Beautiful young money into the trap
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “leopard change” (ID: baobiannews), Author: Can Yang, editor: Xing Yun.
“Core Tips”
From double eyelid, liposuction to heat Maggie, acid brush… Plastic surgery is no longer an unspeakable thing, and there are endless medical beauty projects on the market. College students, fresh graduates, and post-95s who have recently worked have become the main consumer of medical aesthetics. High-priced medical aesthetics projects hit young people who are dedicated to “beauty”. Medical aesthetics staged once again aimed at the opportunity to debut. This time, how many young people’s wallets can the medical beauty installment win?
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Qian Zhongshu wrote this paragraph in the short story “Cat”:
Mrs. Li has been dissatisfied with her appearance since she was a child, her skin is not white, her eyelids are not double… The single eyelid is indeed a huge defect… When she arrived in Japan, she went to the hospital to have her eyelid repaired and deepened the eyelid on her left cheek. dimple.
During the Republic of China, advanced western beauty methods were introduced, and the beauty-loving style prevailed. There are also books like “Artificial Beauty Techniques” that are popular, with “Women Must Bring” on the cover.
However, the price of plastic surgery at that time was not cheap, and only a few people could afford it. The average person could only take a cucumber. Mrs. Li traveled to Japan, and finally “the newly bought double eyelids cost 500 yen.” What is the concept of 500 yen? It was equivalent to the income of people in the city who were busy working for half a year to a year.
Nowadays, it is no longer necessary to go to Japan and South Korea to pull double eyelids. You can only think of all kinds of medical beauty projects in China, and you can’t do it. Beauty is justice. Behind the proliferation of facial anxiety, the medical beauty industry has ushered in a “Great Leap Forward.” There are also people helping to solve the price problem-medical beauty staging.
In 2018, under strict supervision, a large number of medical beauty loan institutions were destroyed, and now the medical beauty installment is making a comeback. A practitioner in the credit industry said to Leopard Change: As long as the medical beauty institution is still there, it will be difficult for medical beauty loans to be banned.
In mid-2020, Internet platforms such as Xinyang and Meituan entered the medical beauty installment and started a price war. This time, can young people keep their wallets?
01 The beauty of the economy is too hot, and the medical beauty is coming back in installments
In February 2021, 20-year-old Li Miao accidentally saw an advertisement from a Beijing medical beauty institution on Douyin, saying that he could make appointments for free for consumers. In her opinion, it is very common for post-90s to do medical beauty. And I just have some needs, so fill in the information, make an appointment, and go to the institution for face-to-face consultation.
A few years ago, cosmetic surgery was still a difficult thing to tell. And now on social entertainment platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, who have gotten together after 95, Internet celebrities with perfect appearances continue to become popular, and they do not shy away from sharing their medical beauty experience with fans,
Search for medical beauty on the Internet platform, you can see all kinds of small bubbles for 9.9 yuan, free skin condition tests, etc. Once the consumption habits are cultivated, the next major surgical projects such as rhinoplasty and breast augmentation may follow. These projects cost tens of thousands at every turn, which also allows more room for medical beauty loans.
In fact, information such as the pricing of various items of medical beauty is not transparent. For medical aesthetics organizations, the biggest problem in making money is how to acquire customers, so a large part of the expenditure is spent on marketing. Take the NEEQ listed company Huahan Plastic Surgery as an example, its gross profit margin will be about 50% in 2020, and this year’s sales expenses are 165 million yuan, and the net profit attributable to the parent is 110 million yuan.
The instalment service allows consumers to afford higher prices, which will help medical aesthetics institutions to acquire customers.
Currently, medical aesthetics institutions on the market can be roughly divided into two types: channel hospitals and direct-visit hospitals. Zhang Jing told Leopard Change that the so-called channel hospitals receive customers introduced by third-party intermediaries, and these intermediaries are often beauty salons, nail salons, etc. The channel hospitals need to return points to the intermediary after completing a transaction.
Zhang Jing said thatsome channel hospitals have rebates as high as 70%-80%. This has also become the reason for the high prices of channel hospitals in general. She gave an example of a 3,000 yuan project, based on a 70% rebate, the hospital needs to give the beauty salon 2,100, and he only has 900 left, which is definitely not profitable, but if the price is set at 30,000, then even if two of them are set at 30,000 If you give 10,000 rebates to the beauty salon, you can also have 10,000 left.
Such a high price, coupled with the help of medical beauty instalments, is easier to digest by consumers, so medical beauty loans are deeply loved by channel hospitals.
Medical Beauty Loan ushered in the first year of the industry in 2016. In its heyday, the number of medical aesthetics staging institutions reached more than a thousand, and the customer base covered extended to college students. At that time, you can see a bunch of QR codes for staging products on the front desk if you go to any medical beauty institution.
However, since the second half of 2018, the medical beauty instalment market has ushered in strong supervision. By the end of 2018, the number of medical beauty instalment platforms had fallen to more than 30.
