There is no future for plagiarism. Recently, the local Chinese brand Flower Knows, which is positioned as a makeup brand for girls, has released news that it has received 300,000 yuan ($42,800) compensation from the infringing party HOLD LIVE. To recap the event, on December 4, 2020, Flower Knows announced on its official Weibo account that "HOLD LIVE allegedly plagiarized the appearance of Flower Knows's product design" and sent a lawyer's letter to four related companies. After nearly 2 years of rights defense, Flower Knows recently reached a mediation with all parties. It is reported that the number of HOLD LIVE Tmall flagship store goods is about 80 products, of which the highest sales of products for HOLD LIVE is the Lasting Air Lip Glaze, and the total sales have been more than 900,000 units. Up to now, the HOLD LIVE Tmall flagship store has 3.023 million fans. In addition, there are more than 10,000 notes about HOLD LIVE on Xiaohongshu. From the data of sales and fans, HOLD LIVE has become famous in China, but in the eyes of outsiders, the brand started by "plagiarism". As early as 2019, it was accused of plagiarizing several brands, including YES！IC, Urban Decay, DEAR DAHLA, and so on. From lipsticks to eyeshadows, and package to eyeshadow colorways, the degree of similarity is extremely high. In the past two years, China's new makeup brands have become popular, and HOLD LIVE's imitation objects have become Flower Knows and Perfect Diary. Before Flower Knows, it was accused of plagiarizing Perfect Diary, causing its brand and OEM to be fined 500,000 yuan ($71,400) and 100,000 yuan ($14,300) respectively by the Guangzhou Administration for Market Regulation. In response to this phenomenon, CHAILEEDO has sorted out four types of plagiarism in the Chinese cosmetics industry. First, major international brands are frequently plagiarized. For example, Dior, Chanel, L'Oréal, and Estée Lauder have been plagiarized for years, and even targeted by counterfeiters. Second, new Chinese brands are plagiarized by Chinese white brands (goods produced by small manufacturers without a brand name), such as the above-mentioned HOLD LIVE plagiarizing Perfect Diary and Flower Knows one after another. Third, overseas niche brands are plagiarized by Chinese white brands. Fourth, overseas brands copied from Chinese brands. For example, Florasis concentric lock lipstick was previously suspected to be copied by Japanese companies. And Chinese beauty brand Color Zone's Frisbee series product appearance design was copied by overseas brands r.e.m. beauty, etc. In this regard, brands have taken up legal weapons to combat infringement and safeguard their brand image and reputation. Meanwhile, China's protection of intellectual property rights is getting stronger and stronger. The newly amended the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China has raised the upper limit of compensation to 5 million yuan ($713,500) and the lower limit to 30,000 yuan ($4300). Moreover, as consumers become more professional and sensible, an increasing number of consumers are taking the initiative to help companies "fight counterfeiting" and provide clues, etc. In recent years, both the state and enterprises, the brand building is gradually heating up, and the plan of China's "strong brand" is becoming clearer. There is no future for copycat products that run counter to this.

In China, after farewell to the continuous decline in total cosmetics imports so far this year in July, another decline was shown in August. According to data from the General Administration of Customs of People’s Republic of China, China's total imports of beauty cosmetics and toiletries amounted to 12.82 billion yuan($1.83 billion), down 6.42% year-on-year in August this year. The number of imported cosmetics was 41055.1 tons, down 0.03% year-on-year. So, does this mean that imported beauty products are not in craze in China? Imported beauty is expected to decline 10%-15% for the year According to the official website of the General Administration of Customs of People’s Republic of China, the total value of China's imports and exports was 2.73 trillion yuan(about $390 billion), up 10.1% year-on-year from January to August this year. Among them, total imports were 1.182 trillion yuan (about $170 billion), up 5.2% from last year. The total exports of goods were 1.548 trillion yuan(about $221 billion), up 14.2%. Specifically, in the cosmetics industry, the total import of beauty cosmetics and toiletries was 97.26 billion yuan(about $13.9 billion), down 4.6% compared to the same period last year from January to August this year. The number of cosmetics imports was 28.17 thousand tons, down 7.3% year-on-year. CHAILEEDO found that there was a 5.18% year-on-year growth in China's total imports of cosmetics only in July of 2022. The other months have seen a decline of varying degrees. From the specific data, China's cosmetics imports amounted to 12.93 billion yuan(about $1.85 billion), a decline of 14.37%, which is the most obvious downward trend, followed by a decline of 9.2% in April. In this regard, an industry veteran believed that "this year, affected by the Chinese epidemic control in March and April, both logistics and online and offline product sales are almost stagnant. So naturally, there is much decline." Furthermore, the decline in total imported cosmetics is related to the overall decline in Chinese cosmetics retail. From January to August 2022, China’s retail sales of cosmetics declined 2.7 percent year-on-year, according to previous statistics from CHAILEEDO. Among them, April was the nadir, down 22.3% year-on-year. Since then, although it has warmed up, growth has not been steady. Currently, online