Creating a Vape Trend for the Young

The bright smoke rings from electronic cigarettes, housed in colorful shells and equipped with various cartridges, have suddenly attracted venture capital, making it one of the hottest hardware startups this year. Unlike traditional cigarettes, which have a wide age distribution among users, the consumer base for e-cigarettes is clearly concentrated among the young and middle-aged, with marketing strategies increasingly targeting younger audiences.

Investigations by reporters have found that due to the almost nonexistent regulation of e-cigarettes in the country, many products are aimed at young people, and promotional content on social media has rapidly proliferated. Technological innovation has become a leading factor. Under the temptation of profit, manufacturers, blinded by greed, continue to push e-cigarettes into gray areas. More and more safety issues are surfacing that need to be addressed.

“Candy Apple,” “Caramel Popcorn,” “Blue Cotton Candy,” “Pure Mint,” “Vanilla Cola”... If their shapes differ from ordinary snacks, it’s hard to imagine these are the new flavors recently launched for e-cigarettes. Trends, novelty, and youthfulness have been the core strategies of e-cigarette marketing over the past year. On an e-cigarette forum, reporters saw a company tirelessly promoting the “Soy Milk” flavor of e-liquid, with the slogan: “A red scarf painted on the label of the smoke oil, to buy a bottle of ice soy milk from the store. Playing hopscotch, but kissed by a little boy. The sucking is filled with childhood memories from the 90s.”

“Everyone says e-cigarettes can help quit smoking, but it doesn’t work for me; it’s just cool in front of friends.” After the 95s, Liu cleverly took out the electronic cigarette, which was as delicate as a USB drive, without a lighter. When he turned on the switch and took a deep breath, he exhaled a cloud of smoke.

Liu told reporters that unlike traditional cigarettes, electronic cigarettes are so complex that beginners often get lost. “You need someone to accompany you. Various forums and groups are not called e-cigarettes.” The black words are called Vape. The components are the main unit, atomizer, and e-liquid. Everyone is a gateway. Of course, people will continue to sell you various products. Spending a month’s worth of money is no less than the previous month. Of course, I haven’t quit smoking yet. “The semi-underground player circle has led more and more young people to start out of curiosity.”

“Fancy smoke rings, exuding vapor. UMean from Chengdu is famous for its smoke ring performances. With the display of fancy smoke rings, this 24-year-old has attracted nearly 20,000 fans on TikTok, with a total of nearly 100,000 likes. Young people showcase the fancy ways to use e-cigarettes on social media. Many viewers request specific “teaching methods” via email. It’s worth mentioning that reporters found that current TikTok and Kuaishou have blocked keywords related to e-cigarettes. However, if you search for Liu Ruo’s mouth on “Vape” on the platform, a large number of short videos will immediately play, with topics related to TikTok exceeding 3 million, and various “health quitting smoking? Smoking” Vape, “easy to quit smoking” — vapor smoke Vape, etc., business marketing numbness.

After carefully observing the “fancy” young people on the TikTok platform, they found a large number of users aged 18 to 20 frequently updating their spitting and playing with smoke, sharing various loading and burning techniques. At 18, “CLOT” from Guiyang Vocational and Technical College asked several roommates to take turns performing smoke ring exclusion techniques, writing: “In practice,” “work hard,” “this is great.”

Micro-businesses in the circle of friends are not idle. With dazzling drainage, a large number of sellers have started the e-cigarette sales business using WeChat and promoted various sales on short video platforms. E-cigarette products have millions of fans. “Hello, old iron wants to tell me.” At 22, Tingting has accumulated over 3 million fans in the rapid tracking of e-cigarettes. He has various order records in his circle of friends. “You can use WeChat voice.” Through video chat, you can see the amount of smoke, such as this “venom,” which can also be played at school, remembering to keep a small mouth, the amount of smoke is not so eye-catching.” There are also many “shake the same e-cigarette” as key products on Taobao. One store sold tens of thousands of copies in a month, claiming that the nicotine content of e-cigarettes is about two packs of cigarettes.

E-cigarettes were born in China and have undergone rapid iteration in just ten years. Industry insiders believe that Dr. Han Li invented the first e-cigarette in 2003, but the first-generation product did not have enough nicotine to dissolve cigarettes, leading to a rapid decline. The second-generation e-cigarette, known as “big smoke,” produces a large amount of smoke, but many of these require self-completion. Many online teaching videos are aimed at “big smoke.” Due to the high learning threshold, players are decreasing. The third generation is the popular “small smoke,” which has various circuit boards and is divided into two types: heated, non-burning, and smoke oil. Currently, domestically produced oil-type “small smoke” is a hot spot for entrepreneurship. The atomizer that contains nicotine salt vaporizes the e-liquid and does not belong to tobacco. Now, technology companies that manufacture battery chips and charging solutions have emerged. “Xiao Hui, a staff member of Shenzhen Yuedream Technology Co., Ltd., told reporters.

In fact, since last year, e-cigarettes have suddenly become a “new gimmick” for domestic entrepreneurs and capitalists. At the beginning of this year, Luo Yonghao launched the “Flow Fulu” e-cigarette at the “Chat Treasure” conference, becoming one of the hottest investment projects. He Chang, the founder of Huang Taiji, and his co-founder Cai Yuedong also launched the “YOOZ” e-cigarette in their circle of friends at the end of January. From April 2018 to May this year, only 10 domestic e-cigarette companies received hundreds of millions of dollars in investments from well-known venture capital institutions, including IDG Capital and Zhenge Fund. Ultimately, the massive influx of capital is due to the astonishing profits in the e-cigarette industry. Xiao Hui told reporters that currently, all aspects of e-cigarette production, including assembly, can be outsourced. E-cigarettes with a factory price of less than 30 yuan are sold on the market for about 300 yuan, with a profit margin exceeding 900%. In a QQ group with nearly 2,000 e-cigarette buyers, reporters saw factories providing e-cigarette silicone, and hundreds of manufacturers named “electronic technology.”

Such high profit margins attract manufacturers, but are the hottest third-generation e-cigarettes really “harmless” and “can help quit smoking”? Different e-cigarette users have their own answers, but reporters found a contradictory “cat” in the promotion of e-cigarettes sold on e-commerce platforms: this is a brand of e-cigarettes claiming to use food-grade e-liquid. Comparing brand e-cigarettes, some brands on the market contain diacetyl, which leads to popcorn lung; in addition, repeatedly refilling e-cigarettes can easily breed bacteria, and unsafe e-liquids are prone to leaking and exploding.

“Out of 10,000 smokers, how many really want to check if the e-cigarette’s numerical content matches the manufacturer’s figures?” an industry insider revealed to reporters that there are many oils on the market claiming to be imported from Malaysia, but in fact, they are domestically produced. “Many casting factories produce oil by cooking and flavoring and sell it in bulk. The taste is singular. In the past, domestic labels were also attached. Now many factories have changed to import labels or imported packaging. However, a bottle of e-liquid costing a few dollars is simply untraceable.

The close gap in domestic e-cigarette regulation has led the industry to continue developing in gray areas. “Are e-cigarettes e-liquids?” Or tobacco? Or drugs? There is currently no uniformity; how do you manage me? Industry insiders say that the quality and safety of e-liquids on the market are mainly based on third-party testing, with no mandatory regulations. The Chamber of Commerce’s E-cigarette Industry Committee released the “General Specifications for Electronic Vapor Cigarette Products” and “Specifications for Electronic Vapor Liquids” in December 2017, but the rules of the industry association have no judicial effect. How to solve the safety issues of tobacco oil containing nicotine? Regulatory agencies.