---
title: "3.4 Million Buyers: Is Moutai Ice Cream Finally on Solid Ground?"
description: "Since its launch, Moutai ice cream has always been a sensation. In May 2022, it quickly went viral online, sparking debates about whether it could get you drunk or fail a breathalyzer test, with some calling buyers 'suckers.' Three months later, a slow opening in Beijing led to talk of a 'winter' and 'collapse.' But recent data shows otherwise: nearly 10 million cups sold, with 3.4 million buyers, suggesting Moutai ice cream may be here to stay."
author: "响马"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2023-07-17"
language: "en"
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# 3.4 Million Buyers: Is Moutai Ice Cream Finally on Solid Ground?

> Since its launch, Moutai ice cream has always been a sensation. In May 2022, it quickly went viral online, sparking debates about whether it could get you drunk or fail a breathalyzer test, with some calling buyers 'suckers.' Three months later, a slow opening in Beijing led to talk of a 'winter' and 'collapse.' But recent data shows otherwise: nearly 10 million cups sold, with 3.4 million buyers, suggesting Moutai ice cream may be here to stay.

Since its launch, Moutai ice cream has always been a sensation.
When it first launched in May 2022, Moutai ice cream quickly exploded online, becoming a focus of netizens' attention. Some were optimistic, some wanted to try it, some debated 'Will I get drunk after eating it?' or 'Will I fail a breathalyzer test?' and many called buying Moutai ice cream a waste of money, making you a 'sucker.'
Three months later, due to sparse crowds at the opening of a new Moutai ice cream store in Beijing, it was deemed to have hit a 'winter' and suffered a 'major defeat.'
But in the last six months, data has shown that Moutai ice cream is actually quite competitive. Recently, Ding Xiongjun, chairman of Kweichow Moutai, revealed that cumulative sales of Moutai ice cream have reached nearly 10 million cups.
Earlier, specifically on December 29, 2022, Kweichow Moutai's WeChat official account stated that approximately 3.4 million people had purchased and tasted Moutai ice cream, and over 400 million people knew about it. It was projected that 2022 sales would reach 262 million yuan.
Does this solid data mean that with millions of buyers, Moutai ice cream is now on stable ground?
**High-Profile Strategy**
The perception that buying Moutai ice cream makes you a 'sucker' is closely related to the industry's current state.
According to industry self-media 'China Ice Cream,' there are 66,072 ice cream-related enterprises in China. From 2019 to 2023, an average of over 3,500 new ice cream enterprises were established annually, with growth 'accelerating sharply.' In just the first four months of 2023, nearly 1,000 new ice cream enterprises were added, showing the intense competition in the sector.
Meanwhile, the market size of China's ice cream industry is growing rapidly. According to iiMedia Research's '2022-2023 China Ice Cream Industry Consumption Trends Monitoring and Case Study Report,' the market size reached 160 billion yuan in 2021, an 8.84% increase year-on-year.
However, behind the rise in enterprise numbers and market size, relatively low-end ice cream products remain the market mainstream. The same iiMedia report noted that Chinese consumers generally accept prices between 3-10 yuan (excluding 10 yuan), accounting for 70.9% of consumers.
It's worth noting that the increase in enterprise numbers, market size, and the mainstream price range of 3-10 yuan are not isolated but mutually reinforcing.
In this context, Moutai ice cream set its price at 59-66 yuan per cup from the start, making it understandable why netizens called it 'cutting leeks' or 'whoever buys it is a sucker.'
The question is: why do millions of consumers still buy it despite the high price?
Photo by New Retail Business Review
First, it's due to **Moutai's brand effect and traffic support.** Moutai's brand effect needs no elaboration. In terms of traffic, topics about Moutai ice cream on Weibo often have billions of views, and content on platforms like Douyin and Xiaohongshu is endless, with many viral hits.
Second, according to media reports, each cup of Moutai ice cream contains 2% of 53% vol Kweichow Moutai liquor, which **has a certain appeal to consumers wanting to try something new.** Indeed, many netizens said after consuming it that this was 'the closest they've ever been to Moutai liquor.'
