The "bird-watching" activity that Li Xian also participates in has a market worth hundreds of billions globally | Product Observation
Author | Zhang Ziyi
Editor | Peng Xiaoqiu
This spring, the celebrity Li Xian popularized a niche field.
His bird - watching vlog was publicly commended by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. After that, the hot searches for several consecutive days were all related to "bird - watching" and "bird photography".
While "bird - watching" is breaking through the circle in China, in the United States, it is a huge market with a scale of over a hundred billion US dollars.
The "State of the Birds" report shows that by 2025, there were nearly 100 million bird - watching enthusiasts in the United States, accounting for more than one - third of the adult population. These enthusiasts spend a total of up to 108 billion US dollars annually on bird - watching trips, equipment, clothing, photography equipment, etc.
The United States is one of the most profitable markets for bird products globally. Americans are particularly obsessed with wild birds, and bird - watching is the second - most popular outdoor hobby among Americans. For the wild - bird market, feeding and watching are the most important scenarios and demands.
Many brand merchants have smelled the business opportunity. Among them, Hard Krypton has paid the most attention to two smart bird feeder brands.
One is an American company, Bird Buddy. Its smart bird feeder has become a "phenomenal" presence in the Amazon smart home field with a single - product monthly sales of over 5 million US dollars.
The other is a Chinese cross - border e - commerce company, Netvue. It launched its sub - brand Birdfy in 2020. The price of its smart bird feeder is not much different from that of Bird Buddy's products, and it has also reached the Amazon BSR with monthly sales of one million US dollars.
In comparison, traditional bird feeders are low - priced, with many players and fierce competition.
The new players represented by Bird Buddy and Birdfy can capture the niche industry trend with their keen product insights. Of course, achieving high performance is the first step in meeting the demand. The subsequent product design and local operation are even greater challenges.
01 A New Product Category Inspired by GoPro
Bird Buddy's official website
When you open Bird Buddy's official website, it's hard not to be attracted by the various lively little birds. The ultra - high - definition image quality highly restores the colorful feathers of different birds. The animated images of birds eating allow consumers to experience the use of the smart feeder from the first - person perspective.
Bird Buddy's first - generation smart feeder was launched on Kickstarter in 2020, which was also the world's first smart feeder. The crowdfunding amount reached 4.19 million euros, with more than 20,000 supporters, which is quite an amazing achievement. Currently, the price of its smart feeder Pro series ranges from 199 US dollars to 329 US dollars (including discounts).
Interestingly, Ziga Vrtacic, the co - founder of Bird Buddy, once mentioned that the inspiration for designing the smart feeder came from a YouTube video of seagulls stealing a GoPro camera. The video had multiple close - up shots of birds looking at the camera, which made him realize that there could be a new perspective for bird - watching.
GoPro may not have expected that it inspired Insta360 to develop a panoramic action camera and also inspired Bird Buddy to develop a feeder. Although its performance has declined, the pioneering significance of its products still exists.
Looking at Bird Buddy's product itself, its built - in AI algorithm can identify over 1,000 species of birds. With a 5 - megapixel camera and infrared night - vision function, it can capture the arrival of birds even at night. When a bird approaches, the device automatically takes high - definition photos or videos, which are pushed to the mobile APP in real - time via Wi - Fi, and it matches the cloud database to immediately present information such as the bird's name and habits.
Bird Buddy's official website
The new - generation Pro version is equipped with an upgraded HDR camera. It has a smaller sensor size, a wider focusing range and field of view, supports 2K HDR video shooting in slow - motion, and is equipped with a high - fidelity microphone. Its modular design supports function iteration, and the solar panel accessory can achieve energy self - sufficiency.
In terms of APP design, Bird Buddy has also simplified the operation interface. Users just need to install the device, connect to the APP, and wait for the birds.
A review by the foreign media "Wired" magazine found that the APP will send a summary at the end of each day, including the number of visits and the number of different bird species. The home page contains a list of "postcards" taken by the camera. Each postcard contains multiple high - definition photos and an audio - video. The video length ranges from a few seconds to two minutes, depending on the bird's activities. There are also functions such as saving favorite photos, viewing selected clips from other users, and self - cleaning reminders.
