China’s super rich to spend US$58 billion on gifting by 2020
The super-rich are expected to snap up 30 per cent more gifts in 2020, up from 300 billion yuan for 2017, on traditional luxury goods to unique experiences
Millionaires on mainland China are expected to have snapped up 390 billion yuan (US$58 billion) worth of gifts ranging from timepieces to upscale overseas expeditions by 2020, 30 per cent more than this year, as they spend more to impress families, business partners and on themselves.
An expected gifting expenditure of 300 billion yuan this year would contribute to 10 per cent of total gift spending in the mainland, creating a huge market for brands and merchants, according to the China High Net Worth Individuals Gifting White Paper 2017, which was jointly released on Thursday by the wealth-tracking research group Hurun Report and advertising media planning agency MEC in Shanghai.
The report was based on surveys of more than 500 high net worth individuals between December 2016 and May 2017 in more than a dozen first- and second-tier cities.
The respondents have an average age of 41 and enjoy a per capita of 22 million yuan in wealth. They have an annual disposable income of 4.2 million yuan.
“The market of gifts for the high net worth individuals is projected to continue its growth momentum, thanks to a larger group of super rich on the mainland and rising expenditures in the name of gifting,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report.
An emerging trend is the growing popularity of paying for unique experiences as gifts over physical goods, as these experiences are novel and stand out to impress more, Hoogewerf told the South China Morning Post, citing the example of a “gift” to an aircraft aficionado family – a visit to an airplane cockpit.