It’s not just Labubu dolls. Chinese brands are booming
不只是 Labubu 玩偶，中国品牌正在蓬勃发展

Labubu dolls are hard to come by. Even at the giant flagship store of their maker, Pop Mart, in Shanghai, throngs of customers are told they need to wait a week or longer. The grimacing elvish creatures, which come in “blind boxes” that keep buyers in suspense over which one they might get, sell for as little as $20. But a rare variety sold for $150,000 at an auction on June 10th. It is not just Chinese children trying to get their hands on the dolls; celebrities including David Beckham, a British football player, and Rihanna, an American pop star, have recently gone public with their appreciation.
Labubu 玩偶很难买到。即使是在其制造商泡泡玛特位于上海的大型旗舰店内，排队的顾客被告知需要等待一周甚至更长时间。这些咧嘴的精灵玩偶以盲盒形式出售，让买家对可能拿到哪一款充满悬念，售价从 20 美元到 150,000 美元不等。6 月 10 日，一种稀有的玩偶在拍卖会上以 150,000 美元的价格售出。不仅仅是中国的儿童在抢购这些玩偶，包括英国足球运动员大卫·贝克汉姆和美国流行歌手蕾哈娜在内的名人最近也公开表达了对它们的喜爱。

The Labubu craze has sent Pop Mart’s shares up by 170% since the start of the year. It is one of a growing cohort of Chinese consumer brands whose popularity is surging. For decades Chinese shoppers tended to look overseas for the latest trends in cosmetics, fashion, hospitality and more. Now they are flocking to local luxury firms, high-end make-up brands and milk-tea shops. What is more, many of these brands are gaining a devoted following abroad. Western brands should be worried.
Labubu 热潮自年初以来使泡泡玛特的股价上涨了 170%。这是一系列日益流行的中国消费品牌中的一员。几十年来，中国消费者倾向于到海外寻找化妆品、时尚、酒店等领域的最新潮流。现在，他们开始涌向本土奢侈品公司、高端美妆品牌和奶茶店。更重要的是，许多这些品牌在国外也获得了忠实的追随者。西方品牌应该感到担忧。

It is an odd time for a boom among Chinese consumer products. Sputtering economic growth has caused household spending to weaken. Yet the strain on Chinese shoppers’ wallets is one of the factors propelling local brands. As consumers have become more price-sensitive, cheap but decent quality homegrown brands have thrived.
对于中国消费品的繁荣来说，这是一个奇怪的时期。经济增长乏力导致家庭支出减弱。然而，中国消费者钱包的压力是推动本土品牌发展的因素之一。随着消费者变得更加注重价格，一些物美价廉的本土品牌因此蓬勃发展。

Many urban Chinese coffee drinkers, for example, have found local chains such as Cotti or Luckin just as good as Starbucks, an American company, but often half as expensive. Laopu Gold, a Chinese maker of luxury jewellery, has found success selling elegant bracelets and earrings that tend to be cheaper than those offered by Tiffany & Co, another American stalwart. Songmont, a local handbag brand, has launched a costly advertising campaign in airports across the country pitting itself against foreign competitors that are often twice as expensive, or more. Part of Pop Mart’s success with Labubu dolls has come from targeting frugal spenders with high-quality, “emotive” products, says Lina Yan of HSBC, a bank.
例如，许多中国的城市咖啡消费者发现，本土连锁咖啡店如柯蒂或瑞幸与美国的星巴克一样好，但价格往往低一半。中国奢侈珠宝品牌老铺黄金通过销售比蒂芙尼（Tiffany & Co.）等美国品牌更便宜的优雅手链和耳环取得了成功。本土手袋品牌宋蒙在全国各地的机场推出了昂贵的广告宣传活动，与价格往往是其两倍或更多的外国竞争对手展开竞争。汇丰银行的林娜表示，泡泡玛特的 Labubu 玩偶之所以成功，部分原因在于他们针对节俭的消费者推出了高质量的“情感化”产品。

