After Ren Zeping bombarded Pinduoduo, the shampoo he had invested in overturned!
"Anti-hair loss shampoo" was fined 80,000 yuan for false advertising.
Author | High Mountains
Editor丨Wu Lijuan
Source | Bronco Finance
The image of Ren Zeping, a "famous economist", is becoming more and more divided.
He is a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University, a Ph.D. in economics from Chinese University, and was the deputy director of the Research Office of the Macro Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council.
He used to be the chief economist (vice president level) of Evergrande Group and the president of Evergrande Economic Research Institute hired by China Evergrande (3333.HK) at its peak, with an annual salary of up to 15 million yuan.
After Evergrande fell into a turmoil, Ren Zeping resigned amid doubts, and in 2023, he unexpectedly made a big stride into the biomedical field, selling shampoo products that claim to be able to "grow hair and prevent hair loss".
However, on January 14, Ren Zeping just published "Five Questions Pinduoduo" on Weibo, "bombarding" Pinduoduo fakes are rampant, and then it was reported by the media that Beijing Funakang Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Funakang Biotechnology"), behind its hair growth products, was fined 80,000 yuan by the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation for "false publicity" and other behaviors.
Such a "slap in the face", is the transformation of "economist" Ren Zeping still smooth?
"Hair growth products" were fined for false advertising
Founded in February 2015, the company's business scope includes technical services, technology development, metal material sales, Internet sales, daily necessities sales, food additives sales, cosmetics retail, cosmetics wholesale and so on.
At the time of the establishment of Funakang Biotech, Ren Zeping was also the managing director and chief macro analyst of Guotai Junan Securities Research Institute. His association with Fornakang Biotech began in May last year.
According to industrial and commercial information, on May 31, 2023, Ren Zeping invested 305,900 yuan and became the sixth largest shareholder of Funakang Biotechnology, with a shareholding ratio of 4.5%.
Source: official website of industrial and commercial information
In fact, before taking the shares, Ren Zeping began to promote hair growth products in March 2023, writing on Weibo: "After using the hair nutrient solution, four months is too fast, I believe in science." And accompanied by three close-up photos of his own hair.
Source: Ren Zeping Weibo
At that time, some people were curious about what products Ren Zeping used, and many netizens "asked for links" and "asked for the same paragraph" in the comment area.
Source: Ren Zeping Weibo
On the same day that he took a stake in Fornakang Biotech, Ren Zeping arrived belatedly with his products. pointed out that the product is called "Ren Ze Hair Growth", and said, "Because of my own needs, I have tracked it for a year, tested it personally, and it is indeed effective, and I insist on using it for 3-5 months, and the effect is very good, and the effect is obvious." Before and after, I pulled a lot of relatives, friends, colleagues, fans, etc. to conduct many large-scale tests, and the effect was good, and I helped many friends, and I expressed my gratitude. ”
Ren Zeping also said on Weibo, "Scientists from the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed more than 10 years of technology, and the scientific research funds of the State Key Laboratory have invested 2-3 billion, dozens of national patents, and the technology is indeed excellent. ”
However, this Weibo is no longer available for viewing.
Source: National Business Daily
According to the introduction of its Taobao brand professional store, Rensheng Zefa brand was founded in 2023, the initiator is Dr. Ren Zeping, the founder of Zeping Macro, and the team has more than 100 fullerene-related patents, aiming to build a domestic head brand in the field of hair care and skin care.
Among them, the highest-selling product is "fullerene scalp conditioning shampoo", with a bottle of 300ml and a unit price of 168 yuan.
Since then, Ren Zeping has spared no effort to promote his hair growth products on various platforms. His personal public account also often has a magical picture - while interpreting the annual economic data, while advertising hair growth products.
Source: Zeping Macro
And this time, it was this hair growth product that was administratively punished for "false publicity".
According to the illegal factual information issued by the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, in May 2023, Fornakang Biotech began to display a brochure titled "Holding Hands with the Academy of Sciences to Lead the Fullerene" in its business premises, highlighting the effects of fullerene with anti-aging whitening, anti-hair loss, whitening and freckle removal, and turning gray hair black, claiming that adding fullerene ingredients to cosmetics can also exert this effect.
The Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation believes that the claim exceeds the efficacy of its product filing, and Funakang Biotech has not verified the relevant efficacy of its registered product.