is still the main channel for imported beauty sales. A Taobao shopkeeper engaged in the sale of imported beauty said the country's logistics and freight were greatly affected by the repeated epidemic, but also affected the enthusiasm of consumers for shopping for imported beauty. Only in the first quarter of this year, the overall performance of its stores is expected to decline by 30% compared to last year. "The overall Chinese economy is down this year, so it's normal for sales of imports to drop." An imported cosmetics trader told CHAILEEDO, "It is predicted that it will be at least about 10%-15% lower than last year this year in all ways." The top three ranks of Korean cosmetics are in jeopardy From the perspective of the main importing countries, Japan, France and South Korea are the major cosmetic importing countries in China. From January to July in 2022, the import amount from these three countries reached 49.14 billion yuan(about $7 billion), accounting for 58% of the total cosmetics imports from January to July. It occupied half of the cosmetic import amount. After analyzing the total amount of cosmetics imported from Japan, France and South Korea in the past 12 years, CHAILEEDO found that France always held the position of the first importer of cosmetics in China during the 6-year period from 2011 to 2016. However, in the following 5 years, its first ranking was occupied by Korea and Japan successively. And as you can see from the data below, this year (January-July), France returned to No.1 as the top cosmetic importer in China with an amount of 20.28 billion yuan(about $2.9 billion) after five years. The amount is near twice as much as South Korea. In terms of the amount of cosmetics imported by China from Japan, France and Korea, the position of Korea has changed several times over the past 12 years, but now the gap between Japan and France is getting bigger and bigger. CHAILEEDO also found that in the first half of this year, Korean companies haven’t ranked among the top 10 global cosmetics. Obviously, that is closely related to the economic, political and cultural factors between China and South Korea. It is understood that the golden decade of Korean cosmetics in China is from 2009 to 2018. Data from the General Administration of Customs of People’s Republic of China shows that the growth rate of Korean cosmetics in China reached a peak in 2015 with imports increasing 233% year-on-year. However, since 2016, THAAD has intensified and the Korean flow has gradually cooled under the ban on Korea in China. It is worth mentioning that data from the General Administration of Customs of People’s Republic of China shows that from January to July this year, the amount of cosmetics imported from the United States reached 9.464 billion yuan(about $1.35 billion), narrowing the gap with South Korea to 1.036 billion yuan(about $148 million) from 6.143 billion yuan(about $877 million) in the same period last year. As a result, South Korea has maintained its ranks as one of the top three importers of cosmetics in China for at least 12 years, which is in jeopardy. Imported beauty is struggling As the tough environment in economy for the first eight months, are there any opportunities for imported beauty this year? An industry insider who has been engaged in the cosmetics industry for more than 30 years believes that "imported beauty has been struggling. It will continue to decline this year. For the reason for this depression, the epidemic is only one aspect. The main cause is the macroeconomic control of the national economy. Now people have no money in their pockets so the demand for imported cosmetics is declining year by year. Fewer consumers are picking cosmetics." Since 2021, imported beauty brands can be said to have "failed" one after another. At the end of July, CHAILEEDO found that Estee Lauder Group's brand GLAMGLOW may have quietly retreated from the Chinese market. The same group's makeup brand Too Faced also announced the closure of its Tmall overseas flagship store in June this year. In this regard, an anonymous imported cosmetics agent told CHAILEEDO that "Many agents, including us, do not want to conduct imported products. Because of the short sales period of imported products, high prices, and harsh conditions, as well as the market movement in all aspects need Chinese agents to operate. So the peak demand for imported products declines in the year by year ." But at the policy level, China still attaches great attention to imports. The four sessions of the China International Import Expo has been successfully held last year. And the regulation of the import of ordinary cosmetics exempted from animal testing also loosen. Some industry insiders told CHAILEEDO that "the expansion of imports is a long-term strategy in China." It is worth mentioning that in July this year, Aesop, a brand of Natura&Co Group, announced to the public that it would open its first domestic physical store in Shanghai. In addition, from the consumer level, 52.65% of consumers prefer to buy imported products according to CHAILEEDO data. From the market environment, the relevant person in charge of Taobao Global Shopping has also introduced that the number of niche brands in small cosmetic countries such as Germany, Australia and Denmark has reached an average growth rate of 60% in the past three years. Overall, the current Chinese cosmetics consumer demand is flat. Coupled with the impact of the epidemic and other factors overlapping, the imported beauty market is cold this year. The pressure of growth is inevitable. However, from the perspective of the market and policy environment, imported beauty into China will be a continuous and long-term trend.

