Don't young people like to drink any more?

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"the sound of firecrackers has driven away the old year, and the spring breeze sent warm drinks to kill Su to avoid adversity and seek happiness." Whether it is a family reunion or a gathering of friends, wine has always been a regular guest on the New year's table. This Spring Festival holiday, did you see alcohol like Wang Anshi?

Maybe the Spring Festival is the same every year, some people taste a lot of wine, while others don't drink. Nowadays, however, the drinking trend of young people around the world is changing. The survey shows that in some countries, especially high-income countries, there is a downward trend in alcohol consumption among people under the age of 25. The amount of alcohol consumed by young people in some countries has not declined, but drinking preferences and drinking patterns are quietly changing.

Do the young people of this year really not like drinking?

The taste of this year's young people has changed.

It may not be said that young people stop drinking. Although male consumers between the ages of 31 and 46 still dominate the beverage market, according to CBNData, the biggest incremental contribution to online beverage consumption in 2020 came from the "post-90s", and young consumers are gradually becoming the main force of the market. However, their consumption habits and preferences are obviously different from those of the previous generation.

Consumer preference data show that the younger generation prefers "slightly tipsy" to "binge drinking". Fruit wine / mixed wine / dew wine category, as well as some other foreign wines, are favorites of young people. Wine and beer are also acceptable to young people. But other alcoholic drinks among young people are beginning to be less than expected: young people's acceptance of domestic spirits, sake / soju and health-preserving wine is lower than average, and health food wine and rice wine / rice wine are avoided.

Generally speaking, the focus of young people's drinking is no longer on alcohol itself, and the boundary between alcohol and beverages is gradually blurred. Of the 2449 alcohol brands that maintained online sales growth of more than 100 per cent in the first quarter of 2021, low alcohol accounted for 57.8 per cent. In addition to wine, beer and fruit wine, low-alcohol wines such as wine, beer and fruit wine are far more preferred than high spirits such as spirits. Low-alcohol wines with an alcohol content of less than 2.5% and non-alcoholic wines with an alcohol content of less than 0.5% have also maintained rapid growth in the young market, with consumption of low-alcohol / non-alcoholic spirits more than double that of 2018 after 90pm in 2020. This change in drinking concept has also made young people prefer "small bottles of wine". Compared with traditional bottled wine, the consumption of small bottles with a capacity of only 50-250 ml has maintained a growth rate of about 30% in recent years.

The rise of these "one-person drinks", "good night drinks", "low alcohol", "drinks" and "good-looking" drinks has filled the gap among some consumers who did not like drinking, accompanied by an increase in consumption among women. According to the Beverage consumption trend report released by SUNING, women accounted for only 26 per cent of alcohol consumption in 2019, while the proportion increased to 36 per cent in 2020. According to the analysis of Everbright Securities, the growth of female consumption is also an important reason for the rapid development of the pre-blending market. Women between the ages of 20 and 34 have become the main force of pre-blended alcohol consumption, forming a market of more than 30 billion yuan.

There are also people who don't like drinking.

However, not all young people are completely in the midst of this new wave of alcohol consumption. In addition to the non-alcoholic groups, there are also a considerable number of young people who drink significantly less than the previous generation. The above research, published in the European Journal of Public Health, also points to some of the reasons why young people drink less: they feel stressed and need to be independent earlier, so they are worried about uncontrolled drunken behavior; they are aware of the health risks of drinking; they want to manage their own image and improve their relationships with friends, family and colleagues; and new forms of entertainment have emerged as an alternative to drinking. For these four main reasons, more and more young people drink less or do not drink than in the past.

In the Spring Festival, we would especially like to remind you that it is better not to drink or drink less, whether you like it or not. And, driving without drinking, drinking without driving.