So Young Releases '2018 Singles' Day City Rankings for Aesthetic Medicine Consumption': Five Key Trends Revealed

On November 12, 2018, So-Young, the world’s leading internet-based medical aesthetics platform, released the “2018 Double 11 Medical Aesthetics Consumption City Ranking,” aiming to reflect consumption trends in this rapidly evolving emerging industry.

It is reported that during the Double 11 shopping festival, thousands of medical aesthetic institutions participated in SoYoung’s Double 11 campaign, offering discounts and cashback on tens of thousands of aesthetic procedures. The event attracted nearly ten million users to “watch” and “stock up,” further highlighting the trend of medical aesthetics becoming an integral part of everyday lifestyle.

The specific consumption trends shown in the ranking can be summarized into the following five points:

1. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu are relatively mature markets for medical aesthetics, with Chengdu exhibiting rapid growth and strong momentum;

2. The post-90s generation is beginning to enter early aging, spending more on anti-aging treatments; this trend is led by users in first-tier cities and is spreading;

3. Three of the top ten most expensive medical aesthetic procedures are related to fat; users in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou show the highest preference for liposuction, with Beijing recording the highest expenditure;

4. Hair transplantation has become the most popular high-cost medical aesthetic procedure, with the highest expenditures evenly split between Beijing and Guangzhou, representing northern and southern China respectively;

5. Medical aesthetics transforms lives; consumers generally perceive an outward-to-inward transformation after undergoing cosmetic procedures, leading to greater self-confidence.

The content of this ranking is based on statistical results from SoYoung’s big data during the Double 11 shopping festival. Founded in 2013, SoYoung saw its platforms—the SoYoung App and SoYoung Website—reach 114 million unique visitors in 2017, thereby establishing a comprehensive database of medical aesthetics consumption. The following is an interpretation of the ranking.

Chengdu replaced last year’s Seoul to take the top spot on the “2018 Double 11 Medical Aesthetics Consumption City Ranking.” Nanjing ranked second this year, followed by Shanghai in third place. Spending power was calculated based on per capita medical aesthetics expenditure in each city, defined as the total GMV during the Double 11 period divided by the number of consumers. The Double 11 period refers to the 11 consecutive days from November 1 to November 11.

Why Has Chengdu Surpassed Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen to Rank First?

As shown in the fourth item regarding the proportion of consumer spending in the text and images, Chengdu generally exhibits a higher share of expenditure on nasal revision, breast augmentation, zygomatic reduction, comprehensive eye surgery, and female intimate procedures. At times, these figures even surpass those of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, all of which are high-ticket items.

Why Are There So Many High-Ticket Items in Chengdu’s Consumer Market? Because the Chengdu municipal government has placed strong confidence in the development of the medical aesthetics industry, proposing to establish Chengdu as the “Capital of Medical Aesthetics” and making it the city’s second calling card (the first being pandas). In 2018, a series of supportive policies were introduced to attract talent and capital. High-end medical aesthetic services tend to cluster around authoritative physicians and accredited institutions, meaning such resources are limited. The investments made by the Chengdu government are beginning to yield results.

Chengdu is a special case. From the rankings, we observe an overall trend: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, and Seoul have consistently remained on the list year after year, becoming “established mainstays”; other cities take turns appearing, such as Harbin, Zhengzhou, and Changsha dropping off last year, while Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Xi’an joined this year. This is because in economically developed first-tier cities, the medical aesthetics market is relatively mature, so overall consumption has stabilized.

In other cities where the medical aesthetics market is less mature, the earliest adopters of medical aesthetic services are typically high-spending consumers. Consequently, when customer volume is relatively low, the average transaction value per customer tends to be elevated; however, as more consumers enter the market, overall spending power declines. Therefore, we can observe thatThere is still enormous growth potential in China’s medical aesthetics market, particularly among the vast population of tier-two cities and below.。

As shown in the figure, among the top five most popular minimally invasive aesthetic procedures, hair removal accounts for the lowest proportion of consumption volume in the top ten cities, indicating that hair removal enjoys better penetration across China, andAnti-aging initiatives account for the highest share of consumption in the top ten cities., indicating that consumers seeking early anti-aging treatments are more concentrated in regions with developed medical aesthetics industries, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu.

Therefore, we can summarize that photoelectric anti-aging treatments are gaining popularity in regions with advanced medical aesthetics industries, and this trend is expected to extend to other second- and third-tier cities in the future.

