The Asia Pacific face lift and procedure market is anticipated to grow considerably and reach the very best CAGR of 5.96% during the forecast period of 2020-2028. The factors influencing the region to witness robust growth are the expansion of an outsized aging population, a rise in purchasing power of the center class thanks to economic development, and therefore the rise in awareness and interest in these procedures.
In order to know the high rate of growth of the face lift and procedure market of Asia Pacific, the region is split into countries like India, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, Australia & New Zealand, China, Thailand, and the rest of the Asia Pacific.
In China, an increase in obesity, a rise within the number of working women, and inclination of the younger generation toward westernized looks have propelled the expansion of the market in the last few years.
Facelift, eyelid surgery, and neurotoxin are the foremost common surgical procedures within the country. In a nation like Japan, the most in demand surgeries are botulinum toxin, eyelid surgery, and dermal filling. In Japan, researchers have shown that augmented reality are often an enormous boon to plastic and plastic surgery for planning, performing, and evaluating the results.
In India, growth within the aging population, rise within the incidence of obesity, a rise within the influence of Western culture , and internet exposure have led to the recognition of cosmetic procedures, which have experienced a radical change within the last decade. The boost in demand for surgical procedures is caused by affordability, adoption of newer technologies, and an increase in healthcare expenditure.
In countries like Australia, the foremost popular cosmetic procedures are breast augmentation and reduction, fillers, anti-wrinkle injection, laser and IPL, and liposuction. The per capita expenditure of Australians on face lift is quite the US.
For those of you curious about outlandish and contrarian investment ideas, I’ve done a touch of digging into the Capital of face lift industry- South Korea . This is often an industry which certainly has potential, and is growing at a integer clip, driven by the rising bourgeoisie and obscene social media influenced beauty standards (particularly in Asia).
Digging into the Capital of Plastic Surgery industry- South Korea
South Korea has the foremost cosmetically enhanced people on the earth . The practice of foundering the knife is viewed as a gateway to raised careers and therefore the key to a happier life. But the high demand for a plastic appearance is additionally fuelling a dangerous addiction. South Korea’s capital, Seoul, is at the guts of a growing obsession.
An obsession to seem perfect.
People from across the state and therefore the world are flocking here for cosmetic surgery , supporting what has become a five billion dollars a year industry. More people have face lift in South Korea per capita than anywhere else on Earth. But the search for beauty and profits is putting lives in danger .
What’s driving the expansion of this booming business? And at what price to both individuals and therefore the wider Korean society?
Today, South Korea’s reputation leads the planet for cosmetic surgery . In South Korea , it seems beauty is everything. for ladies and men, meaning big round eyes, a pointed nose, a pleasing smile, a V-shaped chin, and a slim jaw.
And this is often once they come to urge it. of those businesses in Korea and 95% of these businesses are cosmetic surgery clinics, and you walk past these clinics and see tons of advertising within the front windows and therefore the re is pictures of the doctors and the doctors are effectively the movie stars of the plastic-surgery world.
They’re the celebrities of the clinic, demigods. quite 4000 clinics provide face lift in Seoul, with an estimated 650,000 per annum foundering the knife. The amount of operations are soaring, but thereupon has come a rise in cases where things fail .
The bulk of cosmetic surgery patients are women in their late teens and twenties. Koreans are flocking to cosmetic surgery clinics like never before. It’s even common for folks to shop for their children cosmetic operations as highschool graduation gifts.
For many, the promise of perfection and therefore the pressure to evolve are evident within the relentless media and advertising Koreans are bombarded with on a day to day.
In such a picture driven consumerist environment, cosmetic surgery has become a high demand and lucrative industry. And now, it’s luring doctors from other fields. More doctors mean more surgeries are often done, and clinics are increasingly trying to draw in international clients to remain before the pack consistent with its marketing managers, in 2013, some 400,000 foreigners came to South Korea for medical tourism, and this number is predicted to rise to 1 million by 2020.
Plastic surgery seems safe and friendly. But that’s not the truth for everybody . Shin Hyun Ho may be a lawyer who focuses on prosecuting botched surgeries. He says victims often win cases, but thanks to Korean laws, compensation pay-outs are small, compared to countries just like the U.S. He believes this makes doctors and clinics more willing to require unnecessary risks.
Now coming to the money making a part of this industry, Should we invest in these blooming face lift and implants market or not?
Korea has one among the world’s fastest growing and technically advanced beauty industries. South Korean women spend quite twice the maximum amount of their income on makeup and wonder products than American women. Similarly, men spend more on beauty products than anyone else within the world.
Skincare and wonder products advertising is everywhere with k-pop stars and key soaps pushing the newest cosmetic trends. There’s an unparalleled emphasis in Korean society on wealthy and having perfect skin. Young South Koreans and increasingly China’s beauty tourists flocked to the present area lured by skincare and makeup products dubbed k-beauty.
Now that we’ve the ugly truth of this industry out, let’s talk business.
Why I feel this is able to be an honest industry to seem at?
It’s very niche. it’s extremely outlandish. But it’s most certainly an honest industry. As an industry with tons of potential and therefore the reason being is because you recognize it isn’t very almost like Western face lift . If you speak with many of us that you simply know especially women and you ask them or have you ever had face lift and that i suspect the bulk of them will say they either haven’t or haven’t considered it, right.
