“Ryukakusan, dokkan, Yamamoto Kampo... When I go to the supermarket in the United States, at a glance, the products related to Kampo herbs on the shelves are all from Japanese brands, but the formulas are all "Ingredients of Chinese herbal medicines." TipsYou founder and CEO Zhou Zhenyang told Chuangyangbang, "China is a major exporter of herbal raw materials, but China's daily health products are still scarce in the world."

TipsYou was established. In 2020, it is a Chinese herbal health snack brand.

For a Chinese, the concept of health and wellness may be as follows: if your hands and feet are cold, you need to replenish qi and blood; if you often eat cold drinks, the moisture in the body may be heavy, so you need to remove dampness and strengthen the spleen; recent takeaways If you eat more, you need to do some detoxification and laxative work...

This kind of health thinking is obviously more friendly to the Chinese people, but the ingredients of the health products currently on the market are still They are mainly based on chemical compounds, including nutritional products in the form of gummies that have better taste and are more convenient to eat. In recent years, domestic and foreign brands have successively launched nutritional supplements. However, dietary supplements containing Chinese herbal medicines as ingredients are rare.

In the eyes of Chinese people, health care is a kind of maintenance activity. To a certain extent, it cannot be achieved through Western compounds alone. Take the Eastern supplement of qi and blood as an example, which can only be regarded as a single activity in the West. It is necessary to supplement iron.

In traditional Chinese culture, the methods of traditional Chinese medicine may be more suitable than compound health products for the physical constitution of Chinese people. Therefore, China advocates the origin of medicine and food and inherits some classic formulas of traditional Chinese medicine. And make some innovations on this basis, including innovations in carriers and ways of eating.

After the epidemic, the medicine and food homologous market has shown an obvious growth trend.

According to the results of China’s “Medicine and Food Origin” Research (2019 First Issue), the output value of “Medicine and Food Origin” products has reached more than 300 billion yuan since 2013, with an annual growth rate of 14%. increase. In the future, based on a conservative compound annual growth rate of 10%, the output value of "medicine and food homology" products will reach more than 500 billion yuan in 2025. If the compound growth rate is maintained at 14%, the market size of medicine and food homology will exceed that of proprietary Chinese medicines The market size reaches one trillion yuan.

In addition, on November 15 last year, the National Health Commission issued the "Regulations on the Management of the Catalog of Substances that are Traditionally Both Food and Traditional Chinese Medicine" (National Health Food Issue [2021] No. 36), The "Regulations" clearly define the scope of food and drug substances and make it clear that the catalog of food and drug substances will be dynamically managed and adjusted in a timely manner, further filling the gaps in the system.

This means that raw materials that were previously classified as OTC can also be used as "medicine and food from the same source."

Unlike most of the health care products on the market that are based on Western compounds, TipsYou hopes to be a dietary supplement brand that mainly uses Chinese herbal ingredients. It will take advantage of the unique advantages of China, a country with a large number of raw materials, to launch China's own Chinese herbal medicine. Food supplement brand.

Currently, TipsYou mainly has two series of products, namely the Youfang series and the Tips series. Among them, two products, Taoyan Youfang and Good Night Tips, have long been in the top three of Tmall’s gummy candies list.

Among them, Good Night Tips is a product that adds GABA, jujube kernel, lemon balm, passionflower and other Chinese herbal medicines, which can make people more calm and soothing. Although gamma-aminobutyric acid is added, The quantity is still controlled at the food level, and it will not make people dependent like functional health products. It meets the needs of today's high-pressure working groups, that is, it has a regulating effect, is convenient to eat, and has a good taste. Currently, good night tips The monthly sales volume of this gummy candy in the TipsYou Tmall official flagship store remains at 10,00.

TipsYou Good Night Tips

In the middle of last year, TipsYou Tmall flagship store launched 5 tip products and completed angel round financing. In November of the same year, three "Youfang Xiaotang" series products were launched. Only ten days after they were launched, two products in the series were selected into the top 10 best-selling gummy candies on Tmall, and were also selected as "China's Most Valuable New Brand in 2021" "Food TOP List", the current product repurchase rate is 12%.

