Xiaomi said that whoever wins the hearts of the people will win the world, and those young people who paid real money are not happy.

Young people will influence the future consumer market, and this statement will never be out of date.

However, equating young people with losers creates ambiguity in the language and may even lead people to read it as having some underlying malice.

Recently, Wang Mei, Vice President of Qinghe University of Xiaomi Group, said in summarizing Xiaomi's success experience: "Xiaomi believes that in the future, whoever wins the Diaosi will win the world, and whoever wins the young people will win the world." This has caused a huge uproar. Xiaomi's young die-hard fans have been officially defined as "Diaosi", and the Diaosi are not happy.

The word "diaosi" itself has a certain derogatory meaning, just like the word "lushe, loser", it can be used to mock oneself, but when it comes from other people's mouths, the meaning changes.

What is the most important element of fan economy? Of course, it is pampering fans. To create the effect of "we are tired of being a fan", so from the glamorous big stars to the broadcasters who promote various products in the live broadcast room, everyone always mentions the word "family". Look at the Taiwanese celebrity couple Zhang Ting and Lin Ruiyang, who are both celebrities and experts in direct sales. They pamper fans to the point of being sickening, and naturally they make a lot of money.

In a nutshell, since your marketing targets are the "losers" who have just entered society and need care, you should sell them the care they need most, similar to "lumberjack". In this sense, selling products is just a by-product.

However, the ten-year-old Xiaomi did something that most new broadcasters would not do - he broke the window paper of "care" and only thought about making money by arrogantly cutting leeks.

Most of Xiaomi's users are young people born in the 1990s. If they are not happy, how will this business develop in the future?

Unique 90s

Although those born in the 1990s and 1980s have both been labeled as "self", unlike those born in the 1980s who at least hope to gain a high degree of recognition in the mainstream world, those born in the 1990s are more eager to establish standards in their own world and break free from the constraints of mainstream values.

This completely different sense of identity determines that the post-90s generation has a completely different code of conduct from previous age groups.

From the perspective of subjective needs, the post-90s generation prefers to "live life today". Fxbaogao survey data shows that 48% of the post-90s generation prefer to enjoy the present life rather than worry about the future.

For this reason, when faced with the choice between money and needs, only 26% of post-90s will choose to save money, 38% of them live paycheck to paycheck, and the rest will choose to overspend.

If consumption is merely an individual freedom and cannot well prove the "self" label of the post-90s generation, then their attitude towards work as a means of making a living makes the unique personality of the post-90s generation visible.

Previously, there was a joke on the Internet about how different age groups view resignation: "People born in the 1960s: What is resignation? People born in the 1970s: Why do you want to resign? People born in the 1980s: I will resign if the income is high. People born in the 1990s: I will resign if the boss scolds me. People born in the 1995s: I will resign if I feel unhappy." Although this is a bit stereotyped, it does reflect the work concepts of most people born in the 1990s to a certain extent.

Data from the "2019 Comprehensive Survey Report on Post-90s" released by 199it shows that when post-90s choose a job, the most important consideration is not secular standards such as company development prospects, salary levels, and career stability, but focusing on interests and hobbies, with the attention rate reaching 25.9%.

This data clearly shows that even in a relatively passive job market, those born in the 1990s still hope to take a certain degree of initiative. They never want to be defined as "losers"!

Matter determines consciousness

Engels wrote in Anti-Dühring: "The ultimate causes of all social changes and political revolutions must be sought not in men's minds, in their increasing knowledge of eternal truth and justice, but in changes in the mode of production and of exchange; not in the philosophy of the relevant era, but in the economy of the relevant era."

The post-90s generation has its own subjective side, but in the final analysis, matter determines consciousness. The personality traits of the post-90s generation, which are completely different from those of the post-70s and 80s generations, can be largely found in the changes of the times.

The post-90s generation has caught up with the end of the family planning era. my country's family planning era lasted from the 1970s to 2013, but data from the World Bank shows that in 1983, my country still had a fertility rate of 2.582. In contrast, the birth rate of the post-95 generation has dropped by 27% compared to the post-85 generation.

This one-child policy has its own legitimacy, but it has also increased the loneliness and selfishness of the post-90s generation, which is the root of their "self" consciousness.

In contrast to the declining birth rate, China's economy began to take off in the 1990s. Public data shows that the adolescence of the post-1990s generation was a period of high growth as China's per capita GDP moved from US$5,000 to US$10,000. During this period, China surpassed Germany and Japan to become the world's second largest economy, and this high economic growth was accompanied by unprecedented material prosperity.

