From "Declaration of War" to "Alliance": So-Young and Jin Bo's "Great Reconciliation"

In the marketplace, there are no eternal enemies.

In 2024, Jinbo Biotechnology still adopted a stance of "fighting to the end" against low-price platforms, even issuing a stern statement naming So-Young for violating low-price promotion of its core product "Wei Yi Mei," disrupting market prices and making the conflict between the two parties public.

Two years later, the plot has taken a 180-degree turn.

Recently, So-Young announced the establishment of the "Youth Quality Alliance," with the first batch of 14 upstream manufacturers, including Jinbo Biotechnology. Also appearing alongside were Allergan, Sota, Aimeike, and Huaxi Biotechnology, among other upstream medical beauty manufacturers.

This shift from "encirclement" to "embrace" reflects a profound change in the discourse power within the medical beauty industry chain.

On one hand, So-Young is gradually transforming from a platform to offline medical beauty clinics, having established 50 stores in 16 cities across the country, which enhances its discourse power over upstream manufacturers.

On the other hand, the moat of upstream medical beauty is drying up. For example, with the approval and launch of recombinant collagen products from Juzi Biotechnology and Chuangjian Biotechnology, the previously monopolistic situation of "one company dominating" has been completely broken.

As the scarcity dividend fades, faced with the strong rise of downstream channels, upstream manufacturers that once held absolute pricing power must step down from their pedestal and seek new coordinates in the transformation to remain at the table.

From "Encirclement" to "Alliance"

Turning the clock back to 2024, Jinbo Biotechnology had issued and then deleted statements twice, accusing So-Young of violating low-price promotion of its core product "Wei Yi Mei."

At that time, as the only recombinant type III humanized collagen product on the market, Jinbo Biotechnology held pricing power and attempted to maintain its high-end pricing system through strict channel control.

However, just two years later, these tensions have dissipated.

On January 28, So-Young announced at the 2026 Youth Release Conference the establishment of the Youth Quality Alliance with Jinbo Biotechnology and 14 other upstream manufacturers, planning to cooperate in areas such as price-volume linkage and genuine product traceability.

This is not the first time Jinbo Biotechnology has "bowed" to downstream.

Jinbo Biotechnology also experienced a dramatic reversal in its relationship with Meituan, going from "bombarding" to "embracing."

The conflict first erupted in September 2024 when Jinbo Biotechnology published an "Open Letter to Consumers," publicly "bombarding" Meituan for including Wei Yi Mei in its "100 Billion Subsidy" list without authorization.

The root of Jinbo Biotechnology's grievance lies in the "100 Billion Subsidy" breaking through the pricing system of Wei Yi Mei.

At that time, the market guidance price for Wei Yi Mei was around 6,000 yuan per bottle, but on Meituan's subsidy interface, the price was brutally slashed to 1,339 yuan per bottle.

Although the terminal price drop of Wei Yi Mei did not affect the factory price in the short term, it not only disrupted the market but would also eventually erode upstream profit margins.

However, this tough stance lasted less than a year. In July of last year, Jinbo Biotechnology signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Meituan Medical Health, and Wei Yi Mei officially launched on the "100 Billion Subsidy" as an official partner.

From "compromising" with Meituan to now "reconciling" with So-Young, Jinbo Biotechnology's series of "bowing" actions essentially reflect the upstream manufacturers' helpless recognition of market realities: when products no longer possess absolute scarcity, having customer acquisition channels means holding the initiative in pricing negotiations. On one hand, with the approval and launch of recombinant collagen products from Juzi Biotechnology and Chuangjian Biotechnology, the monopoly situation of Wei Yimei has come to an end;

This is not just happening in the field of recombinant collagen. According to incomplete statistics, the National Medical Products Administration approved no less than 50 Class III medical device certificates for medical aesthetics in 2025, greatly enriching medical aesthetic products.

On the other hand, after transforming from a platform to downstream medical aesthetic clinics, So-Young's large number of scaled stores has made it a major customer that upstream manufacturers must compete for.

Currently, So-Young has established 50 stores in 16 cities across the country.

According to So-Young's chairman Jin Xing, the plan for 2026 is to add no less than 35 new stores, focusing on increasing density in the four core cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

For upstream manufacturers like Jinbo Biotechnology, which urgently need to seize market share in fierce competition, whether to join So-Young's "Youth Selection Alliance" or embrace Meituan's "100 Billion Subsidy," utilizing these nationwide networks for large-scale sales is clearly more pragmatic than maintaining so-called "price dignity."

Three Ways for Upstream Manufacturers to Survive

As pricing power slips from upstream manufacturers to downstream channels, the once "lying down counting money" upstream medical aesthetic manufacturers must face the harsh reality of internal competition, leading to a clear divergence in development paths.

Path one is the rise of the ODM model.

So-Young's "Miracle Youth Needle 3.0" is customized from Xihong Biotechnology, currently priced at 999 yuan in group purchases, far below the thousands of yuan price on the current market for youth needles.

Xihong Biotechnology's entry into So-Young's supply chain core lies in its non-interference with downstream pricing, effectively playing a role similar to ODM: only responsible for providing compliant high-quality products while completely ceding the final pricing power to So-Young, which has the channels and traffic.

Path two is maintaining product scarcity. Upstream manufacturers capture market share during the "window period" before competitors catch up through research and development or acquisitions.

Path three is going overseas to seek incremental space, which has become the mainstream choice for leading domestic medical aesthetic companies.

In 2025, Aimeike invested $190 million to acquire the South Korean medical aesthetic company REGEN Biotech, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "REGEN"), and has completed the payment of 100% of the transaction price.

According to insiders from Aimeike, this is not only to acquire REGEN's youth needle product AestheFill but also to leverage AestheFill's international brand influence and channels to find new growth points in the global market.

Peninsula Medical has chosen to go overseas with self-developed products, with its radiofrequency therapy device "Peninsula Counterclockwise" already obtaining FDA registration in the United States.

According to Peninsula Medical's founder Lei Xiaobing, this device has successfully entered the top 30 medical institutions in the United States and plans to cover the top 300 medical institutions nationwide by 2026.

In the current reversal of supply and demand, the migration of pricing power from upstream to channels and terminals essentially reflects that the medical aesthetic market is undergoing a profound "disenchantment" and value return For upstream manufacturers, whether retreating to ODM to integrate into large channel supply chains, stubbornly sticking to innovation to maintain scarcity, or venturing overseas to seek new blue oceans, the premise of "surviving" and "thriving" is to adapt to the new world led by buyers