HBN's parent company, Hujia Technology, is racing towards an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange amid slowing growth and difficulties in offline operations

If ten years ago was a solo performance by foreign brands, in recent years, domestic brands have seized market share from foreign giants through keen insights into the local market, marking a "replacement battle."

Domestic beauty brands have leveraged the maturity of China's supply chain and the benefits of social media to complete a transformation from followers to challengers.

As the results become evident, the domestic beauty industry is entering a period of intensive capital realization.

Recently, Shenzhen Hujia Technology (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hujia Technology") submitted an IPO application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

This is another domestic beauty company, following Mao Geping and Lin Qingxuan, that is making a push for an IPO.

Although Hujia Technology has limited brand recognition in the market, its core brand HBN has already become an important player in the domestic skincare sector.

With HBN's "cutting through thorns" in online channels, Hujia Technology's revenue for 2024 has surpassed 2 billion yuan, with a net profit of 129 million yuan during the same period.

However, Hujia Technology, which has been rapidly growing through online traffic, is at a crossroads of transforming from "internet celebrity" to "long-lasting success": the anxiety of growth after traffic peaks and the pain of channel competition have become the most hidden footnotes in its prospectus.

In 2024, Hujia Technology's year-on-year revenue growth rate is only 6.93%, lagging behind the industry median by more than 10 percentage points.

To address this, Hujia Technology is increasing its investment in offline channels, but this also brings more challenges in controlling channel prices.

"Fully Invested" in Online Channels

HBN is the core brand of Hujia Technology.

As of the end of September 2025, Hujia Technology has a total of 36 categories, all sold under the HBN brand.

In fact, HBN has not been established for long; it has only been around for about 7 years since its inception in 2019, but its revenue for 2024 has already surpassed 2 billion yuan, making it the youngest brand among the top ten domestic brands in the Chinese skincare market.

Hujia Technology attributes this explosive growth to strategic "precise positioning": it has laid out a high-tech barrier, low penetration, and high-growth segment in the improvement-type skincare market, focusing on key efficacy areas such as anti-wrinkle tightening and brightening whitening.

"We are one of the first domestic brands in China to tackle the key challenges of A-retinol stability and intolerance, as well as the penetration rate and stability of α-arbutin. We pioneered the 'Early C, Late A' skincare concept and achieved large-scale productization. With precise product innovation and strong execution, we launched star products such as the Retinol Tightening Revitalizing Night Cream and α-arbutin Revitalizing Essence Water," Hujia Technology pointed out.

While hitting the "Early C, Late A" trend is certainly important, HBN's rise is also supported by supply chain technology.

According to insider information, many of HBN's star products in the retinol series have been developed in collaboration with the OEM Bawei Co., Ltd. For example, HBN's so-called "Visible True A-Retinol" is achieved through Bawei's micro-bead encapsulation technology for retinol "The company has developed the 'Retinol Firming Revitalizing Night Cream' based on core processes such as 'effective active substance visible microcapsule stable encapsulation preparation technology' (two invention patents, including 'a microbead whitening essence and its preparation method' applied for in 2018, have been authorized). Bawei Co., Ltd. has publicly stated, 'Using microbeads to encapsulate retinol allows the retinol content to meet customer demands, and the product's microbeads are visible to the naked eye, aligning with HBN's business philosophy of 'having visible effects'."

However, the most critical factor is that Hujia Technology seized the opportunity presented by the rise of online channels for beauty products.

The macro environment changes in 2020 forced traffic to concentrate online, which became an opportunity for domestic beauty brands to overtake international giants.

Compared to traditional domestic brands, Hujia Technology has no burden of offline channels and directly focuses on online channels.

Specifically, Hujia Technology attracts target consumers through social media and KOL placements, and promotes conversion through platforms such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Tmall, and JD.com.

In the first three quarters of 2024 and 2025, online channels brought Hujia Technology revenues of 2.034 billion yuan and 1.439 billion yuan, respectively, accounting for nearly 100%.

The explosive growth of Hujia Technology is not an isolated case; it is a reflection of the collective breakthrough of domestic beauty brands during this specific period.

Looking back at the 2023 "Double 11" shopping festival, Proya topped the Tmall beauty industry rankings.

This marks the first time in five years that a domestic beauty brand has reclaimed the industry's top position from international giants. The key to Proya's victory lies in its heavy investment in online channels.

A similar scenario has also played out for Beitaini.

As a latecomer, Beitaini's core brand Winona has managed to establish a foothold in the competitive sensitive skin market, with its key advantage also being a complete embrace of online channels.

Data shows that in 2022, online channels contributed over 70% to Beitaini's revenue at one point.

However, the heavy reliance on online channels has turned domestic beauty brands into "workers" for the channels.

As a result, Hujia Technology has incurred significant marketing costs, with sales expenses of 1.238 billion yuan and 871 million yuan in the first three quarters of 2024 and 2025, respectively, accounting for 50.4% and 57.6% of revenue.

Mutual Struggle

As online channel traffic reaches its peak, Hujia Technology is facing the challenge of slowing performance growth.

In 2024, Hujia Technology's revenue growth rate is only 6.93% year-on-year, significantly lower than the median year-on-year revenue growth rate of 21% for peers such as Proya, Shangmei Co., Ltd., Linqingxuan, Beitaini, and Naturals.

This indicates that the model of purely relying on online "buying traffic" to drive growth is becoming increasingly difficult, making the move to offline an important choice.

To this end, Hujia Technology is digging deep into the incremental space of offline channels.

Currently, Hujia Technology's offline retail clients mainly include national cosmetics chain brands such as Sanfu, WOW COLOUR, and Leshaer.

In the first three quarters of 2025, Hujia Technology's offline channel revenue was 75 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.5 times.

In this IPO, Hujia Technology's fundraising purposes include opening counters, boutique collection stores, and experiential pop-up stores in key business districts in first- and second-tier cities, selectively expanding offline distribution and direct sales business; At the same time, build a direct sales network, create an immersive consumption experience in line with brand tone, enhance interaction with consumers, and further improve offline channels.

But this is not an easy task.

The obstacles to HuJia Technology's offline expansion are not only management difficulties but also the significant conflict of interest between online and offline channels—price differences.

Xinfeng noted that the price of HBN luminous water (150ml) in a retail store in Beijing is 144 yuan, while the same product in its online Taobao flagship store is 129 yuan.

For consumers, a price difference of 15 yuan is enough to make them try the product in-store and then turn around to place an order in the online flagship store. Offline channel merchants have no profit to speak of, which naturally leads to a lack of promotional motivation.

An analyst in the retail industry in Beijing believes that this price difference issue directly tests the company's channel management capabilities.

"In fact, very few brands can manage both offline and online channels well at the same time, which brings many challenges to the brand's channel management capabilities. If the online prices are forcibly equalized, it will inevitably offend core online users and may even lead to a decline in sales; if the price difference is allowed to exist, offline channels can only become 'showcases' for online sales, unable to contribute substantial performance growth," the analyst pointed out.

HuJia Technology's predicament is a growing pain that "internet celebrity brands" must experience when starting from the internet.

During the traffic dividend period, the light asset model was a booster; but in the period of stock competition, the lack of offline foundation has become a weakness.

How to ensure that offline channel merchants can make money without harming the online customer base is becoming the most challenging operational proposition for HuJia Technology.

After all, only by truly connecting the entire channel can HBN complete the transition from "explosive popularity" to "sustained popularity."