Correspondingly, data from Fxbaogao shows that among the post-90s families in first-tier cities and large provincial capitals, 75% have an average annual income of more than 100,000 yuan, and nearly half of them have an average annual income of 300,000-500,000 yuan. The combined effect of these two economic growth bodies, one large and one small, will not cause most of the post-90s to encounter a shortage of material resources during their growth stage, and on the other hand, it has also made most of the post-90s develop a mentality of "materials take precedence over consciousness".

Although the post-90s generation enjoyed all the material resources during their growing-up stage, when they entered society after 2010, they encountered the problems of slowing economic growth and rapidly rising housing prices.

Data from the China Statistical Yearbook show that China's economic growth rate slowed from 10.4% in 2010 to 6.9% in 2015, hitting the lowest economic growth rate since the 1990s; at the same time, China's housing prices began to soar after 2010. Take Beijing as an example, the average house price was 15,790 yuan/㎡ in 2008, and by 2018 this figure had increased to 60,230 yuan/㎡, an increase of 281%.

One significant impact of this is that the survival pressure of young people will increase significantly. For example, a popular question on Zhihu is "Will people born in the 1990s never be able to afford houses in the core areas of first-tier cities?" One of the most voted answers reads: "Some unlucky people ran blindly and got caught under the wheel of history, and some even more unlucky people were born under the wheel of history." In a word, those born in the 1990s, who were born at the turning point of history, did not participate in too many processes that influenced society. The most they could do was to change their attitude towards life.

Since it is difficult to achieve success in the secular sense, it is not surprising that the post-90s generation, who are "open-minded" by nature, pay more and more attention to themselves and pursue pleasure in life and work.

What’s interesting is that although the post-00s and post-90s are seen as generations apart, compared to the post-90s and post-80s, the post-00s and post-90s actually have strong similarities in their growth environment and attitude towards life.

Data from Tencent's Post-00s Research Report shows that as the post-00s grow up, due to the further reduction in social class mobility, the explosion of Internet content, and the further prosperity of material life, the post-00s have already demonstrated personality traits similar to those of the post-90s, such as self-cognition and the habit of expressing ideas.

Young people are reshaping the tech industry

The economic base determines the superstructure. Xiaomi said that it was by seizing the opportunity of the "diaosi" that it achieved its glory. In other words, without the "diaosi" there would be no Xiaomi, and the diaosi are the real financial backers of Xiaomi.

The unconventional consumption and life views of the post-90s and post-00s generations are likely to influence the product orientation of the entire technology industry.

Only products that actively cater to the younger generation can be loved by the post-90s and post-00s. Taking the automobile industry as an example, according to 1C9U research data, unlike the post-70s and post-80s who pay attention to automobile brands and engines, the post-90s and post-00s pay attention to intelligent cars and new energy vehicles, reaching 63% and 55% respectively.

From this perspective, when we look at Xiaomi, we can find that a large part of its success is because Xiaomi's brand and product pace were initially closer to young people compared to other brands.

Secondly, "entertainment first" will become a major product orientation. The Internet consumption report released by CBNData shows that due to the pursuit of spiritual enjoyment, the post-90s and post-00s have a strong willingness to pay for online videos, the second dimension, games and other virtual fields. The data from the "2020 China Mobile Internet Autumn Report" released by QuestMobile shows that online videos and games are the content that the post-90s and post-00s use the most time, in addition to social networking.

Correspondingly, industry analysts believe that cloud gaming may become a major trend in the industry in the future, as it can lower the threshold for gaming, driven by the “entertainment first” mentality of the post-90s and post-00s generations.

In addition, with advanced consumption, the post-90s and post-00s will also likely affect the form of the industrial chain. According to iMedia Research, in 2018, the total amount of short-term loans of the post-90s generation in China exceeded 300 million yuan, accounting for about 1/3 of the total short-term loans for the whole year.

Under normal consumption patterns, terminal manufacturers often only need to consider the scale of consumers with eligible purchasing power at this stage, but under the advanced consumption pattern, terminal manufacturers have to focus on the entire audience covered by the terminal. 1C9U said: "Under the generational change, the post-90s generation is more willing to spend on leisure and entertainment, advance consumption, and online consumption, which will have a profound impact on the supply side of the upper and middle reaches."

In general, although those born in the 1990s and 2000s are currently incompatible with mainstream social values, if we trace back to the roots, the birth of this consciousness still originates from a specific era.

History has entered a turning point, and the support of young people has made Xiaomi a commercial star at the turning point. However, faced with such huge commercial benefits, those young people who cheered for it and spent real money on it were rashly defined as "losers". Of course, young people are not happy about this. Where is the promised Xiaomi Home?

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.