Why are the short-lived delicacies and internet-famous snacks gradually disappearing?

This article deeply analyzes the reasons why Internet celebrity snacks have gradually disappeared in recent years. Let’s take a look~

In this fast-changing world of food, the fate of Internet celebrity snacks is like a meteor across the night sky, short-lived but dazzling. From crumb cakes to dirty buns, from crispy pork belly to fried yogurt, waves of Internet celebrity snacks have not only set off a buying craze in the streets and alleys, but also triggered a visual and taste feast on social media.

When we look back at the development trajectory of these Internet-famous snacks, it is not difficult to find a common pattern: after their initial popularity, they swept the entire city like a heat wave, and people could be seen queuing up for them in every corner.

However, this prosperity did not last long, at most three to five years, at least one year, these former food stars were like a flash in the pan, quietly leaving the stage. This rapid transition from rise to fall can't help but make people sigh: their rise was rapid, and their fall was sudden.

What they reflect is not only the fate of the food itself, but also the result of the interweaving of multiple factors such as market changes, consumer behavior, and social culture.

01 Which internet-famous snacks are disappearing?

Internet celebrity snacks, I generally refer to those snacks that quickly become popular in the streets and alleys and trigger extensive discussions on the Internet. These snacks usually have several notable characteristics:

Uniqueness, they often have a distinctive flavor or production process;

Fashionability: they conform to current fashion trends and meet the aesthetics and tastes of young people;

Spreadability: becoming a hot topic through rapid sharing on social media;

Transient, their popularity cycles are often short, emerging quickly and fading away just as quickly.

Below are some typical examples from which we can see their development context.

1. The cake falls apart and disappears in the chaos of joining

The once popular online snack, "Diaozha Bing", originated from the Tujia ethnic group in Enshi, Hubei, China. It was created by Miss Yan Lin in Wuhan in March 2005. It is developed on the basis of traditional sesame seed cakes. The characteristics of "Diaozha Bing" are its crispy crust and rich fillings. Every bite will drop the crumbs, hence the name.

The development of the diaozha bing can be said to be rapid and short-lived. Within a few months of its birth, it quickly became popular in most major cities in mainland China. At that time, many office workers would eat two diaozha bings for lunch. At its peak, there were more than a thousand stores selling diaozha bings in Beijing alone. However, this success did not last long.

By mid-2006, due to fierce market competition and poor quality assurance, many crumb cake shops had to close or switch to other food products.

There are many reasons for the decline of crumb cake.

First , its popularity is more of a short-term phenomenon, lacking sustained popularity and user stickiness. Consumers try it out of curiosity, but it is not easy to transform a one-time attempt into a long-term purchasing habit.

Secondly , there are not many flavors to choose from for the crumb cake, and the waiting time is long, which lacks new features to continuously attract consumers. It is okay to eat this kind of cake occasionally, but it will not be so good if you eat it every day.

In addition, the business model of Diaozhabing also has problems. After the explosion, the founder quickly opened franchise stores, resulting in a large number of homogeneous products on the market. As the franchise fee decreased and the market became saturated, many stores eventually closed due to unprofitability.

2. Dirty buns, disappear when the novelty wears off

The dirty buns, with their unique appearance and taste, have set off a small revolution in the Chinese food world. This seemingly "dirty" bread is actually a chocolate dessert, and its characteristic is that it is covered with a thick layer of chocolate powder. When eating it, it is inevitable that your hands and face will be covered with chocolate, hence the name "dirty buns".

Its origins can be traced back to a type of chocolate bread in Japan, but in China, the Zang Zang Bao has been given new life and quickly become a unique internet celebrity food.

The rapid development of the dirty buns began around 2017, when they quickly became popular due to their frequent appearance on social media. Bakeries and dessert shops in major cities began to launch their own versions of the dirty buns, and even some online merchants without physical stores began selling them.

At its peak, the Zang Zang Bao not only became the object of many consumers waiting in line to buy, but also reached a peak in sharing and discussion on social media. Celebrities and Internet celebrities’ tasting and sharing further promoted the popularity of the Zang Zang Bao, making it a well-known Internet celebrity product.

