Rising Consumption in County Towns: Nearly 40% of New Cinemas Opened in the First Half of the Year Developed in County Towns | County Regions | County Towns

In recent years, with the development of county-level economy, county-level consumption has accelerated its rise, leading the expansion and upgrading of county-level consumption. Including movie theater lines, branded coffee shops, milk tea shops, and others, they are all expanding into the county market.

Nearly 40% of newly opened cinemas are located in the county town

According to statistics from the National Film Administration, as of June 30, the total box office for this year was 26.271 billion yuan, an increase of 52.91% compared to the box office performance of 17.181 billion yuan in the first half of 2022.

In terms of newly opened cinemas, according to data released by China Film Data Information Network, the number of newly opened cinemas in the first half of the year reached 391, of which about 150 were located in county towns, accounting for 38.4% of the total, accounting for nearly 40%.

Among them, Anxi Wealth Plaza Cinema is a newly opened cinema this year, located in the western part of Anxi, Quanzhou, a hometown of overseas Chinese in southern Fujian, which has gradually risen in recent years. There are several large real estate projects in the surrounding area, with a large residential population and strong consumption power.

Outside the cinema, branded coffee shops, milk tea shops, and others have also expanded into the county market. At present, well-known brands such as Luckin Coffee, Lucky Coffee, and Happy Tea are also appearing on the streets of the county. Among them, Liu Wenjuan, the Chief Operating Officer of Starbucks China, once stated that Starbucks' market expansion is not only focused on more than 300 prefecture level markets nationwide, but also includes nearly 3000 county-level markets.

During the Spring Festival, coffee shops in lower tier cities were overcrowded by young people returning home, and there were instances of orders exploding and long queues in many Luckin stores. Guo Jinyi, Chairman and CEO of Luckin Coffee, stated at the Q1 performance briefing that with the influx of more brands, competition in the Chinese coffee market will become more intense. Therefore, the company will still actively increase the number of stores in high-end cities and accelerate the expansion of sinking markets through a joint venture model. According to the current situation, Luckin's store goals will be achieved ahead of schedule.

Concerts, music festivals, football matches, and more are also being held in small county towns. For example, during this year's May Day holiday, various county towns such as Wuqiang County in Hebei Province and Ningyang County in Shandong Province are hosting music festivals.

In terms of sports events, this year's football match "Village Super" in Rongjiang, Guizhou has become popular on the internet. As of now, the online live streaming of "Village Super" in Guizhou has accumulated over 250 million views. According to a journalist from First Financial News, in recent years, several counties have successively owned Chinese Super League and China League One teams, including Meizhou Hakka and Nantong Zhiyun in the Chinese Super League, Guangxi Pingguo Hailiao in China League One, and Lushan in Jiangxi.

Niu Fengrui, the director of the Small and Medium sized City Research Institute, believes that with the development of the county economy and the improvement of people's living standards, the demand for leisure life is becoming increasingly diverse, including various aspects such as literature, sports, and entertainment, which are all growing.

Overall, in recent years, the consumption boundary between county towns and big cities has gradually become blurred.

Why is consumption rising in county towns?

The rise of county-level consumption is largely related to the rapid development of county-level economy in recent years, the improvement of county-level urbanization and income level, and the improvement of transportation infrastructure.

With the development of China's economy, the county-level economy is also constantly growing, and there are more and more counties with a GDP of billions. In 2022, China's GDP of 100 billion counties increased to 52, with Kunshan's GDP exceeding 500 billion yuan, surpassing 8 provincial capitals; The number of 100 billion counties in the central and western regions has increased to 10.

On the other hand, with the development of the Internet, some counties have broken through the constraints of geographical conditions by leveraging the Internet and achieved a counter attack, resulting in the rapid rise of industries. In addition, some economically underdeveloped populous counties are fully leveraging their advantages of low human resources and land costs, vigorously attracting related manufacturing industries, and the level of urbanization is constantly increasing.

Peng Peng, Executive Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Association for Reform and Reform, analyzed the First Financial and Economic Bureau that many places have now achieved high-speed connections between counties, with convenient transportation. Many people return to their hometowns to buy houses and also buy houses in county towns. Many people with good economic conditions in rural areas also choose to buy houses in county towns. The county town has concentrated good educational and medical resources, and the roads are relatively wide. The gap between high-quality residential areas and big cities is not significant, and the conditions in various aspects are much better than those in townships. This has also attracted population aggregation. The scale of the county town continues to expand, and consumption and entertainment facilities are gradually developing.

On the one hand, with the development of the county economy, the emerging middle class in the county is pursuing more refined consumption. Peng Peng said that while the consumption power in the county town is increasing, on the other hand, whether it is cinemas, brand coffee shops, milk tea shops, etc., they are already very saturated in big cities. They need to expand new spaces, and the county town is also their space for expansion.

County is the basic administrative unit of our country. Currently, there are over 1800 counties and cities in China. The county town is known as "Chengwei Township Head". Data shows that by the end of 2021, the urban permanent population in China was 910 million. Among them, the permanent population of 1472 counties is about 160 million, and the urban permanent population of 394 county-level cities is about 90 million. The population of county towns and county-level cities accounts for nearly 30% of the national urban permanent population. That is to say, the population size of the county town has reached 250 million. The huge market of 250 million people has attracted more and more well-known brands to layout.

Meanwhile, in recent years, with the improvement of transportation infrastructure and the popularization of automobiles, the radiation and driving ability of county towns to rural areas has been continuously enhanced, which is an important engine for expanding domestic demand. Peng Peng said that county towns are an important carrier of nearby urbanization and also an important support point for rural revitalization.

On May 6, 2022, the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting Urbanization Construction with County Towns as Important Carriers", which proposed that by 2025, significant progress should be made in urbanization construction with county towns as important carriers, and the shortcomings and weaknesses of county towns should be further supplemented and strengthened. A group of county towns with good geographical advantages and industrial foundations, strong resource and environmental carrying capacity, and good conditions for gathering population and economy have achieved significant results. The allocation of public resources is basically matched with the scale of permanent residents, characteristic advantageous industries are developing and growing, municipal facilities are basically complete, public services are comprehensively improved, living environment is effectively improved, comprehensive carrying capacity is significantly enhanced, and the scale of farmers seeking employment and settling in county towns is continuously expanding. County town residents are also experiencing significant growth. The quality of life has significantly improved.

Zou Jintai, a researcher at the Rural Economy Research Institute of Hubei Academy of Social Sciences, previously analyzed that in the process of expanding domestic demand and rural revitalization in the future, a large amount of investment is needed in rural areas. Meanwhile, with the development of modernization in agriculture and rural areas, the rural population will continue to decrease and move towards cities in the future. In this process, county towns will be the main carrier of rural population transfer. County towns are not only the focus of future investment, but also an important driving point for rural revitalization.