Covid opens the door for China’s car industry

According to the report from Ipsos, a multinational market research and consulting firm, it revealed that non-car owners have a higher intention to acquire new cars because of the concern in public transportation under the impact of Covid in China. Moreover, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers predicted that in 2021, total vehicle sales will increase by 4% to RMB 26.3 million (USD 4 million). The growth rate of new energy vehicles is expected to reach 40%, and total sales will climb to RMB 1.8 million (USD 278 thousand). As a result, we recognize that the car industry will flourish, so we will summarise 3 predictable trends in the car industry.

China’s car chips mainly rely on imports. In 2020, the Volkswagen Group in China was the first to admit that there was a shortage of chips supply. The chips are one of the most critical components for automobiles to realize functions such as autonomous driving and in-car entertainment. Now, the domestic brand in China is conducting research on car chips. In 2020, NIO, a Chinese automobile manufacturer, launched its research project for autonomous driving computing chips. We can see that domestic brands involve more in car chip manufacturing.

Not only the hardware part is very important, but the software part is also crucial. According to the survey data released by the Cheyun Research Institute in March 2020, 84% of consumers are willing to pay an additional RMB 500-3,000 per year for car digital value-added services. Baidu, Ali, Tencent, Huawei, the China non-automobile-focused brands, stepped foot in the automobile industry. For example, Huawei is seeking a place in the future automobile industry with its 5G technology. It is believed that the software and data will significantly be enriched in the car Industry.


Autonomous cars will be the new trend. Qian Zhan Research Institute predicts that by 2021, the global autonomous car market may reach RMB 4 trillion (USD 618 billion), and by 2035, the autonomous car is expected to reach RMB 130 million (USD 21 million). Starting from 1 January 2021, " Taxonomy of Driving Automation for Vehicles" is officially implemented, and China will officially have its own autonomous car classification standards. For China, 2021 will be a crucial year for the development of autonomous cars.

Asian tourism in times
of Covid

The outbreak of the Covid pandemic marks a great impact on the tourism industry around the world and in Asia. Recently, we found that there are two interesting observations of the tourism industry in Taiwan and Singapore.

The inflow of Taiwanese in 2020 has boosted in-country private consumption which jumped 5.2% compared with the same period in 2019. The effort of limiting the spread of Covid, avoiding lockdowns, and maintaining the usual living style lead to a huge increase in the net inflow of Taiwanese who choose to return to Taiwan and consume locally. Silks Place Taroko, a luxury hotel in Taiwan, is fully booked until February. Hoshinoya Guguan, a Japanese style luxury hot spring resort, does not have any rooms available until July. This results in a boost in the Taiwan tourism industry under Covid.

Singapore’s Changi airport, Asia’s third-busiest airport for international traffic, is reinventing itself in the Covid era. It offers holiday offerings such as canopy park tours that include topiary walks, bouncing on a sky net, glamping camping, and seasonal dining menus to attract tourists. There are more people visiting the attractions, especially on weekends. This is a remarkable measure to enhance a tourism boost after Covid in the tourism industry.

Restaurants turn to
live-streaming in China

According to the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the national catering revenue in 2019 is about RMB 4.7 trillion (USD 726 million), and it is expected to exceed RMB 5 trillion (USD 773 million) in 2020. To occupy a place in this huge market, live-streaming and social engagement as a promotion in the F&B industry are essential nowadays.

During the pandemic, the topic of #I want to drink a cup of milk tea# (我太想喝奶茶) has been broadcast with over 100 million engagement in short videos. After resuming to work, the traffic of #The first milk tea in Autumn# (秋的第一杯奶茶) reached 2.4 billion engagement. For young people, it is not just about drinking a cup of milk tea, but more of a way of social interaction and a way to express their emotions.

On video-focused social media platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, food content can be roughly divided into three types: 1. making your own food, 2. live-streaming while you are eating, and 3. visiting the restaurants. As the content of live-streamers visiting restaurants drives the most traffic, they started to add more interesting ideas to the content. They added the hottest jokes to their short video such as imitating Baoqiang Wang, a famous Chinese celebrity, who drinks a bucket of milk in one go.

F&B industry in the new era should not only be innovative in products but also be innovative in social engagement. As a result, businesses have begun to reach out to short-video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou with a stronger audience base. Also, good social content is always one of the good solutions.

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