A large number of medical beauty brands have been "banned" by Xiaohongshu, be careful!

Text | Li Haoyue

"We were banned by Little Red Book, mainly related to the requirements of the Advertising Law. Because medical aesthetic propaganda is not allowed to use preoperative and postoperative comparative photos. On January 13, the staff of the medical beauty institution Milan Baiyu explained to the Securities Daily reporter the main reason for being banned by the Little Red Book. Milan Baiyu was previously banned by the platform for suspected illegal marketing of Xiaohongshu.

In fact, it is not only the Milan Baiyu family that has been banned. In January this year, in response to the special action of "Qinglang Crackdown on Traffic Fraud, Black Public Relations, and Online Water Army", Xiaohongshu launched a new "false marketing" governance project, and banned 68 brands suspected of illegal marketing. Among them, brands in the field of medical aesthetics account for nearly one-third of the banned brands. Including 15 medical beauty institutions such as Este, Fuai, Shanghai Ganghua, Star Extreme Beauty, Mei bell, Milan Baiyu, Zhen Yansong, Elaome and other 15 medical beauty institutions and Angel of Time, Haimei, Yifuquan 3 medical beauty product brands.

Medical aesthetic publicity has been tightened step by step

After the reporter searched for the above brand on the Little Red Book, it was displayed that "the brand is suspected of illegal marketing, and the relevant content is not displayed".

According to the person in charge of the Xiaohongshu "false marketing" governance project, the reason why medical beauty institutions are the first batch of banned offline commercial entities is because "they are the hardest hit areas of offline illegal marketing, and once this information causes adverse effects and misleading to users, the consequences are very serious." The scope of subsequent platform governance will cover more different types of offline merchants."

Medical beauty industry practitioner Xia Xia (pseudonym) introduced to the "Securities Daily" reporter that there were three main ways to "market" medical beauty institutions and brands on social platforms before. "First, the out-of-the-box experience. This part is mainly based on products such as 'mechanical cold compresses' and 'liquid dressings', that is, 'medical beauty masks' in consumer cognition, but it is illegal to call 'medical beauty masks'. Second, invite the 'experience officer' to the store to experience the project for free, and then post pictures or videos in the Little Red Book to promote it. Third, ghostwriting, or operated by MCN, feed directly. ”

Medical aesthetic marketing is active on major mainstream Internet platforms in China, using Internet celebrities, live broadcasts and other forms of publicity and sales of projects and products. Sydney, the anchor who was "banned" last year for tax evasion and tax evasion, has repeatedly brought goods to the projects of medical beauty institutions.

"Xiaohongshu has carried out a large-scale 'ban' on the medical beauty brands on the platform this time, and this rectification may be joined by other Internet platforms." Summer told the "Securities Daily" reporter.

Since last year, medical aesthetic regulatory policies have been unveiled one after another. In June 2021, eight ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Special Rectification Work Plan for Cracking Down on Illegal Medical Beauty Services", and the "Guidelines for the Medical Beauty Advertising Law" were officially issued in November last year.

Lawyer Zhang Wenbo, a senior partner at Beijing Jundu Shanghai Law Firm, told the Securities Daily reporter that once the "Guidelines for medical beauty advertising law" came into effect, many platforms and Internet celebrities were suspected of violating the law in publicizing medical beauty. "Medical cosmetology is a medical act, and non-medical personnel publish advertisements, which neither conform to the law nor the corresponding professional knowledge, and cannot engage in medical advertising and publicity."

Summer told reporters, "In the long run, the medical beauty industry will gradually move towards a standardized development path under comprehensive supervision." The publication of medical aesthetic advertisements will become strictly regulated. ”

The road to the listing of related enterprises has been tossed and turned

The policy further tightens the supervision of the medical aesthetic field, and in this context, the company that originally used the concept of medical aesthetics to sprint for IPO has also had a twist and turn on the road to listing.

Chuanger Bio, which was once considered to be expected to compete for the A-share "first share of medical beauty mask", was approved by the Listing Committee of the Science and Technology Innovation Board in December 2020 and submitted for registration in February 2021, but in December of the same year, due to the revenue indicators not meeting the listing conditions, it voluntarily withdrew the listing application of the Science and Technology Innovation Board and terminated the registration on the 31st. Another company, ShiErjia, who also went to the "first share of medical beauty masks", also suspended the issuance and listing review process on December 31, 2021, due to the expiration of the financial information.

Whether it is Chuanger Biology or Shierjia, as a well-known enterprise in the field of medical dressings, it has relied on marketing concepts such as "medical beauty mask" and "mechanical mask" to quickly become popular.

From 2018 to 2020, the net profit attributable to the mother of Chuanger Bio Company was 67.08 million yuan, 73.2278 million yuan and 92.4981 million yuan, respectively, maintaining the level of increasing year by year. From 2018 to 2020, the net profit attributable to the parent company was 200 million yuan, 661 million yuan and 648 million yuan respectively, and the profitability was outstanding.

In January 2021, the State Drug Administration issued the "Cosmetics Science Popularization: Vigilance Against Mask Consumption Traps" announcement that there is no concept of "mechanical mask", and medical device products cannot use "mask" as their name. At the same time, the "makeup mask" cannot claim to be a "medical skin care product". In the first half of 2021, the net profit attributable to the mother of Chuanger Bio fell to 21.2272 million yuan.

At the same time, on the same day that the listing review of Shierjia was suspended, the State Drug Administration also issued a revised description of the "First Class Medical Device Product Catalog", and deleted "medical cold compresses, medical cold compress headbands, medical cold compresses eye masks, and cold pack gels" in terms of product names. This means that the product "medical cold compress" no longer exists in the first class of medical devices.

These changes will affect the compliance of relevant companies in terms of promotion and product introduction in the future. Whether domestic medical beauty companies will face publicity dilemmas. Zhang Wenbo told reporters, "The reason for the dilemma of medical beauty publicity is the re-ecological positioning and marketing thinking caused by standardization. On the basis of China's compliance, follow-up enterprises will re-engineer the new compliance model publicity, of course, will also strengthen the double beauty model (life beauty + medical beauty), and convert public domain traffic into private domain traffic realization. ”