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A Hunan couple made mobile phone glass and became the richest people overnight. Their company has a market value of 104 billion yuan.

铅笔道2025-07-10 08:02
The total market capitalization is HK$104 billion.

On July 9th, Lens Technology listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As of the close, its total market capitalization on the Hong Kong stock market was HK$104 billion.

Exactly 10 years ago, Lens Technology listed on the Growth Enterprise Market of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

01

The founder of Lens Technology is Zhou Qunfei, who was born in a remote mountainous area in Xiangxiang, Hunan Province in 1970. She lost her mother at the age of five, and later her father became blind due to an accident, plunging the family into financial difficulties.

Zhou Qunfei dropped out of school at the age of 15 and went to Shenzhen alone to work.

In 1993, at the age of 23, Zhou Qunfei, with more than 20,000 yuan she had saved, rented a three - bedroom apartment in Bao'an, Shenzhen with her elder brother, sister - in - law and other family members, and founded Hengsheng Glass Surface Processing Factory, which was the predecessor of Lens Technology.

Perhaps she never imagined at that time that many years later, she would be involved in the global revolution of precision aesthetics in consumer electronics along with glass.

After the turn of the millennium, Zhou Qunfei encountered an opportunity in her career. A friend gave her an order for TCL flip - phone panels. She boldly tried to apply the watch glass manufacturing process to mobile phone panel production, replacing the organic glass screens that were prone to scratches, not resistant to high temperatures and easily deformed with glass screens, thus solving a major pain point in the industry.

This attempt brought her more opportunities. Two years later, a crucial opportunity that would change her fate arrived. Motorola was looking for a suitable glass screen supplier for its Razr V3 phone and found Zhou Qunfei's factory.

Facing the challenge, Zhou Qunfei and her team spent three days and three nights to overcome the ion - exchange strengthening technology. The anti - drop performance of their products exceeded that of their German counterparts, and they successfully won their first international order.

When engineers questioned the safety of the glass, worried that it might cut important figures, Zhou Qunfei patted her chest and promised, "Our broken glass will crack into a spider - web pattern and will never produce sharp edges."

In 2003, Zhou Qunfei founded Lens Technology and continued to focus on the application of glass technology in mobile phone panel production. What really brought about a major turning point for Lens Technology was in 2007. Steve Jobs was looking for cover glass that was "both touch - sensitive and extremely transparent" for the first - generation iPhone. Zhou Qunfei led her team to reduce the glass thickness from 1.1 mm to 0.7 mm and increase the light transmittance to 92%. Since then, Lens Technology has left a deep mark of Chinese manufacturing in the global Apple supply chain.

For a long time, mobile phone giants represented by Apple and Samsung have become important customers of Lens Technology, bringing a steady stream of revenue to the company.

In 2015, Lens Technology successfully listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and set six records on the Growth Enterprise Market, such as "highest revenue" and "highest net profit". Zhou Qunfei also topped the "Hurun Richest Women in China 2015" list with a fortune of 50 billion yuan, becoming the well - known "Queen of Global Mobile Phone Glass" and the richest woman in China.

The following year, Apple's performance fluctuations triggered a supply - chain crisis. However, Zhou Qunfei was not defeated by the difficulties. Instead, she took this as an opportunity to achieve a second evolution.

In the Changsha laboratory, products such as Tesla's curved center - console glass, Huawei's hinge metal for folding screens, and even the flexible joints of humanoid robots are constantly being developed. Lens Technology is reconstructing the "skeleton" of intelligent hardware.

Foreign media once commented, "Zhou Qunfei, who started from scratch, has defined a new class of Chinese female entrepreneurs."

However, Zhou Qunfei herself has always downplayed her "female identity" and even changed her WeChat signature to "Brother Fei". As of the close on March 13th, the total market capitalization of Lens Technology reached 128.4 billion yuan.

In October 2024, Hurun Research Institute released the "Hurun China Rich List 2024". Zhou Qunfei and her husband Zheng Junlong returned to the top of the list of the richest people in Hunan with a fortune of 63.5 billion yuan.

