At POP MART's 2025 interim results presentation, founder and CEO Wang Ning expressed confidence about the company's growth trajectory, stating, "We hope to achieve 200 billion yuan in revenue this year, but frankly, 300 billion yuan also seems quite achievable."
POP MART's exceptional performance stems from its successful capture of the emotional consumption market, closely tied to the sustained global popularity of its flagship product "LABUBU."
The decade-long development of "LABUBU" has created a unique character that provides consumers with imagination and anticipation through the blind box opening experience. In today's consumption-driven market, continuous innovation has become the core strategy for fast-moving consumer goods companies to retain young consumer groups and break through market saturation.
The liquor industry, closely connected to daily life, is now launching its own diversified "flavor blind box" initiative.
"Lower alcohol content" has become a trending term in the baijiu industry recently. Products like 29° Wuliangye Love at First Sight, 26° Gujing Gongjiu Aged Original Light Vintage 20, and 29° Shede Ease have flourished in the low-alcohol segment, targeting the micro-intoxication market popular among young consumers. The intention behind lower alcohol content and enhanced drinkability is to attract younger demographics and increase consumption volume. This low-alcohol trend also reflects a deeper shift toward flavor diversification.
The transformation "from emphasizing aroma to emphasizing taste" represents a realistic market demand. The evolution from stable styles and dominant single products to diverse flavors and new product iterations reflects how premium liquor companies are responding to the era's shift from traditional "channel-driven" and "product-driven" models to "consumer-driven" approaches.
Industry experts established years ago that premium liquors earn their reputation through superior quality and distinctive styles. In March 2004, "Baijiu Tasting and Blending" by Zhou Hengang and Xu Zhancheng, published by China Light Industry Press, stated that "color, aroma, and taste together create liquor with unique typical characteristics, which defines its individual style." The book also emphasized that "once a liquor's style is established, efforts must be made to maintain long-term consistency."
Today, new low-alcohol premium products like 29° Wuliangye Love at First Sight and 29° Shede Ease no longer solely emphasize typical style characteristics. Instead, they focus on unique flavors during consumption and post-drinking comfort from the consumer's perspective.
The liquor industry must innovate while preserving tradition and develop products that better meet consumer needs, particularly adapting to demands from core young consumer groups.
Recently, Song Shuyu, Chairman of the China Alcoholic Drinks Association, announced that the association is actively promoting standardized terminology reforms in the industry. This includes gradually de-emphasizing "aroma type" concepts and encouraging companies to define product characteristics through "brand + flavor." Additionally, the association plans to adjust the "low-alcohol" classification in alcoholic beverages, designating drinks ≥25 degrees as "high-alcohol." Companies are encouraged to emphasize flavor in product development without deliberately highlighting "low-alcohol" concepts.
As "aroma types" fade and "flavor" becomes paramount, and as alcohol degrees need no emphasis, "flavor" gains unlimited possibilities.
Beyond baijiu, beer and rice wine are also responding to market demands through flavor diversification.
Zhenjiu launched premium craft beer "Bull Market"; Wuliangye entered the beer market with Chinese-style craft beer "Fire Wheel"; Tsingtao Beer expanded into fruit beer, with passion fruit and lychee flavors popular among female consumers; Yanjing Beer introduced beverage products - Best Orange, Lychee, and Fruit Sodas, strategically positioning in the "beer + soda" market; Kuaiji Mountain launched "Daily Smoked" sparkling rice wine; Guyue Longshan introduced "Coffee Prosperity" coffee rice wine and ice sculpture sparkling rice wine.
We observe that as aroma type constraints diminish, baijiu, beer, and rice wine categories are moving toward the "main track" of lower alcohol content, flavor diversity, and appeal to young consumers. This essentially represents various alcoholic beverages returning to their fundamental nature as "drinks," emphasizing taste, appearance, and enjoyment.
On Tmall's "Wuliangye Official Flagship Store," the product description for 29° Wuliangye Love at First Sight states: "29-degree Wuliangye Love at First Sight serves as an excellent base spirit for crafting 'Eastern-style cocktails.' It's suitable for neat drinking, chilled consumption, and blending with fruit juices, tea drinks, and sparkling water to create layered, innovative beverages, allowing consumers to easily mix their own 'Eastern cocktails.'"
Years ago, the wine industry introduced the "anytime, anywhere wine" concept, reducing emphasis on wine-drinking ceremonies and focusing on diversified consumption scenarios. Today's flavor-diverse baijiu, beer, and rice wine similarly respond to "anytime, anywhere drinking" consumer demands through lower alcohol content, lighter quantities, and diversification, returning to the essence of beverages and making drinking an effortless pleasure.
In the future, alcohol manufacturers may collaborate with popular anime and cartoon characters for limited editions, introducing new tasting experiences through blind box formats. This could add excitement to solo drinking, small gatherings, and camping scenarios, making drinking experiences relaxed, enjoyable, and personalized while launching "flavor diversification" blind box journeys - a concept that may soon become reality.