of today's show, you are promised a great potentials for growth.
And you will lack the skills and experiences to locate and position yourself in whatever you do in your career in the workplace or in your family.
Often times you feel like your opinions don't matter, often times you feel like your contribution doesn't add up to anything but it's important to know that whatever mistakes or frustrations or tragedies you encounter, you are going to outgrow it.
And it's important to look at the bigger picture and just work for it.
And as long as you're motivated, you continue to work, you continue to strive on the path that you chose, despite all preparations not everything goes as planned, but with a bit of luck it will calm eventually.
That's all the time we have for the To Be Discussion.
Thank you for listening.
