Demand for Moutai sets off online stampede

Patent attorney Zhang Cong's niece was about to turn 100 days old.

To celebrate, the Zhang family planned to serve banquet guests Kweichow Moutai, a luxury brand of Chinese baijiu, a clear and colorless liquor, known as China's national spirit.

A token of wealth in a society steeped in "face culture", Moutai is usually available only secondhand, at about twice the suggested retail price of 1,499 yuan ($232) per bottle for its benchmark type.

To get the high-end liquor at lower cost, the Tianjin-based lawyer had been stalking the Suning and JD e-commerce sites since January, alongside his father, brother and sister-in-law.

The two sites are among a growing number of e-retailers drawing consumers with daily releases of small amounts of Moutai sold at the suggested retail price.

But there are rules: a maximum of two bottles for every real-name purchase, and no more than two bottles a month per buyer.

Not a big fan of baijiu himself, Zhang jostled with other e-buyers for the rare bargain as this month's Spring Festival celebrations－a traditional gift-giving season－drew near.

The 38-year-old even set alarm clocks to make sure he didn't miss the releases at 9:30 am and 10 am.

Then came the repeated frustrations: A tap on the "buy now" button－then buffering, sold out－all taking place within a couple of seconds.

"We're about to give up," he lamented. "Ten years ago, we were able to buy the liquor at original prices by the box," with each box containing six bottles.

Zhang is among a growing young Chinese middle class cohort attempting to get hold of cheaper bottles of Moutai to drink or for speculation.

The huge profit margin has led some white-collar workers to turn to reselling the drink as a sideline job, giving rise to Moutai-related social phenomena.

A video that went viral recently shows a young woman employing a high-frequency fascia gun－designed to massage muscles after intensive physical training－to tap on her forefinger hovering above the "buy now" button, in an attempt to get an upper hand in the competitive liquor-shopping spree.

Though many saw the video as just fun, the video prompted Tmall, another e-commerce giant selling Moutai, to respond in a seriously worded statement that the practice could lead to injuries.

The statement also warned consumers not to use liquor-buying apps due to computer virus concerns.

"Moutai is for drinkers, not speculators," it said.

A search for "Moutai" on code-sharing platform GitHub.com produces dozens of open-source codes that can be used to help snap up Moutai on e-commerce platforms.

The codes enable users to automatically log on to a specific e-marketplace at a designated time and help them grab the liquor when the sale begins.

A code designed to help people leapfrog other buyers on JD has received more than 26,000 likes since it was posted in mid-January.

Made in hilly Guizhou province, Moutai was famously served at state dinners for visiting United States president Richard Nixon in 1972.

In 1974, US secretary of state Henry Kissinger told Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping: "I think if we drink enough Moutai we can solve anything."

Such endorsements have made Moutai the choice of banquet drink for important occasions.

"If you give Moutai to friends as a gift, the recipients are well aware of its value, like a hard currency," said Wang Yuhao, a Beijing resident who recently managed to buy a bottle from JD.

The popularity of Moutai has also led airports in Guizhou to use the liquor to attract tourists, with the airport in the provincial capital, Guiyang, launching a program in October that allows travelers to enter lotteries for up to two bottles at the suggested retail price. The airport said 600 bottles are available each day.

Li Tianli bought a bottle for 1,499 yuan through a similar program recently when he arrived at the airport in his home city of Xingyi, Guizhou, for the winter break from his computer science studies at Beijing Institute of Technology. The bottle was later mailed to his address due to infection concerns.

"Travelers used to buy it on the spot," he said. "Many bought it and resold it immediately to scalpers roaming the airport."

The frenzy surrounding Moutai has been spurred by growth in disposable incomes outpacing increases in the liquor's price tag, making it relatively more affordable for average Chinese.

A bottle of Moutai cost about 800 yuan 20 years ago, which was on a par with the average monthly salary for urban Chinese. The average urban monthly salary topped 3,600 yuan in the first half of last year, according to National Bureau of Statistics figures.

"Many middle-aged men are quite frugal and don't have much to buy, but they are willing to buy Moutai," Zhang said.

"Moutai to them is like Louis Vuitton to women and Air Jordans to young men."