Offer good features at bargain prices, and the products will fly off the shelves! That was the stellar logic that governed both consumer psychology and manufacturing practices, but then Gen Z came along. Across entertainment, social platforms, and digital goods, young consumers are willing to pay for emotional value, and the CEO of Soul, Zhang Lu, is in a unique position to demonstrate how this works.
Soul is the digital home to millions of Chinese youngsters; as such, it is the perfect environment to understand how Gen Z spends money online. For earlier generations, consumption was driven by the need to solve functional problems and to a lesser extent by a sense of ownership. But, Soul Zhang Lu, realized early on that Zoomers were not too keen on following this rule book.
Gen Z’s Search for Belonging and Emotional Relief
These youngsters were more inclined to seek value by way of emotional relief, a sense of belonging, and identity affirmation. This notable shift in consumer dynamics is what led to the unique design of Soul, which emphasizes the exclusion of offline identity markers such as name, photographs, and professional information from platform profiles.
Soul Zhang Lu was also among the first few industry leaders to realize that social networking platforms built around emotional connection are no longer peripheral experiments. They can be meaningful businesses that translate emotional value into revenue at scale.
Emotional Consumption at Trillion-Dollar Scale
Today’s younger consumers often evaluate purchases based on how they feel in the moment and how those purchases fit into their emotional lives. Reports on emotional consumption suggest that global spending tied to emotional well-being, including digital social platforms, immersive entertainment, and related services, is approaching a scale measured in trillions of dollars. Within China alone, the emotional consumption market is poised to exceed $2 trillion by 2025.
While durability, efficiency, or long-term ownership no longer hold the sway they once did, it would be a mistake to assume that emotion-related purchases are solely driven by novelty. Survey data consistently show that emotional value is perceived as functional in its own way.
For instance, of the young respondents who participated in a joint research conducted by Soul and the Shanghai Youth Research Center, more than 90% acknowledged emotional value as important. Around 50% of the participants also admitted that for them, seeking emotional value is a way to alleviate stress and anxiety.
Given how strongly this cohort feels about emotional well-being, it came as no surprise that almost 60% of the Zoomers who participated in Soul Zhang Lu’s survey stated that they are happy to pay to get emotional value. These figures naturally beg the question, but how do digital platforms fit into this new consumer equation?
Why Digital Platforms Capture Emotional Demand?
Well, for starters, digital platforms are perfectly positioned to capture emotional consumption because they exclusively operate online, and that is where emotional needs are increasingly surfacing for youngsters. For Generation Z, digital interaction is not separate from real life; it is a core part of it.
Soul Zhang Lu has ensured that her platform and its features are structured around this reality. By relying on personalized avatars instead of real names and photographs and interest-based matching instead of offline connections, the app achieves its goal of reducing the social pressure that accompanies traditional social networks.
Moreover, by allowing users to interact based on shared emotional and cultural interests, the app sows the seeds of emotional fulfillment. This design choice and product strategy have offered measurable effects since the platform’s very inception.
Soul’s Engagement by the Numbers
For example, according to the figures released by Soul Zhang Lu’s team, as of the first eight months of 2025, the platform reported:
- Approximately 390 million cumulative registered users.
- About 11 million daily active users.
- Average daily usage of more than 50 minutes.
- Around 75 1-1 private messages exchanged per user per day.
Also, around 80% of the platform’s daily active users were found to belong to Generation Z. In a nutshell, what Soul Zhang Lu has is one of the most engaged products in its category.
Now, the design of the app undoubtedly contributes significantly to its popularity. But, when it comes to the earning capacity of the app, this is attributed to the innate ability of emotionally driven platforms for highlighting cultural and emotional demand in real time.
For instance, on Soul, trends tied to collectibles, digital identities, or symbolic cultural IPs often gain traction rapidly through user discussion and sharing. This helps to attract new users and retain existing members who are only too willing to pay for the platform’s various features and offerings.
In fact, these emotional value services, which include virtual goods and memberships, managed to rake in 90% of the platform’s revenue. And Soul’s average monthly revenues per paying user (ARPPU) reached RMB104.4, indicating strong willingness of users to pay for emotional value services.
The Rise of the Emotional Economy
So, it would be safe to conclude that emotional economy is no longer an abstract concept or a niche trend. If anything, Soul Zhang Lu has clearly illustrated that it is possible to convert emotional engagement supported by community design, virtual identity, and AI into consistent revenue.
