On March 26, news surfaced that China's richest man, Zhong Shanshan, has likely been in a bad mood recently, as the performance of Nongfu Spring hasn't been very good.

Nongfu Spring released its annual results announcement for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2024. The revenue last year was 42.896 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 0.5%; the company's net profit was 12.123 billion yuan, up by 0.4% year on year.

For the rapid decline in the company's performance, Zhong Shuai, the founder of Nongfu Spring, stated in the financial report that in 2024, the company was subjected to organized and sustained smear campaigns and attacks online, which posed an unprecedented test to the brand image of Nongfu Spring.

"Our packaged drinking water products have experienced a continuous decline in market share over the past three months, with annual revenues from packaged drinking water products down by 21.3%. However, we still maintain the number one position in the market share of China's packaged drinking water."

Before this, Zhong Shanshan had publicly expressed his hatred for low prices in the internet industry, believing that this would affect the development of China's economy.

"Price is not just a price; it is the lifeblood of a product. The internet's obsession with low prices is destroying the quality of China and undermining China's economy."

In Zhong Shenshen's view, without prices, there would be no innovation? A good housewife finds it hard to cook without rice; without the support of a price system, we can only opt for backward production methods. We can only resort to food additives, we can only rely on consumers' ignorance, as stimulants to promote our products.