---
title: "Annual Sales of 3 Billion Yuan: The Story Behind the Viral Success of Li Ziqi's Luosifen and the Chinese-style Rise of New Brands"
description: "The viral success of Li Ziqi's brand of Luosifen is the result of six years of groundwork laid by both the government's visible hand (licensing and local standards) and the market's invisible hand (industrialization and e-commerce). This represents a typical path for the rise of new brands in China."
author: "徐建凤"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2020-10-24"
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# Annual Sales of 3 Billion Yuan: The Story Behind the Viral Success of Li Ziqi's Luosifen and the Chinese-style Rise of New Brands

> The viral success of Li Ziqi's brand of Luosifen is the result of six years of groundwork laid by both the government's visible hand (licensing and local standards) and the market's invisible hand (industrialization and e-commerce). This represents a typical path for the rise of new brands in China.

**The viral success of Li Ziqi's brand of Luosifen is the result of six years of groundwork laid by both the government's visible hand (licensing and local standards) and the market's invisible hand (industrialization and e-commerce). This represents a typical path for the rise of new brands in China.**
As the saying goes, "Great fame brings great responsibility."
Around the National Day holiday, Li Ziqi's team was extremely busy.
On September 23, a netizen posted on a community forum claiming that a friend had found a blade in a Li Ziqi-brand Luosifen purchased from Viya's livestream. The negative news quickly spread far and wide.
Li Ziqi's team soon issued a statement saying that an investigation showed it was impossible for a blade to be present in the production process, and that the incident was a planned and organized malicious defamation.
This incident once again proved Li Ziqi's position in the Liuzhou Luosifen industry.
"How much does Li Ziqi produce (via contract) per day?" asked Blue Shark Supply (a business media outlet) while standing outside a Li Ziqi-brand Luosifen contract factory in Liuzhou.
"1 million bags, at least 600,000 bags," said Mo Leichun, operations director of the Liuzhou Migrant Workers' Entrepreneurship Park. He told Blue Shark Supply that the factory in front of them, a standalone facility, had signed a contract with Li Ziqi to produce 500,000 bags per day, but because it was a newly built factory rushed into operation after the pandemic, current output could only reach 200,000-300,000 bags per day. Li Ziqi has more than one contract factory for Luosifen in Liuzhou.
Blue Shark Supply checked Li Ziqi's Taobao store and found that the best-selling three-bag pack of Liuzhou Luosifen was priced at 34.7 yuan (claimed to have been purchased by over 3 million users), averaging 11.57 yuan per bag. Based on 1 million bags per day, Li Ziqi-brand Luosifen would generate daily sales of approximately 11.57 million yuan. This is already the sales volume of a top livestream host in a single session. Based on the median (800,000 bags per day), Li Ziqi-brand Luosifen would generate annual revenue exceeding 3 billion yuan in 2020.
In 2019, the maximum daily output of Liuzhou Luosifen was 1.5 million bags. More than one industry insider told Blue Shark Supply that in May this year, the daily output of Liuzhou Luosifen reached 3 million bags. Li Ziqi-brand Luosifen is the absolute leader, accounting for about 1/4 to 1/3 of Liuzhou's total output.
Li Ziqi officially entered the Luosifen market in July 2019. In just over a year, a top food short-video influencer turned a regional delicacy into a top seller.
The "2019 Taobao Foodie Big Data Report" shows that on Taobao, packaged Luosifen sold 28.4 million units (each unit containing 3, 10, or other quantities of bags) in 2019, beating famous snacks like grilled cold noodles, hot dry noodles, and rolled noodles to become the most popular food.
According to data from the Liuzhou Commerce Bureau, the output value of packaged Luosifen in Liuzhou exceeded 6 billion yuan in 2019. In the first half of 2020, due to the pandemic, the output value of packaged Luosifen had already reached 4.9 billion yuan, with the full year expected to reach 9 billion yuan, corresponding to sales exceeding 20 billion yuan.
