So-young International

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Exclusive interview with Jin Xing, the founder of So-young International: Creating a new paradigm of standardized smart medical beauty chains.

In recent years, the growth trend of China's light medical beauty market has become evident. With the increase in per capita disposable income, changes in aesthetic concepts, and continuous advancements in medical technology, the light medical beauty industry is experiencing unprecedented development opportunities, while also promoting Consumption Upgrade and Technology integration. How to rebuild the dynamic balance of medical beauty delivery, cost optimization, and regulatory compliance during expansion has become key to shifting the industry from marketing competition to medical value competition. Xinhuanet Co., Ltd. interviews Jin Xing, the founder, chairman, and CEO of So-young International, to decode the value competition trend in the medical beauty industry and explore the transition from an online medical beauty platform to offline chain Institutions.

Image: So-young International founder Jin Xing accepted an interview with Xinhuanet Co., Ltd.

Reconstruction of the value in the medical beauty industry.

Xinhuanet Co., Ltd.:

What is your view on the current development stage of the domestic medical beauty market?

Jinxing:

Currently, the Chinese Medical Industry is undergoing a significant transformation. Previously, medical beauty was a niche consumption. With the development of the entire Social Media landscape, more and more consumers are becoming receptive to medical beauty. However, many Medical Institutions have prices that create a huge gap with the demand from the public. Therefore, we have seen many medical institutions slowly beginning to transform in recent years, offering more high cost-performance medical services, and increasingly more products are reducing their prices to a Range that LBX Pharmacy Chain Joint Stock can afford, thus expanding the coverage of the medical beauty demographic. I believe that the medical beauty industry is currently in a period of transformation, and many institutions may still have their inertia, but there are also many new institutions, including So-young International Youth Clinic, which focuses on serving the public, and the market is experiencing an intense transition.

Transparency of information reduces consumer decision-making.

Xinhuanet Co., Ltd.:

So-young International has rapidly expanded in a short period, currently having 31 stores nationwide, making it the institution with the most light medical beauty chain stores in the industry. In fact, So-young's sudden shift from an online medical beauty platform to offline chain clinics puzzled many people; what was your reasoning at that time?

Jinxing:

I have always seen myself as a product manager, hoping that the products provided can solve consumer pain points. I have always believed that the biggest pain point for Chinese medical beauty consumers is consumption decision-making; the most confusing aspect for consumers is how to choose between various medical beauty institutions and doctors. In the past, the difficulty in decision-making was due to a lack of information, but today, there is too much information available. Not only on our platform but also on Social Media, there is a vast amount of information, and consumers' pain point is being overwhelmed by information without knowing how to choose. Therefore, I believe the best way to solve the consumer decision-making dilemma is to create a brand that consumers can trust very much, providing credible doctors, credible qualifications, and credible prices, as this may be the ultimate solution to consumer pain points.

Winning consumer trust through model innovation

Xinhuanet Co., Ltd.:

So-young has served nearly 200,000 people, gaining a lot of consumer reputation and repurchase; what do you think is the core driving force of the medical Sam's model?

Jinxing:

I believe it is trust. Chinese medical beauty institutions have long not resolved the issue of consumer trust. You will find that without addressing the trust issue, doing a lot of work will yield little results; whether it is marketing, promotion, or conducting promotional activities, if consumers do not believe, all activities will be significantly discounted. Rebuilding consumer trust is a very difficult problem because most consumers hold a skeptical attitude towards medical beauty institutions. Therefore, we adopted an operation model from the beginning that does not encourage prepayments, card registrations, or sales pitches. Through this approach, we significantly reduced consumers' psychological pressure; I believe sincerity may be the best method.

Balance marketing and customer experience reasonably.

Jinxing:

I think Medical Institutions may all have anxiety about traffic. This year marks the 12th year for So-young International in the Medical industry, and it has increasingly been realized that Medical services are actually a slow business. As long as one is impatient for quick results, strong sales and aggressive promotion will follow, and the consumer experience will suffer. However, if it is decided from the beginning that this is a slow business, the effects will be better; consumers will trust you more and will be more proactive in recommending you to their friends and family. In our clinics, the average age of users is 36 years old, and the proportion of customers over 50 years old has reached 17%-18%. I believe that this ratio reflects the great trust that old customers have in us, which makes them willing to recommend us to their children, relatives, and friends.

Xinhuanet Co., Ltd.:

So-young International has turned the Medical business into a business that keeps old customers, a long-lasting old store business. What does the brand story of a pea reflect about the original intention of So-young International?

Jinxing:

In fact, I have always felt that social media and public opinion are often not very forgiving towards people engaging in Medical. Especially regarding some failed cases, many comments are found to be mocking. Thus, I believe that those engaging in Medical Services should receive the respect and care they deserve. Our system promotes the story of a pea, which is adapted from the Nordic myth "The Princess and the Pea," where it is mentioned that the princess felt the pea under 20 layers of velvet bedding. I think this indicates that consumers are actually very sensitive and particularly need the care and affection from Institutions to permeate every aspect of their work, making consumers feel at ease and comfortable.

Technology empowers standardized Medical delivery.

