As the generation of entrepreneurs in China’s manufacturing industry gradually ages, the succession of the second generation has become a trend. In recent years, many “second-generation factories” have chosen to become Internet celebrities through online platforms to attract traffic and promote their brands. However, this road has not been smooth sailing, with few successful people and more people returning to silence after a short period of heat. This article delves into the motivation, current situation and dilemmas faced by the “second generation of factories” becoming Internet celebrities, and reveals the deep-seated problems of manufacturing transformation and market competition reflected behind this phenomenon.
In the past, Internet celebrities played the role of domineering presidents, but now domineering presidents play Internet celebrities.
“Busy master, award-winning dad, villainous uncle and idle me”, this is the humorous definition of his family role by Shi Chengzhan, the third-generation successor of the veteran domestic product Jieliya, in the short drama “Towel Empire”. This short drama with only 7 episodes has received more than 100 million views on Douyin, and once topped the Douyin hot search list.
In another corner of the Internet, Zhao Zelong, the son of Zhao Ruihai, chairman of Qumei Home Furnishing, has made himself a “negative second generation” who has returned from studying abroad. He became popular on Douyin with a character of “4.8 billion yuan in debt, repaying the father’s debt”, which brought this old home furnishing brand back into people’s sight to a certain extent.
There are also “second generation of the factory” such as Luo Cheng, the second son of Holly, and Ding Jiamin, the daughter of Xtep, who are also exploring appearing on the Internet. Luo Cheng, Ding Jiamin, and Shi Chengzhan even carefully designed a joint shooting of short videos together. The three domineering presidents “meet at the top”, competing to promote their own products against the background of a wall of red wine.
In the past two years, a large number of second-generation manufacturing entrepreneurs have emerged on major social platforms. Accounts with names such as “post-00s enterprise second generation”, “post-95 factory second generation”, “boiler princess” and “pool second young lady” emerge one after another.
As China’s entrepreneurial generation ages, these second generations of factories are seeking a way to break through in the fierce market competition in a way that is different from their parents. Just whether becoming an Internet celebrity is the right path is still a question mark.
01 Traffic
It has been nearly 50 years since the reform and opening up, which is enough to occupy most or even all of an entrepreneur’s career. Many of China’s early entrepreneurs were over sixty years old and generally faced a situation of shift change.
In addition to passing on the position to second-generation enterprises, the vast majority of Chinese entrepreneurs have no other choice. According to PwC’s 2021 Global Family Business Survey – China Report, 85% of our country’s private enterprises that contribute more than 60% to the country’s GDP are family-owned.
To achieve these three challenges, product managers will only continue to appreciate
Good product managers are very scarce, and product managers who understand users, business, and data are still in demand when they go out of the Internet. On the contrary, if you only do simple communication, inefficient execution, and shallow thinking, I am afraid that you will not be able to go through the torrent of the next 3-5 years.
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As early as 2017, the report of the China Private Economy Research Association also pointed out that among China’s more than 100 million private enterprises, more than 80% are family businesses, and about 29% of family enterprises are concentrated in traditional manufacturing. Around 2020, about three-quarters of China’s family businesses faced handover, the largest wave of family inheritance in Chinese history.
In this wave of succession, the second generation took the stage with a completely different experience background from their parents.
Many of the generation of entrepreneurs are from rough backgrounds and have a low level of education, but with their extraordinary courage and keen sense of smell, they are crawling in the market and making a name for themselves. Entrepreneurs who make money will naturally not let the next generation continue their education. The latest survey data from Alibaba’s 1688 website shows that the post-90s and post-00s account for nearly 80% of the second generation of its platform factory, of which the post-95s are the backbone. 81% of the second generation of factories have a bachelor’s degree or above, and more than half have overseas study backgrounds.
These second generations who brought ink into the factory were naturally unwilling to devote their energy to the oil and roar of the machine like their parents. As successors who grew up with the Internet, they naturally regard network marketing as their specialty skill. In fact, many second-generation successors initially took over the e-commerce business.
Especially when entrepreneurs like Lei Jun and Zhou Hongyi frequently appear on the hot search and even star in short dramas, young people seem to have found a most suitable succession direction: to be an Internet celebrity entrepreneur.
Such a succession is decent and fashionable, which attracted many second-generation people to flock to it for a while.
In the past two years, many second generations have emerged on social platforms. There are the second-generation “Yixiangcheng Pastry” that runs the pastry factory, the second-generation “Aladdin” of the mattress factory, as well as the boiler princess, the second young lady of the swimming pool, and so on. The bizarre names fully reflect the richness of China’s manufacturing industry from another perspective.
Nowadays, on social platforms, “factory second generation” has become a hot label. On Xiaohongshu, the topic of “factory second generation” has reached 280 million views, and topics such as “factory second generation succession”, “factory second generation daily life” and “factory second generation life” have also exceeded 10 million views. On Douyin, the second-generation label video of the factory has been played more than 2.8 billion times.
In the many traffic battles, some second-generation factories got their wishes, and naturally some people left the scene in frustration.
02 Differentiation
The Internet celebrity road of the second generation of the factory is clearly polarized.
In the past two years, the second generation of the hottest factory is Shi Zhancheng, the “towel young master” of Jieliya.
