Weighing only 49 grams and priced at half of Meta's, how does Rokid Glasses win the recognition of overseas geeks?
From the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai to the China (Hangzhou) International Digital Trade Fair, a pair of "big glasses" from Rokid has become a star at multiple global technology events this year.
The scene of Rokid at the Digital Trade Fair
The company behind these "glasses" is Rokid (Hangzhou Lingban Technology), founded by Zhu Mingming in 2014. It focuses on human - machine interaction technology products, including the R & D of hardware and software products such as AR glasses and the construction of an ecosystem based on the YodaOS operating system.
In November last year, Rokid launched its latest AR glasses, Rokid Glasses. With significantly improved performance and wearing experience, it has attracted market attention and widespread acclaim. As the popularity of the product continues to rise at home and abroad, Rokid has also been called the "Seventh Little Dragon" in Hangzhou by the industry.
The popularity of Rokid is also a manifestation of the overall explosion of the global AR glasses industry to some extent. With a series of technological breakthroughs in the hardware supply chain and the accelerated commercialization of AI technology, the practicality and market prospects of AR glasses are being recognized by more people, and they are expected to become the next popular terminal after mobile phones. In this race of technology and product acceleration, Rokid, which has been running for ten years, has not slowed down its pace.
1. Technological breakthroughs drive the global popularity of AR glasses
On August 26, the overseas press conference of Rokid Glasses was held in New York, and the global crowdfunding also started simultaneously on the Kickstarter platform. As of October 9, the crowdfunding amount has exceeded $3.4 million, breaking the global XR industry's historical record and surpassing the highest records of all AI and AR glasses. Rokid is racing against itself and constantly refreshing its own records. "The recognition of our products by everyone has completely exceeded our previous expectations," Shao Huaqiang, the person - in - charge of Rokid's overseas business, told us.
Rokid Glasses breaks the crowdfunding record
During the IFA 2025 (Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin) in September, Rokid Glasses also won dozens of overseas media awards and received praise from tech enthusiasts. Wareable, an international technology media focusing on wearable device reviews, even published three consecutive recommendation articles.
Photo provided for the interview
Rokid Glasses was first released on November 18, 2024, and went on sale officially nearly a year later. In the domestic market, the sales volume exceeded 40,000 units in just five days after its release. Compared with Rokid's previous AR glasses products, Rokid Glasses has significantly improved both in function and wearing experience. It is suitable for all - day daily wear, supports "immersive music experience", can quickly take photos, and also has an AI assistant function, supporting AI voice chat and real - time navigation.
In Shao Huaqiang's view, in addition to being recognized by consumers for its product strength, Rokid Glasses also reflects the greater maturity of the AR glasses industry. AR glasses have gone through nearly a decade of ups and downs, from the initial popularity of the concept to a period of decline, and finally achieved a full - scale breakthrough in 2025.
Shao Huaqiang recalled, "Ten years ago, before I joined Rokid, the first AR glasses I developed during my own startup weighed 159 grams. It was basically 'doomed to fail' and couldn't be sold at all." In 2018, the prototype of Rokid glasses released at the CES weighed 120g, lighter than ordinary ski goggles and a quarter of the weight of an AI helmet. However, some people still said after the experience that "it was slightly heavy, and the position of the head shape, ear height, and nose pads was not well - fitting."
Zhu Mingming, the founder of Rokid, once compared making AR glasses to "performing a ritual in a snail shell". This is because for a long time, it has been difficult for AR glasses to evolve from bulky immersive helmets to be as light and stylish as ordinary glasses or sunglasses, while also integrating multiple practical functions like mobile phones to meet daily use needs.
Only when the portability, wearability, and practicality reach a certain level can AR glasses make users willing to use them for a long time in daily life and truly become a popular terminal. Therefore, in the past ten years, Rokid has carried out systematic iterations at an average annual cycle. Currently, the latest Rokid Glasses have reduced the weight of the glasses to 49 grams, equivalent to ordinary glasses.
