This is an English adaptation of a FoodBud historical article originally published on June 23, 2022.
This article is adapted from a June 23, 2022 interview by Case SHOWCASE (ID: LangAward), written by Wan Pei and supervised by Zhang Zhuo. The interview featured Uki, a post-1990s co-founder of Genki Forest, in her first external interview.
Over the previous two years, Genki Forest had become one of China’s most watched new consumer companies. Founder Tang Binsen’s earlier success in gaming gave the beverage startup capital, resources and public attention, helping it break into a traditional drinks sector dominated by large incumbents.
The interview focused less on Tang and more on the company’s operating layer: supply chain, sales system, product management and the people supporting the founder. According to the article, Tang had recently made fewer direct decisions, focusing mainly on strategy while giving advice on products and business.
Uki’s first product responsibility was Alienergy, after previously handling international business. The electrolyte drink had been on the market for two years by 2022. In the first quarter of 2022, its monthly sales exceeded RMB100 million, and it was seen externally as Genki Forest’s second growth curve after sparkling water.
Uki said Alienergy’s 2022 data was strong. She cited a Nielsen contact saying that from January to April, Alienergy grew 307% year on year, ranking among the fastest-growing mainstream beverage brands. She said she was less focused on the “second curve” label because sales were an output metric; the team cared more about input metrics such as product quality.
When asked about Tang Binsen’s expectations for Alienergy, Uki said the goal was for users to think first of Alienergy when they thought of electrolyte water. She said market research showed nearly 40% of post-2000 young consumers first learned about electrolyte water through Alienergy.
On a reported 2022 sales target of RMB2.2 billion, Uki avoided confirming it directly, saying sales were a dynamic output metric and that the soft-drinks industry faced uncertainty, including COVID-19.
Alienergy began as an idea for an energy drink to help young people stay up late. The team later found that young consumers often blurred the line between energy drinks and sports drinks: both were functional beverages, but they served different use cases.
Uki said she personally liked sports and had paid attention to electrolyte intake while studying abroad. After the project was approved, the team added substantial research and developed Alienergy electrolyte water. The brand was positioned around an “active lifestyle” idea: effort driven by passion and living distinctively.
Uki said Genki Forest often describes product development as “writing poetry”: it cannot be solved simply by adding more people. The company had taken detours. In 2016, it hired experienced product talent, spent RMB5 million on two products that employees did not want to drink and consumers did not want to buy, then spent another RMB1 million destroying them.
After that, Genki Forest set two internal rules:
Genki Forest’s staff was mostly post-1990s employees. Uki said the company wanted to solve problems, with sparkling water and Alienergy meeting different dimensions of user demand.
For Alienergy, the team treated it as a very small internal brand and chose sports users as the starting point, based on team DNA and user research. Uki said the narrower the entry point, the more concentrated and penetrating the energy could be. After defining the brand, audience and consumption occasion, the team focused on product iteration. Only after online sales and repurchase data across channels crossed a threshold did it dare to invest in wider marketing.
Asked why Alienergy did not copy BodyArmor’s early use of top sports stars such as Kobe Bryant, Uki said different brands follow different rhythms. Alienergy chose to stand with users.
Its “Alienergy Brand Ambassador” program brought together people described as bold, interesting and passion-driven, including a triathlon champion, astrophotographer, environmental pioneer, Antarctic expedition member, celebrity fitness coach, surfer and celebrity lawyer. The brand also had campus ambassadors at universities.
On the perception that Genki Forest’s sparkling water had used heavy marketing through variety shows, transit ads and celebrity endorsements, Uki said functional products were different because they required trust. She said Alienergy had explored cooperation with authoritative institutions and hospitals and had recently completed an applied study with the 301 PLA General Hospital on training performance enhancement.
Uki said Genki Forest had been catching up in production and channels since 2021. By the time of the interview, it had about 1 million sales terminals, though she said it was still a “student” compared with industry predecessors.
Alienergy was priced relatively high. The team initially expected it to sell mainly in first-tier cities, but terminal data showed good sales in many outlying urban areas and even township markets.
From user conversations, Uki said there appeared to be a psychological price threshold. In outlying markets, a cup of milk tea cost about RMB7, and after several years of market development, most users could accept drinks priced at RMB5-6. Above RMB7, consumers became more cautious.
On the challenge of COVID-19 to the summer sales season, Uki said the company’s attitude was to go all out. If the external environment was poor, it was an opportunity to strengthen internal capabilities: organization, operating quality and efficiency.
She said 2022 was not very different for Genki Forest. The company had recently launched several new products, including sea-salt coconut sparkling water, Alienergy Electrolyte Pro, Ran Tea green-grape oolong, milk-tea cowpea paste, and Fiber Tea mulberry five-black tea.
The metrics she watched most closely were user satisfaction and operating quality: word of mouth, repurchase rate, and partners’ second and third reorder rates. She said these had to be viewed over the long term to judge healthy growth and recognition from users and channels.
One learning case was Alienergy’s first Double 11 in 2021. Although it ranked first in Tmall’s functional-drink category, it did not reach the team’s internal sales expectation. Winter was a low season; the team had expected functional products to be less seasonal, but learned that effort alone did not override category patterns.
Uki said Tang Binsen cared about environmental issues. In 2021 he privately suggested reducing bottle weight. In December 2021, the team reduced each bottle by 5 grams, lowering carbon emissions overall. She said Genki Forest’s management was aligned on environmental priorities. Since 2021, the company had taken more environmental actions, including having five factories use lower-carbon green electricity where possible. She also said its sparkling-water products no longer added chemical preservatives.
Uki said the biggest thing she had learned from traditional beverage peers was humility. She gave the example of “effective partition”: many people assume more flavors bring more popularity. That can work before distribution reaches a critical point, but after that point, it can have the opposite effect. At that stage, products need other forms of effective differentiation to find new growth.
She said entering consumer goods changed her own operating rhythm. Earlier, she would rush to execute exciting ideas and become trapped in details. Later, she learned to take a longer-cycle view, deciding what to do at each stage and what should come next.
Uki graduated from the University of Oxford with a science and engineering background. She likes tennis and had previously worked in investment. She once wanted to start her own business, then aligned quickly with Tang Binsen, joking that she was not sure who had persuaded whom.
She said investing gave her one perspective and operating gave her another. Over time, she changed from someone attached to data and “robot-like” rigidity into someone more able to feel the market, empathize with people and stay grounded. While traveling, she often visited convenience stores to speak with shop owners, observe customers’ beverage choices and ask users why they chose one drink over another.
Asked whether she was closer to Tang’s internal archetypes of “bandit” or “scholar,” Uki joked that if forced to choose, she might be a scholar with some bandit spirit. She described Genki Forest’s culture as relatively inclusive and possibility-oriented, saying it did not casually kill ideas or define people. In hiring, she said she cared about a person’s essence and motivation, not only experience.
Note: Sales targets, growth rates and forward-looking figures in this adaptation are historical, from the June 23, 2022 source article.