"Medical Beauty 'Ma' " performance stalls, with both revenue and net profit declining. Why does Aimeike keep "falling"?

Ask AI · How is competition in the medical aesthetics industry impacting Aimeike’s high-margin “profit myth”?

Aimeike Technology Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Aimeike”), which has long been dubbed the “medical-aesthetics Moutai” due to its extremely high gross margin and stock performance, has—since going public—faced the first time both annual revenue and net profit declined.

Recently, Aimeike released its 2025 performance report: last year, the company’s revenue was 2.45 billion yuan, down nearly 19% year over year; the parent-attributable net profit was 1.29 billion yuan, down 34.05% year over year. This is also the first time since its 2020 IPO that both revenue and net profit have shown negative growth. Among them, revenue from the company’s core solution and gel-type products fell by nearly 30%, and its performance clearly “lost momentum.”

Although Aimeike’s gross margin is still above 90% today and remains at a high level, a more critical figure—ROE (return on equity)—has dropped sharply from 28% in 2024 to 17%. This may suggest that, amid intense competition in the medical aesthetics industry, Aimeike’s “high-margin myth” is beginning to loosen.

The decline in gross margin widens, and revenue from core products falls by nearly 30%

In 2025, Aimeike’s parent-attributable net profit fell at a noticeably faster pace than its revenue, indicating that its profitability has deteriorated to some extent. A major reason is that its core business is under severe pressure, as can be seen from its non-recurring items net profit. In 2025, the company’s non-recurring items net profit was nearly 1.1 billion yuan, down 41.3% year over year—one of the biggest declines among several key data indicators.

Aimeike’s pillar products—“Hyt” and “Ruhai Angel”—correspond to solution-type products and gel-type products, and their revenue showed clear declines. These two categories contribute nearly 90% of Aimeike’s revenue. According to the financial report, in 2025 revenue from solution-type injection products was 1.26 billion yuan, down 27.48% year over year; operating revenue from gel-type injection products was 890 million yuan, down 26.82% year over year. Both categories still have very high gross margins—93% and 97%, respectively—but they have also begun to show a downward trend. Compared with the previous year, their gross margins fell by 0.65% and 0.66%, respectively.

In an industry with high gross margins like medical aesthetics, the profit leverage space behind gross margin is enormous. Therefore, even a slight drop in gross margin may reflect a decline in the company’s pricing advantage or brand premium. The financial report shows that Aimeike’s consolidated gross margin in 2025 fell from 94.64% in the prior year to 92.70%, a decrease of 1.94 percentage points. Looking back at the past five years, the year-over-year growth rates of gross margin have all been trending downward. Starting in 2024, the year-over-year growth rate turned negative.

In addition, the most critical ROE (return on equity) dropped sharply from around 28% in 2024 to 17%. This indicator directly reflects the company’s profitability. The financial report notes that during the reporting period, as new products on the supply side kept increasing, competition in the industry significantly intensified. On the demand side, regulatory oversight is becoming increasingly strict, and integration among downstream institutions is accelerating. Against this backdrop, risks such as product price fluctuations, falling gross margins, and increased difficulty in market expansion may arise.

Competition intensifies, and channel negotiating power rises—squeezing profit space

In recent years, consumer understanding of medical aesthetics has become increasingly mature. When consumers consider medical aesthetics, their primary priorities are effect and safety, as well as reasonable pricing. In the early years, the customer base of “impulse spending” won over by premium pricing grew more slowly over time. Meanwhile, in these years the medical aesthetics industry has gradually become more cutthroat, with more players entering the field. For customer acquisition, many medical institutions and platforms have begun to attract customers with low-price promotions. As a result, channel negotiating power has increased, while brands also heavily rely on these medical institutions to drive sales. All of this forces leading medical aesthetics companies to start adjusting product prices to maintain market share.

When answering questions from Nandu reporters regarding the double decline in revenue and net profit, Aimeike also said that “the company’s performance is mainly influenced by both the macro environment and the competitive landscape in the industry.” Regarding the revenue declines of core solution-type and gel-type products, Aimeike told Nandu reporters that “the penetration rate of core products has not shown a trending decline. Under the backdrop of intensified industry competition, the company continues to increase R&D efforts and continuously builds multi-dimensional competitive barriers.” This also implies that, amid intensified competition, to maintain the market penetration rate of core products, Aimeike will most likely have to further compromise on pricing in order to stabilize sales. In the early days, leading medical aesthetics companies earned profits through premium pricing and brand premium; once prices begin to move downward, it may further squeeze the profit space.

A 190 million USD acquisition involving a distribution rights dispute puts the company’s financial report on alert for risk

In addition to performance pressure, a distribution dispute arising from an acquisition also keeps risks lurking for Aimeike.

According to the financial report, Aimeike’s controlling subsidiary, Aimeike International, purchased 85% of the equity of Korea’s REGEN Company with 190 million USD in cash. REGEN has production and R&D bases in South Korea’s Daejeon and Wonju, mainly producing two products: AestheFill and PowerFill. However, because the original distributor of AestheFill in mainland China, Datou Medical Equipment (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Datou”), was found to have violated an exclusive distribution agreement, REGEN sent a “termination letter” to Datou on July 18, 2025 to terminate the exclusive distribution agreement and revoke all relevant authorizations for Datou as the exclusive distributor of AestheFill products in mainland China. Regarding the above distribution contract dispute, Datou and REGEN each filed arbitration applications and counterclaims with Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration, and the cases have been accepted; the arbitration cases mentioned above are still under trial.

Aimeike clearly warned in its financial report that “there is uncertainty regarding the impact of this arbitration matter on the company’s current-period profit or profits in future periods.” However, Aimeike told Nandu reporters that “the AestheFill product of the Korean REGEN Company has been progressing smoothly in the market.”

Overall, the core operating risk Aimeike faced in 2025 is that revenue from core products—which account for nearly 90%—fell by nearly 30%, which to a certain extent reflects that its foundation is starting to shake. In addition, although the “high gross margin” long favored by the capital market is still above 90%, it has also begun to show a downward trend. This reflects that its pricing system has been eroded under intensified industry competition and channel price pressure, and profit leverage has clearly weakened. From the current financial report, under such performance risks, Aimeike also seems to show no signs of a second growth curve.

Nandu reporters noted that in the investor relations activity record table published by Aimeike, many investors have been repeatedly asking about why Aimeike’s stock price has kept falling, and some investors directly called its stock price “falling endlessly.” For Aimeike, the once dazzling “medical-aesthetics Moutai,” if revenue from core products continues to decline and its expense and cost structure cannot be compressed, there is still a risk of further downward pressure on profitability.

Written and reported by: Xu Bingqian, Nandu N Video reporter