Does anyone know the Institute of Muscle Secret Biotechnology?

Text | kaiboluocaijing, author | Wu Jiaoying, editor | Jin Kun

Hyaluronic acid, a strong wind, unconsciously blew into the pet market and extended to another purse of young people.

During the recent 8th Beijing Pet Exhibition, Haibaoshi, a pet brand owned by Huaxi Bio, and MU'GGULES, a pet food brand, launched two kinds of hyaluronic acid cat food, which once again refreshed the public's awareness of hyaluronic acid.

From hyaluronic acid filler and water needle, to hyaluronic acid secondary solution, 5D spray, and now to hyaluronic acid drinking water, hyaluronic acid soft candy and hyaluronic acid pet food ... This substance, which once supported half of the medical and beauty industry, has been successfully introduced into the domestic functional skin care market by industry giant Huaxi Bio, and now it has started a new round of "enclosure".

The White Paper on the Application Scenarios of Hyaluronic Acid in 2020 released by iResearch predicts that the market size of medical-grade hyaluronic acid terminal products in China will be 654.38+026 billion yuan in 2024, the market size of daily-use product-grade hyaluronic acid terminal products will be 92 billion yuan, and the global market size of food-grade hyaluronic acid terminal products will reach 3.2 billion yuan.

Behind "everything can be hyaluronic acid", the To C circuit of Huaxi Bio, which created the "myth" of domestic hyaluronic acid, has just taken off.

Huaxi Bio's 2020 annual report shows that thanks to the vigorous development of end products, the company's revenue last year was 2.633 billion yuan, up 39.63% year-on-year, and its comprehensive gross profit margin was 865,438+0.465,438+0%. Operating profit was 757 million yuan, up 8.2 1% year-on-year.

Hyaluronic acid is really a good business to make money. However, for Huaxi creatures trying to seize the terminal market of hyaluronic acid food, the most important thing to face is whether oral hyaluronic acid belongs to IQ tax. Most people believe that there is no reliable evidence for the effectiveness of oral hyaluronic acid at present, and the related products on the market can basically be defined as "IQ tax", which is suspected of illegal propaganda.

On the one hand, it is the prospect of nearly 100 billion market scale, and on the other hand, it is the negative public opinion that pokes the consumption thunder point. Under the profiteering and controversy, can Huaxi Bio continue to tell the story of hyaluronic acid?

"Anything can be hyaluronic acid", with Huaxi creatures standing behind it.

Han Xiao is an avid hyaluronic acid lover. Since the first injection of hyaluronic acid filler on 20 15, she has injected her nose and chin five times. "The effect is good, but hyaluronic acid will be metabolized and needs to be supplemented regularly."

But in her cognition, hyaluronic acid is only a proper term in the field of medical beauty and skin care. When she saw that hyaluronic acid began to enter the rations of cats and dogs, her first reaction was "unreliable".

"Small animals are not as strong as people. Without knowing the uncertainty, I will not easily let my pet try something particularly new unless the product is mature and has a good reputation. "

What Han Xiao saw was hyaluronic acid cat food, which caused a sensation in Yingjing pet exhibition not long ago. It was produced by Huaxi Bio and Muggles. During the exhibition, the person in charge of the relevant project said at the press conference that adding hyaluronic acid to pet food can reduce the incidence of bone and joint diseases in pets, increase the moisture content in pet skin and hair and protect the gastrointestinal tract.

According to media reports, a bag of 320g full-price cat food for middle-aged and elderly people was sold in 56 yuan. The composition table shows that the content of hyaluronic acid added per kilogram of cat food is 1000mg, that is, 0.32g g.

According to the average selling price of food-grade hyaluronic acid disclosed in Huaxi Bio's prospectus at the end of 20 1258.36, the cost of hyaluronic acid in this bag of cat food is only about 0.4 yuan. However, it is this hyaluronic acid with a value of about 0.4 yuan that can make the unit price of a pack of cat food rise to 175 yuan/kg higher than the industry average.

Source of average selling price of Huaxi biological raw material products/Huaxi biological prospectus

In addition to pet food, the brand launch also highlighted hyaluronic acid bath care, eye care gel, ear care gel, disposable mousse and other products for pets. Pineapple Finance found that these pet hyaluronic acid products have been sold in the official flagship store of Haibaoshi Tmall.

Before selling hyaluronic acid to the pet market, merchants took the lead in targeting more and more "healthy" young people.

