With founder Tang Binsen making frequent public appearances recently, attention has turned again to the young company Genki Forest. At the 21st Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum in Heilongjiang, Tang Binsen spoke publicly for the first time as the 'head of the family' about the brand's story. In his words, the reason for the rapid growth of this startup, which became famous overnight with its '0 sugar, 0 calorie, 0 fat' sparkling water category, is not complicated. 'In the past six years, Chinese society has also rewarded companies that make good products,' Tang said, noting that the opportunity Genki Forest seized was precisely that 'China does not lack consumption power; it lacks good products.' He also pointed out that 'the internet spirit is the original driving force for today's internet entrepreneurs to transform traditional industries.' So, what has the so-called internet spirit brought to Genki Forest? -01-****'Ultimate Pursuit of User Experience' During the forum, Tang shared his understanding of the internet spirit, placing the ultimate pursuit of user experience at the top. 'At Genki Forest, it's first people drink, then revenue, and finally profit, just like the internet. First daily active users, then revenue, and finally profit. This is what we mean by the true ultimate pursuit of experience,' he said. Returning to Genki Forest's business itself, the company stated that to create a delicious beverage, the R&D team often conducts hundreds of tests on a new flavor. In the trend of rapid iteration in the beverage industry, they are willing to spend over a year repeatedly testing and adjusting. One example is the birth of sour plum soup sparkling water. Genki Forest told Foodinc that this innovative product, which merges the two categories of sour plum soup and sparkling water, was initially conceived in 2019 during a company team-building event where everyone went to eat hot pot. 'Hot pot is spicy and greasy, and the sour plum soup that best relieves spiciness is too sweet and greasy. Someone complained why there isn't a fizzy and refreshing sour plum soup,' an insider at Genki Forest said. After locking onto this cross-category product, the company began a 'bumpy' R&D process because there was no existing carbonated sour plum juice on the market to reference. To that end, the R&D team's first task was to taste all sour plum juice products on the market, including homemade ones from restaurants. Secondly, the goal of a '0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calorie' sour plum sparkling water, which needed to retain the sweet and sour taste of sour plum juice while controlling calories and sugar, became a major challenge. After hundreds of taste tests and continuous modifications and adjustments, the product finally launched with a fine, refreshing taste. Another example is the Manfen fruit juice with micro-bubbles. It is understood that Genki Forest wanted to enter the juice market as early as 2018, but after several tests of ultra-high temperature instantaneous sterilization technology, its juice products could not solve the problem of commercial mass production, and the project was delayed until 2019. Facing various juices on the market, the R&D team came up with the differentiated positioning of '100% juice + micro-bubbles.' However, during R&D, various difficulties arose, such as difficulty in adding bubbles to pure juice in experiments. After several modifications, they finally achieved it, but then faced challenges like unstable fusion of juice and bubbles. After solving product R&D issues, they encountered technical difficulties in factory production, and ultimately invested a lot of money and time before the product launched at the end of 2019. **-02-**Exploring More New Products Using the above principles, Genki Forest continues to explore new flavors for its core sparkling water category. Foodinc noticed that Genki Forest's official flagship store has previewed two new sparkling water flavors to be officially launched on 618: hawthorn and sea salt pineapple. Foodinc also noticed that the brand recently launched strategic products in response to the two major food trends of probiotics and plant-based since last year, including the '0 sugar, 0 fat' Duice lactic acid bacteria flavored drink, and the 'low sugar, low fat' Genki Breakfast Soy Milk targeting the breakfast scene. Both products are entirely new brands and products under Genki Forest. It is worth noting that Genki Forest also uses tools like WeChat service accounts and mini-program malls to support the exploration of new products. Foodinc saw that its Yuanqi Family member mall not only sells the brand's own products but also offers various alcoholic beverages, fruit teas, coffee, biscuits, ice cream, and canned fruits, among other leisure snacks, a considerable portion of which are products from other brands. Although the company has not publicly disclosed its operational strategy for the member mall, from the types of products sold, it is not difficult to see that the mall focuses on foods with selling points like low sugar, low fat, zero additives, and high protein nutrition, with an overall emphasis on health. It is conceivable that Genki Forest can not only gather a large number of member fans through this mall, but it may also become one of its channels for incubating and testing new products. In fact, Tang Binsen previously hinted that 2021 would be a 'big year for products' for Genki Forest, with 95% of its products yet to be launched, and R&D expenses and personnel investment would triple compared to 2020. It is reported that the company's product and R&D team has reached a scale of a thousand people, and it has stated that the most important thing in the next five years is to do well in R&D and products. In an interview with Xinhua Net at the end of last month, Tang Binsen also detailed that the company will further upgrade its brand and product matrix, with different products and brands having different positioning, but 'hoping that when people mention sparkling water, they think of Genki Forest.' He also said that the company will continue to upgrade product quality and production processes, and teased that the sparkling water will undergo a major upgrade next year, including ingredients and other aspects. Source: Foodinc (ID: foodinc) Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted.