The world's absurdity often reaches incomprehensible levels overnight. When coffee, once a symbol of lifestyle, has fallen to 9.9 yuan a cup, instant noodles, long seen as cheap food, are becoming unaffordable for young people. The topic of instant noodle price hikes has been circulating for a while, but I only recently felt it firsthand: one night after working late and caught in a rainstorm, I bought a cup of instant noodles, a braised egg, and a ham sausage at the 7-Eleven downstairs for a total of 14.5 yuan. I didn't realize it until I started eating, then it struck me that the noodles might be too expensive. Since I forgot to take the receipt, I guessed the cup of noodles cost at least 8 yuan. Maybe because I hadn't eaten instant noodles for a long time, my perception of their price was stuck at 3 or 4 yuan, so I felt a sudden sting.
Image source: Weibo hot search. Until recently, the topic #Master Kong instant noodles about to raise prices across the board# was pushed to hot search, and netizens joked, "Forced consumption upgrade," "Work hard to earn money, or you won't even afford instant noodles in the future"... After a bit of research, I was shocked to find that instant noodles have indeed become jaw-droppingly expensive.
From "Luxury" to High-End: Instant Noodles Return to Their Origins
Regarding instant noodles, Chinese people's memories often include the long, slow green trains. The harsh travel environment made many people rely on a cup of instant noodles to relieve fatigue, becoming a rare pleasant memory in the arduous journey. The happiness bought for 3.5 yuan was undoubtedly cheap, but it also solidified the consensus that instant noodles are cheap food. A couple of days ago, I saw a joke about instant noodles: When I excitedly added a fried egg to my instant noodles, I realized it wasn't the icing on the cake but a lifeline.
Image source: TV drama "Midnight Diner". But today, the expensiveness of instant noodles has clearly exceeded most people's expectations, moving further away from being cheap food. If you can accept Master Kong or Uni-President at 6-7 yuan per cup after a few seconds of thought, then a mini cup of Cup Noodles selling for 8.8 yuan at 7-Eleven is surprising. Some brands' high-end series directly overturn people's inherent understanding of instant noodle pricing.
Image source: Superman Review. For example, Uni-President's Man Han Da Can Taiwanese Beef Noodles and Tang Daren Extreme Flavor Pavilion are priced around 20 yuan, while some new consumer brands push the price of a single cup to painful levels. For instance, Ramen Talk's Crab Roe Noodles sell for 49.5 yuan per box, and Xunwei Shi's Tom Yum Instant Noodles are an outrageous 59 yuan per box.
Image source: Weibo netizens. Apart from ordering by mistake, I think most people can't think of a reason to spend 60 yuan on a cup of instant noodles. Young people, already stung by ice cream prices, never thought that one day they would have to double-check prices before putting instant noodles in their shopping carts. This is certainly not a status upgrade for instant noodles as "poor people's food." If we look at the timeline, early instant noodles did have a "luxury" shadow. The most classic is the famous joke from Taiwan about the mainland, like the tea egg that mainlanders couldn't afford. In 2011, Taiwanese expert Gao Zhibin said on a show, "A Taiwanese businessman ate instant noodles at Shenzhen Railway Station, attracting 50-60 people to watch. Everyone thought it smelled so good. The businessman thought, 'This has potential.'" This was actually a true story that happened on a train from Beijing to Tongliao in 1991, but once the time was blurred, it completely changed its meaning. But it indirectly confirms the public's view of this novel product at that time. In the 1970s, Shanghai Yimin Food Factory No. 4 introduced Japanese technology to create a brand called "Happy Instant Noodles." At that time, it sold for 15 cents and required food stamps, so ordinary people couldn't afford it. There was even a story of someone using connections to buy a few packs in Beijing to bring home for a taste.
Image source: TV drama "The Story of Xinghua". But with rapid improvement in living standards, instant noodles eventually "fell" to become the cheap food in our memories for simple sustenance. From this perspective, the increasingly expensive instant noodles are clearly not an exploration of unknown high-end but a tribute and return to the past.
The High-End Paradox and Extreme Marketing: Instant Noodles Are Truly Anxious
The hardest thing in the world is not marketing but changing people's perceptions. As for why instant noodles are getting more expensive, the rise in raw material costs is indeed a fact, but the core reason is that instant noodles aren't selling well. Since 2013, instant noodle sales in the Chinese market have been in long-term decline. The instant noodle businesses of the three giants—Master Kong, Uni-President, and Nissin Foods—sold a combined 2 billion yuan less in 2023 compared to 2022.