A store is no longer just an offline trading location for goods. Sephora recently announced that it will open a new concept retail store called "Future Asia Store" in Raffles City Shopping Centre in Singapore on September 23. It is said to cover an area of approximately 4,585 square feet. Another experimental location in Shanghai is expected to open in 2023. Sephora believes that retailers must understand why consumers return to brick-and-mortar stores after shopping online for a while. Sephora Asia President, Alia Gogi, said stores are no longer just a place where goods are transacted offline. Because consumers have so many digital contact points to transact, experiential retailing is critical. Accordingly, Sephora has decided to launch the "Future Asia Shop" program in Singapore and Shanghai. "The Future Asia Shop puts the space, digital, and human elements in the same space. All products have corresponding barcodes, and customers can scan the barcode on the product or the QR code in the store to access the product rating and review page. Alia Gogi said more than one million ratings and reviews are now available to consumers in the store. The new store will also feature interactive game tables for skincare and makeup. Technology such as "Lift and Learn" will allow consumers to display information about products on the screen as they hold up the products on the table. This area will focus on the 7 major skin questions and provide answers to consumers. Furthermore, the new store will offer skincare and testing services. For example, Perk By Hydrafacial, a non-invasive facial treatment using surface resurfacing technology, and Skincredible 2.0, a handheld filming device that can take pictures of three parts of the face and then assess the skin condition based on the photos and give product recommendations based on the assessment. As consumers like to learn about makeup on social media, Sephora’s Asia Future Shop also sets up an interactive Play Table, where people can shop for popular makeup looks through video tutorials created by the "Sephora squad". At the back of the beauty area is The Beauty Live Studio, which offers free classes to consumers, and they can also book classes online through an app. And the area is expected to offer 50 classes over the next two months according to the report. Sephora stores will no longer just be a place to shop, but also a place to receive beauty education. It also said this will be the first cashless Sephora store, and beauty consultants will have POS handheld devices to support payments at all times. After the opening of the Singapore store, the next Future Store is reportedly set to open in Shanghai in 2023. As early as 2018, Sephora's first new concept store in Asia landed in Shanghai, introducing smart beauty technologies including AR technology, cloud shelves, virtual fitting, mini makeup shows, and more.

Total retail sales of cosmetics fell by 6.4% in August, including a 6.42% year-on-year decline in import value. On September 16, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released data on retail sales of consumer goods in January-August 2022. In August, total retail sales of consumer goods were 3,625.8 billion yuan ($517.092 billion), which grew 5.4% year-on-year. From January to August, total retail sales of consumer goods were 28,256 billion yuan ($4,029.721 billion), up 0.5% year-on-year. In terms of cosmetics-related data, in August, the cosmetics category grew slightly compared to the previous month but was still on a downward trend compared to last year. Specifically, total retail sales of cosmetics in August reached 28.8 billion yuan ($4.107 billion), which declined 6.4% year-on-year, while total retail sales of cosmetics from January to August were 245.3 billion yuan ($34.983 billion), decreased 2.7% year-on-year. From a vertical comparison, the total retail sales of cosmetics in August hit another five-year low, with the only negative growth in 5 years. The highest growth rate was in 2020, with a growth rate of 19%, and since then the growth rate has had a cliff-like drop. As for customs import data, the amount and tonnage of imports fell year on year. In particular beauty cosmetics and washing&care products imported 41055.1 tons in August, basically the same as the last year, a slight decline of 0.03%. The total import value was 12.82 billion yuan ($1.828 billion), which decreased 6.42% year-on-year. 281,691.6 tons were imported from January to August, a fall of 7.3% year-on-year. The total import value reached 97.26 billion yuan ($13.871 billion), down 4.6% year on year. The cosmetics market as a whole remained cold in August and market pressure increased. The second half of the year is still facing many uncertainties, but cosmetic companies are also working hard to boost consumer confidence and find new growth sections. Overall, NBS claimed that in August, in the face of a complex and severe international environment and the spreading pandemic in China, extreme high-temperature weather, and other multiple tests beyond expectations, all regions and departments efficiently coordinate the prevention and control of pandemics and economic and social development, and strengthen the implementation of a stable economic policy package and successive policy measures. Currently, the national economy continued to resume its development trend, production demand has risen steadily, and employment and prices are generally stable.

