Chinese spent 2.5 trillion yuan (about 363 billion U.S. dollars) on snacks in 2018 on the back of industry upgrades and viral marketing, according to a report by the Ministry of Commerce.

Setting the trend

Li Yunshi, who is in her mid-20s, started a food blog on Douyin in June 2018. Douyin is the Chinese version of TikTok, specializing in short-format videos and growing fast in popularity among young people. Both Douyin and TikTok are owned by Chinese tech firm, ByteDance.

Li's Douyin, known as "Er Shi Chi Kua Chengdu," means to eat all the food in Chengdu, and "Er Shi" is Li's nickname. One of the first accounts about food on Douyin, it was an instant hit gaining Li over 3.5 million followers in just a year. Li told CGTN that she started posting on Douyin to share her love for food, and now these posts not only make mouths water but fill shopping carts as well.

"Snack recommendations on Douyin or other internet platforms really target people's impulses. And people jump to order it; it's so fresh and so pretty, I need to try," she said.

Li also fell to temptation on seeing other people's posts on snacks. For example, companies started to campaign on Douyin regarding hotpot last year – not about sit-down hot pot restaurants but packaged individual-serving hotpot bowls that can be ready in 15 minutes by just pouring in water. Douyin celebrities with millions of followers started to make short clips about how they eat these packaged hotpot bowls, driving up sales. As a local of Chengdu, the city known for its spicy hotpot, Li Yunshi took the chance to eat and to partner with a local chain to offer fans her own version of the hotpot bowls. 

Who are buying

Yet, internet buzz comes and goes. The big thing in 2019 is snacks with salted egg yolk flavor. Hema Fresh is a tech giant as Alibaba’s new push for the integration of online and offline shopping. It operates brick and mortar stores and allows people to order on mobile apps with home delivery at the same time. It sees the current booming craze about salted egg yolk flavor and put out a variety of salted egg yolk flavored snacks including one salted egg yolk-flavored fish skin – strange name yet very popular in cities like Shanghai and Chengdu.

In addition, Hema Fresh stores in Southwest China's Chengdu has also stocked a coriander-flavored Pretz. The unusual taste may not win over everybody but due to the locals' love for coriander, the stores in the city can sell over 1,000 boxes a month.

"Snacks have to offer a kick to customers’ taste buds. A product cannot stay salted egg yolk-flavored or matcha-flavored. Today'’s brands react fast to what is viral in society and offer products related to that trend," said Li Wei, a purchasing manager at Hema Fresh in Chengdu.

According to Li, snacks take up 30 percent of the overall food consumption at the moment, and people from 18 to 40 years old are Hema's main customers for snacks, especially females.