HONG KONG: Received wisdom about Hong Kong millennials is wide of the mark, according to a new report which finds them to be hard-working pragmatists who dislike superficiality and arrogance.
Communications agency Text100 surveyed 1,000 Hong Kong residents aged 18 to 33 and said that, far from being frivolous and chasing a celebrity lifestyle, they had matured into a generation of level-headed consumers. They are now far more likely to prefer a life as a successful entrepreneur than a Hollywood celebrity, while many are happy as they are.
Most described themselves as liberal and tolerant (58%) and a similar proportion identified themselves as trusting and open (57%). And while their counterparts in the US and UK disliked rudeness and stupidity, Hong Kong millennials were more likely to be annoyed by superficiality.
Another area where they differed from Western millennials was in their relationship with visual media. Half of respondents shared photos on social media and 43% video, significantly ahead of the equivalent figures for the US (37% and 36%) and UK (34% and 31%) and more than twice the proportion (20%) who shared text.
And where they were sharing was also important. Facebook and YouTube were widely used, but Instagram was found to almost twice as popular among this age group in Hong Kong as in western countries.
Further, one quarter spent more than an hour a week using video chat on their mobile devices.
"For marketers the implications are clear," the report concluded. "Pictures and moving images need to play a key role in any marketing campaign aimed at the Post-80s generation."
It also highlighted a crucial local platform where millennials spent time: more than half of respondents (55%) used discuss.com.hk, which is the third most popular media site in Hong Kong, ahead of Twitter, for example. In fact, half this age group spent no time at all on Twitter.
The research went on to identify six distinct personas based on the level of their digital engagement and online activities: Digital Shoppers, Digital Voyeurs, Mobile Cultural Pioneers, The Digital Conservative, The Emerging Technocrat and The Passive Sharer.
Communications agency Text100 surveyed 1,000 Hong Kong residents aged 18 to 33 and said that, far from being frivolous and chasing a celebrity lifestyle, they had matured into a generation of level-headed consumers. They are now far more likely to prefer a life as a successful entrepreneur than a Hollywood celebrity, while many are happy as they are.
Most described themselves as liberal and tolerant (58%) and a similar proportion identified themselves as trusting and open (57%). And while their counterparts in the US and UK disliked rudeness and stupidity, Hong Kong millennials were more likely to be annoyed by superficiality.
Another area where they differed from Western millennials was in their relationship with visual media. Half of respondents shared photos on social media and 43% video, significantly ahead of the equivalent figures for the US (37% and 36%) and UK (34% and 31%) and more than twice the proportion (20%) who shared text.
And where they were sharing was also important. Facebook and YouTube were widely used, but Instagram was found to almost twice as popular among this age group in Hong Kong as in western countries.
Further, one quarter spent more than an hour a week using video chat on their mobile devices.
"For marketers the implications are clear," the report concluded. "Pictures and moving images need to play a key role in any marketing campaign aimed at the Post-80s generation."
It also highlighted a crucial local platform where millennials spent time: more than half of respondents (55%) used discuss.com.hk, which is the third most popular media site in Hong Kong, ahead of Twitter, for example. In fact, half this age group spent no time at all on Twitter.
The research went on to identify six distinct personas based on the level of their digital engagement and online activities: Digital Shoppers, Digital Voyeurs, Mobile Cultural Pioneers, The Digital Conservative, The Emerging Technocrat and The Passive Sharer.
Data sourced from Text100; additional content by Warc staff
