From the surprise unboxing of blind box lucky money to the explosive popularity of limited edition dolls for the Year of the Horse; From the immersive experience of "modern light and shadow+millennium mural" lantern festival, to the warm interaction of AI accompanying robots... During this year's Spring Festival holiday, "emotional New Year goods" are popular, and "spiritual fast charging" emotional consumption has deeply integrated into people's lives. According to a recent insight report on the consumption trend of China's emotional economy released by iMedia Consulting, the market size of China's emotional economy is expected to reach 2.7 trillion yuan by 2025, and is expected to exceed 4.5 trillion yuan by 2029. The emotional economy is becoming a new engine driving the upgrading of the Chinese consumer market. The blue ocean of consumption behind 'Xiao Que Xing' is Li Rui's zodiac year this year. During the Spring Festival, she made a special trip to the Art and Life Hall of Gansu Provincial Museum to select cultural and creative products. The cultural and creative peripheral based on the bronze galloping horse is a popular new type of Lanzhou specialty among young people, "she said. Li Rui has put various "horse" themed cultural and creative items in his shopping basket, including limited edition plush toys for the Year of the Horse and Western style plush toys, ready to give them to his college classmates. In the Lunar Year of the Horse, we have launched over 20 'Full Power' series of cultural and creative products, some of which were sold out before the holiday. ”Cui Youxin, the person in charge of the Cultural and Creative Center of Gansu Provincial Museum, said that during this year's Spring Festival, the museum sold nearly 30000 cultural and creative products, with a cumulative sales revenue of 1.2 million yuan. The popularity of trendy cultural and creative games, from "La Bu Bu" to "Ma Biao Biao", is a clear footnote to the rise of the emotional economy. More than half of the "Top 10 Products of 2025" announced by Taobao platform are related to emotional value needs. Professor Wang Rik from the School of Economics and Management at Lanzhou University of Technology said that emotional economy is an emerging economic form that focuses on the creation and circulation of emotional value, and helps consumers achieve emotional repair and economic value through symbolized goods and emotional value oriented services. In emotionally driven consumer behavior, experience is an important part of consumption, and often payment is the beginning of consumption, "said Wang Rik. The deep integration of "emotion+" and multiple industries has given rise to a consumer ecosystem that covers different groups and scenarios. At the Dunhuang night market, musicians dressed in antique costumes and merchants holding treasure plates shuttle through the sea of lanterns. Through dance performances and interactive scenes, visitors feel as if they have traveled thousands of years and encountered the bustling night scenery of Dunhuang during the prosperous Tang Dynasty; At the Art Life Hall of Gansu Provincial Museum, consumers receive a "document" stamped with the museum's commemorative seal and receive a limited edition New Year's greeting; At a decompression interactive museum in Shanghai, young people wearing protective clothing pick up paint and freely spray it on the canvas, turning pressure into art. AI empowerment is constantly expanding new scenarios for emotional consumption. This Spring Festival, 62 year old Lanzhou citizen Cheng Jianhong made a new "friend" - an AI companion robot. Cheng Jianhong said, "I can pay New Year's greetings, chat with you, answer any questions, and be on call at any time. According to the "White Paper on New Consumer Potential in 2025" released by Magic Mirror Insight, the online market for AI toys has experienced explosive growth, with cumulative sales of 740 million yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 427.4%; Sales reached 1.604 million units, a year-on-year increase of 864.2%. AI products such as "AI Psychological Companion" and "AI Emotional Counseling" are gradually becoming popular, meeting the diverse emotional needs of consumers. Why is it that the more you buy, the more you become interested in paying for your mood? The 2025 Generation Z Emotional Consumption Report shows that 56.3% of young consumers consider "interest and emotional satisfaction" as important consumption drivers, an increase of 16.2% from the previous year. Young people are the main force of emotional consumption, and functionality and price are no longer the decisive factors in their consumption behavior, "said Cui Youxin. With the development of the economy and society and the continuous upgrading of consumption levels, the starting point of young people's consumption has shifted from meeting basic living needs to realizing emotional values and self satisfaction. ”Wang Rik said that they are more willing to pay for their emotions and thoughts. Why does the meaning of consumption shift from "filling life" to "settling oneself"? In the view of Mao Jinhuang, a professor at the School of Economics of Lanzhou University, young people achieve emotional expression and emotional value healing through market exchange, and emotions become a computable and generatable "commodity" to some extent. The amplification and catalytic function of the Internet provides a field for the commercialization of emotions. The emotional expressions of users in the digital space are collected and recognized, and abstract emotions evolve into perceptible, communicable, and purchasable data resources through algorithms. Merchants and developers are driving the transformation of intangible needs into tangible products, and emotional improvement products with functions such as companionship, stress relief, and relaxation have emerged. The market is precisely matching the segmented demand for emotional consumption. Yu Junqiang, General Manager of Junqiang E-commerce Co., Ltd. in Minxian County, Gansu Province, believes that the live streaming room for e-commerce has gradually transformed from a simple commodity sales platform into an online space for emotional communication and exchange. Anchors should no longer display products unilaterally, but give emotional value to products in order to better achieve product sales, "he said. Content seeding and social sharing further strengthen emotional communication. Recently, there has been a trend of "sharing bad things" on social media platforms. Unlike traditional "sharing of good things", bloggers use a complex emotion of "love hate" to share their "overturned" consumption experiences, which actually fills consumers' demand for real experiences. "This abstract Internet narrative is not only the release of emotions, but also the re dissemination of emotions. ”Mao Jinhuang said. From "cost-effectiveness" to "price to price ratio", the emotional economy is reshaping the market pattern. As consumption shifts from "cost-effectiveness" to "price to price ratio" and "understanding me" becomes a compelling reason for purchase, the emotional economy is quietly reshaping the logic of the Chinese consumer market. How to seize the opportunity in this consumption revolution driven by the "heart" in the current era where emotional economy has become a new consumption trend? Industry insiders believe that the emotional economy has the potential to break through traditional industry boundaries. It can not only accurately match consumers' personalized and diverse emotional needs, but also stimulate new formats and industries through the development of "emotional+", and activate market consumption potential. In January of this year, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Work Plan for Accelerating the Cultivation of New Growth Points in Service Consumption", which clearly stated that relying on platform carriers such as new consumption formats, new models, and new scenarios, support the construction of several emotional and experiential service consumption new scenarios with strong consumption driving effects. Wang Jingwei, General Manager of Shazhou Night Market Scenic Area Operation and Management Co., Ltd. of Dunhuang Culture and Tourism Group, said that in terms of the cultural and tourism industry, the embedded driving ability of emotional consumption is enormous. If we can create strong experiential and interactive consumption scenes, we can achieve the "emotional+" transformation of the cultural and tourism industry, allowing tourists to obtain emotional value and meet emotional needs during their travels. Cui Youxin said that currently, product development in the emotional economy market should more accurately respond to users' emotional needs, evoke emotional resonance, and make products become "emotional carriers". The reporter found that with the diversified development of emotional consumption, problems such as excessive promotion of emotional value, false marketing, and malicious competition have also emerged. Some businesses, under the guise of emotional healing, sell products such as "thousand yuan crystals" and "ten thousand yuan transit bracelets" to make huge profits; Some cultural and creative industries that spend small money to buy happiness also face the dilemma of serious product homogenization and frequent copyright infringement. Experts suggest that measures such as improving pricing mechanisms and guiding consumers to establish rational consumption concepts can promote the healthy and orderly development of the emotional economy. (New Society)