The scene of Rokid at the Digital Trade Fair
Before the core technological breakthroughs, many manufacturers, including Rokid, used split - type products as a transitional solution. That is, the main unit and the glasses were separated and connected by a transmission line during use, so they were mainly used for movie - watching and entertainment.
"Now, the operating system, chip, and battery of Rokid Glasses can all be placed in the thin glasses frame, enabling all - day wear. It goes into sleep mode when not in use and lights up when there is an operation requirement. The built - in 210 - mAh battery supports continuous music playback for 6 hours," Shao Huaqiang said. "I'm sitting at the airport in Tokyo right now, using Rokid Glasses to talk to you."
The breakthroughs in AI technology have also enabled AR glasses to have more intelligent performance, greatly promoting the overall explosion of the AR glasses market. In terms of AI functions, Rokid Glasses matches the camera in the glasses with the multi - modal recognition ability of Tongyi Qianwen. It can quickly identify and analyze the objects or scenes captured by the camera and then provide feedback to the user through voice or vision. For example, it can quickly calculate the calorie content of food and display it immediately, and automatically translate into text when communicating with foreign friends.
2. High cost - performance, localized OS system, and an open developer ecosystem
Rokid revealed that the number of domestic and overseas users who have purchased AR glasses has exceeded 300,000. Shao Huaqiang said excitedly, "Currently, our overseas business is just starting. The achievements of this crowdfunding can be regarded as a good start. As the overseas popularity of our brand gradually increases, we have also set a goal to catch up with our domestic counterparts in terms of performance within three years."
After long - term contact with overseas customers and consumers, Shao Huaqiang found that although AR glasses have mainly targeted entertainment scenarios such as gaming and movie - watching in the past few years, consumers actually pay more attention to practical needs, such as photo - taking effects, continuous music playback, and navigation functions. "During the IFA in Germany, I didn't expect that friends with hearing and vision impairments would come to the exhibition specifically. They were very excited and happy about our products. They wanted to buy our products because they need the real - time environmental recognition function and the AI voice - to - text function of the glasses. Referring to the successful experience in China, we have also developed glasses with a 'Wisdom Eye' mode for the blind, which can real - time broadcast all obstacles in front of them and provide real - time obstacle - avoidance reminders."
As a relatively cutting - edge consumer electronic product, most users of AR glasses are concentrated in developed regions in Europe and America, which are also Rokid's most important overseas markets. The price of Rokid Max 2 AR Glasses on the Amazon US site is $429 (about 3,056 yuan), which is basically the same as the price on Taobao. In addition, Rokid's overseas sales channels also include online independent websites and offline glasses stores or chain digital supermarkets.
In early April this year, the "reciprocal tariff" policy in the United States once brought a great impact on the domestic AI hardware industry. Fortunately, the smart glasses category (including AR and AI glasses) was included in the tariff exemption list. Regarding this, Shao Huaqiang said that even with higher tariff costs, Rokid Glasses still has a strong cost - performance advantage in the overseas market. For example, the latest AR glasses Meta Ray - Ban Display released by Meta on September 17 this year has a starting price of $799 (about 5,688 yuan), the same as the new iPhone 17 and nearly twice the price of Rokid Glasses. Shao Huaqiang said, "Currently, according to our tests, Meta's strategy is to define this product as a pioneer version mainly for professional users and developers, not for ordinary consumers."
In addition to the price advantage, Rokid's new product weighs only 49 grams, lighter than the 69 - gram Meta Ray - Ban Display. The binocular design of Rokid Glasses is more in line with the eye - using habits than Meta's monocular design. In scenarios such as speech prompting or cross - language communication, users can customize and adjust the display range, height, position, and font size of the teleprompter, and the user experience is also better than that of Meta. Moreover, Rokid Glasses can support myopia and hyperopia correction up to 1600 degrees, almost suitable for all users, while the Meta product can only support 400 degrees.
Compared with other AR glasses manufacturers and technology giants, the technological advantage of Rokid Glasses also lies in its self - developed YodaOS - Master operating system. The operating system was the technological direction of Zhu Mingming's previous startup. The mobile operating system company Mammoth Technology he founded after leaving Alibaba was later acquired by Alibaba and became the basis of Alibaba's YunOS operating system.