The popularity of Luosifen not only allowed those bosses who had invested hundreds of thousands to millions of yuan in building Luosifen factories to turn losses into profits, earning substantial sums and continuing to expand capacity; it also attracted a large number of new players, filling up all the industrial parks that Liuzhou had planned and built three years ago, some of which had been idle; it also absorbed a large number of workers from other industries (such as automobiles) affected by the pandemic, driving up the upstream industries of bamboo shoots, green beans, tofu skin, and river snails.
Qiu Hongyi, co-founder of Heweifang Luosifen, told Blue Shark Supply that among Guangxi's three major rice noodle dishes, the popularity of Liuzhou Luosifen made Nanning's Laoyou noodles and Guilin rice noodles feel "envious and jealous": Liuzhou is neither a provincial capital nor a tourist city, so why? From central ministries to provincial/municipal commerce departments, delegations visiting Liuzhou to learn from its experience have been endless.
Luosifen is not only popular in China. According to statistics from the Liuzhou Customs in Guangxi, from January to June 2020, the export value of Liuzhou Luosifen inspected by customs was 8 times the total export value for the whole of 2019. In July, Luosifen exports hit a new high, with the single-month export value exceeding the total for the first half of the year. Mo Leichun told Blue Shark Supply that Luosifen exports are mainly to Europe and the United States, thanks to Li Ziqi's popularity on YouTube.
Li Ziqi's role in driving the Liuzhou Luosifen industry is undeniable. On August 18, Li Ziqi's team visited Liuzhou to inspect the site for a self-built factory, and was personally received by officials including Liuzhou Municipal Party Committee Deputy Secretary Liang Xuhui, Deputy Secretary-General of the Municipal Party Committee He Ying, and Director of the Municipal Commerce Bureau Liu Bochen.
So, did Li Ziqi make Liuzhou Luosifen successful, or did Liuzhou Luosifen make Li Ziqi's short-video e-commerce ventures flourish?
Blue Shark Supply went deep into Liuzhou, visiting Luosifen brand and factory owners, as well as owners of supporting factories for rice noodles, tofu skin, packaging, and seasonings, in an attempt to uncover the patterns behind the rise of Li Ziqi-brand Luosifen and find the underlying logic of the Chinese-style rise of new brands.
**-01- Small Workshops**
Liuzhou is the largest industrial city in Guangxi, known for the Wuling magic car, Liangmianzhen toothpaste, and Golden Throat lozenges. Luosifen is a street snack in Liuzhou, originating from the night markets of the 1970s and 1980s. Renting a storefront and setting up a few tables was enough to open a small shop. It has distinct food-stall characteristics: rice noodles, green beans, pickled bamboo shoots, peanuts, tofu skin, etc., placed in separate containers under semi-open transparent glass covers. The blanched rice noodles are topped with seasonings and braised meats like char siu, pig's trotters, and duck feet, selling for 8-10 yuan per bowl.
Like local snacks such as Guilin rice noodles and Yunnan Crossing-the-Bridge rice noodles, Liuzhou people opened Luosifen shops in neighboring provinces and cities, such as Shenzhen, as early as 20 years ago.
Huang Heping is one of the first batch of automobile soldiers from the former Hong Kong garrison. His relatives had always been in the Luosifen business. After retiring from the military in 2000, he chose to start his own business. Huang and his wife both loved Luosifen, but there were no Luosifen shops in Shenzhen at the time, so the couple opened the first Luosifen shop named Heweifang in Huaqiangbei, where many Liuzhou people gathered.
In the first three years, they lost up to 10,000 yuan a month, and Huang was once forced to work as a driver for a group company to make up for the losses.
It wasn't until the end of the SARS outbreak in 2003 that Huang's Luosifen shop began to improve. At the peak of business, Huang operated 9 Luosifen shops in Shenzhen.
"(Each shop's) daily turnover was no less than 17,000 yuan." From 2005 to 2011, Huang enjoyed nearly 7 years of good times, with each shop earning an annual profit of 1-2 million yuan. During this period, except for fresh ingredients, over 90% of the raw materials for his shops were transported from Liuzhou to Shenzhen.
In 2010, Liuzhou hoped to promote the city's image by following the "city + food" model used by other cities, and Luosifen was highly anticipated. In 2011, a group of entrepreneurs were guided by relevant Liuzhou departments to open more than ten Luosifen shops in Beijing's Haidian and Chaoyang districts.
