Medical beauty industry social media marketing report in the first half of 2021

The rapid development of the internet celebrity economy and the appearance economy has affected users' judgment standards for "beauty", and lack of confidence in appearance has become an increasingly serious "heartache" for young users.

According to the research data of Mob Research Institute, among the young users born after 1995, nearly 80% said they have appearance anxiety, of which 4.5% are severely anxious users. They are very dissatisfied with their appearance and have many defects. They believe that they need to undergo many medical beauty projects to improve their appearance.

Medical beauty has become a "shortcut" to becoming beautiful for more and more people. With the rapid development of industries such as short videos and live broadcasts, the development speed of the medical beauty industry has accelerated.

Guoji exclusively launched the "Social Media Marketing Analysis Report of the Medical Beauty Industry in the First Half of 2021", analyzing the market overview of the medical beauty industry, social media marketing characteristics, and social media promotion cases, to gain insights into the marketing methods of the medical beauty industry on social media platforms.

Data selection period for this issue: January 1, 2021 - June 30, 2021

Data source: Guoji

1. Development history: After the 21st century, the medical beauty industry developed rapidly and entered a stage of rapid development

The development of China's medical beauty industry has gone through four stages:

1) Embryonic period (1929-1993): my country’s modern medical beauty industry originated in 1929, marked by the opening of the first plastic surgery clinic in Shanghai. Plastic surgery departments in public hospitals were the main diagnosis and treatment institutions. There were few types of projects, which mainly focused on solving users’ own defects/shortcomings.

2) Start-up period (1994-2012): After 1997, private medical institutions such as Yimei and Meilai were established. my country's medical beauty industry entered an exploratory period, the types of projects increased, and injection projects received a high level of attention.

3) Growth stage (2013-2016): With the influx of capital, Internet medical beauty apps continued to emerge. In 2013, the first private plastic surgery hospital, Huahan Plastic Surgery, went public, and my country's medical beauty industry entered a growth stage. Influenced by the internet celebrity economy and the appearance economy, the public's acceptance of medical beauty continues to increase, the audience group continues to expand, and male users begin to come into contact with medical beauty.

4) Rapid development period (2017-present): The medical beauty industry launched a series of measures to rectify chaos, and Internet giants such as Alibaba, Meituan, and JD.com entered the market, and the industry entered a reshuffle phase.

2. Market size: The medical beauty market size exceeded 150 billion in 20 years, and the proportion of non-surgical products continued to grow

In 2019, the market size of China's medical beauty industry reached 143.6 billion yuan, and in 2020, the market size of the medical beauty industry reached 151.8 billion yuan. Affected by the epidemic, the growth rate slowed to 5.7%.

Since 2013, China's medical beauty industry has developed rapidly. Influenced by internet celebrity culture, consumers' demand for beauty has exploded. With the advancement of technology, the popularization of the Internet, and the rapid development of social media, information is becoming more transparent and open, and users' awareness of the medical beauty industry is constantly deepening. The user scale of non-surgical projects in the medical beauty industry will continue to increase, and the proportion of non-surgical project revenue will continue to grow.

3. User scale: In 20 years, the number of medical beauty users has exceeded 15 million, and women aged 20-30 have become the main consumers

With the rise of medical beauty consumption awareness, users' cognition and acceptance of medical beauty continue to deepen. They regard "medical beauty" as a means to upgrade their beauty. With the help of medical beauty, they improve their own defects and achieve a more beautiful and younger effect.

In 2020, the user scale of the young medical beauty market will exceed 15.2 million. Judging from the age distribution of consumers, female users aged 20-30 have become the main group in the medical beauty industry.

With the development of medical beauty technology, online communication has accelerated the speed of information transmission. Young groups born in the 1990s and 1995s have a high level of awareness and acceptance of medical beauty, and are bold in pursuing beauty and trying new things. In addition, with the increase in age and the change in concepts, medical beauty has become an important and effective means for users to fight against aging, and mature users have great consumption potential.

4. Market potential: users’ aesthetic taste returns, they pursue natural beauty, and the demand for light medical beauty continues to expand

In 2019, the medical aesthetics penetration rates in South Korea, the United States, and Japan were 20.5%, 16.6%, and 11.0%, respectively, while the medical aesthetics penetration rate in mainland China was only 3.6%, far lower than that of international mature markets. There is a lot of room for improvement in the medical aesthetics penetration rate in the future.

