Chicecream different flavors in freezer-20220628

Chicecream is a Chinese premium ice cream company, known for its high prices and for being a home-grown Chinese luxury ice cream company as opposed to a Western import. Founded in 2018 in Shanghai, the company has focused on e-commerce and has become one of China's top-selling ice cream brands, growing in popularity partly with the help of

Internet celebrities An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social m ...

in the Wanghong economy.

Brand identity

Chicecream is known for its high prices and is nicknamed the "

Hermes Hermes (; grc-gre, wikt:Ἑρμῆς, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travelle ...

of ice cream". As of 2021, its

ice cream bar An ice cream bar is a frozen dessert on a stick or a candy bar that has ice cream in it. The coating is usually a thin layer of chocolate used to prevent the melting and dripping of ice cream. This is also known in the UK as a Choc ice. The ice ...

s usually sell for about 13–18 RMB each, though a particularly expensive cocoa powder popsicle called "Ecuador Pink" sells for 66

RMB The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 2022. ...

. In contrast, most other ice cream brands in China sell for 2–8 RMB each. CEO and founder Lin Sheng attributes the company's high prices to the high cost of imported ingredients such as

yuzu Yuzu (''Citrus junos'', from Japanese or ) is a citrus fruit and plant in the family Rutaceae of East Asian origin. Yuzu has been cultivated mainly in East Asia, though recently also in New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Italy, and France. I ...

. The company's brand identity relies on its status as a homegrown Chinese luxury ice cream company, in contrast to imported Western brands like

Häagen-Dazs Häagen-Dazs ( , ) is an American ice cream brand, established by Reuben and Rose Mattus in The Bronx, New York, in 1960. Starting with only three flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and coffee, the company opened its first retail store in Brooklyn, Ne ...

and Magnum. The brand's Chinese name, (''Zhōng Xuē Gāo''), is a combination of the Chinese surnames Zhong, Xue, and

Gao Gao , or Gawgaw/Kawkaw, is a city in Mali and the capital of the Gao Region. The city is located on the River Niger, east-southeast of Timbuktu on the left bank at the junction with the Tilemsi valley. For much of its history Gao was an impor ...

as well as a pun: it is nearly homophonous with . The company advertises its products as healthy, saying that they are all-natural and low in sugar and fat. Data from e-commerce platforms indicates that Chicecream's main demographic is young people age 26–37, especially women, followed by young people age 18–25.

History

Chicecream was founded in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

on 14 March 2018. The founder and CEO Lin Sheng () is an entrepreneur who previously worked in advertising. The company's first six products were introduced on 20 May 2018. The company is a pioneer in the domestic premium ice cream industry in China: in the past, only foreign ice cream brands like

were seen as high-end, while domestic brands such as

Mengniu China Mengniu Dairy Company Limited () is a Chinese manufacturing and distribution company of dairy products and ice cream. The company is headquartered in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia and manufactures dairy products under the ''Mengniu'' brand. In Jul ...

and Yili were seen as lower-end. Chicecream focused on online sales rather than sales in physical stores, and worked to get

internet celebrities An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social m ...

to promote its products. One popular blogger, Li Jiaqi, recommended Chicecream in 2020. The brand grew rapidly in popularity and at one point became the most-searched product on

Xiaohongshu Xiaohongshu () is a social media and e-commerce platform. It has been described as "China's answer to Instagram". , Xiaohongshu had over 300 million registered users and the number of monthly active users is over 85 million. 70% of its users ...

. In 2019, Chicecream was fined by regulators in Shanghai for deceptive advertising. The company's advertisements falsely said that the ice cream did not contain any water and that it was made using imported Japanese tea leaves, among other inaccurate claims. In 2020, the company was affected by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. According to brand manager Huang Ying (), Chicecream's aged Irish cheese ice cream was unavailable for months because the cheese could not be imported due to COVID-related shipping disruption. However, Huang also said that the pandemic was good for sales, due to the increased popularity of online shopping. In May 2021, Chicecream raised 200 million RMB in Series A financing. In summer 2022, controversy erupted online around claims that Chicecream's products do not melt. On 25 June 2022, a user found that after leaving a Chicecream bar out at a temperature of for 50 minutes, it developed a thick, sticky texture but did not become watery or lose its shape. Users speculated that the ice cream did not melt due to

preservative A preservative is a substance or a chemical that is added to products such as food products, beverages, pharmaceutical drugs, paints, biological samples, cosmetics, wood, and many other products to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by ...

s, coagulants, or other additives, such as

carrageenan Carrageenans or carrageenins ( ; ) are a family of natural linear sulfated polysaccharides that are extracted from red edible seaweeds. Carrageenans are widely used in the food industry, for their gelling, thickening, and stabilizing properties. T ...

. On 5 July, a

viral video A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...

showed that a salted coconut flavored Chicecream bar did not melt even under extreme heat, leading viewers to worry about the contents of Chicecream's ice cream and whether it is safe to eat. In response, the company said that the product's physical behavior is because it contains a high concentration of solid particles and relatively little water. The company said that its products satisfy regulatory standards, including national standard GB/T 31119-2014, which regulates frozen desserts. Chicecream also said that it would cooperate in an investigation, and that it believed applying heat to ice cream was not a scientific way to test its quality.

Products

Chicecream produces more than ten flavors of ice cream, including: * Ecuador pink (厄瓜多尔粉钻) * Ghana black gold (加纳黑金) * Hand-crafted jasmine (手煮茉莉) * Aged Irish cheese (爱尔兰陈年干酪) * Salted coconut (海盐椰椰) * Semi-opportunism (半巧主义) * Velvet cocoa (丝绒可可) Chicecream

s resemble the shape of a Chinese roof tile, and the top of each bar is shaped like the

Chinese character Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanj ...

回 ("return"). In collaboration with skincare company Xiaoxiandun (小仙炖), Chicecream introduced an ice cream product made with birds' nests, which are traditionally believed to be good for the skin. Outside of frozen desserts, Chicecream also sells other products, including high-end dumplings and cakes.

Stores

Though the company has focused primarily on e-commerce, it also has brick-and-mortar stores in cities including

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), alternatively romanized as Chengtu, is a sub-provincial city which serves as the capital of the Chinese pro ...

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whic ...

, and

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

References

External links