Recently, the National Medical Products Administration informed the results of an unannounced inspection on Shenyang Shengda Feitong Bioengineering Co., Ltd. and Shenyang Aihua Cosmetics Co., Ltd, both of which were investigated by the law and suspended for rectification.

Consumers are paying increased attention to anti-aging cosmetics with firming and anti-wrinkle effects. According to Frost & Sullivan, Giant Biogene is the second largest professional skincare products company in China (by retail sales) in 2021, also, it has been the largest collagen professional skincare products company in China for 3 consecutive years. CHAILEEDO invited Duan Zhiguang, Senior Vice President of Giant Biogene, to talk about the future trends of cosmetics in China. In his opinion, efficacy skincare products are one of the cosmetic sections that have received much attention in recent years. Its principle is to use active ingredients to repair the skin barrier and target skin problems. With consumer upgrading, consumer demand for skincare products is progressing toward a more personalized segmentation of efficacy. Ingredient formulations are becoming an increasingly significant observation indicator for consumers of efficacy skincare products, from the original pursuit of the concentration and variety of skincare ingredients to the pursuit of scientific proportioning systems and core ingredient technologies. For the efficacy skincare market, the active ingredients and core ingredients can be said to be a crucial part of building a competitive barrier for the product. Collagen has always been a popular ingredient in skincare and has received much attention. According to the Skincare Industry Insight Report 2020, the annual discussion of collagen ranks first among skincare ingredients. So, will recombinant collagen become the next hyaluronic acid? According to Duan Zhigang, "The main feature of hyaluronic acid is its hydrating and moisturizing effect, while that of collagen is skin repair, firming and anti-wrinkle. Currently, collagen can be divided into recombinant collagen and animal collagen." According to Frost & Sullivan, the market size of recombinant collagen products in China is expected to increase from 18.5 billion yuan ($2.638 billion) in 2022 to 108.3 billion yuan ($15.441 billion) in 2027 at a CAGR of 42.4%. With the advancement of synthetic biology technology and consumers' pursuit of efficacy, the market share of efficacy skincare products for collagen is expected to surpass that of hyaluronic acid in the future, said Zhigang Duan. Meanwhile, in the professional skincare market, the market share of recombinant collagen has already surpassed that of animal collagen. CHAILEEDO also learned that in March this year, Giant Biogene's brand COLLGENE launched a new product "Human-like® LIFTACTIV WRINKLESS AND FIRMING ESSENCE" to seize the sensitive skin anti-aging section. It successfully entered the recombinant collagen anti-aging field by applying Human-like® recombinant collagen C5HA bionic combination technology to its products for the first time and presenting it publicly. Duan Zhiguang is very optimistic about the future development of anti-aging cosmetics. He explained that consumers are paying more attention to anti-aging cosmetics with firming and anti-wrinkle effects. According to public research data, 53.2% and 23.2% of consumers in the age group of 26-35 and 18-25 will start to pay attention to anti-aging categories such as skin firming and anti-wrinkle in 2022 respectively, which indicates that consumers' anti-aging awareness is advanced. And in terms of skincare efficacy selection, 55.6% of them focus on anti-aging, firming, and anti-wrinkle efficacy, second only to hydration and moisturizing (57.8%). On September 22, the 5th Conference on China’s Cosmetics Trends will be held in Hangzhou, China. CHAILEEDO will be live streaming the entire event, register now to book a live stream: https://www.chaileedo.com/events.

