Fortune 500 company BASF signed a contract for a project on high-end skin care and cosmetic products technical reform with a total investment of about $41 million with a new output value of about $77 million. It is worth noting that at the end of last year, BASF also invested in a production unit for Uvinul® A Plus (sunscreen) in Shanghai. The new unit has a design capacity of about 1,500 tons per year. On May 12, Beijing time, nine high-quality industrial projects in Jinshan District, Shanghai conducted on contract signing online. BASF Care Chemical(Shanghai) Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as "BASF") signed a contract for a project on high-end skin care and cosmetic products technical reform. BASF, a Fortune 500 company, signed a contract for a project on high-end skin care and cosmetic products technical reform with a total investment of about $41 million with a new output value of about $77 million and new annual tax revenue of about $23 million. The project will turn BASF into an integrated headquarters base for the production and sales of high-end cosmetic raw materials and care chemicals. By promoting the construction of its care chemicals headquarters base, it will further undertake to extend the development of related mid- and downstream industries, thereby accelerating the cultivation of a 10-billion-yuan daily-use chemicals, cosmetics and care products industry cluster. It is worth noting that in December 2021, BASF China's official website announced the investment in the establishment of a production unit for Uvinul® A Plus (sunscreen) in Jinshan, Shanghai, China, to further expand BASF's production capacity for its UV filtration portfolio in the Asia-Pacific region. This follows BASF's commitment in August 2020 to invest in a production plant for this product in Asia with a design capacity of around 1,500 tons per year and an expected start-up date of the first half of 2023. In addition to this, international beauty groups L'Oreal Group and Shiseido Group have also made investments in China this week. The two beauty giants have added new investment companies in China one after another releasing the signal of "attaching importance to the Chinese market" which is self-evident. Today, China is not only one of the largest markets for L'Oreal, Shiseido and other global giants, but also the second largest beauty market in the world. And along with the evolution of China's beauty market channels, brands and supply chain, the investment logic of international companies in China is bound to change. They will no longer acquire and develop new brands independently but making business investments in a more flexible way. According to incomplete statistics, at present, Unilever Group, Beiersdorf Group and other internationally renowned cosmetic companies have opened their investment layout in the Chinese market. It is worth noting that the investment range of these top beauty companies is relatively wide covering cosmetic upstream raw material enterprises, industry-related technology enterprises and operation enterprises. For example, Unilever's high-end beauty division has set up a joint venture company GoUni with Hangzhou GoLong Holdings Co., Ltd. with the intention of creating a local Chinese team to operate new high-end beauty brands. Against a backdrop such as a serious epidemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, logistics congestion and so on, why are international companies choosing to expand their investments in China? The deputy director of the Department of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China and the spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, Shu Jueting, said that multinational companies are actively expanding their investments in China, which, in our opinion, fully reflects the firm confidence of foreign investors in the prospects of China's economic development, the remarkable results of China's expansion and opening up to the outside world and optimization of its business environment, and the large size of China's market, complete industrial support, perfect infrastructure. It fully reflects the strong attraction of China's market size, complete industrial support, perfect infrastructure and abundant human resources to foreign investors. The Chinese government will continue to welcome investors from all over the world to invest in China and share the dividends of China's development.

Chinese skincare brand BIOHYALUX has released a limited edition co-branded gift box with jewelry brand KEER and invited actress Xing Fei to promote the product. BIOHYALUX is the core strategic brand of Chinese hyaluronic acid giant Bloomage Biotech with revenue of 1.229 billion yuan (about $181 million) in 2021, and the brand has also launched co-branded products with famous IPs such as Forbidden City and Doraemon. BIOHYALUX is the core strategic brand of Chinese hyaluronic acid giant Bloomage Biotech with two business segments covering medical aesthetics and functional skin care products. Relying on the scientific research strength of Bloomage Biotech focusing on hyaluronic acid for more than 20 years, it has created a new way of "intelligent hyaluronic acid" skin care. Hyaluronic acid is the core ingredient of BIOHYALUX products, and its BIOHYALUX modified hyaluronic acid sodium gel for injection was approved by the former CFDA, which is the first domestic cross-linked hyaluronic acid soft tissue filler approved by CFDA. It filled the blank of this type of product in China. It is understood that the cumulative sales of BIOHYALUX's iconic product, HA Aqua Single Use Essence, exceed a sales volume of 300 million units; and the brand's Single Use HA Aqua Store is the first product in China to use the BFS aseptic filling technology, which is mainly used in the production of eye drops, in the field of functional skin care products. It created a preservative-free, fragrance-free, alcohol-free, color-free new category of "single-use essence". Since the launch of its Tmall flagship store in 2017, BIOHYALUX has achieved 100% growth for three consecutive years. In 2020, its store sales exceeded RMB 400 million (over $58.92 million). During the Double 11(Chinese Shopping Carnival) period in 2021, the turnover of BIOHYALUX's Tmall store’s brand lives selling exceeded 50 million yuan (over $7.365 million), with a year-on-year growth rate of over 280%, ranking first in the list of overall innovative beauty brands. BIOHYALUX also exceeded the 1 billion yuan (over $147 million) for the first time in 2021. and Bloomage Biotech's 2021 annual report showed that BIOHYALUX's annual revenue reached 1.229 billion yuan (approximately $181 million), an increase of 117.42% year-on-year. It must be said that in recent years, BIOHYALUX, supported by the parent company Bloomage Biotech and coupled with its own outstanding products, performance has been relatively limelight. The co-branded cooperation with jewelry brand KEER is not by chance. BIOHYALUX has always been keen to raise awareness through co-branding, and cross-border cooperation to further enhance the sales of products. In December 2018, when the Forbidden City IP was on a crace at the time, BIOHYALUX found an opportunity to enter into cooperation with the Forbidden City and strongly launched two sets of products with quite traditional Chinese aesthetics: six Forbidden City lipsticks and two Forbidden City facial skincare masks, of which Runbayan Forbidden City lipsticks won the 2019 Tmall Beauty Award. The Tmall Beauty Award is organized by the Tmall platform, known as "the Oscars of the beauty industry", is based on the previous year in the Tmall platform hundreds of millions of consumers and thousands of beauty brands in the massive search, online interaction, positive feedback, trial reports, the number of purchases, service standards and other real transactions of the comprehensive ranking. The winning brands are carefully selected from tens of thousands of brand products before finally released. In June 2020, BIOHYALUX joined hands with the world-famous IP "Doraemon" - the movie " Doraemon: Nobita's New Dinosaur ", and launched a limited edition of single-use essence on the 50th anniversary of Doraemon. Once the product was launched, it quickly won the attention of young consumers. The product, with an inventory of 1.3 million units, was all sold out in less than 5 minutes after the launch of the Double 11 sale. In March 2021, BIOHYALUX cooperated with Tmall Hey Box to launch a new product for sensitive skin, "Barrier Conditioning". BIOHYALUX mobilized the research staff at the R&D end and held more than a dozen self-promotion lives streaming a month in advance. When the product was officially launched, with the public traffic provided by the platform and the tens of millions of traffic from the live streaming of the top KOLs, the sales of BIOHYALUX exceeded $6.3 million on the first day of the launch. It won the Top 1 of the whole store of Tmall Hey Box Chinese beauty products in one day. Currently, most Chinese cosmetic brands are paying extra attention to brand marketing. They tend to enhance their brand image, raise awareness, and gain exposure and traffic as a way to boost sales and performance. The launch of co-branded products, cross-border cooperation, and linking with famous IPs are common marketing models. But only when product quality and marketing strategies go hand in hand will they get the expected returns. So far, BIOHYALUX has gained some methods and experience in this area, which may give some inspiration to other brands.

