欠债超3000万 昔日网红品牌撑不住了

This article maps out the full journey of blank me, once China's top viral domestic base makeup brand, from its rapid rise to the recent bankruptcy review petition. It helps general readers understand the current state of China's new consumer viral brands and draws actionable insights:

1. Core event update: blank me's parent company Shanghai Yongxi owes more than 36 million RMB to creditors, and has been filed for bankruptcy review by a former marketing service partner. The case is still under court review, meaning the company has not entered formal bankruptcy yet.

2. Key takeaways from the brand's rise: blank me successfully carved out a niche in the base makeup category long dominated by established international brands, with a differentiated positioning focused on formulations suited for Asian skin types. It scaled rapidly via a combination of influencer content seeding and omni-channel e-commerce conversion, once claiming the top spot for domestic base makeup on major Chinese e-commerce platforms and attracting attention from global investors.

3. Warning signs from its collapse: The brand over-relied on marketing spending and fundraising expectations, while neglecting organic profitability and cash flow management. When rising user acquisition costs and failed fundraising rounds hit, all underlying problems erupted at once, leading to a full-blown debt crisis. This case demonstrates that in the second half of China's new consumer movement, sustainable operation matters far more than quick viral fame.

The downfall of blank me offers critical operational lessons for domestic Chinese beauty brands, aligned with brand owners' core concerns around marketing, industry trends and long-term strategy:

1. Current industry trends: The new consumer sector has shifted from an era of brand building focused on storytelling and awareness building, to one centered on delivering tangible business results via repeat purchases and profit. Market evaluation criteria have moved from prioritizing GMV growth to focusing on repeat purchase rates, profit margins and cash flow safety, and industry consolidation has accelerated sharply.

2. Lessons on positioning and marketing: blank me's strategy of targeting a high-end niche segment with differentiated positioning remains a viable approach, but premium positioning cannot rely on marketing narratives alone—it requires matching investment in product R&D and sustainable profit margins. A marketing model over-reliant on influencer content seeding carries extremely low risk resistance: once traffic costs rise, marketing shifts from a growth investment to a crippling cost burden that sinks the brand.

3. The right strategic path: Cycle-resistant new consumer beauty brands have all shifted their focus to strengthening R&D systems, member relationship management and supply chain governance, prioritizing cash flow safety over blind pursuit of short-term sales growth.

The sudden stall of blank me provides clear risk warnings and directional guidance for beauty sellers, matching their focus on shifting market opportunities and risk prevention:

1. Current category shifts: The beauty industry has entered a period of saturated stock competition. Over the past three years, the exit rate for emerging beauty and personal care brands has accelerated sharply: multiple once-popular viral brands including HEDONE, Fomomy and Tria have already ceased operations after bankruptcy. The old growth model that relied solely on influencer seeding and fundraising-backed storytelling is completely obsolete.

2. Core risk warnings: While the base makeup category boasts advantages including high repeat purchase rates and strong user stickiness, it also has high R&D barriers, slow product iteration cycles, and stricter requirements for operational capability. Over-reliance on external marketing spending, lack of organic profitability, and neglect of cash flow management are the core reasons for the collapse of most viral beauty brands, which new market entrants should actively avoid.

3. Opportunities and strategic direction: For current beauty brand operators, sustainable survival through the current industry consolidation wave requires shifting operational focus to boosting repeat purchases, user retention, and profit margins, prioritizing cash flow safety, and strengthening R&D and supply chain capabilities.

The collapse of viral new consumer brands like blank me offers key insights for upstream manufacturers including beauty contract manufacturers and packaging suppliers, aligned with their focus on demand shifts, opportunities and risk management:

1. B2B partnership risk warning: Most viral new consumer brands have weak risk resistance, and will default on large amounts of accounts payable once operations stall. In the blank me case, contract manufacturers and packaging suppliers are among the leading creditors, with many upstream players already suffering losses. Manufacturers need to be wary of bad debt risk tied to over-reliance on a single large client.