However, the need to air-freight ingredients and expensive rents made these shops unsustainable. The relevant departments also promoted Luosifen on "A Bite of China" and organized event marketing like "10,000 people eating Luosifen together" to raise its profile.
The real creativity came from the grassroots.
At that time, many Liuzhou people working away from home wanted to take Luosifen with them, and some young students from local vocational colleges, seeing the rise of Taobao, also wanted to sell packaged Luosifen through e-commerce.
Packaged Luosifen workshops emerged as a result: a few young people or couples, in their own homes or rented houses, lived upstairs while using the first and second floors to pickle bamboo shoots and green beans, simmer broth, fry tofu skin and peanuts, and pack with a sealing machine bought for 500 yuan, then ship with an ice pack.
At that time, a workshop producing 300 packs of Luosifen a day was considered large. The packaged Luosifen from small workshops had a shelf life of only 10-15 days. These workshops had a strong odor, frequently drawing complaints from neighbors and being shut down by relevant authorities. However, a bag of Luosifen could sell for 35 yuan on Taobao, while a bowl locally sold for only 8-10 yuan. The huge profits led small workshops to close their doors to hide the smell and secretly produce "illegally."
By 2014, small workshops had created over 40 packaged Luosifen brands. Alibaba Index data shows that a large number of Luosifen shops began to appear on Taobao in 2014.
For the relevant departments determined to use Luosifen to promote Liuzhou's city image, the path of opening shops had failed, so they shifted their thinking to "industrialization." Since Luosifen workshops couldn't be managed to death, and they didn't want to kill them off, it was better to guide them positively.
Jia Jiangong, deputy director of the Liuzhou Municipal Commerce Bureau, once revealed to Xinhua News Agency that starting from the end of 2014, if a factory area reached 300 square meters, the local food and drug administration would issue a license.
**-02- Licensing and Local Standards**
However, although Liuzhou is the largest industrial city in Guangxi, there were not many local food processing factories, only a few like Yili. They had not entered the Luosifen industry.
Zhang Zhaohui, owner of the "Koushuige" Luosifen brand, started processing duck necks in 2001. In October 2014, Liuquan and his factory obtained licenses, numbered 01 and 02 respectively. Zhang recalled to Blue Shark Supply that he applied on September 26, 2014, and received the license a month later. This was a factory of over a thousand square meters, making it the largest Luosifen factory at the time.
According to Caijing magazine, Yao Hanlin, founder of Luobawang, came to Liuzhou in 2000 and mainly did tea and liquor business. After the "Eight Regulations" (anti-corruption measures), the tea and liquor business plummeted. Yao took over a food factory to make Fujian-style braised chicken feet, but couldn't compete with rivals like Juewei, losing hundreds of thousands of yuan a year.
Luo Jinbo, a Liuzhou native, saw Yao's chicken feet factory and wanted to take it over to convert it to produce pre-packaged Luosifen. Yao also thought it was a good direction. Luo, a chef by training, knew the recipe and technology. Yao offered Luo a 30% stake for an investment of 50,000 yuan. The two hit it off immediately.
"Most young people in Liuzhou borrow 20,000 yuan from relatives to start a business," Qiu Hongyi told Blue Shark Supply. "Fujian people are lean but tough; even if their original business failed, they at least had a car worth hundreds of thousands of yuan. By mortgaging it, they could raise the initial funds to build a Luosifen factory."
Luobawang is a combination of a Fujian native and a Liuzhou native. In January 2015, Luobawang's 700-square-meter factory was established. It was the sixth Luosifen factory to obtain a license. Currently, in the pre-packaged Luosifen market, the ratio of Fujian natives to Liuzhou locals is 1:1.
Due to subway construction and urban village renovation, Huang Heping gradually closed his 8 Luosifen shops in Shenzhen and returned to Liuzhou in 2015 to open a Luosifen factory. His strength lay in having run physical stores and mastering the Luosifen recipe. Qiu Hongyi, as Huang's behind-the-scenes shareholder, had always supported him.
"For a physical store, you just need to finish the job. But for a factory, you have to consider the shelf life of raw materials, product variety, and production stability. The requirements for a factory are much higher than for a store. If any point in the raw materials or process goes wrong, it affects the whole system," Huang said.
