To give a general idea of what’s in the UMS’ bespoke China Daily Morning Brief, a daily email service focused on four industry categories – Education, Tourism, Food & Beverage, and Health & Skincare, I decided to write a summary of the July insights our team published. The Morning Brief reports on the latest buzz on social media and what topics have been discussed most in China’s market. Providing a broad reference for four different industries: education, travel, food and beverage, and health and wellness, the publication enables brands to make proactive strategic decisions. Let’s take a look at some of the themes that were highlighted in September’s publications.
1. Education industry
Countries around the globe are gradually moving back to in-person teaching, bringing hope to international students. But the pandemic still brings uncertainties for the global epidemic prevention and distance teaching is still the mainstream teaching mode at present. In addition to the impact of COVID-19, the U.S visa policy, social and political environment, and tuition costs are all key factors in the decline of higher education applicants in the UK, Australia, and the U.S. In addition, the increasing quality of domestic universities in China is causing many students to stay local for their higher education. Recently, the US News World University Rankings placed Tsinghua University above MIT in engineering in first place, demonstrating the growing calibre of Chinese universities.
New South Wales has confirmed that overseas students can return to study in the state before the end of the year. The only restriction is that the vaccination rate reaches the expectation. It has also announced that it will arrange two charter flights before the end of the year to bring back a total of 500 students. Priority will be given to PhD students, students nearing completion of their degree and those studying medicine and health.In September, NSW achieved an 80% first-dose vaccination rate, and the governor made good on his promise to lift its curfew.
2. Travel industry
The Grim satellite images show that only a few flights enter and leave Australia, and only one from New Zealand, but hundreds of flights cross the ocean to and from the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. This demonstrates the rate of recovery in nations outside of Australasia thanks to efficient vaccination programmes. Australian Prime Minister Morrison said that among the people aged 16 and above, if the two-dose vaccination rate reaches 80%, international travel will be resumed. Australians may also be allowed to travel to Europe, Fiji, Canada, the United States and Singapore before Christmas.
3. Food and beverage industry
The plant meat brand “Professor Plant” completed a 50million of A round financing, which was exclusively invested by Matrix Partners China. This round of financing will be used for consumer penetration, product development, supply chain optimization etc. This brand is only one of the many that are racing to capitalise on China’s growing plant-based meat market.
Oatly, a start-up company focused on oat milk products, was listed on the Nasdaq, with a fundraising scale of more than US$1.4 billion. On the first day of listing, the company’s stock price rose by more than 30%, and its market value exceeded $13 billion.
In September, the brand also announced the launch of a new oatmeal ice cream. The product is made from imported oats, with zero trans-fat, and is friendly to people who are lactose intolerant.
4.Health & Wellbeing
A study in September revealed that 40% of the Chinese public said that they increased their intake of dairy products during the epidemic, hoping to improve their health through functional dairy products. Consumption of corresponding functional low-temperature milk has naturally risen. A2 milk company achieved revenue of NZ $1.21 billion in 2021. A2 is optimistic about the long-term development of the Chinese market and will continue to increase investment in brand and organisation construction and product research.
According to relevant data, only in the first half of 2020, the number of new brands entering Tmall International imported beauty increased by 69%, the number of new products released increased by 129%, and the transaction of new products increased by 606%. The store also released an incubation plan for new beauty brands. In the coming year, it plans to introduce 1,000 new overseas beauty brands and incubate more than 50 new brands with annual turnover of 10 million yuan.
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