What's happening in the lifestyle service industry after "value for heart" becomes a common consensus?

In this year's consumption discussions, "caution" has almost become the default context.

With more transparent prices, more choices, and longer decision - making cycles, the lifestyle service industry is no exception. However, if we shift our focus from macro indicators back to specific scenarios, we'll find that another kind of change is taking place. Consumers haven't stopped going out, dining, or traveling. Instead, they've become more picky in every choice. They start to repeatedly confirm what kind of experience they can get in return for their money.

In restaurants, people no longer only care about the dishes themselves but also about whether the space is comfortable and the service is relaxing. When traveling, the importance of the destination is giving way to the way of participation. In retail consumption, the allure of low prices is decreasing, while trust, interaction, and a sense of identity are being continuously magnified.

These seemingly scattered changes are actually pointing in the same direction. As functions and prices gradually converge, the focus of consumption decision - making is quietly shifting towards something more subjective and stable. For example, whether emotions are taken care of and whether the experience is worth remembering.

Against this backdrop, Douyin Lifestyle Services, in collaboration with 36Kr and the Post - 90s Research Institute, released the "2025 Annual Lifestyle Service Merchant Trend Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). The Report summarizes this change as "emotional cost - performance" entering the core of consumption decision - making. When price no longer constitutes an absolute advantage, consumers start to pay for certain experiences and realizable emotional values.

This is not a rebellion against rational consumption but an adjustment of the consumption order. With limited budgets, people are more willing to spend their money on scenarios that can surely bring emotional returns, confirmed experiences, and a sense of psychological security. The lifestyle service industry is the first to embrace this change.

The question then arises. When "emotional cost - performance" becomes a consensus, how will the growth model of the lifestyle service industry change?

When consumption starts to give way to "emotional appeal"

Emotional value is becoming a new necessity.

In the multiple sets of data presented in the Report, a recurring commonality is that consumers aren't simply "spending less" but are reallocating their spending. Factors such as emotional value, experiential memories, and social significance, which were previously regarded as add - ons, are now directly influencing payment decisions.

External research signals are consistent with this. Accenture mentioned in a relevant study that over half of Generation Z views consumption as a way to explore themselves and socialize. McKinsey's judgment in a report in May 2025 was even more straightforward. Consumers are generally more prudent, but they will actively re - allocate their budgets for projects that "enhance happiness." This change isn't radical but is highly indicative: consumption is shifting from "whether it's cost - effective" to "whether it's worth investing my emotions in."

Emotional value isn't an abstract concept. On the content side, it has formed three highly concentrated keywords: atmosphere, sense of experience, and sense of ritual. Atmosphere corresponds to the attractiveness of space and venue. The sense of experience emphasizes the participation process and memorable moments. The sense of ritual embeds ordinary consumption into life events, making a meal, a trip, or a product a moment worth recording.

The "emotional triangle" formed by these three elements is becoming the most active search and creation direction within the Douyin ecosystem. Creators continuously produce content around scenarios, participation, and events, while users look for specific emotional touchpoints in the content. They aren't isolated hotspots but together outline a demand trajectory: consumers are actively seeking real - world scenarios where they can place their emotions and confirm experiences.

The actual situation at the payment end makes this trend more concrete from a macro perspective. In various offline businesses, the phenomenon of paying a higher premium for experience is expanding. In the catering industry, high - end group - buying packages priced over 200 yuan continue to rise. In the hospitality and tourism sector, experience - based products priced over 1,000 yuan remain popular. In the retail and service industries, the trading activity of products with cultural and identity labels has increased.

Consumers have proven one thing with their actual payments: When the experience is clear enough and the emotional return is certain enough, price is no longer the first hurdle.

"Centripetal evolution" in three sectors

When "emotional cost - performance" becomes the underlying consensus, different industries show different evolutionary paths.

The three most typical lifestyle service sectors, catering, hospitality and tourism, and general retail, are showing a common trend: Consumption is no longer expanding outward but contracting inward, moving closer to emotions, experiences, and a sense of participation. This is a "centripetal evolution."

