There have always been two theories about how the world's first real water purifier was born.
In the early 19th century, there was a serious water pollution incident in the Rhine River, and the river water pollution had a huge crisis on the lives of the surrounding residents, and a 13-year-old boy in a small village in Bonn, Germany, Paul Eric (Paul Eric) finally invented the water purifier in 1826.
Another theory is that the British water conservancy expert Reed Stevo (1895 ~ 1979) was the first to invent the water purifier.
After reading John Snow's study "Cholera is Transmitted through Contaminated Drinking Water," he realized that some kind of equipment was needed to keep drinking water safe. In 1925, after many attempts, the world's first equipment was built that could filter wastewater.
During the cholera epidemic in London in 1854
John Snow documented the location of the deaths on the street and the number of them
It came to be known as the "Map of Death"
No matter which statement is correct, we can be sure that the origin of the water purifier is to solve the large-scale harm caused by water pollution to human beings, and the water purifier has contributed to the history of human development.
However, the penetration rate of the silky invention of water purifier in China is only 23%, while the penetration rate of water purifiers in Japan, South Korea and developed countries in Europe and the United States is more than 80%, the penetration rate in Europe and the United States is as high as 90%, and the penetration rate in South Korea next door has even reached 95%.
The penetration rate of water purifiers in different countries and the penetration rate of water purifiers in China are obviously low
Data source: Sullivan released the "2023 China Commercial Water Purifier Industry Research Report"
Obviously, very few people drink tap water directly, but why is the popularity of water purifiers that are obviously better used in our country so low?
Water purifiers are "not adaptable" in China?
Chinese people have their own needs for "clean water".
Although the water purifier is a "foreign product", the concept of "water purification" did not come from abroad at the earliest.
"Chinese and Western drinking habits are different"
The earliest record of water purification can be traced back to the "small-mouthed pointed bottom bottle" in the Yangshao culture in 5000 BC. This structure of small bottle mouth, big belly and pointed bottom can quickly and effectively precipitate impurities such as sediment in the water to the bottom of the bottle, and when pouring water, the sediment will be blocked in the bottle body, so that the poured out is clean water.
The "water bladder" recorded in the "Book of Tea" thousands of years ago is also the "water purification device" in ancient times. It is made of raw copper and woven into a sac shape with green silk, which can filter impurities and insect eggs in the water.
Tracing back to the roots, the Chinese have shown their wisdom about "clean water" very early. In addition to these well-documented water purification methods, what cannot be avoided is the unique habit of drinking hot water in Chinese.
All kinds of boiling water tickets in the last century
A product of the planned economy, boiling water needs to be purchased with a voucher
The habit of Chinese people to drink hot water can be seen
In our Chinese's general understanding, water is only clean when boiled, which is not only the influence of thousands of years of tea culture and geographical environment, but also for the consideration of drinking water hygiene and safety.
In the "patriotic health campaign" from the founding of the People's Republic of China to the seventies of the last century, when the environmental sanitation was poor, in order to disinfect and sterilize and reduce the epidemic, the problem of water cleaning became the lowest health demand of the whole people, so the whole country called on every household to boil water to remove bacteria, and the habit of drinking hot water among Chinese gradually developed.
In the last century, the knowledge of water purification was popularized and promoted
Therefore, the different drinking habits of China and foreign countries also lead to the different urgency of the demand for water purifiers in Eastern and Western families.
"Savage growth of the water purification industry"
However, with the continuous improvement of people's health awareness, the demand for drinking water has gradually escalated. However, problems such as polluted water quality, aging pipes, and excessive heavy metals are still frequent, and it is difficult to meet everyone's demand for good water quality just by boiling tap water.
In this context, "water purifier" has gradually entered everyone's field of vision as a more convenient and effective equipment for providing healthy drinking water. It removes harmful substances and impurities from the water, ensuring that the water is pure and safe for family members to drink every day, thereby reducing the risk of waterborne diseases and maintaining people's health and quality of life.
However, the huge gap between supply and demand breeds market chaos.
10 years ago, the water purifier was in a stage of rapid development, and some people said: "Focusing on the water purification market is equivalent to digging the last gold mine in the home appliance market." This has triggered the results of major manufacturers grabbing the water purifier market across borders. At that time, the number of domestic water purifier companies had grown to more than 4,500, and the output of water purifiers was still growing at a rate of 30%-40% every year.
Changes in China's water purifier output from 1999 to 2013
Data source: Qianzhan Industry Research Institute
An important factor in the low penetration rate of water purifiers lies in the brutal growth of the industry, too many non-standard manufacturers to seize the dividends of false publicity, inferior copycat products, behind the blowout development of the market, accompanied by continuous fierce competition.
As a representative branch of the refined vertical track of healthy consumption, water purifiers also represent a new way of life and higher consumption quality. Originally, it was the best solution to solve China's water purification demand, but due to the non-standard development of the industry, more and more users have no sense of trust in water purifiers.