But this is often quite the inverse if you attend somewhere like China or Hong Kong or South Korea especially South Korea because you’ve the increase in popular culture . you’ve the likes of BTS and k-pop and every one these crazy beauty standards. So what that’s actually led to is you’ve these very obscure niche and outlandish type surgical procedures.
For instance , if you’re born with one eyelids and you do not have the second eyelid you recognize in Asian culture that’s considered ugly and delightful people have two eyelids. So then that’s one among the foremost common surgeries is to urge that. Sounds absolutely ridiculous right but there are many these surgeries and therefore the standard of beauty is completely obscene.
I really would encourage you to read this blog and a few others you recognize do a touch of an enquiry through some research yourself and you’ll actually see why I’m quite bullish about the industry because there are numerous different procedures and therefore the standard of beauty is so whack that permits people that concentrate on this area to make many various revenue lines. We’re biased to trim their back a touch or not a bit like within the West – you bought Botox and filler lips and that is about it.
It’s really different and I think that this industry has a lot of potential. On the back of that now what I wanted to take you through is something they call Beauty tourism. Cosmetic surgery tourism.
There’s all sorts of tourism and the reason being is because you’ve got the rise of middle-class incomes and as a result people are now spending more on these very seemingly trivial things and the majority of people spending are actually people my age and your age, if you’re a sort of a millennial or younger who will be the future high owners of the industry.
Differently lots of potential especially in Asia. Now in terms of the stats. I’m not just sure if these stats are accurate but I think it’s probably closer to about 30 or 40 million who live in China as of today 2020. Perhaps they’re a little bit outdated on the basis of who’ve had plastic surgery and in terms of the people who are considering it or have considered it or know someone that has done it. That’s even wider.
The network reaches far and wide. And this is due to the likes of rising incomes, obscene beauty standards, the rise of social media, peer pressure, etc. Now you can almost say in the likes of Asia especially in china and Korea this is if it hasn’t already become a way of life it is most definitely becoming a way of life now.
Now the reason why I think there’s a place for the likes of Union medical health is because yes you can say- look this whole cosmetic surgery it’s glamorous you know we’re going to make you look to profession, flawless but then there’s also a very dark side.
Because there are a lot of surgeries happening which are outside the medical system or unregulated or uncertified and there’s been a lot of surgical mishaps which has led to people looking a lot worse off than they did before.
This has created, a bit of a black market which is cheaper and more affordable because not everyone can afford these and then you’ve got sort of the upscale market. As a result, what I think that’s created is an opportunity for the likes of the Union Medical Health (China) to come along and offer a one-stop shop for anything- discretionary, cosmetic related.
So we are just talking about surgeries but there might be some insane procedure like skin whitening which again is massive in some way like Asia especially in country like India where we are obsessed with lighter skin tones.
Not just India but China, Thailand, Vietnam, Korea everywhere in Asia it’s like they’ve got something against hand skin or dark skin. They can’t stand it. If you walk through the shops everything has skin whitening cream in terms of your moisturizers, your hand cream.
So what Union Medical Health has come along and their value proposition in their use case that is saying- ‘look we will provide you your one-stop shop where you can get all of this done, all of our doctors are registered, they’re qualified you can trace them and it’s not black market, we have indemnity insurance and so on’
It’s a very good value proposition because it opens the door. It might be a bit pricier but you guaranteed quality outcomes and safety. It’s a very interesting company. I think it’s a cool business model.
Now the reason why I think they’re also got a lot of things going for them is because if you look at where they’re located (china) which you know obviously is not very good because of the whole coronavirus situation.
But when this all blows over you’ll see that they’re in a very good position to capitalize because you’ve got Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and southern china which is where all of the money is. And obviously Hong Kong which is the luxury capital of Asia pretty much or I guess you can even save the world because you know it’s all about luxury.
This is where people have a lot of money. There they’re middle class, upper middle class, high earning, high disposable income. It’s a very good network and if you actually dig deeper in terms of the numbers of people flying from the mainland to Hong Kong and back again.
Not very good because of the whole coronavirus clamped down but you’ll see that the numbers of people coming in and out. This is a very good tell with that Union medical health has gone for them and you can actually see it that’s reflected in their linear revenue growth and linear earnings growth. Very rarely do you see companies do this.
I look at any stocks doesn’t matter big or small. that’s the acid test. it’s the consistency test. this is absolutely crucial because every stock does not pass the acid test or the consistency test then it’s an instant pass for me and unfortunately in this instance Union medical health is a massive pass which is a shame because I think it’s a great industry and it definitely has potential.
But the reason why Union medical health was an easy pass for me is it’s all about the consistency of management. if management are inconsistent then you know something is up. we have to remember if a company has been disclosing and harping on to the market about the key metric why would they suddenly stop reporting it what are they trying to hide.
These industries actually seem too good to be true. I keep saying leading indicators very important. unfortunately, the customers saying has to be taken into account as well. because they can they can regulate Facebook 9 banned in China) comments right but they can’t regulate Weibo (Chinese app for Facebook) comments or at least I don’t think maybe they can. I’m not familiar with the Hong Kong consumer protection system. I don’t know sort of what Hong Kong websites consumers can go on and rate their service.
So there are a lot of leading indicators missing. I wasn’t able to give a positive analysis of the stock because I know that they are very bullish and that a position can be beneficial. But I think it’s very important when we look at stocks to look beyond the numbers and not just look at how cheap and good it is and get excited. One must really look at the reason why it’s cheap and whether we can actually get any visibility and i think that if we can’t get any visibility then you know it’s a pass.