Although many instalment platforms discount low interest rates and interest-free slogans, it can be seen from the complaint of black cats that about the high hidden interest rate of medical instalment, various hidden service fees, handling fees, and liquidated damages , There are many complaints about “disguised usury products”.
In addition, you can also see many college students’ complaints about medical beauty staging on the Black Cat complaint. A college student told Leopard Bian that he had recently successfully purchased a medical beauty project through the Meituan installment. AlsoThat is to say, although the regulatory authority issued a document in 2017 that any online lending institution is not allowed to issue loans to college students, in fact, through medical and beauty installments, college students may still be Get a loan.
The medical aesthetics industry is still in a state of opaque information, and the service quality and results of medical aesthetics projects are also unstable. Medical accidents are not common. Disputes between consumers, intermediaries, and hospitals are high, and medical aesthetics is a staging business. An additional role as a lending platform has made disputes more complicated.
03 “In order to find a job, I almost took a 70,000 medical loan on my back”
Medical beauty customers have high unit prices and strong market demand. They are mainly consumed by women. Female customers generally outperform male customers after loans, and their default risk is much lower than the industry average.
With such a high-quality scene, medical beauty staging looks like a very attractive business.
But in fact, the risk control of the medical beauty scene is relatively difficult. In the medical beauty installment scene, consumers and financial companies form a loan relationship. In the end, either the consumer gets a loan or the financial institution faces the risk of bad debts. And the real money of intermediaries and medical aesthetics institutions is in their pockets, and they make a lot of profits from them.
So during the years when the medical beauty staged barbaric growth, Intermediaries and medical beauty institutions often joined forces to operate the medical beauty fraudulent loan industry chain, and many consumers unknowingly stepped into the trap .
In the first year of graduation, Liu Yu almost got a loan because he applied for a job in a medical and aesthetic institution.
In June 2020, Liu Yu came to Chengdu to interview a consultant for a medical aesthetics institution. After successfully passing the interview, Liu Yu and the employees of the same period began to enter the company for training.
Liu Yu told Leopard Bian that he was from a good family and had never borrowed money on the Internet before.
At first, Liu Yu felt that the hospital’s training was very professional and the atmosphere of colleagues was good, so he signed a labor contract. After that, colleagues around me began to persuade her to have plastic surgery while talking and laughing. When the manager talked to her, he began to instill the idea that only plastic surgery can become beautiful and have customers. Liu Yu began to be dissatisfied with his appearance, and even took the initiative to find a hospital counselor for a face-to-face consultation, and the other party recommended a 90,000 yuan package close to his entire face.
At this time, Liu Yu is not consciousWhen there is a problem, I feel that the company will not force everyone to undergo plastic surgery. But the manager kept suggesting that after the facelift, he could successfully pass the training and become a consultant for the organization. Finally, Liu Yu agreed to check first.
Liu Yu told Leopard Change that in the process, the employees of this medical aesthetics institution downloaded three installment software for her without their knowledge, and processed a total of 70,000 yuan of medical aesthetic installment loans. She realized that this hospital is not formal.
Liu Yu proposed to resign, demanded to cancel the loan, and resisted fiercely, eventually breaking free from the control of the hospital. And she remembered that some new employees ended up in the operating room.
Recruiting cosmetic loans based on cosmetic surgery is a common routine in the period of barbaric growth in medical beauty installments.
Before and after 2017, medical beauty loan fraud was rampant. Some intermediaries brought in a group of grandpas and aunts from the countryside, slogan “free one-day trip to a certain place, including food and accommodation, and returning 10,000 yuan”, and went to the hospital. You don’t even need to actually do medical beauty projects, just fill out a form, and the hospital can get a loan from a financial institution. The hospitals and intermediaries made a lot of money, but the uncles and aunts unknowingly took on the loans.
There are also some people who use a bus to pull up the night ladies and go to the hospital collectively to apply for loans for plastic surgery.
In 2018, medical beauty installments were supervised, but these routines have not disappeared, and have been upgraded.
In August 2020, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau eliminated more than a dozen “jobs and beauty loans” fraud gangs. These gangs first publish “high-paying” job advertisements to attract job applicants; then they propose plastic surgery conditions during the interview, and even promise plastic surgery loan reimbursement; then a specialized medical aesthetics agency will formulate a plastic surgery plan for the applicants, and finally apply for a loan.
Under these medical beauty loan traps, victims are burdened with high debts, and some are disfigured and suffered mental and material shocks due to the poor quality services of irregular beauty institutions.
In the last round of savage growth, some staging platforms eventually suffered a reshuffle due to the high non-performing rate. After a round of baptism, the staged war of medical beauty is now renewed. How these new “players” control costs, services, and risks has become more important.
For consumers, everyone has the love of beauty, but they need to be sober at all times and respect their wallets while loving beauty.