Two years ago, self-heating hot pot attracted much attention as a "new outlet of the times", and major enterprises have invested heavily to compete for market share. At that time, the news of self-heating hot pot frequently made headlines, such as "5 million barrels sold out in 10 minutes", "annual sales exceeded 1 billion", and "the valuation of five rounds of financing in four years was as high as 7 billion".
However, time has passed, and now the self-heating hot pot industry has frequently exposed negative news such as "safety issues", "fines for marketing violations", "poor taste, and high price". The once glorious industry leader Zihai Pot suffered an embarrassing situation of being rejected last year.
So, why does the self-congratulatory pot that once created the myth of the explosion now encounter the dilemma of falling out of favor? It's worth going deeper.
The popular Internet celebrity products of the "lazy people" seem to have exhausted all their good luck.
In the Chinese concept of food, there is a chain of contempt: the main meal is regarded as the most noble, followed by fast food, and then takeaway, while fast food is at the bottom of the chain of contempt, often regarded as junk food by parents.
However, self-heating hot pot is an exception. From the beginning of its birth, it was like being favored by the god of luck, and it soared all the way until it became the darling of the market.
In 2015, hot pot set off a craze on the Internet, and novel ways to eat such as hot pot takeaway and portable hot pot also came into being, and self-heating hot pot emerged in this context.
Self-heating hot pot has many advantages such as not being limited by scenes, enjoying hot pot within 10 minutes, and no need to wash dishes, coupled with the wide promotion of micro-business in the circle of friends, quickly attracted a large number of consumers who pursue a fresh experience.
The unique charm of self-heating hot pot has made many industry giants get involved in it. In 2017, Dalongyi, Dezhuang, Xiaolongkan, Haidilao and other old players in the hot pot industry have launched self-heating hot pot products, which directly turned self-heating hot pot into a popular category.
According to reliable statistics, at the 2017 Double 11 shopping carnival, self-heating hot pot sold millions of copies on the Tmall platform, and its popularity even surpassed instant noodles for a time to become the new fast food overlord.
In 2018, Cai Hongliang, the founder of Baicaowei, saw the market potential of self-heating hot pot and founded the Zihai pot brand. He learned from his previous successful experience in "Baicaowei" and injected a "star power" into Zihai Pot.
Cai Hongliang did not hesitate to allocate 50 million yuan from the 80 million yuan of entrepreneurial capital for advertising, and invited many Internet celebrities and traffic stars to endorse Zihai Pot. For a time, the advertisements of Zihi Pot spread all over the major ** platforms, and almost half of the entertainment industry was on the platform for it, and eating Zihi Pot became a trend at that time.
This wave of celebrity and Internet celebrity marketing offensive has successfully transformed Zihai Pot from an ordinary instant food product into a hot Internet celebrity delicacy. The same self-hi pot of various celebrities not only satisfies consumers' pursuit of food, but also becomes a must-have item for posting pictures and showing life taste in the circle of friends because of its own social attributes. With the dual blessing of celebrities and Internet celebrities, Zihai Pot quickly occupied the dining table and social circle of young people, and became a new popular fashion.
On the day of the Double 11 Shopping Festival in 2018, the sales volume of self-heating hot pot on the whole network showed the highest growth, exceeding 4.5 million servings, which was twice as much as the same period last year, fully demonstrating its market potential and consumers' enthusiastic pursuit of it.
Entering the second half of 2019, the popularity of Zihai Pot has reached a new height, and its products have been sold out twice, and the supply exceeds demand from time to time.
On the day of Double 12, in the live broadcast room of the well-known Internet celebrity Simba, the sales of Zihai Pot achieved amazing results. In just 10 minutes, sales reached half a billion, which shows how popular it is. Due to the rapid shortage of product inventory, Tmall*** had to urgently remove all products from the shelves in order to cope with this sudden sales boom.
