Labbrand Research Finds 85.6% of Chinese Millennials Use Mobile Payment for Offline Purchases, Almost Double Their U.S. Counterparts

NEW YORK, March 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Labbrand, a leading global brand consultancy, previewed its findings on U.S. and Chinese millennials' digital drivers. The findings, based on an extensive online survey with young adults aged 20 to 35 years of age in both countries, showed that Chinese millennials use digital tools to satisfy functional and emotional needs – food, expenditure, socializing – more prevalently than their U.S. counterparts. Among the key indicators, 85.6% of Chinese millennials use mobile payment in physical shops at least once a week, as opposed to 44.7% of U.S. millennials. Such findings can be leveraged by global brands crafting their digital strategies for these and other international markets.

Other noteworthy initial findings of the survey were also revealed. In terms of socializing, for example, Chinese millennials are highly expressive online – 71.4% post answers to questions on Q&A sites or forums at least once a week, while 77.6% post reviews on movies, restaurants, travels or other activities at least once a week. U.S. millennials fell short of reaching 50% (41.8% on posting answers and 44.8% on posting reviews) on both questions. Overall, the majority of Chinese millennials agree that they tend to share everything they do online (55.3%), whereas only 28.3% of American millennials felt the same way.

Labbrand released the initial findings of the survey at the Millennial 20/20 summit in New York. At the event, Denise Sabet, Labbrand's Managing Director of North America, presented on "The Digital World of Chinese Millennials", while also highlighting takeaways for brand marketers in the U.S. "The term millennial has been overused, and the definition has become too broad," said Sabet, "Brands need to uncover deeper and more specific insights on millennial consumers, and to tailor their brand actions to the characteristics of more targeted segments."

Based on the Digital Drivers model developed by Labbrand, the survey results also indicated that U.S. millennials are driven to digital platforms mainly by the need to seek pleasure, while Chinese millennials tend to be simultaneously driven by the needs of connection, discovery, actualization as well as pleasure.

The Digital Drivers model helps brands to look beyond generic data to gain deeper insights into the drivers behind digital behaviors. A more in-depth analysis of Labbrand's latest survey on U.S. and Chinese millennials' will be released in the coming LABReport on March 31.

About Labbrand

Labbrand is the leading China-originated global brand consultancy with a rapidly expanding global footprint that includes regional operations in APAC (Shanghai, Singapore), Europe (Paris), and North America (New York). Through brand innovations, we create, grow, and disrupt to be strong and resilient in dynamic markets. We are multi-cultural in approach and cross-disciplinary in research, strategy, naming, design, and digital. Together this gives us the foresight and ability to build brand equity. labbrand.com

About Millennial 20/20

Millennial 20/20 Summits are the grand gathering of brands, retailers, corporates, service providers, investors and start-ups to celebrate the modern age of commerce and business powered by the millennials and future consumer generations. The summits focus on the impact of technology, digital and the rise of the internet of beings which is drastically changing how, where and when we consume and interact with brands, retailers and start-ups in the following industry sectors: Fashion & Beauty, Food & Beverage, Travel & Hospitality and Fitness & Health and in the key pillars of retail, marketing, mobile, payments, video, data, social, e-commerce and CRM. Millennial 20/20 has been created with the belief that business events need to advance with the times and deliver a curatorial, experiential and personalized experience for attendees.

SOURCE Labbrand