Shiseido Group from Japan reported its results in Q1 of 2022. The sales of the Group in the first quarter were $1.825 billion, down 1.3% year-over-year while sales in China declined 20.6% year-on-year to $405 million, which is the largest decline for Shiseido China in at least the last six years. On May 12, Shiseido reported its results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022. The report showed that Shiseido sales in the first quarter were $1.825 billion, down 1.3% year-over-year, while core operating profit (operating profit excluding gains and losses from non-recurring factors) was $34 million, down 52.3% year-over-year. Sales in Shiseido's Japan and China regions were sluggish in the first quarter with sales declining, but the decline was partially offset by strong travel retail in the Americas and Europe while Shiseido also boosted the proportion of skincare products through business portfolio restructuring. In terms of operating profit, the business reduced fixed costs to secure benefits through structural changes in Europe and the US. By region, in the first quarter, sales of Shiseido Group in China declined 20.6% year-on-year to $405 million, an actual decline of 14% excluding the impact of business transfers, accounting for 22.2% of total sales. According to the financial reports, China became the market with the largest decline in sales for the Shiseido Group globally, down 20.6%, surpassing the decline in the same period in 2020 when the pandemic broke out and the largest decline for Shiseido China in the least the last six years. Just a year ago, Shiseido had just achieved the world's fastest growth rate of 46% in China. The main reason for the decline in China's performance was the restriction of activities centered on Shanghai due to the epidemic, which resulted in fewer customers in its offline stores. A portion of the stores was closed while also shortened business hours, which is also a part reason for its decline. It is also publicly reported that the delivery from Shiseido's Shanghai warehouse has been largely suspended according to restrictions. The E-commerce business continued to grow benefiting from the hot sales of products such as CPB and NARS, as well as promotions such as Chinese New Year and Women's Day. However, increased marketing investment efforts and other reasons led to a decline in profits. Compared to the sluggish state of the China and Japan markets, the Shiseido Group's business segments in the Americas, Europe, and travel retail seized the opportunity of market recovery to achieve growth in the first quarter. In terms of its brands, on the one hand, brands such as CPB and NARS performed strongly, both achieving double-digit growth. CPB sales grew 10% over the same period last year, while NARS sales grew the most, reaching a 35% increase. Meanwhile, Shiseido's fragrance brands also achieved a 28% year-over-year increase. The earnings report noted that NARS and CPB not only performed well in China with driving growth but also continued to expand their share in the Americas, where the two brands increased their market share by over 40%. On the other hand, its acquired American skincare brands Drunk Elephant, its own brand Shiseido, IPSA, and other brands are under-performing. Among them, Drunk Elephant sales fell the most reaching a 32% drop. Shiseido sales fell the least, at 9%. IPSA, ANESSA, ELIXIR sales fell 20%, 16%, and 12%, respectively. It is worth mentioning that the report stated that although some businesses are still affected by COVID-19 in March, the travel retail business in Hainan, China has maintained sustained growth and travel retail sales of Shiseido far exceeded its sales in 2019. Performance of the travel retail segment grew the most rapidly, with sales of $290 billion, an increase of $74 million compared to last year, an increase of 34.3% year-on-year, accounting for 15.9% of total sales. In terms of products, its major brands such as Shiseido, CPB, ANESSA, and NARS have launched new products. 2022 is also an important year for the Shiseido Group to achieve its goal of "full recovery" by 2023. In February 2021, the Shiseido Group announced the launch of its medium- and long-term business strategy "WIN 2023 and Beyond". 2022, the second year of the strategy's implementation, is positioned as the year of "getting back on right track for growth". According to the financial report, the Shiseido Group will focus on skincare and beauty, reconstruct the business portfolio, improve the profitability of the business structure with a focus on the European and American businesses, and carry out fundamental reforms to make management more focused on profits and cash flow for achieving the strategic goals. Recently, Shiseido Group also established its first special investment fund in China, "Ziyue Equity", with a total registered capital of over 500 million yuan(about $73.6 million), focusing on emerging and innovative brands in beauty and health frontier markets and investment opportunities in upstream and downstream related technology service companies to target new growth opportunities.

