The "Forbes" brand has always adhered to entrepreneurial and innovative spirit, upholding values of professionalism, fairness, innovation, and progress. Its China business covers advertising, consulting, research, planning, conferences, and exhibition services.

"Consumer investment should be based on insights into human nature. If you see all aspects of human life, if you can walk into thousands of households, helping ordinary people make good steamed buns, fried dough sticks, melon seeds, and soy sauce, providing people with better food, clothing, housing, transportation, entertainment, education, healthcare, and elderly care—such a cause is great enough." So says Alan Song, Founding Partner and Chairman of Harvest Capital.

What's special about 2021 for Alan Song? In the second half of this year alone, Eastroc Beverage, the "first functional beverage stock," listed with market capitalization once exceeding RMB 100 billion; Wen He You completed its Series B financing; Laoxiangji, the "first Chinese fast food stock," initiated its A-share IPO process... "Sniper" Alan Song hit not only hundreds of billions in market value but also the backbone and hope of China's consumer industry.

As a veteran who has cultivated deeply in the investment industry for over twenty years, Alan Song has successively worked at Everbright Securities and Guosen Securities, and served as Director and CFO of Huatai Securities. In 2007, Alan Song founded Harvest Capital, focusing on China's grand consumption and modern service industry investment, with cumulative assets under management exceeding RMB 80 billion throughout his career.

Over fifteen years, Harvest Capital has meticulously cultivated the consumer sector, successively deploying in many industry leaders including Qiaqia, Jiajia Food, ORG, Babi Food, Laoxiangji, Aimer, Carpoly, XIAO GUAN TEA, Meituan, Eastroc, and Wen He You. With Harvest Capital's support and backing, these familiar names have gradually grown into backbone forces in China's consumer market, and Harvest Capital has developed into a leading investment institution in China's consumer industry.

In the equity investment field, Harvest Capital firmly believes in the power of long-term value, consistently keeping a low profile and working diligently on the grand consumption track. When asked why he chose consumption, Alan Song candidly admits it relates to his own experience. Alan Song's mother once went into business, running small businesses in clothing and catering, allowing him to personally experience entrepreneurs' difficulties.

Graduating from university with a literature major gave Alan Song an intellectual's "benefit the world" patriotic sentiment. For him, consumption cannot be separated from insights into human nature; consumption encompasses all aspects of human life.

Harvest Capital focuses on "80% of the needs of 80% of consumers," choosing a pack of snacks (Qiaqia), a fast meal (Laoxiangji), a bottle of beverage (Eastroc), and a mattress (Easyhome). Starting from the underlying logic of Chinese consumption, it has become the investment institution most infused with people's lifestyles and everyday life, "deeply bound together with the ordinary happy lives of 1.4 billion people."

Long-term, Harvest Capital mainly focuses on three types of enterprises: first, essential high-frequency tracks, focusing on investing in livelihood infrastructure companies with long runway and thick snow characteristics, possessing time compound interest investment value; second, growth brands in optional consumption tracks with consumption upgrade and sinking market characteristics; third, innovative iterative companies combining traditional consumer industries with technological progress. Only large tracks can give birth to large companies; only large companies can produce good products.

From a methodology perspective, Harvest Capital has formed stable investment logic, focusing on three "buys": first, buy industry development (large industries); second, buy enterprise growth (large enterprises); third, buy entrepreneurs' learning ability and character growth.

Alan Song believes the human factor is crucial. Harvest Capital also greatly values the combination of "people and matters"—enterprises are made by people, reflecting the match between people and matters, the so-called "favorable timing, geographical advantages, and harmonious human relations."

Alan Song points out that while the consumer industry seems to have low entry barriers, competition barriers are actually very high. For a consumer goods company to become part of Chinese people's lifestyle and become a national-level brand, there's a very long road to travel. First, there must be good initial intentions, willing to create good products and services for consumers. "To become a national brand, you must become a mindshare brand. If ordinary people support you, you have the ability and potential for brand creation, and can obtain better unit prices and repeat purchases."

Alan Song uses "Guochao" (national trend) as an example. In recent years, "Guochao" has become a consumption hotspot, with domestic products becoming fashionable. But simultaneously, many once-famous Chinese time-honored brands have declined.

Alan Song believes today's Chinese consumer market has rapidly entered the era of rising consumer sovereignty. Some time-honored brands cannot complete brand refresh iterations and progress, unable to synchronize with people's lifestyles—not because they're "old and outdated," but because they've ignored young generation consumers' demands for current consumption environments, scenarios, products, and services, "confiscating" consumers' rights. "Time-honored brands wanting to grow younger and attract young people should look at what's happening around them. Whatever users need, brands should provide; wherever users are, brands should appear. Respecting consumers is the first principle."

Second, if brands don't have good products, no matter what methods are used to sell them, they will certainly fail. Only extreme products have the power to penetrate the fog of time. Alan Song believes essentially this is also brand competitiveness created based on profound insights into human hearts, thereby establishing business competitiveness centered on humanistic value care. Only good product strength can have good sales momentum, potentially having higher gross margins and enterprise efficiency than peers.

Consumption is also a "youth-surging" industry, continuously testing brands' innovation iteration capabilities. Alan Song admits that in the current era of technological upgrades and information overload, how brands better express sales touchpoints and trigger aggregated value requires systematic methodology, posing higher requirements for entrepreneurs and brand owners. This also explains why Harvest Capital so values entrepreneurs' character, mental strength, and continuous learning ability.

In the current consumption upgrade, Gen Z is gradually becoming the main consumption force. The next 20 years will be a super era for China's consumer service industry, inevitably accompanied by the birth of super companies. What Harvest Capital needs to do is find these "seed players" and accompany them from small to large, from large to strong.

China is becoming the world's largest single social consumption market, with national brands emerging like bamboo shoots after rain. "What's national" will eventually become "what's global." But behind national pride, we should more soberly recognize that China is transitioning from the third to the fourth consumption era, with dumbbell-shaped social stratification highlighting widening wealth gaps.

According to National Bureau of Statistics data, about 80% of Chinese people's living standards remain below middle-class level. About 900 million Chinese have monthly incomes below RMB 2,000, 90% of people have monthly incomes below RMB 5,000, the bottom 25% of the population possesses only 1% of total social wealth, while the top 1% occupies 30% of total social wealth.

Alan Song believes Chinese entrepreneurs and investors must understand that the era of pursuing capital expansion regardless of consequences has ended; a new era prioritizing fairness over efficiency has arrived. "The state advocates common prosperity and emphasizes third distribution to raise middle-income groups' income levels and expand middle-class scale. When per capita national income levels are elevated and per capita disposable income is improved, China's domestic demand market can find sustained momentum, and China's consumption will truly be ignited." Alan Song points out that under the government's high-level policies, Harvest Capital will continue to support Chinese consumption, support national brands, cultivate champion enterprises, and create greater consumer welfare.

Reviewing Harvest Capital's 15 years of pioneering, Alan Song has consistently persisted in doing difficult but correct things. "Every institution has its own characteristics—there are arbitrage companies and value investment companies; there are companies obsessed with speculative forces and companies believing in time compound interest value movement. As a highly vertical investment company, Harvest Capital focuses on value creation. Dedication and focus bring professional value, truly empowering the market, enterprises, and platforms. Being needed, therefore being respected," Alan Song says.

"The next 20 years are a historic window period for Chinese consumer brands to become world brands." Facing the grand consumption market, Alan Song has more visions and ambitions. "In this super era, plan before acting, go with the trend, stand together with people's lives, and deeply understand people's lives. With an altruistic heart, over a longer time cycle, explore more possibilities of value."