In the past few years of development, domestic technology has continuously broken the monopoly situation of other countries and achieved independent research and development and production. But there is one industry that has long been monopolized by European and American companies, that is, hearing aids. Originally, we all thought that only the elderly will have hearing impairment, but in fact, it is not, European and American companies rely on hearing aids to make a lot of money in China, and often increase prices, what is going on?
Europe and the United States monopolize more than 90% of the domestic market
As we all know, for patients with hearing impairments, it is very important to hear sounds only by bringing artificial hearing aids, especially for many children who are still in childhood. However, in this technology, Western countries started earlier than China, and the current technology is much more mature than in China, and as early as 20 years ago, these Western enterprises began to enter China.
According to market statistics, the 6 best hearing aid companies in China are from abroad, and you can know these brands from abroad by inquiring everywhere in the market, at the same time, these European and American companies monopolize more than 90% of the domestic market share, and they have more than 8,000 store dealers in China.
Another device similar to artificial hearing aids, cochlear implants are also monopolized by foreign companies. For example, a cochlear implant company in Australia occupies more than 70% of the Chinese market.
Whether it is a hearing aid or a cochlear implant, as long as foreign companies occupy the majority, then the pricing power is in their hands, and there are many hearing impaired patients in China, which has undoubtedly become a market for these foreign companies to accumulate wealth.
72 million market segment
In the past, everyone felt that only the elderly needed artificial hearing aids to assist in listening to sounds, but in recent years, people's poor living schedules and work pressures have also led to many people's hearing impairments. So as early as 2017, the World Health Organization data showed that about 360 million people in the world are hearing impaired, and China accounts for 72 million people.
It can be seen that this is a very large market, and many domestic hearing aid companies are still foreign companies, which shows that they are seeking countless gold in China. Some people may have some understanding of hearing aids, common hearing aids on the market in other countries are priced at about 20,000 yuan, but when they enter China, they will sell for 50,000 yuan, which makes many families prohibitive.
On the other hand, some companies are also actively seeking ways to break the monopoly of foreign companies on the domestic market, a few years ago, some companies to sell low prices as a selling point, began to sell domestic hearing aids, the price is generally around 100-700 yuan, in order to attract groups that can not afford to buy high-priced artificial hearing aids.
At present, a company that sells relatively well in China is called Jinhao Medical, which was also sold overseas in the early days, and only transferred to the domestic market in 2018, but the overall proportion of market share was still suppressed by foreign companies. Even though these European and American companies have monopolized most of the market, the price is not cheap at all, and the price is rising year by year.
Price increase 150% sold domestically
These European and American companies not only enjoy the dividends brought by the market crowd, but also increase prices with their mouths open, claiming that their products have been upgraded every time, and every time they upgrade, the price will rise by 10%.
Even the same hearing aid, which costs $2,000 in South Korea and Japan, can rise by up to 150% once it enters the Chinese market. And some high-end hearing aids can even rise to 80,000-9 million yuan.
Although there is a large market for hearing aids, only 5% of the people who wear artificial hearing aids in China are inseparable, of course, this is also inseparable from the "sky-high price" sold by foreign companies. The "secret" mastered by foreign companies is the key chip of artificial hearing aids, which can make artificial hearing aids clearer, more obvious, and continue to improve.
Obviously, because we are monopolized by this "chip", the brands of foreign companies continue to increase in price and profit, while Chinese consumers either save money to buy or simply do not buy. Many companies in China have also begun to study hearing aids, such as Xiaomi's intelligent listening technology, which is independently developing chips to try to suppress the price of hearing aids.
Although the current domestic market is still monopolized by European and American enterprises, it is believed that in the near future, domestic enterprises can also make progress in hearing aids and bring cost-effective products to the Chinese.