While e-cigarette channels have shifted offline, online sales of "tea tobacco" have doubled.
Chinese authorities issued a notice on Further protecting Minors from e-cigarettes on Nov 1, 2019, prompting major e-cigarette brands to remove their products from online channels such as Taobao and JD.com. According to data released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in May 2019, there are about 10 million e-cigarette consumers aged 15 and above in China, and 45.4 percent of them get e-cigarettes through the Internet. Sales of e-cigarettes in China reached 11 billion yuan in 2019, according to other figures. If we take the proportion of 45.4% online consumers as a rough estimate, the online e-cigarette sales contribution is also several billion yuan.
The offline distribution and promotion of e-cigarettes take time. Where is the demand behind their online sales of billions of dollars? Tea tobacco may be one answer.
According to shenmou data, based on the statistics of taobao, JINGdong and other e-commerce platforms, the online sales volume of chayan in January 2020 reached 48,251,000 yuan, an increase of 143% compared with February 2019, and the online transaction volume in one year exceeded 500 million yuan.
What is tea smoke? Simply put, chaya tobacco is a product that replaces tobacco with tea leaves. Its shape and usage are similar to cigarettes. On Taobao, the price of a pack (10 boxes) of tea tobacco varies from dozens to hundreds of yuan, and the tea thread can be directly used to make tea. Tea cigarettes are obviously nicotine-free and involve combustion processes, as well as particulates (tar). In addition, tea itself with theophylline, theobromine and theobromine also have a certain excitatory nerve center function, of course not as addictive as nicotine.
The tea leaves contained in camellia
What kind of people will choose tea tobacco? According to shenmou data, female users account for 20.59 percent of online payment users, much lower than male users, but much higher than the 5 percent of female smokers nationwide. In terms of age distribution, the proportion of 18-24 year old users is 22.88%, and the proportion of 40-49 year old users is 18.57%, ranking the top two among all age groups.
What is the effect of tea tobacco? Industry insiders say that the pleasure and addiction brought by tobacco mainly come from nicotine. If users have a strong dependence on nicotine, tea smoke is difficult to replace cigarettes. And if you just want to keep smoking, it is possible to get some satisfaction from the use of tea cigarettes. In addition, tea itself also has a certain effect on smoking cessation. Studies have shown that theanine in tea can inhibit nicotine dependence through the acetylcholine receptor dopamine reward circuit. Simply put, theanine can inhibit the increase of nicotine receptors, thus reducing nicotine dependence.
The market tends to classify camellia by the category of tea. According to Shenmou data, the five hottest products on the market are "Yunnan Pu 'er Agarwood camellia", "Oko Jinhuangya Camellia", "Kao Tea Horse ancient Road camellia", "Tujiamei Jasmine camellia", and "Yunyan Tieguanyin Camellia".
Currently, the brand attribute of tea tobacco is weak, and it is difficult to find specific brand information in the product introduction. Its sales channels are mainly dealer stores, and the monthly sales volume of the head seller can exceed 20,000 pieces. However, buyers have mixed reviews on the product itself, with positive reviews being "nicotine-free", "healthy" and "beautifully packaged", while negative reviews are often criticized for lacking the taste of cigarettes and "smoking like leaves". A large part of the discussion on Zhihu focuses on how much harmful substances are produced by the burning process. Some organizations have found that after burning some tea smoke can produce 15.62 milligrams of tar.
In addition, there are also compliance issues with tea cigarettes themselves, such as whether they are tobacco products or tea products, and which department should supervise them? Is there a violation of ownership of cigarette packaging due to its high similarity to cigarette specifications? These questions remain unanswered. From the wechat index of tea cigarettes, e-cigarettes and cigarettes, the index of all dimensions of tea cigarettes is at the lower end.
Wechat index comparison
The damage from tobacco comes mainly from nicotine and the combustion process. Nicotine is often the main source of pleasure and the main reason it's so hard to quit. E-cigarettes, smoking in the mouth (more common in countries such as Sweden) and nicotine patches all retain the nicotine more or less, eliminating the burning process; Traditional tobacco giants, such as Philippo International's "heat not burn" new tobacco products, choose to treat tobacco specially, with heating instead of burning. At present, e-cigarettes are undergoing a major channel adjustment, and "heat not burn" products are only popular in a few countries, while the efficacy and prospects of new products without nicotine, such as tea cigarettes, remain in doubt.