From 5000 to 400, the home beauty device market has changed
Author |Tin
Since April 1, the home beauty instrument market has really "changed".
According to the regulations of the State Food and Drug Administration, the RF beauty device has become a "Class III medical device". It means: from April 1, 2024, the supervision of radio frequency beauty devices will be upgraded from "small household appliances" to "Class III medical devices", and they shall not be produced, imported and sold without obtaining a medical device registration certificate in accordance with the law. In other words, radiofrequency beauty devices and pacemakers are a regulatory standard.
Before the deadline, in the "buffer period" when the mountain rain was about to come and the wind was full of buildings, some people sold and left, some people ran away, and some people waited and waited, fantasizing about the future of "selling more expensive after having a license".
After the official implementation of the new regulations, there is no trace of RF beauty devices on the major e-commerce platforms, and in the brand's official flagship store, OGP radio frequency, Miguang collagen cannon, Yameng ACE5/6, Huazhi Xiaozi bullet and other products have disappeared, and the customer service has also said that "it is not currently sold", "it has been taken off the shelves", and "the products on sale do not include radio frequency". In some less formal e-commerce platforms, micro-businesses and second-hand platforms, there are still people who are trying to sell with tears.
From the exploration period from 2014 to 2016, to the first year of the development of home beauty devices in 2017, and then to 2018 to 2023, home beauty devices have achieved a surge. After all, the market penetration rate of home beauty devices in Japan and the United States is 11% and 20%, while the market data in China in 2020 is only 4%, which has huge room for market development.
Hearing the wind, the capital piled up to enter the game, Meihua Venture Capital, Tencent Investment, Xiaomi Group, Shunwei Capital, IDG Capital, etc. are all betting on this track. According to incomplete statistics, from 2014 to 2023, there will be at least 28 financing events in the beauty instrument market. The head of Miguang, JOVS, Kesimei, Feimo, etc., have received several rounds of financing.
It is worth mentioning that Xiaomi Group has successively invested in inFace, Kesimei, and Oxyfen, and it is quite urgent to make money for girls.
Image source: Yiouwang
In the face of the hot user demand of "all girls", coupled with the east wind of live broadcast e-commerce, brands such as Miguang, Yameng, Zeus, Chupu, Huazhi, and JOVS have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. Even beauty brands owned by celebrities and Internet celebrities have also taken advantage of the situation to "open up", such as Fan Beauty, a beauty brand owned by Fan Bingbing, launched a UP-S beauty device, and MO AMOUR, founded by beauty blogger Mo Fan, also launched a co-branded beauty device with Chupu.
Image source: Xiaohongshu
Back then, in 2020, "Double 11", Chupu Beauty Instrument became famous by virtue of its GMV exceeding 100 million within 1 hour in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room. According to the "2023 China Cosmetics Yearbook" of Qingyan Information, the size of China's beauty instrument market in 2023 will be 18.37 billion yuan, an increase of 70% year-on-year. According to the sales statistics of Tmall and Taobao beauty instruments in the first nine months of 2023, Miguang directly sold 1.076 billion, accounting for 11.04% of the market. The second is Yameng, who sold more than 1 billion.
Source: Future Traces
That was the golden age of the beauty device market, and it was also the best period for the beauty device brand to rise. Mojing insight data shows that in 2023, the sales of beauty instruments on the Tmall + Taobao platform will reach 9.7427 billion yuan, and the sales volume will reach 20.456 million. Among them, RF beauty instrument, as a product with high unit price and high profit, has become the fist product of almost all beauty instrument brands to increase GMV.
According to the "2023 LED Beauty Device Industry Trend White Paper", among the top 10 brands of Tmall Taobao home beauty in 2023, the products are mainly concentrated in the two categories of radio frequency and LED, of which radio frequency beauty instrument products account for 88% and LED beauty instrument products account for 83%.
The anchors also open a special show of beauty instruments at every turn, and after a live broadcast, it is common to break 10 million or 100 million. In 2023, the 618 promotion, the live broadcast room of the Guangdong couple is in full swing, and directly created a live broadcast record of more than 150 million yuan in sales of Jimeng beauty instrument;
It seems that everything is thriving, and Zhiyan Consulting predicts that in 2026, the market size of China's home beauty instrument will exceed 20 billion.
From hurricane to frenzied throwing, all it takes is a new rule.
More than 5,000 dives are more than 500, more than 3,000 dump prices are directly more than 200, "cabbage price" and "diving price" are not enough to describe, it has to be called "jumping price". On the flagship store of a brand on Douyin, the radio frequency beauty instrument even fell directly to 18.3 yuan.
