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Wenheyou, Momo Dim Sum Bureau, Cha Yan Yue Se... These brands that started in Changsha have been firmly tied to two words since their inception - traffic. As one of the originators of China's Internet celebrity cities, Changsha's inherent traffic gene is the "strongest support" when these brands were founded. In the following decades, the tide of capital surged and receded, and consumption returned to rationality and calmness. No matter what the current situation is, Changsha seems to be able to become their permanent retreat and bottom line.

Text |Song Chunguang

Editor |Yang

Operations |Killer Whale

Recently, news of the closure of Wenheyou stores in Guangzhou began to circulate on the Internet.

According to the announcement of the Guangzhou Municipal Planning and Natural Resources Bureau, Guangzhou Wenheyou has disappeared from the proposed adjustment effect diagram of No. 75 Tianhe East Road. Although Wenheyou’s official Weibo responded that there is no plan to close the store, in recent years, Wenheyou’s decline in Guangzhou has become increasingly obvious.

From the bustling business in the early days of business, with more than 2,000 numbers being taken per day, to the current frequent withdrawal of merchants and a closure rate of 80%, everyone has to question how long Wenheyou can last in Guangzhou.

Wenheyou first came into people's attention as a super internet-famous restaurant in Changsha. With its 1980s streetscape and its collection of almost all Changsha specialty snack shops, Wenheyou is still a must-visit spot for tourists in Changsha. In sharp contrast to its cold reception in Guangzhou, Wenheyou in Changsha had an average daily passenger flow of 70,000 during the May Day holiday this year.

▲ Changsha Wenheyou. Photo/ Visual China

Wenheyou entered Guangzhou in 2020 and Shenzhen in 2021. After many twists and turns, Changsha is still the biggest support for Wenheyou. Similar to Wenheyou, Momo Dim Sum Bureau also started in Changsha. At its peak, it had more than 60 stores across the country, distributed in cities such as Wuhan, Beijing, and Hangzhou. It was not until June this year that everyone discovered that Momo Dim Sum Bureau began to close stores on a large scale - 39 stores were still open, all in Hunan Province, of which 34 were located in Changsha.

Cha Yan Yue Se, more widely known as "Changsha's own son", stayed in Hunan for a full seven years before opening its first store outside the province. Its pace of expansion can be described as cautious.

There are also Black Classic, Santonban, and Snacks Are Busy... These brands that started in Changsha have been firmly tied to two words since their inception: traffic. As one of the originators of China's Internet celebrity cities, Changsha's inherent traffic gene is the "strongest support" when these brands were founded. In the following decades, the tide of capital surged and receded, and consumption returned to rationality and calmness. No matter what the current situation is, Changsha seems to be able to become their permanent retreat and bottom line.

Retreat to Changsha

"Going beyond Changsha" is a question that is hovering over the heads of every new consumer brand in Changsha. But the road to going beyond Changsha is not an easy one. Fortunately, every time you look back, Changsha is there.

For Wenheyou, the first two destinations outside Changsha are Guangzhou and Shenzhen. These are two carefully selected places - there are many Hunanese in Guangdong Province. According to the seventh national census data, the population with registered permanent residence in Hunan and permanent residence in Guangdong has reached 5.1167 million, ranking second among the sources of foreign population in Guangdong.

Guangzhou Wenheyou is located next to the high-end shopping mall Taikoo Hui in Tianhe District. As a local of Guangzhou, Jiang Yu remembers that she had no intention of trying Wenheyou at first. She called the nostalgic landscape featured by Wenheyou "urban villages". "There are too many urban villages in Guangzhou. Super Wenheyou is not far away from Shipai East Road, where we go more often. Why do we have to go to a replica place for nostalgia?"

Out of curiosity, Jiang Yu and his friends went there once. After entering the space, Jiang Yu's first impression was that as a "village in the city" responsible for creating an immersive experience, Wenheyou's road was not narrow enough. The group took some photos in different settings and found a small restaurant to eat at random, but Jiang Yu felt that the taste of the restaurant was average, unlike the Guangzhou locals who pay attention to the freshness of the ingredients and the seasoning. After the meal, the friends looked at each other in silence, and no one mentioned that they would visit again.