At that time, obtaining a license was not difficult, and some didn't even need to meet the 300-square-meter factory area standard. As the number of applicants increased, the standard quickly rose to over 1,000 square meters. From 2015 to 2016, the Liuzhou Food and Drug Administration issued licenses to a total of over 80 enterprises.
After standardizing production, the relevant departments then focused on industry standards.
In 2016, the Health and Family Planning Commission of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region issued the "Liuzhou Luosifen Local Standard," which stipulated terms and definitions, product classification, food additives, hygiene requirements for production and processing, inspection methods, inspection rules, labels, markings, packaging, transportation, storage, and shelf life.
From Blue Shark Supply's perspective, the issuance of licenses and local standards, on the surface, put a tight constraint on the Liuzhou Luosifen industry, but it was also a form of disguised protection and encouragement. It was the policy and industrial foundation for the rise of Luosifen brands.
With standards in place, platforms (such as JD.com and Alibaba) could not refuse to sell on the grounds of non-compliance with national standards, and consumers could confidently purchase and consume, clearing obstacles for large-scale sales. After licensing, rice noodles, tofu skin, and other ingredient packs were all factory-produced with vacuum nitrogen packaging, extending shelf life to 6 months, allowing Liuzhou Luosifen to be sold to more distant regions.
The large-scale development of the Liuzhou Luosifen industry had begun.
**-03- Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones**
Heweifang's modern factory
Licensing and local standards solved the supply-side problem. For the Luosifen industry to develop spirally, the demand side also needed to rise.
On the demand side, Luosifen caught two dividends: WeChat business (Weishang) and mobile e-commerce.
During the 2014 Spring Festival, Tencent popularized mobile payments overnight through WeChat red envelopes. From 2011 to 2014, after Xiaomi, OPPO, and other smartphone manufacturers aggressively promoted 1,000-yuan smartphones, the penetration rate of smartphones in China was already high. A large number of users who had not been "washed" by PC e-commerce came online via mobile phones. WeChat Moments, because it connected products, payments, and users, became a paradise for WeChat business from 2014 to 2015. Qiaoshisui, Sibu... multi-level distribution, hoarding, brainwashing, and aggressive screen-flooding reached their peak in 2014.
One of the early well-known Luosifen brands, Huailuoxiang, had two founders who were former teachers. After studying in Beijing and Shenzhen, they introduced the WeChat business model to the Luosifen industry in 2015.
"Pay 70,000 yuan, get the goods, and also receive a car worth 50,000 yuan," Zhang Zhaohui told Blue Shark Supply. The WeChat businesspeople drove cars to sell goods, buying at 7 yuan and selling at 12 yuan. Huailuoxiang held similar recruitment meetings twice, and sales soared. Huailuoxiang once sold well in Hunan and other places, becoming a model. Unfortunately, many WeChat businesspeople, after getting the car, couldn't sell the goods and had to clear inventory, selling goods bought at 7 yuan for 5 yuan. After price chaos, Huailuoxiang quickly stopped selling.
Another Luosifen brand, Hao Huanluo, was much smarter. It developed 8 core distributors, each controlling 50 WeChat business heads to sell products. Hao Huanluo had good quality and taste, and firmly maintained its price system. "It would rather not sell than lower prices. Distributors could earn dozens of yuan per item, so they maintained it," Zhang said.
Qiu Hongyi told Blue Shark Supply that from 2014 to 2016, as long as you had a product, you could get rich. "This wave of WeChat business was indeed easy. At that time, even if you took 10 items, you had to pay me 3,000 yuan first," Zhang said. At that time, "Koushuige" factory had a daily capacity of 8,000 bags and once produced for more than 20 Luosifen brands. The contract price per bag was 6.5-7 yuan, with a profit of 2-3 yuan per bag.
The booming contract business led Zhang to start preparing a new factory in November 2015, with trial production in July 2016. Tragically, the building rented for the new factory was deemed illegal construction and demolished on August 31, 2017, costing Zhang 8 million yuan.
Other Luosifen brands seized the mobile e-commerce dividend.
