As the pioneer of the world's first 65W GaN multi-port charger and the winner of China's first 120W GaN fast charging CCC certificate, Baseus has spent more than 10 years to cross the industry stage and become the world's No. 1 brand of GaN fast charging charger sales. From the beginning of formal contact with the capital market, Baseus took half a year to complete two rounds of financing of hundreds of millions of yuan.
Although the Baseus brand has not yet been fully recognized by the majority of consumers, its market size has been growing steadily since it entered the public eye. According to 36Kr's understanding, following the completion of hundreds of millions of yuan in April this year, Baseus recently completed hundreds of millions of yuan in financing, which was led by Shenzhen Capital and followed by C&D Emerging Investment, Gaorong Capital and Yuexiu Industrial Fund.
If an excellent brand is the same as the choice of capital, which is the hope of millions of people, then Baseus can become a treasure after the big wave in the picky capital choice in 2023, not only the surface of the luxury, but also the underlying strength and long-term considerations.
In the next era, what will be the new life digital brand that can become "one for everyone"? The changes around the lifestyle of young people can be seen: from the beginning of minesweeping on Windows98, to today's thin and light notebooks can be handwritten and can be wirelessly charged, from plug-in earphones to TWS that does not require a headphone jack, from external energy input with the help of fixed points, to the popularity of high-power portable energy storage power supplies-today's young people have put forward more demand for digital products, and brands can only continue to track market demand. Only by updating and iterating and infiltrating the pursuit of quality, design aesthetics, integration into life and other considerations into the lives of every young person can it be possible to achieve the goal of "one for everyone" in the next generation.
According to Baseus's relevant data, judging from the sales data of major channels on Double 11 this year, Baseus has once again won the first place in the market share of Baseus fast charging plug-in board. Unconsciously, this brand, which interprets the definition of a new generation of mobile digital peripherals and intelligent hardware with the power of "practicality and beauty", has already appeared in the lives of consumers. Looking back, what did Baseus do right, which has been recognized by consumers and capital? Looking forward, if it wants to become a brand that resonates with young people, where is Baseus's accumulation?
Equate digital accessories with branding
Compared with the rapid growth of China's GDP in the past 10 years, in the upcoming 2023, almost all consumers can feel the change in the water temperature of the market: personal willingness to save is gradually increasing, consumption decisions are more biased towards rigid demand transactions, and the demand for product functions is also based on practicality, and the performance is less than expected such as the global terminal market.
The reason is obvious: it is difficult for products to see breakthrough innovation, and the phenomenon of homogenization has begun to appear, and it is difficult to stimulate consumers with innovation points.
Growth exists, but some market space is "hidden". In recent years, such as TWS earphones, high-power mobile power and other subdivisions of the track have produced a phased popularity, these categories themselves have a large deterministic market space, but as a new type of product, it is difficult to make a clear definition statistically, and it is very likely to be divided into the subdivision scenarios of large categories. So on the surface, the emergence of these new categories does not seem to open up another "depression", but in fact, the growth point is breeding in subtleties.
At the same time, consumer priorities are changing. When the innovation point of the terminal product is difficult to please consumers, consumers turn to choose a more "cost-effective way to please themselves", focus on the needs of the scene, pay more attention to the use experience of the product, and the function becomes the foundation. For example, the best-selling mobile phone case brand can achieve an average annual sales volume of more than 3 million pieces, and the micro-innovation of emerging smart electronic consumer goods such as TWS earphones, smart speakers, air fryers, and smart watches are also more popular. It can be said that the consumer behavior variable at this stage is that the driving factor of product purchase has shifted from "function-oriented" to "experience-oriented".
The growth of digital products has gone through the accumulation of quantitative changes to the stage of qualitative changes, and digital products are actually standing at such a new starting point. At this moment, the more independent innovation ability of the product, the more can provide users with more choices, and is also winning more markets. It's not that winter is coming, it's a cold spring.
What is more worth looking forward to is whether digital accessories can have a strong correlation with the brand, which is a market innovation proposition that is being demonstrated. A customer acquisition logic that has changed is that in the last stage of consumer electronics, taking advantage of the east wind of channel dividends and category growth, the way to make products and find channels is effective, but at the moment when traffic tends to peak, the key to establishing a deep sticky relationship between brands and consumers is to manage existing customers.
Equating digital accessories with brands is the key to success at this stage. As a global brand, Baseus's brand three-dimensionality has been continuously enhanced in recent years, and in addition to gaining the favor of capital, consumers' "pick" is also increasing. According to Baseus's relevant data, Baseus' GMV increased by nearly 40% year-on-year during this year's Double 11 promotion, and the performance in overseas markets was also good, with the GMV of all platforms in overseas markets increasing by nearly 80% year-on-year during the November promotion. What's even more popular is that on August 28 this year, Baseus officially announced Wang Yibo as the global spokesperson of the brand, and the total exposure of the hot search on Weibo on the day of the official announcement exceeded 2 billion - a young, based on life scenes, the pursuit of practicality and beauty Baseus brand image is more and more clear.