Image source: Douyin
Although it is said that the supervision is only a "ruthless hand" on the radio frequency beauty device, it does not kill all beauty device products with one shot.
From the perspective of technology and principle, home beauty instruments are mainly divided into five main categories: LED beauty instruments, import and export beauty instruments, microcurrent beauty instruments, laser beauty instruments, and radio frequency beauty instruments.
The working principle of the radiofrequency beauty device is that the radiofrequency energy penetrates the surface layer of the skin to realize the heating of the collagen fibers in the dermis and shrink them, so as to tighten the loose skin, so as to achieve the effect of wrinkle removal.
Yang Rongya, director of the Department of Dermatology of the Seventh Medical Center of the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, once said, "Radio frequency is penetrating, and the power and energy of radio frequency home beauty equipment are much lower than that of large medical equipment, and only through clinical trials can we confirm whether the product really has its claimed effect."
In this way, it is a matter of course to upgrade the RF beauty instrument from a "small household appliance" to a "Class III medical device" and implement stricter supervision.
Source: "2023 LED Beauty Device Industry Trend White Paper"
According to industry report statistics, 54% of RF products are priced at 1500-5000 yuan, and 13% are priced at more than 5000 yuan. For other products, the proportion of high-end prices in RF products is far ahead. When the regulator grasps the high-priced and high-profit RF beauty device, for the unqualified beauty device brand, it is equivalent to directly pinching seven inches. Whether you can save yourself or not depends on the situation.
In February, Shen Xun, chief product officer of Huazhi, said in an interview that the new regulations are implemented, and it is expected that the RF beauty device will not be sold for several months, which will affect about 40% of the company's revenue.
Under the "frenzied throwing", it directly triggered the "RF beauty instrument bottom-up boom". Someone picked up the leak, and some people scolded: Anyone's money is not blown by the wind, I bought it for seven or eight thousand, and now you throw three or five hundred, and you will be the one who is wronged.
Is the large amount of money spent at the beginning paying for crazy marketing? This is a question that many buyers have.
According to industry insiders, the cost of raw materials for many beauty devices actually only accounts for 10% of the total cost, and the research and development is only about 15%. Its high profits can be imagined. And how to get consumers to pay? Overwhelming marketing is indispensable. It has been reported that the commission given by radio frequency beauty equipment to the anchor is even as high as 60%!
On social platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Zhihu, and Bilibili, there are endless discussions on related issues such as "whether beauty devices are IQ taxes". But for real buyers, this question is almost skipped. After all, celebrity endorsements, crazy placements, live broadcasts, talent planting, IP cooperation, ...... These ubiquitous marketing have taken over the minds of users. Some media said that the rise of social media platforms has officially given domestic beauty device brands that already have a complete industrial chain a chance to really rise.
Taking the industry's leading brand Miguang as an example, short video grass planting and talent live broadcast are several powerful tools for it to quickly occupy the market.
According to the statistics of the Digital Science Society, in 2021, Miguang had 111 associated accounts on Douyin, 92 live Douyin accounts, and 22 video Douyin accounts, but in 2022, the total number of its associated accounts soared to 1225, and the number of live broadcast accounts and video Douyin accounts rose to 962 and 298 respectively. In 2022, "Double 11", it cooperated with 100 influencers on the Douyin platform alone, and the live broadcast of the influencers contributed 97% of the sales during the Douyin Double 11 period to Miguang, and the brand self-broadcast accounted for only 3%.
Xiaohongshu has also become a "must fight" for brands. At present, there are 510,000+ notes related to beauty instruments and 6,700+ products on Xiaohongshu, among which some products are implanted and exposed.
Source: Little Red Book
At the same time, there are also a large number of beautiful celebrities who have endorsed successively, such as Yu Feihong's endorsement of Yameng, Nazha's endorsement of Sike, Tong Yao's endorsement of Chupu, Gong Li's endorsement of Jin Mo, Zhou Dongyu's endorsement of Jimeng, and Zhou Ye's endorsement of Comper...... In addition to endorsements, there are also many actresses, Internet celebrities, and KOLs in brand cooperation promotion. When they hint to you in front of the camera that their beauty comes from a certain beauty device and that you deserve it, do you think this temptation is great?
From left to right: Yu Feihong, Nazha, Tong Yao Source: Xiaohongshu
Under the high-frequency, hard-working, and large-scale marketing offensive, the sales of major brands are rising. But what doesn't quite match it is the word of mouth from users. On the "Black Cat Complaints" platform, there are more than 3,500 complaints related to beauty devices, including skin burns, electricity leakage, poor contact, excessive heavy metals, and exaggerated effects, all of which are common complaints.