Domestic water purifier
I know more about Chinese water
As early as the eighties and nineties of the last century, the water purifier was tragically Waterloo when it first entered China.
The first is the issue of price. The decade from the early 90s to the millennium was the initial development period of household water purification equipment. At this time, domestic water purification products are still in the exploration stage, and the price of imported water purifiers is generally above 3000. However, at the beginning of 2000, the per capita disposable income in urban areas was less than 7,000.
In other words, it is equivalent to spending half a year's income to buy a water purifier, which is a lot of money for most ordinary families.
The deeper reason is not the price.
For overseas brands, they started earlier, could have seized the Chinese's rigid need for water purification, and then took most of the market share like Apple.
However, the quality of tap water in the East and the West is different, and the requirements and testing standards for water purifiers in various countries are different, which leads to the "unsuitability" of imported water purifiers. In short, foreign brands don't understand Chinese water.
Imported water purifiers are designed and manufactured for the local tap water quality, while the tap water quality abroad is generally relatively good. Therefore, the requirements for water purifiers, especially the water purification capacity of water purifiers, are often not so high.
In addition, the water purification flow rate and rated total water purification of imported water purifiers are designed, produced, tested and tested according to local conditions abroad. After coming to China, it was neither designed, tested and tested according to the new conditions of use, nor adjusted according to the water quality situation of the mainland, but completely copied.
Therefore, the water purification flow rate and the rated total water purification volume may not conform to China's national conditions, and the setting is not scientific, and the water purification flow rate and the rated total water purification water volume are often set too large, resulting in insufficient purification capacity of the water purifier.
As a result, foreign brands are missing out on development opportunities, and new competitors are entering the market with solutions that better understand Chinese water.
Yi Kaide is the entrant who understands Chinese water better.
Different from the single-knife direct entry of imported water purifiers, Yikaide launched the "Seagull Water Purification Plan" in the early stage of its involvement in the field of household water purification, and organized the establishment of a cross-field water purification research group, which is composed of cross-field experts such as quality inspection engineers, project management engineers, and supply chain management engineers.
They visited different cities and water sources, studied the local water quality characteristics, and went deep into Chinese households to investigate the water consumption habits and water purification needs of different people, thus generating a series of data and research reports that are the parameters and basis for the research and development of Yikaide's water purification technology and products.
"Easy-to-open dialgae porcelain water purifier - solve the first generation of "core change problem""
After long-term research, it has been found that Chinese families generally have the pain point of "difficulty in core replacement" in the process of using water purifiers.
Based on this, in 2017, the "Diatom Porcelain Water Purifier" independently developed by Yikaide came out, the core components of which are quadruple nested composite filter elements, deep-sea diatomaceous earth, KDF filter material, silver ion exchange resin, high-density coconut shell activated carbon, and calcined into a Φ82x200mm super-large diatom porcelain filter element at high temperature. The filter element is washable and does not need to be replaced every year, making it the industry benchmark for cleanable filters.
Under the banner of "China Core Understands Chinese Water Better", Yikaide began to innovate and renew, and extended its tentacles to more potential water purification consumers, so as to build a "new territory" of growth, and also opened the road of the dark horse of the industry that belongs to Yikaide.
Among them, the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Quintessence" series of water purifiers jointly created with the National Peking Opera Company of China this year is the representative of Yikaide from entering the game to breaking the game.
When it comes to this product, we have to mention the cliché concept of "innovation". Before Yikaide launched the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Quintessence" series, the innovation of the home appliance industry has always relied on crazy "superimposed parameters".
In other words, there is a common problem of "innovation for the sake of innovation" in the home appliance industry.
"Game-Breaking Innovation"
Cooperate with the National Peking Opera Company of China to create the "Intangible Cultural Heritage: Quintessence of China" series
So what is innovation?
Peter Drucker once said, "Innovation is about providing value and satisfaction to customers by changing products and services." ”
Innovation is to spontaneously raise problems and think about problems, seek solutions, and in the continuous cycle of the two, quench a new invention, new service, and new concept. Innovation is not based on luck or betting, but on a down-to-earth basis to gain insight into users and precipitate technology.
Why Innovate?
In a market economy, any enterprise is eager to achieve continuous innovation in order to maintain its competitiveness. In fact, innovation is not as easy as people think, and it can achieve immediate results by investing resources such as manpower, material resources, and funds. A lot of innovation investment is often wasted, and most of the inspiration is accidental, and the resource input is not necessarily proportional to the innovation output. Therefore, countless companies are trying to find the secret of long-term business and innovation.
For the household appliance industry that has been turned upside down, the meaningless "involution innovation" is a shackle for the development of the industry, and Yikaide refuses to influence user purchase decisions by constantly stacking parameters in technological innovation, such as the mobile phone industry's "100 million pixel photography", the Internet industry's "unlimited expansion of mailbox space", and the simple "big wind" parameter competition of range hoods in the home appliance industry......
