Even without being
, Chinese companies are now building world-class, premium products, though China’s signature feature of undercutting the established market remains. Whether or not a Chinese company is first to a technology, it makes sure to be first to a breakthrough price.
Backed by
in 2014, Huami is responsible for creating the massively popular Xiaomi Mi Band, which has flooded the China market at a $20 price. The Mi Band offers most of the features of a Fitbit fitness tracker — including step counting and heart-rate monitoring — at a fraction of the cost. After expanding to sales in the U.S. and launching its own Amazfit brand, Huami is now
per quarter, and its chief executive talks openly about “taking out” at least some of its larger rivals, including Apple and
“The operating models for
and other European and U.S. smart device vendors are flawed. Their retail price is very high,” Huami CEO and founder Wang Huang says. “You will only be able to sell very expensive products to a very small group of customers because mainstream and lower-end markets will be eroded by companies like us.”
and Huawei. 2018 saw these brands make major inroads into the European market, relying on better pricing and faster feature introductions. Xiaomi “consistently produces budget flagship phones with first-to-market implementations,” says Techsponential’s Greengart. Along with SIVGA, Huami and Insta360, they’re following in the footsteps of companies like
, which was among China’s early breakout successes after buying
’s PC business in 2004. Their global ambitions and innovation pose a serious threat to the leadership of a plethora of U.S. tech products in areas from design to functionality, whether they be GoPro cameras, Apple iPhones or HP laptops.
China’s rapidly rising tech creators are not without commercial savvy. Many of them are planning to seek capital on Shanghai’s new trading venue for startups, locally known as the Star board.
, the Xiaomi-backed outfit that acquired
in 2015, aims to raise $300 million there. In unicorn territory, the
-backed
, which creates natural language translation algorithms for its Wear OS smartwatches, is also
to be seeking a high-value listing on the Star market.
, the startup that earned a measure of notoriety by beating Samsung to selling the world’s first foldable device in 2019, has managed to secure
that will see the two companies putting flexible screens on handbags of the future. Like Huami initially leaning on the Xiaomi brand to build itself up, Royole stands a chance to be a luxury goods player with the help of a bigger company. The differences between California’s Silicon Valley startups, which have tended to do a better job of marketing and deal-making, and China’s new generation of homegrown businesses are gradually disappearing.
American critics, such as President Donald Trump, commonly point to a track record of Chinese companies copying features from abroad, and one of their bits of evidence is the way Apple’s iPhone software and design seem to be habitually recreated by Huawei, Xiaomi and others. There’s not much that a Western company can do in such situations. When Segway filed a complaint against a number of Chinese brands for IP violations, it ended up conceding the fight and getting acquired by one of its defendants.
The observable change now is that a new generation of innovative companies aren’t waiting for someone else to show them the blueprint. China’s rapid ascent in innovation goes beyond anecdotal evidence from startups like DJI and Huami, and the country’s corporations now rank among the world’s most prolific patent applicants.
“The trend of China moving to high-end manufacturing, research and design is unstoppable,” said Jia Mo, a Shanghai-based analyst with consultancy
.