China's National Medical Products Administration issued the 14th Five-Year Plan on Drug Regulatory Network Security and Information Technology Construction requiring the strengthening of cosmetics regulatory capacity. It also required to build and improve systems and functions such as cosmetics and new cosmetic raw materials registration, filing, cosmetic quality and safety sampling, registration and filing inspection, adverse reaction monitoring, on-site inspection, unannounced inspection and standards revision and others. On May 11, Beijing time, China's National Medical Products Administration issued the 14th Five-Year Plan on Drug Regulatory Network Security and Information Technology Construction  (hereinafter referred to as the Plan). The Plan proposes to strengthen the regulatory capacity of drugs and cosmetics, and promote the digital and intelligent transformation and upgrading of the drug industry. The Plan mainly mentions the need to strengthen the integration of cosmetic regulatory business information technology applications and mobile construction including the comprehensive promotion of supervision and inspection, traceability supervision, inspection and testing and other business areas of electronic management. It is contributed to promoting the supervision of the entire process of standardization, digitalization, networking and other aspects of the construction of an intelligent regulatory platform. The key tasks of the Plan contain the following five aspects: upgrading intelligent regulatory of "two products and one device", improving the ability to integrate government services, promoting the integration of regulatory data and drive, building a firm digital base of drug intelligent supervision, and strengthening the comprehensive security capacity of network security. Among them, upgrading the intelligent regulatory of "two products and one device" should strengthen the cosmetic regulatory capacity and risk management construction and promote the application system mobile construction. First of all, in the perspective of strengthening the regulatory capacity of cosmetics, the Plan requires to continue to improve the construction of cosmetics and new cosmetic raw material registration, filing, cosmetic quality and safety sampling, registration and filing inspection, adverse reaction monitoring, on-site verification, unannounced Inspection and standards revision management and other business systems and functions. The cosmetic mobile office and regulatory services should be enhanced to promote the issuance of electronic certificates of cosmetic registration. Also convergence of cosmetic regulatory data, sharing and application should be strengthened. Research and construction should be implemented in the field of quantitative grading of cosmetic enterprises, variety files, risk analysis and early warning, network monitoring and others to enhance the digital and intelligent level of cosmetic regulation. Second, in the perspective of strengthening risk management capacity, the Plan requires to promotion the construction of China's cosmetic adverse reaction monitoring information system for improving the report collection of monitoring information system, information retrieval, statistical analysis and other functions. It aims to the establishment of reporting, easy-to-use and compatible with China's adverse drug reaction monitoring system. Finally, in the perspective of promoting the application system mobile construction. The Plan requires continuing to promote "cosmetic supervision" and other key mobile applications. It encourages Chinese drug regulatory departments at all levels to innovate service content, and enhance the breadth of services according to the actual application scenarios for gradually building a new pattern of comprehensive, multi-dimensional drug regulatory mobile Internet services. In addition, the Plan also requires strengthening analysis and exploring big data for cosmetics supervision and improving the ability of regulatory data resource management and application. And with reference to the construction model of drug variety files, the Plan asks to promote the construction of cosmetic variety files in accordance with the law to strengthen the product variety "one file for one product". It is contributed to achieving the full life cycle of product management. The construction of a cosmetic safety credit file is required to be promoted to strengthen the "one file for one enterprise". It aims to achieve the whole process and the whole process management from the laboratory to the end user. Finally, the National Medical Products Administration asks for strengthening the supervision of cosmetic information standards. It encourages provincial medical products regulatory departments, industry associations, enterprises, scientific research institutions and others to participate in the standard formulation and revision. Cosmetic supervision of key areas of information technology standards and regulations for the development and revision of the work should be carried out including information technology standards and regulations such as electronic certificates, drug traceability, variety files, credit files, administrative licensing and others.

A few days ago, TikTok E-commerce Ranking in April was officially released with three trend lists of hot-selling products, brands, and stores. While showing the outstanding performance of brands, merchants, and products in April, TikTok helps brands insight into consumer market trends and consumer preferences. On the same day, to protect the rights and interests of consumers and regulate the behavior of merchants, TikTok E-commerce also revised the Advertisement Regulation of the Beauty Industry. On May 10, Beijing time (all times appearing in this article are Beijing time), TikTok announced the TikTok E-commerce Ranking in April. Among the Top 10 brands in cumulative sales in the beauty industry, there are 8 Chinese cosmetic brands and 2 international brands. Among them, the sales TOP3 brands are L'Oreal Paris, Florasis, and OSM. Comparing the list of cumulative sales TOP10 stores in the beauty industry with the list of cumulative sales TOP10 brands in the beauty industry, it can be seen that the repetition rate of the two lists is high with Florasis, L'Oreal, OSM, AFU, Ulike, Erno Laszlo, BIOHYALUX and Grain Rain all on the two lists. In addition, the official flagship store of Jingdong Beauty made it to fifth place on the list of stores. In the cumulative sales of the TOP 10 products in the beauty industry, the top three products are Florasis Yurong Water Lily Fresh Forever Cushion Foundation, Zhuben Dream River Botanical Refreshing Cleansing Oil, L'Oreal Revitalift Filler(HA) Toner and Lotion Set. It is worth noting that two beauty devices are ranked on the list, AMIRO High Radiofrequency Facial Machine, and the YAMAN ACE PRO ACE Bloom WR S12-YL, respectively, ranked fourth and fifth. In terms of personal care and cleaning, Zhu Hu Tissue, Spes Washing Free Hair Spray, and BodyAid Anti Hair Loss were listed in the Top 3. Compared with the strong demand for body lotion and hair removal cream in March, consumer demand in April was more focused on hair care and hair oil removal. In addition, on the list of cross-border industry hot-selling, Mistine Aqua Base Ultra Protection became the only beauty product on the list and ranked TOP1. The rest are oral nutrition products. On the same day, TikTok e-commerce also released a public notice about the revised Advertisement Regulation of the Beauty Industry (hereinafter referred to as the Regulation), which makes clear provisions for platform merchants and creators to operate or promote beauty products. The Regulation took effect on May 17. The Regulation mainly covers four major prohibitions: exaggerated, false propaganda or description; unfair competitiveness; no dissemination of discomforting content; and no inducement of private transactions with consumers. A large amount of articles is devoted to explaining the problem of false advertising of cosmetics including the prohibition of false expressions related to efficacy; the prohibition of using absolute terms and other prohibited words in advertising; the need to provide proof when advertising patents, honors, and other content; the prohibition of false advertising of cosmetic ingredients, content, origin, specifications and other information; and the prohibition of the false description of the price and value of cosmetics. Among them, the Regulation points out that cosmetics are prohibited from advertising cosmetics with medical effects. It is also prohibited to advertise certain ingredients as having medical effects. For example, cosmetics with legally permitted Chinese herbal ingredients can promote the name of the added herbs, but it is prohibited to claim that the products have the corresponding medical effects of the herbal ingredients. In addition, the Regulation also clearly mentioned that no medical institutions, doctors, consumers, or beneficiaries, such as the name or image of others recommended, prove the effectiveness of the product, so people misunderstand the efficacy of the propaganda behavior. At the same time, TikTok E-commerce also requires evidence and proof when merchants make publicity. For example, in the promotion of commodity information involving patented certification, honors, awards, authoritative research and development units, effect index, and other information, relevant information should be shown in the live streaming, video, product details page, and other supporting materials. In addition to the above publicity issues, the Regulation also highlights that the platform merchants/creators to promote beauty products should prohibit false descriptions of the price and value of cosmetics. For example, a mask priced at $90 is advertised in the live streaming, but the actual price of the mask is priced at $150 with a $10 coupon, and it costs the customer $140 to purchase the mask. In addition, the Regulation specifies that the sale of products shall not appear to disparage third parties or similar goods and excessive promotion of "cheap knock-off" and other acts of unfair competition. For example, if the creator shares Brand A cream while throwing Brand B cream in the trash, or if A is advertised as a substitute for B simply because it is from the same line as the more well-known B. Finally, the Regulation also emphasizes that when promoting beauty products, merchants shall not advertise information that may have infringed on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers such as leading private transactions, and diversion to third-party websites or clients. For example, the live streamers in the live streaming frequently guide users to message customer service privately with no clear reasonable reason. It is suspected implying and guiding private transactions or the existence of guide private transactions risk damage to consumer rights and interests.

