As long as there is desire, the niche group will still attack the huge market.
Production | Forefront of Entrepreneurship
Author | Tian Yanhong
Responsible Editor | Chief Egg
Vietnamese shirts greet the spring breeze, and the jade carved unicorn belt is red. With the revival of Han culture, the Hanfu market has ushered in explosive growth.
Recently, it is reported that Ali and Huya launched the Gutao App and Huaxia App in July and December 2019, respectively. The target user groups of these two apps are Hanfu users, and the purpose is to build a group for this group. Communicate and communicate with the community.
Tianyancha shows that the developer of Gutao App is Zhuoyi Changyou (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. The actual controller is suspected to be Alibaba Culture and Entertainment Co., Ltd., which accounts for 90% of the shares; and the Huaxia App developer is Guangzhou Cashew Information Technology Co., Ltd., the actual controller is suspected to be Guangzhou Huya Information Technology Co., Ltd., which holds 100% of the shares.
A “cat” and a “tiger” entered the field of Hanfu almost simultaneously. What does this mean?
Ali related staff told the “front line of entrepreneurship” that the Gutao App is an innovative product hatched by Ali’s innovative business group. It is a collection of Hanfu related topics such as clothing and dressing, makeup tutorials, traditional cultural knowledge, offline activities, etc. Content community.
The Huaxia App also covers the content of planting grass in the same robe and dressing in the Hanfu. In addition, the app also includes thousands of Hanfu, with the intention of creating a “Hanfu Library”, and can also query hundreds of authentic Hanfu.
The reason why Ali entered the field of Hanfu is that the staff really did see the needs of Hanfu users. “Based on the insight into the needs of Hanfu users and the promotion of traditional cultural values, we have opened up a new track for the Hanfu content community. However, the Gutao App is still a new product. In terms of user growth, we will not rely on money and blood to survive. Relying on natural growth, the issue of profitability will not be considered in the early stage. “
The giants are taking the lead, which means that more companies may be involved in the future.
1. Purchasing power: the total scale of the Hanfu industry exceeds 1 billion yuan
In China, even a niche industry, as long as it is multiplied by a large population base, the resulting heat and the business opportunities it contains cannot be underestimated.
According to CCTV’s financial report, the consumer population of the Hanfu market in the country is currently estimated to have exceeded 2 million, and the total industry size is about 1.09 billion yuan. The growth in demand for Hanfu has brought the entire market to great popularity.
(The scale of Hanfu enthusiasts from 2014 to 2018 (Unit: 10,000))
(Photo courtesy of Hanfu Culture Committee of Guangdong Traditional Culture Promotion Association)
At the same time, Hanfu is gradually moving from niche clothing to popularization.
Public data shows that in 2018, the total sales of Hanfu related to Taobao and Tmall platforms were 921 million yuan. On the day of Tmall Double Day in 2019 alone, as of 2 pm, the transaction value of Hanfu has reached 180 million yuan, of which the post-90s consumer group spent over 90.65 million yuan.
In addition to the popularity of the sales side, the popularity of Hanfu is also constantly increasing.
Tmall data shows that starting from 2018, the search volume for the keyword “hanfu” on Tmall has exceeded “shirts”, and the number of people buying Hanfu has increased by 92% compared to 2017.
The “2019 China Fashion Trend Report” also shows that in the fashion search keyword trend TOP10, Hanfu ranked third in the women’s wear list and tenth in the men’s wear list.
Why can Hanfu become a new wave in e-commerce and cultural circles?
First of all, niche apparel users are layered, their stickiness is greater, and repurchases are more likely to occur. Hanfu information shows that more than 70% of the respondents have more than 2 sets of Hanfu, and 30% of the respondents have more than 5 sets of Hanfu.
(Hanfu possession of Hanfu consumers in 2019)
Chen Jingyi, born in 1993, is a Hanfu enthusiast. The hanfu she bought over the years has been piled up with a bedroom and a balcony. She doesn’t remember the exact number of pieces.
“It is impossible to count, because it is a big project to organize and store it. From the time I make money, I keep buying and buying, and the money I buy is all Hanfu. And my Hanfu is basically customized. The most expensive set is more than 3,000 yuan. After waiting for the longest set of Hanfu for more than a year, I have forgotten it. It was quite a surprise after receiving the goods, and there was a feeling of winning.
