MoonFox Analysis｜Balancing Fat Gain and Loss In Summer: Dining and Fitness Consumption Surge in Tandem

About us: Aurora Mobile (NASDAQ: JG) established in 2011, is a leading customer engagement and marketing technology service provider in China. Its business includes notification services, marketing growth, development tools, and data products. As its sub-brand, MoonFox Data is a leading expert in data insights and analysis services across all scenarios, aiming to help companies gain market insights and empower precise decision-making.

SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — 

I.    Data Overview: Restaurant Consumption Soars in Popular Tourist Cities, Coupled with Olympic Fever Sparking a New Fitness Boom

The summer tourism peak has driven a significant rise in dining consumption. As people increasingly seek enhanced travel experiences, culinary adventures have become an indispensable part of their trips. In several top tourist destinations, dining consumption hit its peak during the summer months. For example, in Chengdu, the restaurant industry saw stable growth in dine-in consumption from July onwards, with orders from out-of-town tourists rising by over 36% YoY. According to MoonFox iApp data, the average MAU (Monthly Active Users) in the mobile internet group purchase & food delivery industry surpassed 570 million during the 2024 summer holiday, increasing by more than 20 million users compared to June, and 14 million YoY.

On the aspect of fitness consumption, the summer spending boom, coupled with the “Olympic Fever”, has sparked and sustained the nation’s enthusiasm for exercise. MoonFox iApp data reveals that the mobile internet fitness sector averaged over 260 million MAU during the 2024 summer holiday, with 704,000 new users joining each day. According to Vipshop data, sales in several popular sports and outdoor gear categories, including trail running shoes, quick-dry T-shirts, sport-style polo shirts, and children’s sun-protective clothing, achieved more than 100% growth YoY.

Group Buying & Food Delivery Industry MAU Stats

Fitness & Sports Industry User Stats

Data Source: MoonFox iApp;
Data Cycle: July – August 2024

II.   Dining Consumption: Meituan’s Online Dining Services Lead the Pack, While Regional Specialty Restaurants Become a Key Driver of Summer Dining Growth

During the summer vacation period, Meituan, the online dining delivery aggregator platform, recorded an average DAU count of 120 million, marking a 2.8% increase compared to June. Meituan implemented a series of consumer support initiatives across both its online food delivery services and offline restaurant support, including brand marketing, consumer subsidies, and technological upgrades. These measures helped brand merchants accommodate the surge in summer dining UV while meeting the diverse needs of consumers. Meanwhile, Dianping, the platform focused on offline consumption reviews, saw an average DAU of 25.835 million, reflecting a 16.5% increase from June. This upward trend indicates that with the arrival of summer, consumers have become more reliant on detailed information and objective user reviews when making dining and offline consumption decisions during travel, contributing to the rise in platform user activity.

In contrast to the growth trend observed in group purchase and consumption service platforms, the performance of food delivery service platforms during the summer vacation period appeared somewhat sluggish. Influenced by the summer travel surge, people preferred dining out to enjoy offline culinary experiences. As the two major players in the food delivery market, Ele.me and Meituan Food Delivery both experienced a slight decline in their average DAU counts compared to the June averages during the summer period.

Monthly Average DAU for Online Dining Services app (Unit: 10,000)

Data Source: MoonFox iApp;
Data Cycle: June – August 2024

Meituan’s Recent Initiatives in Dining Services Busines

Regarding offline restaurant consumption, summer travelers are increasingly demanding higher-quality dining experiences at their destinations, seeking deeper emotional satisfaction and cultural identification. Meanwhile, benefiting from their strong ability for endorsement, content platforms have become crucial catalysts for regional specialty restaurants and trending food brands to gain widespread popularity. Through promotion on platforms like TikTok and Xiaohongshu, specialty restaurant brands can rapidly expand their influence and attract more consumers. For instance, TikTok launched the “Food Discovery on TikTok” campaign to unearth and recommend high-quality eateries and culinary experiences across various regions. During the peak summer travel season, this model of combining online promotion with offline experiences not only provides consumers with new avenues to discover and explore cuisine but also brings new growth opportunities for food and beverage brands.

Driven by the influx of tourists and the ecological impact of content platforms, the customer UV index of regional specialty restaurant brand outlets has shown significant growth trends. According to MoonFox Data, in Beijing, the customer UV index of Quanjude’s offline stores increased by 27.1% MoM in July 2024. As reported by CCTV.com, since July, the number of dine-in orders in the Beijing area has increased by over 40% YoY. In Changsha, Chayanyuese and Wenheyou, as major IP-driven trending brands, also achieved MoM growth in their customer UV indices of 4.2% and 10.7% respectively in July.

Changes in Customer UV Index for Offline Specialty Restaurant Brand Outlets

Data Source: MoonFox iBrand
Data Cycle: July 2024

Recent Strategic Initiatives by Content Platforms in the Food and Beverage Sector

Xiaohongshu Topic Popularity

Data Source: XH Data Data Cycle: As of September 5, 2024

Overall, during the summer vacation period, online platforms met consumers’ diverse needs for food delivery and in-store dining through convenient services and abundant promotional activities. Meanwhile, offline specialty restaurants attracted significant attention from tourists and local consumers through unique cultural experiences and culinary delights. As consumers increasingly pursue higher quality and cultural depth in their dining experiences, and content platforms continue to promote regional specialty restaurant brands, the organic combination of product strength and content creation capabilities among food and beverage businesses will gradually become the main driver of sustained growth in the catering industry.

