Active mobile users of Gen Z composed of post-95s and post-00s have exceeded 220 million, accounting for about 22% of all mobile netizens in China. The average internet usage is about 174.8 hours, which exceeds the level of 140.1 hours for the entire network. Additionally, the APP usage time is higher than the average level of the whole network as well.
It is undeniable that from the perspective of market size, Gen Z will be the “new core” of mobile users. However, it is necessary to deeply understand the needs of Gen Z for mobile applications to drive the content and socialization of Gen Z, and the driving force of Gen Z is to continuously bring them freshness and specialize in their hobbies.
The social interest of Gen Z has already shifted to multi-sensory integration such as audio and video, and the explosive metaverse is also reshaping the mobile social field. Gen Z feels the immersive content experience and virtual social functions in the social and entertainment empowered by the Metaverse through the 3D virtual world situation.
In just ten years, China’s mobile social network has grown rapidly and is increasing year by year, it is expected to exceed 1 billion in 2022. Among them, the mobile social platform of Gen Z has attracted the most attention, and the market scale has continued to expand. According to iResearch data, it is expected to continue to grow by 28% in 2021, and the marketing size will reach 83.1 billion.
According to the data, China’s mobile social users tend to skew towards the young generation, and the post-95s and post-00s account for 13.3% and 18.2%, with a total of 31.5%. Gen Z users continue to grow, and the market prospects look promising, spawning more demand and room for growth and opening up more new products for the mobile social field.
According to the survey data, among the 2.52 million apps on the China market, a total of 271,000 apps are social communication apps, and 68.5% of users use social software for “chat needs”, 54.7% for “acquaintance communication”, and 43.8% for “life or opinion sharing”. In addition, 40.9% and 39.4% of users are for “kill time” and “be acquainted with like-minded friends”. It can be seen that chat needs and acquaintance communication are the main forces driving the use of social software. While the room for growth of stranger social interaction should not be underestimated too.
In the Morketing research report, the mobile social behaviour of Gen Z users is being analysed and 6 “keywords” are listed:
Lonely individuals
The Gen Z group who grew up after the millennium pursues “emotional companionship, belonging, respect and self-needs”. Most of Gen Z are a single child that grows up with the penetration of the internet, they tend to yearn to gather together for warmth and online gathering. They are more resistant to complex social relationships and social pressures.
Emotional companionship
With the growth of the internet and single child Gen Z, coupled with less face-to-face offline communication, generally based on loneliness, the need for social interaction is stronger. From passive to active social interaction, they yearn for a long-term relationship centered on “accompanying”, while the integration based on “interest” on the mobile internet is more durable and convenient.
Interests + Circles
In addition to having diverse hobbies, Gen Z is also a group that does not like to be defined by the outside world, however being deeply influenced by the internet, Gen Z will label themselves to expand friend circles and find like-minded people. For example, in the recent popular MBTI test, the Gen Z group use the test results to label themselves on social platforms, they expect to discuss and share with similar groups to achieve the purpose of making friends.
Spiritual satisfaction
“Spiritual emptiness” is mainly a persistent pain point for Gen Z, the Gen Z group desires respect and empathy and needs emotional talk. In order to solve the problem of “emptiness and loneliness”, an anonymous social software function that does not need to reveal the real identity and appearance allows the Gen Z group to hide, and output their real feelings more freely and without worries, thus satisfying the spiritual world.
Deeply interaction
For the evolution of social needs, the Gen Z user group expects to gain a sense of existence, not just a single text demand, but a multi-sensory comprehensive satisfaction that longs for interactivity.
Immersive experience
As the aborigines of the first generation of mobile internet, Gen Z has basically been addicted to the “metaverse” that provides them with unlimited “world” possibilities, and at the same time, it satisfies the sense of achievement and recognition that Gen Z users desire for interactive friendships.
Based on the above, post-95s and post-00s have grown up, regardless of consumer brands or social platforms, has realized that they have become the backbone of consumption. However, the mobile social application still has difficulties to retain and gaining the favour of Gen Z users. If social products want to retain Gen Z users, fun, interactivity and metaverse form will be what companies should think about and measure.
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