40 Days to Earn 100 Million

When your user base is large enough and you want to get rich quick, you can go big. For example, the Guangdong couple selling green juice on livestreams (we all know it's essentially just crushed greens and leaves—a survival food from wartime scarcity)—costs pennies to produce (under 20 yuan including packaging) but sells for 149 yuan. From incorporating a company, buying the trademark, contracting a factory, hiring a spokesperson, producing the packaging, to launching and eventually pulling the product, it all took about 40 days and grossed 100 million yuan (454,000 orders), with a near-10% negative review rate.

We mock other species for their seven-second memory, but human memory isn't much better. Every decade a new cohort of "leeks" grows up to be harvested—so-called industry (stupidity tax) cycles.

The Craziness of Green Juice: Unmasking the Capital Game Behind the Guangdong Couple