Expanding domestic demand calls for a greater focus on differentiated products and services that better meet diverse consumer needs, said Li Dongsheng, a deputy to the National People's Congress, who noted that tapping the full potential of China's vast market depends on unlocking new forms of services consumption.

Li, who is also founder and chairman of Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer TCL Technology Group Corp, said China's consumer market still has considerable untapped potential despite a series of policies aimed at boosting domestic demand.

"China boasts a super-large market, but its consumption advantages have not been fully realized," Li said, adding that consumption should become a key engine of economic growth as the country moves through a stage of economic transformation and upgrading.

Official data showed that despite various policy measures to stimulate consumption in 2025, consumer sentiment and expectations remained relatively subdued. Retail sales of consumer goods grew 3.7 percent for the year, lower than the country's 5 percent GDP growth, indicating tepid consumption momentum.

Li illustrated the imbalance in China's consumer market with a comparison to the television industry. In 2025, TV sales in China, a market of 1.4 billion people, fell 8.5 percent to 32.895 million units. In contrast, the United States, with a population of 330 million, recorded TV sales of 49.9 million units over the same period.

He attributed the decline in hardware sales largely to the limitations of content services.

"Sales are low because TV programs are no longer attractive. If content supply becomes richer, domestic TV sales should have recorded a much better performance. Many people only turn on their TV a few times a year. This is not a hardware problem — the real issue is that service products are not attractive enough," Li said.

He also pointed to the broader gap in the audiovisual industry.

According to TCL's estimates, the annual output value of the US film and television sector is about 4.5 trillion yuan ($620 billion), while China's stands at roughly 1.5 trillion yuan, suggesting significant room for growth in better quality service-related AV content, he said.

Looking ahead, the NPC deputy believes stimulating domestic demand will require policies that better accommodate differentiated market needs.

While basic equality in public services such as education and healthcare is necessary to ensure fairness, Li said that the current development model — which focuses on equalizing basic access — may not fully meet people's increasingly diverse and higher-quality demands.

"To stimulate consumption, we must allow differentiated services on top of basic guarantees," Li said."Differentiation is an effective way to increase the overall scale of services consumption. As consumption levels vary across different markets and consumer groups, companies should provide products and services that meet these differentiated needs," he said.

Such an approach could both satisfy consumers seeking higher-quality services and inject new momentum into related industries, ultimately helping to unlock the potential of domestic demand, Li added.

lijiaying@chinadaily.com.cn