The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2016–2023
Genki Forest borrowed a Japanese look to sell 0-sugar soda — ¥7B by 2021
A game developer's soda brand used Japanese-style packaging and '0 sugar 0 fat 0 calories' claims to invent China's sugar-free drinks market — ¥7B sales by 2021
Genki Forest (元气森林, now Chi Forest)
What it had to solve
Tang Binsen, a games entrepreneur who had just sold ELEX for $434M, wanted into beverages but knew nothing about them: the first homegrown batch was so bad the team paid RMB 1M extra to destroy a RMB 5M shipment. The brand had no marketing budget and faced Coke-dominated shelves.
How it works
Genki Forest was founded in 2016 by Tang Binsen, who sold ELEX Technology for $434 million in 2014. His team lacked beverage experience; the first batch failed, costing an extra RMB 1 million to destroy a RMB 5 million shipment. Loans from Tang's fund kept it alive until a Weibo crowdfunding campaign funded 'Burning Tea', an oolong tea at RMB 6 per bottle, sweetened with erythritol, 70 times more expensive than aspartame (CKGSB Knowledge, 2022).
In 2018, Genki Forest launched sparkling water with a white bottle, Japanese kanji 気, and Japanese-style branding. Consumers mistook it for Japanese, giving it 'a psychological implication of safety'. It became one of the first Chinese brands to claim '0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories'.
The strategy worked. In Shanghai, sales reached 67% of Coca-Cola's in 2019 and 92% in 2020; nationally, about ¥7 billion in 2021. Sparkling water went viral via organic recommendations on Xiaohongshu, Zhihu, Bilibili, and Douyin, reaching in months what Burning Tea took a year, because the team responded to every Weibo mention instead of buying ads. A 2022 iiMedia survey ranked Chi Forest as preferred sparkling water (74%).
The Japanese disguise was reversible. Facing accusations of copying Fujiya and LUPICIA, and amid 'Guochao' nationalism, the company rebranded as Chi Forest in 2023: the logo uses 气, and the brand shifted to Chinese-style gift boxes and solar-term posters, mirroring Nayuki's rename to Naixue. The persona launched the rocket; the flip kept it respected.
Why it lands
- The 気 kanji and Japanese name did the brand's work for free: unfamiliar buyers registered 'safe, quality, Japanese' and picked the white bottle off crowded shelves.
- The '0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories' claim occupied a position no major Chinese soda had staked, and genuine erythritol made the claim true — the rocket was real, not just a label.
- With no advertising budget, Weibo-first customer service and organic word-of-mouth on Xiaohongshu, Zhihu and Bilibili scaled the brand; the product itself was the media.
- The risk was always the mask: once 'pseudo-Japanese' cost trust, the brand flipped to an explicitly Chinese, Guochao identity — the persona was a tool, not the brand.
- The company built five of its own factories (5 billion+ bottles of capacity by 2022), cutting costs and preservative use — matching the healthy claim with hard manufacturing.
What it did
In Shanghai the brand reached 67% of Coca-Cola's local sales by 2019 and 92% by 2020; annual sales passed into the billions of RMB, about ¥7 billion in 2021. A 2022 iiMedia survey of 1,767 consumers ranked it their preferred sparkling water brand (74%). It now sells in 40 countries and runs five own factories with over 5 billion bottles of annual capacity.
What you can take
When you cannot out-spend the category leader, borrow the visual language of a trusted origin and claim what nobody owns — and be ready to switch identities the moment the halo turns into a liability.
Since then
Chi Forest completed the arc in 2023: a new 气 logo, Chinese-style campaigns, and an Eileen Gu sponsorship that paid off after she dominated the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Abroad, it reached the US in May 2021 and hit Amazon's top-10 sparkling-water bestsellers by December. At home, it pushed Coca-Cola and rivals into a sugar-free arms race. In January 2026, it was reported to be considering a Hong Kong IPO, backed by Warburg Pincus and Temasek (Daxue; Wikipedia). A textbook case of borrowing a foreign origin story, exploiting it, then switching nationality when the wind turned.
Sources
- Case study: A Growing Forest
- From Genki Forest to Chi Forest: a Chinese soda brand planning to become the 'Coca-Cola' of China
- Chi Forest — Wikipedia
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card