Yet consumer downgrading is only part of the explanation for the buzz around Chinese brands. In many cases shoppers are paying just as much or more for local equivalents. For instance, the best-selling products at Chagee, a tea chain that went public in New York in April, are tea lattes that sell for 15-20 yuan ($2-3), on par with Starbucks’s top products in China. The group has marketed itself as a premium brand, not a budget one, notes Han Zhang of Deutsche Bank, another lender. The fastest-growing segment of electric vehicles in China is not the cheapest but those priced at between 200,000-400,000 yuan, considered “entry-level luxury”. Foreign carmakers have long dominated this market segment, but many popular new models in this range are from local rivals such as NIO and Li Auto.
然而，消费者降级只是中国品牌热潮的一部分原因。在许多情况下，购物者为本地产品支付的价格与进口产品相当甚至更高。例如，Chagee 是一家在 4 月于纽约上市的茶饮连锁店，其销量最好的产品是售价 15-20 元（约合 2-3 美元）的茶拿铁，与星巴克在中国的顶级产品价格相当。德意志银行的分析师韩张指出，Chagee 把自己定位为高端品牌，而非平价品牌。在中国电动汽车市场增长最快的细分领域不是最便宜的车型，而是售价在 20 万-40 万元之间的车型，这些车型被视为“入门级豪华车”。长期以来，外国汽车制造商主导了这一市场细分领域，但在这个价格区间内，许多受欢迎的新车型来自本土竞争对手，如蔚来和理想汽车。

Chinese consumers are also now far less enamoured with foreign goods simply because they are foreign. Laopu’s rapid rise is proof of that. The firm, which sells intricate gold jewellery with a distinct Chinese flair, has managed to keep its sales per store above 300m yuan, at least 50% higher than most of its foreign rivals. Its share price is up by more than 2,000% since it listed in Hong Kong about a year ago. It is one of only a small number of homegrown luxury brands in China. The industry has long been dominated by foreign firms. But most of them are now doing poorly in the country. Western luxury brands once filled a gap simply because there were no real local alternatives, says Amber Zhang of BigOne Lab, a research firm. However, “that doesn’t mean Chinese consumers naturally resonate with the design or cultural message of those Western brands.” Rather than trying to appear Western, both Laopu and Chagee have flaunted their Chineseness. It has worked.
中国消费者现在对外国商品的热情也远不如从前，仅仅因为它们是外国制造。老谱的迅速崛起就是明证。这家销售具有鲜明中国风格的精细黄金珠宝的企业，其每家门店的销售额保持在 3 亿元人民币以上，至少比大多数外国竞争对手高出 50%。自它一年前在香港上市以来，股价已经上涨了超过 2000%。它是为数不多的几家本土奢侈品牌之一。长期以来，这个行业一直被外国企业主导。但大多数外国企业现在在中国境内的表现都很差。BigOne Lab 研究公司的大卫·张表示，西方奢侈品牌曾经填补了一个空白，因为当时没有真正的地方替代品。然而，“这并不意味着中国消费者自然会与这些西方品牌的风格或文化信息产生共鸣。”老谱和查吉都以展示其中国身份来吸引消费者，这已经奏效了。

Fans argue that, despite its lower prices, Laopu’s materials and design are of higher quality than most foreign offerings. This points to another shift in spending habits in China: shoppers are better informed about products today than they used to be, mainly thanks to social media. Many feel that they have been fleeced by foreign companies that were able to sell at inflated prices purely by not being Chinese. Today young women scour the labels of cosmetics brands to find local products with the same active ingredients as foreign ones but at lower prices, notes an industry analyst.
粉丝们认为，尽管老铺的价格较低，但其材料和设计的质量却高于大多数外国品牌。这表明中国消费者的消费习惯正在发生变化：如今的消费者比过去更加了解产品，主要得益于社交媒体。许多人觉得外国公司仅仅因为不是中国品牌就能卖出高价，这是对他们的一种剥削。一位行业分析师指出，如今年轻女性在购买化妆品时会仔细查看品牌标签，寻找含有与外国品牌相同活性成分但价格更低的本土产品。

That has helped yet another hit Chinese brand, a cosmetics maker called Mao Geping, which raised $300m in an initial public offering in Hong Kong in December. Its share price has soared by about 250% since then. Homegrown cosmetics companies have been trying to steal share from foreign firms such as L’Oréal and Estée Lauder for years, but have struggled to compete at the pricier end of the market. Mao Geping, which is named after its founder, a famous make-up artist, has become the first local company to make it onto the list of the top ten high-end make-up brands in China.
这帮助了另一个热门的中国品牌——一家名为毛哥平的化妆品制造商。该公司于去年 12 月在香港进行首次公开募股，筹集了 3 亿美元的资金。自那以后，其股价飙升了约 250%。多年来，本土化妆品公司一直在试图从欧莱雅和雅诗兰黛等外资公司手中抢夺市场份额，但在高端市场一直难以竞争。毛哥平以其创始人——一位著名化妆师的名字命名，成为了第一个进入中国十大高端化妆品品牌榜单的本土公司。

