The overseas hit is making a low-key comeback. What are the chances of Plaud having another explosion?

Author | Huang Nan

Editor | Yuan Silai

The smart voice recorder Plaud, which was not previously sold in the Chinese mainland, has finally returned to the domestic market.

On September 22nd, Plaud officially announced its entry into the Chinese mainland market at a new product launch event. Among them, the new Plaud Note Pro is priced at 1,299 yuan. Also available for pre - sale during the same period are the Plaud NotePin S and Plaud Note, priced at 1,249 yuan and 1,149 yuan respectively.

In terms of price, the pricing of all three products is higher than that of domestic competitors in the same category. Previously, the DingTalk A1 Youth Edition launched by DingTalk was priced at 499 yuan, and the flagship version at 799 yuan. The TicNote from Mobvoi is sold on e - commerce platforms for 999 yuan.

Plaud's launch event this time was not large - scale and did not generate much discussion, appearing rather low - key, in sharp contrast to its high - profile approach overseas.

In July, official data showed that Plaud's global sales had exceeded one million units. Its pioneering AI voice recording products have achieved ten - fold growth annually in the past two years, and as of November 2024, its annualized revenue reached 100 million US dollars. Hard Krypton has previously reported on this. (For details, see: Without Meeting Investors, Earning 100 Million US Dollars Annually: The Myth of a 10 - Fold Growth of an AI Voice Recorder)

Plaud's rapid growth in a short period is due to its discovery of an overlooked niche demand. In the overseas market, a typical and urgent need is that Apple users have frequent online meetings but lack a matching integrated voice recording and transcription solution. Users often need to record with a device first and then rely on third - party software for transcription and analysis. The "hardware + software" service provided by Plaud can effectively fill this market gap.

More importantly, Plaud responded immediately after the emergence of large AI models and captured the first wave of traffic in the AI voice recorder market.

Pre - sales of Plaud's three products have started on e - commerce platforms. (Source: Company)

Although Plaud was born in Shenzhen, it has been sold in regions and countries outside the Chinese mainland in the past few years.

This was a very wise decision. Currently, AI voice recorders supporting real - time transcription account for over 35% in China. The conversion rate of voice transcription technology has risen from 68% in 2021 to 87% in 2025, and the real - time translation function supporting 35 languages has become a standard feature of high - end devices.

This also means that the users Plaud faces do not need to be educated. They have many choices and have extremely clear and high requirements for product functions, experience, and cost - effectiveness.

In the face of the dominance of multiple strong brands and highly intense competition, it is extremely difficult for a new company to do hardware business in the domestic market.

Plaud's restrained performance at the Chinese launch event also shows more of a tentative attitude. Plaud is well aware that based on its performance in the overseas market, it enjoys a certain brand premium advantage in a small circle. However, the chances of truly breaking through in the domestic market are uncertain.

The In - fighting Market with Numerous Brands

When Plaud returns this time, it faces a much more complex and intense competitive environment than overseas.

Currently, the domestic AI voice recording and transcription market has formed a competitive landscape with diverse products coexisting and covering multiple scenarios. In addition to traditional professional voice recorder brands, more and more companies are also entering this field based on their own advantages, which can be generally summarized into four categories.

The first category includes traditional technology manufacturers such as iFlytek and Sogou (now merged into Tencent), which still hold an irreplaceable position in the professional - level voice recording and transcription market.

They are still the first choice for users in scenarios with high requirements for accuracy, security, and privacy protection. These products not only support accurate recognition of multiple dialects and professional terms but also usually have compliance guarantees such as offline transcription and local data storage, meeting the rigid needs of judicial records, academic interviews, media investigations, etc.

The second category is represented by office collaboration platforms such as DingTalk and Feishu. Their product forms include two models: "ecosystem - embedded" and "hardware - software integration". Just a few months ago, DingTalk launched its exclusive voice recording hardware device, the DingTalk A1, which can automatically synchronize recorded content to the cloud, generate meeting summaries with one click, and assign tasks, directly integrating into the daily workflow.