In 2014, Jiang Fan, now president of Tmall and Taobao, was tasked with driving Taobao's mobile transformation and completed the task in just one year. So, when factories like Luobawang and Luozhuangyuan were built and put into production, Taobao had already completed its mobile transformation, and a large number of new e-commerce users came online.
For factory owners like Zhang Zhaohui, they felt they couldn't do e-commerce themselves. In 2016, Luozhuangyuan's 1,000-square-meter factory was offered for transfer at 500,000 yuan, but no one wanted it. "A few young people worked with the founder, groping their way through e-commerce, and soon they were selling 30,000-50,000 bags a day."
Qiu Hongyi told Blue Shark Supply that thinking is crucial; once you change your mindset, you survive. Among the old-school Luosifen factories, few really knew how to do e-commerce; they all cultivated young people and crossed the river by feeling the stones.
Luobawang, in addition to hiring young people for e-commerce, also pioneered giving away two extra quail eggs in each bag of Luosifen, which made it stand out from dozens of Luosifen brands. In 2016, Luobawang built the largest Luosifen factory in Liuzhou at the time, covering 7,000 square meters. With high sales and sufficient capacity, Luobawang secured its position in the first tier. Xiluohui, on the other hand, became famous during the 2016 "Double 11" shopping festival and subsequently became the best-selling Luosifen brand on Taobao for three consecutive years, with monthly sales reaching hundreds of thousands of bags.
According to official statistics, the sales scale of Liuzhou Luosifen reached 2.5 billion yuan in 2018. Leading factories like Luobawang and Xiluohui, driven by e-commerce sales (which accounted for 90% of total output), had reached a capacity of 200,000-300,000 bags per day.
Blue Shark Supply visited Heweifang's production workshop, which has a daily capacity of 200,000 bags. The factory has a high degree of automation; for example, a filling machine purchased for 380,000 yuan requires only one person to operate, filling 60 bags of soup stock and 80 bags of chili oil per minute. Processes such as mixing and drying are all mechanized. It was introduced that Heweifang's factory has automated production lines with individual purchase prices of up to 400,000 yuan, and the total equipment investment in the entire factory amounts to several million yuan.
"Today's factories use new equipment with good numerical control and precision, resulting in low raw material waste. At night, ozone is regularly turned on to sterilize the entire workshop," Qiu Hongyi explained.
In the Liuzhou Migrant Workers' Entrepreneurship Park, Blue Shark Supply not only saw Luosifen factories like Luozhuangyuan and Wangweiluo, but also visited supporting enterprises, such as the packaging material factory Hengdeshun, which invested 30 million yuan in the most advanced printing machines (over 10 million yuan) and die-cutting machines (over 3 million yuan); a tofu skin factory that supplies 200,000-300,000 bags per day to Li Ziqi's contract factories; the Gaoyuan rice noodle factory with a daily output of 20 tons; and the Liukeli Biotechnology Company that can formulate any soup base... Without leaving the park, you could create any Luosifen brand you wanted overnight.
Liuzhou City also issued the "Measures for the Recognition of Liuzhou Luosifen Raw Material Demonstration Bases," proposing to cultivate a number of leading upstream enterprises (cooperatives) and establish a number of high-quality, safe, and green raw material demonstration bases for Liuzhou Luosifen. As of the end of July 2020, 10 Luosifen raw material production bases had been rated as demonstration bases.
**-04- Li Ziqi's Explosive Power**
Huang Qingxing, founder of Luozhongluo, told Blue Shark Supply that Li Ziqi-brand Luosifen was initially produced by Zhongliu.
Luo Jinbo, founder of Zhongliu, was a co-founder of Luobawang and founded Zhongliu in 2016. In July 2019, after comparison and evaluation by Li Ziqi's team and negotiations, Zhongliu was chosen as the contract factory. Zhongliu did not expect that Li Ziqi-brand Luosifen, which was just testing the waters, would quickly exceed 1 million bags per month, a level higher than the monthly sales of hundreds of thousands of bags for established brands like Xiluohui and Luobawang, and it was still growing rapidly.
This was the first time Liuzhou Luosifen factory owners witnessed the explosive power of a top influencer. Qiu Hongyi, who had dined with Li Ziqi's team, told Blue Shark Supply that it was a young team, not particularly impressive.