In the past, when some media evaluated the beauty devices on the market, the products that met the standards were not said to be "wiped out", but also said to be "there are few left". Big brands such as Miguang and Chupu have been pushed to the forefront of public opinion because of false propaganda and quality control problems, not to mention small and medium-sized brands in the industry.
Source: Black Cat Complaint
"Marketing is charming, affectionate and unbearable", behind the chaos is the lack of supervision. In 2018, the home beauty instrument ushered in the first tightening of supervision and was officially included in the regulatory category of small household appliances, and from April 1 this year, the household radio frequency beauty instrument was officially included in the third class of medical device management. What does the formal implementation of the strong regulatory policy mean?
1. The improvement of the industry access threshold and the increase in the cost of product listing. Some small and medium-sized brands that make money while they are hot do not have excellent technical strength and brand power, and it is difficult to make a profit from them, and it is inevitable to withdraw from this track.
2. The pursuit of product technology and quality has reached a new high. Under supervision, there is no diamond diamond, and it is difficult to do porcelain work, which puts forward new requirements for the majority of brands.
3. Contraction and stabilization of marketing. On the one hand, spending a lot of money on endorsements, live broadcasts, and grass planting to drive sales is not easy to run; on the other hand, if brands want to go long-term, investment in technology research and development will inevitably increase, and money has to be spent on the blade. It is foreseeable that in the future, the number of endorsements in the field of beauty devices will decline, and more cautious in the selection of spokespersons.
A new era is coming, and the time for reshuffle has arrived. Who will be on the table, who will have to get off the table, whether someone will lift the table?
Some people in the industry say that the number of RF beauty devices that can be legally used in the Chinese market will be greatly reduced.
After all, if you want to sell RF beauty devices, you have to be "licensed", and you need to conduct clinical trials to provide scientific evidence to prove safety and effectiveness. But how difficult is it to get this certificate?" "It usually takes 2~3 years for the brand, and the cost of investing tens of millions of yuan may not be able to come down." ”
At present, there are only 4 clinical trial projects related to radiofrequency therapy devices that have been filed with the Ministry of Science and Technology, namely Huazhi, Miguang, Yameng, and OGP Time Machine. And there is still a long way to go from filing to actually getting the certificate. A lot of money and time are not affordable for small and medium-sized brands.
Finding the next breakthrough point has become an urgent test for major brands.
Some brands have begun to promote new selling points and new products of non-RF categories: since last year, Yameng has launched two microcurrent beauty instruments and eye beauty instruments, Huazhi has launched LED large row lights and skin rejuvenation masks, and Chupu has launched gold carving knife beauty instruments and photon eye rejuvenation instruments. LED light and photons have become the new focus of many brands.
According to data from the Tmall New Product Innovation Center, from August 2022 to July 2023 alone, the growth rate of LED beauty devices in Tmall Taobao home beauty devices exceeded 1619%, and the growth rate of radio frequency beauty devices was only 55%, which shows the rapid response speed of some brand markets.
Some brands are ingenious: for example, the new G20e launched by Jin Mo, the core technology is high-frequency intermittent high pulse, and leather super-suction technology. Jimeng launched the second-generation collagen gun Max, the core technology is ultraphoton growth promotion technology, 5D induction microcurrent, it seems that it has nothing to do with radio frequency. It's just that these new products are almost exactly the same as the old ones, either new bottles of old wine are rubbed off the shelves, or their R&D personnel are comparable to the speed of light and developed overnight.
There are also some foreign brands such as Silk and Newwa, seeing that the mainland is not working, and they have begun to use their original market advantages in Hong Kong, Macao, Europe and the United States to sell RF beauty devices to markets outside the new regulations. Some domestic brands have begun to target a new target: the Japanese and South Korean markets.
Some people work hard to knock on qualifications, some people open up another subdivision track and put new products on the shelves, some people take risks to rub the edges, and some people transfer positions. And who can take the lead in getting through the "painful period" is the market response speed, explosive product breakdown and product quality & reputation.
As for who is likely to be the next stage leader? The market is the best "horse racing mechanism". We'll see.
Content References:
"The Big Track of Medical Aesthetics is Comprehensively Tightened|Insight Research"
"Who will fill the vacancy of the home RF beauty instrument?"
"The time for shuffling is coming, and the beauty instrument brand must change"
"20 billion beauty instrument market, how can domestic products complete the "big counterattack"?