DingTalk A1 (Source: Company)

The third category consists of mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi, which target the mass - market convenience scenario. They integrate the AI voice recording and transcription function into the native functions of the mobile phone system. With just the built - in microphone and system tools of the phone, users can achieve basic voice recording and transcription functions, which are also connected to their own cloud services and note - taking applications. They have an inherent advantage in the product ecosystem and can provide convenient personal office assistance.

Plaud, Mobvoi, etc. belong to the fourth category of AI technology companies. Different from first - tier large companies with large - scale ecosystems, they focus more on creating a differentiated experience through vertical integration of "hardware + AI", targeting niche scenarios such as cross - border meetings, multi - language interviews, and new media content production. They are trying to find a living space in the market dominated by giants through more precise scenario definition and technological paths.

TicNote from Mobvoi (Source: Company)

In such a market with a high degree of division of labor, ecological segmentation, and niche demands, competition is not simply about "who has more functions", but rather focuses on "who can more accurately solve the core pain points of a certain type of user".

Judging from the functions displayed by the Plaud Note Pro (hereinafter referred to as the "Pro version"), the new product iteration mainly focuses on optimizing services in terms of information recording, organization, and intelligent interaction.

For example, the Pro version has launched a dual - recording mode for "calls" and "on - site meetings". The continuous recording time has been extended from 24 hours to 50 hours, and the sound - collection distance has been expanded from the original 3 meters to 5 meters. At the same time, the Pro version has added multi - modal functions. On the basis of supporting audio input, it can be associated with images, texts, etc., and can also mark key information.

In addition, compared with the previous model, which had no screen and only indicated the status through indicator lights, the Pro version has added a 1 - inch small screen on the hardware, allowing users to view the recording status, battery level, and synchronization progress in real - time.

The Plaud Note Pro has added a 1 - inch small screen. (Source: Company)

Overall, the hardware structure of the Plaud Note Pro generally follows the design of its best - selling product, the Plaud Note, focusing on the optimization of minor functions, but has not shown obvious innovation in terms of local function adaptation.

According to the results of Hard Krypton's query on the Apple App Store, there is currently no independent application specifically designed for users in the Chinese mainland. The version function updates it has shown are still from two months ago. Hard Krypton has learned that the Chinese version of the APP is expected to be officially launched after the National Day.

Can the Path to a Blockbuster Product Be Replicated?

In recent years, the path of "Made in China - Sold Overseas - Returned to the Chinese Mainland" has been successfully verified.

From this perspective, Plaud's strategy of first achieving million - level sales overseas with its AI voice recorder Plaud Note, establishing brand awareness, and then returning to the mainland has a certain strategic rationality. The overseas brand assets and user trust can provide a certain premium basis and early attention for Plaud.

 "This is a classic case of exporting products overseas and then selling them back domestically, which can enhance the brand image. It can not only increase the product premium with a global endorsement but also reduce the decision - making threshold for domestic users through overseas user cases," an investor who has long been concerned about the consumer technology track told Hard Krypton.

However, it must be clearly recognized that domestic hardware manufacturers are known for their aggressive strategies, and Plaud is facing a series of structural challenges.

There is a consensus in the hardware industry: a company cannot continuously produce blockbuster products.

The replacement cycle of hardware is longer than that of fast - moving consumer goods, and users' decision - making is more cautious. Unless there are leap - forward upgrades, the company will quickly hit a bottleneck.

But the contradiction lies here. Hardware production is complex. Innovation must consider the constraints of mass production at the physical level. It can be said that hardware companies are all dancing with shackles.

Take Plaud as an example. After the Plaud Note became a hit, they launched the portable and wearable voice recording device Plaud NotePin. In order to pursue extreme compactness and discreet wearability, the NotePin uses a pill - shaped body. Although it is lighter in weight, it severely compresses the reasonable layout and operation area of physical buttons. Some users who have used the product told Hard Krypton that starting and stopping recording both require pressing the sensor area hard, and there is a feedback delay, which easily leads to information omission.

