The tens of billions of dollars wearable business on fingers, recommended by Elon Musk, and Dreame and Samsung are following the trend.

Author | Ou Xue

Editor | Yuan Silai

A smart ring capable of monitoring health is becoming an essential accessory for tech moguls.

It was turned into a hit product by the Finnish company Oura Health. After selling about 3 million rings in the past year, the valuation of this company with more than 900 employees is approaching $11 billion. A new round of financing is expected to raise about $900 million, doubling the valuation of $5 billion last year.

For celebrities who must stay ahead in aesthetics and trends, the Oura ring has become a symbol of style and personality. Elon Musk and Mark Cuban have publicly discussed its sleep monitoring function; Mark Zuckerberg often wears it on his hand; LeBron James is not only a user but also an investor; actors Zoe Saldana and Jin Shijia from China are also users.

Media data shows that since 2015, 5.5 million Oura Rings have been sold, and the revenue is expected to reach $1 billion in 2025, occupying about 80% of the market share as the leader.

Oura Ring 4

Oura can hardly monopolize this market. This year, Dreame officially launched its first vibrating AI smart ring, the Dreame Ring, with a platform price of 2,599 yuan. Before that, the Indian brand Ultrahuman achieved a revenue of $64 million in the fiscal year 2024 and remained profitable. The Chinese brand RingConn ranks first in domestic sales and has successfully ranked second in global market share. It also recently completed a Series Angel+ financing of tens of millions of yuan. Even the sports brand Reebok has launched a Smart Ring targeting the "sports tracking" niche market.

Dreame Ring

Currently, among major consumer electronics manufacturers, only Samsung has launched a smart ring. An insider in the consumer electronics industry analyzed to Yingke that the competition in the smart ring market may replicate the pattern of the smartwatch market: startups pave the way, and then giants come in to seize the market.

The period before Apple enters the market is a critical period for smart ring companies to stabilize their positions. As a product with a strong jewelry attribute, spending a lot of money may not be the most efficient way. Startups with both business acumen and aesthetic sense may be able to leverage the market in a more flexible way.

Sleep Monitoring Becomes the Core Battlefield

As smart rings enter the public eye, more and more people are starting to wonder: What's the difference between them and smartwatches or fitness trackers?

The most direct difference lies in the wearing experience. The weight of a smart ring is usually between 3 - 6 grams, much lighter than a smartwatch weighing 40 - 70 grams or a fitness tracker weighing 20 - 50 grams. When worn for a long time, this lightness is particularly obvious - users can hardly feel its presence, and there is almost no burden on the hand.

For this reason, most smart ring brands are currently targeting the sleep scenario.

It is not only lightweight but also precisely solves the pain points of traditional wrist - worn devices in the sleep scenario: it won't press on the wrist when sleeping on the side, there is no screen glare, and with its small size and low - power design, the battery life can reach 5 - 10 days, far exceeding that of most smartwatches or fitness trackers.

Oura can be said to be a pioneer in this field. In its early financing documents, Oura pointed out sharply that "less than 5% of people exercise regularly, but more than 95% of people need to sleep every night."

According to the product introduction, the Oura Ring is made of high - strength titanium alloy, is waterproof, weighs only 4 - 6 grams, and is about 3 millimeters thick. Its appearance is almost the same as an ordinary ring, but it is equipped with multiple research - grade sensors - infrared PPG, temperature sensors, three - axis accelerometers, etc.

These sensors can monitor multiple physiological data such as the user's heart rate, body temperature, and respiratory rate in real - time, and then convert them into intuitive health scores through complex algorithms, covering dimensions such as sleep quality, activity performance, and physical recovery status.

These products are all looking for niche needs in the sleep scenario. For example, the Indian brand Ultrahuman focuses more on analyzing the relationship between sleep and metabolic health and provides personalized improvement suggestions for users based on night - time data.

The Chinese brand RingConn features the "sleep apnea monitoring" function and claims that it has been verified by clinical data and can identify breathing interruption events with an accuracy close to that of medical devices.

RingConn Smart Ring

The Galaxy Ring launched by Samsung can comprehensively analyze data such as deep sleep, blood oxygen, heart rate, and body turning through its supporting app and generate specific suggestions with the help of AI - for example, when deep sleep decreases, it will directly prompt "it is recommended to reduce caffeine intake before bedtime."

Galaxy Ring

It can be seen that there is not a very high technical threshold for smart rings themselves.

In fact, the accuracy of sleep monitoring by wearable devices has always been controversial. Clinically, to monitor sleep, electroencephalograms, electrocardiograms, blood oxygen saturation, nasal and oral airflow, limb movement, etc. need to be monitored simultaneously to form a sleep chart for diagnosis. It can be said that the charts that smart ring products can provide are still limited. However, it can detect relatively extreme phenomena during sleep, such as severe sleep disorders and sleepwalking, and partially replace traditional remote monitoring devices.

Different Competition Paths

When the sleep monitoring technology is no longer exclusive, smart ring manufacturers suddenly find that simply "piling up data" can hardly convince users to pay.

As the hardware monitoring capabilities are becoming increasingly homogeneous, the focus of competition in the industry is shifting from "accurate measurement" to "easy to understand and useful."

Different manufacturers have different competition strategies. Enterprises are trying to build new competitive barriers through three paths: data analysis, medical certification, and ecological linkage.

"The device tells me that I slept poorly, but I still don't know what to do." This is what most users think. Currently, most smart ring products still only provide complex data charts but fail to convert them into personalized improvement plans that ordinary users can understand and implement.

As a pioneer in the industry, Oura's core strategy is to build a two - tier business model of "hardware + subscription." The latest data shows that about 20% of Oura's revenue comes from subscription services, which proves the feasibility of this model.

Moreover, Oura's ambition goes further. Recently, two key moves of Oura are worth noting: first, it acquired the AI startup Dreamset, which marks that Oura is deepening from basic data monitoring to personalized sleep solutions.

Second, Oura strengthened its layout in the enterprise - level market by acquiring Sparta Science. The "Oura for Business" platform has served institutional customers such as the US Department of Defense and Essence Healthcare.

These companies are also trying to break through the wall of medical compliance. Different smart rings almost all claim in their promotions that they can achieve various health monitoring functions, but the vast majority of products are still positioned as "lifestyle devices," and their data cannot be used as a basis for medical diagnosis.

The domestic manufacturer RingConn has opened up the imagination space for the professional medical market with its "device + service" model. Currently, RingConn has passed the Class II medical device certification of the National Medical Products Administration and has established an advantage in professional medical scenarios such as sleep disorder management and remote patient monitoring.

In addition to deepening services, ecological integration is becoming another key competitive dimension in the smart ring market. An industry analyst told Yingke that the ring form has unique advantages in AI hardware - it is small in size, can be worn without being noticed, and is in continuous contact with the hand, providing a natural entry point for seamless linkage with other hardware devices.

The ring is just an entry point, and ecological connection is the core value. This understanding is driving leading manufacturers to actively layout.

With the influx of different ecological players, the future positioning of smart rings is becoming more and more diverse. It can be an independent health monitoring device or the core hub of personal health management. More importantly, it is a trendy product that competes in brand building.