Second, consumers of niche apparel have a strong sense of identity and belonging. According to Hanfu map statistics, in July 2017, there were 1,387 Hanfu cultural organizations worldwide, and in 2019 it increased to 2,064, a 48.8% increase over two years. Most of the people who love Hanfu are mainly young people. 86% of the users are under 24 years old, and 87% of the users are women. In other words, women are in the Hanfu circle.Absolutely the main force.
The huge business opportunities hidden in the Hanfu market have swarmed many savvy capitals.
In 2016, Wuhan Zaiyi Xinghui Cultural Creative Co., Ltd. (“Zaiyi Xinghui”) and film star Xu Jiao jointly created the Hanfu e-commerce brand “Weaving Collection”. According to the sky eye survey, in January 2018, Zaiyi Xinghui received a 20 million yuan angel round financing led by Xianfeng Evergreen, Chenhai Capital, Donghu Angel Fund and AC Capital.
In 2019, two new Hanfu clothing brands in Beijing and Hangzhou also received millions of yuan in financing. In September of the same year, Senma, a traditional clothing brand, also announced the development of Hanfu clothing categories and launched four children’s Hanfu clothing.
Wang Jiawen, chairman of the Hanfu Culture Committee of the Guangdong Traditional Culture Promotion Association, told the “front line of entrepreneurship”, “There must be continuous capital entry. I think we can integrate resources (investment and financing) and group collaboration to avoid decentralized operations and better. To achieve large-scale production and operation and publicity. “
This is enough to see that, whether it is highly sought after in the niche culture circle or optimistically seen by the capital and the industry after the circle, the boom in the Hanfu market has a looming “integration trend”, and large-scale production operations may be just around the corner. . However, before the realization of scale, the Hanfu market already had a “first mover” on the way.
2. Business model: small-scale self-production and sales
Currently, there are less than 10 Hanfu brands in China that have entered large-scale production. Most of them are still sold in small batches in the form of studios or small companies, or they are used to promote group purchases and issue limited editions to promote buyer consumption. Most of these studios or small companies are concentrated on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao.
In recent years, more and more Hanfu merchants are active on e-commerce platforms. According to the 2018 Hanfu Industry Report, the number of Hanfu merchants on Taobao has soared from 7 in 2005 to 815 in 2018.
“The company’s design team is full-time, and there are many designers working part-time,” Lang Shui, the shopkeeper of Jingshui Tongguang Hanfu, told the “front line of entrepreneurship.” Her Taobao shop is renewed on average once a month, with about 5 products each time. As of December 31, the number of fans in Jingshui Tongguang Taobao shop was 89,831.
In contrast, Jinseyizhuang, which opened Taobao in 2013, now has 398,000 fans, and currently has 4 in the design department. The founder ’s childhood said: “We are new and not regular, onceAbout 3 products, for the team, the design is not difficult, mainly the process to achieve the effect, it is very difficult to ensure that each of the production meets high requirements. “
(The most expensive Hanfu clothing in Jinse clothes village, price 7000 yuan, courtesy of Jinse clothes village)
The “Frontline of Entrepreneurship” found that many Hanfus in the Jinseyizhuang Taobao shop have been sold out, and there are only three or four sets of Hanfus and accessories in stock. According to the sub-period, buyers should follow the new cycle of the store to buy, because the current supply chain of the store cannot meet the needs of users.
“The supply chain is our problem. The quality and quantity cannot be guaranteed. Because both batches of goods have been turned over in the previous foundries, we just built our own workshops. Now Guangzhou and Kunming both have their own factories with a total of 70 people. Left and right. “The sub-period said,” Once the number of orders is large, the rollover of the foundry is commonplace, or the construction period is delayed. “
Ao Jiajia, the female treasurer of Jingyutang, told the “front line of entrepreneurship”: “At present, our design team has 6 people, and the load of the team can only reach about 5 products per month on average. However, each merchant They are all different. Some are new twice a year, and the sales are over ten million yuan each time. Some businesses can also be new every week. I believe that as more and more professionals and capital enter the market, Hanfu’s classification and market will It will be more and more perfect. “As of December 31, Jingyutang Taobao shop has 442,000 fans.