Whereas foreign firms tend to focus on China’s largest cities, local brands operate farther afield. Many got their start in smaller inland cities. Chagee opened its first store in the city of Kunming, in the southwestern province of Yunnan, in 2017, and most of its shops remain outside rich coastal areas. Mixue, a cold-drink chain, started as a shaved-ice stand in one of China’s poorer provinces. The country’s most popular fast-food brands have mainly expanded in smaller cities before trying their luck in places such as Beijing and Shanghai.
与外国公司倾向于关注中国的大城市不同，本土品牌则运营得更远。许多本土品牌是从较小的内陆城市起步的。Chagee 于 2017 年在云南省昆明市开设了第一家门店，而其大多数店铺仍然位于富裕的沿海地区之外。Mixue 是一家冷饮连锁品牌，起源于中国一个较贫穷省份的一个刨冰摊。中国最受欢迎的快餐品牌主要是在较小的城市扩展，之后才尝试进入北京和上海等地。

Hoteliers are doing the same. H World, a Chinese hotel chain, will open about half of its new properties in third- and fourth-tier cities over the next year, says He Jihong, its chief strategist. Foreign hotel chains are much less active in small cities. This could be one factor keeping H World’s hotels fuller than those of foreign rivals. Its occupancy rate was above 80% last year, while the figure for Marriott International, an American chain with a large presence in China, fell below 70%, making the country one of its worst performing regions.
酒店业者也是如此。h World 这家中国酒店连锁品牌首席战略官何吉红表示，该公司计划在未来一年内在三线和四线城市开设约一半的新酒店。相比之下，外国酒店品牌在小城市中的活动要少得多。这可能是让 h World 的酒店入住率高于竞争对手的一个因素。去年，h World 的入住率超过 80%，而美国品牌万豪国际在中国市场的入住率低于 70%，使其成为中国表现最差的地区之一。

The focus on small cities is important because spending there appears healthier than in big cities. Purchases of fast-moving consumer goods, such as packaged food and beauty products, expanded by 5.5% in 2024 in cities with fewer than 1m people, whereas they shrank by 4.6% in the biggest cities, according to Bain, a consultancy.
重点放在小城市上很重要，因为这些城市的消费看起来比大城市更健康。根据咨询公司贝恩的数据，人口少于 100 万的城市中，快速消费品如包装食品和美容产品的销售额在 2024 年增长了 5.5%，而在人口最多的城市中，这些产品的销售额则下降了 4.6%。

Foreign brands in China are scrambling to fend off their new competitors. Lavazza, an Italian coffee chain, has tried selling birds’-nest coffee, with limited success. Some Western businesses, including Starbucks and Häagen-Dazs, an ice-cream chain owned by General Mills, an American food giant, are reportedly sounding out local investors for their Chinese operations in an effort to inject new ideas.
在中国，外国品牌正努力应对新的竞争对手。意大利咖啡连锁品牌拉瓦扎曾尝试销售燕窝咖啡，但效果有限。一些西方企业，包括星巴克和通用磨坊旗下的冰淇淋连锁品牌哈根达斯，据报道正在与当地投资者探讨合作事宜，以注入新的理念。

The competitive threat is not contained to China. Pop Mart now has stores in more than 20 countries, including at least 37 in America. Mixue can be found across South-East Asia. Chagee will have more than 1,300 shops outside China by the end of the year, up from almost none four years ago. And analysts believe that the more foreign recognition these brands get, the more popular they become within China. The social-media craze in the West over Labubu dolls is thought to be adding to their local cachet. For decades retail trends swept into China from abroad. Those days may be ending. ■
竞争威胁不仅来自中国。Pop Mart 现已在超过 20 个国家设有门店，其中包括美国的至少 37 家门店。Mixue 在东南亚各地都有销售。Chagee 到今年年底将在中国的境外市场拥有超过 1300 家门店，而四年前几乎为零。分析师认为，这些品牌在国外获得的知名度越高，在中国就越受欢迎。西方社交媒体上对 Labubu 玩偶的热潮被认为增加了它们的本地吸引力。几十年来，零售潮流都是从国外涌入中国。这些日子可能要结束了。■

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