The current generation Z has taken up the banner of health care, and there are many types of "fancy health care" including food supplements, health products, fitness exercises, aromatic massages... With the help of the time window for national voluntary health and fitness, TipsYou uses technology to bring the distance between young people and Chinese herbal medicines, so that Chinese herbal supplements no longer remain in the image of multiple steps and time-consuming.

Technically, Eastern health care has always relied on the power of plants themselves. How to turn them from plants into delicious and beautiful food in packaging bags has become a major difficulty.

There are currently two main technical paths in extraction technology, one is full spectrum extraction, and the other is effective component extraction.

Full spectrum extraction technology refers to the chromatogram or spectrum that can indicate the chemical characteristics of certain Chinese medicinal materials or Chinese medicinal preparations obtained by using certain analytical methods after appropriate treatment.

Take ginseng as an example. Ginseng is composed of more than 20 substances. Unlike Western compounds, it can be clearly defined which component has a certain effect. Ginseng does have the effect of replenishing qi and blood, but ginseng’s It is difficult to know exactly which one or several substances among more than twenty kinds of substances have the effect of replenishing qi and blood.

So TipsYou chose the full-spectrum extraction technology in this case, that is, all the active ingredients are restored and retained at 1:1. Ginseng has more than 20 substances, and TipsYou extracted all 20 kinds of substances. Put it into the product.

For example, TipsYou's "Taoyan Youfang" is a gummy candy that focuses on replenishing qi and blood. It restores the recipe in the Bazhen Tang in "Ruizhutang Experience Recipe", which is also known as Bazhen Tang. Sijunzi Decoction, this recipe is used to replenish qi and blood, and is suitable for people with cold hands and feet who need to recuperate their body. TipsYou's "Taoyan Youfang" uses the eight medicinal materials of angelica, ginseng, yam, mulberry, turmeric, polygonatum, poria, and licorice in Bazhen decoction, rather than a certain ingredient in these eight medicinal materials.

To achieve this level, the extraction technology needs to reach the molecular level. TipsYou R&D laboratory has carried out technical cooperation with the Institute of Molecular Sciences of China and other institutions to ensure the reduction degree of product raw materials and open up The supply chain of traditional Chinese medicine herbs, food, and functional supplements has been established, and high research and development barriers have been established.

If you want to completely combine candies with Kampo herbs, you still need the standardization of raw materials, formulas and production processes.

At present, TipsYou has connected all these three links. In the raw material part, TipsYou has designated long-term raw material suppliers. Due to the objective factors of the raw materials themselves, the next technological development in raw materials is an inevitable trend, that is, extraction technology. This aspect has been solved by TipsYou laboratory through exclusive cooperation; the laboratory has reserved 15+ medicinal and food products of the same origin. The formula is ready to be introduced to the market.

In terms of taste, TipsYou will invite consumers to participate in innovation. For each planned product, 10-15 flavor samples will be produced, and 3,000 Xiaohongshu bloggers will be invited to vote to decide which flavor is the most delicious. The top three votes will be quantified and entered into the market. The three flavors currently in mass production are honey brown sugar flavor, mung bean smoothie flavor, and tangerine oolong flavor.

TipsYou Taobao Official Flagship Store

TipsYou founder and CEO Zhou Zhenyang graduated from the University of California, San Diego. He was the former deputy investment director of the listed company Golden Baby (01239HK.), focusing on investment. "New Economy" project. He once founded the Pu'er tea brand "Prince and Mountain" and focused on creating "Mansong Pu'er Tribute Tea", successfully making it a popular product among Pu'er tea collectors, with annual sales exceeding 20 million yuan and rich brand marketing experience. experience.

Co-founder and CMO He Junzhi graduated from the University of California, Irvine. He is a veteran in brand omni-channel establishment and brand communication, and has many years of experience in brand management and operations. He is good at large-scale promotion and implementation of brands. Before joining TipsYou, he helped a brand expand online channels from 0 to 1, and launched it in hundreds of stores across the country, managing a team of thousands of people.

At present, China's health and wellness market has exceeded one trillion yuan, and the market for medicine and food has been slowly liberalized. More and more Chinese medicinal materials can begin to enter the food market and enter the mass market.

In addition, the proportion of people born in the 90s taking this product has increased by 40%, and the epidemic has become a trend in more and more industries. TipsYou was born under such a window. With the continuous development of technology and taste, development is expected.

This article comes from Chuangye Bang