Third, **in the high-end segment where Moutai ice cream focuses, several leading brands face varying degrees of development resistance.**
For example, Haagen-Dazs, imported from France, was urgently recalled by food authorities in Singapore, Ireland, and other countries due to the detection of carcinogenic ethylene oxide in its ice cream. Magnum was exposed for using different ingredients in China and other countries, sparking public outrage. Zhong Xue Gao was dubbed the 'ice cream assassin,' and rumors like 'can't melt with a lighter' were highly damaging, forcing it to launch an AI-designed, 3.5-yuan affordable ice cream to ease public pressure.
The various obstacles faced by leading brands objectively help Moutai ice cream's development. As brand positioning expert Zhang Zhiyu wrote: 'Why does Moutai have a chance in high-end ice cream? It's related to the competitive environment and corporate capabilities. First, the competitors in high-end ice cream are not that strong.'
With internal and external factors combined, Moutai ice cream's high-profile strategy has increased its market presence, showing that early investments and battles have paid off.
**Offline Battle**
The benefit of Moutai ice cream's early high-profile strategy is that it quickly opened up the market, especially online, showing momentum to break the existing high-end market structure.
According to statistics from third-party independent data monitoring agency Rentuo Intelligence, from March 2022 to March 2023, Zhong Xue Gao's online sales on mainstream platforms (JD + Tmall) were approximately 141 million yuan, Haagen-Dazs 109 million yuan, and Magnum 118 million yuan. Other data shows that Moutai ice cream's online sales exceeded 100 million yuan in its first year of sales.
It should be noted that over the past year, Moutai ice cream's online channel was mainly the 'i Moutai' app, a new retail platform primarily selling Kweichow Moutai liquor. In other words, the massive private traffic generated by buying and selling Kweichow Moutai liquor is a key reason Moutai ice cream's online sales can rival leading brands.
Because Moutai ice cream is so strong online, some media have said that besides Haagen-Dazs, Magnum, and Zhong Xue Gao, Moutai ice cream 'has carved out a place in the mid-to-high-end ice cream market.'
But in reality, **the so-called 'place in the mid-to-high-end ice cream market' is more limited to online. Looking at the offline market structure, Moutai ice cream is still a 'little brother' and has many tough battles to fight.**
This is because in China's offline ice cream market, domestic and multinational giants still dominate. The iiMedia report mentioned that currently, Yili, Wall's, Mengniu, and Nestlé are the four leading companies in the industry.
Ice cream in a convenience store freezer, photo by New Retail Business Review
Specifically, in 2021, Yili Group's ice cream (including brands like Qiaolezi, Zhenxi, and NOC Xujinhuan) held a 19% offline market share; Wall's ice cream (including Wall's, Cornetto, Magnum, etc.) held 15%; Mengniu ice cream (with brands like Aixue, Lvse Xinqing, and Dilan Shengxue) held 9%; and Nestlé ice cream held 8%.
Additionally, regional players like Deshi, Hongbaolai, and Tianqi in the northeast have formed strong regional brands using their geographical advantages, with Deshi holding about 2% offline market share.
As for the leading brand Haagen-Dazs, its offline market share is less than 1%, not only compared to the four giants but even to regional players like Deshi.
Offline market share is important because it is obtained through numerous offline channels and is directly related to revenue. In 2022, Yili's ice cream revenue was 9 billion yuan, and Mengniu's was 5.6 billion yuan. In comparison, Moutai ice cream's sales of two to three hundred million yuan seem insignificant.
**Recognizing the importance of the offline market, in recent months, Moutai ice cream has shifted from a high-profile strategy to accelerating its expansion into lower-tier markets.**
On May 29, seven Moutai ice cream flagship stores opened simultaneously in Urumqi, Lhasa, Lanzhou, Xining, Yinchuan, Hohhot, and Haikou. According to media statistics, Moutai ice cream flagship stores (experience stores) now cover all 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, with flagship stores at the provincial level, experience stores at the prefecture level, and 'Moutai ice cream stations' at the county level.