Image source: Cup Noodles official Weibo. Although the instant noodle market is expanding, the performance of the giants is getting worse. The rise of domestic competitors like Baixiang has diluted the market share of Master Kong and others in recent years. The emergence of instant foods like river snail rice noodles and self-heating hot pot has further squeezed the market space for instant noodles. Therefore, the only two paths for Master Kong and others are innovation and marketing. Raising unit prices and moving toward high-end product innovation is almost a must for instant noodle brands. Besides the giants, even domestic brands like Baixiang are moving further along the high-end path.
Image source: Baixiang official Weibo. In addition to the crab roe noodles priced at nearly 23 yuan per pack, in 2018 Baixiang launched the "Tang Hao He" series, announcing a new standard of abandoning traditional sauce powder packets and using only simmered broth, aiming to go further upmarket. In my view, the paradox here is that young people are pursuing quality of life upgrades; people can spend 30 yuan on a cup of milk tea or 500 yuan on a hot pot, but almost no one will spend 60 yuan on a cup of instant noodles to improve their life. Because since instant noodles were invented by Japanese Momofuku Ando in 1958, the consumer education has always been about convenience and quick meals. The core consumption scenario has almost always been a helpless choice in emergency situations. This is almost a consensus across society. Changing that is no easy task. In consumers' minds, the expectation for instant noodles is: if I'm so busy that I can only eat instant noodles, who cares if it tastes good? Filling the stomach becomes the primary need, and taste becomes secondary. From this perspective, the high-endization of instant noodles is like an absurd joke, essentially contrary to consumer needs. Facts have proven my point: after many years, the products that support Master Kong and Uni-President are still the classic flavors like Braised Beef Noodles and Pickled Cabbage Beef Noodles introduced decades ago. The so-called high-end products have not met the expectations of Master Kong and others. This has directly led to extreme marketing in the instant noodle industry.
At the end of June last year, when Shenzhen Sam's Club opened, a giant limited-edition instant noodle bucket went viral. This 168-yuan giant bucket was scalped for 300 to 500 yuan, doubling the price, yet supply still couldn't meet demand.
Image source: Xianyu. To some extent, this kind of marketing is a helpless choice after instant noodle manufacturers fail to surprise consumers with flavors. Similarly, not long ago, South Korea's Samyang Buldak Fire Noodles were urgently recalled by Danish food regulators for three products due to excessive capsaicin. With its unique "spiciness," Samyang Fire Noodles has attracted a group of spicy food lovers and carved out a niche in the domestic instant noodle market. In my view, the continuously increasing spiciness of Fire Noodles subtly reveals the brands' intentions: on one hand, it goes beyond the basic sustenance value of instant noodles, attracting consumers with novelty; on the other hand, through challenges by foodies, it further boosts product popularity. To a large extent, this is an alternative choice for instant noodle brands after being abandoned by young people. This choice is about profit and market, but it has little to do with the essential value of instant noodles.
Young People in Need of Comfort Drift Further from Instant Noodles
All the food in the world is but a bowl of human fireworks. Chinese people always project too much emotion onto food; the flavors of life seem to correspond to the sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy of food. Instant noodles are a very special category; their existence seems not to prove the deliciousness of food but to remind everyone of the most basic function of food. In scenes related to it, it's hard to separate from life's hardships. So much so that "poor people eat instant noodles, leave with a box when quitting, and long kneeling always brings rain" have become classic clichés in current TV dramas, proving the lack of creativity of the writers. This stereotype directly led to the "Three Sisters of Instant Noodles" in the Chinese version of "Midnight Diner" becoming a famous scene still ridiculed today.
Image source: TV drama "Midnight Diner". If for the post-80s and post-90s generations, a pack of instant noodles was a "treasure" to satisfy cravings in childhood, then after growing up, that cup of instant noodles became a warm comfort in the bitter life of adults. But today, when consumption upgrade is the main theme of the times, young people pursue healthy diets and stimulation and satisfaction of taste buds. Instant noodles, with little change in flavor for decades and only for sustenance, have lost their appeal to young people. Like MSG, which was "killed" by rumors, under the relentless marketing of instant noodle substitutes—internet-famous instant foods—instant noodles have always been labeled "junk food." What replaces instant noodles is the stink of river snail rice noodles and the spiciness of self-heating hot pot. Compared to the blandness of instant noodles, this direct strong stimulation of taste buds can better comfort young people exhausted both physically and mentally in ordinary life. Yes, the times have changed. Instant noodles are like a product of the old era, struggling to keep up with the pace of young people in the new era. Any future popularity may only rely on "nostalgia" to resurrect. To some extent, this is not a problem for Master Kong or Uni-President, but a problem for young people themselves. "The times abandon you without even saying goodbye." This is cruel, and it's something the entire instant noodle category must face.
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