On September 15, Shiseido China announced that "Fibona", an open innovation project of Shiseido R&D Center, has recently landed in China. CHAILEEDO learned that Shiseido set two themes of "Medical Beauty" and "Holistic Beauty" for this event. And together with Plug and Play China launched the recruitment of startups in China. It is reported that Plug and Play China is a global technology innovation platform leader. It is worth noting that several selected startups will enter the 100-day challenge period from September for project feasibility verification and enter the final evaluation in December. In April 2019, the Shiseido Global Innovation Center in Yokohama, Japan, began operations, and the open innovation program "Fibona" was born in this context. This program aims to create new value by merging innovative ideas and technologies from outside with Shiseido's expertise in the fields of aesthetics and science. The "Startup Co-creation Program" is an important part of the Fibona program's activities. On the one hand, startups have innovative ideas and technologies. On the other hand, Shiseido has its strengths in products, technologies, and services. The "Startup Co-creation Program" aims to combine the two strengths in order to respond more quickly to consumer needs and market trends, and also to provide consumers with unprecedented beauty experiences and services. According to Shiseido, the program will focus on "medical aesthetics" technology and "holistic aesthetics" technology when it comes to China for the first time this year. The "medical aesthetic" technology aims to create "high efficiency" beauty solutions that meet the needs of Chinese consumers. The "holistic aesthetics" technology provides them with a holistic beauty solution from the inside out through comprehensive health monitoring and management, combined with Shiseido's own strong research strengths. After a pre-selection process, several startups were selected. They will work with Shiseido's R&D center to verify the feasibility of their projects by employing prototyping and monitoring tests during the subsequent 100-day challenge period. In the final selection in December, Shiseido will select outstanding startups from multiple dimensions for a new collaboration. Quality Chinese companies are increasingly receiving attention from international beauty giants. Just early last month, Shiseido China announced that its beauty innovation fund "Ziyue Fund" had completed the relevant regulatory filing. Its first investment of nearly 100 million yuan led to a Series A round of financing for recombinant collagen material company Jiangsu Trautec Medical Technology Co. Shiseido said that the investment aims to arrange new biomaterials for beauty in advance. In the future, it will combine the advantages of product development, raw material supply, and channel resources of both sides to explore the cooperation space of efficacy skincare products. At the same time, it will also help Trautec to further consolidate its leading edge.

Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation for the first time to write cosmetics into the mystery box specifications. Previously, regulators in various regions have also repeatedly rectified the mystery box market.

Abstract: Recently, China's National Medical Products Administration has been regulating and screening cosmetic safety and cosmetic testing organizations to regulate the cosmetic industry and ensure consumer safety.

Why does the“Low price, low quality, low dirt removing detergent” still can be sold under strict regulations? Recently, the Chinese Consumers’ Association (CCA) announced the results of a comparative test of 31 laundry detergent products, after testing, three products with insufficient active substances and poor detergency. Laundry detergent was found to be "Not Qualified" and has been a common occurrence. Only this year, there are laundry detergent sampling failure events in Zhejiang, Shandong, Hainan, and other provinces, and a high number of laundry detergent brands. Why do laundry detergents have poor performance so often? Insufficient active substances, washing detergent doesn't wash clean The information on the official website of the CCA shows that in order to know the stain removal capability of different laundry detergent products sold in the market, in the first half of this year, the CCA staff purchased 31 laundry detergent samples from some Internet platforms and online stores (involving 29 brands, except for "Kao Antibacterial EX Laundry Detergent" samples marked with the origin of Japan, the others are made in China ), commissioned the Beijing Institute of Product Quality Supervision and Inspection to complete a comparative test of the product test. It is reported that the comparative test is based on GB/T 13174-2021 "Determination of detergency and cycle of washing property for laundry detergents", the detergency value is the contrast value with the standard laundry detergent in the standard, the standard stained cloth is for the standard provisions of the stained cloth. The test results show that among the 31 samples, three samples have a total active substance content of less than 2%, and each detergency is obviously poor. And the unit price of the product is very low, combined with its stain removal power test results, they are low-cost low-quality products. According to the industry standard QB/T 1224-2012 "Liquid Detergent for fabric", the overall active substances content of ordinary laundry detergent products needs to be greater than 15% to meet the qualified standard. At the same time, it is also required that the detergency index of three specified stained cloths (charcoal black stained cloth, protein stained cloth, and sebum stained cloth) is better than the standard laundry detergent to be qualified. The above-mentioned