It is reported that Funakang Bio has shampoo and hair care products for the record, and the effects of the record are claimed to be "cleansing, moisturizing, oil control, dandruff" and "repairing and moisturizing", but it highlights fullerenes and other effects such as anti-hair loss in cosmetics, which is inconsistent with the actual efficacy of its registered products. The above-mentioned behavior of Funakang Biotech is a false and misleading commercial promotion of the function of its products.
According to Article 16 of the Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Cosmetics, cosmetics claiming to have anti-hair loss effects should be registered as special cosmetics, and the NMPA will no longer accept the registration application of special cosmetics with hair nourishment effect from January 1, 2021.
Therefore, the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation ordered Funakang Biotech to correct the above illegal acts and fined it 80,000 yuan.
Source: Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation
Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of iiMedia Consulting, believes that Ren Zeping, as a scholar, can be commercialized, but it is still necessary to strictly abide by relevant laws and regulations and have a certain sense of awe for consumers.
Internet celebrity economists are in urgent need of transformation?
As an "Internet celebrity economist", Ren Zeping has been active in the public eye in recent years.
In 2015, Ren Zeping, who was the chief macro analyst of Guotai Junan (601211.SH) at the time, proposed that "5,000 points is not a dream" and successfully predicted the trend of the Shanghai Index, and that "housing prices in first-tier cities will double in the next 10 years" and "China's economy may be 'L' shaped in the future" and other remarks were well recognized by the market. Then he was hired by Evergrande with an annual salary of 15 million, which made him the focus.
In addition to the forecast of the economic situation, Ren Zeping also has many unique insights in the field of real estate, and even predicted the doubling of first-tier housing prices in advance...... He also put forward a number of ideas that aroused strong repercussions, such as "judging the real estate cycle by looking at population in the long term, land in the medium term, and finance in the short term".
Ren Zeping's income has also risen with his own popularity.
Some netizens once broke the news that in 2013, when Ren Zeping was in the Development Research Center of the State Council, his monthly basic salary was 6,000 yuan, and when he went to Guotai Junan in 2014, it became a monthly salary of 60,000 yuan. It was rumored in the market that Huang Yanming, then director of the Guotai Junan Research Institute, "looked at the thatched house" and it took a year to invite him.
In June 2016, Ren Zeping joined Founder Securities as the chief economist and MD (managing director) of Founder Securities Research Institute, and resigned after more than a year.
When he resigned from Founder Securities, he also published a letter of thanks entitled "Acknowledgments: Contributing to Society in the Thanksgiving Era". He said that he would transform into a think tank and industrial research and related management work, and hoped to "assume greater responsibility, promote greater causes, and make greater contributions".
At the end of 2017, Xu Jiayin of Evergrande Group recruited him with an annual salary of 15 million yuan, known as the "most expensive economist", and Ren Zeping's salary increased by more than 200 times in 4 years.
In March 2021, when Evergrande's debt crisis first emerged, Ren Zeping chose to resign, and at that time, another Internet celebrity economist, Liu Shengjun, also accused Zeping of "fooling" Xu Jiayin, causing Evergrande to step by step towards the abyss of debt. In this regard, Ren Zeping said that during his tenure as Evergrande's chief economist, he had discouraged Evergrande's high-debt real estate development and diversified business model of debt borrowing, and was criticized for a long time in Evergrande.
Two years after leaving Evergrande, Ren Zeping began to sell hair growth products. Economists "go to the sea" shampoo field has also stirred up the nerves of many people who eat melons, so that those who are concerned about the economy and those who are concerned about hair loss have come to watch.
And even if he was fined this time, it did not reduce Ren Zeping's enthusiasm for hair growth products, and his official account "Ren Zemacro" is still publishing advertisements every day to expand customers.
Shen Meng, director of Chanson Capital, believes that Ren Zeping has been looking for a new platform since leaving Evergrande, and is also looking for a channel to monetize based on his huge traffic influence. Therefore, there is a mistake because the team lacks professional experience in the operation process, and there is no motive and necessity for false propaganda from Ren Zeping's personal subjectivity. This incident also reflects the urgency of Ren Zeping's team to break through the economic circle and rush to form its own closed-loop business model.
What do you think of the "Internet celebrity economist" overturning with goods? Have you used Ren Zeping's shampoo? Let's talk about it in the comment area.