Famous Chinese internet retailer FastTech is shutting down following ten years of providing global vapers on a budget with their products. The company appears to have suffered from China's recently imposed license and sales regulations in addition to the shifting consumer base for vape devices.
The business posted on its customer forum on December 5th, announcing its plan to close. In the message, which is signed "FastTech's story ends here" and is credited to the FastTech team, the business directly points the finger at limitations put in place following China's 2021 transfer of control over the vaping market to the state tobacco monopoly.
The firm stated in their letter that "the new legislation on the vape industry has been the primary reason for this decision." "The new regulations and limitations increase the level of uncertainty in the future and make it impossible for us to maintain our competitiveness in terms of price and delivery. We made every effort to stay away from this situation. Nevertheless, we are compelled to close due to the industry rule that is in place at the moment.
We would like to use this occasion to express our gratitude to each and every one of you for your 10 years of support. Serving you all has been an honor. Without you, we would not have survived as long as we did. Your support and patronage have contributed to the fantastic ten years of FastTech.
The company's website seems to be up and running as of December 7, yet practically every vaping product is marked as "sold out." Although FastTech hasn't specified a deadline for placing orders, it seems to be almost finished right now.
2019 saw China ban domestic internet vape sales, but FastTech doesn't appear to have been impacted. The company decided to close as a result of newly implemented Chinese licensing and sales requirements as well as a new tax structure. It's possible that the vape ban in neighboring Hong Kong, which forbids the importation of Chinese vape products for shipment by air out of Hong Kong, had some influence. A large portion of FastTech's inexpensive shipping passed via Hong Kong.
FastTech provided affordable shipping and often near-wholesale costs for vape (and other) products to customers abroad. Indeed, at times their prices were so low that owners of small vape shops chose to purchase straight from FastTech instead of local distributors. (Other vape shop owners detested FastTech, claiming that their establishments were unfairly expecting new customers to pay FastTech-like costs.)
Deal hunters were not the only customers FastTech catered to in nations where the sale of vape products was prohibited. There, modest parcels carrying vape devices were frequently able to elude customs officers who were searching for massive shipments of illegal goods.
The retailer gained initial notoriety in 2013 after Joe "Vapor Joe" Petner's blog writings and mentions on vaping communities such as ECF and Reddit's r/electronic_cigarette subreddit gained popularity. The vaping markets in the United States and Europe were booming at the time, and the dedicated core of the community still included a large number of gadget enthusiasts, tinkerers, and cheapskate types who were willing to put up with the occasionally long shipping times that earned FastTech the nicknames "Slowtech" and "the slow boat."
