On June 3, the Guangzhou Daily published a report titled "Colored Blood Yan Contains High Concentrations of Nitrite," stating that the project team responsible for the "Research on Identification Methods for Real and Fake Bird's Nest and Its Products" under the Guangdong Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau had detected high concentrations of nitrite in some so-called "blood yan" and "yellow yan" dyed bird's nests, with some containing even thousands of milligrams per kilogram, posing significant health risks! As a result, customs authorities in various regions destroyed or returned multiple batches of "blood yan."
On June 22, the Guangzhou Daily reported again on blood yan when a consumer from Panyu purchased blood yan from Yan Zhiwu in Xiamen, which was found to contain 3.6g/kg of nitrite after testing.
On August 15, the Zhejiang Administration for Industry and Commerce announced the results of their inspection of Zhejiang blood yan: out of 30,000 samples tested, all were found to have significantly exceeded nitrite safety standards, with the highest exceeding by 350 times. Renowned brands such as "Ying Huang" and "Zheng Ji" from Guangdong, "Yan Zhiwu" from Xiamen, "Qing He Tang" from Beijing, and "Li Bao Ying Tang" from Hangzhou were all implicated. The term "toxic blood yan" began to circulate widely online.
On August 16, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce issued a notice titled "Further Strengthening the Special Inspection of the Edible Bird’s Nest Market in Circulation Channels." The notice required that any bird's nest found not meeting food safety standards be immediately ordered off the shelves, withdrawn from the market, and dealt with according to law, with those needing destruction being decisively destroyed.
On August 20, CCTV's News Investigation revealed that blood yan was essentially something with almost no nutritional value but had been popular in mainland China for decades, calling it a "shocking scam."
On August 21, the Beijing Morning Post reported that white yan sold in the market was also counterfeit...
The sudden storm quickly disrupted this century-old established market worth over 20 billion yuan annually. The "Blood Yan Incident" stemmed from nitrite levels exceeding standards, but there was no national standard to refer to for these "exceedances"; without standards, yet hitting the gun sights of "food safety crimes," media opinions overwhelmingly turned against the industry, causing fragile brand reputations to nearly collapse.
I do not intend to judge the rights and wrongs of the incident itself, but rather discuss the once-popular business model of bird's nest clubs and specialty stores, which is now at the center of the controversy, creating psychological distress.
This leads us inevitably to mention the "most endangered" bird's nest specialty brand in the incident ― "Yan Zhiwu." In the chaotic years of the health supplement industry, Yan Zhiwu pioneered the "bird's nest sales, dining in, and take-out" specialty store model in China, launching a one-stop service of "ordering, eating, stewing, and delivering on the spot," and subsequently inviting celebrities like Maggie Cheung and Pu Cunxin as image endorsers, creating a completely new business model for health supplements. In just a few short years, Yan Zhiwu developed more than 400 franchise specialty stores nationwide, with annual sales reaching hundreds of millions, undeniably becoming an exemplary model for industry development. Under the leadership of "Yan Zhiwu," other bird's nest specialty brands such as "Yan Si Chao," "Yan Nei Xing," and "Yan An Ju" emerged, with numerous "yan" flying together, creating quite a lively scene.
What was the secret to the success of bird's nest specialty stores? A very important point was "focus!"
Before "bird's nest specialty stores," there were mainly two types of businesses selling bird's nests: pharmacies and ginseng shops. The owners of "Yan Zhiwu" must have encountered such doubts when initially entering the health supplement industry: should they operate like a pharmacy or a ginseng shop? Pharmacies sell bird's nests in a "medicine-selling" manner, which is highly credible, but profit margins are low; ginseng shops offer a wide range of products, appealing to a broad audience, making it easier to sustain business, but lack standout products and face fierce competition, making it difficult to stand out. The owners of "Yan Zhiwu" must have gone through painful deliberations and experiments. Ultimately, Yan Zhiwu made a crucial decision:
In terms of product offerings, they streamlined their focus, choosing only "bird's nests" among many expensive health supplements — this is focusing!
In terms of business model, they took a unique path, transplanting the coffee lounge model, infusing a new element of fashionable lifestyle into the terminal consumption of bird's nests — this is innovation!
"Focusing" clearly defined their clear and effective...