EVERY morning Shane Zhang applies face scrub, toner and moisturizer; at night he uses Lancome anti-aging cream. Twice a month he treats himself to a facial using mud from the Dead Sea.
People say I look younger than my age, says Zhang, 28, who sells advertising for lifestyle magazine Men s Uno China in Shanghai and spends about 1,000 yuan (US$150) a month on his appearance. Since I m a sales person it definitely helps.
Daily rituals like Zhang s have prompted L Oreal SA, the world s biggest cosmetics company, Nivea, Beiersdorf AG and Japan s Shiseido Co. to target men in China, the only country where Procter & Gamble sells Olay for Men. Sales of men s health and beauty merchandise in China are set to overtake North America this year and will probably grow about five times faster until 2014, according to data from Euromonitor International.
All the major cosmetics companies are focusing on this segment, said Lynn Zhou, a Shanghai-based retail analyst at CLSA Ltd. China is starting from a small base; it has huge potential.
Growing disposable income, fashion magazines such as Chinese editions of Esquire and GQ and the desire to find a competitive edge at work are driving demand for men s skincare products. Men who use cosmetics are called Du Shi Yu Nan or City Jade Men, the local language term that translates to metrosexuals.
Chinese men are now more concerned with appearances and projecting an image of success, said Shaun Rein, managing director of Shanghai-based China Market Research Group. First, they were spending on watches and pens and shoes as a status symbol, then five years ago they were focusing more on apparel, and in the past three years there is a real upsurge in male cosmetics.
Spending by Chinese men on all kinds of face creams, anti-aging gels and cleansing lotions already exceeded spending on razors and blades by a factor of 4:3 and the gap would keep widening, said Damon Jones, a Boston-based spokesman for Procter & Gamble. If we don t win in skincare, we can t be No. 1 in China, Jones said.
The Chinese men s skincare market could reach US$269.6 million this year, compared with US$227.4 million for North America, according to Euromonitor. The research company forecast annual growth of 29 percent from last year to 2014, compared with 5.7 percent for North America and 7.9 percent in Europe.
China s growth potential was helped by a lack of cultural resistance to men using the items, said Jean-Michel Ripoll, L Oreal s Shanghai-based general manager for market research.
Domestic companies are also participating in the burgeoning market. Shanghai Jahwa United Co. in 1992 started marketing its gf line, which it says uses ingredients from desert plants that protect the skin. Gf, pronounced gao er fu, meaning golf, ranked fourth in market share last year, according to Euromonitor, ahead of Nivea at No.5. CLSA estimates the gf brand grew 45 percent last year.
Shiseido began selling its Aupres JS brand in 2001 and introduced its Shiseido Men line in 2005. The Chinese men s cosmetics market is more than one-third the size of Japan s US$1.42 billion market, company spokeswoman Megumi Kinukawa said.
L Oreal had 32 percent of the Chinese market in 2009, driven by sales of premium items such as L Oreal Men Expert, on sale since 2006 and the No. 1 brand, and Biotherm Homme, introduced in 2003, said Euromonitor. They are aimed at professional urban males willing to spend as much as US$110 for a 50 millimeter container of moisturizing cream. (SD-Agencies)