This phenomenon is driven by the fact that the primary demographic for cosmetic and plastic surgery consists of individuals born in the 1990s. As this cohort enters their thirties, they possess greater financial capacity and a stronger demand for anti-aging treatments, leading to a rising number of people opting for procedures such as picosecond laser therapy, Thermage, and Ultherapy.

According to New Oxygen’s big data, during the Double 11 shopping festival, accredited hospitals across China sold a total of 60,000 early anti-aging treatments. Assuming a doctor performs one treatment every 30 minutes, working around the clock without rest, it would take 1,253 days to complete them all.

The medical aesthetics market is an emerging sector with a vast pool of potential consumers who are still becoming acquainted with this novel offering. The transition from novice users to paying customers involves a prolonged acceptance process, and even among active consumers, the decision-making period for purchases remains considerably long.

Therefore, consumption trends and project selection follow a process of gradual penetration from first-tier to second-tier cities, from second-tier to third-tier cities, and so on. Emerging consumption phenomena in first-tier cities often foreshadow future consumption trends in second-tier cities, namely:Optoelectronic anti-aging treatments will gradually gain popularity in more cities in the future.。

Among the five most popular surgical procedures, we observeRhinoplasty is the most widely performed procedure in China, followed by liposuction, incisional double eyelid surgery, and autologous fat grafting., thread lift has the lowest penetration rate across China. Tianjin, Nanjing, and Chengdu are the primary consumer markets for thread lifts.

We also observe some intriguing patterns: residents of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou show a similar preference for liposuction, whereas in Shenzhen and Nanjing, the volume of dermal filler injections exceeds that of liposuction. The proportion of liposuction consumption across cities may well serve as an indicator of urban life stress, since high pressure, fast-paced lifestyles, and long working hours indeed make individuals more prone to weight gain.

According to New Oxygen’s big data, during the Double 11 shopping festival, liposuction procedures performed at certified hospitals across China removed a total of 84,665 kilograms of fat—enough to fill 256,561 soda cans and weighing as much as 1,688 sheep.

The fat from 137 sheep was then grafted back into other areas of the body, such as the face, breasts, and buttocks.

Among the top ten most expensive medical aesthetic procedures, hair transplantation accounts for the lowest proportion of spending in the top ten cities, indicating its higher penetration rate across China. The least widespread procedure is rhinoplasty revision, with its spending more concentrated in Beijing and Shenzhen.

It is worth noting that,Three of the Top 10 Most Expensive Medical Aesthetic Procedures Are Fat-Related, two of which are liposuction and cryolipolysis, and one is facial fat grafting. Interestingly, Beijing residents’ spending on fat reduction far exceeds that of other top-tier cities, evoking sympathy for their high expenditures; meanwhile, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou have shown increased enthusiasm for fat grafting, with spending levels comparable to those in Beijing.

Intimate aesthetic procedures were among the fastest-growing medical beauty segments in 2018. In terms of spending on female intimate care, consumers in Chengdu demonstrated high enthusiasm, ranking second only to Beijing.

According to Big Data from New Oxygen, 13,300 hair transplant procedures were sold at accredited hospitals across China during the Double 11 shopping festival. If each hair follicle is likened to a rice seedling, the total number of grafts would be sufficient to plant a paddy field covering an area equivalent to 124 standard football pitches.

Based on big data analysis of keywords in SoYoung’s plastic surgery diaries during the Double 11 shopping festival, the most frequently mentioned terms by consumers were “confidence” and “change,” followed by “feeling great” and “becoming more beautiful.” Other notable keywords included “courage,” “nervousness,” “making up for regrets,” “authoritative doctors,” “accredited hospitals,” and “professional information.”

Plastic Surgery Diaries are authored by consumers themselves. They serve not only as a core component of the SoYoung community but also as an authentic reflection of the service capabilities of hospitals and physicians. To date, the SoYoung app has accumulated 3.8 million Plastic Surgery Diaries, covering 95% of licensed medical aesthetic institutions and doctors in China.

The top consumer on New Oxygen during the Double 11 shopping festival was a female user from Australia, who spent RMB 510,000 on procedures including mandibular angle contouring, liposuction, teeth whitening, intimate area hair removal, and gynecological examinations.

Currently, SoYoung has 35 million users residing in Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas. Its business covers 351 cities across five countries: China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Thailand. Since 2018, beyond the scope of medical aesthetics, SoYoung’s business has begun to expand intoExtension into Consumer Healthcare Sectors such as Gynecology and Dentistry。

Below is the full list of the “2018 Double 11 Medical Aesthetics Consumption City Rankings.”