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Connected to AI, Bluetooth headsets with translation functions have completely sold out in the United States.
On TikTok, you can see various bloggers recommending US$9.90 “translation headphones” to foreign consumers. Especially in the United States, where AI innovation is the most active, people are eager for these so-called “AI-connected” Bluetooth headphones.
Not surprisingly, behind these “hot” headphones are a large number of China entrepreneurial teams, and even well-known companies such as Mingchuang Premium, who have joined this wave of “AI headphones” goods.
When AI has become the biggest “political correctness” of the moment, big model companies are still thinking about how to make money on the C-side, and some people have already sold new “AI hardware” such as headphones to all over the world, frantically “harvesting” foreign consumers. Pocket.
How did they do it? What are those foreign users who are frantically placing orders in the live broadcast room to do with these “AI headphones”?
Various forms of AI translation headset ads on TikTok| Photo source: TikTok
01、“AI headphones” have become popular overseas
“Translation headphones are on the market.”
Zhang Zejie, head of NebulaBuds, which provides App solutions including translation and AI assistants for Bluetooth headsets, told Geek Park that one of his Bluetooth headset customers has monthly sales on TikTok of about 2 million yuan.After connecting AI assistant and translation functions to the headset App, monthly sales jumped to 8 million yuan。
A headset factory owner in Shenzhen also shared what he saw and heard: his partner, a small local team in Huaqiangbei, specializes in providing software solutions for Bluetooth headphones for small brands. At the beginning of 2024, it was still struggling to pay for several thousand yuan. However, by the end of the year, he was already driving a luxury car to discuss business. He lamented that this is the “Huaqiang North Story” where ordinary people seize an opportunity and make a lot of money:
“In the past year, they were the lucky ones and made money too fast.”
The explosion in demand for translation headphones completely exceeded his expectations.
Among the customers Zhang Zejie serves are small and medium-sized brands, as well as Huawei, realme and other big brands.The solution provided by NebulaBuds mainly provides simultaneous interpretation, audio and video call translation, AI assistant, noise reduction and other functions for Bluetooth headphones through the App, rather than changing the hardware configuration of the headphones. Zhang Zejie said: “Some of our customers had a lot of Bluetooth headsets in stock before. After connecting to our App, they could sell them overseas and successfully destock them.”
Currently,The United States has become the largest sales destination for translation headphones, followed by the Middle East.
Zhang Zejie explained: “We originally thought that Americans could speak English, but later discovered that there are a large number of Hispanics and other non-English speakers in the United States who need translation functions. The same is true for the Middle East. In addition, there is also market demand in Southeast Asia, India, and Europe, and Africa’s purchasing power is even stronger than Southeast Asia.”
“The market demand for AI translation functions has been growing steadily, and our platform has hundreds of thousands of activations every month.” Zhang Zejie said.
Translation and AI functions have become the sales code in the headset market. A headset e-commerce seller also said:
“As long as you highlight the AI function of headphones on e-commerce platforms, you can almost sell better.”
During Black Friday in the United States, the sales myth of translation headphones on TikTok seems to support this pattern: a certain translation headset from the famous and premium product MINISO sold for more than US$2 million in 30 days; there are digital stores selling translation headphones for about US$30, with sales of US$1.8 million a month, making it the hot-selling list.
In addition, TikTok Internet celebrities also earned US$300,000 in sales commission income by shooting Short Video with translation headphones.
“When I used to promote our software solutions to headphone manufacturers, I would introduce specific functions such as AI and translation, but now I don’t talk about them.” Zhang Zejie said:
“In just one word, if you connect it, you can get an order.”
We underestimate the need for translation in diverse immigrant areas| Photo source: Visual China
02、Immigrants are buying AI headphones
In discussions with multiple headphone foundries, software solution vendors, and headphone sellers going overseas, Geek Park found that the sudden explosion of translation headphones was partly due to the sellers ‘precise marketing.But the core is that it meets the needs of diverse groups in areas where immigrants gather.
On TikTok, several typical scenes in the Short Video advertisements placed by headphone brands have attracted widespread attention. For example, Americans like to go to nail salons and hair salons, and many of the technicians are Vietnam immigrants. Short Video show that customers can finally understand the manicurist’s chat after wearing translation headphones.