In the weak state of the overall market, those who can buck the trend are often the concentrated embodiment of stable technical strength and ability to create expectations. If the road of technology and brand growth is like a long slope and thick snow, then fortunately, in the past 12 years of deep cultivation, Baseus has the precipitation of technology, the ability to maintain a "fast pace" and embrace the future, so that it can be recognized by capital, consumers, professional institutions and other sectors of society at present.
If we can find a company that can open the entrance to a new stage in order to cross the cycle, then Baseus is the key to the choice of the capital market.
Know the consumer better than the consumer himself
Judging from the market feedback, Baseus's new control of products seems to always be ahead of consumer demand. At this stage, travel scenes, office scenes and home scenes are the main scenarios of contemporary young people's life consumption, and cleverly, Baseus's product line also mainly focuses on the three core scenarios of film and entertainment, smart office and smart out.
Looking at consumer needs from the scene, from the perspective of products, from explosive products, to categories, and finally to brands, is the starting point and foothold of the new digital lifestyle that Baseus hopes to help users build, and it is also the opportunity that Baseus has seized at present. As Sony founder Akio Morita said, "Consumers don't know what they want, but we do," and brands that understand consumer needs before the market and can polish their products with time will be able to capture the "new lifestyle" of this era.
Since its establishment, Baseus has always maintained the original intention of "BASE ON USER", and created products with the concept of practicality and beauty. So, how does Baseus understand its own needs better than consumers? This is inseparable from Baseus's in-depth R&D logic.
In fact, Baseus' design concept of "practicality and beauty" can explain its prediction of consumer needs: the premise of being able to achieve "practicality" is that Baseus has worked research and development. The world's first 65W GaN multi-port charger and China's first 120W GaN fast charging CCC certificate are all from Baseus, and it is precisely because of solid technology accumulation that in 2021, Baseus GaN fast charging charger sales ranked first in the country and achieved great results.
But life is not limited to practicality, life is more aesthetic. When consumers first perceive the warmth brought by practicality, and then attach design aesthetics to practicality, it also adds warmth to consumers' lives. Since its establishment, Baseus Technology has won 150+ international design awards such as iF and Red Dot, and applied for more than 2,500 patents, all of which are encouragement to add some "beauty" to life. It is precisely because of the brand background of Baseus's "practical and beautiful" that more and more Baseus products appear in all aspects of young people's lives and become invisible items of "one for everyone".
It is worth mentioning that Baseus's R&D is not only to ask questions about the market, but also to make design innovation based on the understanding of the market and user research, focusing on the underlying industrial chain and looking for the inflection point of the industrial chain based on technology. In Baseus's product matrix, consumers can see new products such as Baseus high-power-density GaN power modules, digital power supplies, digital audio, AI+ hardware, etc., which are the real output of exploring the inflection point.
For example, in the smart travel scenario, Baseus launched the Nebula series of AC charging piles, which are the world's first home charging piles to introduce gallium nitride technology. Baseus aims to help new energy vehicle owners achieve safe and convenient home charging needs that are fully charged overnight and as simple as possible through user insight into charging scenarios. Combined with Baseus's deep cultivation of charging technology, the Nebula series AC charging piles can be counted and viewed through the APP, which can be remotely operated, charged by appointment, and when the mobile phone is detected nearby, it can achieve the non-inductive charging function, which truly realizes a new energy charging environment with more stable charging current, lower standby power consumption and more convenient use.
For another example, in the smart scenario, Baseus found that most of the high-power chargers are only a pile of charging power, which can only meet the power demand of office equipment, while entertainment equipment such as e-sports game laptops have not been satisfied. Therefore, Baseus launched the Digital GaN 240W GaN digital power intelligent desktop fast charging charger, which enables smart office scenarios to achieve "one desktop charging is enough", filling the gap that ordinary chargers cannot charge gaming laptops.
At the same time, this product is combined with digital software technology and Baseus APP, which can use Bluetooth to achieve remote control, timing and other functions, and can control the whole machine and single-port timing switch through APP, so that users can choose the maximum power output of a single port to meet the customer's electricity needs, and also intuitively feel the charging status of the device.
This year, in the field of power modules, Baseus Technology and universities and other scientific research institutions in the high power density gallium nitride research results "high power density gallium nitride power module development and industrialization" project, won the "Guangdong Province Science and Technology Progress Award" and "Chinese Institute of Electronics Science and Technology Award Second Prize", this widely known and influential award also confirms the strength of Baseus in the underlying research and development.