Catering: From "filling the stomach" to "experiencing the meal"

In the catering industry, the manifestation of "emotional cost - performance" isn't simply an upgrade of the environment or a re - organization of menu premiums. It's more of a re - definition of the overall experience. When consumers enter a restaurant, they're no longer just solving the problem of hunger or simply taking photos for social media. Instead, they hope to achieve a state that matches their current emotions during the meal, such as relaxation, being taken care of, being understood, or just having a quiet moment alone.

The breakdown of the catering industry in the report shows that distinctive atmosphere, distinctive emotions, and distinctive flavors are forming a synergy. On one hand, content such as "atmospheric restaurants" and "Instagram - worthy food" is becoming increasingly popular on the platform. On the other hand, seemingly scattered preferences such as dining alone, a sense of street - food charm, and nostalgic flavors actually point to the same underlying need: finding an emotional anchor in the high - frequency daily activity of eating.

Take "dining alone" as an example. Against the backdrop of the continuously growing demand for this emotional experience, Longge provides a more methodological sample. In 2025, it successfully created four billion - level hit products such as pink mini - burgers, mini - yogurts, and mini - pizzas.

Its growth doesn't solely rely on cost - effectiveness. Instead, it has formed a content - driven hit - product mechanism around "listening to advice - launching new products - verification - expansion." By continuously monitoring comments, interactions, and imitation behaviors on the Douyin platform, it selects products with visual impact and topic - worthiness as traffic entry points. Then, it calibrates the product structure based on positive - review rates and repurchase data, forming an iterative rhythm of "monthly new product launches and quarterly hit products." In 2025, Longge used this mechanism to create multiple billion - level hit products and achieved simultaneous growth in traffic and sales through its account matrix and cooperation with influencers.

More importantly, it uses Douyin as both a tool for customer acquisition at the C - end and store expansion at the B - end. The hit - product content solves the problem of customer flow, and the founder's IP solves the problems of store location selection and franchise resources, resulting in an increase of approximately 300 new stores in a year.

Another example is Baiyu Korean Barbecue, which has turned a traditional Yanbian brand into a national chain, emphasizing the differential expression brought by ethnic flavors and visual recognition. Guoquan Food focuses on "the sense of ritual for staying at home" to reconstruct the choice of home scenarios. Although their paths are different, the underlying logic is the same: by means of spatial expression, content operation, and personalized expression, they shape the restaurant into an emotional field. Users can perceive the atmosphere in advance through short videos or live - streams and then complete the experience loop through in - store consumption.

In this structure, Douyin not only undertakes the function of product recommendation but also the functions of decision verification and transaction acceptance. The distance between content and transaction is shortened. This change in the model shifts the catering competition from a single - product dimension to a comprehensive ability of "scenario + content + experience."

Hospitality and tourism: From "seeing the scenery" to "becoming a part of the scenery"

The changes in the hospitality and tourism industry are more intuitive. Standardized itineraries and traditional accommodation models are giving way to participatory experiences. Consumers are no longer satisfied with standardized itineraries and accommodation. Instead, they hope to truly immerse themselves in an experience through participation, interaction, and immersion. Immersive performances, local cultures, folk activities, and sports events are becoming important factors driving travel decisions.

The center of the hospitality and tourism industry has shifted from "service delivery" to "emotional interaction."

The report mentions that the playback, search, and interaction of content related to "a sense of participation" have increased significantly. Users are starting to pay for "what I can experience in this trip" rather than just "what I can see." This change also makes hospitality and tourism consumption gradually extend from one - time services to emotional memories and repeated experiences.

The cases of Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park and Longemont also confirm this point.

The key transformation of Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park is to transform scarce resources into reusable content assets and turn a single visit into an emotional memory that can be repeatedly activated. Relying on rare animal resources such as orcas and beluga whales, the park personifies and stars the animals, constructing a content matrix of "official account + animal IP + animal keepers" to transform marine science popularization from static display to emotional interaction. The annual exposure of relevant topics reached 420 million, and a single orca video was exposed over 100 million times, driving offline visits and annual - card repurchases. The annual payment GMV increased by 15% year - on - year. More importantly, it focuses on rhythm