02

Lens Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lens Technology") is headquartered in Changsha, Hunan. It has nine R & D and production bases in regions and countries such as Hunan, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Vietnam.

Its products are widely used in many fields, including high - end and mid - end smartphones, smart wearables, tablets, laptops, all - in - one computers, new - energy vehicles, smart home appliances, and photovoltaic products.

From a product perspective, the appearance structural components of smartphones and computers are its core products. From the curved glass cover of the iPhone to the hinge metal of folding - screen phones, these products as thin as 0.7 mm solve the difficult problem of balancing the anti - drop performance, light transmittance (up to 92%) and ultimate aesthetics of electronic devices.

In the first half of 2024, the revenue from this business was 24.02 billion yuan, accounting for as high as 83.21%, making it the main revenue pillar of Lens Technology.

In the field of intelligent vehicles, Lens Technology also performs excellently. It provides curved center - console glass, in - vehicle display systems and B - pillar components for models such as the Tesla Cybertruck, meeting the interaction and safety requirements of intelligent cockpits.

In the first half of 2024, the revenue from this business was 2.716 billion yuan, accounting for 9.41%. According to the data, Lens Technology has established cooperation relationships with more than 30 domestic and foreign new - energy and traditional luxury car brands, covering the entire chain from technology R & D to product supply. It is expected to create a second growth curve in addition to its consumer electronics business.

In the field of AR/VR devices, the optical modules of Lens Technology eliminate visual distortion in the virtual world through 3D micro - crystal glass. The excellent immersive experience of the Meta Quest Pr is inseparable from its optical coating technology. However, in the first half of 2024, the revenue from this product was only 1.435 billion yuan, accounting for 4.97%, and it has not yet formed a scale effect.

In addition, Lens Technology is also actively expanding into new fields, extending its precision manufacturing capabilities to the field of humanoid robot joint modules. Its self - developed flexible hands and torso structural components target the precise movement requirements of industrial and household service scenarios. Although currently in the technology - reserve stage, they also demonstrate the company's forward - looking layout.

03

In terms of customers, Apple is the most core partner of Lens Technology.

In 2022, Apple contributed 33.1 billion yuan in revenue to Lens Technology, accounting for 71% of the total. In 2023, although this figure dropped to 31.512 billion yuan (accounting for 57.83%), Apple still remains the pillar of its business. The deep - seated partnership between the two sides dates back to the cooperation on the glass cover of the first - generation iPhone in 2007, which jointly defined the technical standards for mobile phone glass.

In 2022, the second to fifth - ranked customers of Lens Technology were not disclosed, but their sales all increased. The sales of the second - ranked customer soared to 8.47 billion yuan, accounting for 15.55% of the total, up from less than 4%.

In addition to Apple, Lens Technology has also reached cooperation agreements with many well - known industry customers such as Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO, Huawei, Honor, Tesla, BMW, Mercedes - Benz, Audi, Volkswagen, BYD, Li Auto, NIO, and XPeng.

Financially, both the revenue and net profit of Lens Technology show an upward trend. In 2022, Lens Technology's annual revenue was 46.699 billion yuan (a year - on - year increase of 3.16%), and its net profit was 2.448 billion yuan (a year - on - year increase of 18.25%). In 2023, the revenue reached 54.491 billion yuan (a year - on - year increase of 16.69%), and the net profit was 3.021 billion yuan (a year - on - year increase of 23.42%). The core driving force came from the recovery of the smartphone business (44.901 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 17.50%).

As of the first three quarters of 2024, its revenue had reached 46.228 billion yuan (a year - on - year increase of 36.74%), and the net profit was 2.371 billion yuan (a year - on - year increase of 43.74%). The AI - driven mobile phone replacement wave has triggered the explosion of its vertical integration advantages.

It is worth noting that Lens Technology is a company mainly driven by foreign sales revenue. From 2022 to 2023, its foreign sales revenue was 38.266 billion yuan and 36.807 billion yuan respectively, accounting for 81.94% and 67.55% of the total operating revenue in the same period.