▲ Guangzhou Wenheyou. Photo/ Visual China

During the process of Wenheyou's departure, there was a subtle vacillation on whether to stick to Hunan culture, which led to a series of attempts to "de-Changshaize", but the response was not good. Feng Bin, co-founder of Wenheyou, admitted in an interview, "We were not confident enough internally at the time whether we should make crayfish, Hunan cuisine, or Cantonese cuisine, whether we should bring Hunan culture to the world or cater to Guangdong culture."

Unable to completely abandon the Changsha label, but wanting to embrace new regional characteristics, Guangzhou Wenheyou was caught in a dilemma of "not touching either". A year later, Jiang Yu came to a bar here again to shoot an advertisement for the bartender, and found that most of the other restaurants in the space were closed, indicating that they were under renovation.

Shenzhen Wenheyou also encountered a similar dilemma. In 2022, due to the impact of the epidemic, Shenzhen Wenheyou closed 11 stores. When it reopened, business was not as good as before. Feng Bin mentioned that when Shenzhen Wenheyou was just starting, the team wanted to promote oysters that were closer to the coastal ecology, rather than sticking to Changsha Wenheyou's specialty crayfish.

▲ Shenzhen Wenheyou, based on the concept of "Shenzhen Market". Photo/ Visual China

But obviously, Changsha left too deep a mark on Wenheyou, and the crayfish became oysters, which was not accepted by the market for a while. After the flow of people dropped significantly, Shenzhen Wenheyou put crayfish on the shelves again.

Back then, Changsha’s characteristics were the “sharp blade” that helped Wenheyou stand out among many new consumer brands. Both founder Wen Bin and co-founder Feng Bin are Changsha natives. Wenbin calls himself the “Wong Kar-wai of Pozi Street”, and loves food, animation, and old retro movies. They feel that with the upgrading and construction of Changsha, many city alleys have been demolished, which makes people miss them. This nostalgic feeling runs through the landscape design of Super Wenheyou.

Wenheyou's ambition is to create a "Disney of the catering industry" by integrating food and beverage. In 2019, Changsha Super Wenheyou expanded to 20,000 square meters. In addition to eating, people come here to experience the community culture of old Changsha. Public data shows that Changsha Super Wenheyou receives nearly 10 million tourists a year, with a turnover rate of 8 times a day.

Another restaurant that has returned to Changsha is Momo Dim Sum Bureau.

Liang Xiaoyuan, a "mochi brain", was very surprised when he found out that all the MoMo Dim Sum Bureau stores in Beijing were closed. After searching on different food delivery apps and map apps, he was sure that this new Chinese-style pastry shop, which was once very popular in Beijing, had temporarily ceased operations, and all five stores showed "closed".

Liang Xiaoyuan’s favorite is the coffee mochi in this shop, which is slightly smaller than the mochi commonly sold on the market, has a chewy texture, and the coffee is rich and slightly bitter, which neutralizes the sweet and greasy taste of traditional mochi.

At the end of December 2021, Momo Dim Sum Bureau made a high-profile move into Beijing Xidan Joy City, triggering a heated response. On social platforms, some netizens shared their shocking experience of going to Momo Dim Sum Bureau and hearing that some people had to queue for 6 hours.

▲ Momo Dim Sum Bureau store. Photo/ Visual China

Momo Dim Sum Bureau was founded in Changsha in 2020. Riding on the hot money that surged in the new Chinese baking market in the following two years, it raised five rounds of financing within a year, and the valuation of a single store once exceeded 100 million yuan. In addition to Beijing, Momo Dim Sum Bureau also has stores in Wuhan and Hangzhou.

The signal of cooling down was transmitted in 2023. The expansion trend of Momo Dim Sum Bureau began to change, and it successively withdrew from the Hangzhou and Wuhan markets. In July of this year, in an interview with the media, Wang Yuxiao, the founder of Momo Dim Sum Bureau, said that closing the store was a strategic initiative. Since then, Momo's strategy has been to focus on Hunan and retreat to advance.

After quietly returning to Changsha, Momo Dim Sum Bureau is still hot, but it has been labeled as "Changsha specialty" again. According to Jiemian News, after returning to its "hometown", Momo Dim Sum Bureau upgraded its stores. Wang Yuxiao said that the current average monthly sales of the stores is 1.2 million yuan, and the highest store has exceeded 2.8 million yuan per month.