Li Ziqi began making short videos in 2016, gaining a large following on Meipai and Weibo, and was named one of Weibo's "Top 10 Food Influencers" in 2017. In 2018, Li Ziqi's short videos were uploaded to YouTube, gaining a million followers in three months. In August 2018, Li Ziqi's Tmall flagship store opened, launching five food products, with sales exceeding 150,000 units within six days. It can be said that before Li Ziqi entered Luosifen, her team had already accumulated operational experience in "building influence through short videos - accumulating fans - monetizing through e-commerce."
The surge in sales of Li Ziqi-brand Luosifen was also due to Li Ziqi's frequent appearances outside her niche in the second half of 2019. Each of her videos sparked discussions on YouTube, rapidly increasing her followers, and "exporting to domestic market," making her a representative and pride of Chinese culture going global. She was reported by national media such as People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, and CCTV, and was named "Cultural Figure of the Year 2019" by China Newsweek.
At the same time, in 2019, short-video platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou were pushing short video/livestream + e-commerce. Li Ziqi, who had joined Douyin and Kuaishou as early as 2017 and 2018 and accumulated tens of millions of followers (40.14 million on Douyin, 25.2 million on Kuaishou), could directly jump to her Taobao/Tmall store through the product showcases on Douyin and Kuaishou. This was a dividend that had never existed before.
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic also unexpectedly accelerated the explosion of Li Ziqi-brand Luosifen.
The pandemic kept people at home, causing a surge in sales of convenience foods, and Luosifen, popularized by Li Ziqi, was at the forefront. Due to insufficient capacity, "can't buy" and "why hasn't it shipped yet" frequently appeared on Weibo hot searches.
To cope with the surge in sales of Li Ziqi-brand Luosifen, Zhongliu built a 10,000-square-meter factory in three months during the pandemic. As demand increased, the prices of Luosifen raw materials rose accordingly.
"Rice noodles that usually cost 0.7-0.8 yuan per bag once sold for 1.2-1.3 yuan per bag, nearly doubling," Mo Leichun said. "Pickled bamboo shoots were in short supply. The usual price of 2.2-2.6 yuan per jin rose to 4-5 yuan per jin." Even so, there was no stock. To secure supplies, Luosifen factory owners went to great lengths, even going to order with cash in hand.
However, in the view of local Luosifen factory owners in Liuzhou, the challenge facing the hugely popular Li Ziqi-brand Luosifen is how to ensure consistent quality when so many factories are producing for it. Someone once bought Li Ziqi's Luosifen and found two different types of rice noodles in the same box, with obvious differences in thickness and color.
So, when Li Ziqi's team announced on August 18 that they were starting to build their own Luosifen factory, local factory owners were not surprised at all. "First contract production, then cooperative factory, and finally independent land acquisition to build a factory."
Clearly, Li Ziqi's self-built factory came too late. The incident of a blade allegedly found in Li Ziqi-brand Luosifen once again reminded Li Ziqi's team that with such large sales, supply chain management is indeed the "lifeline." You can't leave your life entirely to contract factories.
**-05- New Brands, New Strategies**
With a solid industrial foundation, Li Ziqi's driving force, and the pandemic's boost, many people have made building a Luosifen brand their career.
Zhongliu, which produces for Li Ziqi, registered its own brand called "Liujiang Renjia," positioning itself as produced in the same factory as Li Ziqi but priced 2-3 yuan lower. Currently, "Liujiang Renjia" ranks in the top ten among Liuzhou Luosifen brands.
Qiu Hongyi, who worked in real estate sales in Liuzhou for 10 years and is a shareholder of Heweifang, became its actual controller in 2019 and has since adopted aggressive tactics:
Factory side - previously, contract prices below 5.5 yuan per bag were not accepted; after he took over, he accepted any order with at least 20% gross margin. During the pandemic, when supplies were scarce and all Luosifen factories raised prices, he insisted on not raising prices, and customers flocked to him. Capacity tripled, making him a top-tier factory with a daily output of 200,000 bags and nearly 300 employees.