Compared with daily beauty, medical beauty projects have higher technical requirements for practitioners and the use of instruments. Users need a longer recovery period and the consumption amount is higher. In addition, as users' aesthetic tastes return to "naturalness", light medical beauty projects will have a higher growth rate and space, and will become an important growth sector in China's medical beauty industry.

5. Marketing and promotion: Online marketing of medical beauty is developing rapidly, and social media has become a new channel for acquiring customers in the medical beauty industry.

The marketing promotion of medical beauty institutions goes through four stages:

1) Traditional media era: attracting user attention through display advertising, mainly through print media, TV advertising, outdoor advertising and other channels, with low customer acquisition accuracy, and mainly focusing on plastic surgery and beauty.

2) Search engine era: Through bidding ranking and search keywords, we can direct traffic to the organization, with search engines such as Baidu as the main promotion channels. In 2016, affected by the Wei Zexi incident, search engine promotion was rectified and user trust continued to decline.

3) The era of medical beauty e-commerce platforms: divert traffic through third-party e-commerce platforms, including vertical medical beauty apps such as SoYoung, Gengmei, Yuemei, etc., and medical beauty sections of comprehensive e-commerce platforms such as Meituan Medical Beauty, Ali Health, JD Health, etc., to accurately reach users, and at the same time improve user trust by creating a real content ecosystem of UGC and PGC.

4) Social e-commerce era: Through the form of KOL recommendation + live e-commerce promotion, the purpose of attracting traffic and acquiring customers can be quickly achieved. The promotion channels are mainly social media platforms such as Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, etc. The anchors "speak from their own experience" to improve user trust.

1. The voice of the medical beauty industry is concentrated on the Weibo platform, and the influence potential of Douyin and Xiaohongshu platforms is huge

In the first half of 2021, in the distribution of voice trends on social media platforms in the medical beauty industry, the related voice was the highest in May and showed an upward trend.

In terms of the proportion of each platform, Weibo has the highest proportion in terms of the number of associated content, the number of associated bloggers, and the total number of content likes; WeChat official accounts rank second in terms of the number of associated content and the number of associated bloggers, but its influence is relatively weak, with the total number of content likes accounting for only 1.7%; WeChat Video Account ranks third in terms of the number of associated content, and its influence is higher than WeChat official accounts, but still relatively weak, with the total number of content likes accounting for 3.3%.

Although Xiaohongshu platform ranks fourth in the number of related content, it has a greater influence, accounting for 6.2% of the total content likes; Douyin ranks fifth in the number of related content, but it has a greater influence, accounting for 27.1% of the total content likes.

2. More than 90% of the social media voices of hair transplant/hair transplant projects are concentrated on Weibo and WeChat platforms

In the distribution of the voice share of medical beauty projects on social media platforms in the first half of 2021, hair transplantation/hair transplantation accounted for the largest proportion, over 92%, while other projects accounted for less than 8%, and their voice on social media platforms was relatively low.

Among them, skin beauty accounted for 3.01%, laser beauty accounted for 1.2%, body shaping accounted for 1.08%, and the remaining project types accounted for less than 1%.

Judging from the share of voice on each platform, hair transplantation/hair growth, skin beauty, laser beauty, optoelectronic projects/treatments, and medical beauty injections have the highest share on Weibo, exceeding 50%, followed by WeChat platform (official accounts + video accounts), which account for more than 20%.

Facial plastic surgery and dental beauty account for over 40% of the volume on Weibo, followed by WeChat platform (official accounts + video accounts); non-invasive rejuvenation was mentioned the least, and accounted for a higher share of over 40% on Bilibili.

3. Light medical beauty: Whitening/hydrating projects are popular, Thermage/hydrating injection/photorejuvenation are popular

In the distribution of the volume trends of popular light medical beauty projects on social media platforms in the first half of 2021, the volume of whitening and skin rejuvenation projects showed an upward trend, with the peak in May; the volume of hydrating and cleansing projects showed a downward trend, mainly in January-March. The demand for hydrating and cleansing projects was high during the season change period, and the volume of mentions on social media platforms was high.