LMNT, a personal care brand of China's Hong Kong-listed Sisram Medical Technology Limited, has officially launched in China. Sisram Medical is a global beauty and health group with a diverse portfolio of products and customer-centric brands in the beauty and health ecosystem including medical aesthetic devices, injectable fillers, aesthetic dentistry and personal care. Recently, LMNT, the domestic beauty device brand from the beauty eco-matrix of Sisram Medical, announced that it has officially settled in the Chinese market and is available for sale in the brand's overseas flagship store on Tmall, the mainstream e-commerce platform in China. According to the official introduction, LMNT is positioned as a personal care brand, and its main product is LMNT one, a beauty device based on the principle of light waves, the energy of which will be selectively absorbed by the deposited pigment particles to achieve the effect of pigment decomposition and skin whitening. It is currently priced at $695 on Tmall's overseas flagship store. The product is clinically proven to enhance skin microcirculation and promote collagen renewal thus achieving immediate brightening and long-lasting anti-aging effects while ensuring a safe and comfortable application experience. According to public information, Sisram Medical is mainly engaged in the development, design, manufacture, sales and marketing of medical aesthetics, dental devices, home devices, injectable fillers and cosmetics. The device of medical aesthetics is one of the core businesses. LMNT one is its new domestic beauty device launched in 2021. The company was listed in Hong Kong, China in September 2017 and is the first Israeli company to be listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The launch of LMNT one, a domestic beauty device, is a new attempt by Sisram Medical in its To C(to customer) business. It combined the B2C business with the traditional B2B business to create a joint online and offline operation platform to further strengthen the reach with consumers. In recent years, China's medical beauty and skin care market has been expanding. In the past 3 years, the average annual growth rate of sales of Chinese domestic beauty device products reached 28%. According to the data of Intelligence Research, the current production growth rate of Chinese beauty device products exceeds 20%, and the market size of Chinese domestic beauty devices will exceed $3 billion in 2026. According to the Insight on Online Beauty Device Consumption released by MKTINDEX, a big data company in China's e-commerce sector, China's young Generation Z and mature women are the two main users of beauty devices. Taking into account the high customer unit for beauty devices, the number of women aged 18-45 in China's first and second-tier cities is the main consumer group, which is about 120 million people. Assuming that the replacement cycle of beauty devices is two years, then the current market beauty device ownership is less than ten million, which is still a large gap among the consumer population. China's future beauty device still has a large potential for development. It is worth mentioning that in March 2022, China's National Medical Products Administration released Amending the Regulation on the Supervision and Administration of Medical Devices in April 2024, which stated that Radio Frequency Beauty Device will be included in Class III of medical devices for management. It should be noted that Class III medical devices are the highest level of medical devices in China, and are also medical devices that Class III medical device must be strictly controlled for it is the highest class medical device in China. It is understood that no domestic beauty device brands have yet obtained such registration. A person in charge of beauty device brands in R&D said that for more long-term development, the brand focusing on long-termism has accelerated the relevant extent. "products that have no actual efficacy and brands that only desire to make easy money and do not focus on investing in core technology research and development will be eliminated by the Chinese market and consumers".