At the same time, prices are also being lowered. Ding Xiongjun stated that they will operate the existing six ice cream products based on price points of 29, 39, 49, 59, and 66 yuan. Comparing before and after, Moutai ice cream's intention to attract more consumers, especially in lower-tier markets, is clear.
Moutai ice cream is continuously increasing its offline presence to boost offline market share, but while Moutai is on the move, competitors are not idle. Giants like Yili, Wall's, Mengniu, and Nestlé are launching new products and expanding channels.
The offline battle is in full swing. From this perspective, whether Moutai ice cream is stable depends on whether it can win more consumer favor and capture more market share after this battle.
**The Real Intent**
To win more consumer favor, Moutai ice cream is launching new flavors. It is understood that the new products include two ice creams and one sherbet: yogurt and matcha flavors for ice cream, and blueberry juice for the sherbet.
Exploring different flavors is supported by consumption data. According to the iiMedia report, consumer research in 2022 showed that taste is the primary factor when purchasing ice cream, accounting for 86.2%, while price and brand account for 59.9% and 56.8%, respectively, showing significant differences.
Interestingly, while exploring flavors and attracting consumers, Moutai ice cream has made the new products in bottle form, unlike the previous cup packaging.
Image source: i Moutai App
Media pointed out: 'With the prominent Moutai logo and the iconic red cap, the bottle-shaped Moutai ice cream resembles the classic Flying Fairy Moutai, looking like a mini bottle of liquor.'
This move also reveals Moutai's true intention—**the real interest is still in the liquor.** Moutai officials have not hidden it. Ding Xiongjun admitted that Moutai ice cream is not a simple consumer product but a strategic product, an important tool to cultivate young consumers to accept and even love Moutai's sauce-flavor taste, and to promote the brand's youthfulness and fashionability. 'Catching the youth is catching Moutai's future.'
In other words, Moutai's intention is to let young people eat Moutai ice cream, get used to the sauce-flavor taste, and eventually become consumers of Kweichow Moutai liquor, truly contributing to 'Moutai's future.'
The question is: even if young people who eat Moutai ice cream gradually get used to the sauce-flavor taste, there is still a huge price barrier between that and buying Kweichow Moutai liquor. How many will convert to Moutai liquor consumers? And over what period?
On this, Zhang Zhiyu believes: 'For Moutai now, it needs to shift its target from 'high-potential middle-aged and elderly people' to 'high-potential young people,' not just 'young people.' In his view, Moutai should attract high-potential young people like Wang Xing, Zhang Yiming, and Wang Xiaochuan as new-generation customers, rather than focusing on young people eating ice cream.
**How to win the favor of 'high-potential young people' is indeed a major challenge for Moutai officials**, but if Moutai wants to rejuvenate its brand, it currently seems not to focus deeply on 'high-potential young people.' Accelerating the national expansion of Moutai ice cream and letting more young people know, understand, and taste it might be what it really wants to do.
Furthermore, whether Moutai ice cream is stable depends not on bringing in a few hundred million in sales, but on whether it promotes brand rejuvenation and facilitates the conversion from eating ice cream to drinking Moutai liquor.
After all, Moutai liquor is the lifeline of the trillion-yuan Moutai. Therefore, the brand rejuvenation battle is more challenging than the ice cream offline battle and will have a greater impact on Moutai's future. All of this is just beginning.
References: 1. 'One Year After Launch, Underestimated Moutai Ice Cream Enters the 'High-End Game,' 36Kr Future Consumption 2. '2022-2023 China Ice Cream Industry Consumption Trends Monitoring and Case Study Report,' iiMedia Research 3. 'Using Ice Cream to Please Young People, Moutai Made a Wrong Move,' Zhang Zhiyu 4. 'In 2023, the Ice Cream Market Direction Has Changed,' Shenmou Finance


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