Exploring the blue ocean of male emotional content in the “his economy”

This article analyzes the reasons why male emotional content is popular and explores the business opportunities brought by the "he economy". With the change of male consumption concepts, brand marketing strategies must also keep up with the trend, cater to the needs of male users, and seize the huge potential of the "he economy".

Recently, Clouri discovered that men's consumption power is increasing on content platforms and e-commerce platforms.

Stereotyped, emotional content on content platforms is mainly viewed by women, but this impression is changing as male users’ preferences change. From @大圆哥 to @常老布, content related to male emotions is gradually increasing, and more and more male users are beginning to pay attention to content that can meet male emotional needs through games, short videos, and other forms.

According to the 2023 Tmall Double 11 list, male spending power surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time, and road bikes, e-sports products, and jackets became the "new three treasures" of male consumption. Many brands have also begun to pay attention to the male economy on the Internet and started targeted marketing.

On the content platforms in 2023, men's aesthetics have gradually become more diverse, and they have demonstrated their own consumption power. As a result, a batch of emotional content that targets the male group has become popular, and some brands that target the "he economy" have risen rapidly.

What kind of emotional content do men pay attention to? What kind of business opportunities does the “he economy” bring? Can the “he economy” create new marketing opportunities for brands?

1. Emotional Value

Content such as love and emotions have never been exclusive to women, and creations from a male perspective are attracting more male users. The popularity of male emotional content in short dramas, games, short videos and other fields confirms this.

(To avoid ambiguity, Clour will temporarily refer to content written from a male perspective, with a relatively large male fan base, and about family, love, etc. as male emotional content)

"Finished! I'm Surrounded by Beauties" (hereinafter referred to as "Perfect") is a real-life interactive video game that became popular on Steam at the end of this year. Players play the male protagonist Gu Yi in an immersive first-person perspective and can choose to fall in love with six beauties of different styles.

Perfect World became a big hit with its "game + short drama" model and dominated the Steam charts. After 20 days of its launch, the cumulative sales volume reached 800,000 copies. Based on the 42 yuan buyout payment model, its estimated cumulative sales volume has exceeded 33 million yuan.

《It's over! I'm surrounded by beauties》

Hippo Games pointed out that 99% of the users of Perfect World are male, making it a rare male-oriented love game in China. Men experience the intimacy that is missing in real life in the virtual game world and show strong spending power.

After the release of "Finished", a number of "electronic girlfriends" were born on the short video platform. Representative influencers include @阿七, who has more than 10 million fans, and @炭炭QAQ, who has 1.888 million fans... The content of their videos mainly involves reporting their daily schedule to the camera, allowing fans to put themselves in their boyfriend's perspective, focusing on "emotional value".

Image source: TikTok

The shooting method of using short videos with a first-person perspective has long existed, and such videos can often be seen in celebrities' materials. The purpose is to make fans feel more like they are the boyfriend/girlfriend. The large-scale appearance of "electronic girlfriends" has undoubtedly expanded the influence of such videos and met the emotional needs of more men.

If Electronic Girlfriend, "Perfect" and the past stereotype of "beautiful anchors attracting male audiences" are still there, then a series of accounts such as @大圆哥 and @常老布 that interpret the plot from a male perspective, focus on the psychological changes of men, and show men's more complex emotional needs.

On October 14, @大圆哥 released a video titled "Love rises with the wind, but the heart is still sad when the wind stops. Regrets are still regrets after all." The video revolves around the theme of regrets in love and tells a story of unrequited love. His fans increased by 3 million overnight, and ten days later, his fans exceeded 10 million, making countless viewers immersed in @大圆哥's emotional story.

Image source: TikTok

According to Relang data, men account for 87.5% of @大圆哥's fans, and many male netizens leave messages under @大圆哥's videos seeking emotional resonance.

Searching for the keyword "male emotions" on short video platforms will reveal many similar accounts. Looking at their content, friendship, career, and love are the most common themes. Take @常老布 as an example. This blogger's videos, with their highly metaphorical plots, present the living conditions of some male groups today and have become an emotional outlet for many people.

In the episode "Boss, are your sour apples sweet?", the dialogue between the store owner and the customer when buying apples is performed to express the phenomenon that "sweet apples are easy to spoil, but sour apples can be kept", which indirectly reflects some fast-food-like things and interpersonal relationships in life.

