Rise of 'granfluencers' boosts confidence, silver economy

A recent report by the China Association of Social Welfare and Senior Service and the Institute of Contemporary Social Service shows that China's market size of the silver economy has reached 7 trillion yuan ($984 billion) to date, which is roughly 6 percent of the GDP. The silver economy market size is estimated to reach 30 trillion yuan in 2035, about 10 percent of the nation's GDP.

However, the elderly still face challenges in their endeavor to adapt to the digital and internet era, which requires efforts from both the government and platforms on elderly-oriented modifications and improvement of the elderly's digital literacy.

"The screen of the smartphone is too small, and I can't see the words on the screen very clearly. My son taught me how to record short videos but I always forget to save the materials. It's not easy for us elderly to adapt to these changing electronic products," said Wang Limei, 65, in Beijing, who developed an interest in short videos last year.

"Many of my peers said they've started their own Douyin accounts, but they also have problems with editing and uploading their videos and replying to comments from the audience as the video-making procedures are hard to remember," she said. "My son has written each step on how to make and upload a short video, and I have to check the note every time I open the phone camera. I thought it would be very interesting to record a short video, but it now seems like a burden to me."