Instead, it takes "game-breaking R&D" as the cornerstone, as close as possible to users and real usage scenarios, gain insight into the potential needs of the market and even the needs that users have not yet perceived, and create new categories and new models through new technical perspectives and thinking concepts, and open up the "future consumer market".
"Yikaide "Intangible Cultural Heritage Quintessence" Series - Further Solving the "Core Replacement Problem"
Industry insiders all know that the cost of replacing the filter element of the water purifier generally discourages consumers, and the difficulty of changing the core of the water purifier has always been an unsolved pain point in the industry.
On social platforms, some consumers posted a similar topic - "How much does it cost to replace the filter element of a water purifier every year?".
Someone calculated that the cost of replacing the core in 6 years was more than 3,000 yuan, and the money spent on changing the core could buy a new water purifier. Moreover, it is very troublesome to change the core, and every time you have to make an appointment with an installation master.
Some netizens joked: "It turns out that buying a machine is just a down payment, and the next change of filter element is to repay the loan?" Changing the core every year is not only costly, but also very troublesome and worry-free, it is better to directly change to a new water purifier! ”
For a long time, the high cost of replacing the core of water purifiers has prevented many potential consumers.
Many businesses have also taken advantage of this to start "selling the host at a low price and changing the filter element at a high price", turning a blind eye to the real needs of consumers, while product research and development tends to be homogeneous. The high cost of core replacement has reduced the water purifier to a zombie machine, and also made consumers fall into the embarrassing situation of "can afford it, but cannot afford it".
This year, Yikaide and the National Peking Opera Company of China jointly launched the new "Intangible Cultural Heritage Quintessence" series, which is based on the insight of "China's household water purifier, easy to purify water, difficult to change the core".
The subsidy price of the "Intangible Cultural Heritage, National Quintessence" series of Peking Opera co-branded exclusive core replacement is 99 yuan per year, and consumers are contracted to change the core for 10 years, giving the greatest sincerity to our consumers, so that water purifiers can be afforded and used more affordably, so that technology is no longer a slogan!
At the same time, refined innovation and research and development have also been made on the host and RO membrane elements.
Four major membrane fouling tests were carried out for RO membranes, and the membrane separation performance and permeate water quality were further improved by adjusting the operating parameters of the membrane process. The whole machine adopts a 1000 iodine value carbon fiber composite filter element, and is equipped with an 800G high anti-fouling roll membrane, which can not only filter common heavy metals, bacteria and viruses in water, but also remove emerging pollutants. The core components of the whole machine have passed the 20W+ devil-level performance test, and the rigorous factory test has created real durability and reliability.
The booster pump heat conversion system is innovatively adopted, and the heat generated by water production is used as the heating source to increase the temperature in the machine, solve the problem of slow water production speed in winter of the traditional RO machine, and maintain the stability of water production in all seasons.
The details are also unambiguous, using NVH luxury car-level noise reduction resonance cavity, fitting the suspended silent compartment to create an immersive water connection experience.
In terms of exterior design, the rich colors of Peking Opera, the mortise and tenon structure of the stage, and the iconic facial elements are integrated into the fuselage. The original design of the imitation cloisonné enamel Peking Opera nameplate, the main body restores the mortise and tenon structure of the Peking Opera stage, and the acrylic mask filter handle, which highlights the exquisite beauty of the quintessence of intangible cultural heritage in the details.
The "Intangible Cultural Heritage Quintessence" series attracts consumers with the quintessence of national heritage, impresses consumers with exquisite craftsmanship, and convinces consumers with flagship performance.
This product not only has insight into the water purification market, but also contains the responsibility of intangible cultural heritage protection. While popularizing water purification, we can do more meaningful things, which is also the original intention of Yikaide and the National Peking Opera Company of China.
Easy-to-open water purifier
Let more Chinese families use healthy, safe and good water
When we go back to the original point, ask the question - "What does a good water purification product look like?" ”
Perhaps Yikai can provide the answer.
A good product is ultimately responsible for the user, and when the user gets value from the product, the brand value will naturally grow. In the context of intensified market competition and repeated impacts of force majeure factors, we should gain insight into the core needs of consumers and find new breakthroughs, and at the same time, we also need to continuously improve the scientific and technological innovation strength of our products.
This is also the direction that Yikaide has been exploring.
The development of the water purification industry is also the continuous evolution of the drinking water demand of the Chinese people. People's living standards are gradually improving, consumption is also upgrading, and the younger generation of consumers represented by the post-90s and post-00s are stepping onto the stage of the times. According to the classic Carnot model, the "expectation attributes" and "charm attributes" of water purifiers have become more and more obvious, and the "intangible cultural heritage" series is the beat of this era.