Image source: TikTok

Standing from a male perspective, understanding the public's emotions, and interpreting the helplessness of middle-aged people and professionals are the important reasons why @常老布 can attract tens of millions of fans. According to Relang data, male fans of the Douyin account of "常老布" account as high as 83.7%, and they are concentrated between the ages of 18-23. The distribution group has strong male characteristics, which resonates with many male users.

In fact, from @大圆哥 to @常老布, the creation style of their videos can hardly be considered novel, but the special thing is the emotional expression from the blogger's male perspective, which makes up for the gap in this type of short videos.

Below Da Yuange’s video, there are expressions of male emotions that are not often seen in short videos: “It took me five years to let go of her and myself”, “I don’t believe that anyone would still reminisce about it”…

2. “He Economy” – From Content to Consumption

The popularity of content related to men’s emotions is inseparable from the growth of the “he economy”.

The "he economy" is also known as the male economy, which corresponds to the "she economy". After years of "she economy" dominating consumption, the male consumption potential has been tapped, breaking the stereotype that men have weak consumption power, and the male consumption capacity has expanded to various life and entertainment scenarios.

QuestMobile data shows that as of April 2023, while the average monthly usage time of all network users decreased by 1.2% year-on-year, the average monthly usage time of male users increased by 1.0% year-on-year to 163.8 hours.

In the past, male consumers were often large in number but had poor spending power. In recent years, however, men have become more and more attached to shopping apps, and e-commerce platforms are no longer exclusive to women. In particular, the situation has changed in the past year, with the proportion of male users spending more than 1,000 yuan online increasing by 1.7% year-on-year.

Specifically, males show strong interest in games, music, technology, consulting and other aspects, with prominent pan-entertainment attributes.

Image source: QuestMobile

Xiaohongshu, once dubbed a "women's community", has always hoped to attract more male users and break the stereotype of a "women's community" through methods such as the "male content incentive plan" and adding male-oriented topics.

Today, among the 260 million users of Xiaohongshu, male users account for 30% and are growing. The definition of "high intelligence and youthfulness" has formed a more diverse portrait of male users. Men are increasingly interested in beauty, skin care, and fashion, while dramas, cute pets, and other content are popular among male consumers.

Image source: Crawley Index Research Institute

Compared with the fiercely competitive female consumer market, male consumption is a growing blue ocean.

Public data shows that young men have a higher acceptance rate of dressing and skin care. Among the younger generation of men in first- and second-tier cities, more and more men are beginning to make independent choices about skin care and dressing.

@叔本聪 is a UP host on Bilibili who specializes in the field of men's fashion. He has gained 526,000 fans by recommending outfits to male fans in different scenarios.

Image source: Station B

As the content on men's beauty, dressing and other aspects increased month-on-month, "they" not only brought richer content to the content platform, but also brought a blue ocean of business for men's products and opportunities for more brands. Lululemon men's clothing grew 15% to US$530 million in the second quarter of 2023.

Behind the rise of male consumption and content is the mutual penetration of gender consumption. From content consumption to commodity consumption, in today's social environment, all genders have the right to choose their own lifestyles, and all types of lifestyles and consumption behaviors should not be restricted by gender.

Japanese jewelry brand Mikimoto and Comme des Garcons once collaborated on the theme of "non-sexism". As the consumer market continues to upgrade, the de-gendering strategy of weakening gender differences is the trend of the consumer market.

For brands, when marketing products that traditionally have large gender differences, such as beauty and skin care, they can adopt a strategy of not emphasizing gender differences and advocate the concept of "can be used by both men and women", thereby breaking the distinctions and constraints of the inherent framework and attracting a wider range of consumers.

3. Final Thoughts

Although there are content and accounts with a male perspective such as @大圆哥, currently, male-related emotional content accounts for a small proportion on content platforms and has not become mainstream.

As men become more accustomed to expressing their emotions and supporting emotional content on the Internet, I believe that more outstanding creators will enter this neglected field in the future.

With the rise of the "he economy", more and more brands and users have seen the power of the male consumer group, reflecting a huge blue ocean market. Creators who have already achieved success in "he content" can also use the rise of the "he economy" to find a better path for their own commercialization.

Author: Guang Ye, WeChat public account: TopKlout (ID: TopKlout)