Is the wildly popular fingerprint water cup really an anti-bullying gadget or just a way to market anxiety?

It's that time of the year again when schools reopen, and merchants selling various stationery and daily necessities have also welcomed their "peak sales season."

However, different from previous years, what has become a "hit among students" this year is not digital and intelligent stationery such as electric pencil sharpeners and word translation pens, but a water cup with a fingerprint lock.

01

Fingerprint-unlock water cups become a dark horse in the market

According to media reports, on September 3rd, in addition to the first and second places on Tmall's hot-selling list of children's water cups being fingerprint-identification water cups, the top eight on JD.com's hot-selling list of smart water cups were also all occupied by fingerprint-identification water cups.

By observing the detailed product pages of fingerprint-identification water cups on the market, reporters found that merchants have skillfully stirred up parents' emotions during the promotion process. They emphasized the importance of drinking water safety for children through scenarios such as school bullying, classmates' pranks, deliberate addition of foreign objects, and classmates' accidental use and drinking, and regarded "fingerprint-identification unlocking" as the ultimate solution to the above situations.

As the customer service of a certain fingerprint-unlock water cup said, "The smart fingerprint lock can only be unlocked by the registered person's fingerprint, effectively preventing situations such as others accidentally drinking the beverage or maliciously adding foreign objects." "It is especially suitable for public places such as the outdoors and schools, protecting the drinking water safety of you, your family, and your children."

Against this background, although the price of these water cups often reaches over a hundred yuan, many products have still achieved sales of over ten thousand. As the number of fingerprint-identification water cups in schools increases, some parents have gradually joined the ranks of buying fingerprint-identification water cups due to thoughts such as "Other kids have them, and our child can't be left out," until it became a hit product during this back-to-school season.

To be honest, if we think about this incident from the perspective of parents, we will find that the popularity of fingerprint-identification water cups is not surprising. After all, we have all been students, and we have more or less seen naughty classmates adding chalk dust or insects to others' cups for fun during our growth.

A water cup with built-in fingerprint identification can not only prevent the above situations from happening at the source but also provide feedback to parents about their children's drinking water situation through the APP. Although the price is relatively high, we can really understand the consumption motives of those parents.

But the question is, are fingerprint-identification water cups really reliable?

02

Are fingerprint-unlock water cups really reliable?

Through keyword searches, we found that at almost the same time when fingerprint-identification water cups became popular, there were also a large number of posts on social platforms warning people about fingerprint-identification water cups.

Here are some typical examples.

It is known that the core selling point of fingerprint-identification water cups is that only the child himself/herself can open the cup. However, since naughtiness is a child's nature, the fingerprint module will fail to recognize when a child's finger is broken or wet. Some parents said that within less than a month, their children had two situations at school where they couldn't open the water cup and "cried from thirst," and finally had to ask classmates for water everywhere.

In addition, although these water cups solve the problem of foreign objects, they also have two hidden risks: the difficulty in ensuring material safety and battery leakage. Not to mention that some parents found after disassembling the body of the fingerprint-identification water cup that due to reasons such as a more complex structure than regular water cups, the connection between the electronic components and the cup body could not be thoroughly cleaned, resulting in a large number of sanitary dead corners and dirt accumulation inside the entire water cup.

The most absurd thing is that since the electronic components on the water cup will inevitably come into contact with water, some reporters have also found that problems such as unlocking failure, abnormal charging, and battery leakage are common problems of fingerprint-identification water cups.

Facing this situation, some parents will think about buying an additional cup lid as a spare and replacing it at any time when the product is damaged. Unfortunately, relevant reports show that for a fingerprint-identification unlocking water cup with an original price of 239 yuan and a discounted price of 189 yuan, the price of a single cup lid is actually as high as 129 yuan. That is, the price of the cup lid is about 70% of the whole cup. Instead of buying the lid and replacing it frequently, it is more cost-effective to directly buy a new cup from another brand.

After all, this way, different component arrangement schemes can be tried to reduce the probability of the cup being damaged at the source.

03

What do netizens think of fingerprint-identification water cups?

To be honest, regarding the question of "whether to buy a fingerprint-identification water cup for your child," the answers of netizens vary at present.

In short, some netizens believe that the popularity of these products is entirely the result of merchants' marketing. Although it avoids situations such as pranks, it brings new problems in drinking water, such as abnormal identification and product leakage. On the other hand, some netizens believe that the emergence of fingerprint-identification water cups undoubtedly provides an extra layer of "double insurance" for children's drinking water safety. It not only protects children's daily drinking water but also relieves parents' anxiety.

Of course, in addition to parents and onlookers expressing their opinions, some teachers at the "epicenter of the event" also said that traditional water cups are sufficient to meet children's daily drinking water needs, but the emergence of fingerprint-identification water cups is also understandable.

"After a boy in the class got sick, he brought a water cup filled with traditional Chinese medicine to school. But because he thought it was bitter, he secretly drank the plain water of the girl sitting next to him. Then, in order not to be discovered, he poured the traditional Chinese medicine back into his cup, which caused a big misunderstanding. I spent the whole day investigating and comforting them," a primary school head teacher said helplessly to reporters.

In terms of the product itself, the emergence of fingerprint-identification water cups is inherently reasonable to a certain extent. Because it does accurately target the needs of some parents and provides a feasible solution to their parenting anxiety.

Nowadays, smart water cups have been popularized in the school environment. Instead of discussing whether the birth of the product is meaningful, we should urge those merchants to optimize their design schemes and upgrade their product materials to eliminate problems such as leakage and sanitary dead corners in the products, and prevent them from focusing their business efforts on "how to exaggerate anxiety and increase product sales."

It is believed that with the natural screening of the market, smart/traditional water cups will also find their own balance points. Then, according to different product positioning, they can accurately solve the problems faced by different consumers.

References:

People's Daily Online Jiangsu Channel: Is the "fingerprint water cup" on the hot-selling list a real need or a "IQ tax"? Some brands have frequent malfunctions and "make children cry from thirst."

Peninsula Metropolis Daily: Peninsula Focus | During the back-to-school season, children's fingerprint water cups are selling well. Are they really reliable or a "IQ tax"?

Red Star News: The children's fingerprint water cup claiming to be "anti-bullying" has made it onto the hot-selling list. Is it reliable? Teachers say that sometimes children can't even open it themselves, which is quite a hassle for moms.

Guangming Net: This "back-to-school gadget" has become extremely popular! But many parents regret buying it...

This article is from the WeChat official account "Internet Things." The author is Internet Things. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.