🐎 Consumer news digest (CNY edition): from Spring Festival Gala to AI red envelopes | Following the Yuan

News on Kingsoft Shiyou, Zegna Group, Pop Mart, Mingming Henmang, Eastroc Beverage, Pangdonglai, Walmart, RedNote, Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, ByteDance, Seedance 2.0, BOSS Zhipin, Anta, Alo Yoga, Mixue

For at least a decade now, Chinese people have complained about the Spring Festival gala that’s supposed to be the biggest entertainment show of the year and used to go hand in hand with the most important meal of the year. That has changed dramatically, and audience aren’t the only party to be blamed.

The occasion of Spring Festival gala — which also includes local versions at provincial TV stations — doesn’t attract much good will these days, but it remains a premium opportunity for celebrities and brands to make an appearence. Above all, of course, the one hosted by China Media Group (CMG) trumps all.

Over the last week, you could see waves of celebrities posting their behind-the-scenes content of being on such galas on social media. They may just be happy and honored to be invited, of course.

However, in the age of cancel culture, in which the driving force is the government rather the market in China, it also sends signals to their potential employers: LOOK! I have the stamp of approval from the government; it’s safe to hire me.

Also on the stage were made-in-China humanoid robots. Unitree, Noetix Robotics, Galbot, and Magic Lab each paid RMB 100 million to be on stage ahead of the industry’s IPO craze, according to financial publication Caijing.

So, what’s the role of CMG Spring Festival gala here? A billboard, a business broker, an AI bubble enabler? For now, it seems to be all of the above.

The brands/companies we mentioned in this issue are: Kingsoft Shiyou, Zegna Group, Pop Mart, Mingming Henmang, Eastroc Beverage, Pangdonglai, Walmart, RedNote, Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, ByteDance, Seedance 2.0, BOSS Zhipin, Anta, Alo Yoga, Mixue.