From its inception to the present, over the past 25 years, Madam Oral Liquid has been like a woman in an exquisite and seductive cheongsam, stumbling through the long years, with wrinkles on her face and vicissitudes in her eyes, as if telling us an eternal drama of capital and marketplace changes. *Image selected from "A Doll's House": Nora who left home a hundred years ago I wonder how many people still remember the advertising slogan "Eternal love, forever in my heart" by Mao Amin on CCTV back then. Her noble and elegant demeanor was unforgettable, and "Madam Oral Liquid" rode on Mao Amin's fame to spread from Shenzhen to the whole country, with sales breaking 160 million in that year. "Madam Oral Liquid" could be said to be a must-have gift during festivals in the early 21st century, equivalent to the status of lipstick, perfume, and handbags given to women during festivals today. Now, it's hard to find Madam Oral Liquid on TV and other media, making people wonder if it has fallen along with other once-popular health products like Brain Gold, Cordyceps, Spirulina, etc. In fact, Madam Oral Liquid still exists, but with the development of the times, its founder Zhu Baoguo had long completed primitive capital accumulation, transitioned to the pharmaceutical industry, and entered the circle of Ma Yun and Ma Huateng, accumulating his own connections and resources. From its inception to the present, over the past 25 years, Madam Oral Liquid has been like a woman in an exquisite and seductive cheongsam, stumbling through the long years, with wrinkles on her face and vicissitudes in her eyes, as if telling us an eternal drama of capital and marketplace changes. ● ● ● The Explosive Popularity of "Madam" A peerless beauty lives in seclusion in an empty valley In 1992, 30-year-old Zhu Baoguo spent 90,000 yuan to buy a prescription from a female traditional Chinese medicine doctor, then brought this prescription to Shenzhen and began his gold rush. In 1993, the product from this prescription went into mass production, and Zhu Baoguo named it Madam Oral Liquid, targeting adult women with economic spending power. ****▲****Zhu Baoguo On Women's Day the following year, "Madam Oral Liquid" was launched in Guangzhou, becoming the first domestic oral beauty health product for women, under the banner of "promoting blood circulation, removing spots, and nourishing the face," with advertising slogans that seem a bit tacky today , such as "If Madam has troubles on her face, it's also written on her husband's face," "Among three women, one has a yellow complexion, two are deficient, and three are happy," but at the time, they hit the pain points of millions of women across the country. On the day of its launch, a single counter at Guangzhou Department Store sold 300,000 yuan worth of goods, while at that time, the best health product counter at Guangzhou Department Store had daily sales of no more than 100,000 yuan. Madam Oral Liquid thrived in the market with high advertising investment, high gross margins, and high growth, also earning Zhu Baoguo his first pot of gold. Brain Gold, Cordyceps, Besunyen... Which of these health products didn't make money by relying on high advertising expenses? Newspapers, light boxes, banners—Zhu Baoguo placed Madam Oral Liquid ads everywhere possible. In 1995, Zhu Baoguo invested 10 million yuan in CCTV and invited the then-famous singer Mao Amin to endorse the product. Every year thereafter, "Madam" invested heavily in marketing and promotion. From 1995 to 2000, Madam Pharmaceutical sponsored the "Miss Asia" pageant organized by Hong Kong's Asia Television for five consecutive years; in 2000, invited Malaysian mixed-race model IRENE to endorse the new brand image; in 2001, launched the "Madam Oral Liquid Charm Ambassador" national tour; in 2002, held events like "Finding the Outstanding Woman Who Drinks Madam Oral Liquid" and the "Third Golden Eagle Art Festival - TV New Stars Evening"; in 2003, invited the actress who played Teng Jing in the then-popular "Meteor Garden" as the image spokesperson, and in 2006, even invited Lin Zhiling for advertising endorsements. In the early 21st century, people's wallets had just started to have some spare money, and they lacked rational discernment about health products, mainly relying on TV ads. Brands that advertised on TV were considered "good things" in people's minds. At that time, Madam Oral Liquid was much more popular than today's collagen and hyaluronic acid. Due to the lack of competitors, after heavy packaging and marketing, Madam Oral Liquid quickly rose to prominence. For Chinese people, health products can actually be traced back to the First Emperor of Qin seeking immortality by having alchemists refine elixirs. From the "chicken blood therapy" in the 1970s to cod liver oil in the 1990s, Madam Oral Liquid was a new product after the upgrade of health product consumption. As a soothing agent to fill human weaknesses, it's not surprising that it was welcomed by women. ● ● ● The Marginalization of "Madam" The world is fickle, and everything changes like a candle in the wind To have absolute say in Madam Pharmaceutical, Zhu Baoguo mortgaged his equity and real estate to buy back shares. In 2001, Madam Pharmaceutical successfully listed on the A-share market and raised 1.736 billion yuan in cash, gaining valuable funds and reputation for the company's development. In 2002, the single product sales of Madam Oral Liquid were 242 million yuan; in 2003, they were 251 million yuan. Zhu Baoguo ranked 36th on Forbes 2002 China's 100 Richest, and 29th among mainland China's richest entrepreneurs. But despite the strong sales momentum of Madam Oral Liquid, Zhu Baoguo had already realized the limitations of health products. While Madam Oral Liquid was sweeping the nation, he began acquiring Livzon Pharmaceutical and venturing into the pharmaceutical field. He became distracted from the development of "Madam," and after shifting focus to pharmaceutical projects, its promotion and publicity gradually decreased, even intentionally erasing the "Madam" brand traces. The gutter oil incident at Health & Happiness in 2012 undoubtedly cast another shadow over Madam Oral Liquid. Health & Happiness's wholly-owned subsidiary, Henan