In June 5438+10, Huaxi Bio announced the launch of the first hyaluronic acid food brand "Black Zero" in China, including six major products such as hyaluronic acid chewable tablets, soft sweets and beverages. Then, another hyaluronic acid company, Focus Bio, launched the oral hyaluronic acid brand "Boxiaosuan", which is known as "a drinking' water needle'" and was sold online on Tmall, JD.COM and other platforms.

Major catering brands are not to be outdone. WonderLab, a brand of nutritional meal replacement food, listed the first oral hyaluronic acid soft candy, and Hankou No.2 Factory, a soda brand, launched the hyaluronic acid bubble water "Hashui", both of which were provided by Huaxi Bio.

Until March 22nd, after launching the "Water Muscle Spring" of hyaluronic acid drinking water with a price of 7.65 yuan per bottle, Huaxi Bio, the enterprise behind most new hyaluronic acid foods on the market, was pushed to the cusp of public opinion because of the controversy over whether oral hyaluronic acid was consumption upgrade or IQ tax.

In fact, as early as 20 19, as the world's largest supplier of hyaluronic acid, the sales of raw materials of biological food-grade hyaluronic acid in Huaxi reached 58.68 tons, accounting for 25.5 1% of the global market. However, because hyaluronic acid was only used as a raw material for health food in China before, it was not allowed to be added to ordinary food, so it was mainly exported as a food-grade raw material.

Nowadays, the emergence of a series of hyaluronic acid foods stems from the announcement of "three new foods" issued by National Health Commission at the beginning of this year-sodium hyaluronate has been officially approved as a new food raw material, which can be added to drinks, candy, chocolate and dairy products.

Hyaluronic acid is allowed to "eat" in China. In addition, due to the epidemic, international customers' purchases of hyaluronic acid raw materials decreased, resulting in a decline in raw material income. Huaxi Biology is bound to eat this cake in the domestic hyaluronic acid food market.

Before vigorously developing the food terminal business, Huaxi Bio has shelved its biggest competitors Aimeike and Haohaishengke in the field of functional skin care, which shows its ambition to enter the hyaluronic acid To C track.

At present, Huaxi Bio has launched four functional skin care brands, namely "Run Bai Yan" with hyaluronic acid as the main component, "Kwadi" with anti-aging, "Mirbel" for sensitive muscles and "BM Muscle Activity" for oily skin, and has created products such as hyaluronic acid stock solution, 5D hyaluronic acid spray, and hyaluronic acid lipstick jointly signed by the Forbidden City.

In the field of medical beauty, Huaxi Bio also has the first "Runbaiyan" biphasic cross-linked hyaluronic acid filler approved by CFDA, and then launched Runzhi "doll needle" and other main anti-wrinkle products.

Chen Momo, vice president of Yuan Jing Capital, said that it was "not surprising" that Huaxi Bio tried to expand hyaluronic acid from relatively mature fields such as medicine and daily chemicals to food and pets.

"The IP of this industry is hyaluronic acid itself. Even other products and brands in the application layer often need the flow of Huaxi Bio, emphasizing that raw materials come from Huaxi or are jointly launched with Huaxi. For Huaxi Bio, since the core selling point of the product is hyaluronic acid, which you are most familiar with, and it has a cognitive foundation with C-end, it is logical to make products. " Chen silently explained.

The marketing road of hyaluronic acid giant

From the To B end to the To C end, this leading hyaluronic acid enterprise has made great efforts in marketing.

Last year, when the epidemic caused international customers to reduce the procurement of raw materials and offline medical and beauty institutions could not operate normally, it was the functional skin care business that held up half the sky of Huaxi Bio's main business income.

Huaxi Bio's 2020 annual report shows that its functional skin care business segment revenue reached 65.438+34.6 billion yuan, up 654.38+065.438+02. 19% year-on-year, accounting for 565.438+0. 15% of the company's main business revenue, with a gross profit margin as high as 865.

However, almost half of the money earned by Huaxi Bio from selling skin care products last year was spent on marketing.

According to the annual report, in 2020, the biological sales expenses of Huaxi reached 1.99 billion yuan, an increase of1.84% compared with 52 1 billion yuan in 20 19. Among them, the advertising cost is 65.438+0.25 billion yuan, and the network promotion service cost is 493 million yuan, totaling 66.5438+0.8 billion yuan, accounting for about 56% of the sales expenses.

From the overwhelming "planting grass" in Weibo, Tik Tok and Xiaohongshu to the spare efforts in Li Jiaqi and Weiya live broadcast rooms, we can probably see where all the money of Huaxi Bio is spent.

