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For 1990s generation, smartphones = life
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KEVIN Nie has not gone to a real store to shop for three years, since he studied civil engineering at Shanghai Tongji University. Instead, he downloaded the Taobao app on his mobile phone and buys everything there.
“You know, a cell phone can do everything. It’s very easy, and you can pick up the things you want at odd moments, such as when you wait for people in a restaurant, during a break in the office, on the subway or bus, or even a couple of minutes when you are in an elevator,” he says.
Nie, born in 1990, graduated last year and is now working in a local real estate company. For young people his age, mobile phones have become an important way of life.
Nie is using 3G service, contracted with China Mobile and pays at least 100 yuan (US$16.39) every month. Different from post-1980s and post-1970s generations and those older who use computers for communication, the young generation of post-1990s are better at using mobile tools — mainly cell phones.
“Almost all post-1990s people cannot live without a mobile phone. It is their air and water,” said Shen Ke, general manager of the Internet management department at China Mobile Shanghai Branch.
He gave the main speech titled “4G and Youth in Big Data Age” at the 7th annual Shanghai Communication Development Forum held recently in Shanghai.
According to the analysis, there are three basic characters of post-1990s Internet users. First, they are loyal customers; second, most are students, with lower consumption abilities; and third, they are eager to try new products and services the mobile Internet provides. Every generation gets tagged with different labels, Shen said: hard-working and responsible for post-1970s; “revolutionary” for post-1980s. The post-1990s generation, with its liberating self-awareness, is considered showy and confused about life goals.
Although it’s still early to define the consumer behavior of this young generation, the group has already become the main force in the virtual world. Shen said their communication habits can be quantified in this age of big data and rapid development of mobile communications.
There are two main reasons for this generation’s shopping behavior — free style and being picky about products, according to the analysis.
“On one hand it’s because of limited income, while on the other hand they have the capacity to use the Internet to find the items suitable to them, with a high performance-price ratio,” Shen said. In other words, the post-1990s generation has the tools, savvy and motivation to be very value-conscious in its buying decisions.
“We are willing to share — sharing the online shops on social networks, and also sharing the user experience to provide them some opinions before they make decisions,” Nie says.
In addition to functional tools like maps and electronic dictionaries, the most frequently used smartphone apps among the young generation involve social media, including Wechat, Weibo, QQ, Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp. These allow people to communicate with friends at any time.
“The first thing I do when I wake up or after a shower is pick up the phone and check if there are any new messages or comments,” Nie says.
Nie has rechargers everywhere — in his office and car — to guarantee that his phone will remain on at all times.
“I will become very anxious when my cell phone is not with me or has low power,” he adds.
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