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Genki Forest's Controversial Remarks on Chinese Consumer Industry

At the 2021 Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum on June 8th, Genki Forest founder Tang Binsen used the consumer behavior in the gaming industry as an example. He stated that four years ago, China's per capita GDP lagged significantly behind that of the United States and Japan, yet Chinese gamers' consumption capacity was on par with their American and Japanese counterparts. He then shifted focus to the consumer goods industry, asserting that Chinese consumption has been suppressed – seemingly because Chinese people are unwilling or unable to spend – when in reality, what's lacking is good products.

Tang Binsen also mentioned that while Chinese internet companies have gained worldwide recognition, China lacks consumer industry products known to everyone globally, like Coca-Cola and Nestlé. The number of foreign enterprises can measure the development level of domestic industries, and China's consumer industry is being suppressed. He recalled that when starting Genki Forest, he took detours by following professional beverage methods, with quality failing to meet requirements. Later, he had people outside the industry create products they personally liked to drink, regardless of cost. He also mentioned that for many products, production and sales personnel only learned about costs two or three months after market launch.

However, this speech was interpreted as "Genki Forest claims that China's consumer industry is as backward as the semiconductor industry," unfortunately trending on social media. Many netizens expressed their views, believing it was deliberately creating controversy.

Genki Forest's Brand Image and Previous Controversies

Previously, Genki Forest had built a deep impression with its "sugar-free" and "healthy" image. Its product "Genki Forest Sparkling Water"主打 "0 sugar, 0 calories, 0 fat" sparked the domestic sugar-free trend, directly propelling Genki Forest into China's top beverage ranks. As young people's health consciousness deepened and demand for healthy foods increased, Genki Forest became a phenomenal bestseller at the time.

Not long ago, Genki Forest attracted enormous controversy when its milk tea product labeled "0 sugar, low fat" was found to contain fructose. Many netizens expressed that their trust had been misplaced. On April 10, 2021, Genki Forest issued an apology statement, admitting they had not clearly explained the difference between "0 sugar" and "0 sucrose," and changed "0 sucrose, low fat" to "low sugar, low fat."

Analysis of China's Consumer Industry Landscape

From a data analysis perspective, although China's market is the fastest-growing in global retail sales, consumer spending has strong pulling power on GDP. In 2019 alone, global online merchandise sales accounted for nearly one-third of global GDP. Yet today, China's consumer brands have not kept pace internationally.

When examining the largest consumer categories by sales volume – automobiles, food, clothing, medicine, telecommunications, and daily necessities – it's not difficult to find that China lacks brands capable of competing with high-end international brands in the global market. Additionally, domestic impressions of Chinese products still linger around "high quantity, low quality, and cheap prices." When it comes to buying cars, many people with sufficient capital would still choose international luxury brands like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche.

Emerging Chinese Brands Going Global

In recent years, many Chinese brands have expanded abroad, actively opening stores overseas, such as HeyTea, CoCo都可, Haidilao, DJI, and others.

Future Prospects for China's Consumer Industry

The domestic beverage industry started relatively late, and brands from the last century that have survived to this day are few and far between. Moreover, China's consumer industry indeed lags behind, with consumption capacity existing but lacking quality consumer goods. If China's consumer industry is to develop, it needs to cultivate more high-quality domestic brands to boost domestic consumption. Most importantly, one shouldn't be blinded by the mere sight of "China" – we need more tolerance and rational perspective on issues, rather than immediately making mountains out of molehills based on partial information.

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