three products have an active substance content of less than 2%, and the standard provisions are far from 15%. The CCA said that the total active substance content in detergent is directly related to the detergency, which can also reflect the cost and quality level. Generally speaking, the higher the total active ingredient content of detergents, the better the detergency effect, and the price is relatively high. Low quality, low price, chaos abounds According to Frost & Sullivan’s statistical research data, from 2015-2019, the total retail sales of the Chinese laundry detergent market continued to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13.1%. It is estimated that from 2020-2024, China's laundry detergent industry will still maintain a high growth rate of 13.6% CAGR, and by 2024, the national laundry detergent industry market size will exceed 50 billion yuan ($7.182 billion). While the huge market brings opportunities, it is also accompanied by the need for restraint and rectification of "chaos". The low level of active substances has been a persistent problem in laundry detergent sampling. For example, in 2018, 2019, and 2020 three national product quality sampling, some laundry detergents also have low total active substance content. Then again, the Zhejiang Administration for Market Regulation announced on May 30 this year, recalling 110,000 bottles of laundry detergent produced by Zhejiang Nanpeng Daily Products Co., Ltd. due to insufficient active substances and poor detergency when used by consumers. Laundry detergent with poor detergency often has a low price, and the 3 products named by the CCA are examples. Meanwhile, CHAILEED, through major e-commerce, and live streaming platforms, noted that there are many brands in the laundry detergent market today, and filled with a large number of low-cost products. On many e-commerce platforms, many laundry detergent products are as low as 1-2 yuan/kg ($0.29-0.57/kg). Several industry sources told CHAILEEDO that in the current laundry detergent market, many small enterprises pursue sales without a bottom line and produce numerous low and poor-quality products, especially on e-commerce platforms, where some low-priced products cut corners to gain greater profits by compressing costs. Key account manager Chen Tao from Fenhao Fragrance & Flavor House said bluntly, "many consumers can not specifically identify the product is good or bad, low-priced unqualified products is a deception of consumers. In addition, due to the low price, the effective active substances are reduced, and the detergency is definitely failed." According to Li Xiangting, founder of laundry detergent brand Yipinjing, the concentration of new retail platforms online has provided laundry detergent manufacturers with a more convenient circulation and sales channel. "But the pursuit of only low prices to attract traffic and thus achieve the ultimate traffic cash disrupts the normal market order and price system, causing consumers to be unable to judge the merits of goods in terms of their selling prices." National standards need to be established In the view of many industry professionals, the phenomenon of low-quality inferior laundry detergent is serious, the main reason behind this is that the production standards for such products are not rigid and do not need to be filed. CHAILEEDO learned that the above-mentioned national standard GB/T 13174-2021, as well as the industry standard QB/T 1224-2012, are not mandatory and belong to the recommended standards. Some industry sources said that many laundry detergents today mostly use corporate standards, and there are no mandatory requirements, which has led to some laundry detergents and laundry beads manufacturers’ developing of corporate standards set lower active substances and detergency standards. CHAILEEDO noted that in the sample test of the CCA, the implementation of the industry's recommended standard QB/T 1224 products accounted for 48%, and the implementation of corporate standards accounted for 52% of the products. In this regard, the CCA said that there is no mandatory national standard for laundry detergent products, certain companies in the development of corporate standards to reduce the total active substance content and the requirements of the detergency, which has become the reason for the uneven detergency performance of the laundry detergent purchased by consumers on the market. In response to the current laundry detergent market chaos, Chen Tao suggested that "China Cleaning Industry Association(CCIA) and the state can come up with a regulatory standard threshold, and active substances below a certain index are considered shoddy goods because such products are seriously harmful to environmental pollution." Li Xiangting said, "the production of low-quality laundry detergent products are basically small and workshop-type enterprises. Such enterprises do not pay taxes, do not have social security, and do not have quality control costs, and may not even have raw materials and packaging inventory." It is worth mentioning that the laundry detergent market chaos has long attracted the attention of the relevant departments. For low-quality laundry detergent, in August last year, the CCIA issued an initiative to resist the production and sale of low-quality detergent products, saying that there are numerous low-quality, low-priced, and shoddy laundry detergent and laundry gel beads on the market, It should resolutely stop and combat the market chaos and put forward five initiatives for enterprises across the industry. The current laundry detergent market chaos is caused by a variety of factors. Remediation of the market is long-term and complex, only when the regulatory authorities, manufacturers, and consumers are aware of the phenomenon and action, the chaos can gradually be cracked.

