In 1900, Russians established the first brewery in Harbin—the Ulubleshevsky Brewery. Three years later, Germans and Britons founded the Anglo-German Brewery in Qingdao. Over time, these two cities gave birth to the two major beer brands we know today: Harbin Beer and Tsingtao Beer. The curtain on China's beer development slowly rises. -01- From Expansion to Contraction: The Evolution of China's Beer Market From 1949 to 1978, China's beer industry went from recovery to rapid growth, transitioning from reliance on foreign technology and raw materials to domestic production. Breaking free from foreign technology dependence, provinces across China established breweries, rapidly expanding capacity. Meanwhile, China's economic development boosted consumption power, providing opportunities for beer to enter people's daily lives. From 1990 to 2014, with global economic integration, e-commerce, and the expansion needs of local Chinese breweries, foreign beer brands entered the Chinese market, opening the door to more diverse and distinctive beer categories and brands, with consumer demand continuously upgrading. After more than a decade of sustained development, China's domestic beer market became saturated. In 2014, beer production declined for the first time, while imports and premium beers gained share, signaling that the era of relying solely on mergers and capacity expansion was over. Challenge is opportunity. Chinese beer brands, including Tsingtao and China Resources Beer, adjusted their strategies, shifting focus to building internal strength and attacking diversified, distinctive, and high-quality beer categories. -02- From Availability to Quality: Changing Beer Demand In the Chinese market, the beer category has been dominated by lagers. This bottom-fermented beer is light in taste, clear in body, and low in production cost, suitable for large-scale production. Today, about 90% of beers we see are lagers, such as Tsingtao, Yanjing, Snow, Heineken, Budweiser, Carlsberg, Blue Ribbon, and Suntory. Industrial lager has a huge consumer base in China, and competition among beer companies has largely focused on lager. As economic levels rise, consumers' social circles and scenarios have changed, leading to higher demands on beer flavor. Younger consumers have higher education, broader awareness, and are more open to new categories. Craft beer is a concrete manifestation of changing consumer demand. In recent years, with the birth of craft beer brands like Master Gao, NBeer, and Panda Brew, these have gained consumer favor. Although still a niche product, craft beer has already attracted many heavy consumers. On a cultural level, craft beer has become a quality lifestyle for consumers' self-improvement, a self-identity that satisfies self-worth, pursues refinement without pressure, and is full of novelty. According to surveys, consumers are willing to pay a 29.1% premium for craft beer over regular beer and have more diverse concerns when choosing craft beer. Meanwhile, between lager and craft beer, a bridging category emerged: wheat beer, also known as white beer. -03- Two Flowers Blooming Together: Chinese White Beer Becomes the New Upgrade Force Facing unmet consumer demand, on one side are imported beer brands targeting China's need for distinctive and diverse beers; on the other, Chinese craft beer brands with 'self-awareness' like Master Gao, NBeer, and Panda Brew have emerged. Chinese beer brands are accelerating change, leveraging strengths to deepen lager potential through innovation, quality, and upgrades, while addressing weaknesses in distinctive beer categories. Ales, characterized by top fermentation as opposed to bottom-fermented lagers, have become the main battleground, with white beer as the representative category becoming the core focus for major beer brands. It is reported that white beer, a type of wheat beer, originated in 14th-century Europe, brewed from barley malt and wheat malt using top fermentation. It gets its name from the slightly white appearance due to unfiltered yeast after brewing. Its body is rich and aromatic, with a slightly sour and sweet taste. Retaining yeast, it is rich in trace elements, greatly enhancing nutritional value. Its smooth mouthfeel and subtle floral and fruity notes appeal to women, making it 'popular with both sexes.' Its unique taste and distinctive category, meeting consumers' diverse demands for 'healthy living' and 'nutritional deliciousness,' make white beer a contested field. New products like Tsingtao All-Malt White Beer, Yanjing Original White Beer,金星 Original, Qinghai Lake White Beer, Harbin White Beer, and Wusu Wheat White have been launched. Alongside foreign white beer players like Franziskaner, Goose Island, and Kronenbourg 1664, a 'white beer battle' has begun. With foreign white beers like 1664 and Hoegaarden setting a precedent, local brands must fully leverage their advantages to win. As Ms. Cui Hong, Marketing Director of Tsingtao Beer Innovation Business Headquarters, said: 'Imported white beers may have taken a half-step ahead in the consumption upgrade era, but they are still niche products. Therefore, the rapid advancement of China's white beer category requires local brands to make efforts, especially in category education. While promoting the launch of new white beer categories, raising consumer awareness of the white beer category is fundamental to the healthy and sustainable development of China's white beer category. Because to achieve significant development of a category, ultimately it relies on consumers.' All-Malt White Beer is Tsingtao's first distinctive innovative product in response to beer consumption upgrades in 2014. Since its launch in 2015, over five years, it has innovated and broken new ground in brewing, marketing, and channel promotion, exploring a new model for large-brand craft products between imported beers and local craft breweries. -04- Online-Offline Integration and Consumer Cultivation 'There is no definitive definition of craft beer yet, but it is undeniable that under the current environment of China's beer development, craft beer's significant growth depends on local beer brands leveraging their technological advantages, marketing network advantages, and communication and promotion advantages. All-Malt White Beer is an exploration by Tsingtao on the path to promoting craft beer,' said Cui Hong. In brewing, Tsingtao