So-Young’s “heavy asset game” is urgently awaiting its moment of profitability

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In the second quarter of last year, So-Young encountered its most difficult financial period.

At that time, So-Young was at a crossroads, switching from platform advertising to a heavy-asset chain medical aesthetics service business, and the pain of transformation was particularly severe.

Because it entered the offline light medical aesthetics sector and started to "compete for food" with its original medical aesthetics institution clients, this inevitably accelerated the loss of traditional advertising clients, intensifying the pain of transformation.

Now, with the growth of the offline chain business, So-Young has finally reached a turning point in its difficult days.

In 2025, So-Young’s revenue was 1.523 billion yuan, an increase of 3.87% year-on-year. Of this, revenue in the fourth quarter was 461 million yuan, a year-on-year growth of over 20%.

The heavily invested offline light medical aesthetics chain business has finally supported half of the company. In the fourth quarter of 2025, So-Young's medical aesthetics medical services (that is, offline store business) revenue reached 248 million yuan, up 205.3% year-on-year, accounting for more than 50% of total revenue for the first time.

By the end of 2025, So-Young had 49 offline stores.

Although the business structure transformation has begun to bear fruit, So-Young has not completely escaped the quagmire of losses. Net loss in 2025 still reached 242 million yuan.

In response, So-Young told AllWeather Technology that it aims to achieve single-quarter profitability in the fourth quarter of 2026.

To turn losses into profits, So-Young’s core drivers are “improving the efficiency of existing stores” and “expanding new stores in lower-tier cities.”

In 2026, So-Young plans to add no fewer than 35 new stores, further densifying its network in first-tier cities while focusing on expanding into high-quality second-tier cities.

On the evening of March 25, during a conference call, So-Young's management explained the commercial logic of ramping up in second-tier cities: Compared with first-tier cities, China’s second-tier cities still have significant gaps in medical delivery capacity and operational standards in the medical aesthetics sector. So-Young’s “standardized delivery capability” can ensure that stores in second-tier cities provide services and results comparable to those in first-tier cities.

According to further introduction from So-Young’s management, as of December 2025, the average revenue per square meter for mature second-tier city stores such as Wuhan Tiandi and Changsha is 7,000 yuan. Among recently opened second-tier stores, the Suzhou Suyue Plaza store achieved a monthly operating income of over one million yuan within three months, fully proving the viability of replicating this model in second-tier cities.

“Judging from the profitability of mature stores in second-tier cities, due to lower wages for medical staff and lower rent levels than in first-tier cities, the profit margin of second-tier city stores is even slightly higher,” So-Young’s management pointed out.

Whether So-Young can successfully operate a profitable model with the lower-tier city dividend and greater profit margins is being closely watched.

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