Xinhuanet Co., Ltd.:

Currently, the decision-making cost for consumers is very high.

Jinxing:

I think if an Industry forces consumers to become experts in order to consume, it indicates that consumers may have extreme distrust toward that Industry.

Xinhuanet Co., Ltd.:

So-young International has already hired over 100 doctors to establish some standardized services, which is quite different from many traditional offline Institutions. What is the thought behind this?

Jinxing:

I think the distribution of Medical resources in China is unbalanced. In the top ten first-tier cities, the number of medical beauty doctors accounts for more than 50% of the total across China. So, today in first-tier cities, finding good doctors is not that difficult, but in third or fourth-tier cities, good doctor resources are extremely scarce. We hope that regardless of whether in first-tier cities or fifth and sixth-tier cities, everyone can enjoy the same quality of light medical beauty services, which requires very high standards and requirements for the standardization of Medical Services.

Actually, Medical includes two parts: diagnosis and treatment. The first part is the diagnosis, which provides a reasonable diagnostic plan based on the requirements and indications. The second part is the implementation of this diagnostic plan, along with the standardization of the entire service. Traditional medical technology relies on doctors, while we invite some of the best experts in the industry to develop standardized diagnosis and treatment plans. These treatment plans combine the strengths of many and then undergo extensive training for our doctors, who can only work after passing training assessments. We also have standardized procedures (SOP) for the operations of every doctor, with a Pad on the wall of each consultation room, allowing doctors to see what project the patient is scheduled for today, and the Pad will also prompt the standardized procedures for that operation. For example, on average each doctor handles 330 treatments a month, resulting in over 4,000 treatments a year, enabling our doctors to achieve a proficiency in these projects that far exceeds their peers.

Through this approach, we have achieved a standardization in Medical delivery, so all three aspects have relevant SOPs, which require extensive training and assessments for practical implementation. Saying standardization is simple, but it involves a very large set of system engineering in support. However, if this can be accomplished, it would be a significant innovation, ensuring that consumers in various stores nationwide receive the same quality of treatment and operations.

Xinhuanet Co., Ltd.:

Because you have done a lot of work in the early stages to achieve the equalization and decentralization of medical resources. For consumers in third and fourth tier cities, it really solves a lot of decision-making costs and initial trust costs.

Jinxing:

Whether in Beijing, Shanghai, or in second-tier cities and future third-tier cities that we will expand to, receiving the same quality of treatment services is what we envision as "Equality for Everyone in the Face of Youth."

Let 0.1 billion people enjoy affordable medical beauty.

Xinhuanet Co., Ltd.:

You suggested that 100 million people enjoy affordable quality services; do you really think this model can solve the problem of high consumption?

Jinxing:

Although the Chinese medical aesthetics market is large, for the vast majority of LBX Pharmacy Chain Joint Stock, medical aesthetics remains an expensive consumption. If you want to make medical aesthetics consumption more popular, the key is to lower the costs of medical aesthetics without compromising the quality of Medical Services. The method we chose to reduce costs is to lower the costs unrelated to treatment. For example, marketing costs can account for 30%-50% of the total costs in a traditional medical aesthetics institution, while our marketing costs account for less than 10% of the total costs. Furthermore, we have significantly reduced the circulation costs of many products and equipment. We started laying out our supply chain four years ago, currently have our own photonic device factory, and have our own hyaluronic acid agency products. Through this supply chain layout, we have greatly reduced the costs of these products to provide consumers with a great experience at a low price, what we describe as providing consumers with "thin skin and plenty of filling" light medical beauty services.

Xinhuanet Co., Ltd.:

Choosing to engage in such a "slow business, craftsmanship" requires a significant upfront investment, whether it's for AI triage or hiring doctors; do you find this particularly challenging?

Jinxing:

The premise is to see how large you want to make this endeavor. The larger it is, the longer the preparation time may be, and the more investment it will require. For example, building a skyscraper has a principle: if you want the skyscraper to be 100 floors tall, the foundation must be 100 floors deep. Therefore, it is possible that the first two years of construction are spent on laying the foundation, with above-ground construction starting in the third year. Now, So-young International is already a listed medical aesthetics company and one of the largest professional medical aesthetics platforms in China. We hope to do more than just have 20, 30, or 50 small clinics; we wish to one day cover all cities in China and serve hundreds of millions of consumers. For this goal, I am willing to spend many years laying this foundation just to explore a model.

Xinhuanet Co., Ltd.:

Are you using an overall industry mindset and Internet thinking to empower and transform this industry?

Jinxing:

Perhaps this is also in my genes! Since 2001, I have accumulated 25 years of experience in the Internet Industry. Everything I do is based on platform thinking and Internet thinking. Business is not necessarily a struggle between merchants and consumers; a win-win situation can also be achieved for both sides. When consumers have a good experience, Institutions may have more customers and greater economies of scale, which can lead to lower costs and ultimately better profits.

Xinhuanet Co., Ltd.:

Thank you, Mr. Jin, for accepting our interview today, and thanks to So-young International for the efforts and explorations made for China's Medical Services industry and consumers. We also look forward to more affordable and higher quality services blooming across the country soon. Thank you all for watching.

(Editor Zhang Anqi)

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