Jiaozuo Health & Happiness Bio-Products Co., Ltd., was suspected of purchasing 145 million yuan of gutter oil for pharmaceutical use, "used in the production of pharmaceutical raw materials," and this batch of products, as intermediates for antibiotics, had widely flowed into the pharmaceutical market. Within a week after the report, the company's stock experienced a series of unusual situations including emergency suspension, resumption, and limit-down. As the flagship product, Madam Oral Liquid naturally was pushed to the forefront by public opinion. Although Health & Happiness's product line was no longer limited to "Madam," the bird that sticks its head out gets shot. In consumers' minds, "Madam" clearly had more influence than other drugs. After that, Madam Oral Liquid almost disappeared, leading consumers to think it had fallen along with other health products and vanished. In fact, it didn't. Madam Oral Liquid is still sold in pharmacies, but compared to its once high-profile advertising, its status is almost negligible. After the gutter oil incident, although Health & Happiness said it would give the public an explanation, there was no follow-up. The brand PR only wanted to quickly downplay the public impression of the incident and chose silence, so "Madam" was essentially "frozen." In 2014, Health & Happiness's annual report showed that the company's health product business decreased by 43 million yuan compared to the previous year, a decline of about 10.97%. The once flagship product had become the worst-performing segment of the entire company. In 2015, the "Madam" brand re-launched two new products: collagen peptide powder and Madam white kidney bean solid drink. But compared to the glorious period of "Madam's" promotion, the new products in 2015 barely made a splash in the market, and the sales channels shifted from supermarkets to WeChat business. Health & Happiness and Sibu Group jointly established a joint venture, Sibu Health & Happiness, with an agreement that "all health products of Health & Happiness will be promoted and sold through Sibu Group's sales network and channels." This pyramid-scheme-like model of WeChat business, while it may expand "Madam's" sales to some extent, lacks inherent credibility for product quality, which is not conducive to rebuilding the image of the Madam brand. Pushing Madam Oral Liquid to WeChat channels is not so much a transformation as squeezing out its last drop of blood. In the first year of listing, the new "Madam" products brought 13 million yuan in revenue to the company, but the good times didn't last. According to the 2016 financial report, Sibu Health & Happiness's operating revenue plummeted from 77.6476 million yuan to 1.7988 million yuan, only 2.32% of the previous year; net profit also significantly decreased from 35.71 million yuan to 252,300 yuan. Among the major holding and participating companies of Health & Happiness, Madam Pharmaceutical had operating revenue of 111 million yuan and a loss of 9.0327 million yuan. The "Madam" brand could no longer regain its former glory. ● ● ● The Fate of "Madam" Only the new bride's smile is seen, not the old wife's tears Although "Madam" is on its last legs, Health & Happiness has transformed into a comprehensive pharmaceutical company over the years, completely shaking off the limitations that "Madam" once brought. In 2001, after Madam Pharmaceutical went public, Zhu Baoguo successively acquired the Hong Kong ginseng brand "Eagle Brand" and Livzon Group. To avoid being limited by the "Madam" brand, in 2003, Zhu Baoguo renamed "Madam Pharmaceutical" to "Health & Happiness Pharmaceutical." To further expand in the pharmaceutical industry, Zhu Baoguo acquired Shenzhen Haibin Pharmaceutical Factory for 280 million yuan, which became "the largest cash acquisition case in the pharmaceutical industry since the founding of New China." A year later, Haibin Pharmaceutical Factory developed a complete production chain and became the world's largest antibiotic production base, laying an indispensable foundation for Zhu Baoguo's subsequent entry into the pharmaceutical market. From 2004 to 2008 was its most glorious period, with its antibiotics occupying 50% of the domestic market share. In 2004, Health & Happiness's revenue exceeded 2 billion yuan, with pharmaceuticals accounting for 77% and health products less than 23%. Currently, Health & Happiness's product range covers hundreds of varieties in multiple fields including health products, chemical drugs, biochemical drugs, microecological preparations, Chinese patent medicines, chemical raw materials, diagnostic reagents, and has begun to lay out respiratory drugs. While major health products were declining, Zhu Baoguo and his Health & Happiness achieved a magnificent turnaround. Zhu Baoguo has become increasingly low-key, but his business empire has grown larger. In 2014, Health & Happiness invested in Ma Yun's Yunfeng Fund. In 2015, when Ma Yun and Ma Huateng initiated the "Taohuayuan Ecological Protection Foundation," among the 10 industry bigwigs who participated, Zhu Baoguo was also included. In 2015, when the second largest shareholder of Health & Happiness reduced its stock holdings, Ma Huateng also participated. Zhu Baoguo's controlled online medical project "Cute Doctor" also had investment from Ma Huateng. **▲**Group photo of Ma Yun, Ma Huateng, Wang Zhongjun, Niu Gensheng, Shen Guojun, etc., with Zhu Baoguo on the far right From the factory director of a small chemical plant in Henan to the chairman of a pharmaceutical empire today, Zhu Baoguo's magnificent counterattack may never be separated from the five characters "Madam Oral Liquid." After completing the task of primitive capital accumulation, it is like a wife who accompanied her husband from the trough to the peak of life. Now, "Madam" is to Zhu Baoguo just a grain of rice on his clothes, a drop of mosquito blood on the mosquito net. Adam ate the apple, and humanity has sin. The role of primitive capital accumulation in social economics is almost the same as the role of original sin in theology. Madam Oral Liquid bears this original sin, and perhaps one day it will become a speck of dust in history, like many other products with the same fate. -END-