The rise of China's beauty economy is unstoppable.
According to CCID Consulting's data, the number of medical cosmetology consultations in 2019 exceeded 10 million, an increase of 34.29% year-on-year, and this rapid growth has been maintained for three consecutive years.
Correspondingly, there are an average of more than 20,000 complaints of disfigurement caused by medical cosmetology each year, and even death accidents caused by medical cosmetology continue to occur.
What is the current situation of the medical beauty industry?
What kind of truth is hidden behind the prosperity?
"If you use one word to describe the current medical beauty market in China, it is'chaos'; if you use two words, it is'very chaotic'; if it is three words, it is'very chaotic'." China Plastic Surgery Association Tian Yahua, director of the Education Training Center, told CBN.
He Lun, the director of the Laser Beauty Center of Nanjing Zhongtian Dermatology Hospital, believes that the fake medical beauty market is not just injection products, but also fake medical beauty equipment, black medical institutions, non-professional doctors and unprofessional medical beauty. Consulting staff, the chaos has been rectifying. Although it has improved, it is still chaotic.
What kind of chaos is the medical beauty market?
To this end, CBN conducted related research.
How messy is the market?
"The current situation of China's medical aesthetics can be summarized in six words: fast, big, more, high, less, chaotic." Tian Yahua interpreted the Chinese medical aesthetics market in this way.
Tian Yahua said, firstly, the development is fast. The Chinese medical aesthetics market has grown from scratch and developed very fast, and it has become a big industry.
Second, the scale is large. Although the number of medical and aesthetic operations ranks third in the world, many illegal medical and aesthetic operations are not included in the statistics. It is estimated that the actual number of surgical operations ranks first in the world.
Third, the number is large. There are more than 20,000 medical aesthetic institutions, more than 30 million practitioners, and a huge number of consumers.
Fourth, the fees are high, but the profits are low.
Fifth, there are few talents and few professionals.
Sixth, the market is chaotic, and practitioners are all diverted to engage in medical aesthetics.
According to iResearch statistics, the scale of China's medical aesthetics market reached 176.9 billion yuan in 2019, a growth rate of 22.2%.
According to incomplete statistics, in 2019, there were 25 million medical and aesthetic consumers. A market of this size is still in a state of chaos. What is the root cause?
"The biggest problem with Chinese medical aesthetics at the moment is that professionals are not professional, which creates a chaotic market." Tian Yahua said.
According to statistics from iResearch, in 2019, there were about 13,000 institutions with medical cosmetology qualifications in China. Among the legal medical cosmetology institutions, 15% (more than 2,000) institutions still operate beyond the scope of operation, which is illegal; Black production is still rampant, and it is estimated that there are still more than 80,000 lifestyle beauty shops across the country that illegally carry out medical beauty projects, which is illegal.
In 2019, the actual number of practitioners in China's medical aesthetics industry was 38,343; according to the statistics of the Central Integration Association, the number of illegal practitioners was at least 100,000.
Among the legal medical institutions, there is a phenomenon of non-compliant doctors "flying knife". According to iResearch, the number of non-compliant doctors is close to 5,000.
"The gap in industry physicians is still huge, and the training period of regular physicians is 5 to 8 years. In addition, due to the industry's "quick money and high temptation", a large number of illegal practitioners who claim to be "doctors and experts" have spawned or passed Illegal training institutions are short-term quick'unlicensed practitioners'." said a medical beauty industry expert.
Tian Yahua said worriedly: "The entire medical aesthetics industry is operated by non-professionals, including professional doctors. The medical aesthetics industry has not yet appeared in the profession of colleges and universities, and all clinicians turn to be aesthetic doctors. Not only do surgery, but also need to understand art, psychology, etc. At present, there are no strict standards for this position, and there is a lack of professional training. This professionalism is not only for doctors, but medical aesthetics consulting practitioners should have at least three conditions One: Medical foundation, aesthetic foundation and psychology foundation, how many qualified medical esthetic consultants of these 30 million?"
There are about 300,000 to 500,000 practitioners in China's qualified medical aesthetic institutions, of which only 20,000 to 30,000 are professional doctors, and the others are doing marketing or consulting services.
"In addition, in the illegal medical beauty projects, there are about 30 million people engaged in medical beauty marketing and consulting services. This is a very scary figure, more than three times the total number of people on the Chinese medical and health front. These non-professionals are guarding a barrier of medical aesthetics services: medical aesthetics consulting designers and providing consumers with medical aesthetics service orientation, which is a terrible thing." Tian Yahua said.
More than 30 million medical aesthetics consulting designers who lack professional knowledge bear important responsibilities in the medical aesthetics industry.
Medical aesthetics consulting designers provide consulting services to beauty consumers, conduct appearance inspection, analysis and evaluation, and design of pre-plans for plastic surgery. In fact, they are the translators of aesthetics and an important link and bridge between aesthetic doctors and aesthetic doctors. , Indispensable, the level of its professional skills directly affects the quality of medical aesthetics services.
"For a long time, medical aesthetics consulting designers have actually belonged to the "three no professions". There is no standard for technical quality, no standard service behavior, and no level of professional skills. This is the source of chaos. Therefore, the establishment of professional standards for medical aesthetics is urgent and necessary. Sex. The biggest problem with Chinese medical aesthetics at the moment is that professionals are unprofessional. Starting from solving human problems is the root of all problems. We have initiated qualification training for medical aesthetics consulting designers, who must be certified to work." Tian Yahua Said.
Illegal medical institutions and non-professional practitioners have planted various crises for this beautiful landscape.
