Our reporter Yuan Lu
"A medical beauty company in Hangzhou was fined more than 88 million yuan for tax evasion", "hidden income exceeded 4.755 billion yuan in less than 5 years"... Recently, a disclosed administrative penalty revealed the tip of the iceberg of huge profits in the medical beauty industry .
The reporter recently visited a number of medical and aesthetic institutions in Beijing and found that medical and aesthetic sales staff are desperately selling: "no surgery", "going after you do it", "immediate effect"... Medical and aesthetic institutions that only talk about beauty and not risk, rely on sales "Appearance anxiety" makes huge profits and urgently needs to be rectified by the regulatory authorities.
Many young people are eager to become beautiful
After the anesthetic was applied, the cold surgical needle was gently pressed against Sakura's upper lip, and after 0.8 ml of hyaluronic acid was pushed in, the originally thin lips slowly bulged.
Sakura picked up the mirror and looked at herself with slightly swollen lips.
At 11:00 am on August 20th, in a medical beauty institution near Shuguang South Road, Chaoyang District, Xiaoying was recommended to reporters by a doctor and a salesman who received hyaluronic acid for lip augmentation.
"A lot of young people are doing it now, don't be afraid. Look at her, just finished, the lip lines are much less, and the lip shape is much more beautiful and fuller." The doctor said.
At this time, in front of the reception lobby, two girls about the same age as Sakura were sitting, and the telephone number at the front desk rang from time to time.
The reporter recently visited a number of medical and aesthetic institutions in Beijing and found that many young people are getting together for plastic surgery.
Rhinoplasty with hyaluronic acid, anti-aging with Tong Yan acupuncture, botulinum toxin for face-lifting, collagen filling for tear trough... Compared with the traditional "moving knife" medical aesthetics, non-surgical light medical aesthetics projects mainly based on injections, due to the short recovery period, The relatively low price and other characteristics are now more sought after by young people, and it has also attracted many medical beauty institutions to enter.
"Recently, we have specially launched a number of preferential activities for hyaluronic acid injection and plastic surgery, including lip augmentation, temple filling, and removal of nasolabial folds." Sales Yuanyuan repeatedly emphasized that these projects are fast in operation and have a short recovery period, which are very suitable for students. You can go home after 20 minutes of observation, quietly and quickly become beautiful."
Medical and beauty institutions sell "appearance anxiety"
"No need for surgery", "Let it go after it is done", "Immediate results"... Among the camps selling "appearance anxiety" to young people, medical and aesthetic institutions bear the brunt.
The reporter saw that in the circle of friends sold by many plastic surgery and beauty institutions, all kinds of words selling "appearance anxiety" were dazzling.
For example, "the bags under the eyes are the bags of hard life", "the temples are concave, and the relationship between husband and wife is not harmonious", which associates the appearance of girls with feelings, fate and wealth.
At the same time, words such as "doing early and becoming beautiful" and "school flower graduation season" also frequently appear in the summer marketing copy of medical beauty institutions, encouraging young people to get plastic surgery as soon as possible.
Many stories of "plastic counterattack" have also been packaged and spread by doctors in the form of "popular science".
For example, a physician in the plastic surgery department of Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University, on Douyin, emphasized the difference in appearance before and after medical beauty with a large number of graphic and text comparisons. Heaven can be called a face-changing” and so on.
However, most medical and aesthetic institutions hardly mention or even deliberately avoid the possible risks caused by these non-surgical medical and aesthetic surgeries.
"The lip augmentation with hyaluronic acid doesn't hurt at all, and the whole process takes less than 40 minutes." "The pinhole heals completely in about 6 hours." He launched a lobbying offensive, and even "personally said": "I have fought it myself, and I have no bad feelings."
There are also sales staff from medical and beauty institutions, while posting pictures of plastic surgery comparisons of beauty seekers, while incitingly said: "She has 10 bottles of hyaluronic acid to enrich her buttocks, and you can't bear a single hyaluronic acid for your face?"
"Words like this are particularly shocking, and can arouse my impulse to medical aesthetics." Xiaohan, who is still in her sophomore year, said with emotion.
Industry profiteering urgently needs regulation
At a time when the economy of beauty has become commonplace, the penetration rate of medical beauty among young people is constantly increasing.
Statistics show that in 2021, the number of medical beauty users in China will exceed 18 million, which is four times that of 2017 and an increase of 19.27% compared with 2020.
With the expansion of the market size, the revenue of medical beauty institutions has also grown rapidly.
In early August, an administrative penalty imposed by the Hangzhou Municipal Taxation Bureau caused heated discussions.
The reasons for the punishment show that from January 2017 to November 2021, a local medical beauty clinic used a personal bank account to collect service payments and hide income exceeding 4.755 billion yuan, which was not included in the financial account, and was fined a total of 88.2727 million by the Hangzhou Municipal Taxation Bureau. Yuan.
A non-top company in the medical beauty industry is still like this, and the public inevitably sighs: How profitable is the medical beauty industry?
"The cost of the product is almost negligible." Hu Tang (pseudonym), founder of a medical beauty agency, said that most of the domestic hyaluronic acid on the market is priced at less than 100 yuan, but it is sold to customers for almost 1,800 to 3,000 yuan. .
The hydrating effect of most small molecule hyaluronic acid injections can only last for 1 to 3 months, and users need frequent maintenance.
Even if the costs of rent, manpower, and marketing are taken into account, a non-chain medical and aesthetic studio can still have a profit of about 90% or even 100%.
The gross profit margin of pharmaceutical companies is even more staggering.
On June 27, the Hong Kong stock prospectus issued by Amic, one of the three domestic "hyaluronic acid" giants, showed that its hyaluronic acid products accounted for more than 98% of its total revenue, and its gross profit margins were 87.2%, 91.7%, 91.4% and 91.4% for four consecutive years. 93.3%.
In the first quarter of 2022, it was as high as 94.45%, surpassing 92.37% of Kweichow Moutai in the same period.
The other side of the hot consumption of medical beauty is the constant medical malpractice and disputes.
The reporter used "medical beauty" as the key word on the online judgment document and found that since 2019, the number of cases decided by relevant judgments in Beijing has continued to increase.
Among them, 82 in 2020 and 168 in 2021.
On August 19, the Beijing Consumers Association issued a reminder on medical and aesthetic consumption. It is currently the peak summer medical and aesthetic consumption season. Consumers need to choose medical and aesthetic consumption carefully, especially not to blindly follow, follow the trend, and compare, but to establish correct values and aesthetics. view.