Recently, men's online shopping shampoo received "Panpiao Feisi" caused heated discussion among netizens. According to the China Trademark Network, the company belonging to the "Panpiao Feisi" trademark is Guangzhou Longqier Cosmetics Co., Ltd., which was registered in 2018 and the international classification belongs to 3 classes of daily chemical products. In the end, the trademark "Panpiao Feisi" was decided not to be registered. Recently, a video of "shopping for shampoo online, but unexpectedly receiving 'Panpiao Feisi'" on the Chinese internet has been sweeping China's social media Weibo. The video shows a man holding a shampoo that looks similar to Head & Shoulders in his hand, but the name on the outer packaging reads "Panpiao Feisi". Chinese netizens have commented: "The three joint funds were created secretly?" "Put the essence of three brands of Pantene, Rejoice and Head & Shoulders in one?" "It was a surprise to see the name, which was funny." The video shooter said that the "Panpiao Feisi" shampoo in the video was bought by an elder watching the pop-up window advertisements of the e-commerce platform and was not very good at using mobile phones. After receiving the goods, only to find that the outer packaging name is called "Panpiao Feisi". At present he and his wife have used it once, he felt that this shampoo is less foaming and the experience was bad. After washing, the scalp is a little itchy, after using it once, it was thrown away. In this regard, the staff of the e-commerce platform concerned responded that the platform is not allowed to sell fake goods, if the user finds that there is a problem with the goods during the purchase process, they can contact them for processing, and once the platform verifies, the seller's counterfeiting behavior will be severely punished. For products such as shampoo, it is recommended that users purchase in the official flagship store or brand authorized to store and they need to look carefully before purchasing. According to public information, "Panpiao Feisi" was applied for registration as a trademark by Guangzhou Longqier Cosmetics Co., Ltd. in February 2018 and was internationally classified as a daily chemical product. It completed registration in December 2018. Procter & Gamble has already filed an objection to this trademark, and eventually, the "Panpiao Feisi" trademark was decided not to be registered. The trademark documents show that the goods designated for use by the trademarks of the two parties are basically the same in terms of functional purposes, sales channels and consumption objects, so they are similar goods. The text of the opposed trademark "Panpiao Feisi" is composed of some words in the trademarks of "Pantene", "Rejoice" and "Head & Shoulders" cited by Procter & Gamble, which has constituted plagiarism and imitation of the trademark of the opposing party, which is likely to cause consumers to confuse and misunderstand the source of the goods, and the trademarks of the two parties have constituted similar trademarks used on similar goods. In the end, China National Intellectual Property Administration ruled in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Trademark Law that the trademark "Panpiao Feisi" should not be registered. Trademarks such as "Qing Si Yang", "Yi Fei Si", "Pan Piao", "Iman Lan Adoph" and "Yufang Zi Lai Ya" are all combined with words from other well-known brand names. In addition, the company has a number of court announcements, including trademark infringement disputes and the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks. Nowadays, copycat fakes are emerging in an endless stream. Although the e-commerce platform concerned said that there is zero tolerance for fake goods, it requires users to report them. And once reported successfully, they will be punished. However, due to the lack of consumer awareness of the harm of fake goods, some feel that there is not much money being in a loss, so there is no need to report and they give up accountability. Is it because consumers are not held accountable, they are not prosecuted? And it is the pop-up window of the platform where consumers buy fakes. Therefore, the platform must stand up and assume corresponding responsibilities and obligations in such circumstances. According to China's E-commerce Law, e-commerce platforms should disclose goods or service information in a comprehensive, true, accurate and timely manner, protect consumers' right to know and choose, actively remove the information about copycat fakes, avoiding consumers from buying fake goods and establish a safer and more standardized reputation for their own operations.

Chinese personal care brand SOOCAS has officially announced singer and actor Tan Jianci(JC-T) as the spokesperson for its electric toothbrush. SOOCAS was established in June 2015, and the electric toothbrush is the brand's star product. The first generation of SOOCAS Sonic Electric Toothbrush attracted consumers' attention with its super high-cost performance, and the stock of 10,000 units was sold out within 48 hours. SOOCAS's three-blade electric shaver was sold over 100,000 units in six months at its Tmall flagship store with sales reaching 57.33 million yuan ($8.53 million), equivalent to monthly sales of nearly 10 million yuan (about $1.49 million). While official cooperation with Tan Jianci(JC-T) as the spokesman for the electric toothbrush at the same time, SOOCAS also promoted the same model endorsed by Tan Jianci(JC-T)--- Vacuum Packing Electric Toothbrush which is priced at about $53. Tan Jianci(JC-T) has over 1.1 million followers on the Chinese social platform Weibo. At present, the official announcement of SOOCAS's post has exceeded 220,000 retweets, more than 160,000 comments, and 380,000 likes. Public information was shown that SOOCAS was established in June 2015 and is a new generation of comprehensive personal care brands. The main business is the design, development, and sales of small personal care appliances, and the product concept is "one more step of fine care". The products are divided into three categories: oral care product line including intelligent sonic electric toothbrush, water flosser for teeth, high-end toothpaste, and other products. The grooming product line includes a rotary electric razor, nose hair trimmer, and other products. The hair care product line contains products that are negative ion hair dryers. In 2016, SOOCAS received investment from Xiaomi, a Chinese mobile internet company, and became a Xiaomi ecological chain company. In the beginning, SOOCAS chose to enter the field of small electric appliances with electric toothbrushes aiming at the mass market and mainly for the younger generation of consumers. Its product price is relatively low to medium, which is very tempting for consumers who want to try an intelligent sonic toothbrush. In this case, it quickly occupied the market. In 2016, the first generation of SOOCAS sonic electric toothbrushes on Xiaomi's online platform launched crowdfunding with a low price of about $6s to attract the attention of consumers. Its inventory of 10,000 units was sold out within 48 hours. So far, SOOCAS has made a name for itself in the electric toothbrush market. In addition, according to statistics from MKTINKEX, in the first half of 2021, the sales of SOOCAS's three-head electric shaver reached 57.33 million yuan ($8.53 million) on the Taobao platform alone in its flagship store with sales of over 100,000 units. In terms of its selling channels, SOOCAS products are available mainly in the online channel through Tmall, Jingdong, Xiaomi Mall, PICCOC, TikTok, Xiaohongshu, Pinduoduo, Suning, Vipshop, and other e-commerce platforms for sales. SOOCAS products are frequently shown in the live streaming of Li Jiaqi(Chinese top live streamer) and other e-commerce live streamers. With the brand effect of its large customers Xiaomi and the large traffic support from top live streaming, SOOCAS repeatedly topped the sales of the 100-yuan electric toothbrush category. In addition, SOOCAS is also loved by the capital market. In 2017 