Please note that the reversing ......" tricycle, commonly known as the "three jumpers" in China, especially in the streets and rural fields of China's towns and villages, "three jumpers" can be seen everywhere, and the sentence "please pay attention to reversing" sounds very kind. Who would have thought that such a "three jumpers" with Chinese characteristics have recently exploded overseas and become a new Internet celebrity product, and Western netizens have sought ways to buy them.
In the sparsely populated rural areas of Europe and the United States, cars are a necessary means of transportation for families, and pickup trucks and box trucks with large capacity have become people's favorites. However, compared with large cars such as pickup trucks and trucks, the Chinese-made "Three Jumpers" are inexpensive and flexible in turning. Especially in narrow country roads or places that cannot be driven, the advantages of tricycles are more obvious, so the "three jumpers" easily solve the demands of European and American netizens where they want to go. Moreover, the "three jumpers" are widely used, in addition to carrying goods, you can also take people, charge at any time, who uses who says good.
"Three jumpers" are loved by European and American netizens, allowing Chinese to see business opportunities. According to "Red Star News", Lu Hao, a "post-90s" guy from Guizhou, China, accidentally saw a video on the social platform "China's three jumpers are popular abroad" at the end of last year, and came up with the idea of selling Chinese tricycles in the United States. So, he contacted friends to form a small team, bought tricycles from domestic manufacturers, shipped them to U.S. ports by sea, and then transported them by truck to warehouses in Los Angeles, California, and the first batch of dozens of vehicles were purchased. Guizhou guy Lu Hao said that the rent of the local shop is higher, but the warehouse cost is low, and the goods are stored in the warehouse, about 100 yuan a piece, and since the official start-up, the first batch of dozens of tricycles have been sold out.
After all, middlemen like Lu Hao are in the minority, and it may be difficult to return to the cost in a short period of time with the investment of manpower and material resources in the early stage. In order to meet the different needs of consumers, domestic and foreign e-commerce platforms have put on the shelves purchase links. On the domestic e-commerce platform, the lowest price of a "three jumpers" is 3,500 yuan, while the price on the Amazon e-commerce platform is 3,299 US dollars.
The "three jumpers" praised by Xie Feng and Hua Chunying exploded
Adapt to the trend of global new energy industry development
China's "three bungees" have become a hot word in the field of foreign trade, and even Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng and Assistant Foreign Minister Hua Chunying have successively promoted the domestic "three bunges" on foreign social platforms. Since 2023, a large number of "Made in China" electric vehicle companies Yadea and Zhongxing have established production bases in Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and some car companies are preparing to set up production bases in Europe, including some "three-jumper" manufacturers.
Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng and Assistant Foreign Minister Hua Chunying promoted the domestic "Three Jumpers" on foreign social platforms.
According to data released by the market research institute "Baizhi Strategy", the global electric tricycle market is showing a steady expansion trend, with the global electric tricycle market sales reaching 61.86 billion yuan in 2023 and is expected to reach 149.89 billion yuan in 2030. Among them, Asia-Pacific is the world's largest market, accounting for about 90.06% of the market share in 2023, followed by the European market, accounting for about 5.14%.
资料来源:百谏方略(DIResaerch)研究整理
The rise of the "three bungees" is not unrelated to the global trend of encouraging green and energy-saving travel. According to the "Electric Tricycle Market Size and Share Analysis" report, in recent years, governments and organizations around the world have taken various measures to encourage buyers to choose electric tricycles over traditional vehicles. For example, UNEP is supporting developing countries in developing national plans to introduce electric two- and three-wheelers in Africa and Asia. UNEP is supporting electric two- and three-wheeler projects in eight countries in Africa and Asia: Ethiopia, Morocco, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. Such activities are expected to drive the integration of electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers, which may help in the shift from fossil fuel-based mobility to electric mobility, thereby driving the growth of the market.
The "three jumpers" are on fire, and the prospects of two-wheeled electric vehicle companies in overseas markets are also bright. China is the world's largest two-wheeler production base, as well as the world's largest consumer and exporter of two-wheeled electric vehicles, accounting for 74.3% of total global sales in 2022. According to the "Electric Two-Wheeler Market Information Report" by Market Research Furture, the market size of electric two-wheelers will exceed 100 billion US dollars (about 700 billion yuan) by 2030, and the compound annual growth rate from 2022 to 2030 will be 34.57%. Such a huge $100 billion market will be a huge opportunity for China's electric two-wheeler supply chain.
Partnering with international superstars is part of China's EV strategy to go global.
In addition to the traditional motorcycle supply chain, the first-mover advantage of China's new energy industry chain has enhanced the leading position of Chinese enterprises in this track. According to MotorCycles Data, the top three brands in global motorcycle sales in 2022 are Japan's Honda, India's Hero and China's Yadea. Among them, Yadea is the only company that only produces electric two-wheelers. Relying on the first-mover advantage of China's electric two-wheelers, a number of global research institutions have listed Chinese electric two-wheeler companies such as Yadea, Emma, Mavericks, and Xinri as industry leaders.
Why is Chinese products so popular among consumers around the world?
It is no accident that "three jumpers" and two-wheeled electric vehicles have become popular in the international market, and Chinese-made electric blankets, electric fans, refrigerators, washing machines, smart door locks, wigs, wedding dresses and even pet brands have been put on international e-commerce platforms.
Not long ago, a Henan brother who has lived in Ghana for 10 years came out of the circle with his accented "Chinese English", and was even reported by Xinhua News Agency. In addition to the story of this Henan brother who taught himself English, netizens also became interested in his work in a local Chinese-funded company, because this company produces wigs, what kind of motivation drove Henan brother to leave his hometown and run to Africa thousands of miles away to produce wigs?
