Plato said that beauty is a natural advantage.
Since ancient times, people have never changed their attitude towards the pursuit of beauty. Before the emergence of the medical beauty industry, beauty lovers could only change their original appearance through cosmetics. Many people would turn up their noses at the words “medical beauty” and “plastic surgery”. However, as makeup can not permanently retain beauty, far from meeting the market demand for “eternal beauty”. With the birth of the medical beauty industry, people who love beauty have changed their appearance from makeup to all kinds of gods and goddesses “created” by high-end technology. People have a new understanding of “beauty”, and the era of “artificial beauty” is gradually coming.
Movies about plastic surgery are also common in today’s society. From South Korea’s “Ugly Girl Turns Over” to Japan’s “Disgraceful”, and various domestic movies about plastic surgery are released, all of which convey a message: “beauty” can change the world. All people’s pursuit of “beauty” shows a very strong state, and the era of appearance first emerges at the historic moment. With the continuous improvement of the economic level of consumers in various countries, the consumption frequency of consumers in the medical beauty market is increasing, and the demand for medical beauty products is also deepening.
However, no matter in which country, the medical beauty industry is very difficult in the early stage of development, and China’s medical beauty industry is no exception. After more than 30 years of experience, the domestic medical beauty industry has just begun to emerge, and the “appearance level economy” is slowly coming. The growing consumer groups make the medical beauty industry in a state of “sudden increase in profits”, and major capital swarms in, all want to take the lead in the “great dragon gate” of medical beauty industry. The market trend of medical beauty market makes the medical beauty industry usher in the advantage era of great medical beauty.
Medical beauty: the explosive “appearance level” industry
The rise of “appearance level economy” makes the medical beauty industry become hot and the darling of the market, and the capital of various countries have seized the new wind. Compared with the United States, South Korea and Japan, the development of medical beauty industry in China is relatively late. As a junior member of the industry, China is not inferior to the pioneer countries in terms of development scale, although it is lost at the starting line.
The reason why the medical beauty industry explodes in China is because of the unique market conditions. In terms of regional selection, domestic medical beauty enterprises are mainly concentrated in the first and second tier cities with high economic level, serving young high-consumption female groups such as post-80s and post-90s. According to the data provided by Qianzhan Industry Research Institute, women account for 79% of the medical beauty consumer group, but driven by user diversity, the proportion of male in the medical beauty market is expected to be equal to that of female group in the future.
On the supply side, the domestic medical beauty industry is constantly iterating and upgrading in the supply chain of equipment, materials and technology, and the upstream pharmaceutical equipment supply chain also shows a continuous trend of good development. Data from Zero2kerb Research Center show that the number of treatment courses of regular medical treatment in China reached 2.5 million in 2016, up 14.1% year on year, following Brazil with 2.52 million, which is expected to replace it in 2017. As can be seen from the current development trend of the domestic medical beauty industry, China’s medical beauty has the vitality of sustainable development, and it is not far from becoming the world’s largest market.
On the social network platform, capital attracts more potential consumers by using the marketing methods promoted by stars and Internet celebrities on the social network platform. These favorable prerequisites lay a solid market foundation for the prosperity of the medical beauty industry in China. In 2017, the growth rate of medical beauty in China exceeded 40%, and the total number of medical beauty cases exceeded 10 million. The huge medical beauty consumer group indicates the development speed of the medical beauty industry in China. At present, China’s medical beauty industry and real estate, tourism and other large industries are basically the same pace of development, and become the gold industry to support China’s fourth industry. In addition, the medical beauty industry in China has excavated many new business models, and the imagination space bursting out of the medical beauty industry in the future is also the reason for the competing pursuit of capital from all sides.
Hidden Diseases behind medical Beauty Market
According to the white Paper on Medical beauty Industry in 2017, the growth rate of China’s medical beauty industry has reached 40% since 2015, far exceeding the global average of 7%. The medical beauty industry is developing in a bright trend, but on the back of the bright side is darkness. The medical beauty industry is thriving on the surface, but in fact, it has been devastated, and there are still pain points to be solved in the medical beauty industry.
On the one hand, putian medical and beauty institutions disturb the market and the market suffers from a crisis of trust. Up to now, the medical beauty industry has made profits from hospitals to clinics. However, in recent years, “Putian” private hospitals have been exposed to negative news of “fake goods”. From upstream raw material suppliers to distributors, and then to medical beauty enterprises, a large number of “three Non” products compete to enter the market, and the whole industry has a miasma atmosphere. The frequent outbreak of “Putian style” fake products constantly challenges the bottom line of consumers and seriously harms their interests.
On the other hand, quality resources are highly polarised. Technology a good doctor is at the core of the institutions benefit guarantee, who has the advantage of the passenger flow, combined with the enterprise operating resources, brand construction and management of operation success and failure depends on the degree of excellent doctor resources, good reputation, good technology, the doctor can not only improve enterprise market initiative, say, at the same time, virtually can also promote the development of industry.
