Gong Liansheng, founder and CEO of Meibei: Under strong supervision, medical aesthetic consumers will be more rational and pay more attention to safety

Per reporter: Zeng Jian Per editor: Wen Duo

Driven by appearance anxiety and capital, the medical aesthetic industry has ushered in explosive growth in recent years, whether it is the upstream product end or the middle and lower reaches of the medical beauty institutions, distribution agents, have benefited greatly from this wave of growth. At the same time, the industry is accelerating its bid for the brutal growth of the past. Since the beginning of this year, relevant medical aesthetic regulatory policies have been introduced, and the supervision of the industry has become more and more intense; the medical aesthetic industry itself is also integrating and iterating. Looking forward to 2022, in the context of continuous tightening of policies, what will be the development trend of the medical aesthetic industry? Where is the new outlet?

On December 29th, Gong Liansheng, founder and CEO of Meibei, and Li Zhengyong, secretary general of Sichuan Plastic Surgery and Beauty Association, discussed and shared in Chengdu. They put forward several views, such as medical aesthetics and cosmeceuticals will accelerate integration, the return of sanity and security, and the anti-aging market will usher in a big explosion. Gong Liansheng told the "Daily Economic News" reporter: "Strong supervision has brought an impact on the medical beauty industry, and also affected the consumer mentality of beauty seekers. The love of beauty in parallel with sanity and safety will be the trend of the times. ”

The share of domestic goods will continue to rise

"Since the beginning of this year, China's beauty has been called the top of the network." Gong Liansheng said. He pointed out that this year's Dragon Boat Festival, with no small fresh meat and no blessing of traffic stars, this year's Dragon Boat Festival of Henan Satellite TV showed the beautiful traditional culture to the audience in the most authentic form, and also won people's high praise. Ding Zhen and Wang Bingbing, as new "Internet celebrities", have become popular figures on the Internet.

Gong Liansheng believes that whether it is the explosion of the Dragon Boat Festival or the pursuit of Ding Zhen and Wang Bingbing by netizens, behind it comes from people's self-confidence in the country and the nation, and the inclusive mentality of various aesthetics. In his view, Chinese beauty is all-encompassing, it is a collection of thousands of years of culture and wisdom, and it cannot be simply defined. China will exude a majestic cultural influence, highlighting the true beauty of China.

"The rise of domestic products is also applicable to the medical aesthetic industry." Gong Liansheng believes that the data of the 7th Tmall Golden Makeup Award shows that 40% of the post-95 makeup table is a domestic product; in 2020, China's hyaluronic acid production for plastic filling injection accounted for 75% of the world's total, and sales reached 81.6% of the world. At the same time, domestic products such as Perfect Diary, Huaxizi, and Winona are rising rapidly, and "high quality" and "good design" have gradually become new domestic labels, and their market share is also rising.

Since 2016, many departments of the state have begun to jointly and seriously rectify the medical aesthetic industry, and today's regulatory atmosphere is even stronger. In June, eight ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Special Rectification Work Plan for Cracking Down on Illegal Medical Beauty Services". In November, the "Guidelines for the Enforcement of Medical Beauty Advertising" was officially issued. The guidelines are known in the industry as the strictest supervision of medical beauty advertising, which has taken a key crackdown on nine major situations such as creating "appearance anxiety" and made detailed requirements for the release of medical beauty advertisements.

In this regard, Gong Liansheng said that strong supervision has indeed brought an impact on the medical aesthetic industry, but it has also prompted the industry to improve in a good direction. This kind of supervision is the support and protection of compliant medical aesthetics, but also the crackdown on illegal medical aesthetics; on the other hand, the quality and safety of medical aesthetics will continue to improve. In addition, the consumer mentality of beauty seekers has also undergone corresponding changes - to become beautiful, but also to become safe and beautiful, reason and safety in parallel love of beauty will be the trend of the times.

In Gong Liansheng's view, the change in consumer mentality may also make the more convenient and efficient light medical beauty more popular. Light medical beauty has the characteristics of fast, short recovery period, small trauma, and relatively cheap. "From the leather-pulling thread carving, to the thermage, the ultrasound cannon, and even the home beauty instrument, the medical beauty project of lunch break beauty will become a new favorite of beauty." he said.

Image source: Photo by reporter Zeng Jian

The anti-aging market will explode, and the integration of medical aesthetics and beauty will accelerate

"No one will always be 25 years old, but there will always be people who want to stay at 25 years old, and the anti-aging market will usher in an explosion!" Gong Liansheng particularly emphasized that Forbes data believes that China's anti-aging market has "100 billion" development space in the future, and this market is indeed making further efforts.

He believes that anti-aging is no longer the needs of a small number of people, young people in the "anti-aging", middle-aged people in the "anti-aging", the elderly in the "anti-aging", the past neglected middle-aged and elderly beauty market should be valued. The results of Age Club surveys show that the awareness of cosmetics consumption in the elderly in first-tier cities has been formed, and many of them have strong consumption ability and subjective demand and awareness of beauty.

Gong Liansheng's views coincide with Li Zhengyong's. Li Zhengyong said: "At present, more than 70% of consumers in China's medical aesthetic industry are under 35 years old, while in developed countries, most consumers are over 35 years old, these people have a certain economic foundation, are more sensitive to age changes, and are more acceptable to medical aesthetic consumption." In the experience of developed countries, anti-aging will always be the main growth point of the medical aesthetic industry."

However, Gong Liansheng pointed out that although the demand for beauty for the elderly in first-tier cities has increased rapidly, many of them are still in the initial stage of their concept of medical aesthetics, and they need to complete market education before the opportunities in the medical aesthetic industry will be revealed.

"The fusion of medical beauty and raw beauty (that is, life beauty) is unstoppable!" Gong Liansheng also pointed out. In his view, with the help of consumers' impressions of the "professionalism" and "authority" of medical beauty projects, the beauty industry is keen to play the medical beauty card, and related medical beauty anti-aging is welcomed by consumers; medical masks are no longer just for "medicine", but also for "beauty".

The above views have also been endorsed by Qin Xiao, chief physician of the Aesthetic Surgery Department of Xinlimei Medical Beauty Hospital. Qin Xiao said that there are many commonalities between medical beauty and beauty, but at the same time there is a strong complementarity, and the space brought by the integration of the two is immeasurable.

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