Leading with Firsts

In 2020, the McDonald’s brand first entered the market of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Three years later, it opened the first “drive-thru” restaurant in the region, allowing customers to order, pay and pick up their meals without leaving their cars. Since its entry, McDonald’s has rapidly expanded in the region, opening 28 new restaurants and six dessert kiosks in different cities.

At the flagship store of POP MART, a market-leading character-based entertainment company, in Urumqi’s CCMALL Times Square, large crowds of consumers flock in every day. Whenever the company launches a new series, it also organizes related exhibitions, interactive events and signing sessions to enhance consumer engagement and overall experience.

These new stores are typical examples of what is driving Xinjiang’s rapidly growing debut economy. The concept of “firsts” has become a new benchmark for both brand and city competitiveness. The debut economy refers to a comprehensive economic phenomenon formed through enterprises releasing new products, introducing new business models, services or technologies, and opening their first stores in a new market.

In 2024, both the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee, which adopted wide-ranging reform tasks to be completed in the next five years, and the Central Economic Work Conference, which set the tone for the Chinese economy in 2025, underscored the importance of the debut economy, signaling the national priority placed on using debut economy activities as a catalyst for economic expansion.

This year’s government work report of Xinjiang, delivered at the annual session of the regional people’s congress, the local legislature, in January also highlighted the importance of actively developing the debut economy, the silver economy driven by an aging population and the platform economy encompassing economic activities that occur on digital platforms, aiming to make effective demand a key driver of economic growth.

“Although the debut economy primarily consists of commercial activities by business entities, its impact extends well beyond individual businesses,” Deng Zhou, a research fellow at the Institute of Industrial Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinjiang Today. “It has had a profound impact on technological advancements, brand development, consumer growth, regional economic vitality and the enhancement of commercial competitiveness.”

Boosting consumer potential

From first stores to debut shows, from initial exhibitions to premiere performances, the debut economy is unlocking a new wave of consumer momentum in Xinjiang. In recent years, the autonomous region has become a key hub for many enterprises’ debut economy strategies, thanks to its unique geographic location and market potential.

In 2022, Tesla opened its first showroom in the regional capital of Urumqi. In just over two years, the U.S. electric vehicle maker added two more sales outlets in the city, continuously improving its sales and services network. As of late 2024, Tesla’s sales revenue in Xinjiang had increased by more than 300 percent, according to a March 10 report on newspaper Xinjiang Daily’s website.

Today, there is a Tesla Supercharger station approximately every 180 km across Xinjiang, and within Urumqi’s urban area, drivers can reach one within a 10-minute drive. These facilities offer rapid charging of up to 250 km in just 15 minutes. The brand’s efforts have not only accelerated the development of the new-energy vehicle (NEV) market but also injected new vitality into green mobility in Xinjiang.

NEVs are vehicles completely or mainly driven by new energy sources, including battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles and fuel-cell vehicles.

According to official data, in 2024, Xinjiang received 302 million domestic and international tourist visits, generating tourism revenue of 359.5 billion yuan ($49.1 billion)–an increase of 14 percent and 21 percent year on year, respectively. Driven by the tourism boom, Xinjiang is gradually emerging as a new blue ocean for accommodation and restaurant brand expansion.

For example, the first store of Haidilao, a Chinese hot pot chain known for its customer service, in Xinjiang began trial operations in Urumqi last September. Hot pot is a very popular dining style where diners cook their own ingredients in a boiling soup placed in the middle of the table.

Store manager Peng Dongdong told Beijing Business Today on September 29, 2024 that the news of Haidilao’s arrival in Xinjiang attracted strong interest from local consumers. Within just one week before the trial opening, over 3,000 people had already joined and actively engaged in the store’s private online groups on Weixin, a widely used Chinese super app.

To better serve local customers, more than one fourth of the store’s 100-plus staff members are from local ethnic groups, allowing for a deeper understanding of regional preferences, Peng said. The sauces available and menu offerings will also be continuously updated based on customer feedback.

Since 2023, Urumqi has welcomed over 200 first stores from well-known and popular brands, the report read. The debut economy has become a new driver of the city’s economic growth, with the concept of “firsts” emerging as a new lever for boosting consumer spending.

According to the Xinjiang Department of Commerce, this year the region will leverage its unique geographic advantages and seize the opportunity presented by the development of the China (Xinjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone to cultivate Urumqi, Kashi (Kashgar) and Yining cities as the first regional consumption centers in the autonomous region.

While playing a leading and driving role, these cities are also actively upgrading major commercial districts and complexes, enriching consumption formats and promoting the vigorous development of new business models such as “first stores” and “launches of new products and services.”

Challenge and support

“The essence of the debut economy lies in the competition for consumer attention,” Wang Yong, Director of the Digital Economy Research Center at Tsinghua University in Beijing, told news portal Zhonghongwang.com.

He identified two major challenges in developing the debut economy. The first is that consumer attention has largely shifted online, leaving many brick-and-mortar retailing outlets with low foot traffic. Redirecting online attention to physical stores is a difficult undertaking. The second challenge is how to translate the spending spree triggered by debut events and first stores into sustainable business growth. He said local governments can leverage public platforms and underutilized public resources, including large cultural and sports centers or exhibition halls, to reduce the costs for individual stores or businesses to engage in debut economy activities.

In response to these challenges, the Xinjiang Department of Commerce launched a public consultation last December on the guidelines for encouraging the development of the debut economy in the China (Xinjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

According to the draft document released for public feedback, commercial block operators within the pilot zone will be supported through preferential policies such as rent reductions or exemptions, as well as subsidies for utilities—including water, electricity and gas—to actively attract and foster distinctive small businesses. The document also outlines incentives for commercial facility operators and block management institutions that successfully introduce the first stores of internationally or domestically renowned brands into Xinjiang, provided they sign an entry agreement valid for two years or more.

In addition, the approval procedures for brand first-store entries, new store openings and product launch events—including planning and construction, site selection and business registration—will be streamlined to enhance efficiency, the document reads.