It’s not just Labubu dolls. Chinese brands are booming
不仅仅是拉布布娃娃。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 them: celebrities including Sir David Beckham, an ex-footballer, and Rihanna, a pop star, have gone public with their appreciation.
L abubu 娃娃很难买到。即使在其制造商泡泡玛特位于上海的大型旗舰店，大批顾客也被告知需要等待一周甚至更长时间。这些面带狰狞表情的精灵娃娃装在“盲盒”里，让买家对最终能买到哪个充满期待，售价低至 20 美元。但 6 月 10 日的一场拍卖会上，一种稀有的娃娃以 15 万美元的价格售出。渴望拥有这些娃娃的不仅仅是中国孩子：包括前足球运动员大卫·贝克汉姆爵士和流行歌星蕾哈娜在内的众多名人也公开表达了他们的喜爱。

The Labubu craze has sent Pop Mart’s shares up by 180% 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 looked 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.
自今年年初以来，拉布布的热潮推动泡泡玛特的股价上涨了180%。泡泡玛特是日益壮大的中国消费品牌之一，其受欢迎程度正在飙升。几十年来，中国消费者一直在海外寻找化妆品、时尚、酒店等领域的最新潮流。如今，他们正涌向本土奢侈品公司、高端彩妆品牌和奶茶店。更重要的是，许多此类品牌在海外拥有了一批忠实的追随者。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 is one factor propelling local brands. As consumers have become more price-sensitive, cheap but decent quality homegrown brands have thrived.
中国消费品市场繁荣的时期颇为特殊。经济增长乏力导致家庭支出减弱。然而，中国消费者的压力却是推动本土品牌发展的一个因素。随着消费者对价格的敏感度日益提升，价格低廉但品质优良的本土品牌蓬勃发展。

Many Chinese coffee drinkers 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 done well selling elegant bracelets and earrings that tend to be cheaper than those of Tiffany & Co, another American stalwart. Songmont, a local handbag brand, has launched a costly ad 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.
许多中国咖啡爱好者发现，Cotti 或 Luckin 等本土连锁咖啡店的咖啡品质与美国星巴克不相上下，但价格通常只有后者的一半。中国奢侈珠宝制造商老铺金业以其优雅的手镯和耳环而闻名，这些手镯和耳环的价格往往低于另一家美国老牌品牌蒂芙尼。本土手袋品牌 Songmont 在全国各地的机场发起了一场耗资巨大的广告宣传活动，与价格通常为其两倍甚至更高的外国竞争对手展开竞争。汇丰银行的 Lina Yan 表示，泡泡玛特的拉布布娃娃成功部分源于其以高品质、“感性”的产品瞄准了节俭的消费者。

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 a par with Starbucks’s top products in China. Chagee 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 firms have long dominated this segment, but many popular new models in this range are from local rivals such as NIO and Li Auto.
然而，消费者的品类下降只是中国品牌受到热捧的部分原因。在很多情况下，消费者愿意为本土品牌支付同等或更高的价格。例如，今年 4 月在纽约上市的茶饮连锁店 Chagee 最畅销的产品是售价 15-20 元（2-3 美元）的茶拿铁，与星巴克在中国的顶级产品相当。另一家贷款机构德意志银行的张涵指出，Chagee 将自己定位为高端品牌，而非廉价品牌。中国增长最快的电动汽车细分市场不是最便宜的，而是售价在 20 万至 40 万元之间的“入门级豪华车”。外国公司长期以来一直主导着这一细分市场，但这一范围内的许多热门新车型都来自蔚来和理想汽车等本土竞争对手。

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. Laopu is one of only a small number of homegrown luxury brands in China. The industry has long been cornered by foreign firms—though 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.
如今，中国消费者对外国商品的迷恋程度已远低于仅仅因为其是外国货。老铺的迅速崛起就是明证。这家销售带有鲜明中国风情的精致金饰的公司，成功将每家门店的销售额保持在 3 亿元人民币以上，比大多数外国竞争对手高出至少 50%。自大约一年前在香港上市以来，其股价已上涨逾 2,000%。老铺是中国为数不多的本土奢侈品牌之一。该行业长期以来一直被外国公司垄断——尽管其中大多数目前在中国的经营状况不佳。研究公司 BigOne Lab 的 Amber Zhang 表示，西方奢侈品牌曾经填补了市场空白，仅仅是因为没有真正的本土替代品。然而，“这并不意味着中国消费者会自然而然地对这些西方品牌的设计或文化信息产生共鸣。”老铺和茶吉都没有刻意表现得像西方人，而是炫耀自己的中国特色。这种方法很有效。