04

The consumer electronics components and assembly industry to which Lens Technology belongs has a huge market scale. The global market scale is expected to increase from $1.05 trillion in 2024 to $1.18 trillion in 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of about 3% - 7.63%. The Chinese market will also grow synchronously. In 2024, the scale reached 1.98 trillion yuan, and the growth trend will continue in 2025.

However, it also faces many challenges.

In 2023, the global market scale of this industry was about $1.2 trillion, showing a "V - shaped" fluctuation from 2022 to 2024. In 2022, due to the shrinking global demand for consumer electronics, the profits of 67.82% of the 87 listed companies in the industry declined, with a median decline of 27.50%.

Since the third quarter of 2023, the inventory turnover days have decreased from 97.88 days to 96.08 days, and the industry has entered a recovery cycle. In 2024, benefiting from the iteration of AI hardware and the penetration of new - energy vehicles, the revenue growth rate of leading enterprises has rebounded to over 30%.

However, the pain points in the industry are also very obvious. Firstly, there is the pressure of technological iteration. The innovation cycle of consumer electronics has been shortened to 12 - 18 months. Once a company lags behind in product innovation or its customers adjust their strategies, its performance is likely to fluctuate.

Secondly, the rigid cost under the heavy - asset model restricts the profit elasticity. The fixed - asset scale of leading enterprises in the industry generally exceeds 10 billion yuan, while the net profit margin is only about 5%, which also reflects the characteristics of high investment and long cycle in the precision manufacturing field.

In addition, the cultivation of emerging markets is uncertain, intensifying the competition. For example, although AI glasses are highly anticipated, the revenue of enterprises has fallen short of expectations, and the technical standards have not been unified yet. It will take time to educate the market.

05

Despite facing many challenges, Lens Technology still has significant advantages in the industry.

In its core business, Lens Technology is the only company in the world that has achieved mass production of 0.1mm UTG glass. It has won 70% of Apple's UTG orders and is the sole supplier of ultra - thin glass substrates. By cooperating with Corning on raw materials and adopting the central thinning process, it takes full advantage of the characteristics of UTG glass, such as ultra - thinness, wear resistance, good light transmittance, high strength, bendability, and good resilience, effectively solving the problem of creases.

As the global leader in glass covers, at its peak, there was a saying that "one out of every two mobile phone glasses in the world is produced by Lens Technology". As early as 2019, its market share in the global glass cover market had reached an astonishing 55%, firmly occupying the leading position.

In the fields of new - energy vehicles and AI hardware, Lens Technology has also achieved remarkable results. It has more than 30 automobile - enterprise customers, all of which are well - known domestic and foreign enterprises. It is also a core first - tier supplier to Tesla globally.

In the field of AI hardware, it is a core supplier to leading North American AI - glasses customers (such as Meta), responsible for the production of key components such as light - guiding modules and Mic modules.

In 2024, it cooperated with Rokid to launch lightweight AI glasses and occupies more than 60% of the global market share of AI - glasses structural components. Its nano - microcrystalline glass technology has tripled the anti - drop performance, and the light transmittance of the lenses exceeds 95%, providing strong support for the future integration of brain - computer interface hardware.

In terms of technology, chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm and MediaTek have borrowed the idea of NVIDIA's super GPU to redesign the end - side AI computing - power architecture. Material and device enterprises such as Lens Technology, Changying Precision Technology, and BOE have also actively followed up. Among them, Lens Technology, with its profound accumulation in the field of new materials, topped the "Hurun Top 100 New - Material Enterprises in China 2024" list.

Moreover, Lens Technology also has a forward - looking layout vision.

At the Yangtze Securities 2025 Spring Strategy Conference in early March this year, the chief technology officer of Lens Technology's robotics division gave a special speech on the industrial trends and mass - production paths of humanoid robots, attracting high attention from more than 400 investment institutions. Its vertical integration capabilities in the field of humanoid robots are also highly anticipated.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Pencil News" (ID: pencilnews). Author: Truth - teller. Republished by 36Kr with permission.