In response to users' complaints on social platforms that the feeder attracts other creatures such as cats and raccoons, causing damage, Bird Buddy has also launched a function in the APP to prompt the presence of unknown creatures.
Bird Buddy's official website
Of course, Bird Buddy also has some problems such as inaccurate bird identification and missed identification of birds. But the bigger problem is production capacity. Many users on social media have reported long delivery times and slow responses from customer - service emails.
02 Down - to - earth Chinese Power
Birdfy's official website
Birdfy's rise in the smart - feeder field is due to the keen business sense of the Chinese cross - border e - commerce company and its good use of technological advantages.
Birdfy's parent company, Netvue, has been deeply involved in fields such as smart video doorbells, smart surveillance, indoor and outdoor cameras for many years. It is an established smart - home enterprise with rich experience in going global.
An overseas - going person familiar with the security industry told Hard Krypton: "Netvue's original security - product business declined significantly. It was revitalized by the smart - bird - feeder product. In recent years, it has made over 100 million in profits and is doing well."
According to Brand Ark, Netvue noticed that many outdoor - camera users would actively share the scenes of accidental bird visitors captured by the products on the brand's social - media and app communities. Therefore, Netvue once considered manufacturing bird - watching cameras. Smart bird - watching has always been a blank field overseas. Due to the high alertness of birds, for a long time, bird - watching enthusiasts usually had to rely on telephoto lenses or telescopes to take pictures or observe from a distance, which was costly and the experience was not satisfactory. Thus, the idea of combining a smart camera with a bird feeder was born.
Birdfy launched its smart feeder in 2021 and conducted crowdfunding on Kickstarter and IGG, officially entering the smart - bird - watching field.
The price of Birdfy's products ranges from 279.99 US dollars to 119.99 US dollars (including discounts). In terms of basic configuration, Birdfy has a built - in high - definition wide - angle camera, supporting 1080P real - time video recording and photo - taking, which can clearly capture the details of birds. It is also equipped with a self - developed AI recognition system that can identify over 1,000 species of birds and automatically label and classify them.
In terms of detailed functions, Birdfy supports adjustable feeding volume to precisely control feed consumption; the infrared night - vision function ensures that users can still clearly record bird activities in low - light conditions. In addition, the disassembly, cleaning, and installation process of the Birdfy device is simple, reducing the maintenance cost and the threshold for users' use and maintenance.
After being reviewed by the foreign media "Wired" magazine, it was considered that Birdfy's camera has a wide field of view and can capture all the scenes around the feeder, but the picture quality is not satisfactory, and the photos may have a grainy texture. Under certain conditions, such as in the early morning or late at night when the light is weak, the video quality may decline, with some color differences and compression. The visual output effect is more suitable for ordinary bird - watching enthusiasts. In addition, Birdfy's camera can also be used as an additional security measure and can issue an alarm.
Birdfy's official website
Birdfy also has the problem of inaccurate AI bird identification. This may be a common problem in the current smart - feeder industry.
To some extent, Birdfy's smart feeder also perfectly demonstrates the response speed of the Chinese supply chain. It launches new products extremely quickly. Compared with Bird Buddy's slow delivery cycle, Birdfy does not have this problem.
Of course, the image quality of Birdfy is also an issue that needs to be improved urgently.
Hard Krypton learned that the success of Bird Buddy and Birdfy has led many domestic security - product enterprises to launch similar products. Due to the lack of overseas living experience, many products are produced using common molds and without local operation, resulting in poor sales.
For bird - watching enthusiasts, the main demand for using a smart feeder is to watch birds. The SaaS subscription services attached to hardware products are also an important source of profit for smart - feeder enterprises. Doing a good job in software services tests both the enterprise's software capabilities and its local - operation capabilities.
The bird - feeder market is still in the transition from traditional feeders to intelligent ones, with many opportunities but limited barriers.