Pioneering initiative expands to Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan, reinforcing L'Oréal's leadership in beauty tech open innovation in the region
Shanghai, June 21, 2024 LOreal's groundbreaking Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program (Big Bang) is now officially launched across all of the company's stores. North Asia L'Oréal today made a landmark launch in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, heralding a new era of beauty innovation for consumers in the region and putting into action L'Oréal North Asia's “Beauty Triangle” strategy, which aims to leverage its unique and powerful strengths to maximize synergies and accelerate collaborations. North Asia Ecosystem and cross-sectional synergies China-Beauty, Korea-Beauty and Japan-beauty.
First launched in mainland China in 2020, Big Bang embraces open innovation to partner with startups and innovators to develop disruptive beauty solutions. The program fosters the co-creation and co-development of innovative beauty products and experiences. Japan South Korea in 2023, followed by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Taiwanhighlights L'Oréal's commitment to pioneering cutting-edge beauty solutions. North AsiaThe success of this program has also inspired its implementation at L'Oréal. South Asia Pacific, middle eastand North Africa I visited the area last month.
Each market will customize its Big Bang program with a unique theme that reflects regional strengths and fosters local partnerships. Taiwan Big Bang's recruitment drive kicked off in March, focusing on the “Green Beauty Consumer Journey.” Through collaboration with the Taipei Computer Association (TCA), the program promotes local sustainability innovation towards circular economy, eco-friendly design and enhanced consumer engagement.
L'Oreal Hong Kong The recently launched program introduces Hong Kong's first open innovation accelerator focused on the beauty industry. In partnership with Hong Kong Science Park Corporation (HKSTP) and Business France Hong Kong, the program prioritizes “transforming the customer experience.” The goal is to create immersive, multi-sensory experiences within brand spaces to heighten customer interaction and bring brand stories to life in compelling new ways.
L'Oreal Japan South Korea and the United States have successfully completed the first year of the program, with participants receiving positive feedback and some already collaborating with L'Oréal. Building on this momentum, L'Oréal is Japan The company will continue its strategic partnership with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to promote research and innovation (R&I) in cutting-edge skincare and haircare technologies. Similarly, L'Oréal Korea will deepen its focus on R&I as it formalizes its collaboration with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups through an MOU at Viva Tech 2023 and expands its programs with a dedicated digital track.
As the origin of the Big Bang project, L'Oreal China CITIBIOTECH continues its trajectory of impactful progress, covering a comprehensive range of areas including Future Science, Phygital Consumer, Operations 4.0, Gen AI and Sustainability, fostering increasingly sophisticated projects and achieving tangible results. This is demonstrated at the recent Viva Technology event, where CITIBIOTECH, a French startup specializing in 3D skin printing and winner of the Big Bang China French Channel, signed a strategic MOU with “Oriental Beauty Valley”, a Chinese government-affiliated incubation organization. The partnership will pave the way for CITIBIOTECH's successful entry into the Chinese market. This milestone represents the first outcome resulting from the partnership agreement signed by L'Oreal, Business France and Oriental Beauty Valley during his tenure as French President. Emmanuel Macron State visit China April 2023.
Launched in 2021 with Business France as strategic partner, the Big Bang China France channel supports cutting-edge French start-ups to expand their presence in the Chinese market. By 2023, it has successfully recruited around 50 French start-ups to join the Big Bang China program.
Since its inception, Big Bang has partnered with over 2,000 companies, brought to life over 50 business projects, and driven real-world innovation, including the nanochip technology developed by a previous Big Bang China participant that is now featured in Lancôme's RENERGIE NANO-RESURFACER| 400 BOOSTER and debuting at VivaTech.
Big Bang provides startups and SMEs with a valuable platform to expand their business, connect with government agencies, industry leaders and investors, and showcase their innovations on a global stage at events such as China International Import Expo (CIIE) and Viva Technology. L'Oréal's investment in Shine Hi, the winner of the 2022 Big Bang China program, exemplifies the company's dedication to incubating and accelerating promising beauty tech ventures.
As the Big Bang takes hold across the world North Asia“L'Oréal is proud to be at the forefront of this exciting evolution, consolidating its position as a leader in beauty tech both in the region and beyond.”
About L'Oréal Group
For 115 years, L'Oréal, the world's leading beauty company, has been dedicated to fulfilling the beauty aspirations of consumers around the world. Our purpose: creating beauty that moves the world defines our approach to beauty as essential, inclusive, ethical, generous and committed to social and environmental sustainability. With a broad portfolio of 37 international brands and ambitious sustainability commitments in our L'Oréal for the Future program, we offer the best in quality, efficacy, safety, integrity and responsibility to everyone, around the world, celebrating beauty in its infinite diversity.
With over 90,000 dedicated employees, a balanced geographical reach and sales across all distribution networks (e-commerce, mass merchandisers, department stores, pharmacies, perfumeries, hair salons, branded and travel retail), in 2023 the Group will have €41.18 billionWith 20 research centres in 11 countries around the world and a dedicated research and innovation team of more than 4,000 scientists and 6,400 digital talent, L'Oréal is shaping the future of beauty and aiming to become a leading beauty technology company.
Detailed information https://www.loreal.com/en/mediaroom
About L'Oreal North Asia Zone
The L'Oréal North Asia Zone was established in 2021 as the L'Oréal Group reorganized the geographic scope of the Zone to increase consistency in consumer behavior and create synergies within the region. The North Asia Zone comprises five geographically and culturally linked markets: Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan Region, South Korea and China. Japan.
The L'Oréal North Asia Zone is the Group's second largest region, accounting for 25.9% of the Group's global sales in 2023. Located in the most beauty-obsessed region, with more than one-third of the world's beauty consumers, L'Oréal is North Asia Shaping the future of beauty at our Innovation Center Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoulis investing in the transformation of Beauty Tech as one of the top three Beauty Tech hubs in the world. Our mission here is to strategize, build and invigorate a powerful ecosystem centered around the North Asia Beauty Triangle, creating competitive advantage to unlock sustainable growth for all and inspire the world.
About the L'Oréal Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program
The L'Oréal Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program (Big Bang) is a first-of-its-kind regional initiative focused on driving open innovation, inspiration and co-creation of innovative beauty products and experiences. The program will identify, support and nurture promising startups and companies with disruptive technologies that can scale regionally and globally.
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Source: L'Oreal North Asia