leverages its strong technical support to focus on product quality. Based on over 20 years of research on wheat beer, it selects premium ingredients, uses all-malt brewing, and insists on no additives, creating floral and fruity aromas, delivering a 'first sip is different' experience and guiding new consumption experiences. In marketing and promotion, it takes a different path, unlike traditional beer that relies mainly on offline distribution, while also integrating online communication, actively playing a leading role in cultivating the white beer category. Through online-offline integration, it establishes relationships with consumers more quickly and efficiently, accurately pushing the white beer category to them. Among these, the 'Tsingtao Beer Craft Community' WeChat public account, launched in June 2015, became the main 'revolutionary base' for Tsingtao's online cultivation and a test field for All-Malt White Beer's digital brand marketing. It launched columns like 'White Beer Knowledge Lecture Hall,' 'White Beer Sister Talks Craft,' '24 Solar Terms Food Lab,' and 'Craft Family Tasting Club,' with the appeal of 'Savor Craft, Enjoy Life,' spreading fun knowledge about white beer and acting as an explorer of Chinese craft beer. The 'China Craft Lifestyle White Beer Book 1.0 and 2.0,' released in 2017 and 2018, are based on the content of the 'Tsingtao Beer Craft Community,' combined with current big data research, to continuously advocate and convey a 'healthy, joyful, quality, refined, and non-compromising' attitude and lifestyle. Relying on online platforms to spread white beer category knowledge, it also creates phenomenal IP events like 'Cross-Industry Masters Forum' and 'How to Drink All-Malt White Beer? Smart Crowd Innovation Contest' to expand and accelerate communication influence. Combined with offline activities, through a three-year national mobile tasting experience space, it creates immersive tasting scenarios for consumers to experience the 'Seven Savoring Rituals' culture advocated by All-Malt White Beer. In 2019, it launched a new three-year marketing communication plan. The theme 'Savor Life, Speak from the Heart' calls on 'White Beer Lifestyle Ambassadors' with attitude, warmth, appeal, and practical power to stay at trendy homestays across seasons, appreciate the beautiful changes of nature, experience the quality and craft lifestyle advocated by All-Malt White Beer, and join in creating Tsingtao White Beer's unique savoring culture, together creating new classics for their own lives. Tsingtao believes consumers are the creators of brands; to develop new categories, it must rely on consumers. Through online-offline integration, consumers nationwide have gained a deeper understanding of the white beer category, and through offline tasting and purchase of Tsingtao All-Malt White Beer, their impression of white beer has deepened. It can be said that since its birth, Tsingtao White Beer has driven and influenced the rise of a new beer consumption culture under China's consumption upgrade through an unconventional new marketing approach. Cui Hong, Marketing Director of Tsingtao Beer Innovation Marketing Business Unit, positioned All-Malt White Beer at its inception as an explorer of Chinese craft beer. She interprets it this way: Craft is a quality; craft is an attitude; craft is a spirit; craft is a trend; craft is a responsibility; craft is a culture; craft is also a dream. We want to brew craft beer with Chinese characteristics. 'First sip is different!' was the greeting crafted by then Tsingtao Beer President Huang Kexing at the launch of All-Malt White Beer in June 2015, expressing his expectation for the product: if you do it, make it different! As a century-old Chinese beer brand, Tsingtao Beer has always insisted on providing good products for Chinese consumers' better lives, becoming an explorer and pioneer in the development of China's beer industry. New Distribution Commentary: White beer appeared in the Chinese market as early as the 1980s, but for years consumer awareness of this category has been low. There are two main reasons: first, consumer demand; second, category awareness. With foreign beer brands entering China and rising living standards, more people have been exposed to different beer categories, expanding their awareness. They also have higher-level demands for beer. The expansion of awareness and upgrading of demand present an opportunity for Chinese beer companies. As a stepping stone to craft beer, white beer has become a breakthrough point for beer companies focused on large-scale production. For Tsingtao's 'Blue Army,' the hope is to leverage the Tsingtao Beer brand to gain recognition for the white beer category among Chinese consumers. Four years after its birth, All-Malt White Beer has gained consumer recognition. For Tsingtao's Blue Army, this is undoubtedly a successful new product incubation, but it is just a small step for Tsingtao's Innovation Marketing Business Unit. Facing a beer market with huge potential, All-Malt White Beer is just beginning. For companies, category innovation is more important than sales volume. Long-term value far outweighs short-term interests. This is especially true for new product development: jumping out of existing competitive areas and opening new growth ceilings is a question every company must consider. With Tsingtao All-Malt White Beer, the Blue Army focuses more on category cultivation, aiming to cultivate a new growth point for the beer industry. Tsingtao's marketing approach is to build consumer awareness of white beer. Tsingtao All-Malt White Beer does not aim to be a niche product but to create a mass-market product within a segmented market under a new category. In the white beer field, Tsingtao Beer plays the roles of category educator, consumption leader, and new marketing explorer, hoping through its own efforts to support the new development of China's beer industry and to tell the industry through its actions not to engage in homogeneous competition within a single category. With the entry of large beer companies like Tsingtao, white beer will surely bring new growth to China's beer industry in the future. White beer will become a signpost for China's beer upgrade, closely following consumer demand and driving continuous innovation in the beer industry. 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