Injectable face-slimming and anti-aging and firming projects are less affected by seasonality, and their popularity trend is relatively stable; the social media popularity of acne and scar removal and body shaping projects increased significantly in the second quarter, and user demand is relatively large.

In the first half of 2021, the light medical beauty projects that received a lot of attention on social media platforms include Thermage, hyaluronic acid injection, picosecond, photorejuvenation, face-slimming injection, microneedle and other projects.

4. Light medical beauty: accounts of mid-level/waist level account for 47%, with many accounts of beauty/medical/health types

In the distribution of account levels mentioned on social media platforms for popular light medical beauty projects in the first half of 2021, the number of top and shoulders accounts is relatively small, accounting for less than 2%, and they are mainly distributed on Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin platforms; the number of mid-level and waist accounts is relatively large, accounting for 47.5%, and they are mainly concentrated on the Weibo platform, accounting for more than 82%; the number of tail accounts is the largest, accounting for 51.1%.

Looking at the TOP10 types of KOLs mentioned in social media for popular light medical beauty projects in the first half of 2021, beauty KOLs mentioned light medical beauty projects most frequently, accounting for 26.5%; followed by medical care and health types, accounting for 11.9% and 8.5% respectively; fashion and apparel, film and television entertainment, and food accounts were in the third tier, accounting for more than 5%; emotional and gender, life experience, travel, and information accounts accounted for less than 5%.

5. Light medical beauty: Medical beauty project experience sharing/medical beauty science popularization/medical beauty live broadcast and other content are popular

Among the popular content types on social media platforms for popular light medical beauty projects in the first half of 2021, the number and number of likes of medical beauty project experience sharing content accounted for the highest proportion, exceeding 40%; followed by medical beauty popular science/dry goods content, which accounted for the second largest proportion, exceeding 25%.

The number of medical beauty case submissions accounted for more than 14%, but the content influence was relatively low, with content likes accounting for only 3.5%; the number of medical beauty live broadcast special content accounted for 5.7%, and the number of content likes accounted for more than 10.1%, with a relatively large content influence.

The number and number of likes for other types of content, such as post-medical beauty skin care knowledge, medical beauty strategies, medical beauty e-commerce platform promotions, and medical beauty group purchases, are all less than 5%.

1. Medical beauty live broadcast: Internet celebrities + medical beauty service agencies work closely together to improve customer acquisition efficiency

The promotion of medical beauty live broadcasts is mainly concentrated on the Weibo platform, with Taobao Live being the main live broadcast platform and Weibo Live being the second. Medical beauty live broadcasts are represented by internet celebrities and influencers, who use their own experiences to enhance fans' awareness and acceptance of medical beauty projects.

The medical beauty special cooperation agencies for internet celebrities and anchors mainly include third-party medical beauty service agencies such as Ele.me Medical Beauty, Pinjiankang Medical Service Agency, Beauty Diary Platform, Asia Pacific Medical Beauty Service Agency, as well as medical beauty hospitals/clinics such as Weilin Medical Beauty, Basha Beauty Medical Beauty, and Bayibo Dental.

The medical beauty projects we cooperate with are mainly high-frequency medical beauty projects. In the special live broadcasts of medical beauty, we provide users with exclusive live broadcast benefits to attract users to place orders and experience the experience, thereby improving customer acquisition efficiency.

2. Medical beauty live broadcast: Internet celebrities + medical beauty service agencies work closely together to improve customer acquisition efficiency

In 2021, Meituan’s 618 Beauty Carnival marketing promotion features:

1) Warm-up period: By establishing the interactive topic #好好有错# on Weibo, users were attracted to discuss. Weibo celebrities live-streamed the 618 promotion project for medical beauty on the Meituan APP to attract users’ attention.

2) Explosive period: Dianping’s official Weibo account released an interview video on medical beauty, which triggered discussion on the topic #Is it wrong to be good-looking#. Celebrities such as Joey Yung, Zhang Jiani, and Sunnee Yang Yunqing posted on Weibo to participate in the topic discussion, which ignited the topic.

3) Harvest period: From June 13th to June 16th, fashion, emotion, and beauty bloggers on Weibo mainly promoted the 88-yuan photorejuvenation project of Meituan Medical Beauty’s 618 promotion, attracting users to “take advantage of the bargain” at a low price and promoting user order conversion.

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