Edited by Sun Jing 

For a long time, CES in the United States (Note: International Consumer Electronics Show) has been a bellwether for global consumer electronics industry trends.

Many innovative products make their global debut through CES.

However, nowadays, the 'first launch' of many new tech consumer products doesn't happen at trade shows, nor does it involve hour-long keynote speeches. A TikTok video lasting just a few dozen seconds can turn an AI-powered pair of glasses or a 3D printer into an overnight sensation, attracting their first batch of overseas users within days.

Tracing the origins of these new products, many stories begin in Shenzhen.

Here lies the world's densest 3C supply chain, famous for the mythical speed of 'morning blueprints, afternoon prototypes, and mass production in three days.' It has also nurtured tech consumer brands like Anker Innovations and UGREEN that have gone global through cross-border e-commerce.

Yet, when people talked about Shenzhen in the past, the focus was more on manufacturing speed. As content becomes one of the primary arenas for new product validation, the core of 'Shenzhen Speed' is also evolving: from rapidly manufacturing products to swiftly capturing demand, iterating quickly, and launching globally at pace.

The 'Shenzhen Speed' of China's 3C industry is now being recognized by the world in a new way.

01 3C Goes Global, With a New Core

Shenzhen has long been the global hub for consumer hardware innovation, excelling at 'making things happen.'

Relying on the electronics manufacturing industry in the Pearl River Delta, the Huaqiangbei business district can assemble 95% of a smartphone's components within an hour or turn an AI cultural companion from blueprint to prototype in a single day.

Over the past two decades, this unparalleled supply chain efficiency has repeatedly placed Shenzhen at the forefront of global consumer electronics innovation: from smartphones, Bluetooth earphones, and smartwatches to drones, action cameras, AI glasses, and 3D printers, an increasing number of tech innovations originate here, earning Shenzhen the well-deserved title of 'Cross-border E-commerce Capital.'

However, when shifting the perspective to growth models, many 3C products in the past relied on distributors and buyers to enter overseas markets, with manufacturers earning only marginal profits from supply chain scale. Even the traditional cross-border e-commerce model of stocking products essentially followed the same logic.

This explains why Shenzhen's 3C industry is evolving from being a 'Huaqiangbei OEM source' to a global 'high-tech industrial cluster.' Every market participant knows that technological innovation and branding are the only sustainable paths forward.

But replicating the next Anker Innovations is no easy feat. Today, cross-border e-commerce is facing a new divide: on one side, mature product categories are trapped in price wars; on the other, innovative products struggle to gain visibility in search results.

The cost of maturity often manifests as a lack of innovation, product homogenization, and price competition. A Shenzhen computer motherboard merchant once complained that during the worst market conditions, they could only earn 3 yuan on a motherboard costing over 300 yuan. Zheng Haixing, the cross-border operations head at Bemoe Technology, a leading Shenzhen 3C accessories brand, told us that in traditional data cable categories, where consumers primarily care about price and connector compatibility during active searches, competition devolves into endless price cuts.

The fortunes of innovative product categories differ from traditional 3C. 'Black tech' products like AI glasses, translation earphones, and 3D printers struggle to gain traction on shelf-based e-commerce platforms because consumers cannot search for products they don't know exist.

Creality, a leading consumer 3D printing brand whose products appeared in Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg's home as early as 2022, still grapples with expanding its niche category to mainstream consumers. AI glasses startup LUSBY learned this lesson the hard way—co-founder Rong Jianhua revealed that after launching on traditional e-commerce platforms, the product received zero exposure and zero conversions for months, even incurring hundreds of thousands of yuan in losses due to inventory backlogs...

▲A 2022 photo of Mark Zuckerberg's home shared on his Instagram, featuring two Creality machines on the desk

The emergence of new bottlenecks brings about new entrepreneurial opportunities. While cross-border e-commerce once solved the problem of selling goods overseas, today, more 3C companies realize that the more critical question is how to make consumers first recognize that a product is 'worth buying.'

Only by precisely aligning Shenzhen's supply chain speed and corporate R&D accumulations with overseas demand and scenarios can product innovation unlock greater value and provide a more solid foundation for branding.

Bemoe, LUSBY, and Creality have all begun new experiments on TikTok Shop.

