The E-Cigarette Industry’s First Consumer Rights Dispute: RELX Product Removal Sparks Backlash, Cera

It has been nearly two months since this year's CCTV 315 Gala. During this year's 315 Gala, CCTV Dianping exposed the safety issue of e-cigarettes. Among them is the current mainstream e-cigarette brand Yueshi.

However, in the same month that it was named by CCTV, on March 31, at the fan festival held by Yueshi, Yueshi released its new 2019 product, the second-generation Yueshi electronic cigarette Yueshi Alpha.

According to Yuexie official publicity, the new e-cigarettes adopt a new extraction and release technology to improve the user experience and solve the condensate problem that often occurs in e-cigarettes.

Not long after 315 was named, it publicly released new products. This wave of operations made it inevitable that the public believed that it was full of confidence and even had the courage to commit crimes against the wind.

Alpha was removed from the shelves as soon as it was released, triggering user rights protection”

However, not long after its new product was released, it was suddenly removed from shelves.
 

At present, it is no longer possible to search for Yueshi Alpha e-cigarettes in Yueshi Tmall and Jingdong flagship stores. Only third-party stores sell them, with few sales and reviews.

Sanyan Finance randomly interviewed customer service customers at several stores that showed selling Yuexie Alpha e-cigarettes. The other party said that the products are now out of stock and users must wait for the arrival notice if they choose to buy. The customer service also said that the company expects to ship the goods in mid-May, when users can purchase the experience.

Sanyan Finance then consulted the customer service at the official flagship store of Yueshi Tmall, and the other party said that the first batch of Yueshi Alpha products had been sold out and were therefore removed from the shelves; when new products are available, they will be put on shelves as soon as possible.

However, the reason why Yueshi Alpha e-cigarettes were removed from shelves may not be as simple as being sold out. Some users reported that Yueshi still sells only cigarette rods and not cigarettes.
 
In Yueshi's official Weibo, a very ironic phenomenon appears: on the one hand, Yueshi's official Weibo continues to push marketing content and fans 'support, while on the other hand, users question why they bought Yueshi's alpha tobacco rods, but they have never been able to buy cigarettes.

Yueshi's official Weibo does not seem to be affected. In addition to interacting with some fans who support Yueshi, it completely ignores users who raise doubts.

 


 
Among the user group of the official flagship store of Yueshi Tmall, there are also users who have purchased Alpha tobacco rods but cannot buy cigarettes constantly questioning official delivery issues. Some friends said that customer service never responds to such questions.

This is the first time domestic e-cigarette users have defended their rights.

Received financing from giants such as IDG and Sequoia Capital

Is that why Yue Shi is confident?" rdquo;

The founder is accused of being the wife of an IDG executive

Ignoring the doubts raised by users and still releasing new products normally after 315 was named, in fact, Yueshi's confidence is not only reflected in this aspect.
 
By searching for Yueshi in search engines and social platforms, you can view a lot of Yueshi reviews, experiences and news analysis manuscripts. All these contents are praised and pleasing, and information online that questions and introduces its shortcomings is always buried.# p#pagination title #e#
 
In the article previously published by Sanyan Finance,"E-cigarettes become a new outlet for entrepreneurship: relx Yueshi and others involve exaggerated publicity, and the industry has no status", it was mentioned that Yueshi was favored by investors including IDG Capital, Source Code Capital, Sequoia Capital China, and received two rounds of financing in the second half of 2018, of which the angel round of financing reached US$15 million.“”“”

According to Blue Hole New Consumption Report, on March 12, sources revealed that Yueshi had completed a new round of financing with a valuation of US$800 million. In this round of financing, Shanhang Capital, which is behind Yang Haoyong, CEO of many groups, also participated in this round of financing, but the specific financing amount is unknown.

According to Blue Hole New Consumption's news on March 13, Yue Shi has been represented in IDG Capital in several rounds of financing, because its founder Wang Ying is the wife of a senior executive surnamed Zhang, a director of IDG Capital. According to Blue Hole's new consumption analysis, this is also the reason why IDG Capital suddenly turned its head and became happy after having previously invested in the e-cigarette brand Shanlan and obtained a board seat.

A person familiar with the matter revealed to Lan Dong that IDG obtained a board seat after investing in Shanlan and is clear about Shanlan's development. Shanlan participated in the Shenzhen Electronic Cigarette Exhibition in April 2018. In May, it received a large number of orders for small cigarettes. In June, IDG also began a new round of financing negotiations with Shanlan. In early September, a new round of investment agreements was signed, but it has been delayed until mid-November, Shanlan was informed to cancel the new round of investment agreement and announced that it would abandon its investment in Shanlan. While IDG was conducting the second round of financing with Shanlan, it also participated in the first round of investment in Yueshi. In June 2018, Yueshi announced the completion of the first round of 38 million yuan investment in Source Capital, IDG and Sequoia Capital.

Woj, public account: Blue Hole New Consumption

E-cigarette infernal affairs: IDG abandoned Shanlan and switched to its own executive wife project has aroused controversy

With strong capital support, this may be the reason why Yue Ke has the confidence to dominate the market.

Gorgeous appearance cannot hide quality control problems

Frequent oil leakage problems in paste core

Ceramic atomizer may pose a cancer risk

No matter how Yuexie promotes and packages itself, the serious core and oil leakage problems in its products cannot be concealed.

