---
title: "Can Hankou Second Factory and Genki Forest Go from Internet Celebrities to Classics?"
description: "Hankou Second Factory and Genki Forest, can they go from internet celebrities to classics? Why did these young brands suddenly become popular? Is it the concept of 'zero sugar, zero calories, zero fat' hitting consumer pain points? Or is it precise marketing with online-offline integration? Few people seem to notice the huge profits in the 'beverage' business. On September 8, Nongfu Spring (09633.HK) listed in Hong Kong, opening 85.12% higher at HK$39.8 per share, with a market value approaching HK$450 billion, briefly making Zhong Shanshan China's richest man. Besides established water sellers like Nongfu Spring..."
author: "锦鲤内容组"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2020-10-12"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/can-hankou-second-factory-and-genki-forest-go-from-internet-celebrities-182d762e/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/can-hankou-second-factory-and-genki-forest-go-from-internet-celebrities-182d762e.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3O8FscwbzS6hiv3_y340XQ"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E6%B1%89%E5%8F%A3%E4%BA%8C%E5%8E%82%E5%92%8C%E5%85%83%E6%B0%94%E6%A3%AE%E6%9E%97%E4%BB%AC-%E8%83%BD%E4%BB%8E%E7%BD%91%E7%BA%A2%E8%83%BD%E5%8F%98%E7%BB%8F%E5%85%B8%E5%90%97-182d762e.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/can-hankou-second-factory-and-genki-forest-go-from-internet-celebrities-182d762e/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Can Hankou Second Factory and Genki Forest Go from Internet Celebrities to Classics?

> Hankou Second Factory and Genki Forest, can they go from internet celebrities to classics? Why did these young brands suddenly become popular? Is it the concept of 'zero sugar, zero calories, zero fat' hitting consumer pain points? Or is it precise marketing with online-offline integration? Few people seem to notice the huge profits in the 'beverage' business. On September 8, Nongfu Spring (09633.HK) listed in Hong Kong, opening 85.12% higher at HK$39.8 per share, with a market value approaching HK$450 billion, briefly making Zhong Shanshan China's richest man. Besides established water sellers like Nongfu Spring...