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，尽管价格较低，但老铺的材质和设计质量比大多数外国产品更高。这体现了中国消费习惯的另一个转变：如今的购物者比以前更了解产品，这主要归功于社交媒体。许多人觉得自己被外国公司欺骗了，这些公司仅仅因为不是中国人就能以高价出售产品。一位行业分析师指出，如今的年轻女性会仔细查看化妆品品牌的标签，寻找与外国产品具有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 shares have soared by about 250% since then. Homegrown cosmetics firms have been trying to steal share from foreign ones such as L’Oréal and Estée Lauder for years, but have struggled at the pricier end of the market. Mao Geping, which is named after its founder, a famous make-up artist, is the first local company to make it onto the list of the top ten high-end make-up brands in China.
这又助力了另一个中国热门品牌——化妆品制造商毛戈平。该公司去年 12 月在香港首次公开募股（IPO）中融资 3 亿美元。自上市以来，其股价飙升了约 250%。多年来，本土化妆品公司一直试图抢占欧莱雅和雅诗兰黛等外国品牌的市场份额，但在高端市场却举步维艰。毛戈平以其创始人——一位著名化妆师的名字命名，是首家跻身中国十大高端化妆品品牌榜单的本土企业。

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 Kunming, in the southwestern province of Yunnan, in 2017. 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.
外国公司往往专注于中国最大的城市，而本土品牌则将业务拓展到更远的地方。许多本土品牌都是从内陆小城市起步的。2017年，恰吉在西南省份云南昆明开设了第一家门店。其大部分门店都位于富裕的沿海地区之外。冷饮连锁店米雪最初只是中国较贫困省份的一家刨冰摊。中国最受欢迎的快餐品牌主要在小城市扩张，之后才在北京、上海等地尝试发展。

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, an American chain with a large presence in China, fell below 70%.
酒店业者也在做同样的事情。中国连锁酒店 H World 的首席策略师何继红表示，未来一年，其约一半的新酒店将在三四线城市开业。外国连锁酒店在小城市的活跃程度要低得多。这可能是 H World 酒店比外国竞争对手的酒店入住率更高的一个因素。去年，H World 的入住率超过 80%，而在中国拥有大量业务的美国连锁酒店万豪的入住率则跌至 70%以下。

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.
关注小城市至关重要，因为那里的消费似乎比大城市更健康。咨询公司贝恩的数据显示，到2024年，人口少于100万的城市，包装食品和美容产品等快速消费品的购买量将增长5.5%，而大城市则将萎缩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. Western businesses such as Häagen-Dazs, an ice-cream chain, and Starbucks are reportedly sounding out local investors for their Chinese operations in an effort to inject new ideas.
在中国，外国品牌正争相抵御新的竞争对手。意大利咖啡连锁店拉瓦扎（Lavazza）曾尝试销售燕窝咖啡，但收效甚微。据报道，冰淇淋连锁店哈根达斯（Häagen-Dazs）和星巴克（Starbucks）等西方企业正在为其中国业务试探本土投资者，以期注入新的创意。

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 plans to have more than 1,300 shops outside China by the end of 2027, 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. ■
竞争威胁并不仅限于中国。泡泡玛特目前在 20 多个国家设有门店，其中至少 37 家在美国。米雪则遍布东南亚。恰吉计划到 2027 年底在中国境外开设超过 1300 家门店，而四年前几乎没有。分析人士认为，这些品牌获得的海外认可越多，在中国就越受欢迎。西方社交媒体上对拉布布娃娃的狂热被认为正在提升这些品牌的本土声望。几十年来，零售业的潮流一直从海外席卷中国。这样的日子或许即将结束。 ■

Correction (June 25th): The original version of this article wrongly described Rihanna as American and misstated the timeline for Chagee’s international-expansion plan.
更正（6 月 25 日） ：本文的原始版本错误地将蕾哈娜描述为美国人，并错误地陈述了 Chagee 国际扩张计划的时间表。

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