美妆企业失去流量红利

Core Insights - The beauty brand Opal's founder, Zhou Yan, highlighted the increasing commission rates for influencers in live streaming, projecting a rise to 60% by the end of 2025, indicating a significant challenge for beauty companies in managing costs and maintaining profitability [2][5] - Domestic beauty brands have gained market share over foreign brands, with Opal achieving over 10.7 billion yuan in revenue in 2024, marking it as the first Chinese beauty brand to surpass the 10 billion yuan threshold [4][16] - The shift from influencer-driven sales to self-operated content is becoming a trend as companies seek to reduce dependency on high commission rates and improve their own content capabilities [7][11] Industry Challenges - The beauty industry is experiencing a flow of anxiety due to rising costs associated with influencer marketing, with sales expenses for Opal reaching 51.6 billion yuan in 2024, accounting for 47.9% of its revenue [5][6] - The marginal returns on channel investments are diminishing, as evidenced by Opal's revenue growth rate lagging behind its sales expense growth by 8 percentage points in 2024 [6] - The market is witnessing a decline in new brand emergence, with companies needing to adapt to a more rational approach rather than relying on opportunistic strategies [13][14] Competitive Landscape - The competitive environment is intensifying, with domestic brands facing significant pressure from established foreign brands like L'Oréal and Procter & Gamble, which have more robust R&D and marketing systems [16][17] - The disparity in R&D investment is stark, with L'Oréal's R&D expenditure in 2024 reaching approximately 13 billion euros (around 100 billion yuan), comparable to Opal's total revenue [16] - The potential for domestic brands to rank among the top global beauty companies is limited by their reliance on the Chinese market, which does not support the scale needed for global competitiveness [16][17]