As early as 2012, the Changsha stinky tofu brand Black Classic also tried to expand its direct-operated stores out of Changsha and into cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Wuhan. However, due to lack of organizational and operational capabilities, it eventually returned to its Changsha base. Until now, all Black Classic stores seen in other places are franchise stores, and only Changsha is a direct-operated store.

Changsha Allies

When talking about Changsha, the brand that cannot be avoided is Cha Yan Yue Se. Before the end of 2020, Cha Yan Yue Se had been living in Changsha for 7 years. During this period, Heytea and Nayuki's Tea led the trend of "expensive" tea drinks of around 30 yuan and opened all over the country. Bawang Cha Ji, which is more similar in price and category, also took advantage of this period to grow and develop, grabbing the market opportunity.

But until today, Cha Yan Yue Se seems to have never thought about "untying" itself from Changsha. With more than 400 stores in the country, more than 300 of them are located in Changsha, which can be said to be the "top stream" among Changsha's new consumer brands. In the eyes of latecomer brands, being able to tie themselves to Cha Yan Yue Se is a big leap in brand market recognition.

On the opening day of Shenzhen Wenheyou in 2021, the brand created the highest queue record in history - 90,000 people. It is located next to a small river connecting the Shenzhen River from north to south. The queue stretches from the restaurant entrance, from the bridge to the bottom of the bridge, and to the other side of the river. It was April, and the weather in Shenzhen was warm and sunny. At noon, many people opened their parasols and continued to wait.

A considerable number of people in the queue came for Cha Yan Yue Se. With the opening of Shenzhen Wenheyou, Cha Yan Yue Se also briefly opened a pop-up store there. At that time, in addition to Wuhan, Shenzhen was the second city outside Hunan Province where Cha Yan Yue Se could be tasted. After the pop-up store ended, Cha Yan Yue Se was also planning to open a brand experience store that mainly sells souvenirs and cultural and creative products.

▲ Cha Yan Yue Se Shenzhen Wenheyou pop-up store. Photo/ Visual China

This may also be Cha Yan Yue Se's return of favor. As early as 2017, Cha Yan Yue Se was still unique to Changsha, and many brands imitating Cha Yan emerged on the market. Faced with such blatant imitations, the clerk of Cha Yan Yue Se explained on the receipt that the other party was not the real Cha Yan, and mentioned: "We will sue them when we have money."

Wen Bin once reposted the official position of Cha Yan Yue Se on the social platform to support his fellow villager, Lu Liang, the founder of Cha Yan Yue Se. He wrote: Support Cha Yan, hate copycats!

This seems to be a natural tacit understanding. Hunanese people are optimistic by nature and are willing to help each other.

When Shenzhen Wenheyou was in the most difficult time, it moved its sister brand Benluobo from Changsha to boost morale. Benluobo is a new "queue king" born in Changsha, specializing in Liuyang steamed dishes. During peak dining hours, the queue starts at three hours and can reach more than 1,000 people.

▲ Many people are queuing up at the Benluobo store. Photo/Internet

After Benluobo moved in, it quickly became the restaurant with the most traffic in Shenzhen Wenheyouli. During dinner time on Friday, someone found that Zhang Ji and Son Bobocai on the second floor was very busy. As soon as they walked to Benluobo, there were more people queuing up. They had to scan the code to get a number and wait for 50 or 60 tables.

In addition to the collaboration between brands, there are also many people from Hunan among the investors.

Tomato Capital was the first investment institution to invest in Momo Dim Sum. Its founder, Qing Yong, is also from Hunan. From the investment map of Tomato Capital, including Momo Dim Sum, Chef Fei, Tian Xiaogou's Restaurant and other Hunan enterprises occupy an important position.

In fact, the combination of Hunan capital and Hunan enterprises is a natural thing. As early as 2018, Cha Yan Yue Se relied on Tiantu Capital, founded by Wang Yonghua, a native of Yongxing, Hunan, to expand strongly; in 2020, Wenheyou embraced capital for the first time in ten years of entrepreneurship, and chose Jiahua Capital, founded by Song Xiangqian, a native of Hunan.

