In coffee shops in China's first-tier cities, a common scene reflects the changes of the times: young white-collar workers use mobile phones to scan codes to unlock shared power banks, open takeaway apps to choose exquisite meal packages marked "for one person", and open social platforms after meals to compare the performance parameters of the latest mini air fryers. Behind these fragmented consumer behaviors, there is a force that is surging to reshape the market landscape - by 2025, China's single population will reach 260 million, equivalent to the entire adult population of Indonesia. The scale of the single economy they have spawned has exceeded 7.8 trillion yuan, becoming the most research-worthy phenomenon-level sample in the global consumer market.
Loneliness catalyzes innovation: the code for the rise of the single economy
The outbreak of China's single economy is by no means accidental. The improvement of economic independence has allowed the average disposable income of urban youth under the age of 30 to reach 5,620 yuan/month. In addition, the young generation who grew up under the one-child policy is better at self-pleasing, forming a consumption philosophy of "living for themselves". Sociologists point out that mobile Internet technology has created a new model of "digital solitude": takeaway platforms make eating alone no longer embarrassing, live shopping eliminates the social pressure of shopping, and smart pet feeders can even replace human emotional companionship. This technology empowers single life to break free from traditional shackles and transform it into sustainable business opportunities.
Companies with a keen sense of the market have already started to lay out their plans. Home appliance brand Bear Electric Appliances has reduced the size of its products by 30% but raised prices by 15%. Sales of products such as mini rice cookers and single-person wall breakers will increase by 67% year-on-year in 2024; concept stores such as the "Food Research Institute" have emerged in the catering industry, where customers can choose virtual dining scenes through VR glasses, and the proportion of single diners has remained stable at more than 74%. More local is the evolution of the "companion economy": from the early days of Haidilao placing plush toys to prevent diners from being lonely, to the current launch of the "virtual meal friend" AI service by Meituan, users can pay 8.8 yuan to generate a dialogue program that meets their personal preferences, and the repurchase rate of such services is as high as 41.3%.
Miniaturization Revolution: An Experiment in Reconstructing Consumption Logic
Singles are rewriting market rules. The traditional "family unit" consumption model has been deconstructed into a highly personalized demand matrix: JD.com's big data shows that single users buy 200ml shampoo 3.2 times more frequently than family packs, and 50g toothpaste sales have surged 89% year-on-year; the real estate market has differentiated into 18-square-meter "beehive apartments", which are equipped with folding furniture and modular bathrooms. The monthly rent accounts for 27% of young people's income from 38% in 2018 to 27% in 2025.
The consumption decision-making mechanism also presents distinct characteristics. Boston Consulting Group's survey found that singles pay 19 percentage points more attention to the "social currency attribute" when choosing goods than married people, which explains the phenomenon that single users account for 63% of blind box consumption - collecting and displaying trendy toys has become a new type of social capital. In the field of financial services, the "Single Treasure" wealth management portfolio developed by Ant Group focuses on short-term flexible deposits and withdrawals, and the average user holding time of the fund is only 1/3 of that of family investors. This liquidity preference forces financial institutions to develop more "fragmented wealth management" products.
Undercurrents and reefs: structural challenges behind prosperity
The rapid development of the single economy also brings deep questions. Demographers warn that the continued decline in the marriage rate (it has dropped to 4.8‰ in 2025) may cause the pension gap to expand to 6.8 trillion yuan in the next 20 years. Although domestic service robots can solve some of the needs of elderly people living alone, the problem of emotional loss remains to be solved. The conspiracy of consumerism and loneliness has given rise to more contradictory phenomena: while Pinduoduo's "companion AI speakers" have sold more than 100,000 units per month, the number of users of psychological counseling apps has increased by 240% in two years, revealing the paradox of material abundance and spiritual poverty.
Market supervision also faces new issues. In the disputes over excessive consumption caused by live broadcast rewards, single users accounted for 71%; mini home appliances generate 43% more electronic waste than standard products due to high maintenance costs. What is more worthy of vigilance is the commercial alienation of "single discrimination" - some marriage and dating platform algorithms deliberately amplify anxiety and induce users to buy high-priced membership services. This business model will increase consumer complaints by 56% in 2024.
Future Narrative: China's Solution for a Global Single Society
While Nordic countries use high welfare to support single life and Japanese convenience stores serve as "loneliness refuges", China is exploring a third way. At the policy level, 15 cities have piloted "single-friendly communities" with shared kitchens, smart security systems and emergency call devices; in the commercial field, Haier's "life stage home appliances" support on-demand replacement of functional modules to avoid waste of resources. Social innovation organizations have launched the "Island Plan" to help 2 million people rebuild weak relationship networks through script-killing social experiments.
Cross-national comparative studies show that the uniqueness of China's single economy lies in the dynamic balance between technological empowerment and social traditions: Alipay's "family group financial management" function allows 46% of single young people to still participate in family fund management, and 32% of Cainiao Station's express delivery services come from food parcels sent by parents. This coexistence of "atomized individuals" and "traditional family networks" provides a new paradigm for global single social research.
In the electronics market in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen, engineers are debugging the latest holographic projection pets. This device, which costs 2,999 yuan, can simulate the touch and body temperature of a cat; in a laboratory in Shanghai, scientists are trying to use brain-computer interface technology to solve the problem of safety monitoring for living alone. These innovations are not only business stories, but also a declaration of the times written by hundreds of millions of people with their lifestyles: when singleness is transformed from a social problem to an economic driving force, the individual's freedom of choice and the market's evolutionary resilience are jointly writing an oriental chapter of the survival experiment of postmodern society.
