L’Oréal Big Bang spurs open innovation to form North Asia as beauty tech powerhouse

What happened: Launched in mainland China in 2020, L’Oréal’s Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program expanded to Japan and South Korea in 2023 and Taiwan and Hong Kong in 2024. With all five North Asian markets now hosting localized programs, Big Bang is accelerating beauty innovation and investment across the entire region. The Big Bang program fosters disruptive beauty solutions in partnership with startups and SMEs. The open innovation initiative is central to L’Oreal’s ‘Beauty Triangle’ regional strategy, aiming to harness the unique ecosystems of C-J-K Beauty (China-Japan-South Korea) in North Asia to drive synergies and sustainable growth in the local markets. Each market is tailoring its Big Bang program with a unique track and theme that reflects local strengths. In 2024, Big Bang pioneer China, in partnership with Oriental Beauty Valley and Business France, has evolved to cover multiple tracks including future science, phygital consumer, operations 4.0, gen-AI and sustainability. L'Oréal Japan, with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, previously focused on green sciences research and innovation (R&I), and will expand the program to cutting-edge skin and haircare technologies this year. L'Oréal South Korea will continue its partnership with the country’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups. Keeping the existing R&I, devices and delivery system tracks from 2023, it will add medical-inspired beauty and formulation, plus a digital track exploring generative AI. Sustainability takes the spotlight in Taiwan under the theme Green Beauty Consumer Journey in collaboration with the Taipei Computer Association. At L’Oréal Taiwan’s annual media day on 26 June, Big Bang Taiwan finalists showcased projects that foster green consumption. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s focus is smart retail. Partnering with Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and Business France Hong Kong, it explores Customer Experience Transformation through immersive phygital interactions. “We ride consumer waves with C-beauty, run fast with K-beauty trends and deep dive in expertise with J-beauty: our Beauty Triangle strategy envisages a holistic beauty ecosystem. Big Bang fuels open innovation in the region and provides inspiration, not only for us but also the industry,” says Vincent Boinay, President L’Oréal North Asia and CEO L’Oréal China. “We leverage the unique strength of each market to accelerate beauty tech transformation and aim to share these advancements around the region and the world.” The Jing Take: L'Oréal’s North Asia zone is the second largest region for the French beauty behemoth, accounting for 25.9% of its global sales in 2023. Home to more than one-third of the world’s total beauty consumers, the region is also a hot-bed of beauty innovation. Since being piloted in mainland China in 2020, over 2,000 participants have taken part in Big Bang across North Asia. Through the Big Bang program, L’Oréal worked with startups to explore various fields such as bio-tech, material science and data, devices, with 60 projects and technologies realized for commercial use. Among these is the patented ‘Nanochip’ technology utilized in Lancôme’s Renergie Nano-Resurfacer | 400 Booster, which debuted at VivaTech Paris 2024. The multi-pronged Big Bang initiative not only develops proof-of-concept projects based on consumer and business needs, it also seeks to develop a community of entrepreneurs – known as “Big Bangers” – and strategic platforms for networking. Big Bang also provides global exposure opportunities for the participants, such as a beauty tech innovation showcase at China International Import Expo (CIIE) and VivaTech. This international exposure can swiftly empower participants, as French company CTIBiotech found. The winner of Big Bang China’s French channel has already signed an MOU at Viva Tech with Oriental Beauty Valley to expand its business in Greater China. In addition, Big Bang opens the door for participants with investment. In September last year L'Oréal announced its first open innovation investment in Chinese biotech company Shinehigh Innovation, winner of 2022 Big Bang China. By fostering innovation through nurturing disruptive start-ups, the world’s largest cosmetics company is able to stay at the forefront of beauty tech innovation and offer the industry a framework for future sustainability. The Jing Take reports on a piece of the leading news and presents our editorial team’s analysis of the key implications for the luxury industry. In the recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese social media.

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L’Oréal Big Bang spurs open innovation to form North Asia as beauty tech powerhouse