2. Shifting market demand: The beauty industry is increasingly prioritizing product quality and R&D stability, especially in categories like base makeup that require strict performance on texture, safety and production consistency. Manufacturers with strong in-house R&D and high-quality production capabilities will gain access to more long-term, stable partnership opportunities.

3. Insights for operational adjustment: When working with new consumer brands, manufacturers should set reasonable payment terms and implement strict risk controls to avoid brand failures dragging down their own cash chains. They should also diversify their client base across multiple different types of stable customers to spread operational risk and improve their own anti-risk capability.

The case of blank me being filed for bankruptcy by its own marketing service provider offers direct, actionable lessons for service providers serving the new consumer sector, aligned with their focus on industry trends, risk management and solution design:

1. Industry development trends: Industry consolidation is accelerating in the new consumer space, and the淘汰 rate of viral brands continues to rise. Service providers should not evaluate clients solely based on their short-term popularity and growth metrics, and need to pay closer attention to the operational health of their client base.

2. Core client pain points: The core weakness of most emerging viral brands is a lack of organic profitability—their growth is fully dependent on external fundraising and paid traffic. Once growth slows and fundraising falls through, brands are unable to pay for marketing, operations and other service fees, leaving many service providers with unpaid bills that can only be recovered through lengthy legal proceedings, resulting in direct losses for the service provider.

3. Risk mitigation strategies: When working with new brands, service providers can optimize their billing models to reduce exposure to risk from long payment terms and client funding advances. They should also adjust their client structure to prioritize clients with healthy operations, stable repeat purchases and solid cash flow, to avoid severe business disruption caused by bad debt from a single large client.

The exit of viral new consumer brands like blank me offers important insights for e-commerce platforms around merchant recruitment and operations, aligned with platforms' core focus on demand, risk and operational governance:

1. Shifting merchant needs: While early-stage new consumer brands relied on platforms for traffic and transaction infrastructure, as the sector enters the brand delivery cycle, merchants increasingly need operational support from platforms to boost user retention and repeat purchases, rather than just focusing on traffic supply.

2. Adjustments for merchant recruitment: Platforms should not evaluate prospective brands solely based on their short-term GMV growth and fundraising background, and need to assess brand operational quality, cash flow health and product repeat purchase rate across multiple dimensions. This helps select brands with true long-term operational capability to reduce overall platform-level operational risk.

3. Operational guidance and risk prevention: Platforms can strengthen operational guidance for new brands, helping them build a business philosophy that prioritizes profit and cash flow safety. They can also implement an early warning system for underperforming brands to intervene in risks early, and protect the interests of suppliers, consumers and other stakeholders.

The blank me incident is a representative case of industry transformation in the second half of China's new consumer movement, offering new insights for industrial research aligned with researchers' focus on industrial trends and business model evaluation:

1. New industrial dynamics: China's new consumer sector has fully transitioned from the first half focused on traffic and growth to the second half centered on brand value delivery. Industry consolidation has accelerated sharply, with multiple top-tier emerging viral brands entering bankruptcy liquidation over the past three years. Market evaluation criteria have shifted completely, from focusing on GMV and growth speed to prioritizing repeat purchase rates, profit margins and cash flow safety.

2. Newly exposed industry flaws: The popular early new consumer growth model—"investor backing + niche positioning + influencer seeding + successive fundraising rounds"—is now obsolete. This model only allows brands to quickly build public awareness, but fails to build genuine brand equity or organic, sustainable profitability. Once traffic costs rise and capital tightens, brands immediately descend into full-blown crisis.

3. Guidance for future research: Going forward, research on new consumer brands should place greater focus on long-term dimensions including operational capability and brand equity accumulation. In the second half of the new consumer era, core competitiveness has returned to sustainable operation capability, rather than one-off viral hit success.