Dabao was China's #1 skincare brand — then J&J bought it and never changed the formula

Dabao was founded in 1985 as the Beijing Sanlu Factory and became China's most recognizable mass-market skincare brand. Its flagship product, Dabao SOD Milk (大宝SOD蜜), was a household staple sold for under 20 yuan, and the line '大宝明天见，大宝天天见' was one of the most famous advertising slogans in the country. By 2003 Dabao commanded 17.79% of China's skincare market, far ahead of any competitor.

The decline began before any ownership change. In 2004, Procter & Gamble paid 385 million yuan for the CCTV advertising title sponsorship and flooded the airwaves with Olay commercials. Dabao could not keep up. Between 2003 and 2005, its market share collapsed from 17.79% to roughly 1% as Olay captured the mass-premium tier that Dabao had dominated.

In July 2008, Johnson & Johnson acquired Dabao for 2.3 billion yuan — many times its net asset value. But instead of revitalizing the brand, J&J let it coast. Dabao's product lineup barely changed: the same SOD Milk in the same plastic bottle, the same formula. Key executives who handled the acquisition emigrated to the United States, and founder Wu Baoxin left to start a new brand dismissed as a Dabao knockoff. By the 2020s newer C-beauty brands owned the mass market, and Dabao was a nostalgic relic.