The third generation of this veteran towel brand factory has created a happy skit of “self-entertainment”, but the company has ushered in huge traffic. At present, “Towel Empire” has more than 200 million views and has topped the Douyin overall list many times, so more young people have re-recognized the national brand of Jielia. Such an impact is beyond the reach of regular advertising.
After the short drama became popular, Jieliya’s performance increased sharply. During the 618 period last year, the sales of the first 4 hours of the Tmall flagship store increased by 1300% year-on-year, ranking first in the Tmall home fabric industry. On June 5, Shi Zhancheng and his second uncle’s first live broadcast on Douyin brought goods, with a GMV of 5.42 million yuan in 4 hours, winning the first place in the overall list of Douyin goods that night.
Earlier out of the circle was also Holly’s second son Luo Cheng. After he got out of the circle as a “social terrorist boss”, he quickly joined the camp of bringing goods. Its Douyin window shows that the sales of “holiland/Holiland half-cooked cheese flavored Internet celebrity cake 2 box set snacks, breakfast snacks, and afternoon tea” alone exceeded 1.22 million. According to the unit price of 78, the income is nearly 100 million.
Luo Cheng focuses on the character design of “social terror boss”
Hu Jiazhou, the second-generation of Hongfan Industry and Trade, a veteran enterprise of Yongkang thermos cups, is an expert who is well versed in short video marketing. The series of videos he created “A Day for the Second Generation of the Post-95 Factory to Inherit the Family Business” has exceeded 20 million views on the whole network, thus successfully helping the company open up a second sales channel on Douyin.
Shen Ruoyi, the second-generation of the women’s bag brand Karajan, can achieve 300,000 orders or more per live broadcast.
Such a glorious case has become the driving force for more second-generation factories to go forward and follow.
However, no matter how rare the track label is, there are a few happy and a few sorrowful when there are more people leaving. Behind the success of the second generation of some factories is the short and monotonous career of more second-generation Internet celebrities.
On Xiaohongshu, most of the second-generation account fans of the factory are only two or three digits, and the works released are only in single digits. The accounts on Douyin are more successful for only a few people, and most of the second generation of the factory continues to be lost in the vast ocean of the Internet after a shallow taste.
The same drama of “returnees returning to China to inherit the family business” makes the audience tired, and even those who have been successful will face the test of low traffic once the heat has passed.
This year’s Tmall 618, last year’s beautiful Jieliya has not yet announced its sales results, and it is not seen in the 618 full-cycle ranking released by Tmall.
It can be seen that the label of the second generation of the factory is not a natural “magnet” for traffic, and there will be ebb and flow. The reason why the second generation of the factory is happy is that in the absence of a fundamental reversal in the background of the manufacturing industry, their Internet celebrity road is actually just a helpless move for novices to enter the market for the first time.
03 Dilemma
According to the data of the “China Family Business Inheritance Report”, more than 60% of the “second generation of factories” expressed unwillingness to take over, and the unclear industry prospects and high operating pressure are very important reasons.
Because, the market environment faced by the second generation and the parents is very different.
The time of a generation of entrepreneurship is basically in the period of rapid development of China’s market economy, superimposed on the Chinese population dividend, the global market demand for industrial products has been growing. In such a situation, entrepreneurs with adventurous spirit and strategic vision, and can insist on doing a good job in lean production, can get better market recognition.
By the time of the second generation’s succession, the market had already entered the stock competition, and the demographic dividend had begun to fade. The industries mentioned above now have enough production capacity to supply the world. For example, China’s annual output is about 15 billion towels, more than 3 billion bags, and more than 700 million thermos cups.
Towels are just a small case of China’s manufacturing surplus
Last year, only enterprises above designated size in China completed 20.462 billion pieces of clothing, which is equivalent to more than 2 pieces per person in the world; crude steel output reached 1,005.1 million tons, and coal consumption was 92.16 exajouls, accounting for more than half of the world’s total.
Behind these data are countless large and small factories in economic development zones and industrial parks across the country, which are gradually increasing their fighting efforts. When it is difficult for a product to open a grade, enterprises can only add gimmicks in marketing methods.
The second generation of the factory competes for Internet celebrities, which is a choice after the homogeneous competition continues to be fierce.
But the problem is that there is a fundamental conflict between traffic and manufacturing development. In the environment of low interest rates, the cost of traditional manufacturing is already very rigid – including raw materials, manpower, equipment, etc., and the traffic is not only not low in its own price, but also very dependent on low prices in terms of monetization. In order to obtain traffic, the second generation of factories not only needs to spend money to buy traffic on the platform, but also often needs to sell at a low price in the name of “source factory”, and the financial burden of the whole process is huge.
Traffic has become a huge expense for Chinese manufacturing enterprises
According to the 2025 China Shopper Report, Series 1, which global consulting firm Bain & Company and Worldpanel jointly released, China’s FMCG market achieved overall sales growth of 0.8% in 2024, with sales increasing by 4.4% but average selling prices falling by 3.4%.
Products can be homogeneous, and marketing methods can also be homogenized. Once video and live content become homogenized, traffic will be dispersed after gathering heads, and similar video content will also lose its competitiveness.
After the gimmick of the second generation of returnees in the factory has passed, the competition in the traditional manufacturing industry still needs to return to the product power itself – design, cost, publicity, promotion, etc., and at that time, will the second generation have the ability to deal with it?