At present, on mainstream social platforms, such as Baidu Tieba and Zhihu, some netizens report that Yueshi has oil leaks and stuck core problems.
 
In search engines, with Yuexie oil leakage and Yuexie paste core as keywords, you can find posts in the post bar where netizens inquire about related questions.

There are also a large number of netizens in Tieba who reported that Yuexi paste the core, and some netizens inquired whether Yuexi has solved the core problem at present. In some e-cigarette communities, there are also tutorial posts explaining how to avoid leaking oil.
 
Even in the product reviews and Q & A of the official flagship stores of Yuexie Jingdong and Tmall, some users reported that Yuexie had oil leaks.

The main culprit that makes Yuexie prone to such problems may be the ceramic atomizer produced by Shenzhen McWare Company.

In order to study and explore the problem of easy paste cores in Yuexie, Sanyan Finance interviewed senior industry insiders in the e-cigarette industry.

The other party said that due to the structural problems of the ceramic atomizer itself, if the smoke oil is not sufficiently wetted, when the local temperature is too high during heating, the paste core will be burnt, and once the smoke oil is burnt, toxic components will be produced. The veteran person said that during the CCTV 315 party test, the frequency of smoking e-cigarettes was higher and the probability of burning increased, so the toxic substances produced were also high.

On the other hand, during the heating process of the ceramic atomizer, its material may produce fine particles. Once inhaled by the human body, problems will occur to the body.

In the relevant popular science introduction on ceramic atomizers on the Internet, it is also mentioned that the atomizer is essentially a microporous ceramic atomizing core.# p#pagination title #e#

Microporous ceramics refer to ceramic bodies that contain a large number of open or closed micro pores in the interior or surface of the ceramic. The pore diameter is generally micron or submicron. It is a functional structural ceramic. The pores of microporous ceramics are very small and can be calculated in microns and nanometers. Microporous ceramics have good adsorption, air permeability, corrosion resistance, environmental compatibility, biocompatibility, etc. Microporous ceramics are widely used in the filtration of various liquids, gas filtration and immobilization of biological enzyme carriers and biocompatible carriers, especially in environmental engineering. The most common contact in daily life is the ceramic filter elements used in water purifiers.

The characteristics of microporous ceramics such as strong adsorption, high temperature resistance, ability to make co-fired circuits, and safety and non-toxicity can meet the requirements for making e-cigarette atomizing cores. The electronic cigarette atomizing core of microporous ceramic has the following technical characteristics: the surface of microporous ceramic is hygroscopic, and by reasonably controlling the porosity, microporous size, specific surface area and water content of microporous ceramic, the humidity adjustment of local areas can be achieved. It can achieve a smooth supply of smoke oil to the atomizer and has an adsorption and self-locking function. Compared with traditional cotton-coated atomizing cores, it has a better taste, a better experience, and is not easy to leak oil. Due to the high temperature resistance of ceramics itself, even if there is an instantaneous high temperature phenomenon, the cotton burning phenomenon of the traditional cotton wrapping process will not occur. Microporous ceramics refer to ceramic bodies that contain a large number of open or closed micro pores in the interior or surface of the ceramic. The pore diameter is generally micron or submicron.

According to the above-mentioned insiders, the defective rate of electronic cigarette products using ceramic atomizers is relatively high, about 10%-20%. Such a high defect rate will lead to poor smoke oil drainage, too little smoke oil in the pores of the ceramic atomization core is easy to cause high temperature to cause paste core problems.

The problem with the yield rate of such e-cigarettes mentioned by industry insiders also appears in the newly launched Yueshi Alpha e-cigarettes. Some users have reported that Chengyue Star Alpha still has oil leaks and stuck cores.
 
In a comment on Zhihu's previous review article about Yueshi Alpha, some users said that Yueshi Alpha was 30% poor and 100% poor. The user claimed that this was an immature product; some users reported that it did not leak during the first week of use, but the oil leakage problem was serious after that.

The reason why Yuexie Alpha was quickly removed from the shelves may have a lot to do with the yield rate.

In addition, a foreign e-cigarette information media vapingpost has published a commentary article detailing the potential risks caused by ceramic atomizers.
 
The media pointed out that the biggest risk of ceramic atomizers comes from the fine particles they may produce. Given the nature of such products, when ceramic atomizers are damaged by external force, they will produce fine particles with a diameter of 30-120 microns, which cannot be seen by human flesh. The article quoted tests from relevant agencies as saying that once the human body inhales these particulate matter, there is a risk of developing cancer.

E-cigarette outlets are coming, so that products can not be eliminated

Nowadays, it seems that the e-cigarette outlet is about to arrive. Zhu Xiaomu, a former employee of Hammer Technology, stepped into the industry, and Luo Yonghao personally stepped into the e-cigarette platform.

The arrival of air outlets means an increase in opportunities, but it also means that once the product cannot be made well to remain competitive, the risk of elimination will also increase. As a well-known brand in the domestic e-cigarette industry, Yueshi should make more efforts to improve product quality and yield.

The industry is currently highly controversial, and there is a great controversy about the harm of e-cigarettes. In such a large environment, it is even more necessary to win the trust of users with safe and reliable products.