In China, wearing wigs is a special demand for people with hair loss, and the market size is not large, but overseas, especially in the black market, wearing wigs is not because of hair loss, it is closer to the so-called "appearance economy", which can be regarded as jewelry or cosmetics in a sense.
With a population of more than 1.4 billion, Africa is the world's second-largest consumer market for hair products. Because black hair is naturally curly and not easy to grow, wigs can be said to be in demand in Africa. Especially for women, wigs are to them what lipstick is to Chinese women. Every Christmas, African locals buy wigs, just like Chinese buy clothes and style during the New Year's holidays. The huge market has spawned a much larger gold mine than the Chinese wig market. Outside of Africa, the black American community has been the world's largest market for wigs. Superstar Rihanna is the richest female singer in the world, spending millions of dollars a year on her hair. Celebrities such as Michelle Obama, the former "first lady" of the United States, and singer Beyoncé also often wear wigs.
In the past, Japanese and Korean wig brands controlled the global market, but now Chinese wig companies have long been king. After 2000, the domestic brand Rebecca was promoted to the world's largest wig provider and successfully listed on the A-share market. Rebecca has also expanded its industry overseas, with three factories in Ghana, Nigeria and Mozambique in Africa alone. Henan's big brother, who became popular on the Internet with Chinese English, is working in the Rebecca Ghana branch.
Chinese products can conquer cities around the world, and the outbreak of cross-border e-commerce has played a role in fueling the fire. Temu, TikTok Shop, AliExpress and SHEIN, known as the "Four Tigers of China's Cross-border E-commerce", have already had a big impact on the traditional e-commerce Amazon, because on the "Four Tigers" platform, consumers are more likely to find high-quality and low-cost products made in China. Temu is the American version of Pinduoduo, TikTok Shop relies on TikTok to bring traffic, and SHEIN started by selling wedding dresses earlier. In the past 10 years, SHEIN has grown from a wedding dress foreign trade website to a fast fashion "unicorn" with a valuation of $66 billion and annual sales of more than $29 billion.
SHEIN mainly sells clothing.
Why are global consumers focusing on Chinese brands? For example, last year's northern hemisphere summer was scorching, and many countries were hit by extreme heat. In very hot weather, no more than 10% of households in Europe have an air conditioner, because the price of installing an air conditioner in Europe is too expensive. For example, in the United Kingdom, the price of the oldest traditional "window air conditioner" starts at 500 pounds, which is more than 4,000 yuan. Coupled with the tight frontline of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Europe is in the midst of an energy shortage, and ordinary people simply cannot afford the high electricity bills caused by the use of air conditioners. Electric fans and mattresses from China are only sold for a few $20, and they have immediately become a "magic weapon" for Europeans to cool down.
According to customs data, as of May 2023, 13.55 billion yuan of fans have been exported from Shenzhen port alone, of which fan exports to the EU market increased by 64% year-on-year to 2.14 billion yuan. According to data from cross-border platforms, in the summer of 2023, domestic solar fans in the United Kingdom, Germany and other European countries achieved an increase of 641% in less than 3 hours, and mattresses and hand-cranked fans increased by more than 300% in a single day, creating a sales miracle.
Orient Securities lists 11 of Temu's most popular home appliance brands.
Wigs, "three jumpers" and white goods entering the European and American markets are just the tip of the iceberg of China's manufacturing industry. According to the General Administration of Customs of China, in 2023, the total export of electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and solar cells will be 1.06 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.9%, and the export of "new three" products will exceed the trillion yuan mark for the first time.
That is, a few years ago, the electric vehicle market was still dominated by Tesla, but Chinese car companies have successfully occupied most of the Chinese market through technological innovation and price advantages, and have also created a "Chinese whirlwind" in the global automotive industry.
Tesla, which once held the top spot in electric vehicles, recently announced a 10% layoff, and Tesla's head of battery development and vice president of public policy have also announced their departures in recent days. Tesla's global vehicle deliveries in the first quarter of 2024 fell for the first time in nearly four years, and the gross profit margin in the fourth quarter of 2023 was 17.6%, the lowest in more than four years. A flurry of negative news has caused Tesla's stock price to fall by about 35% this year. Investors ideally believe that Tesla's growth is in trouble with "bigger negative signals".
Tesla's sales model of "one trick to eat all over the world" has been gradually abandoned by consumers, Tesla Model 3 and Model Y were once widely acclaimed, but these two models are already old models on the market in 2017 and 2020, and Chinese users have gradually experienced "aesthetic fatigue" in their mentality after several years of pursuit. On the other hand, domestic electric vehicle brands such as BYD, NIO and Xpeng have frequently invested in R&D, and they have actively laid out multiple technology routes such as pure electric, hybrid and hydrogen fuel to accelerate the transformation of the industry, taking Chery as an example, the company spends about 7% of its annual sales revenue on R&D investment.
Not long ago, Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce, said at the roundtable of Chinese-funded electric vehicle enterprises in Europe held in Paris, France, that China's electric vehicle companies rely on continuous technological innovation, perfect production and supply chain system and full market competition to develop rapidly.
At present, due to the trade barriers set up by the United States and some European countries, there are still resistance for Chinese EV brands to enter these markets. However, with the increasing popularity of "Three Jumpers" on overseas social platforms, more and more overseas buyers favor this kind of cheap and high-quality Chinese products that have not been "blacklisted" by the US and Western governments. In other words, what BYD can't do, perhaps, "three jumpers" can do. Although the old beauties can't drive BYD in their home country for the time being, they can drive the "three jumpers" first and experience the silkiness made in China.
Author丨Yang Ying, the chief writer of Shenzhen Satellite TV Direct News
Typesetting丨Dong Yi, Shenzhen Satellite TV direct news editor