China’s rising favor for diamond

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Diamonds are an essential symbol for engagement or weddings in western culture. In the east, the gem is has gained more appeal among the Chinese citizens where it has great potential to shine brighter.

China is the world’s second-largest market for diamonds. Over the past 10 years, China's jewelry sector has more than tripled in size.

According to a report from De Beers Group, one of the world’s largest diamond company, the global diamond market saw a flat demand in 2016, but Chinese market and Indian market showed demand growth in the first half of 2017 with single-digit growth from a year earlier.

The potential for growth is great: diamond is becoming an essential part of Chinese weddings, with half of the brides in China acquiring a piece of diamond jewelry. And more and more young people prefer diamonds than gold.

VCG Photo

“The Millennials are more interested in diamonds. Especially in China, among these women aged 18 to 34, the diamond is the number one desirable luxury item on their list,” said Stephen Lussier, CEO of Forevermark, a jewelry brand owned by De Beers.

Meanwhile, women’s evolving roles in society are reshaping diamond jewelry demand landscape.

Traditionally, demand for rings has dominated the market in China, while well-designed necklaces and earrings have increased in popularity annually.

Moreover, with Chinese women being a bigger part of the workforce, they have more confidence and ability to purchase luxury products for themselves, which also indicates a larger market for diamonds.

However, it is not easy for diamonds sellers, including De Beers, to win Chinese consumers’ spending on luxury products because more and more of them prefer spending more on high-end traveling.

De Beers said that the luxury traveling of Chinese people is the fastest growing competitor of diamonds in the Chinese market, Bloomberg reported on September 14.

But the diamond seller has decided to influence the consumption trend. De Beers planned to invest 140 million US dollars in advertising in 2017, the largest spending in advertising since 2008.