In 2020, due to the epidemic, many variety shows were difficult to find investors because of the sharp drop in sponsorship costs. However, it is in this context that Zihai Pot has successfully "picked up the leaks" with its keen market insight and decisive decision-making, and invested in 6 variety shows in one fell swoop. This move not only allowed Zihai Pot to gain a great degree during the epidemic, but also further consolidated its leading position in the fast food market.
In the context of the popularity of national homes and variety shows, the "lazy economy" and "one-person food" characteristics of self-heating hot pot just cater to the market demand, making it the most popular fast food category, and even surpassing takeaway and fast food in some moments.
Zihai pot not only won a full house in this market tide, but also promoted the vigorous development of the entire self-heating hot pot industry. On the Kuaishou live broadcast platform, the sales speed of self-heating hot pot is amazing, and 300,000 boxes can be sold in just 2 minutes. Brands such as Mo Xiaoxian and Zihai Pot have achieved sales of 1 billion yuan by virtue of this trend.
On social platforms, the evaluation of self-heating hot pot has become a traffic password, and on station B alone, there are more than 2 million ** related to self-heating hot pot, which shows its popularity. This craze has also attracted many traditional food giants and emerging brands to join the market.
1. Traditional giants such as Master Kong, as well as Three Squirrels, BESTORE, Weilong, etc., have entered the self-heating hot pot market, making this track extremely lively and competitive.
Self-heating hot pot has undoubtedly become the darling of the capital market, and its development prospects and market potential are highly anticipated.
However, good fortune doesn't always seem to favor self-heating hot pot. In the past two years, self-heating hot pot has begun to face a series of challenges.
Consumers' enthusiasm for self-heating hot pot has gradually waned, resulting in brands having to remove products from the shelves, and even capital has begun to retreat. Some offline supermarket owners said that the self-heating hot pot on the shelves is difficult to sell, and many products have accumulated dust.
The once glorious self-heating hot pot has now fallen back to the bottom of the market's contempt chain. This can't help but make people think, what problems did the self-heating hot pot encounter that caused its scenery to be gone?
Self-heating hot pot, a category that was once infinitely beautiful, is now facing the embarrassing situation of going from a valuation of 10 billion yuan to no one cares. What is the reason behind the fact that brands are falling into the predicament of not making money?
First, let's take a look at the situation of the self-hi pot. As a leading brand in the self-heating hot pot market, Zihai Pot's revenue in 2022 reached 8200 million yuan, but worryingly, this figure has fallen by nearly 20% compared to the previous year. This means that the growth rate of self-heating hot pot in the market is slowing down, and consumers' enthusiasm for self-heating hot pot is gradually decreasing.
Also in trouble is the opening of a small stove. The brand admitted in its annual report that self-heating rice did not bring the expected bright results, and self-heating hot pot was directly abandoned. This shows that even in the case of trying to expand the product line, the shrinking trend of the self-heating hot pot market is still difficult to reverse.
The traditional giant unification has not been spared. The brand removed the "Cooking Time" self-heating hot pot from the shelves in 2022, which is undoubtedly a major blow to the self-heating hot pot market. This move of unification may mean that even with a strong brand influence and market resources, it is difficult to achieve profitability in the self-heating hot pot market.
Self-heating hot pot has changed from the darling of the market to the abandoned child, and the transformation is embarrassing. There are two main reasons for this situation. First of all, the competition pattern of the self-heating hot pot market is becoming increasingly fierce, and the battle between brands is intensifying, resulting in serious compression of profit margins. Second, consumer enthusiasm for self-heating hot pot is waning, and market demand is declining, making it more difficult for brands to maintain profitability.
Faced with such a dilemma, self-heating hot pot brands need to find new breakthroughs. Perhaps through innovative products, improving quality, optimizing the first chain, etc., we can find new living space in the fierce market competition. But in any case, self-heating hot pot brands need to face up to the reality and actively respond to the challenges in order to gain a foothold in this ever-changing market.
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