It took Song Xiangqian 18 months to invest exclusively in this representative catering brand in Changsha in the A round. He speaks with a Hunan accent. In order to get closer to the Wenheyou team, he went to Changsha from Shanghai every month for 18 consecutive months to chat with Wen Bin and Feng Bin. In an interview with Winshang.com, Feng Bin said, "From a financial perspective, Wenheyou will never need financing. They chose Jiahua because they liked Song Xiangqian."

▲ Changsha Wenheyou. Photo/ Visual China

Changsha’s traffic gene

When it comes to managing traffic, Changsha has always been at the forefront of cities across the country, and the presence of Hunan Satellite TV has contributed greatly to this.

From variety shows like "Day Day Up" and "Happy Camp" to early talent shows like "Super Girl" and "Happy Boy", Hunan Satellite TV has always firmly occupied the prime time for people across the country to have fun and relax after get off work. Through these shows, food and culture from all over Changsha have an excellent platform to showcase to the outside world.

Many of Changsha's Internet celebrity foods received their first wave of traffic from recommendations on "Day Day Up", and Wenheyou is one of them. In 2010, 22-year-old Wenbin resigned from his job in car sales. He was determined to create his own brand instead of working for others.

Wen Bin only slept three hours a night to fry spareribs at a stall, and had to get up before dawn to prepare the ingredients. As a native of Changsha, he was familiar with the twelve-character motto: not afraid of death, able to endure hardships, able to endure annoyance, and able to be domineering. With a determined heart, he achieved a daily turnover of three to four thousand in the third month. Later, he worked with a friend to open his first store, Old Changsha Fried Society.

In 2013, Wen Bin brought the Fried Club to the TV show "Day Day Up", competing with the lamb skewers from Sanqiao, Xinjiang and the Chuan Chuan Xiang from Chengdu, Sichuan for the title of "National skewers king". Later, the Fried Club evolved into Wenheyou, and Wen Bin's relationship with Hunan Satellite TV became closer, gradually becoming the first choice of special food for celebrities to taste when they come to Hunan Radio and Television to record variety shows. Wen Bin once shared on social platforms that singer Zhang Yixing would visit Wenheyou Lobster Restaurant every time he returned to Changsha, and actors such as Huang Lei and Gao Yuanyuan would also take a bite of the special crayfish after recording the show.

In Wenheyou’s fan group, there are irregular “welfare” gifts. The prizes may be coupons for food delivery platforms, movie tickets, or Changsha local specialties - tickets to the recording of "Day Day Up".

▲ The first show after the 2020 epidemic was lifted, "Day Day Up" chose to record at Wenheyou. Photo/Screenshot of the show

Another shop that was made famous by the show is Black and White TV Old Changsha Food Shop. As a nostalgic Changsha food collection shop, Black and White TV focuses on snacks with low per capita prices. It once opened a store in Beijing Chaoyang Joy City. There is also "Panda Auntie Chicken Feet" located in Changsha. After appearing on "Day Day Up" in 2017, it ushered in a peak of diners. Some netizens found that after appearing on Mango TV, most of the people queuing up were from other places. Everyone came here because of its reputation.

In addition to appearing on the show, people who left Hunan Satellite TV to start their own businesses also brought the traffic code into brand marketing.

Wang Yuxiao, the founder of Momo Dessert Bureau, worked as a director and production coordinator of large-scale talent shows at Hunan Satellite TV for 6 years. The span from a radio and television person to the founder of a new consumer brand seems to be a big one, but for Wang Yuxiao, between these two experiences, she also founded the hat brand "FUO" and served as the general agent of the eyewear brand "Mujiushi" in Hunan and Hubei.

With her years of experience working at Hunan TV, Wang Yuxiao has a better understanding of the power of the entertainment industry. She often shares on social media which celebrities are wearing branded hats and glasses, so that the idols’ inherent ability to bring goods can be used to market the products. At that time, Ode to Joy was a hit, and Wang Yuxiao had shared photos of the leading actors Jiang Xin and Wang Ziwen wearing "FUO" hats many times. The hats also appeared on Hunan TV programs, and Korean singer Hwang Chi-yeul once chose "FUO" hats as gifts for other singers.