The popularity of Huaxi's biological functional skin care products, in addition to the capital investment in beauty and skin care KOL, also benefited from the rise of the "component party" and the wind of domestic products.

Evaluation of hyaluronic acid skin care products of various Huaxi creatures in Xiaohongshu

20 18 China Fashion Beauty Hotspot Trend Report shows that with the popularization of beauty knowledge and the rationalization of consumption, chemical components that were originally difficult to understand have become hot words on social platforms. From 20 17 to 20 18, hyaluronic acid has always been at the top of the high-frequency words mentioned by "component party". Searching for "hyaluronic acid+Huaxi biology" in Xiaohongshu has more than 10000 comments.

"There are so many skin care products on the market now that it is hard to say whether those bloggers really recommend or publicize them. In contrast, the' ingredient party' that seriously explains the efficacy of ingredients or bloggers with their own skin defects and functional skin care needs can convince me more. " Cece of sensitive muscles said.

Different from the general product recommendation, when planting grass, the "ingredient party" will generally explain the core skin care ingredients and their efficacy, or compare the efficacy of different products by using various product evaluation methods, which is easier to enhance user stickiness. In Weibo, Bili Bili, Xiaohongshu and other platforms, you can often see the evaluation of various popular hyaluronic acid products released by bloggers.

Pineapple Finance has noticed that when KOL people promote products such as Runbaiyan, Kwadi and Mirbel, besides emphasizing the efficacy of ingredients, they often label them as "Huaxi Bio" and "Domestic Products", and use such names as "Technology Flows New Domestic Products", "Light of Domestic Products" and "Skin Care Black Technology" as gimmicks.

A blogger mentioned when recommending Mi Belle's second-throwing essence, "Huaxi creatures backed by it, whether smeared or injected, have the technology to get it, which has always been the pride of China."

When the blogger recommended Runbaiyan's moisturizing liquid, he said, "Huaxi Bio must be the most vocal leader in this field and even in the world. After all, it is the world's largest supplier of hyaluronic acid raw materials in the field of medical beauty, and holds many hyaluronic acid patents. "

In order to highlight the "hard core" skin care ingredients, bloggers even deliberately emphasize the inconspicuousness of the name and packaging to create contrast. "In the past two days, I received a trial of the brand products of Huaxi Bio. Everything is good, the formula is clear, there are many patents, and many experiments have been done ... but the name of this brand is so authentic that I haven't decided whether to send it or not. " A beauty blogger wrote on Weibo.

Another strategy of Huaxi Bio, a "big marketer", is to bind four core brands, Quadi, Mirbel, Runbaiyan and BM, with Li Jiaqi and Weiya respectively. Last year alone, these four brands brought revenue of 654.38+268 million yuan to Huaxi Bio, of which Tmall channel sales accounted for 57%, 49%, 58% and 77% respectively.

Li Jiaqi strongly recommended Quadi's hyaluronic acid secondary solution in the live broadcast room.

Li Jiaqi once mentioned in the live broadcast that Quadi became the brand of 10 before the annual sales of its live broadcast room in less than a year. The sales transformation and brand effect brought by super anchor can be seen.

When the brand effect of Huaxi Bio is achieved and the user's stickiness is enhanced, the B-end business of medical beauty, which also belongs to the "face value economy", can also be fed back.

A person in the medical and beauty industry introduced to Pineapple Finance that this brand IP with its own traffic is now very popular among beauty institutions and hospitals, because the brand has paved the way for consumers in advance and diverted loyal customers from online to offline, which can save the operation and service costs of offline medical and beauty institutions. "For example, some consumers who have used Run Baiyan to apply hyaluronic acid products may trust this brand of medical-grade hyaluronic acid more when doing medical beauty. There is no need to introduce it more."

1 cent is it beautiful to drink hyaluronic acid?

However, now in the field of food, can the story of Huaxi biological hyaluronic acid be told well?

Since hyaluronic acid food flooded into the market in large quantities, many bloggers began to "plant grass" for gaudy things such as hyaluronic acid drinking water and soft candy through new product experience and visiting research bases on platforms such as Weibo, Tik Tok and Xiaohongshu. There are more than 7,000 comments on the search for "Shuijiquan" in Xiaohongshu, and bloggers have developed various uses of this hyaluronic acid drinking water, such as making fruit drinks and soaking in freeze-dried masks.

At the same time, a new type of hyaluronic acid food, represented by "Shuijiquan" hyaluronic acid drinking water, has also triggered a lot of debates about "consumption upgrading or IQ tax".

