Alibaba releases drinks report on lower-tier cities in China

E-commerce giant Alibaba has released a report on the drinking habits of Chinese consumers from lower-tier cities, finding that Kunshan in the eastern Jiangsu province consumes the most alcohol of the 3,000 cities surveyed in the report.

The study carried out by Alibaba Research Institute and Rural Taobao – a project that the e-commerce company launched in 2014 to promote trade between rural areas and urban cities – found that residents in Kunshan, 70km from Shanghai, spent almost RMB 46 million (US$6.67 million) on alcoholic drinks in the first 11 months of the year.

The city has roughly 1.65 million residents and their average spend on drinks is about RMB 30, according to the report.

The city also ranks the highest in all drinks categories such as Chinese baijiju, beer, imported spirits, Chinese yellow wine, wine and other juice fermented alcoholic beverages.

However, preferences differ between two different gender groups. Male drinkers in the city prefer wine, while females more commonly opt for the fiery baijiu.

Interestingly, Kunshan was also the city that spends the most on nutritional products and health tonics.

In eastern parts of China, cities such as Qidong, Haimen in Jiangsu, and Chengzhou in Zhejiang, are loyal fans of Chinese yellow wine. While baijiu, a fiery liquor distilled from grains and rice, is still most popular in northern parts of China. It accounted for 70% of all alcoholic beverage consumption in Jixian of Henan province.

For imported spirits, Dali in Yunnan province in southwestern China ranked the highest in terms of consumption for brands such as Jack Daniels, Johnnie Walker and Chivas.

The top three wine brands sold on Alibaba purchased by the cities surveyed were GreatWall, Changyu and Roosar.