However, as time went by, the popularity of Zang Zang Bao began to decline. A large number of imitation products appeared on the market with uneven quality, which damaged the overall brand image. At the same time, consumers' novelty for this single product gradually faded, and coupled with the lack of continuous product innovation and quality assurance, Zang Zang Bao gradually disappeared from people's sight.

3. Turkey noodles, disappeared due to health concerns

The origin of turkey noodles can be traced back to 2012. It is an instant noodle product originating from South Korea, known for its unique "abnormal spicy" taste. At that time, it was launched in the Korean domestic market as a new type of spicy instant noodles, and soon gained attention in Asia for its extremely high spiciness and unique taste.

Since around 2014, turkey noodles have been rapidly developing around the world through social media and video sharing platforms such as YouTube. Among them, the "Turkey Noodle Challenge" has become a popular social media activity, with tens of thousands of netizens uploading videos of themselves trying to eat a whole bag of turkey noodles and trying not to drink water to show their "courage" and tolerance for spicy food. This phenomenon not only attracted a large number of clicks and attention, but also promoted the surge in sales of turkey noodles.

At its peak, sales of turkey noodles were so impressive that Samyang Food, the maker of the noodles, reportedly saw significant growth in exports and sales in the years following the noodles' popularity.

Especially in the Chinese market, turkey noodles have become one of the hot-selling imported foods. Sales data from major e-commerce platforms show that turkey noodles often top the sales list of instant noodles. According to Nielsen data, the total sales of the top four turkey noodles brands in China's offline channels reached 1.5 billion yuan in 2022, of which Samyang turkey noodles accounted for 60% of the market share.

However, as time went by, the popularity of turkey noodles began to decline. On the one hand, more instant noodle products with distinctive and innovative flavors emerged on the market, distracting consumers' attention and interest.

On the other hand, the long-term pursuit of extreme spiciness has caused some consumers to worry about their health. More and more people have begun to pay attention to the nutritional value and health effects of food and are cautious about overly spicy food.

In addition, as the craze for the "Turkey Noodle Challenge" subsided, this product gradually faded from the public eye.

4. Sorghum candy, disappearing from niche tastes

Sorghum candy is mainly made from sorghum sugar. It is a common candy in the north. It is sweet but not greasy, and has the slight sourness and aroma of sorghum. Initially, it was only popular in some parts of the north.

Around 2018, as some videos of making sorghum candy became popular on TikTok, its unique "stringy" property became very contagious.

On TikTok, live-streaming host Hou Meili has made sorghum candy a new favorite among young people with her iconic slogan “It’s so bouncy and can be pulled into threads.”

It is reported that sorghum candy achieved sales of more than 20 million yuan in just a few days, becoming one of the most popular snacks on Douyin. According to Feigua data, at the peak, more than 20 sorghum candy-like products were promoted at the same time, with a total sales volume of more than 700,000. Since then, this traditional snack has begun to enter the vision of more people and become popular nationwide.

However, the popularity of sorghum candy did not last.

Limited by traditional tastes and consumption habits, sorghum candy can hardly maintain a high level of attention across the country for a long time. In addition, the production and sales of sorghum candy mostly rely on small-scale family workshops or local small businesses, lacking strong brand promotion and market maintenance, and eventually it retreated to the local market.

02 Why did the internet-famous snacks disappear?

From traditional street snacks to snacks sold only online, these internet-famous snacks have not escaped the fate of being short-term popular but then gradually becoming unpopular. Why do internet-famous snacks disappear?

1. More hype than taste

Unique taste and appearance are the main weapons of Internet celebrity snacks to attract people. They have triggered the so-called queuing effect, where people are willing to queue for hours just to have a taste. This phenomenon, to a certain extent, reflects the consumer psychology of the social media era - the pursuit of hot spots, the desire to participate, and the fear of being forgotten by the times.

However, as time went on, those consumers who had queued up because of the hype began to gradually realize that the taste of these Internet celebrity snacks did not live up to their expectations of being "astonishing".

In fact, most Internet celebrity snacks may not have an absolute advantage in taste. Their appeal comes more from marketing strategies and visual packaging rather than the quality of the product itself.

Consumers’ first attempts are often influenced by strong hype. With the help of social media, they become a “mob” and follow the crowd, but after experiencing it, they find that the taste is far from what they expected.

Once the gap between personal experience and social voice is widened, consumers who once lined up because of the gimmicks will no longer come back.