However, the doctor resources in the current medical beauty market, both in quantity and quality, are far from meeting the market demand, and the problem of “demand exceeds demand” is the pain point of the whole medical beauty industry. In addition, there are also differences in high-quality doctor resources between public hospitals and private hospitals. High-quality doctor resources are mainly concentrated in public hospitals, while private enterprises occupy a relatively low proportion of resources, which leads to polarization in the industry.
In addition, barriers to entry are low, and medical tanning clinics are hidden in the market. As the medical beauty industry is an emerging industry, the medical beauty policy is in a blank period before 2017, with insufficient supervision, and the threshold for capital to enter the military medical beauty industry is relatively low. Accordingly, under the attraction of “money scene”, black clinics swarmed into the market, the phenomenon of illegal medical practice emerged in endlessly, and the “disease root” of good and bad uneven in the medical market was difficult to eliminate. According to the statistics of “Black Book of Chinese Medical Beauty Industry 2017”, the number of black clinics in China has exceeded 60,000, 6 times that of regular clinics.
The “hidden diseases” existing in the traditional medical beauty market continue to provoke consumers’ fragile nerves, and consumers with doubts push traditional medical beauty to the forefront of the storm. However, in recent years, the medical beauty outlet has expanded from the traditional medical boundary to the Internet field. More than 30 medical beauty apps have appeared in the Medical beauty Internet market, and the chaotic medical beauty ecology has begun to balance.
The “three pillars” of e-commerce platform 100 enterprises
In the Internet era of the hegemony of social platforms, the medical beauty industry has penetrated into social platforms. The social medical beauty industry uses the effect of stars and Internet celebrities to create economy and explore diversified business models, including online live broadcast, introduction of industry KOL, establishment of wechat, Weibo new media and other online channels. Driven by the new media of the Internet, medical beauty online community has landed safely, and e-commerce medical beauty is surging.
At present, O2O service platform, SAAS service platform and medical consumer finance platform dominate the medical beauty market.
Firstly, the most widely used Internet model is O2O service platform. O2O service platforms focus on the demand trend of c-end consumers, but there are uncertain factors in c-end and the market return rate is unstable. Therefore, O2O enterprises need more patience and determination to become bigger and stronger. If enterprises do not understand the essence of O2O model, it will be difficult. For example, Yaogeili APP quit the O2O stage in 2016 because it just rushed the O2O wave and failed to understand its essence. Of course, the failure of individual cases does not mean that the platform model does not have development prospects. As a “textbook” model of O2O platform, Gengmei APP was awarded the title of “Top ten Most Promising Companies in entrepreneurship Year” in 2017. In addition, the surging new oxygen, Medella and other O2O platform also proved the tenacious vitality.
Secondly, SAAS service platform emerged after O2O model. With the emergence of big data and cloud services in recent years, SAAS service platforms also show a trend of rapid development. The difference is that the SAAS model favors b-side services. Zhimei Oriental has set off a wave in the field of AI medical beauty through the SAAS model. This year, it has obtained tens of millions of RMB financing. In addition, the emergence of new players, such as Wechat Medical beauty APP, has also gained numerous customers in the market, and the SAAS service platform is developing rapidly and growing with vitality in the new medical beauty market.
In addition to the above two platforms, the newly-started medical beauty consumer financial platform has also taken root and germinated on the fertile land of new Medical beauty. As a typical enterprise of medical and beauty consumer finance, Mimojin service has opened the market by providing installment consumption services with high credit limits for young female consumers and gained popularity in the platform. This year, it has completed hundreds of millions of RMB C+ round strategic financing. After experiencing the trough, Yimeijian also ushered in the peak, and the consumer finance platform gradually became the mainstay industry in the medical beauty market.
How can the medical beauty industry break out under the guidance of e-commerce?
At present, the medical beauty industry is competing among O2O service platform, SAAS service platform and medical beauty consumer finance platform. However, in terms of the ever-changing medical beauty environment, it is not suitable for various platforms to fight for hegemony. Up to now, the three platforms have many hidden problems, and the common one is that e-commerce medical beauty faces the problem of “high demand and low trust” in the society. In the market environment where the technology and service level of each platform are uneven, how should e-commerce medical beauty break the tradition and find its own way?
From the perspective of the whole medical beauty industry market, it is precisely because of the different genes of each medical beauty institution and service platform and the different amount of data mastered that some institutions are suitable for doing channels, while others are suitable for doing new media. Therefore, the “three pillars” hegemony of the platform should put aside the historical hatred, change the current pattern of “three Kingdoms killing”, and make the content, products and models personalized and diversified through mutual cooperation, so as to open a broader market. After all, “cooperation means win-win” is an eternal truth.
Only by cooperating with each other can we break the current situation of “low credit medical beauty”. Both hospitals and the Internet medical beauty industry should take the essence of their competitors and discard the dross of their rivals. By innovating services and upgrading technologies, the pain points of the traditional medical beauty industry and the Internet medical beauty industry should be solved together to create a harmonious and blooming medical beauty environment so that the whole medical beauty industry can achieve a win-win situation.
Article/Liu Kuang public account, ID: Liukuang110