Wang Ziru is going to make a smart ring. On May 8, a blogger whose profile is "Boss of Supply Chain Group" shared a video of a party with Wang Ziru. During the period, Wang Ziru revealed that he is currently in the smart ring business and seems to be seeking the above-mentioned blogger to invest in this project.
According to the video posted by the blogger, Wang Ziru showed off two smart rings, one is Oura's and the other is his own. Among them, Oura's ring is made of plastic and costs more than 2,000 yuan; while Wang Ziru's own ring is made of industrial ceramics, which has high hardness and is not easily damaged by daily wear, and the price is as high as 4,000 yuan. He also revealed that this smart ring project will be able to be mass-produced by the end of May, and the goal is to aim at No. 2 in the world.
Wang Ziru introduced that the global smart ring market is currently dominated by a brand founded by engineers with Nokia background. This brand mainly focuses on sleep recovery monitoring and does not pay enough attention to daily consumption monitoring. This brand has placed orders for approximately 10 million batteries in the supply chain this year and is expected to ship approximately 10 million sets. It is the largest ring brand in the world. Wang Ziru described it as "the Apple Watch or Go Pro in the ring field". At the same time, he believed that the competitiveness of the top three and four companies in the world is actually relatively limited.
Wang Ziru said that for his smart ring project to be successful as a Chinese brand, it must achieve "what others don't have, I have, and what others have, I have essence." "No one has what I have" means that the ring can have built-in motors and recording functions. Users can speak directly to the ring and record food and other information on their mobile phones without filling out forms or manually entering it.
"Everyone has the best" means that the sensor chip of his product is more accurate and more power-saving. It can also be equipped with physical buttons and vibration motors, and will vibrate when the recording is successful. In business scenarios, users do not need to carry a recording pen and can record directly with the ring.
In terms of market strategy, Wang Ziru plans to take a branding route domestically and use his accumulation in content and e-commerce channels to promote high-profile products. Overseas, he follows a pure trade logic, "the feature list is better than yours and the price is lower than yours."
When Wang Ziru tried to attract investors to "enter the game", he said that the smart ring market still needs an education cycle, just like AR glasses three years ago. By the time public awareness matures, the war will have been over. Now is the time to bet on new categories. "There is a Number One in the world, but China must have a Chinese version. Currently there is no Chinese version of the ring. Do you want to answer this question? It may be me, it may be Lao Zhou. Whoever you believe in, you vote for."
Wang Ziru also mentioned that the early hardware, software and the first version of the ring were all written by himself. "If you don't write it yourself, you won't be able to keep up with new changes."
What’s interesting is that although Wang Ziru kept talking eloquently throughout the video, his logic was clear and he described the smart ring project as very promising. However, the entrepreneur blogger echoed Wang Ziru "yes, yes, yes" throughout the process, and did not explicitly state that he would invest in the project.
Most netizens are not optimistic about smart rings.
Many people think that smart rings have useless functions and can be replaced by mobile phones or smart watches. Therefore, the market is actually not big and they are not optimistic about Wang Ziru's project. Some netizens are even worried that in extreme cases, the ring could catch fire on their hand. Many people also joked that Wang Ziru just wanted to "fool the local boss" into investing, but it seemed that the other party was not "fooled".
To put it bluntly, smart rings are indeed a "niche" smart wearable device that has a certain market. However, due to the physical form of the ring, smart ring products have limited functions and can usually only implement some basic status detection functions.
But if you want to realize the vibration, recording and other functions mentioned by Wang Ziru in the video, you need to install motors and physical buttons. If you also need to ensure that the ring cannot be made too large, the project cost may not be low.
Considering that Wang Ziru mentioned that his ring is made of ceramic, if mass production is successful, the price will probably not be less than 4,000 yuan.
There must be many alternatives that can realize the function of smart rings. If smart rings really sell for more than 4,000 yuan, will Wang Ziru's products be competitive enough?