It is understood that the YodaOS - Master system supports multiple function updates and system changes of the AR Lite spatial computing suite, thereby optimizing the accuracy and usability of the spatial ray pointer and simplifying the user's interaction learning cost. Shao Huaqiang told us that Rokid has launched the world's first (and possibly the only one currently) operating system that supports Cantonese localization, AI understanding, and AI Q&A capabilities for the Hong Kong region, and is also promoting the localization of languages such as Japanese, German, and Spanish.
For Rokid, the greater value of the self - developed operating system lies in being a key part of its developer ecosystem. Through spatial perception, understanding, and rendering capabilities, it provides full - link services for developers from the hardware, basic layer, platform layer to the application layer.
Zhao Weiqi, the person - in - charge of Rokid's global developer ecosystem, told us that currently, more than 15,000 developers around the world have joined the Rokid Open Platform. The overseas community construction is in a stage of rapid development, and local developer networks have been established in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. "The Rokid Open Platform allows overseas developers to come into contact with our hardware and SDK earlier and more frequently through global developer competitions held twice a year, cooperative college courses, and online and offline operations."
In early September this year, Rokid officially launched the Rokid Glasses SDK development kit, for the first time opening a complete AR smart glasses development toolchain to developers. The kit is integrated into the upgraded Rokid Open Platform, providing full - process services from SDK access, development guides, to Rokid Academy courses. It supports both the YodaOS - Master (including AR Studio/AR Lite) and YodaOS - Sprite (Rokid Glasses) operating systems to break the technological barriers in AR application development.
At the same time, on September 26 this year, Rokid also launched the "Spatial Joy 2025" Rokid Global AR & AI Development Contest, which is open to global developers with a total prize pool of 2.5 million yuan. This year's contest has added an independent AI track for the first time, focusing on the in - depth integration of AR and AI, aiming to explore and innovate the future way of human - machine interaction.
3. AR glasses as the best entry point for AI technology are expected to define the next terminal era
Before the popularity of Rokid in the consumer market, its applications in the business market were more mature, and the commercialization in the industrial field has the fastest growth rate. Zhu Mingming once introduced that in 2023, Rokid's revenue increased by 200% year - on - year, and the industrial field accounted for a quarter of the overall revenue, with a year - on - year growth rate of 100%.
Another major business - to - business application scenario is in the cultural and tourism field. Currently, Rokid has cooperated with more than 200 museums across the country in digital exhibition. Through the YodaOS - Master operating system and the AR creation tool Rokid Lingjing, it can restore and display cultural relics and other exhibits in AR. When visitors wear the AR glasses provided by Rokid to visit the museum, the glasses can also identify the exhibits in front of the visitors in real - time and provide guided explanations.
For AR glasses manufacturers like Rokid, the current new challenge is how to balance the contradiction between industrial production and customized consumption. Shao Huaqiang said, "Consumer electronics products need to achieve economies of scale through large - scale production, but the consumption of glasses must be customized because everyone has different suitable sizes and degrees. Moreover, glasses naturally have matching and fashion attributes, and users pursue more different styles and colors. So, we are still iterating and optimizing, and product strength will always be the top priority."
Shao Huaqiang believes that the ten - year development of Rokid is also a microcosm of the ten - year transformation of the AR industry. Rokid Glasses is the result of Rokid's ten - year R & D investment, which is the "iPhone 1 moment" of the AR glasses industry. Each company will launch products in various forms to explore the "iPhone 4" of the industry and truly define the future development path of the products.
Currently, the industry generally believes that AR glasses are the best entry point for AI interaction. With the rapid commercialization of AI technology, smart AR glasses empowered by AI will become the next - generation mainstream terminal products after mobile phones. Shao Huaqiang said, "Our vision is to contribute to the migration of the next - generation human - machine interaction paradigm. Global peers are all working in this direction, and it depends on which company can make better products."