The first thing criticized is the high profit of food-grade hyaluronic acid and its oral effect.

In the flagship store of "Water-based Spring" Tmall, the activity price of 6 bottles of 420ml hyaluronic acid drinking water is 46.8 yuan, with an average of 7.8 yuan per bottle. The leaflet shows that each bottle contains 83mg of food-grade Huaxi hyaluronic acid. According to the average selling price of food-grade hyaluronic acid in West China published in 20 18, the cost of hyaluronic acid per bottle of "water-based spring" drinking water is only about 0. 1 yuan.

Huaxi Bio "Water-based Spring" Drinking Water Tmall Commodity Page

But can hyaluronic acid worth 0. 1 yuan really make people "drink water beautifully" as advertised?

In this regard, Zhao Yan, chairman of Huaxi Bio, once said at the performance briefing: "Oral food containing hyaluronic acid can effectively supplement the hyaluronic acid content in the human body, thereby improving skin moisture, lubricating joints and repairing gastrointestinal mucosa."

Dr. Lilac, a well-known medical science platform, pointed out that the effectiveness of oral hyaluronic acid is currently lacking enough reliable evidence to support it, and only a few clinical studies on oral hyaluronic acid skin care cannot stand scrutiny.

"Because of the complex absorption and metabolism mechanism of the human body, like all foods, the hyaluronic acid eaten will be digested and decomposed into small molecular substances, waiting for the next reassembly. As for assembly, it is decided according to the needs of the body. Some may provide energy for the body, and some may participate in the synthesis of macromolecular substances. " Dr. Lilac wrote that eating hyaluronic acid does not mean complete absorption, and many of them are metabolized and excreted.

Zhu, a food industry analyst in China, also told Pineapple Finance that hyaluronic acid enters from the mouth and is digested by the stomach, which is not much different from the nutrients eventually formed by many foods. Many related products on the market now can basically be defined as "IQ tax".

In addition, Zhu also said that the current controversy over such oral hyaluronic acid foods is that functional publicity should not be carried out.

"At present, this kind of food on the market belongs to products with the brand name' Shi'. Any product without the word "Jian", that is, the so-called "police mobile force", that is, non-health care products, shall not publicize its functions. If food-grade hyaluronic acid plays a function card, it is suspected of violating the advertising law. " Zhu said to:

"In order to prove the nutritional efficacy of oral food, we must first solve the problem of digestion and absorption. If you want to do the propaganda of "supplementing hyaluronic acid by eating", you must have a detailed and rigorous experimental report. If there is no scientific experimental data to support it, many people will certainly think that this is an IQ tax. " A person in the hyaluronic acid industry said frankly.

In the final analysis, it is not as simple as marketing and advertising for Huaxi Bio to make the public pay for hyaluronic acid food.

Hyaluronic acid used to be a good business in medical beauty. "Because hyaluronic acid is metabolic, as long as you start to supplement hyaluronic acid, there are generally only two possibilities for follow-up, either to buy supplementary injections after metabolism or to do prosthetic surgery directly, so hyaluronic acid actually has no customers." Bai Xue, a practitioner in the medical and beauty industry, told pineapple finance.

In her view, medical beauty consumers spend money to buy not only a hyaluronic acid product, but also a doctor with good aesthetics and technology, a consultant for design, an institution that undertakes medical responsibility, and the final effect on the face. Therefore, even if consumers know that the medical and beauty industry is a profiteering industry, most of them are willing to spend money to do it because of the guaranteed service and effect.

However, when it comes to food, the effect of oral hyaluronic acid is more difficult to judge than that of medical beauty skin care, and the brand effect will be invalid.

Moreover, regardless of the "IQ tax", even for consumers with oral health care needs, the current oral hyaluronic acid products are not attractive enough.

"Now many new products are labeled with hyaluronic acid superimposed on other ingredients, which is more attractive in terms of efficacy. Oral health care and beauty is a general trend, but it is also a' constituent party' in essence. Compared with the intake methods such as beauty injection and skin care, the oral advantage of single hyaluronic acid has not been reflected at present. " Chen Momo believes that the matching degree between oral, food and hyaluronic acid IP needs to be verified by the market.

However, for Huaxi Bio, it may be more important to prove the safety and effectiveness of oral hyaluronic acid before the efficacy of the product exceeds the standard. After all, it is not easy to make money, and today's young people are not so gullible.

* At the request of the interviewee, Wen Xiaohan, Qian Qian and Bai Xue are pseudonyms.