Baseus mentioned in the use of this financing fund that part of the funds will focus on the core scene of audio-visual entertainment, smart office, and smart travel, and further expand product categories such as digital power supply, digital audio, AI+ hardware, gallium nitride power accessories and digital power technology; Reserved space in the R&D center.
Technology can only be perceived when it enters people's lives, otherwise technology is still just a castle in the air that can be seen but not touched. Then, Baseus, who is willing to invest and study deeply, is a fertile ground for technology, providing an ivory tower for explorers who are willing to explore the overlap of life and technology, and welcoming more technology freaks who want to embrace the "new way of life" and work hard.
Baseus DNA: 99 points of sweat and 1 point of talent
Charm is always unknown, and visible progress can always give people the courage to face the unknown, we call it, visible hope.
Looking back on the development process of the past 12 years, Baseus brand has given birth to the underlying logic that can dialogue with the market, as well as the core of Baseus that can be shown to users, that is, Baseus DNA. Among them, it talks about "embracing change, pursuing market leadership", "hitting the market, building differentiation and innovation", seeking the ultimate in change and finding differences in homogeneity, which is the background color of Baseus's growth, which coincides with the "fast-paced" demand at the moment.
In terms of products, it is iterative from the way of small steps and fast steps of the group to the special decoupling of the team, in terms of channels, from the traditional e-commerce and interest e-commerce to the channel "combination punch" of e-commerce and retail, and in terms of categories, from 3C intelligent accessories to the dual-line mode of intelligent accessories and intelligent terminals, etc., all of which are the unique "fast-paced" rules of Baseus. Compared with most rookies, the stable and benign business state and strong hematopoietic ability make Baseus like a stable and innovative player.
Just as "99 points of sweat and 1 point of talent", Baseus DNA has also condensed the diligence with Baseus tone: "efficient balance, create integrated supply", "leading business, layout talent pool", "agile and flexible, improve operational efficiency".
Baseus shows its own combination of stability and efficiency. In terms of channel selection, in addition to taking self-operated e-commerce as the main body, Baseus has also opened up online and offline channels in core countries, and established a DTC model of overseas core domestic localized sales and brand localized operation. In the supermarkets in Baseus's main countries and regions, consumers can find Baseus products visibly with the naked eye, reducing the risk of return and exchange, which also makes Baseus more grounded and more localized.
In terms of localization layout, Baseus is more "heavy" and "deeper". In the 12 years of accumulation, Baseus has formed a complete set of systematic operation processes and management mechanisms from insight to product development to marketing operations, which has truly improved production efficiency, delivered suitable products to users faster, and better served users.
On the one hand, the necessary information such as core components, electronic components, and materials are all from Baseus to ensure the stability of the supply chain; on the other hand, in terms of warehousing and logistics informatization and mechanization, through the integration of logistics service providers, the introduction of SAP system, SRM system management, etc., to improve efficiency, in terms of efficiency, inventory management have achieved intelligent and efficient.
Regarding whether to do deterministic category development, Baseus has its own logic of seeking progress while maintaining stability. In fact, the key to category expansion is to focus on marginal benefits. If a healthy financial position is the foundation for a healthy and long-term business, then the ultimate goal of category expansion is the growth of revenue and profits. However, the expansion of more categories means the infinite expansion of the management boundary, which also requires more supplier management, more technical R&D personnel, project management personnel, product managers, designers, etc., and the increase of each person will be one more node, which will cause an increase in management costs. Therefore, based on the new category expansion under the logic of reusability, that is, while expanding the management boundary, the marginal cost is reduced, forming the basic criterion of a positive cycle.
Baseus emphasizes the re-display of its own value. Starting from Baseus's existing resources, according to the user groups, channels, supply chains of new categories to be expanded, and whether the underlying technology of the product is reusable, make a choice from the level of commercial value, and make the final choice based on the degree of reuse and the ability of new products that need to grow, and see the difference between value creation and value realization.
Find answers on the road, move all the way, and make up for and improve your own abilities along the way. After this financing, Baseus will promote the increase of the company's brand influence, improve the company's brand position in the world, continuously enhance its own advantages through the longboard effect in the global market, and try to expand new categories within the boundaries of the longboard effect, seize the structural opportunities in the new starting point, and drive the short board with the long board.
In the past three years, there have been only a few people who have been able to stand to the end of baptism, and even fewer who have been able to go against the trend. In the new economic wave of the past ten years, star enterprises have emerged in an endless stream, but on how to define a valuable "brand", someone once said: "It is Chen Keming in the noodle industry, Apple in smartphones, and Moutai in wine, not in the momentary glory, but in the long-term run." "In all good markets, the majority sees the opportunity and the minority seizes the opportunity, but no matter what the market state is, the long-term definition of corporate value has never changed: win with stability, build a moat, and have the last laugh.