02 New Products Break Out Through Content

When Bemoe decided to go global in August 2025, it didn't realize how powerful 'generational gaps' in product innovation could be.

Since its founding in 2019, Bemoe has achieved annual domestic sales of over 400 million yuan for a single data cable product in six years.

Its core product—a foldable stand data cable—wasn't a major innovation in China's 3C accessories market, but it addressed daily pain points: the 90° bend is less prone to breakage, and the tail end hides a rotatable stand that allows phones to stand upright while charging, making streaming, messaging, and video conferences more convenient. It consistently sold well.

Unexpectedly, these performance upgrades taken for granted by Chinese users represented a 'consumption upgrade' for foreign users accustomed to traditional data cables.

On TikTok Shop, Bemoe's overseas brand Basemo sold 60,000 data cables within three months of launching. An American tech influencer with only 6,418 followers explained the 'charging + stand 2-in-1' feature in a review video, which garnered over 12 million views and directly generated approximately $55,000 in sales.

▲TikTok influencer @heyitshannazz drives sales for Basemo data cables with a single video

A demonstration video lasting just over ten seconds can intuitively showcase the 'novelty' of traditional products. This has become a new solution for many Shenzhen 3C products on TikTok Shop: using content to first make consumers aware, then help them understand, and ultimately spark interest and purchases.

During the 2025 'Black Friday' period, AI glasses brand LUSBY achieved nearly $1 million in sales. This new Shenzhen-based brand became a dark horse in the AI glasses category by leveraging viral content.

Through original content created by U.S.-based TikTok creators, a pair of AI glasses priced under $60 found compelling use cases for American mothers of three, blue-collar repair workers, and skiing enthusiasts.

▲A Spanish-speaking construction worker wears AI glasses from Shenzhen while filming a roof repair video (Source: TikTok screenshot)

LUSBY co-founder Rong Jianhua later summarized: To sell a new product category, the first step isn't proving how advanced it is, but helping people visualize how they would use it.

In this process, finding suitable overseas creators and achieving localized expression are crucial.

Rong initially assumed that tech influencers would be the key to popularizing AI glasses, but it turned out to be ordinary Americans. In one video with over 62,000 likes, a Black influencer activated the glasses' translation feature to effortlessly 'eavesdrop' on an Arabic conversation between passersby. Another creator, filming roof repairs in first-person view amid strong winds, gained millions of views.

Creality's TikTok Shop operations head, Shi Ke, discovered a creative influencer last year. While unboxing Creality's scanner, the influencer spontaneously created a 3D model of himself. Nine hours later, he printed a lifelike full-size model. The video exceeded one million views and drove 1,500 scanner sales.

▲TikTok influencer @HiddenSteals prints a life-size bust of himself

At $200 per scanner, this content directly contributed $300,000 in sales.

During these experiments, sellers repeatedly found that for products requiring explanation, the most effective content isn't necessarily polished advertisements but rather spontaneous moments captured by ordinary users.

This creates a new growth path for new products: viral content drives social sharing, which in turn creates hit products, forming a closed loop from inspiration to sales. Objectively, this content-driven 'democratization of voice' levels the playing field, allowing industrial belt white-label brands and domestic brands to compete fairly with global giants.

For Shenzhen's 3C merchants, content e-commerce offers more than just visibility—it provides an alternative path to success without engaging in price wars.

This is because, in content ecosystems, a product's success depends more on its clear differentiation and the ability of content to communicate that differentiation effectively.

This is particularly crucial for niche, high-ticket new products.

When products can showcase 'why they're worth buying' through content rather than just comparing prices in search results, the competitive logic of Shenzhen's 3C industry shifts from 'selling cheaper' to 'how innovative' the product is.

03 Products Sell, Demand Returns

Even more significant changes occur after products gain visibility.

Traditionally, launching a new cross-border product involved R&D, production, listing, advertising, and then waiting months for sales data to determine market viability. Mistakes meant costly inventory write-offs and marketing expenses.

Today, the new product validation cycle is collapsing.

After Basemo's rapid sales surge, Zheng Haixing initially believed the 360° rotating stand addressed overseas users' core needs. However, he soon noticed a recurring question in influencer video comments: 'Can the cable be longer? Can it be 1.8 meters?'

