Xinhua Agency, Jinan, November 21 (Reporters Feng Yuanyuan and Zhu Xiaoguang) The "face value economy" has quietly emerged, making false eyelashes, the finishing touch of eye makeup, favored by more and more people who love beauty. You may not know that the false eyelash industry, which started in Dazeshan Town, Pingdu City, Shandong Province, has now become a pillar industry in Pingdu City, with an annual output value of 10 billion yuan, and annual output accounts for 80% of the national market and 70% of the global market.

In the 1970s, foreign-funded enterprises brought false eyelash making technology to the local area during the process of investing and setting up factories in Pingdu. Locals who captured business opportunities began to explore the false eyelash business. With the establishment of Pingdu's first village false eyelash processing factory in Dazeshan Town, the false eyelash industry quickly took root and blossomed in the local area.

After more than 40 years of development, the false eyelash industry in Pingdu City, starting from Dazeshan Town, currently has 4320 production companies, more than 20000 processing sites, and more than 3000 false eyelash products. In 2021, China Light Industry Federation awarded Pingdu the title of "Pingdu, Capital of China Cosmetic Products (Eyelash) Industry."

Employees of a false eyelashes production company in Pingdu City are making false eyelashes. Photo by Xinhua Agency reporter Feng Yuanyuan

Today, walking in the streets and alleys of Pingdu, signs with the word "eyelashes" can be seen everywhere. At a beauty eyelash production company in Tonghe Street, women from surrounding villages are working together to make a wholesale foreign trade order to South Korea.

After nearly ten production processes such as crimping, hair-fitting, styling, and gluing, a pair of beauty eyelashes "walk" off the production line. Tang Zhenbin, general manager of the company, said: "The order quantity is about 200,000 boxes. The orders received so far have been scheduled until the beginning of next year, mainly from Japan and South Korea."

Tang Zhenbin entered this industry in 2000. He told reporters that at that time, the false eyelashes were made purely by hand and the appearance was relatively rough. With the use of machines and technological upgrades, today's false eyelashes production process has become more refined, and the quality and quantity of products have been greatly improved.

False eyelash practitioners have also shifted from the original idea of "not washing the mud when the radish is too fast" to deeply cultivate product innovation and brand building. Riding on the development of the Internet, more and more practitioners are promoting sales through e-commerce platforms. While increasing sales, it also promotes the transformation and upgrading of products and enterprises. The person in charge of a false eyelash company told reporters that at present, they maintain the speed of developing a new product every two to three months.

E-commerce anchors sell newly launched false eyelash products online in the live broadcast room. Photo by Xinhua Agency reporter Feng Yuanyuan

The production process of false eyelashes is fine and cumbersome, but the technical threshold is not high, and the market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. For the healthy and sustainable development of the industry, the local government continues to strengthen the support of policies, finance, taxation, talents and other factors, and plans to build the beauty online new economic industrial park and the beauty supporting industrial park "two parks and two bases" to promote the development of eyelash beauty industry clusters. Improve quality and efficiency.

Recently, Qingdao Beauty Online New Economic Industrial Park, a major project in Pingdu City, has also been officially put into use. Pan Xinyu, head of the industrial park operation department, said that the park covers an area of about 308.5 acres and will build a beauty operation display center, an incubation training center, a comprehensive procurement and trade service center, a joint research and development center for intelligent equipment, and a comprehensive logistics service center. Enterprises will create a one-stop service platform for the entire industry chain.

Qingdao Beauty Online New Economic Industrial Park. Published by Xinhua Agency

Pan Xinyu said that after the industrial park is completed and put into operation, it will fill up the key supporting chains in the upper, middle and lower reaches of Pingdu false eyelashes industry chain, including upstream raw material production, midstream semi-finished products processing, and downstream sales links, thereby forming an "new city of eyelashes" integrating industry, commerce, life, talents, education, etc.

According to data released by Alibaba International, it is estimated that by 2029, the global false eyelashes market will reach 14.387 billion yuan.

According to the plan of Pingdu City, the city will focus on cultivating tens of billions of industrial clusters in the next few years, cultivate and introduce sales and R & D talents, and promote eyelash companies to explore the international market; deepen cooperation with scientific research institutes, increase R & D efforts, improve the intelligence and digitalization of production links; enhance the competitiveness of eyelash products in the high-end field, and further expand Pingdu eyelash market share.