The understanding of idols is also applied to the brand marketing of Momo Dim Sum Bureau. During the National Day Golden Week in 2021, Momo Dim Sum Bureau participated in the "Changsha Lihao" pop-up store event held at Guojin Street. At the scene, the organizer also invited Xie Keyin and Lu Keran from the mainland girl group "The 9" to attend the event, and many of their fans lined up to participate in the event.

In 2022, Wang Xinling's popularity continued to rise with the song "Love You" in the Hunan Satellite TV variety show "Sisters Riding the Wind and Waves". Momo Dim Sum Bureau's signature mochi also appeared as a food ingredient in the food she recommended on her social media platforms.

He Yiting, the first professional manager of Cha Yan Yue Se, also worked in the Hunan Satellite TV "Super Girl" program team. She understood what the word "fans" meant early on. From the beginning, she decided to make Cha Yan Yue Se a development brand like TFBOYS, growing with fans, and all users are "real fans".

▲ Cha Yan Yue Se store. Photo/ Visual China

This is exactly what Cha Yan Yue Se did in its early days. It established its image as a "trainee" in the tea industry by writing gossips on its WeChat official account and mumblings on its receipts. Its founder, Lü Liang, also had the image of a simple and frugal uncle who would use electrical tape to patch up his torn down jacket.

With these, Cha Yan Yue Se accumulated its own "original fans" and began to flourish in Changsha. But like idols in the entertainment industry, maintaining a personal image is a difficult task.

During the epidemic, in order to reduce losses, Cha Yan Yue Se adjusted its salary calculation method. A conflict broke out between Lu Liang and employees, and screenshots of the conversation spread across the Internet. It is still an indelible stain on the Cha Yan Yue Se brand.

Whether it is dim sum, milk tea or crayfish, the categories that have become popular in Changsha always have a kind of "approachability", which coincides with the urban temperament of Changsha and is full of the fireworks of the market. More importantly, it coincides with the current consumption trend of affordable prices.

Before a number of internet-famous catering brands took over Changsha, it was once known as the "foot capital". In Changsha Foot Bath City, customers can enjoy a one-stop service of eating, drinking and having fun. Customers can have their heads and backs massaged, watch movies, and eat beef noodles that are as well-received as those in stores.

Here, there is no need for expensive ingredients. Simple and everyday vegetables can be made into fried skewers, and stir-fried meat with peppers can also have flavors beyond red pepper and green pepper. Changsha has always been deeply rooted in people's hearts with its simple and comfortable image.

When people's money no longer flows into those products that only create flashy "dreams", the reality of "you get what you pay for" and cost-effectiveness become the most popular pursuit. For those brands that have returned to Changsha or have always used Changsha as their base, Changsha may become their retreat only after they understand the true temperament of Changsha.

References

[1] “Will Guangzhou Wenheyou close down? The building where it is located is confirmed to be renovated, and 80% of the shops have closed down”, Southern Metropolis Daily, 2024;

[2] “200 million yuan to build a “lobster restaurant”, 16,000 people line up every day, what is the secret of Changsha Wenheyou?”, China Entrepreneur Magazine, 2019;

[3] “Disruptors in the Catering Industry”, Catering O2O, 2021;

[4] “Wen Bin: Even if I’m just setting up a stall, I want to build a brand,” Rednet, 2016;

[5] “Exclusive Dialogue with Feng Bin of Wenheyou: The “Growing Pains” of Super Internet Celebrities”, Winshang.com, 2020;

[6] “Four college students share a common taste for stinky tofu and open 2,000 stinky tofu shops”, Hongcan.com, 2019;

[7] “Is Momo Dim Sum’s retreat to its Hunan base a step forward or a failure in the new Chinese baking market?”, National Business Daily, 2023;

[8] “Momo Dim Sum Bureau responds to withdrawal from Wuhan market: This year’s strategy is to focus on Hunan”, Jiemian News, 2023;

[9] “Hunan Satellite TV, a 20-year evil”, Business Figures, 2018;

[10] “Behind Cha Yan Yue Se and Wen He You, the Hunan Venture Capital Army is Formed”, Xiaoxiang Eyes, 2021;

[11] “The Producing Area of ​​“Internet Celebrity Restaurants”: Trends of Hunan Restaurants in 2023”, Chenzhi Big Data, 2024.