Why Protein Powder Is the Next Big Grift in Southeast Asia
Are protein supplements the next big scam in Southeast Asia? We unpack the hype, the grift, and the growing influencer-led supplement economy.
Not long ago, the darling of Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem was agritech. Platforms like TaniHub and eFishery promised to revolutionize farming and fisheries with digital tools and traceability solutions. Investors were shown diagrams of sensor-equipped ponds and blockchain-backed rice paddies. Words like "empowerment," "sustainability," and "food security" filled pitch decks. It felt serious. Impactful. A little utopian.
But for all the terminology and VC optimism, both have spectacularly imploded, while a few others still limp along behind indistinct metrics and hard-to-verify outcomes. What they had in common was opacity. The inability of anyone outside the system to confidently say, “this is real, this is working.”
Enter protein.
Not the kind from grilled chicken or lentils, but the powdered, flavoured, often Instagrammed variety. Whey, casein, isolate, cookies, pancakes, and probiotic-enhanced gummy bears. It’s everywhere now. Sold as fuel, performance, transformation. Marketed with before-and-afters, lean bodies, and words like “clean,” “lean,” and “lab-tested.”
It doesn’t need to do what it says. It just needs to look like it might. For a certain kind of scam, that’s all you need.
Perfect Scam Conditions: A Grift Powdered to Perfection
What gave the alleged success of startups like Tanihub and eFishery their initial shine wasn’t technological brilliance. It was opacity. The numbers couldn’t be verified. The impact couldn’t be independently measured. The story sounded good, the market looked big, and the on-the-ground truth was far enough away to stay comfortably vague. Investors couldn’t disprove the claims, so they didn’t. That’s the key to a good grift: sell a believable lie in a space no one has time to investigate.
Now shift that model into fitness. The same architecture is already in place.
Who’s sending their locally marketed protein powder off to a lab to confirm the actual content?
Who’s inspecting protein bars to see if they really contain 30 grams of protein or if they’re just well-packaged granola?
Who’s cross-referencing amino acid profiles or questioning imported claims from white-labeled suppliers in Thailand or Guangdong?
Hardly anyone. And the industry is counting on that.
The Shopee case where a supposedly high-protein powder clocked in at just 6.42 percent protein should send alarms ringing. That’s not even trying. Yet the packaging matched the global brands. The macros looked legit. And it sold anyway.
The protein supplement business thrives on the appearance of science. It doesn’t need to withstand scrutiny. It only needs to create the illusion of credibility. The buyer trusts the label, the influencer, and the price tag. If it costs more, surely it must do more.
And so the grift moves forward, not because the product works, but because the story does. Just like the shrimp farms, success is built on what no one bothers to check.
Nutrition vs. Narrative: When Performance Becomes Aesthetic
Protein, as a nutrient, is not the problem. It’s one of the most fundamental building blocks of the body. You need it to repair muscles, maintain tissues, support immune function, and keep your metabolism ticking. The problem is how it’s being sold.
The conversation around protein has been hijacked by aesthetic performance culture. Scroll long enough on TikTok or Instagram, and you’ll find a stream of gymfluencers insisting that everyone is in a chronic state of protein deficiency. They throw around blanket rules like “one gram per pound of bodyweight.”
What’s left out of these posts is that those numbers are highly contextual. The gold standard recommendation is usually based on lean body mass, not total weight. And even then, it applies to individuals who are training consistently, often in a caloric deficit, and managing other parts of recovery. For most people who are eating a relatively balanced diet, protein intake is probably just fine.
But food, real food, isn’t marketable in the same way. A grilled chicken breast with rice and vegetables doesn’t come in a matte-black tub with a lightning bolt logo. You can’t sell affiliate links for eggs and milk. So instead, aesthetics masquerade as expertise.
Post-workout shakes aren’t harmful. They’re just not the secret weapon they’re often made out to be. Milk and a carb-heavy meal would do the same job, if not better. But that doesn’t fit the branding.
Influencers, AliExpress, and the Illusion of Expertise
The timing of the protein boom isn’t just about rising gym memberships or a growing interest in wellness. It’s also about the fact that everyone now believes they’re qualified to give advice. Fitness content is no longer the realm of coaches or nutritionists. It belongs to anyone with a ring light, and a halfway-decent caption.
It doesn’t take much. A few gym check-ins, a modest transformation, and suddenly you're a trusted voice on macros, recovery, and why this new protein blend is "literally a game changer."
Many of these so-called experts have gone from casual gymgoers to supplement ambassadors in a matter of months. Their “partnership” with a local supplement brand is often nothing more than a white-labeled product sourced off Alibaba, repackaged with minimalist design and a name that sounds vaguely scientific. But the followers don’t know that. The followers see a body they admire, a lifestyle they want, and a product that promises proximity to both.
This isn’t traditional deception. Most of them genuinely believe in what they’re selling. But belief doesn’t account for the years of trial, error, and often pharmacological assistance that go into sculpting those physiques.
What the audience gets is an end result, a filtered story, and a clickable link. The assumption is that they look that way because of this product. And while the influencer might admit to “hard work and consistency,” the quiet suggestion is that this particular powder is the edge you’re missing.
Regulation Lite: Why Southeast Asia Is an Easy Target
While the U.S. has the FDA (trying) to keep the supplement industry in check, Southeast Asia operates in a very different regulatory landscape. Oversight here is inconsistent, and in many cases, more aspirational than enforceable. Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority (HSA) is relatively strict, but its reach stops at the border. In Malaysia, Indonesia, or the Philippines, the rules start to blur. Even where frameworks exist, enforcement is often undermined by under-resourcing, fragmented jurisdiction, or simply the overwhelming scale of e-commerce.
Platforms like Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop have become supplement supermarkets. The digital shelves are overflowing with many unregistered, untested and untraceable powders, bars, and pills. Some bold claims, and a few influencer reviews are often enough to push a product to the top of search results. There is little barrier to entry, and even less friction for the end consumer.
This is where the problem begins.
Terms like “lab tested” are thrown around casually, often without naming the lab or providing any documentation.
“Clinically formulated” means someone typed that phrase into the label design.
Copycat branding borrows color palettes and packaging styles from trusted Western products, creating the illusion of quality.
Vague claims like “boosts recovery,” “supports lean muscle,” walk the fine line of legality while clearly selling a promise.
Consumers, especially those new to fitness, are unlikely to question the fine print. They believe that if it's being sold, it must be regulated. If it looks legit, it probably is. That assumption is what makes the region so ripe for exploitation.
When an industry becomes too complex for consumers to verify and too tempting for sellers to resist, the door swings wide open for storytelling to replace substance. In agritech, it was about helping farmers. In crypto, it was freedom from institutions. In the protein space, it’s the promise of transformation. Better, faster, leaner.
The supplements being sold aren't necessarily harmful. Most won’t ruin your health. But that isn’t the point. The real issue is that the claims around them are outsized, unverified, and often disconnected from what the products can realistically deliver.
And that’s what makes it so effective. People aren’t buying powders because they’ve read studies. They’re buying because someone with abs told them it worked.
If you’re eating well, training consistently, and sleeping properly, chances are you’re already getting most of what you need. The supplements aren’t magical. They’re just marketed that way.
At StratEx - Indonesia Business Advisory we help companies navigate complex people risks, incentives, and market realities that sit behind the surface story. Contact us if you're interested in scaling in fitness, FMCG, or digital,