China is on track to overtake the US as the world’s largest single beauty market by 2023, reports Launchmetrics, the US tech and data leader. The US beauty market is currently worth US$56 billion a year, by contrast to China at US$38.6 billion.
With such rapid growth as a huge corporate incentive, Beiersdorf, the parent company of Nivea, La Prairie and Eucerin, has partnered with Alibaba’s Tmall to co-incubate Chinese beauty startups.
Earlier this month, Tmall and Givaudan, the world’s largest fragrance and flavours manufacturer, signed an agreement to fast-track fragrance creation in China. Dubbed the T-Lab Source, the aim of the initiative is to slash fragrance development times from the usual 40 weeks to only 4 weeks.
Two years ago, NX Nivea launched in South Korea as Beiersdorf’s inaugural global beauty accelerator. Our goal is to become the leading beauty accelerator in Asia by 2022, says Zhengrong Liu, an executive board member of Beiersdorf for Greater China and Northeast Asia. “By teaming up with local innovators, we accelerate the process to identify and develop visionary beauty concepts, unlock growth potentials and win with skincare in line with Beiersdorf’s business strategy C.A.R.E+”.
Beiersdorf’s stable of global best-selling brands – Nivea, La Prairie and Eucerin – are already available on Tmall. The multinational also recently opened an Innovation Centre in Shanghai, its second largest in the world after its home base in Hamburg. Going forward, the facility will play a major role in supporting the indie brands chosen for the joint accelerator program with Tmall.
Following a tough appraisal of more than 100 brands, the first five brands to make the cut are:
1) Lake Lab – a personalised beauty brand linked to the skincare platform – “You Look Good Today”.
2) Basic Lab – a minimalist skincare brand whose products contain fewer than 12 ingredients.
3) 2XY – a naturally-based, gender-neutral skincare brand.
4) Turflan – a science-based skincare brand based on high potency ingredients.
5) Moja – a healthy and anti-inflammatory skincare brand incorporating high efficacy actives.