Statistics from the China Consumers Association show that in the past 10 years, there have been an average of nearly 20,000 complaints of disfigurement due to plastic surgery each year, and a large part of them are caused by the "three non-operations".
"Most of them are disfigured because of their consumption in family-run beauty salons that are not standardized, technically unprofessional, or even unlicensed. In addition, many beauty seekers are disfigured because of failed operations. "An expert in the medical beauty industry said.
According to the latest data from the China Consumers Association, among the complaints received in the first half of 2020, 4,556 were for medical beauty and 10,270 were for beauty salons.
"According to expert research, accidents in China's medical aesthetics industry occur frequently in black medical aesthetics institutions. The average number of black medical aesthetics causing disability and death each year is about 100,000, and most consumers have nowhere to complain and report cases, making it more difficult to defend their rights." Experts said.
How fake is the product?
The chaos of medical aesthetics practitioners is just one of the chaos in the industry, and the chaos of products related to medical aesthetics cannot be ignored.
Prior to this, CBN had published an investigation report "13,800 yuan per needle!
A suspiciously dangerous "self-beautification technique" for medical beauty products", in which "a product of the "Machine Brand" Yiwei brand that sells for more than 10,000 yuan and is known as "Swiss Origin", is actually just one A product with "machine number preparation and domestic filling".
The exposure of this product is just the tip of the iceberg in this field.
"Among the top six brands of water-light injection products, only one is a formal product that has been registered and approved by the State Food and Drug Administration. Now the Filorga water-light injection product, which is most commonly used in medical beauty, is not registered by the State Food and Drug Administration. Used injection products.” said the above-mentioned medical beauty industry experts.
In the field of light medicine and beauty, due to the aesthetic concept of "one white covering one hundred ugliness", the average cost of purchasing injection items was 1,1729.1 yuan.
The enthusiasm for light medical and aesthetic consumption has not been curbed by the frequently exposed "fake" water light needles.
Skin beauty items are the "basic models" consumed by medical beauty users, and nearly 70% of them have purchased them.
Among them, the skin beauty project most popular with medical beauty users is skin whitening and brightening.
About 70% of users have spent a total of 10,000 to 60,000 yuan on medical beauty. So far, users have spent an average of 1,7539.7 yuan on optoelectronic items.
Illegal injections flood the market.
According to iResearch, the rate of genuine injections on the market is only 33.3%, and nearly 46.3% of users have ever injected illegal injections, such as whitening injections, lipolysis injections, and girl injections. Such injections have not passed the National Food and Drug Administration ( NMPA) certification.
48.4% of medical and aesthetic users who have injected Botox are illegal brands. The only domestic brands that have passed NMPA certification are Botox and Lanzhou Hengli, and South Korea’s "powder, white, and green" All are parallel imports and fake goods, smuggled into the country through illegal channels.
"Despite the country's strict investigations on the fraud and smuggling of injections in the medical aesthetics industry, injection products are highly secretive, easy to carry, and highly mobile. They can often only be reported after the incident. It is difficult for law enforcement agencies to implement a comprehensive crackdown, making illegal injections. Repeated prohibition will not stop." The above-mentioned medical beauty expert said.
In addition to the majority of fake injection products for light medical beauty, there are also fakes of water-light needle equipment and medical beauty optoelectronic equipment.
At present, the medical beauty optoelectronic equipment market is monopolized by the four major foreign equipment manufacturers, with a market share of up to 80%; because the medical beauty optoelectronic equipment belongs to the category of medical equipment, the country strictly controls the circulation of the equipment, and manufacturers and distributors can only sell to legal doctors. In order to ensure the legal compliance of the equipment, the United States agency has set up the attribution organization and authenticity of the two-dimensional code traceable equipment on the fuselage.
According to a survey by iResearch experts, due to the high price of regular optoelectronic equipment, strong monopoly, and strict control, more than 90% of the medical beauty equipment circulating in illegal medical beauty places are fakes, and there may be less than 10% of genuine and parallel products through multiple hands. Lease or smuggling into the market is completely opposite to the situation of formal medical and aesthetic institutions.
Consumers rashly choose illegal medical beauty institutions to carry out photoelectric medical beauty projects, ranging from loss of money to no effect, and potentially causing permanent damage.
"The fake equipment currently on the market is mainly the equipment that has been eliminated and refurbished abroad, and the equipment produced by domestic informal medical equipment companies, which brings great safety risks to medical aesthetics consumers." A medical aesthetics equipment supplier The person said.
According to the above-mentioned business people, this kind of eliminated, refurbished and imitation products that have not been strictly reviewed cannot guarantee the injection dose, the machine is unstable, and even the injection is stopped after half of the work, which will cause harm to medical and aesthetic consumers.
Ninety percent of the water-light needles used for injection are fake.
A reporter from China Business News saw on the e-commerce platform that various water guns and water needle instruments are selling well, some are used for home use and beauty salons. Many products are advertised as imported from abroad, and the prices of the instruments range from more than 100 yuan to tens of thousands. The minimum price of needles is less than 2 yuan.
Not to mention the legality of the product, as far as the operation of water-light needles in beauty salons is concerned, it is an illegal operation.
Obviously, most illegal products flow to illegal places through illegal channels.
“Most of the water-light acupuncture instruments sold online are foreign parallel imports and domestic unapproved fakes. They are sold exclusively to beauty salons and studios. The hyaluronic acid and anesthetics used in these beauty salons are naturally obtained through illegal means. Before the end of 2019, only two Shuiguang needles had been registered by the State Food and Drug Administration. After that, the products of two companies were registered and listed.” The above-mentioned corporate source said.
Author: Ma Xiaohua