China's Five Key Consumer Verticals: H1 2024 Market Landscape
By Jessie Wang
8 min read
Newer data: Pet Tech, AI Toys, and Trail Running Fuel China Growth
Executive Summary#
Sales grew in most major categories on the two leading Chinese marketplaces in our dataset in Jan-May 2024, and on a leading content-led marketplace five of the 30 largest categories grew by more than 100% YoY. OWS earphones (+219.4% YoY) and listening learning machines (+1,014% YoY) on a leading marketplace, and LED beauty devices (+13,996% YoY) on a leading content-led marketplace, were the standout breakout categories across the five verticals. We believe brands that treat search-led and content-led marketplaces as interchangeable channels risk missing the different kinds of demand that drive growth on each.
Most Major Categories Returned to Growth in H1 2024#
On a leading marketplace, the industry's move away from pre-sale events and towards longer promotional windows changed how brands planned their promotions, and most major categories ended the period with positive growth. Mobile phones grew 51.6% YoY, as major handset launches brought upgrade demand back, and large home appliances grew 28.2% YoY. Jewelry, home lighting and coffee/beverages each grew by more than 10% YoY, which shows that aspirational and lifestyle categories held up despite the pressure on the wider economy.
On a leading content-led marketplace, five of the 30 largest categories grew by more than 100% YoY, among them jade/gemstones (+905.5%), pre-owned 3C digital (+331.3%), gold and diamonds (+302.1%) and pre-owned luxury (+101.6%). We believe the shorter path from discovery to purchase in content-led commerce, where shoppers see a product demonstrated in live-stream and short-video content, explains why categories that depend on demonstration or social proof are selling well there.
Search-led marketplaces compete on catalogue depth and promotional intensity, while content-led channels compete on how efficiently they lead shoppers from discovery to purchase, and we believe brands need a separate plan for each. [1]
Vertical 1: Audio/Visual Electronics, Where OWS Earphones Broke Out#
The audio/visual electronics vertical split in two directions in H1 2024. On a leading marketplace, non-over-ear wireless earphones remained the largest format at CN¥ 6.1 billion (+40.1% YoY), while the most significant change was the growth of the OWS (open-wearable-sound) format. OWS earphones grew 219.4% YoY on the same marketplace, and their share of the wireless earphone market rose from 10.2% to 17.0% in one year, mostly at the expense of bone conduction earphones, whose share fell by 3.3 percentage points.
The format has split into two designs, hook-ear models such as those from Shokz, which are aimed at sports and active users, and clip-ear models such as Huawei's FreeClip, which are aimed at casual and everyday wearers.
Beyond OWS, the buddy camera category, which combines earphone audio with a built-in camera, grew 372.9% YoY on a leading marketplace and has found a niche among content creators. Smart speakers came under pressure, which we attribute to product homogenization and to competition from learning tablets that meet similar household needs for audio and information.
Vertical 2: Sports, Health and Personal Care, Where Regulation Created a Category#
The sports, health and personal care vertical grew strongly, and several of its categories had their own reasons for growth. High-speed hair dryers grew 92% YoY on a leading marketplace. Brands such as Laifen and Dyson have positioned these dryers as hair-care tools, combining speed with features such as negative ions and temperature control. Electronic oral spray grew 221.6% YoY on the same marketplace, and smartwatches generated CN¥ 3.6 billion in sales, up 63.9% YoY.
On a leading content-led marketplace, the main development was in LED beauty devices, whose sales grew 13,996% YoY to CN¥ 66.5 million. The growth followed a tightening of the rules on RF (radio-frequency) beauty devices by China's National Medical Products Administration, which reclassified many consumer RF devices as medical products that require clinical approval. Brands moved quickly to LED alternatives, and the content-led format suited the job of explaining the new devices to consumers and turning their interest into purchases.
Medical device categories on the same marketplace also grew very fast, with home care products up 5,267% YoY, medical dressings up 2,456% YoY, rehabilitation therapy up 440% YoY and at-home health measurement up 422% YoY. We believe these figures show content-led commerce becoming a viable channel for health and wellness devices. [2]
Vertical 3: 3C Digital Accessories, a Stable Core with Fast-Growing Niches#
The 3C digital accessories vertical grew steadily overall, with mobile phone accessories at CN¥ 11.2 billion (+11.3% YoY) on a leading marketplace, and within that steady picture several niches grew very quickly:
- Phone heat sinks: +65,783% YoY, as smartphones became primary gaming devices and heat became a common consumer complaint
- Tablet bags and accessories: +95.6% YoY, following the growth of the wider tablet market
- USB accessories (fans, hand warmers, peripherals): +48.2% YoY
On a leading content-led marketplace, where many buyers are content creators, accessories for livestreaming and photography equipment grew 154% YoY and portable power banks grew 71.9%. We believe the 3C accessories vertical shows how a stable core category can hide very fast growth in niches built on new products, and that brands with detailed category data can find these niches early.
Vertical 4: Smart Home, Where Growth Moved to Security and Control#
On a leading marketplace, smart bathroom products such as smart toilets and motorized drying racks form the largest smart home sub-category at CN¥ 6.8 billion. Their sales came under pressure in H1 2024 as demand after home renovation returned to normal. The categories that grew were built around security and control, with smart home security up 35.2% (CN¥ 3.5 billion) and smart home control systems up 38.1%.
Network cameras were the largest of the growing smart home categories on that marketplace at CN¥ 2.4 billion (+37.1% YoY), helped by lower prices and better AI features such as facial recognition and motion detection. Robot vacuums (CN¥ 2.4 billion, +14.6% YoY) and floor washers (CN¥ 2.3 billion, +10.8% YoY) were close to each other in size, and the all-in-one base station has become the standard configuration for robotic cleaning.
