Vaping Like Skateboarding: A Brief Look at China’s Vaping Market

He Sai, dressed in a black T-shirt with a logo and American-style hip-hop shorts, wore a backward baseball cap. Before sharing his experience with vaping, he expressed some concerns: “Am I advertising right now? Some people say I need to be careful with what I say, and I’m afraid to speak freely.”

He is now a spokesperson for a certain e-liquid brand and often shoots videos. He revealed that the endorsement fee is substantial, but it’s not easy work: “You have to build many connections and increase exposure.”

His main platforms are Meipai and Kuaishou apps, where he has tens of thousands of followers—actually, there are only a few tens of thousands of people vaping nationwide. He is known for producing various cool smoke tricks, “the smoke I blow is big, plentiful, and far-reaching.” Another mainstream trick is blowing smoke rings, where you take a puff into your mouth, release part of it, and then cough out the smoke rings from your throat, similar to a cough.

He Sai's journey with e-cigarettes began in May 2013 when he accidentally came across a cheap e-cigarette. Within ten days of trying it, he started reselling them, discovering the significant benefits of this product while selling and using it. “Vaping has captivated me; I don’t go out, don’t smoke, don’t drink. When friends invite me to hang out, I don’t have time because my mind is consumed by this. I put in double the time compared to others; while they sleep, I’m still busy, pondering, and I stay up until dawn to sleep.”

From May to October, from websites to apps, from QQ groups to WeChat, He Sai became popular. He jokingly claims he was already an internet celebrity at that time. People from all over the country came to him to learn, and he took on over 40 apprentices, averaging around 24 or 25 years old, performing and taking endorsements nationwide to support his vaping expenses.

From curiosity, to selling, to having fun, and then forming a team, He Sai is now regarded as a “spiritual leader” in the domestic vaping community. This 28-year-old who calls himself a “bad boy” says vaping has changed him, “It made me more honest and reliable.” He speaks quickly, sounding like he’s rapping: “I admit, I don’t know English, I’m not good at studying, and I never went to high school. I don’t feel ashamed. Others can think what they want; I just do my own thing. That’s my style of doing things.”

Anything related to DIY becomes different.

In Changsha, Hunan, tourists crowd Taiping Street. Yang Mo's vape shop, “Galiqiao,” is tucked away at the end of the largest alley; it’s actually a garage. Yang Mo and a few friends personally laid down moisture-proof wood and painted graffiti on the walls. Regardless of day or night, his shop is always lively, likely gathering everyone from Changsha's vaping community. “Galiqiao” is a blend of Changsha dialect and English—“Chill here,” meaning play here.

Yang Mo initially turned to vaping to quit smoking but soon became hooked. “Because it allows for DIY. Anything related to DIY becomes different in this world.”

The rectangular metal box in his hand has an incredible allure in the eyes of Yang Mo and his peers: they study heating wires, experience different smoke volumes and ways of exhaling; different e-liquids offer various flavors, and they can mix and match to create their unique tastes...

Though only in his early twenties, Yang Mo is the owner of two vape shops, embodying the youthful spontaneity: “Young people are the purest; they just find it fun. My current thoughts seem quite immature to many; they don’t understand our culture, and I don’t need to understand theirs. I just want to be myself. At this stage, I think this way of playing is the best and most meaningful.”

Yang Mo says the greatest significance of vaping for him is the space and possibilities brought by “Galiqiao” and his second shop, DeepThroat. “It’s not just about vaping; it encompasses graffiti, tattoos, fixed-gear bikes, street dance, parties... it’s very inclusive.” Yang Mo has met some of the most interesting, trendy, and unique people in Changsha, and he wants to turn his shop into a subcultural landmark in the city.

“I’m also thinking about getting a heating wire tattooed on my body recently,” Yang Mo said.

Chinese people see e-cigarettes as a way to quit smoking, while Americans view them as a culture and lifestyle.

He Sai has always dreamed of taking his team abroad to perform. He feels a sense of mission to prove that Chinese people can create their own vaping style rather than just copying the Western style one-to-one, wanting foreigners to know that there is a “Chinese team” that can represent Chinese style.

In fact, the world-class vaping performance team Vgod from the United States has been paying attention to China, not wanting to miss any of the Chinese vaping expos. This 12-member team specializes in blowing smoke tricks and has over a million fans worldwide. “In the eyes of Chinese people, e-cigarettes are for quitting smoking, but in the eyes of Americans, it’s called vaping, a culture, a lifestyle, just like young people playing skateboards and various cool things; vaping is part of their lives,” said Huang Huafu, the exclusive agent for Vgod in China. Unlike He Sai’s team, Vgod’s performances are free of charge; their purpose is to sell their branded devices and e-liquids.

Huang Huafu's company has witnessed the rise and development of e-cigarettes in Shenzhen over the past few years. “Foreign companies are very optimistic about the Chinese market. With a population base of 1.4 billion, how many people smoke? The entire e-cigarette production base is in Shenzhen. When American e-cigarette companies want to grow and expand, they generally set up offices or branches in Shenzhen, following Apple’s model, doing design and promotion in the U.S. and outsourcing production to Shenzhen.”

However, Huang Huafu has also noticed a strange phenomenon in the industry. The e-cigarette invented by renowned Chinese pharmacist Han Li accounts for 95% of the world’s production but has not gained recognition among Chinese people. “Chinese people don’t use domestic e-liquids; they rely entirely on imports. Over 90% of e-liquids in China are imported, while foreign companies seek out local Chinese enterprises to export Chinese e-liquids.”

Two years ago, Wen Tao, who founded “I Love E-Cigarettes,” shared the same question—“Chinese people invented e-cigarettes, but it has always been better done abroad.” In 2015, the “China Tour” event for e-cigarettes started in Guangdong, where Wen Tao and his team traveled a long route across the country, which was listed by industry media as the “most influential e-cigarette event of 2015.” During their observations along the way, Wen Tao found that most e-cigarette retailers' customers were smokers, promoting e-cigarettes as a substitute for traditional cigarettes, which strayed far from the cultural attributes of e-cigarettes.

Chinese people think the smoke is too thick, like smoking drugs, while the British include it in their healthcare system.

Guo Qiang's “Big Steam” is the first e-cigarette shop in Xiantao, Hubei, located on the second floor of a shopping street in the city center. However, it didn’t take long for it to no longer be the only one in this small city.

Guo Qiang's customers are mostly young people aged 20 to 35, fashionable and open to new things, but he still feels that doing business with young people is challenging due to their insufficient purchasing power. He plans to develop middle-aged customers in the future. Guo Qiang believes that e-cigarettes are a trend, and middle-aged people will gradually accept them.

He learned that the vaping demographic abroad is quite diverse: “There are people in their sixties and seventies who vape. In China, people’s mindset towards e-cigarettes is still relatively conservative, thinking that the smoke is so thick, could it be like smoking drugs?”

On one hand, the current domestic market atmosphere is not favorable for business; on the other hand, e-cigarettes face a chaotic growth state with varying quality and a lack of industry standards.

Wen Tao believes that traditional cigarettes have their own demographic, and e-cigarettes have theirs. E-cigarettes were created by Chinese people, and it’s necessary to continue this industry domestically. “The British Prime Minister publicly supported e-cigarettes in parliament, stating they reduce harm by 95% compared to traditional cigarettes and included e-cigarettes in the healthcare system,” Wen Tao said.