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English|The Crazy Hair Removal Device Market in China( 三 )


A slowly emerging marketThe rise of the hair removal device market was connected with heavy promotion from a number of top brands, celebrities and influencers.
“I have been using a hair removal device for over three years. I don’t really need a new one. But I am always tempted when I see new hair removal devices on the market,” Wang said. For example, Ulike has partnered with Focus Media to advertise its hair removal devices in elevators. The elevators at Wang’s company are packed with Ulike’s commercial posters. “Ulike has Jun Ji-hyun as its brand ambassador. There are also commercials outside of the elevators at my friend’s apartment,” Wang said.
In hair removal device commercials, celebrities’ smooth and hairless skin and promotional lines such as “permanent full body hair removal” immediately capture consumers’ attention.
There are over 100,000 research results involving hair removal devices on Chinese lifestyle app Xiaohongshu. More than 1000 hair removal-related products can be found on the platform as well. Many celebrities and influencers like Viya and Austin Lin have promoted hair removal devices before.
The increasing exposure of hair removal devices enabled brands to see consumers’ pain points.
Ulike had done commercials on online platforms such as Alimama, Xiaohongshu and WeChat before when the company entered the Chinese market in 2014.
“In the beginning, consumers would hesitate about buying products from new brands like Ulike. We displayed our technological capabilities through online commercials and influencer promotion to increase consumers’ trust in our brand. We then gradually penetrated the market. The hair removal device industry was relatively small back then without too much competition. So it was easier back then.”
However, hair removal devices remain to be something new and unfamiliar for consumers despite their rising popularity driven by marketing strategies.
In 2013, Yang Lin, with a dual Ph.D. degree in physics and electronics from Berlin Institute of Technology and Huazhong University of Science and Technology and extensive experience working in the laser industry, rejected a job offer from an American laser giant and decided to kickstart a startup company focusing on laser solutions for beauty and medical purposes. “I think laser beauty devices for consumers have vast market potential,” Yang said.
During a business trip to Japan in 2003, Yang discovered that a Japanese company specializing in laser hair removal devices made huge profits from selling laser hair removal devices for consumers. “The company sold tens of thousands of hair removal devices that were priced at over 3000 yuan,” Yang recalled.
Back in 2012, laser hair removal devices for home use already enjoyed a massive market in Japan. By contrast, consumers in China could only have access to laser hair removal services at big medical institutions or beauty salons. There were still service providers in the country who continued to offer hair removal procedures such as waxing and photon hair removal that could damage the skin.
“Very few people knew about hair removal devices for home use. It wasn’t a mainstream product,” Yang said. After eight years, laser hair removal devices for home use still have not achieved the level of popularity that Yang expected.
“I have observed that only 25% of airline stewardesses would remove body hair,” Yang stated, noting that as professional talents working in the service sector airline stewardesses would wear uniforms with short sleeves, which shows their arms. “In Japan and South Korea, nine out of ten women who work in an office would remove their body hair.”
In contrary to public perception, there are not that many registered companies that focus on hair removal devices in China.
Statistics on enterprise record platform Qichacha show there were only 153 companies specializing in hair removal devices that were established between the year 2016 and 2020. In 2021, only 20 new hair removal device companies were founded so far.

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