Inside one of these mini KTVs that can accommodate two people in a pinch, Duan Haoran, a 28-year-old overseas-studies consultant, is jiving and singing heartily. Wearing a headset, he moves his head and feet to the beat, so absorbed that he forgets he is actually at the mall to meet his girlfriend.

At mini KTVs, you can choose a music video which will be played on the screen, you can even record your personal album and share it on social media. These kiosks offer a flexible payment scheme. You can pay for the number of songs you listen to or the time you spend, and it becomes an artistic refuge for people who have bits of time to kill.

A frequent visitor, Duan loves the magic black booths for two reasons. "When I go to an actual KTV with my friends, I can't enjoy myself fully," he told Beijing Review. "I am a songaholic and I have to share the microphone with friends. But in the mini KTV, I can sing as much as I want. Also, it gives me something to do while waiting for my girlfriend, who is always late."

Like Duan, today's young Chinese have no patience for waiting, even for short spans, doing nothing. They need some consumer activity to keep them occupied and shrewd investors are joyfully tapping into this pristine market with potential.

Key catalyst

Duan's girlfriend Lu Ran, a 26-year-old yoga instructor, said waiting has become part of their dating. "If we go to a popular restaurant during rush hour, sometimes we have to wait for one or two hours before we get a table," she said. "We also have to wait when we arrive early for a movie or when one of us is late."

Unlike Duan with his karaoke craze, Lu prefers the claw crane, an arcade game where players have to feed coins into the machine and manipulate a claw-like arm to catch the plush toys packed inside, and the lipstick machine, where the winners get to take home big brand lipsticks.

"Now the claw crane machines are everywhere, not just in arcades, which means you can play them more. Besides, QR code payment has replaced the traditional coins needed to play, making it so much more convenient," Lu told Beijing Review.

Industry insiders say mobile payment is the most important catalyst for the rise of the waiting economy. "If the QR code payment was not available, my interest would drop since buying game coins or changing money would mean a new round of waiting," Duan said.

Mobile payment also helps to cut labor and management costs, enhancing the profit.

While the mobile payment method is a common factor, the waiting economy has different consumption scenarios as the merchants think wherever there is a possibility of someone waiting, there is fertile ground for the waiting economy. Apart from malls, their businesses are also distributed in movie theaters, subway stations, airports, railway stations and office buildings.

The services vary from massage armchairs to self-service health exam machines, personal office areas, juice-making machines and sleep capsules, a tiny bedroom-like cubicle in airports where people pay to nap with wake-up calls thrown in.

"I've tried almost all those services and machines since they don't cost much," Lu said. For example, it takes 15 yuan ($2.1) and less than five minutes to have a fresh orange squeezed into a cup; a 10-minute armchair massage charges 12-15 yuan ($1.7-2.1); and it costs 60 yuan ($8.5) to sing in a mini KTV for half an hour.

The purchasing power of the Chinese is growing. Per-capita disposable income stood at 15,294 yuan ($2,227) in the first half of 2019, up 8.8 percent year on year in nominal terms, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The young generation is the main force of this consumption since they earn more than their parents did at their age.

They also have an advanced consumption philosophy. Besides basic needs, they are willing to splurge on entertainment and experience, and their upgraded consumption demands have accelerated the development of the waiting economy.

"The waiting economy also owes its existence to the increase in waiting time," Duan said, explaining that exuberant consuming is causing people to wait more. When there are more consumers, the supply of services can't always keep pace, which leads to lining up and waiting, whether at a restaurant, theater or somewhere else.

Handsome profits

Waiting economy products such as massage armchairs and mini KTVs are low-cost and require little follow-up investment. Consequently, they are a favorite with investors.

Take Youchang M-Bar, one of the mini KTV brands, for example, the price of one booth ranges from 16,000-28,000 yuan ($2,266-3,966) and the rental is 900-2,000 yuan ($128-283) per month. There is also a service fee, management fee and maintenance cost but even after all that, each booth is supposed to bring in 400 yuan ($57) daily on average, and the initial investment can be recouped in three to six months.

There are more than 10,000 such booths scattered around cities in China that are earning money for their investors.

In addition, the number of claw crane machines hit 2 million by the end of 2017 and the annual revenue each generated was 30,000 yuan ($4,250), with the market scale reaching 60 billion yuan ($8.5 billion), according to IDG Capital, a leading investment firm. The number of these machines has been increasing by 300,000 to 400,000 per year.

"These companies capitalize on people's piecemeal time, making people consume without time and space limits. It forms a new way of culture and entertainment consumption," Wei Pengju, Dean of the School of Culture and Communication, Central University of Finance and Economics, told China Central Television.

The still pristine market contains huge potential for investors and more capital is expected to pour in to take a share of the spoils. But challenges also exist as the existing items have a low threshold and can be easily copied and replaced. This taxes investors' ability to provide a better experience and match consumers' individual and diversified needs.

"Investors should focus on technical research and development and integrate waiting services with new technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality," Wei said.

Currently, the profit model is simple: direct payments from consumers, he said. But in the future, they can combine their products with advertisement, brand promotion and activities to direct online users to offline channels to increase consumption.

"Young people are curious about new products and services and would like to have a taste of what is in season, but they are also fastidious with an increasingly more sophisticated taste and broadened horizon," Duan said. "I am expecting new ideas for products and services that can wow me."

Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar

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