Two voice recording products previously launched by Plaud. (Source: Company)

Also, due to its small size, it limits the number of microphone apertures, the layout spacing, and the size of the internal acoustic cavity, making it difficult to form a high - quality microphone array. This physical deficiency is difficult to remedy with algorithms, resulting in poor voice capture and weak noise - cancellation ability in noisy environments, and it is only suitable for quiet indoor environments.

The Plaud NotePin failed to continue the strong momentum of the Note. Judging from the sales of the Note and Pin on Amazon, the sales performance of the Pin has been rather mediocre.

Perhaps it is because the overseas growth curve has reached its peak that Plaud has to return to the domestic market.

This market is already full of competitors. In daily use, domestic Android phone manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi have long deeply integrated high - quality voice recording and real - time transcription functions into their native applications.

In the office scenario, there are absolute leaders like DingTalk and Feishu. For them, hardware is just an entry point, and their core advantage lies in "software - defined hardware".

"In the business scenario alone, the domestic office software ecosystem is already mature. It is very difficult for a new brand like Plaud to grab a share of the market," an entrepreneur engaged in the R & D of overseas AI voice recording software told Hard Krypton. "Users' voice recording operation habits, minutes storage paths, and collaboration methods are all deeply bound to existing platforms. Even if Plaud performs better in a certain aspect, it is difficult to break the inherent workflow inertia."

These competitors not only fully overlap with Plaud in terms of functions but also have inherent advantages in data connectivity, team collaboration, and local services due to their strong ecological bundling and user base. Against this background, the market space for independent hardware companies like Plaud will undoubtedly be squeezed.

Plaud Note Pro (Source: Company)

Of course, the Chinese market is large enough. Plaud initially targeted iPhone users. Apple has always ranked among the top five in terms of shipments in the Chinese market, with hundreds of millions of existing users. These people have a high willingness to pay and are willing to pay a premium for a good experience, so Plaud will have some room to maneuver.

However, this really tests Plaud's pricing wisdom. The "hardware pre - payment + AI service subscription" model used by the overseas version of Plaud has a minimum annual subscription fee of 240 US dollars. Without strong brand recognition and ecological synergy, it is obviously difficult for domestic users to accept such a high secondary payment.

Therefore, Plaud has significantly reduced the subscription fee in China. Its membership services in the domestic market are divided into three levels: Standard, Professional, and Premium. The Standard version is free and includes 300 minutes of transcription time per month. The Professional version has an annual fee of 299 yuan and provides 1,200 minutes of transcription time per month. The Premium version has an annual subscription fee of 899 yuan, and users can enjoy unlimited transcription time.

In comparison with competitors, DingTalk A1 provides users with 1,000 minutes of free transcription per month + 10GB of cloud storage. Its Professional version has an annual fee of 599 yuan, and the Premium version is 1,499 yuan. The professional membership of Mobvoi's TicNote has an annual fee of 578 yuan, including 1,500 minutes of transcription time per month, and the business version has an annual fee of 1,188 yuan with a monthly transcription time of 6,000 minutes. Plaud's pricing in the middle - tier has a certain competitive edge.

However, the industry has not yet entered a stage of intense price competition for software services. The future market trend will largely depend on the decisions of leading manufacturers. Whether they choose to maintain the existing service system or launch more targeted pricing strategies for the mid - to high - end niche market remains to be seen.

Plaud's founder, Xu Gao, has a background in financial advisory (FA) and is a serial entrepreneur. He is more aware than anyone else of the cruelty of the domestic market, which is why Plaud was only sold overseas in the early days. Now that Plaud has grown stronger and has the strength to enter the arena, this return is a trial and also the final chance for Plaud to break through the growth ceiling.