BTN faces narrative challenges with sensitive skin

After several years of rapid growth, domestic beauty companies are collectively facing a slowdown.

On August 28, BTN (300957.SZ) released its financial report showing that in the first half of 2025, revenue and net profit attributable to shareholders were 2.372 billion yuan and 247 million yuan, respectively, down 15.43% and 49.01% year-on-year.

The "618 Shopping Festival" also failed to boost BTN's performance in the second quarter, with revenue for the period at 1.423 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 16.67%.

This is the first time BTN has lost during the e-commerce "618 Shopping Festival"; in the past four years, the year-on-year growth rate of its second-quarter revenue had reached over 40% at its highest and remained above 10% at its lowest.

BTN is controlling its promotional spending on major sales events, with sales expenses in the first half of 2025 amounting to 1.285 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of only 0.6%, slowing down by 15.81 percentage points compared to the same period in 2024.

This may be because BTN has learned from past failures.

Last year, in preparation for the Double Eleven shopping festival, BTN's sales expenses in the third quarter reached 733 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of over 40%, directly causing a net loss of 71 million yuan for the period.

However, the "pre-loss" preparation for Double Eleven had little effect, with BTN's revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024 at 1.718 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of nearly 20%.

The heavy investment did not translate into revenue growth, prompting BTN to start reflecting on the effectiveness of its marketing strategies.

BTN told Xinfeng: "In the first half of 2025, the company proactively optimized the allocation of promotional resources, reduced some inefficient promotional investments, and focused more on content marketing, user education, and precise conversion, driving a steady increase in gross margin and a significant improvement in operating cash flow."

"This strategic adjustment, while having a certain impact on revenue growth in the short term, has significantly improved profitability quality and operational health, laying a solid foundation for sustainable growth in the second half of the year and beyond," BTN stated.

In fact, some domestic beauty companies have even paused their advertising spending. In the first half of 2025, Huaxi Biological (688363.SH) reported sales expenses of 808 million yuan, a year-on-year decline of 31.44%.

By product category, BTN's skincare products, including special care creams and medical post-operative recovery masks, saw varying degrees of decline in revenue, with medical device products experiencing the most significant drop, generating 116 million yuan in the first half of 2025, down over 50% year-on-year.

In response, BTN told Xinfeng that it has reduced resource investment in medical device products.

"Based on the assessment of consumer trends and strategic focus, the company has proactively adjusted the promotion rhythm and resource investment for medical device products, concentrating more efforts on core skincare categories and deepening layouts in high-growth sectors," BTN stated.

Beyond the narrative of sensitive skin care, BTN is ramping up its anti-aging segment.

Since the beginning of this year, BTN's anti-aging skincare brand Aikeman has transitioned from beauty salons to e-commerce sales, achieving good growth, with revenue of 51 million yuan in the first half of 2025, a year-on-year increase of over 90% Whether this can become a new growth pole for BTN is currently under scrutiny.

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