Regarding the current situation of Hanfu market being mostly small businesses, Wang Jiawen told the “front line of entrepreneurship”: “One is because the market and industry scale has not yet reached the point where it changes or subverts the daily life of the public, and has not received enough capital and expertise. Concern of strength. Although there is capital intervention, it is not much and it is not large. Second, small businessmen have the feelings of Hanfu, know the expertise of Hanfu, and are familiar with audience thinking. , Especially the lack of financial support. “
Compared with ordinary clothing, because Hanfu’s manufacturing process is more complicated, the time and manual costs are also higher. It is reported that Hanfu has strict restrictions on the shape system. Most merchants will make more articles on the details of fabrics, embroidery and accessories, and each additional process will increase the time cost and production cost accordingly.
Lang Lang said: “It takes about 1 to 2 weeks from designing the draft to making a sample of the clothes. Excluding the waiting period, each batch of non-embroidery is about 10 days, and about 20 days of embroidery. One piece of timeIt’s hard to calculate and it’s about complexity. “
In general, the R & D process of Hanfu Taobao stores is: planning—determining style matching—determining pattern drawing—making sample clothing—shooting propaganda—on the shelves. “Shaping research takes a long time. We have been updating our learning materials, and constantly making original restored versions for use in design. In the case of the original version, the design pattern is about 1-2 months after its launch. Time, “said the child.
According to Ao Luojia, Jingyutang’s product production period is 36 hours to 120 hours, which is just the specific production time for a piece of clothing. However, if the product’s pre-sale time (pre-sale duration) is added, it will generally be about 2 months. Because the pre-sale period should consider batch, quantity, and multiple styles. “Because the original customer base has changed a lot, customers have lost patience with pre-sale and waiting for construction periods. At present, the company uses a small batch spot plus pre-sale model.
1-2 months is the current cycle for most Hanfu merchants. If it is a high-end custom-made merchant, the waiting time for a Hanfu will be longer.
Due to the small output of some Hanfus, popular styles sold out soon after they were launched, which became limited edition or out of print, and even had collectible value, which led to a huge second-hand trading market.
Some limited-edition or out-of-print Hanfu have been fired into sky-high prices on second-hand trading platforms. It is reported that the out-of-print nine-tailed fox with an original price of 800 yuan rose to nearly 6,000 yuan, which is still difficult to find. The price of out-of-print Hanfu such as Phoenix Yufei has also increased by two to three times.
Driven by the boom of Hanfu, people who have smelled new business opportunities have quickly expanded the industry surrounding Hanfu, such as the launch of the Hanfu Experience Hall, which rents out Hanfu to people who want to experience Hanfu.
A post-95 Hanfu enthusiast, Ms. Nine, told the “front line of entrepreneurship”: “I like Hanfu and I love traditional Chinese culture, so I opened a Hanfu experience store in Pu’er, Yunnan in 2017.” Rental and experience of “one-stop service”, the price of the experience depends on individual needs, starting from 50 yuan; In addition, Hanfu can also be customized, only users need to provide height, weight, measurement and other related data.
The new business opportunities brought by the hanfu boom are not limited to this. The surrounding industries such as hanfu make-up and hanfu appointments are becoming more and more popular, and even some rental photography shops focusing on hanfu experience have emerged.
According to incomplete statistics, there are currently between 5,000 and 10,000 studios doing costume photography. The most well-known dish Women’s Square is favored by capital.
In September 2018, Pan Women’s Square completed the C round of financing, and the investor is Yuanchuang Capital. Earlier, Pan Women’s Square was awarded a round A financing from Qingdao Zhixin in June 2016, and a round B financing from Chen Er and Chairman of the Elite Ophthalmology era in July 2017, accumulating hundreds of millions of yuan.
3. The problem is beginning to appear: the cottage becomes the biggest threat
As we all know, when an industry is stillAt the beginning of chaos and the controversy of hundreds of schools, the important rules of the industry have not been uniformly established, and the cultural concept has not reached a basic consensus, then controversy and chaos will be unavoidable.