A comment in the comment section also confirmed the need for this scene: “When you mentioned manicure salons and translation, I was convinced in two seconds.”
Another typical scenario is that taxi drivers need to receive passengers from different countries. After putting on translation headphones, they can easily understand the passengers ‘language.
These marketing scenarios show that in Europe and the United States and other regions where immigrant groups gather and cultures are diverse, translation headphones are extremely practical, but this demand has not been fully explored and met before.
In addition, low prices are also the core factor in the popularity of translation headphones.
The prices of translation headphones sold by Mingchuang Products on TikTok are concentrated between US$13.99 and US$23.99, which is only more than 100 yuan converted into RMB; there are also some brands of translation headphones that can be priced as low as US$8.99 after discounts, which greatly reduces consumers ‘early adopters. threshold.
A headphone seller found that the price of headphones with more powerful AI functions and a better experience is generally one to two thousand yuan, but the sales are not ideal. The popularity of low-cost smart headphones actually confirms consumers ‘early adopter demand for AI functions, but only requires a lower experience threshold.
In terms of technology, the improvement of the experience of translation functions by large model technology is also an important reason for the explosion in sales. Zhang ZejieHe said that after the wave of large model technology, speech recognition has become more accurate, large models can also help with calibration, and AI assistants are no longer “stupid” and have become a truly usable function. “After artificial intelligence has developed to the chatGPT stage, compared with the smart slightly period, the usability of AI functions has been greatly improved.”
The explosion of headphones also has a background that cannot be ignored: the fundamentals of the headphone market have been growing at a high speed.Canalys data shows that in the third quarter of 2024, TWS headset shipments reached 92.3 million units, a year-on-year increase of 15%. Both Xiaomi and Huawei achieved annual growth rates of over 50% in the global market. Among them, open headphones are growing particularly rapidly. IDC data shows that from January to August 2024, the open headset market shipped 16.36 million units, a year-on-year increase of 271.5%.
Ear-mounted headphones are very popular| Photo source: TikTok
03、AI is implemented, Huaqiangbei takes the lead
The hot sales of translation headphones reflect the huge potential of using AI functions as a selling point.
The above-mentioned owner of the Huaqiangbei OEM, which serves multiple headphone brands, found that in the second half of 2024, headphones have not had new breakthroughs in product form and hardware technology for a long time. The industry is turning its attention to the App side of headphones, hoping to find new growth points and selling points. At this time, the emergence of the “AI concept” hit the hearts of many headphone manufacturers.
AI is stimulating new consumer needs from users.”Consumers are increasingly valuing the capabilities provided by headset apps.”
From a supply-side perspective, a new consensus is being reached: AI functions will become the most important growth point for headphones in the future. He revealed that in 2025, many headphone brands will focus on betting on AI functions.
Shenzhen Huaqiang North Commercial District| Photo source: Visual China
Many industry insiders said that the popularity of sales of AI translation headphones is also due to the overwhelming publicity of AI capabilities by major manufacturers and model startups, which has educated the market well, and many users have also slowly begun to come into contact with AI.
NebulaBuds currently connects AI assistants in China are Doubao and DeepSeek (also connected to chatGPT overseas), and there is a need to pay to use AI assistants in nebulaBuds. “Although Doubao has a separate free App, we found that many users are also very willing to use the Doubao Assistant provided in our App, which shows that everyone’s need for AI functions is real.”
While technology entrepreneurs and investors from big factories are debating the feasibility and adequacy of AI hardware, Shenzhen bosses are using $8.99 headphones to harvest the global market.。
Zhang Zejie gave an example. Before the Spring Festival, after DeepSeek exploded,”We have been studying DeepSeek throughout the Spring Festival. Many Bluetooth headset and watch customers are urging us to connect to the DeepSeek function. We also realize that we need to connect it. It’s two-way.” It can be said that hardware manufacturers in Shenzhen respond very quickly in terms of product implementation and pursuit of new consumption trends.
On the one hand, AGI needs technical idealists to explore the future; on the other hand, AGI also needs to be implemented, and the “lucky ones” of the pragmatic faction have already made money first. The combination of technical ideals and business reality may be the best path for AI to reach the mass market.
