Post-95s Driving the Growth of China’s Male Beauty Industry
It is expected that the global male makeup market will reach 540 billion RMB in 2023, and China will be one of the fastest-growing markets. Between 2016 to 2019, the Chinese male makeup market grew 13.5%, which was way higher than the global average speed of 5.8%.
According to a domestic beauty trend report (2020年中国国货美妆发展趋势报告), the online sales of skincare and personal care products for males grew 24.5% in 2019 and the beauty GMV contributed by male consumers grew 41.5%.
Most noteworthy is that post-95s males are embracing makeup. Among post-95s males, 18.8% of them have used BB cream, 18.6% of them have used lipstick, 18.6% have used eyeliner. For every 3 men who purchase foundation, one of them is a post-95.
Investors see great potential in this industry. Over the past three months, three Chinese male skincare brands JACB, Lanxi (蓝系), and Liran Xianhou (理然先后) finished their A-round financing. Sports forum platform Hupu (虎扑), with over 80% male users, gave its financial support to Liran.
Why are young men interested in makeup?
One of the key drivers of this trend are reality TV shows such as Idol Producer (偶像练习生) and Youth With You (青春有你). Idols such as Cai Xukun (蔡徐坤), Kris Wu (吴亦凡) and Wang Yibo (王一博), they all wear makeup. Sometimes their makeup is even a little bit feminine. They are delivering the message to the audience that it’s okay for men to put makeup on, and that men look good after putting makeup on.
Male beauty KOLs are also encouraging males to do their makeup, such as Benny董子初, Junping (俊平大魔王) and of course, top live streamer Austin Li. Their presence greatly helps male skincare brands to convince male consumers to buy beauty products.
According to a male beauty market report (2020中国男士美妆市场洞察) published by Digitown (巨量算数), in Q3 2020, the number of males watching skincare content online has grown by 58% over the past year, surpassing the growth of females’ (28%).
Many new male beauty brands such as Liran, Martin, Zuoyan Youse (左颜右色) also create a lot of content educating male consumers how to take care of their skin and to put makeup on.
Beauty brands love having male celebrities as ambassadors
On one hand, beauty brands want to use male celebrities to connect with the celebrity’s female followers. On the other hand, these brands also see the potential of the male beauty market.
This makes male celebrities the perfect ambassadors for beauty brands. Over the past few years we’ve seen numerous beauty brands, both Chinese and Western, working with male celebrities, oftentimes even more than female ones.
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