On a leading content-led marketplace, smart appliances grew 115.6% YoY (CN¥ 2.6 billion), smart aerial devices grew 250.4% YoY and smart lighting grew 90.8% YoY. The marketplace's "Other" smart home category grew 277%, which suggests growth across many emerging product types that are not yet large enough to have a category of their own.
Vertical 5: Learning and Office, Where New Buyers Found Projectors#
On a leading content-led marketplace, projector sales grew 79.3% YoY, and many of the buyers were younger consumers discovering the category for the first time through influencer content and live demonstrations.
On a leading marketplace, listening learning machines grew 1,014% YoY, a new market created by demand for home learning tools after the "double reduction" policy. Electronic education devices (all-in-ones, e-readers, translation pens) generated CN¥ 1.75 billion in sales, up 176% YoY. On the content-led marketplace, conference audio/video equipment grew 432% YoY.
Strategic Implications for Brands#
The data across the five verticals points to several patterns that brands selling consumer electronics and smart products in China can act on:
- Channel-specific investment matters: Categories growing in content-led commerce reflect their own audience profiles, among them content creators, younger urban consumers and health-conscious buyers, and these audiences call for their own product positioning, prices and marketing
- Regulatory changes open windows: LED beauty devices and the medical wellness categories show how a regulatory change can create a category quickly, to the benefit of brands that already have suitable products in development
- Format transitions are moving faster than expected: The rise of OWS earphones from 10.2% to 17.0% of wireless earphone revenue in 12 months suggests that format shifts in audio are speeding up. Brands that sell only bone conduction or standard Bluetooth earphones, with no OWS products in development, risk being left behind as buyers move to the new format within a year
- Niche categories compound: Phone heat sinks, buddy cameras and listening learning machines all started at negligible scale before posting very large percentage gains. Category data at a fine level of detail is what allows a brand to find these opportunities before they become obvious
About the Data#
This analysis is based on Moojing Market Intelligence's proprietary e-commerce transaction data covering Jan-May 2024 on two leading Chinese marketplaces, and figures described as being on a leading marketplace or a leading content-led marketplace refer to one of the two. Revenue figures are presented in Chinese yuan (CN¥). YoY comparisons refer to the equivalent Jan-May 2023 period. Category definitions follow each marketplace's own taxonomy and may differ from industry-standard definitions. All data comes from the Moojing Five Verticals Review H1 2024 report.
Download the Full Report#
Download the full Five Verticals Review report
Access the complete Jan-May 2024 data across all five verticals, including detailed brand and price tier analysis, category sales trends and Xiaomi's ecosystem strategy. The report covers 188 pages of analysis across audio/electronics, sports/health, 3C accessories, smart home, and learning/office categories.
Get in Touch#
Moojing Market Intelligence helps brands navigate China's e-commerce landscape with actionable data and strategic insight.
-
Website: moojing-global.com
-
Email: info@moojing-global.com
-
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/68588397/
-
Footnotes
[1] McKinsey & Company, "China's e-commerce market: Trends and strategic shifts," 2024. Content-led commerce models are characterized by algorithm-driven content recommendation that turns passive browsing into active purchase consideration, and the model works particularly well for categories where demonstration and social proof are key purchase drivers.
[2] China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), "Announcement on Classification and Regulation of Household RF Beauty Devices," 2024. The reclassification of consumer-grade RF devices as Class III medical devices (requiring clinical trial data) effectively removed many products from the market, creating an immediate demand shift toward LED-based alternatives.
This content adheres to Moojing's editorial standards .
Frequently Asked Questions
LED beauty devices, which grew 13,996% year on year to CN¥ 66.5 million. The cause was regulatory rather than commercial: China's National Medical Products Administration tightened rules on radio-frequency beauty devices, reclassifying many consumer RF products as medical devices requiring clinical approval, and brands pivoted to LED alternatives almost immediately. Adjacent medical device categories moved the same way, with home care products up 5,267%, medical dressings up 2,456%, rehabilitation therapy up 440% and at-home health measurement up 422%. The transferable lesson is that a regulatory change can create a category overnight, and the brands that capture it are the ones with a pre-positioned product pipeline rather than the ones that react.
Faster than product roadmaps usually assume. OWS open-wearable-sound earphones grew 219.4% year on year, and their portion of wireless earphone revenue went from 10.2% to 17.0% in twelve months, taken primarily from bone conduction, which gave up 3.3 percentage points. Standard non-over-ear wireless earphones still anchor the category at CN¥ 6.1 billion (+40.1%), so this is displacement at the margin rather than collapse. But a brand still building only bone conduction or standard Bluetooth, with no OWS line in development, is exposed to share erosion on a twelve-month clock rather than a three-year one.
Niches that started at negligible scale. Phone heat sinks grew 65,783% as smartphones became primary gaming devices and thermal management became a real consumer complaint. Listening learning machines grew 1,014%, a genuine market-creation moment driven by post-"double reduction" demand for home learning tools. Buddy cameras, which are earphones with a built-in camera, grew 372.9%, finding a niche among content creators. Around them the core categories stayed stable: mobile phone accessories at CN¥ 11.2 billion (+11.3%), electronic education devices at CN¥ 1.75 billion (+176%). Stable cores conceal these, and the prerequisite for catching one early is category data at enough granularity to see it before it becomes obvious.
Because their audiences and their ways of selling are different. Search-led marketplaces compete on catalogue depth and promotional intensity, while content-led channels compete on how efficiently they lead shoppers from discovery to purchase. Many of their buyers are younger, more urban consumers who meet a category for the first time through a live demonstration or influencer content. Projectors are an example, since many of the buyers behind their 79.3% growth on a leading content-led marketplace were discovering the category for the first time. We believe brands that use one SKU range and one message for both kinds of channel will miss much of the demand on each.