He also imitated brands like Luobawang and Xiluohui by forming a team of over 20 college graduates, using a low base salary plus high commission incentive scheme, focusing on e-commerce.
Qiu Hongyi had the team register multiple brands to promote together, firmly occupying the top positions in product search links. This was also the case when he started promoting cup-packaged Luosifen in 2019. "When customers search for cup Luosifen, the top ten on Tmall and Taobao are all mine."
Qiu Hongyi's strategy is not complicated; it requires multiple stores and multiple links, each link being active. This approach has proven quite effective. Now, Qiu Hongyi sells 40,000 bags per day through Pinduoduo. His college graduate team members earn annual incomes of hundreds of thousands of yuan.
By chance, Qiu Hongyi was "mocked" by his niece for not knowing how to use Douyin and Kuaishou, so he began to learn about short video/livestream selling. "Whether in resources or technology, we are relatively weak," Qiu Hongyi said, so he started looking for partners. "Once, I saw a good product, bought it, chatted with the customer service, and mentioned Mokuai. On impulse, I flew to Hangzhou the next day."
Mokuai is deeply involved in the livestream e-commerce industry, with professional technical capabilities and mature livestream supply chain operations, as well as massive resources of millions of influencers. It is one of Kuaishou's largest supply chain SaaS service providers and has received strategic investments from Kuaishou and Tencent.
In early 2020, Qiu Hongyi partnered with Mokuai. Qiu called it "inviting the wolf into the house." "The wolf is coming, and the chicks are hatching. If you just watch and fear the wolf will take them, that's wrong. Bring the wolf out and go find meat together." Qiu believes that in the era of short video and livestream selling, an influencer is equivalent to an offline channel. An influencer can sell 30,000 items a day, which no offline channel can achieve.
"Through Mokuai, serving every influencer well is equivalent to serving every offline channel well." Qiu Hongyi also values the payment cycle; with Mokuai, as long as the customer signs for the goods, you can withdraw cash at any time.
After partnering with Mokuai, Qiu Hongyi, based on user feedback, launched a seasoning pack with double tofu skin, which influencers were very willing to recommend, making it a bestseller among the more than 50 Luosifen products on Mokuai. At its peak, over 3,000 influencers were simultaneously selling Heweifang, with one evening's sales reaching 4 million yuan.
Mokuai has signed a brand incubation contract with Heweifang, using the millions of influencers on its platform to jointly promote the Heweifang brand of Luosifen.
Heweifang's sales subsequently rose from 2 million yuan per month in early 2019 to tens of millions of yuan per month in the first half of 2020.
Luozhongluo, which started production in August, adopted a multi-channel sales model. Huang Qingxing told Blue Shark Supply that Luozhongluo focuses on the "physical store" taste, supplying to numerous offline rice noodle and catering shops, while also entering traditional supermarkets. "Supermarkets have already started selling it." Luozhongluo is not the only one eyeing the offline market. In August 2020, Luozhuangyuan opened its first offline pre-packaged specialty store in Guangzhou.
**-06- Epilogue**
The popularity of Liuzhou Luosifen has led food factories in Zhengzhou and Jiaozuo, Henan, to enter the market. Qiu Hongyi once went to inspect and returned worried that Liuzhou Luosifen might follow the same path as Chongqing hot and sour noodles.
Hot and sour noodles are a specialty snack of Chongqing. After they became popular, most were produced under contract in Henan. In 2018, sales of cup-packaged hot and sour noodles reached 16 million cups. "Group purchase price is 9.9 yuan for six cups (one unit), would you eat it?" He calculated that this is equivalent to 1.65 yuan per cup. The cup itself costs 0.3 yuan, plus the packaging box. "At first, you earn one yuan per unit, then even two mao (0.2 yuan) is acceptable."
Liuzhou Luosifen applied for geographical indication trademark protection from the state in 2018 and was approved. In 2018, the relevant departments also issued the "Notice on the Implementation Plan for the Protection of the Geographical Indication Certification Trademark 'Liuzhou Luosifen'" and established a leading group for the protection of the "Liuzhou Luosifen" trademark brand, fully responsible for trademark protection.
Can this protection withstand the low-price impact from the Henan contingent? We can only wait and see.


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