In China, You Can Be A Millionaire Selling Cans of Clean Air

Would you pay real cash for…air?

Many of us do not thank anyone or anything for air. In China, there is a huge environmental crisis – pollution of air. Air pollution is measured in terms of PM2.5, and levels greater than 300 are serious health hazards. Beijing’s air quality often exceeds 500, with levels as high as 755.

Just take a moment to let that sink in!

Entrepreneurs have successfully created a high demand on this perceived need, and China is now selling cans of clean air at $0.80.

Red alerts for smog in Beijing
Beijing’s high level of air pollution called for red alerts – shutting down of schools, factories and construction sites. Car limits were also enforced since everywhere seemed like a blur and breathing in is no longer safe.

Canada took this opportunity to bring in some cash
One such company from Canada, Vitality Air, started cashing in on Beijing’s worsening air quality problems by selling aluminum cans of fresh air and oxygen. They were one of the few companies to start selling air in cans, which were originally priced at $10 to $20 each. These cans resemble the spray cans, and turned out to be a huge success.

First marketed on Twitter
When the air condition took a turn for the worse, the company took to Twitter to promote their innovations – air in a can. They were trying to send people the message that they needed bottled air just like how people felt a need to buy bottled water.

Air was from Rocky Mountains
Rocky mountains is located in Canada, known to be a place for its fresh water and air. Alberta-based company Vitality Air begun to sell these cans of compressed air after filling them in retail canisters and shipping them worldwide.

It was sold out immediately on Taobao
Taobao is a e-commerce platform from China, which most of us are familiar with since we shop on it too. The cans of air were immediately sold out after being marketed and sold on Taobao, leaving a bunch of customers requesting to become their distributor.

Started out as a joke
Founders Moses Lam and Troy Paquette started this as a joke, selling fresh air in sealable food bags for 99 cents each on Ebay, It raked in $168 Canadian dollars ($122 SGD) shortly after, and Vitality Air was launch.

Chinese Multimillionaire starts selling air in cans too
Chen Guangbiao made his fortune after selling soda pop-sized cans of air, which he probably got the idea from the Canadian company. He sells his canned air in rather smaller drink cans, priced at only 80 cents each. It was also reported that 8 million of these cans of fresh air were sold in a period of just 10 days.

It seems like “eat air” now have a whole new meaning altogether.

Featured Image: cbc.ca

This article was first published on Goodyfeed.com