▲Product image of Basemo data cable

Zheng realized that while 1.2-meter cables are common in China, overseas housing and electrical habits favor 1.8 meters.

Bemoe immediately adjusted its factory production lines. Within two weeks, the new cable version replaced inventory in overseas warehouses.

LUSBY's AI glasses underwent a similar process. The initial version required touching both temple arms to power on/off, which many users found inconvenient, leading to negative reviews. The team quickly relayed this feedback to R&D: the product was redesigned for single-side operation, adding features like auto-power-on when worn and auto-power-off when folded.

From user complaints to the next improved version hitting shelves took about a month. By the time 'Black Friday' traffic arrived, the product receiving demand was no longer the initial version but an AI glasses model continuously refined through user feedback.

This may be TikTok Shop's most significant impact on Shenzhen's 3C industry: consumer voices now reach product teams faster. Short video comments, live stream interactions, influencer reviews, user ratings, and return data collectively form real-time market signals. The traditional linear process of 'R&D—production—sales—review' is evolving into a circular model: 'R&D—testing—feedback—iteration—sales—R&D.'

Shenzhen's supply chain speed has found a new purpose.

With faster product validation, brand growth accelerates accordingly.

Previously, cross-border brands slowly built overseas recognition through heavy advertising, long sales cycles, and channel expansion. Today, a viral TikTok hit isn't just a sales opportunity—it's the beginning of brand equity accumulation.

Through 'content,' consumers see not just a cold product link but real people, a clear product philosophy, and sustained innovation capabilities. When these elements appear repeatedly, Shenzhen merchants' supply chain advantages gradually transform into recognizable brand assets for overseas consumers.

'Visibility' builds trust, while store followers, video and live stream clips, influencer content, user reviews, and authentic usage content become trust assets for new users and future products.

After Bemoe went viral on TikTok, multiple overseas traders reached out proactively. Within months, the factory secured 1.5 million cross-border orders, forcing the brand to upgrade production capacity by expanding its Shenzhen factory.

04 Young People Inherit 'Shenzhen Speed'

As Shenzhen's 3C industry shifts its growth logic, the people in its supply chain are also changing.

Manufacturers once prioritized engineers, procurement specialists, and foreign trade talent. Today, foreign language anchors, influencer managers, user researchers, and brand content creators are becoming essential for 3C go overseas (3C global expansion) companies.

▲Creality's global expansion team at work

Some young people previously considered distant from manufacturing are now finding their place. For example, those with backgrounds in media, design, or art may lack familiarity with factory technical parameters but excel in expression, communication, and aesthetics, making them adept at quickly capturing overseas trends and consumer interests.

Young people with an "online sense" are helping Creality open up new horizons. In 2025, "Black Myth: Wukong" became a global sensation. Shi Ke's team launched a related challenge on TikTok, attracting hundreds of thousands of overseas users to participate. Young people connected 3D printing with gaming culture, enabling products originally targeted at geeks to reach a broader interest-based audience.

These changes are redefining the kind of talent the 3C industry needs.

Shi Ke observed that in Shenzhen's overseas markets today, talent with experience in TikTok Shop's explosive sales is even "up for grabs." For the new generation of 3C companies, understanding the supply chain is no longer enough; they also need people who can translate products into content that overseas consumers can understand, see, and are willing to share.

This also represents a relay between two generations of Shenzhen's 3C professionals.

The previous generation of entrepreneurs solved the problem of "whether products could be made," relying on supply chains and product technology to bring Shenzhen-made goods to the global market. The new generation needs to solve the problem of "whether products can be seen and chosen," using content, responsiveness to user needs, and technological iteration capabilities to make overseas users recognize the creativity of Shenzhen-made products and be willing to pay a premium for them.

With the relay between two generations of Shenzhen's 3C professionals, the "Shenzhen Speed" is no longer just about the speed of machines in factories or the speed of distribution in Huaqiangbei; it is the speed of innovation jointly supported by the entire industrial chain.

Huaqiangbei remains bustling, but Shenzhen is no longer just a global source of 3C products. A new link is forming between supply chains, technology, content, and global consumers. In the past, Shenzhen-made products competed on the speed of bringing products to market; today, they compete on how quickly they can identify needs, iterate products, and bring Chinese innovation to the world.

This, perhaps, is the new meaning of "Shenzhen Speed" today.