On January 9, a set of data emerged from the 2026 National Moutai Liquor Distributors Association Fellowship Meeting: since the 500ml Feitian Moutai officially launched on the "i Moutai" platform on January 1st, the platform has gained over 2.7 million new users in just 9 days, and the number of transaction users has already exceeded 400,000. The launch of the 53-degree, 500-milliliter Feitian Moutai on its own platform "i Moutai" is seen as Moutai firing the "first shot" in its channel reform. Subsequently, the 53% vol 500ml Kweichow Moutai Co.,Ltd. (Premium), Feitian 53% vol 1L Kweichow Moutai Co.,Ltd., and the Feitian 53% vol 100ml Kweichow Moutai Co.,Ltd. ("i Moutai") gift box set also joined the flash sale, further attracting market attention. With the continuous increase in volume through self-operated channels, will the traditional distributor system be impacted? On January 9, at the 2026 National Moutai Liquor Distributors Association Fellowship Meeting held in Wuhan, Moutai also responded to this question. On December 28, 2025, Moutai proposed a consumer-centric approach to comprehensively drive and advance the market-oriented reform of its channel system. As a key move in this transformation, just three days later, the 500ml 53-degree Feitian Moutai landed on the "i Moutai" platform at a retail price of 1,499 yuan per bottle, with daily timed releases, which the industry views as Moutai firing the "first shot" in its comprehensive market-oriented transformation. While continuously boosting the platform's popularity, this has also brought substantial user growth for Moutai. Data shows that since the 500ml Feitian Moutai officially launched on "i Moutai" on January 1st, the platform has gained over 2.7 million new users in just 9 days, and the number of transaction users has already exceeded 400,000. Moutai Group Chairman Chen Hua reiterated the practical logic and main objectives behind Moutai's push for market-oriented transformation at this meeting. Long-standing non-marketization in the sales sector has led to a mismatch between supply and demand, making it difficult for ordinary consumers to purchase liquor fairly, conveniently, and with authenticity guaranteed. Coupled with deep industry adjustments and shifting consumption trends, market-oriented transformation has become an unavoidable "required question" for Moutai; this is not only an urgent need to solve development challenges but also a strategic choice to seize future opportunities. From a market structure perspective, this transformation directly targets long-standing issues with the price mechanism and channel irregularities. For a long time, the 500ml 53-degree Feitian Moutai has carried a significant premium in the end market, often requiring consumers to pay far above the official guide price while still facing authenticity risks. The substantial price gap between the market price and the official price has primarily benefited distributors and "scalpers," leaving ordinary consumers struggling to access reasonable prices and authenticity guarantees. Industry analysis suggests that by directly releasing core products at the guide price through its official digital platform, Moutai aims to restructure channel order and compress irrational premium margins. If this model is deepened continuously, it will effectively curb hoarding and arbitrage behaviors by distributors and scalpers, pushing market transaction prices gradually back towards the official guide price. In the long run, Moutai liquor is expected to gradually shed its excessive financial speculation characteristics and truly return to its consumption attributes and tasting value. As Moutai's self-operated digital direct sales platform, "i Moutai" has become a significant growth driver for the company since its launch in May 2022. Data shows the platform achieved sales of 22.374 billion yuan in 2023, 20.024 billion yuan in 2024, and recorded 12.692 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2025. By the end of the third quarter of 2025, its cumulative sales had exceeded 60 billion yuan. With the official launch of core products like the 500ml Feitian Moutai, market focus naturally shifts to: what impact will this have on Moutai's overall price system? Regarding the volume of Moutai liquor releases that everyone is concerned about, the meeting clearly stated that Kweichow Moutai Co.,Ltd. is constrained by multiple factors including production area scope, traditional craftsmanship, ecological capacity, and artisan training, meaning its annual release volume is always limited. "The operation of i Moutai will not increase the total supply; instead, it aims to break the original closed circles. Through reasonable release rhythms, it allows products to reach genuine consumers directly, continuously, and stably, which is more conducive to promoting market stability," stated Moutai's senior management. In terms of specific operations, Moutai is continuously optimizing its release mechanism. Since January 1st, the platform has dynamically adjusted the purchase rules for products like Premium Moutai; the "Maotai·Ma" Zhenxiang Edition adopts a time-limited, round-based launch model to strengthen sales rhythm control. The meeting further clarified that more refined and differentiated release strategies will be implemented in the future. These will be dynamically adjusted based on factors such as distributor sell-through data and regional market capacity, avoiding simplistic, averaged "distribution," striving for a high match between product structure and market demand, and gradually building a market-oriented price formation mechanism that "follows market trends." This also stands as a key pathway for Moutai to deepen its marketing and market-oriented transformation. This is also one of the clear goals and paths outlined at the meeting for how Moutai will proceed with the market-oriented transformation of its Moutai liquor marketing. As of now, multiple third-party quotation platforms show that the price of a single bottle of Feitian Moutai has stabilized at 1,550 yuan for several consecutive days. With the "i Moutai" platform continuously increasing its volume, will it impact the traditional distributor system? Chen Hua explicitly stated: The distributor system is an indispensable and vital force in Moutai's development. Moutai is willing to work with everyone, utilizing a perspective, vision, and capability that changes with the "times" and acts according to the "trend," to quickly recognize and proactively adapt to a series of new changes. During the reform process, what gets eliminated is not the "distributor" itself, but the business methods that fail to keep up with the times. Distributors who lack customers, provide no service, rely solely on order passing, and do not proactively shift from "selling to the next link" to "serving the consumer" will ultimately be phased out by the market in the long run. Data corroborates the effectiveness of this transformation direction. Analysis of new users on "i Moutai" since the beginning of the year shows that the majority are not core clients from the original channels but are genuine consumers who were previously not effectively reached. In his speech, Chen Hua systematically elaborated on the future division of labor logic for the channel ecosystem: "Online channels manage efficiency and reach, while offline channels manage conversion and service, ultimately forming an integrated online-offline channel ecosystem centered on the consumer." Feedback from multiple distributor representatives indicates that after the launch of "i Moutai," inquiries at their offline stores have tripled, and foot traffic has increased by 10%, demonstrating the positive spillover effect of online traffic driving offline conversions. Therefore, how to convert the new consumer groups reached through the online platform and the potential demand stimulated into sustainable customer relationships may become a crucial issue for distributors to contemplate.
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