Since the start of 2015, the growth rate of Chinese automobile transaction volume had slowed down its growth. In June 2015, the growth rate of the automobile market was merely 1.4%, 7 percentage points lower than June 2014.
Less developed cities might make a breakthrough for the downturn market. Automobile market in first-tier and second-tier cities shrunk gradually, while buyers in third-tier to six-tier cities increased.
According to data from Alibaba, about 67% automobile buyers who were also Taobao users were from less developed cities. Mainland China has 657 cities while many third-tier, fourth-tier, fifth-tier and sixth-tier cities were small in size and dispersion in the location. Sometimes automobile companies could not obtain a clear and correct evaluation on local market. Social media could be used for penetrate third- to six-tier cities further.
The post-90s would be another important pillar in the future automobile market. In June 2015, the post-90s buyers accounted for 29%, 8 percentage points higher compared with January 2014. The ratio of the post-80s and post-70s auto buyers decreased.
Also read: China’s Mobile Car Calling Market from 2014 to 2015