Written by Dr. Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, economic advisor to MasterCard
in Asia/Pacific, and published by John Wiley and Sons, the book The Glittering
Silver Market talks about how Asians are living longer and how rising income
in Asia will provide a more positive environment for healthy and active ageing.
The book explores how the growing elderly population is creating exciting opportunities
for businesses and shaping economies, with their significant spending power
and interest in acquiring new experiences and skills.
Looking at the immense potential of the elderly consumer from
the perspective of two broad market clusters – Affluent Asia/Pacific (Japan,
Australia, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore) and Emerging Asia (China,
India, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines), the book estimates how in the
next ten years, this segment of consumers will become a dynamic driver of the
consumer market throughout much of Asia.
This is especially in affluent Asia, where the impact of elderly
consumers is not just one of growing spending power; but also a catalyst for
business innovation, given that the needs of the elderly consumers are unique
and fast evolving.
Key highlights of the book include:
- The rapidly ageing population
in Asia and how the silver market of elderly consumers is set to glitter - According to estimates,
of all the people who have lived beyond the age of 60 in human history, about
two-thirds of them are alive today. - Rising income in Asia
will provide a more positive environment for healthy and active ageing. In
affluent Asia/Pacific (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia),
the total potential spending by elderly households is estimated to have been
$ 868.2 billion in 2005, and it is projected to rise to $1.5 trillion in 2015.
This implies an annual average growth rate of about 5.9 %. - The discretionary spending
of the elderly household in affluent Asia, as estimated in terms of the five
key expenditures items (Dining and entertainment, shopping, travel and leisure,
private healthcare and luxury medicine, auto/ PC /mobile phones etc) is estimated
at $ 269 billion in 2005 and it is expected to rise to close to $ 344 billion
in 2015 with an average annual growth rate of 2.5 percent. - Trends in the elderly
market - In the elderly segment,
women will outnumber men in most countries with the exception of India where
there were 102.3 men per 100 women in the 65 and above age group. This is
an important development especially from a consumer market perspective as
women tend to be more emotionally resilient and socially active and continue
to behave as consumers as compared to men. - Population ageing in
Asia will take place in conjunction with powerful trend- urbanization. It
has been estimated that in Asia, 90,000 people per day, everyday, will move
from a rural area to an urban area in the next decade. The underlying urbanization
trend in Asia will shape the growing elderly population into distinctive urban
market segments that can be effectively served by business – which in
turn will magnify the purchasing power of the elderly. - While in the past population
ageing was observed mostly in industrialized countries, most East Asian countries
are showing patterns of rapid ageing. China with its huge population has also
shown a shift to population ageing in the past two decades due to its one
child policy. - Early retirement of workers
under the age of 65 is accelerating the rise of the elderly support ratio
(how many retired people there are for every 100 working people in the population).
This is likely to raise a public policy challenge in the near future - In the next ten years
or so, more and more elderly will seek second careers after having ‘retired
‘from their first career.
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