The next growth engine: pragmatic, hometown-proud lower-tier city consumers in China
As of November 2025, 55-65% of China’s population of 1.4 billion live in third-tier cities and below. Contributing to 40-50% of the country’s GDP and with rates of per capita disposable income growth outpacing that of high-tier city consumers, and increasing leisure time, lower-tier city consumers in China pose a significant opportunity for expansion for […]
2025 China emerging-tier market report
China’s growth story is no longer written in megacities. Beyond Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, a new wave of consumers in emerging-tier cities is quietly reshaping how China earns, spends, and lives. Daxue Consulting scraped and analyzed 30 million Chinese social media posts about emerging-tier markets to understand how the markets develop and how they reshape […]
Kuaishou is much more than just another Douyin
Kuaishou, a massive short-video app that has already gone public, might not be widely recognized beyond China, unlike Douyin. For foreign investors, it could be perceived as just another Chinese tech unicorn that has undergone an IPO. Among Chinese urban dwellers, however, the app is often labeled as a 土tu (tacky) app, known for its […]