Recently, a short video of Yu Huiyong, the founder and chairman of Baiguo Yuan, has sparked a huge controversy. His remarks on “educating consumers” not only stirred up discussions among netizens but also directly impacted the capital market, causing Baiguo Yuan’s stock price to plummet. In just a few days, Baiguo Yuan’s market value evaporated by approximately 70%.
The turmoil began on August 8th when Yu Huiyong responded to criticisms of Baiguo Yuan’s “expensive fruits” in a video posted on Douyin, a Chinese social media platform. In the video, he bluntly stated, “I believe there are two types of businesses: those that take advantage of consumers’ ignorance and those that educate consumers to become mature. Baiguo Yuan has been on the path of educating consumers for many years. We will not cater to consumers.”
His remarks quickly sparked uproar on the internet, with the question “Do we need to be educated when buying fruits?” becoming a hot topic among netizens. Many expressed dissatisfaction, posting comments such as, “Watch out, Baiguo Yuan, consumers might just educate you,” and “Consumers will vote with their feet.”
Although the video was later deleted and Yu Huiyong’s presence on Douyin and other social media platforms under the name “Baiguo Yuan Yu Huiyong” vanished, the negative impact was irreversible.
The market reacted swiftly to this incident. On August 11th, Baiguo Yuan’s stock price plummeted at the opening, experiencing a temporary drop of 8%, eventually narrowing down to a 0.57% decrease by the end of trading.
Baiguo Yuan’s stock price tumbled from its initial listing price of HKD 6.98 to HKD 1.77 as of the closing on August 12, 2025, resulting in a market value loss of about 70%.
A once-prominent symbol of “high-quality fruits” in China, Baiguo Yuan, despite its higher prices, had many consumers willing to pay for its quality. However, quality issues in Baiguo Yuan stores have been frequently exposed in recent years, leading to a shaken consumer trust. Complaints related to Baiguo Yuan have surpassed 3091, with main issues revolving around “not compensating for bad fruits,” “overpricing,” and “misrepresenting lower grade products as higher grade.”
For example, a consumer complained in June 2025 that they purchased fresh lychees for over 50 yuan at a Baiguo Yuan store on Xingshan Road in Putuo District, Shanghai, only to discover that the fruits were severely moldy upon arrival home, despite being falsely advertised as fresh and delicious by a female store employee.
In the past, during the “3.15” period in 2024, media exposed a Baiguo Yuan store in Wuhan for cutting rotten fruits into pricey fruit cuts, selling overnight fruits as fresh, and passing off grade 2 cherries as grade 4 cherries, among other irregularities.
Data indicates declines in Baiguo Yuan’s store and membership numbers. In 2024 alone, Baiguo Yuan had 966 fewer stores, with 895 closures in the latter half of the year, showing a significant acceleration in store closures.
Simultaneously, the number of paid members sharply decreased, totaling 854,000 by the end of 2024, a decrease of 317,000 from 2023, marking a 27.1% decline. Core users willing to pay for “quality” seem to be silently slipping away.
From a capital market perspective, Baiguo Yuan’s stock price has consistently languished. The candlestick chart shows that Baiguo Yuan was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 16, 2023, at HKD 5.6 per share. On its first day of trading, the price surged to HKD 7.12, but by the close of trading on August 11, 2025, it had dropped to HKD 1.74, reflecting a significant decline of 75.56%.
Financial data also highlights the company’s operational pressures. In 2024, Baiguo Yuan recorded an annual operating income of 10.273 billion yuan, a 9.81% year-on-year decrease. Its net profit attributable to shareholders was a loss of 386 million yuan, marking the first annual loss since 2020. Baiguo Yuan attributed this to factors such as weak consumer demand, product mix optimization, and a decrease in franchised stores.
Despite facing operational challenges, Yu Huiyong set the ambitious goal of “Ten Thousand Stores, One Trillion” for Baiguo Yuan at the beginning of 2024, aiming to achieve a store count exceeding ten thousand and revenue crossing one trillion within the next decade. However, given the current public opinion turmoil and operational pressures, achieving this goal now poses severe challenges.