The nature of collaboration between upstream and downstream players in the medical aesthetics industry chain is quietly evolving. Recently, So Young and Jinbo Biotech jointly launched "Miracle Collagen" Weiyimei ColPact, a recombinant collagen product for comprehensive anti-aging scenarios covering both the face and scalp. ColPact not only continues the brand system of Jinbo Biotech's "Weiyimei" but is also incorporated into So Young's "GREEN LABEL" product system. Such "co-branding" is relatively uncommon in traditional upstream-downstream collaboration models.
Historically, the mainstream cooperation methods within the industry have primarily fallen into two categories. The first is standard supply, where upstream manufacturers provide mature products for downstream institutions to purchase and use directly, with brand ownership belonging to the upstream party. The second is custom development, where downstream players specify requirements for upstream manufacturers to produce accordingly, but the resulting products are typically branded under the institution's name.
The fact that ColPact carries the identifiers of both parties signifies, to some extent, a shift from a simple supplier relationship towards a co-creation model between upstream and downstream. Regarding whether co-creation will become the dominant model in the future, Jin Xing, Chairman and CEO of So Young Group, believes it still depends on the scarcity of the product category. "There are actually many forms of supply chain collaboration. You really have to assess the situation differently for each category. You'll find that some categories today are still very high-end and precision-focused, including areas like recombinant Type III collagen where even the US has struggled to make breakthroughs. For such categories, we collaborate with excellent major manufacturers," Jin Xing pointed out. "Some products are more commonplace today, for instance, hyaluronic acid. Many factories can probably produce it, and the quality might also be very good. For these, a different cooperation method might be chosen. I think differentiated strategies should still be based on the specific circumstances of each细分品类."
The co-creation model serves, on one hand, as recognition of both parties' contributions to the product, and on the other hand, as a rebalancing of price negotiations between upstream and downstream. Compared to Jinbo Biotech's existing price structure, Weiyimei's highly pure humanized Type III collagen (4mg) is priced at 1,949 RMB on the So Young platform. Under traditional OEM logic, So Young would inevitably seek a lower price from Jinbo Biotech to compete in the market. However, the final price set for the co-branded product ColPact of the same specification is 1,999 RMB, essentially aligning with the price of the Weiyimei product. This reflects a new type of "price equilibrium" reached by upstream and downstream players for scarce categories: joining forces to maximize added value.
For the upstream manufacturer Jinbo Biotech, accepting the downstream brand's presence at the table through co-branding is exchanged for the channel partner's joint commitment to maintaining the positioning of the core product. Both parties avoid engaging in price wars against each other, instead earning differentiated brand premiums together through the叠加 of technology and service. Against the backdrop of slowing demand growth in the medical aesthetics industry, whether such cooperative co-creation models can bring more incremental growth space for both upstream and downstream players is attracting attention.
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