and 2018, SOOCAS respectively received tens of millions of dollars in Series A and nearly one hundred of million dollars in Series B financing. In 2019, SOOCAS received about $29.76 million Series C investment led by Vision Knight Capital, followed by Kinzon Capital, Cathay Fund, Yunmu Capital, Orchid Asia, and Greenwoods Investment. The round of investment set a record in the personal care appliance industry at the time, which was the largest single funding amount. In 2020, SOOCAS again won $26.04 million in Pre-IPO rounds. From the perspective of marketing, SOOCAS has been questioned as "too much marketing while less research and development". The prospectus shows that from 2018 to the first half of 2021, the advertising and marketing expenses of SOOCAS were about $2.23 million, about $9.85 million, about $27.68 million, and about $19.79 million, respectively. The marketing expenses spent in 2020 were more than the money raised in the Pre-IPO round ($26.04 million). The huge capital investment coupled with the marketing strategy has also given SOOCAS some good-looking performance. In August 2021, SOOCAS joined hands with Tmall Hey Box for the first time to launch an exclusive new marble razor. SOOCAS further increased its momentum through the traffic from endorsement with LELUSH(a Russian singer) by launching a short video on the Qixi Festival (Chinese Valentine's Day), which triggered the marketing of the new product. According to the official data, the number of followers of SOOCAS flagship store during the promotional event of the Qixi Festival grew by 1937% month-on-month. The total view of the topics on the Chinese social platform Weibo exceeded 270 million, and the sales during the debut of the new products broke the record. In 2022, SOOCAS' parent company SOOCAS Technology stepped on the road to IPO. SOOCAS was expected to become the "first stock of electric toothbrushes" but the current IPO review of SOOCAS Technology has been suspended. The IPO prospectus was published which showed that SOOCAS Technology and SOOCAS brand were questioned to suffer from "Heavy Dependence on Xiaomi". The high account on Xiaomi and the related transactions with Xiaomi also became the focus of IPO audit inquiries. The prospectus stated that Xiaomi is the first major customer of SOOCAS Technology. From 2018 to 2020 and the first half of 2021, SOOCAS Technology's related sales to Xiaomi Group accounted for 73.52%, 61.31%, 60.60%, and 56.40% of the current revenue, respectively. And even if Xiaomi contributed most of the revenue of SOOCAS, the net profit of SOOCAS is still not very optimistic. From 2018 to 2021 in the first half, the net profit margin of SOOCAS is 8.7%, 3.6%, 5.1%, and 10.2%, and the net profit in 2019 has also declined. SOOCAS has multiple obvious advantages such as support by many capitals, mass positioning of its products, and focusing on marketing. But most of its revenue from Xiaomi is indeed the problem that the brand must pay attention to. If the brand wants to have long-term development, SOOCAS also needs to slowly discard the "crutch"---Xiaomi, and learn to develop on its own.

For a long time, in China, whitening is the second-largest demand market followed by moisturizing. However, due to the implementation of new cosmetics regulations in China, the number of new products for freckle minimization and whitening this year has decreased and the total number of new products is less than 70. Chinese industry insiders said that they are not going to launch new whitening products this year. It can be said that China's whitening market is quiet in 2022. According to the data from the World Health Organization, the market size of whitening products will reach $31.2 billion in 2024. On a global scale, Asians have the most common whitening needs. Oriental women have a long-standing concept of whiteness as beauty, especially in China and Japan. Women in Korea and other countries have an affection for clear and fair complexion. It is predicted that the average annual market size of whitening consumption in China is at least $9.821 billion. As one of the most important market segments in cosmetics, the consumption scale of whitening products is only second to the basic needs of moisturizing and cleaning, which shows that the consumption of whitening products is prevalent. In China, more than 80% of women choose whitening cosmetics in their daily skincare process. In terms of category preference, consumers like to buy facial masks that claim to have whitening effects, followed by whitening sunscreens and whitening essences. With the advent of summer, consumers are also very concerned about body whitening and the sales growth rate of hand masks and body lotions is also accelerating. In terms of brand country preference, the market share of Chinese brands and international products of online whitening cosmetics account for 50%. In terms of ingredient preference, “niacinamide” has become the most popular ingredient in whitening cosmetics, followed by pearls and vitamin C. At present, whitening cosmetics account for nearly 30% of China’s cosmetics market, but the new rules mean they will face stricter approval and regulation, making it much more difficult and costly for companies to produce and sell whitening products. According to China’s Cosmetics Efficacy Claim Evaluation Specification, the efficacy of freckle minimization and whitening requires human efficacy evaluation tests, which can only be carried out by testing institutions registered in China. However, at present, there are less than 20 testing institutions in China that are qualified to conduct whitening human efficacy evaluation tests. At the same time, the cost of freckle minimization and whitening human efficacy evaluation was as high as nearly $30,000. Although the current test cost has dropped, it still exceeds $15,000. These have stumped many businesses. A search on China’s domestic special cosmetics registration platform shows a total of 131 related products. This means that since the beginning of this year, only 131 new special cosmetics products in China have obtained registration certificates. Among them, there are 57 whitening and freckle minimization products. When searching on China’s imported special cosmetics registration platform, there are only 25 products, including only 8 whitening and freckle minimization products. It can be seen that since the beginning of this year, there are only 65 new products in the freckle minimization and whitening category of Chinese brands and international brands, mainly covering categories such as essence creams, masks, body lotions, sprays and hand creams. In addition, it was found that in these new products, there is almost no trace of well-known brands, except for the relatively familiar brands like Dr.Jart+, POLA and Lancaster. On the market and marketing side, the publicity related to whitening has also weakened. This year, big-name and well-known brands have not launched new whitening products, which is in sharp contrast to the past. So, what are the effects of the current brand promotion? The answer is anti-aging. With the trend of aging of the global population, the demand for delaying aging is increasing day by day. The global anti-aging market size reached $191.7 billion in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 8.3%. Forbes data believes that China’s anti-aging market has a development space of 100 billion in the future. The new generation of young consumers in China are increasingly aware of skincare and their sensitivity to skin aging is improving, which makes them enter the ranks of anti-aging earlier. The survey shows that the age of Chinese consumers who use anti-aging products for the first time is getting younger and younger, and the proportion of people born after the 1995s who use anti-aging products before the age of 24 is as high as 84%. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that, compared with whitening, anti-aging does not require human efficacy evaluation tests in China, meaning that the time and cost of the brand are greatly reduced.