**Can Hankou Second Factory and Genki Forest go from internet celebrities to classics?**
Why did these young brands suddenly become popular? Is it the concept of 'zero sugar, zero calories, zero fat' hitting consumer pain points? Or is it precise marketing with online-offline integration?
**Few people seem to notice the huge profits in the 'beverage' business.**
On September 8, Nongfu Spring (09633.HK) listed in Hong Kong, opening 85.12% higher at HK$39.8 per share, with a market value once approaching HK$450 billion, briefly making Zhong Shanshan China's richest man.
Besides established water sellers like Nongfu Spring, the new internet-famous beverage brands Hankou Second Factory and sparkling water brand Genki Forest were also born from the water business, and have now achieved remarkable results.
Recently, the parent company of the internet-famous beverage 'Hankou Second Factory' - Wuhan Hengrunshi Operation Management Co., Ltd. - completed financing of over 100 million yuan. New shareholders in this round include Qingliu Capital, Hillhouse Ventures, Country Garden Capital, and Shunwei Capital, with existing shareholder Qinqin Investment continuing to follow.
Genki Forest, a company only four years old, has seen its valuation soar to 14 billion yuan. Recently, it was revealed that Genki Forest is about to complete a new round of financing. After receiving 150 million yuan in October last year, the company's valuation has surged 3.5 times in nine months.
Why did these young brands suddenly become popular? Is it the concept of 'zero sugar, zero calories, zero fat' hitting consumer pain points? Or is it precise marketing with online-offline integration?
**-01-**
**How to Become an Internet Celebrity**
This summer, who hasn't bought a bottle of Genki Forest sparkling water at a convenience store? And who hasn't been attracted by the packaging of Hankou Second Factory?
In fact, the domestic beverage market has long been saturated. On one hand, there is the battle between Coca-Cola and Pepsi; on the other, there are many competitors like Master Kong, Uni-President, Wahaha, and Nongfu Spring. It is not easy to carve out a place in this market.
But these brands also face the problem of brand aging, and the market urgently needs new brands to break the deadlock. Contemporary young people seem to prefer labeled things. The rise of Genki Forest and Hankou Second Factory is about creating labels and then being the first to 'tear open a gap' online.
On Xiaohongshu, Genki Forest, Perrier, and Hankou Second Factory have become the three hottest internet-famous waters this year. This strategy of 'becoming popular online, selling in volume offline' has become a successful path for new brands to break through quickly and is being continuously replicated.
Since when did young people's lifestyle become 'soaking goji berries in a thermos, quitting cola and greasy food'? The concept of 'health' has begun to significantly influence consumer choices, after all, 'punk wellness' is the trend. **But contemporary young people fear sugar like tigers while extremely loving sweetness. Genki Forest's marketing positioning is extremely precise, targeting Generation Z, which explains why Genki Forest, with its '0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories' concept, is so popular.**
Hankou Second Factory, which also became popular, knows the tricks well. Hankou Second Factory soda water originated from an offline event in 2017 that recreated the old national brand 'Second Factory Soda'. After quickly establishing awareness with topics like the rise of national brands, the company launched products with cultural attributes such as lychee-flavored 'Inspirational Soda' and confession bottle 'Love Soda' to build the brand.
QuestMobile's '2020 New National Goods Rise Insight Report' points out that **the post-90s and post-00s generations are more attached to the internet, keen on using new content platforms like short videos and images, making them the target group most easily influenced by new national goods on new media.**
Overall, new consumer brands have mastered effective planting methods, from the combination and promotion of KOCs and KOLs to celebrity social media exposure, giving brands a more word-of-mouth marketing voice.
In the past two years, **China's new consumer brands have risen exceptionally fast. Based on mature supply chains and convenient online channels, as long as they seize the right timing, a new startup brand will capture our attention.** Genki Forest and Hankou Second Factory are products of social media.
**-02-**
**This Water Is a Bit Expensive**
Now we can clearly feel that some once-popular beverages, such as iced tea, instant coffee, orange juice, and bottled milk tea, are quietly disappearing from our sight, replaced by 0-sugar 0-calorie fruit sparkling water, premium instant coffee, NFC juice, and some alcoholic beverages.
Now it is obvious that beverages like Genki Forest and Hankou Second Factory have become phenomenal products in the beverage market. With excellent positioning, they have been deeply loved and pursued by young people upon launch. However, for a highly competitive and transparent beverage market, it is often very difficult for a new brand to gain a firm foothold. After all, in the decades of rapid economic development in China, people have seen too many meteors in the beverage market that were hot for a while but fleeting.
According to the monitoring results of Jieshu Consulting on the Taobao online sales data of Genki Forest and Hankou Second Factory, it can be seen that Genki Forest and Hankou Second Factory rank first in the two different categories of drinking water and carbonated beverages on Taobao, with very impressive sales performance in transaction amounts.
In the first half of 2020 alone, Genki Forest's sales exceeded 800 million yuan. It has clearly become a social product for contemporary young people. According to the 'Yangtze Daily', Hankou Second Factory's offline sales exceeded 500 million yuan last year.
Compared with Hankou Second Factory, Genki Forest's offline channel performance is impressive enough, with 60%-70% of its revenue coming from offline channels, and e-commerce accounting for less than 30%. This is related to Genki Forest's deep cultivation of convenience stores in first- and second-tier cities at its inception, and only later focusing on e-commerce.
In contrast, although Hankou Second Factory also started to lay out online e-commerce channels after completing offline exposure and accumulation, the high price is an important reason for the obstruction of offline channels. After all, not everyone is willing to pay nearly 10 yuan for a single bottle of beverage.
But with the popularity of Genki Forest, there are also many controversies in the market, including its suspected 'fake Japanese style' promotion, whether it is really sugar-free and healthy, and the low technical threshold of sugar-free beverages.
Currently, Genki Forest and Hankou Second Factory, as newcomers in the beverage industry, still face the squeeze of market share from veterans. For example, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, the newly listed Nongfu Spring, and the long-established Uni-President and Master Kong are all strong competitors for the newcomers to expand the market.
After all, blindly innovating flavors is not a panacea. Genki Forest has launched multiple series of products one after another, with 8 flavors of Genki Forest sparkling water alone. Hankou Second Factory returned to our sight with nostalgic flavors, and subsequently launched other personalized flavors.
But consumers ultimately are willing to buy regular flavors, and while innovative flavors can bring some freshness, the acceptance of innovation is not high.
Currently, Genki Forest and Hankou Second Factory have not formed core competitiveness.
**-03-**
**Good-looking, Then What?**
**With the popularity of Genki Forest, 'sugar-free' beverages have become a battleground for beverage companies. As modern people incorporate appearance management, weight management, and health management into daily routines, reducing sugar, salt, and fat has become a structural trend in China's food and beverage industry, and sugar-free is becoming one of the core selling points for beverage companies to launch new products.**
In fact, sugar-free and low-sugar are not new in the beverage industry. A research report by SPDB International at the end of July stated that around 2002, Uni-President's 'Tea King' sugar-free tea was already listed in China. From 2011 to 2012, Nongfu Spring and Master Kong also launched 'Oriental Leaf' and 'Benwei Tea House' sugar-free teas to cater to niche groups.
Currently, many brands have launched similar products. For example, Heytea launched its first sparkling water product 'Heytea Xiao' and officially entered the '0 sugar 0 fat' bottled sparkling water industry. In mid-August, Wahaha also launched a soda water called 'Angry Bobo'.
Under such circumstances, can Genki Forest maintain its advantage?
Before Genki Forest, most beverages were promoted from wholesale circulation markets to retail markets or from townships to first- and second-tier cities, but this model was not targeted. Genki Forest, on the other hand, promotes from the highest-end channels to other channels, with accurate positioning, which is a good approach.
**But Genki Forest's rise is about using capital to quickly build a new brand, but as an FMCG, it has not formed its own technical barriers. Genki Forest relies on the internet celebrity model to rise, and as a company, it is too replicable.**
If Genki Forest wants to remove the 'internet celebrity' label and become a company that is 'popular everywhere' with recognition and multiple super brands, it will face higher challenges.
Compared with Genki Forest's '0 sugar 0 fat 0 calories', Hankou Second Factory relies more on nostalgia. With creative design and excellent appearance, Hankou Second Factory stands out among a host of retro soda waters. But setting aside appearance, how many people are willing to pay 10 yuan for a bottle of soda?
Now Hankou Second Factory is actively innovating, but once it innovates, it loses its market characteristics. After all, retro is its founding element. In the long run, Hankou Second Factory will inevitably form an awkward cycle.
The current Chinese beverage market is very large, but the concentration is not high.
In recent years, people's living consumption levels have gradually improved, and the younger generation of consumers has gradually become the main force in the market. Young people are increasingly picky about products, with greatly improved aesthetics, but their consumption behavior does not have much inertia; they won't buy just because you are a big brand. Traditional large beverage brands have inertia in operations and react a bit slower to new things. Because of this time difference, the current era is very conducive to new consumer brands breaking out.
**With the support of the internet and capital, although new brands grow very fast, whether they can remain invincible in the changing trends of the times still needs to be tested by industry logic. After all, it is not easy to go from internet celebrity to classic.**
Source: Jinli Finance (ID: jinlifin)
Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted.


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671