Wang Yibo’s entertainment and talent agency company Yue Hua Entertainment dives into the beauty industry. But the beauty brands that the company is involved in are the reverse mediocre. Whether the company can create a rich beauty performance through the huge traffic of idols still needs to be considered. There is a precedent in South Korea that entertainment company steps into the beauty brands. YG Entertainment, one of the three major entertainment companies in South Korea, launched a makeup brand Moonshot in 2014. With the help of YG's celebrity, it hit the market with the same style as G-DRAGON and Lisa. CHAILEEDO also noted that there are media reports that Yue Hua Entertainment has entered the beauty market. So, can Yue Hua Entertainment, which claims to be "the largest artist management company in China", play the beauty game well? The boss to sell facial skincare masks in person? Public information shows that Yue Hua Entertainment is a famous artist management company in China. Founded in 2009, its main business includes three major sectors including artist management, music IP production and operation, and pan-entertainment business. It has 66 contracted artists including Han Geng, Wang Yibo, Xuan Yi and others. It is easy to see that Yue Hua Entertainment's celebrities are mainly young. Based on that, the founder and chairman of Yue Hua Entertainment, Du Hua, also has a good reputation among her followers. She participated in the first and second seasons of the popular Chinese variety show "Sisters Who Make Waves". Recently, it has been publicly reported that Yuehua Entertainment is currently stepping up its efforts to "recruit" for its e-commerce business, mainly focusing on the beauty sector, while promoting its own beauty and skincare brand Dr. JE to the market. It is understood that as early as May this year, Dr. JE brand accounts on Weibo, Xiaohongshu and TikTok were launched one after another. The brand advertises itself as a brand specializing in biotech skincare with biotech ingredients, biotechnology and biotechnology processes. It tends to help scientific anti-aging repair and create professional and effective skincare solutions. On July 6, both the official flagship store of Dr. JE Beauty and Du Hua's TikTok account released a promotional video of the mask shot by Duhua leading the company’s stars such as Jin Zihan, Li Quanzhe, Huang Xinchun and Chen Xinwei. Currently, the video has 41,000 likes on Duhua's TikTok account. Some netizens put the video on Weibo and the play count reached 7.92 million times. CHAILEEDO also found that Dr. JE has only launched a Blue Copper Peptide Mask, which focuses on moisturizing, repairing and firming efficacy. It is priced at 59 yuan(about $8.5) for a single piece and 229 yuan(about $32.8) for a single box (5 pieces). In terms of brand marketing, Dr. JE's celebrity partners are all celebrities from Yue Hua Entertainment. On June 6, Dr. JE announced that Jin Zihan is a close friend of the brand. At the same time, the celebrities under Yue Hua Entertainment have released the promotional content of Dr. JE Blue Copper Peptide Mask. Moreover, the Dr. JE had earlier launched a campaign to buy masks for a chance to win tickets to a Li Wenhan concert. External investment in several beauty brands It is worth mentioning that in recent years, Yue Hua Entertainment has been deeply preparing the beauty sector by way of investment. Public information shows that in March 2020, Yue Hua Entertainment took a stake in the personal care brand "STARSUGAR" with Du Hua as the company's supervisor. In February and June 2022, Yue Hua Entertainment also took a stake in the fragrance brand "SEVENCHIC", which is managed by Chinese actress Qi Wei, and the daily chemical brand colorlomo, through its subsidiary. Shortly after Yue Hua Entertainment invested in STARSUGAR, STARSUGAR officially announced Yue Hua Entertainment’s stars Zhu Zhengting as the brand's spokesperson in October 2020. It is understood that STARSUGAR focuses on products such as shower gel, scrub and body lotion. However, CHAILEEDO noticed that STARSUGAR official accounts on Weibo Xiaohongshu and TikTok were stopped in April 2021. The products of STARSUGAR cannot be found on Taobao, JD, Xiaohongshu and TikTok. All indicate that the brand is suspected to have shut down. Publicly available information shows that the Colorlomo invested by Yue Hua Entertainment is also performing mediocre. It is noticed that colorlomo’s positioning is salon professional bleaching and dyeing after-care. It launched a number of main perm dyeing repair hair wash and care products, pricing in the range of 89 yuan - 318 yuan(about $12.7-$45.6). Currently, the best-selling products in its flagship store on the Chinese leading e-commerce platform only sold 100 + pieces. So far, SEVENCHIC's market performance is better. It entered the beauty industry from the fragrance sector, which is popular in the last two years. Coupled with Qi Wei's own influence, customers have a good impression of the brand. It is reported that SEVENCHIC has extended its product lines from fragrance pens to scented candles, hand care, body wash, beauty tools, etc., with prices ranging from 49 yuan(about $7) to 699 yuan(about $100.2). Moreover, Qi Wei has been highly bound to the brand in the identification of "brand founder/chief product officer". Currently, SEVENCHIC has 217,000 followers on its Tmall flagship store and 283,000 followers on TikTok. The highest selling product on both channels is a fragrance pen recommended by Qi Wei with total sales of over 100,000 pieces. Looking for new opportunities And on the road to the capital, Yue Hua Entertainment has held off on going public. Yue Hua Entertainment, which was scheduled to officially land on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on September 7, 