Chinese girls' makeup brand Flower Knows has launched a new Crystal Unicorn collection with four products: blush, sheer lip stain, compact powder, and fragrance. The flower knows is known for its girly positioning, and its products have been updated in collections. In November 2021, Flower knows achieved peak sales of $34.09 million (approximately $5.07 million) in a single month accounting for only 20% of annual sales. Its sales in February 2022 exceeded $23 million (over $3.42 million) in a single month, an increase of 28.75% month-on-month and 242% YoY. Flower Knows released a new crystal unicorn series priced between $14 to $26. Its original price for the full set of gift boxes is $302. It will be officially launched on May 13 in Flower Knows’ flagship store on the Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall. Founded in August 2016, the targeted audience of Flower Knows are customers who were born after 1990(including 1990) and 2000(including 2000). The brand enjoys multiple series such as Unicorns, Little Angel, LOVE BEAR, Mini LoveBear Brush Portable, Flower Goddess, Cherry Love and so on covering eye shadows, lipsticks, blushes, and compact powders. The price of the products in Flower Knows' Tmall flagship store ranges from $7 to $342. When Chinese consumers talk about Flower Knows, a series of images with a girly and Chinese style comes to many people's minds. This is because Flower Knows has been working on its packaging design for the past two years. Its strategy is making impressive visuals to capture the hearts of consumers. After exploring, Flower Knows found that figurative elements are the most easily recognizable girly style for consumers just like the element of Love Bear. Even if consumers do not know the story behind the product, they can still carve out the general appearance of the product in their minds and pay for the design. After that, Flower Knows launched different series such as Love Bear, Unicorns, and others one after another. It maintained the frequency of about 5-6 times a year to launch new products. It upgraded the new products in the form of a whole series. As for its packaging, it adheres to the use of private mould with a highly tricky process and materials to make an exceedingly personalized product and packaging. Many consumers will take photos to share and spread their photos on their social platform when opening the box after receiving the products, which also brings traffic to Flower Knows. In 2019, Flower Knows determined the direction of development after reviewing the product style on the Taobao platform. In 2020, it launched various series of products in specific frequency with a girl's style theme by making efforts in online and offline channels. It was in these two years that sales and users of Flower Knows got further breakthroughs. In 2019, Flower Knows' total sales exceeded 20 million yuan ($2.972 million). After the opening of its Tmall store in June 2020, it accumulated 500,000 followers within six months and its omnichannel sales exceeded 100 million yuan (over $14.86 million) in 2020. While striving to create a beautiful appearance, Flower Knows did not give up on enhancing an interesting spirit. In early 2021, cute and sexy makeup was popularized in China while Florasis followed the trend and launched elegant purple blush, and the cumulative sales of this product exceeded 200,000 units. In the second half of 2021, when the market was flooded with purple blush, Florasis worked hard to communicate with suppliers and launched blue blush, which is trendy. It must be said that Flower Knows is very talented in capturing trends and creating pop-ups. It did not choose to blindly follow the trend and did not let go of any business opportunities. In terms of marketing, Flower Knows emphasizes the "developing system". It did not force consumers to know the brand through advertising on platforms such as Xiaohongshu and TikTok, but by aggregating niche communities such as Nijikon(from the English "2D complex", is the affective perception that two-dimensional anime, manga, and light novel characters are more attractive visually, physically or emotionally than people from the real world), cosplay, lolita, and others before breaking out through bilibili platform(a video sharing website). While most makeup brands are scrambling to take the live-streaming express, Flower Knows did not jump on the bandwagon to pin all its sales on the top live streamers. During the Double 11(Chinese Shopping Carnival) in 2020, live-streaming only accounted for 11% of Flower Knows' total GMV, of which 9% was brand live streaming. Flower Knows has chosen a less unusual path: it mainly relies on self-brand private traffic from Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and WeChat and it is committed to cultivating a long promotional period of followers to precipitate loyal users. According to the tracking data, it is shown that from February 2021 to February 2022, Flower Knows has achieved 178 million yuan (about $26.45 million) in cumulative sales in the past year, with sales exceeding 2 million units. The peak sales in November 2021 achieved 34.09 million yuan(about $5.07 million) in a single month, accounting for only 20% of annual sales. Among them, the single-month sales in February 2022 are to catch up with the important consumer node 618(a promotional campaign on June 18th) and 38(Women’s Day on March 8th) promotion in 2021. Its single-month sales were more than 23 million (about $3.42 million), an increase of 28.75% month-on-month and 242% YoY. Whether in terms of brand positioning, packaging design, product development, or marketing strategy, Flower Knows has always had its own set of logic rather than following the trend without sound consideration. But in the current Chinese market where the color cosmetics industry is extremely competitive, perhaps it is because Flower Knows dares to innovate and adhere to its ideas that it has seized the heart of consumers and occupied a place in the Chinese color cosmetics market.

Kao Corporation, a chemical and cosmetics company headquartered in Japan, disclosed its financial results for Q1 of 2022 ended March 31. It reported a sales growth of 8.2% YOY of $2.65 billion, which achieved a turnaround against the same period of last year. On May 11, Kao announced its results for the first quarter of 2022 ended on March 31. The report showed that Kao's first quarter sales were $2.65 billion, up 8.2% year-on-year, while operating profit was $176 million, down 25.8% year-on-year. The report said the business environment remains uncertain due to the continued rise in raw material prices since 2021 and sharp fluctuations in exchange rates, as well as the impact of the Ukraine issue and the COVID-19. The Kao Group comprises two business segments, Consumer Products and H&PC, with the Consumer Products business comprising the Hygiene & Health Care business, Health & Beauty Care business, Lifestyle Care business, and Cosmetics business. Kao's consumer products business reported total sales of $2.012 billion in the first quarter, up 2.4% year-over-year. Its operating profit was $101 million, down 91% year-over-year. The decline in profits was mainly affected by factors such as high raw material prices. Specifically, sales of the cosmetics business unit rose 10.5% to $431 million, and operating profit turned around to a profit, up 33% to $1.472 million. The market recovered later than expected due to the impact of the epidemic and the re-imposition of restrictions in Japan, but sales increased compared to the same period of the previous year due to the launch of new products, while the Group promoted structural reforms in the cosmetics business and reduced fixed costs. Sales of the Hygiene and Lifestyle Care segment rose 1.5% to $871 million and operating profit was $52 million, down 64% from a year earlier. For laundry care products, sales of laundry detergents increased compared with the same period last year due to enhanced marketing activities in Japan. In addition, sales of home care products were slightly lower than a year ago