The strong circle culture has caused many problems in the rapid development of the Hanfu industry: the “show party” of clothing styles and the “court of party” that emphasizes theory and history, the shape of different dynasties Contention, “mountain (cottage) is (genuine)” contention and so on.
For example, in the group that purchases Hanfu, there are “Orthodox Hanfu” despising “Improved Hanfu”, and Song and Ming costumes despising Wei Jin and Tang.
In the Hanfu group, there was an incident of “Fairy and Han separation”: part of the unreliable forms (two-piece chest-length skirt and Wei Jinfeng) were considered by some enthusiasts to not be called Hanfu. The dispute over type systems has aroused many dissatisfaction. The Hanfu Culture Committee of the Guangdong Traditional Culture Association has issued an announcement in this regard, proposing attention to popular science methods and publicity strategies, advocating positive energy, and consciously resisting satire and personal attacks such as cyber violence.
(picture from the network)
Of all the issues, the battle for “Sanzheng” is particularly fierce. The so-called cottage, in the niche clothing market, refers to stores that do not make original designs, copy, imitate original styles.
Cottage stores have omitted the time for design, development and publicity, and have discounted the cost of raw materials and processes, making them more profitable. The clothing of genuine shops has a long construction period and is expensive. Generally, there are also restrictions on the quantity of clothing, which is not easy for buyers to buy.
The cottage merchants have drilled into this space, and they often avoid the risk of direct handling of copyright by stealing pictures, re-making proofs, and taking pictures of their own effects as soon as new products are on the shelves. Even the copycat style may grab new ones before the genuine ones, causing negative word of mouth to the new genuine ones and making the genuine ones miserable.
Although the voice of boycotting the cottage has never stopped, the huge profits brought by the cottage and plagiarism still attract many unscrupulous merchants.
Wang Jiawen said that the emergence of endless copycat manufacturers to the original Hanfu merchants is obvious and harmful. This is also the biggest threat facing the Hanfu industry, and even original merchants are difficult to operate due to piracy. The cottage Hanfu is also one of the biggest controversial topics in the Hanfu group.
“At present, there are no fundamentally effective measures to eradicate cottage Hanfu. One is that the public values the price, andThe premise that copyright awareness is not strong remains the same, and the second is that the cost of illegality is too low and the cost of rights protection is too high, “Wang Jiawen said.
In his opinion, some methods can not stop the cottage but can reduce the phenomenon:
First, original business attaches importance to original protection, using existing mechanisms such as Alibaba’s original protection mechanism, attaches importance to original propaganda, and resists cottage; second, Hanfu society and social media need to create a concept that respects intellectual property rights and original Hanfu, and opposes cottage Atmosphere, meanwhile, the shortcomings of popular science cottage Hanfu, let more consumers take the initiative to avoid.
The relevant personnel of the State Intellectual Property Office told the “front line of entrepreneurship”: “Protection of clothing design is more complicated, and the process of safeguarding rights should continue from design to launch, such as strengthening confidentiality and applying for other rights, such as design patents, etc. , Or pay attention to building your own popularity in the marketing process, applying for brand trademarks, etc., to obtain multi-angle protection. “
A judge of the People’s Court of Qianhai Cooperation Zone of Shenzhen stated that if a registered trademark brand is counterfeited, it can be protected by trademark rights; if the design is imitated, a registered patent can be protected by patent rights; if there is neither a registered trademark nor a registration Patent, you can try to defend rights on the grounds of unfair competition.
I hope that in the future, national intellectual property protection agencies will provide specialized and authoritative online and offline rapid registration channels for design manuscripts such as clothing and jewelry, so as to provide more authoritative and credible proof of rights for future judicial rights protection.
Hanfu has been revived for 16 years, and this wave is accompanied by many controversies and difficulties.
In addition to the above problems, there are still immature upstream and downstream industrial chains in the Hanfu industry and disconnected from modern life, but Wang Jiawen is still optimistic about the Hanfu industry. “Hanfu is a very rich and diversified clothing system, not just The costumes, costumes, and costumes that people understand will eventually enter the homes of ordinary people, but the process may be longer.
Note: At the request of the interviewee, Chen Jingyi is a pseudonym in the text.
* The picture in the text is from the worm creative