As the Beijing Winter Olympics drew to a close, #Gu Ailing put the snack bar on fire # topic on Weibo's hot search list, with 120 million readers. At the Winter Olympics, Gu Ailing became one of the most high-profile athletes with two gold and one silver, and outside the field, the traditional snacks she mentioned such as leek boxes, raw fried buns, and honey three knives quickly went out of the circle through the Internet, and Gu Ailing was rated as the strongest with goods by netizens.
▲#Gu Ailing set the snack bar on fire ##
Walking into a long-established snack bar in Beijing, many consumers are queuing up to buy snacks. Mr. Li, a citizen who lives nearby, came to buy a "Gu Ailing same style" leek box, "originally loved this taste, saw that Gu Ailing was also eating, and suddenly hooked up the worms."
▲Consumers in Beijing's long-established snack bars buy leek boxes Photographer: Jin Cheng
"Because of the publicity of world champion Gu Ailing, the sales of leek boxes have soared recently." Mr. Gong, the store manager, said, "At present, the sales of leek boxes in the store are twice that of the same period last year, and the online platform alone can sell more than 100 per day." Meituan data shows that in the week after Gu Ailing mentioned the leek box, the number of user searches exceeded 120,000 times, an increase of more than 161% year-on-year, and the cumulative sales of takeaway exceeded 1.6 million, an increase of 93% year-on-year.
▲ Leek box online search volume soared Photo: Jin Cheng
Not only leek boxes, but also traditional delicacies such as raw fried buns, honey three knives, sugar cakes, and shabu lamb are also favored by consumers. According to Meituan data, the delicacies mentioned by Gu Ailing have a high search volume growth. Among them, the traditional flavor pastry "Honey Three Knives" in Jiangsu and Shandong has the fastest growth in user searches in the past week, with an increase of 244%. The search volume for "raw frying", "shabu lamb" and "sugar cake" was 800,000 times, 310,000 times and 30,000 times respectively, with a year-on-year growth rate of 57%, 32% and 128% respectively.
In recent years, with the rise of "national tide culture", young people are also more and more fond of tasting traditional and authentic snacks, such as raw fried buns, sugar fire, pea yellow, etc., and the geometric dissemination on social media can also bring amazing exposure to traditional snacks and immediately convert them into sales. "Today's young people, seeing a hot spot on the Internet, can immediately place orders through takeaway, which allows many old brands to quickly connect with the ideas of young people, so that old brands can be revitalized in the new era of consumption." Yun Cheng, president of the Beijing Cuisine Association, said that the Winter Olympics are a window for more international friends to understand Chinese catering and Chinese culture from here, and experience a more vivid and three-dimensional China.