III. Sports Consumption: “Sports+” Scenarios Become Summer Consumption Hotspots, Enhancing the Social Attributes of Sports

Riding the wave of Olympic fever, sports and fitness apps have seen an increase in user engagement. In youth sports, the App of Jump Rope Every Day, which focuses on providing sports management for primary and secondary school students, achieved an average DAU of 1.164 million during the summer vacation, a 21.0% increase compared to June. This growth reflects the importance parents and students place on utilizing vacation time to improve athletic abilities and enhance physical fitness. It also indicates the increasing popularity and recognition of the “Sports + Education” integration model. To sustain the momentum of youth sports during holidays, Jump Rope Every Day organized jump rope competitions in various regions, with multiple events attracting over 300,000 primary and secondary school students.

In adult fitness, Apps like Qu Dong Will Go and GIANT RideLife successfully combined sports with social interaction by offering online activities, offline events, and themed competitions, fostering the development of sports communities. During the summer vacation, their average DAUs increased by 23.7% and 4.5% respectively compared to June. This growth highlights the effectiveness of the “Sports + Communities” model in expanding the user base, promoting the popularization of sports and increasing participation through community power. Users enjoy social benefits while pursuing a healthy lifestyle through convenient online participation and offline physical interaction, thus improving the consistency and motivation for exercise.

Monthly Average DAU of Sports and Fitness Apps

Data Source: MoonFox iApp;
Data Cycle: July 2024 – August 2024

As a leader in “Sports + Communities” mode, the app “Keep” once again demonstrated its influence and innovation during this year’s summer vacation. While providing diverse sports courses for users, Keep constructed a comprehensive sports community integrating sports socialization, professional guidance, and healthy lifestyle experiences through offline event planning. They innovated multiple “Sports+” scenarios, such as the “8.8 National Sports Festival”, “Cycling Carnival”, and “Surfers Festival”. By integrating elements of entertainment, cuisine, and culture, combined with co-branding collaborations, special courses, and interactive games, Keep provided users with diverse sports scenario experiences. For example, they collaborated with food brands to launch free meal challenge activities, breaking down barriers between sports and culinary circles and enriching the content and depth of sports activities.

Keep’s Summer Activities in 2024

IV. Industry Trends: County-level Markets Activate Catering Growth, Social Attributes Drive Sports Consumption

1.    County-level and Lower-tier Markets Poised to Spark New Growth Poles in Catering Consumption

County-level and lower-tier markets are playing an increasingly crucial role in China’s current consumer market. As the economy develops and residents’ income levels rise, the consumption potential of these markets is gradually being unleashed, becoming a new engine for catering consumption growth. On one hand, the impact of holiday economics on county-level catering markets is progressively strengthening. The holiday tourism market shows a clear downward trend, with young people’s enthusiasm for “county tourism” causing small county tourism growth to outpace that of big cities. With the rise of county-level tourism markets and the continued warming of “culinary tourism”, the county-level catering industry is embracing tremendous development opportunities. For the county-level catering industry, while deeply exploring local characteristics, it is essential to strengthen integration and interaction with the tourism industry, forming a virtuous cycle of “tourism + cuisine”. On the other hand, the urban-rural income gap in China is gradually narrowing, with the ratio of per capita disposable income between urban and rural residents decreasing from 2.88 to 2.45. Driven by lifestyle upgrades, catering consumption is becoming increasingly popular among county residents. MoonFox iMarketing data shows that in the mobile internet group purchase and food delivery industry, users from third-tier cities and below account for 46.1%. The digital infrastructure of the county-level catering market is gradually improving, providing a better development environment for catering consumption.

2.    Overcoming Catering Industry Involution Requires Dual Drivers of Product Strength Consolidation and Content Innovation

In the current catering market, the phenomenon of “involution” is increasingly prominent, with severe homogeneous competition and frequent price wars challenging the sustainable development of the catering industry. According to media reports, about 460,000 catering enterprises suspended operations in Q1 of this year, with this number rising to nearly 600,000 in Q2. For catering enterprises to break through this situation, they must recognize that relying solely on price wars or imitating others is no longer sustainable. Overcoming catering involution urgently requires the dual core driving forces of product strength consolidation and content innovation. In terms of product strength, focus should be placed on dish innovation and development, launching new products that align with changing consumer tastes to win the market through differentiated competition. Simultaneously, developing regionally characteristic dining themes and designing innovative consumption experience scenarios tailored to different consumer groups is crucial. Regarding content strength, in Q1 of this year, the Guiding Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Development of the Catering Industry issued by the Ministry of Commerce and other 8 departments mentioned guiding platform enterprises in the catering field to provide technical training and UV support for small and micro businesses, creating a symbiotic development ecosystem between platforms and merchants. For catering businesses, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation with catering content platforms, enhance emotional connections with consumers through innovative content marketing methods, storytelling of brand narratives, and dissemination of food culture.

3.    Sports Market UV Drives Incremental Growth, Social Attributes Become Key Engine for Sports Consumption Growth

The rise in health awareness and the hosting of popular sports events have made the sports market a new high ground for UV. The integration of social attributes has transformed sports from mere exercise into a form of social interaction. Group sports, fitness challenges, and other activities satisfy people’s social needs while also driving the growth of sports consumption. Sharing workout check-ins and fitness achievements in WeChat Moments not only showcases personal healthy lifestyles but has also become a new form of social currency. Driven by social attributes, the sports consumption market is undergoing a transformation. Consumers are no longer simply purchasing sports equipment or services; they place more value on the social experiences and personal growth throughout the entire sports process. Against this backdrop, brands need to establish closer connections with consumers through social platforms, enhancing user brand loyalty by creating attractive content and interactive experiences.

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