2022, suddenly made an announcement on September 2, deciding to delay the global offering and suspend the IPO. The company did not explain the specific reasons for the delay, but only mentioned that it was "in view of the prevailing market conditions". According to the previously published prospectus, the main source of revenue for Yue Hua Entertainment is the celebrity management business, which brought Yue Hua 530 million yuan(about $76 million), 808 million yuan(about $115.8 million) and 1.175 billion yuan(about $168.4 million) in revenue from 2019 to 2021, accounting for 84%, 87.7% and 91% of total revenue respectively. It shows an upward trend year by year. Although Yue Hua Entertainment has a large star group with 66 contracted artists and 71 trainees. However, most of the revenue from the artist management business comes from the head artists, especially the popular stars Wang Yibo. Yue Hua Entertainment also stated in the prospectus that the company relies most on the business supplier. Outsiders speculate, based on a number of public information, that the business supplier is Yue Hua Entertainment's current head star, Wang Yibo. According to the prospectus, from 2019 to 2021, Wang Yibo brought 106 million(about $15.2 million), 338 million(about $48.4 million) and 639 million(about $91.6 million), or a total of 1.083 billion(about $155.2 million), for Yue Hua Entertainment. It is not difficult to see that while Wang Yibo brings high performance to Yue Hua Entertainment, over-reliance on Wang Yibo has also become a hidden worry for Yue Hua Entertainment. Some investors in the field of cultural investment said, if Yue Hua Entertainment wants to remain good performance, it is far from enough relying on top stars and celebrities' management business . Du Hua has also publicly said that in the future, as a listed company, the development of Yue Hua Entertainment to be more diversified, "we have a lot of stars resources and channel resources, I hope that when they have the ability to help some entrepreneurs." Combined with Yue Hua Entertainment's moves in the beauty field, it seems that it is trying to seek further development opportunities in the beauty industry by integrating its stars' resources. In contrast, the agency has the advantage of "group" in beauty marketing and comes with its own "traffic" from its stars. After all, not all brands can do what Dr. JE mask can do. That is, it can easily generate widespread attention in the star’s followers' group. But for Yue Hua Entertainment, how to turn its followers into consumers of beauty brands, and effectively operate the most valuable IP amplification, is the key to its breakthrough in the beauty market.

For providing photos that were not authorized by Emilia Clarke to YSG for use in product promotion, CLéMENT & CLéMENT was ordered to refund YSG 1,107,100 yuan ($158,800) and pay liquidated damages of 110,700 yuan ($15,900). On September 13, China Judgment Online published the judgment of the second trial of the commission contract dispute between Guangzhou YSG and Shanghai CLéMENT & CLéMENT. According to the verdict, YSG had signed an agreement with CLéMENT & CLéMENT in 2019, agreeing that CLéMENT & CLéMENT would provide YSG with authorized celebrity Emilia Clarke (actress of Daenerys Targaryen in American drama "Game of Thrones") to use pictures and videos of its Perfect Diary products, etc. CLéMENT & CLéMENT made an offer to Emilia Clarke's team to collaborate with them, but Emilia Clarke declined. After that, CLéMENT & CLéMENT signed a cooperation agreement with Flaunt Magazine, which will adapt "advertorial images" to use Perfect Diary's products in Emilia Clarke's photo shoot, and Flaunt Magazine will provide Emilia Clarke's photos for the advertorial images to be used by YSG. After the photos were delivered, YSG used the images on its Xiaohongshu and e-commerce platform, using text and image layout, and labeling the photos with "Emilia Clarke" and "FEAURED IN PERFECT DIARY ASSEEN IN FLAUNT" below. On April 24, 2019, both YSG and CLéMENT & CLéMENT received a warning letter from Emilia Clarke, stating that the use of her name and portraits constituted illegal use and requesting that YSG immediately remove all images from its website and social channels. In fact, CLéMENT & CLéMENT only obtained authorization from Flaunt, not the star's authorization to use. YSG thought that it should refund the contract fees and pay liquidated damages at the same time. In the first trial, the court ruled that CLéMENT & CLéMENT should return 1,878,500 yuan ($269,200) to YSG, and pay interest. The court of the second instance held that CLéMENT & CLéMENT had paid a total of $115,000 to Flaunt successively in order to obtain the above photos, so it should return a total of 1,107,100 yuan ($158,600). In addition, for the breach of contract, the Court of Second Instance held that YSG's use of the pictures had exceeded the time agreed in the contract for use. Moreover, after the celebrity team sent the letter, it did not take further measures. And the matter for which the celebrity team sent the letter of warning was not made public and did not cause a negative impact on YSG. Furthermore, the contract in question was negotiated at a time when the U.S. drama "Game of Thrones" was on the air and Emilia Clarke as a popular star. The company wanted to achieve the purpose of publicity but did not sign an endorsement contract, and wanted to obtain a high income at a low cost, so it should have realized the risks involved. Meanwhile, the company was at fault for putting the pictures into use without reviewing the authorization of the star's portrait rights. In the end, the court of the second instance adjusted the standard of liquidated damages to 10% of the amount that CLéMENT & CLéMENT should return, which is 110,700 yuan ($15,900).