due to a contraction in the market caused by a rebound from high demand last year, but in this case, Cucut, a dishwashing detergent, still launched improved products and expanded its market share. The Health & Beauty Care segment posted sales of $615 million, down 1.4% year on year, and operating profit of $48.3 million, down 50% year on year. Sales of skin care products were all lower than the same period, and sales of seasonal products such as UV care products were lower due to the expansion of COVID-19. Sales of hair care products were also lower than in the same period due to fierce competition in Japan. However, in Europe and the U.S., sales of the U.S. hair care brand ORIBE were strong. In Europe, sales remained stable as economic activity normalized. By region, the cosmetic business continued sales growth far outpacing the market outside Japan with China growing by 17% and its prestige brands generated many successful products. Freeplus and Curel continued their strong growth in China, while high-end skincare brands SENSAI and Morton Brown saw big increases in sales in Europe. Kao also launched initiatives of Reborn Kao aiming to improve profitability by continued decisive investment in Q2 onwards. It plans to maximize local sales in China to launch a locally produced and locally consumed model of Curel. It also will strengthen prestige brands. For the skincare segment, it is contributed to revitalizing the market by offering products with distinctive functions and increasing countries where Kao sells UV care and hygiene-related products. Kao also tends to improve its products for hair salons by promoting the enhancement of damage-free color with Goldwell and starting the Asian business strengthening strategy. Kao forecasts its performance after Q2 that although the external environment is expected to remain challenging due to such factors as hikes in raw material prices and the impact of the lockdowns on its business in China, it will improve profitability by implementing strategic price increases and increasing the ratio of high value-added and high-profit products. In its financial report for 2021, it released a Kao Group Mid-term Plan from FY2021-2025 called K25. It stated that it will take its promotion of ESG-driven management a step further, striving to both make a positive contribution to society and achieve financial growth. While also bolstering its existing businesses through well-focused investments, it will collaborate with diverse partners based on its unique technology assets built up through its Essential Fundamental Technology Research to develop its business. It will also make intensive efforts to implement distinctive DX that innovates both our existing and new business. It will be creating a working environment that enables all employees to challenge themselves, and which will enhance the productivity of its business activities.

On May 10 Shiseido China sponsored an investment enterprise with registered capital of 501 million yuan(about $74.5 million). Moreover, Chinese and foreign top cosmetics companies such as L'Oreal, Unilever Group, and Beiersdorf Group have extended their investment in the Chinese market. On May 10, Shiseido (China) Investment Co., Ltd. sponsored an investment enterprise Xiamen Ziyue Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) with an investment ratio of about 98%. Xiamen Ziyue Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) was established on May 10, 2022, with a registered capital of 501 million yuan(about $74.5 million), and its business scope includes engaging in equity investment, investment management, asset management, and other activities with private equity funds. The company is owned by Shiseido (China) Investment Company Limited, Shiseido Ziyue (Shanghai) Management Consulting Company Limited, and Ningbo Boyu Jinghua Investment Management Company Limited with approximately 98%, 1.8%, and 0.2% respectively. Regarding the newly established Xiamen Ziyue, Shiseido said, "The recently established and completed Xiamen Ziyue Equity Investment Partnership is the entity company of the Ziyue Equity previously launched by Shiseido China in cooperation with Boyu Investment, which focuses on investment opportunities in emerging brands in beauty, health and other frontier markets and upstream and downstream related technology service companies. " Shiseido (China) Investment Co., Ltd. was established on December 24, 2003, with registered capital of $73.65 million, and its business scope includes food business (sale of prepackaged food), health food sales, import and export of goods, etc. The company is 100% owned by Shiseido Company. The company has five foreign investment enterprises including Shiseido Liyuan Cosmetics Co., Ltd. In fact, the Shiseido Group's increased investment in the Chinese market has long been in evidence. As early as 2019, the Shiseido Group established an innovation investment office in China. When the establishment of Ziyue Equity in August 2021, Zhou Taosheng also said publicly, "Ziyue Equity will focus on emerging brands in some segments with growth potential in the Chinese beauty market, such as medical beauty, oral beauty, and so on. At the same time, the fund will also consider investing in companies in the direction of technology services, such as social media, etc. Shiseido hopes to cooperate with these technology companies to jointly incubate beauty brands." On March 3 this year, Shiseido announced an investment in Chinese beauty technology company Perfect Corp located in Taiwan to further develop its digital beauty segment. According to media reports, the deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022. Another media report stated, "Perfect Corp is valued at over $951.7 million and will go public in the U.S. in the 3rd quarter of this year." It is no surprise that Shiseido continues to deepen its investment in China. According to public information, in 2021, Shiseido's sales in China were $2.25 billion, up 16.5% year-on-year. At the same time, China's share of the Shiseido Group's overall results also increased from 19.1% in 2019 to 25.6% in 2020. In 2021, this share was further increased to 26.6%. China remains the largest overseas market for the Shiseido Group, and the Chinese market has become almost equal to the share of the Shiseido Group's sales in Japan itself. In addition to Shiseido, many beauty giants also continue to be optimistic about the Chinese market. On the 8th of this month, the first investment company set up by L'Oreal in China - was Shanghai Meicifang Investment Co. Fabrice MEGARBANE, President of L'Oréal North Asia Zone and CEO of L'Oréal China, highlighted the strategic importance of China for the L'Oréal Group, which has proven over 25 years in China to be a key growth engine for the Group and a unique location for technological innovation. In L'Oreal's 25th year in China, it brought Open Innovation investment to China, demonstrating its commitment to the Chinese market and its determination to further enhance and empower China's innovation ecosystem, accelerating open innovation and results translation in China. " It is worth noting that according to L'Oréal Group's financial report for the first quarter of 2022, L'Oréal achieved a 13.5% year-on-year growth in global sales during the period with sales recording $9.53 billion, a growth rate of nearly five years, and a 19% increase in consolidated statements. In China, L'Oréal continued to achieve double-digit growth. Also according to incomplete statistics, currently Unilever Group, Beiersdorf Group, LAF, Bloomage Biotech, PROYA, and other Chinese and foreign top cosmetics companies have opened their extended investments in the Chinese market. It is worth noting that these beauty companies have a very broad investment surface covering cosmetic upstream raw material companies, industry-related technology companies, and operating companies. The strong vitality and market potential of the Chinese beauty market have attracted international giants to regard the Chinese market as a "must-have place", which is of great importance.