1. Cosmetics: Gentlemen might speculate, is Dabao a product of excessive profit? NO. Here cosmetics refer to imported high-end products. The famous SK-II Fairy Water has a retail price of 560 yuan in China, while its production cost is merely 6.5 yuan. Surprising? Even if the research and development costs are added, the unit cost does not exceed 10 yuan. Shiseido's eye cream priced at 650 yuan/50g has packaging costs that are less than 10 yuan. And Olay's low-end eye creams costing around 150 yuan have production costs of only about 3 yuan. Ladies, now you shouldn't think that what you're applying on your face is some kind of high-tech product, right? In this regard, ladies are the biggest victims.
2. Daily Necessities: Among these, personal cleaning chemical products have the most terrifying profits. Take toothpaste as an example; the most expensive component - foaming agent - has a cost of only around 600 yuan/ton or even lower, and this 600 yuan worth of foaming agent can fill up 6000 large-sized 180-gram toothpastes. The cost of the remaining active ingredients can be almost negligible. The cost of calcium carbonate powder per ton is only about 120 yuan, and the effective ingredient in the highest grade fluoride toothpaste - sodium monofluorophosphate - costs no more than 100 yuan per ton. As for domestically produced low-end products, they aren't worth mentioning. Even Crest, which uses silicon abrasives, sells its 180-gram package at a market retail price of around 13 yuan. How much could 6000 sell for? Hair washes aren't even mentioned, as their profits are even more frightening.
3. Beverages: Among these, non-carbonated fruit juice beverages have the highest profit margins. A 2-yuan fruit juice beverage has packaging and equipment costs of only 7 fen, while canned drinks are even lower at just 5 fen.
4. Baijiu (Chinese liquor): Taking Wuliangye Distillery as an example, each ton of grain can produce about 100 catties of baijiu, among which 10 catties are the premium quality Wuliangye, and the rest are used as lower-end products like Wuliangchun and Liuyanghe. The purchase price of each ton of grain is approximately 400 yuan, but the products produced can reach a maximum retail price of around 15,000 yuan in the market. Don't believe in certain baijiu's claims of being aged for N years. Manufacturers don't have the patience to really age it; they just use modern industrial catalysts to accelerate the fermentation process.
5. Pharmaceuticals: Everyone knows about the excessive profits in pharmaceuticals. In the eyes of ordinary people, the profit margin of drugs should be the highest. But reality isn't like that. Compared with the above industries, the equipment, factory, and R&D costs of pharmaceuticals are much higher, so it can only rank fifth. For imported drugs, the formula R&D is generally conducted abroad, resulting in even higher R&D costs. Although the active ingredients aren't worth much, the frequent release of new products by manufacturers is indeed real. When Jinliufu doesn't sell well, Wuliangye can register a Jinqiufu brand to continue selling the old wine, but this can't be done with drugs. New drugs are new drugs; there's never been a case where erythromycin was eliminated and then re-sold under a different name.
6. Health Supplements: This is an old friend of the Chinese people, from Sun God to Brain White Gold, none of the health supplements have ever truly achieved their advertised effects. The ranking here refers to health supplements that are genuinely produced by legitimate manufacturers through proper formulations, not counterfeit or substandard products. Due to fierce industry competition, the excessive profits of health supplements have improved significantly in recent years, especially with the emergence of Brain White Gold. Although it purchases discarded formulas from the U.S., its retail price of less than 200 yuan compared to its unit cost of several dozen yuan (including packaging, ingredient, and advertising costs) shows a relatively lower ratio. Unlike drugs, the R&D and equipment costs of health supplements are relatively lower. If people eat them and feel better, it's fine; ideally, they shouldn't cause harm.
7. Telecommunications: Mobile telecommunications in particular exemplify the classic case of one-time investment with long-term returns. Each GSM base station costs about 200,000 yuan, but it can handle up to 150,000 signal flows. Calculating at 40 yuan monthly rent per person, even if these 150,000 people don't make calls, the monthly rent alone can buy 30 base stations. Of course, the telecommunications industry involves other equipment and technology costs, which are not detailed here. Placing it at seventh place seems reasonable.
8. Software: Any software sold in China doesn't do well. We are only referring to those who buy genuine versions. The manufacturing cost of each CD is 9 fen, and the packaging cost of high-end software is no more than 5 yuan. However, the main cost of software often lies in R&D. WINDOWS98 has been sold for nearly 8 years, earning enough money to develop 40 more WIN98s. But this is foreign. If Bill Gates were born in China, he would have starved to death or still be working as a computer installer in Zhongguancun.
9. Small Appliances: Compared to refrigerators and televisions, small appliances have the lowest cost and the highest profit. Philips is one of the companies that started as a small appliance manufacturer. In fact, the production cost of an 1800 yuan shaver is often only 1.5-2 times higher than that of an 180 yuan shaver, but it can be sold at 10 times the price in retail. Those using Philips shavers, raise your hands: Your hundreds-of-yuan high-tech product is actually only worth 20 yuan.
10. Automobiles: The profit margins of cars abroad have become very transparent. Cars costing 8000 US dollars can retail for 10,000 US dollars, which is already quite good. But domestically, it's different. Everyone thinks the Honda Fit is very cheap, but in fact, its price in China is 1000 US dollars higher than the international reference price. Lower material costs, lower labor costs, higher profits, and many Chinese are still in the dark, naively believing that cars have become cheaper. In fact, those foreign producers are secretly counting their money in bed.