2. Consumers’ health awareness increases

Most of the popular snacks on the Internet are not so healthy. The fat content of the bombed squid is too high; the sugar content of the dirty bun is too high; the super spicy taste of the turkey noodles is too irritating to the gastrointestinal tract.

Nowadays, consumers are increasingly inclined to choose healthy foods with low salt, low oil and low calories in their daily diet. This change in consumer preference is undoubtedly a huge challenge for those online snacks that fail to adjust product formulas and improve nutritional value in a timely manner.

Faced with the change in consumer preferences, those online snacks that failed to innovate and transform their products in a timely manner have gradually lost the favor of the market. Online snacks that have not responded to the trend of healthy food in a timely manner cannot meet the growing demand for healthy diets by consumers. Naturally, it is difficult to maintain an advantage in the fiercely competitive market and will eventually have to gradually withdraw from the market.

3. No branding

Most of the popular snacks on the Internet are driven by their unique local characteristics. This natural growth from the grassroots people faces a major challenge - the lack of unified brand building.

After becoming popular for a while, many internet-famous snacks often fail to form recognizable brands because they "fight on their own", which to some extent limits their long-term development.

One of the main problems facing online snacks that have not formed a brand is the inconsistency of taste and quality. Due to the lack of unified standards and strict quality control, the production methods and raw material selection of the same snack in different places may vary, which leads to consumers experiencing uneven taste and quality when trying the same snacks in different stores.

For consumers, an unpleasant dining experience is enough to greatly reduce their overall impression of this category, or even completely lose interest.

As time goes by, this problem of inconsistent quality and taste will gradually magnify, especially in the era of social media, where negative experiences and comments from consumers can be quickly amplified and spread, causing serious damage to the overall image of online celebrity snacks. When the public's overall trust and interest in a certain type of online celebrity snack declines, the market performance of this category will also decline, and the number of consumers will naturally decrease.

In addition, online celebrity snacks that lack brand image find it difficult to establish long-term emotional connection and loyalty in an increasingly competitive market. Compared with gourmet food brands with clear brand positioning, consistent product quality and unique brand stories, these "unknown" online celebrity snacks are more likely to be eliminated by the market.

4. Consumers pursue novelty, and online celebrity snacks cannot remain popular for a long time

The essence of Internet celebrity snacks is that they can quickly attract widespread attention among consumers and become a temporary trend. However, as the word "Internet celebrity" implies, consumers' interest in Internet celebrity snacks is largely due to their novelty and unusualness, which makes people willing to queue up to try them. However, once the novelty wears off, consumers' attention and enthusiasm for these snacks will also decrease.

In a fast-changing food culture, trends change extremely quickly, and what is popular today may become outdated tomorrow. Internet celebrity snacks are often only popular for a short period of time and it is difficult to maintain their popularity for a long time.

This phenomenon is largely driven by consumers' pursuit of novelty and change. People are always looking for new experiences and excitement. Once a food loses its novelty, it is difficult to attract consumers' attention again.

Social media trends change just as quickly, and they are one of the main drivers of the popularity of online celebrity snacks. On social media platforms, new topics and trends emerge in an endless stream, which means that it is difficult for online celebrity snacks to maintain their popularity on social networks for a long time.

As new food, entertainment or cultural phenomena continue to emerge, yesterday's popular snacks will soon be replaced by new hot spots. Consumers' attention and discussion focus will also shift accordingly, causing the originally popular online snacks to gradually become unpopular.

03 Conclusion

Internet celebrity snacks, this term embodies the unique phenomenon of consumer culture in the Internet era. From street food before the birth of the Internet to today when the Internet is popular, they seem to always play the role of a trend pioneer, constantly attracting people's attention and taste buds. However, the fate of these delicacies is mostly short-lived and ephemeral.

The reasons are almost the same, from consumers' nature of pursuing freshness, to the increase in health awareness, to the lack of long-term brand building strategy, these factors together weave the fate of the short life cycle of Internet celebrity snacks.

In this context, the products that can truly escape this fate and continue to win the favor of consumers are those that build brands through a category. Therefore, if Internet celebrity snacks want to escape the fate of being short-lived, they still need to turn Internet celebrities into brands.

Author: Xunkong

Source: WeChat public account "Xunkong's Marketing Revelation (ID: xunkong2005)"