Buying that old American brand: The overseas battles of a leading Shenzhen e-commerce seller after its revenue exceeded 1 billion yuan | Insight Global
After the company's revenue exceeded 1 billion yuan, Zou Qing, the founder and CEO of Weiji Technology, started traveling longer distances.
During the Spring Festival in 2025, Zou Qing took a flight to Brazil for the first time.
It was the hottest time of summer in the Southern Hemisphere. He shuttled through the crowded electronics markets and logistics warehouses in São Paulo to visit customers. Amid the heatwaves and the bustling noise, Zou Qing couldn't help but sigh: the Brazilian market is really great.
Before Zou Qing came to Brazil, Weiji Technology had already been operating an e - commerce business in Brazil for a year, with a monthly revenue growth rate of 200% year - on - year. He had received a Brazilian delegation who came to China to learn e - commerce experience and then taught locals in Brazil how to do e - commerce. These people included local Brazilian entrepreneurs and local fiscal and tax service institutions.
Zou Qing realized that what these people were doing was the same path that domestic e - commerce had taken. When domestic e - commerce was developing most rapidly, a large number of training institutions emerged. Brazil might be entering a period of rapid e - commerce development, and he had to go and see for himself.
The Latin American Digital Transformation Report released by Atlantico pointed out that the e - commerce growth rate in Brazil in 2024 was about 16%, making it one of the countries with the fastest e - commerce growth in the world that year. The proportion of e - commerce in Brazil's total social retail sales was about 11%, with a penetration rate far lower than that of China. Although it was in a leading position in Latin America, there was still huge room for growth.
In April after returning to China, Weiji Technology quickly sent people to Brazil and established a local company named "Samauma". Samauma is a tree in the Amazon rainforest with extremely deep roots and a huge canopy.
Zou Qing said that Weiji Technology wanted to use the name Samauma to imply that it would take deep roots in the local area.
This was a crucial turning point. Like many Chinese cross - border e - commerce enterprises, only Weiji Technology's products went overseas, while its supply chain and team were still rooted in China. Its more well - known name overseas in the past was Ulanzi.
The term "going global physically" has been frequently used in the overseas market industry in the past two years. The dividend period for cross - border e - commerce to sell products to thousands of households without leaving home has ended. Complex geopolitics, fierce domestic market competition, and the inevitable transfer of the supply chain have all forced overseas enterprises to try local operations.
Weiji Technology was no exception. In 2025, in addition to establishing a local company in Brazil, Weiji Technology also acquired the American photography accessory brand JOBY in September.
After the acquisition was completed, Weiji Technology would have three brands under its banner: Ulanzi, Falcam, and JOBY, accumulating users in different niche markets. In 2025, Weiji Technology's revenue had exceeded 1 billion yuan.
Zou Qing started uploading videos with English subtitles on YouTube and TikTok through his personal IP account. As the company entered its 11th year, he wanted to engage in more challenging business.
01 Seize Every Dividend
Weiji Technology is one of the few cross - border e - commerce enterprises that "bloom both at home and abroad". Its revenue in the domestic market is on par with that in the North American market, both accounting for about 30%.
The photography accessory industry is a relatively niche one. More than a decade ago, the participants in the industry were relatively niche and mainly overseas enterprises, and the objects they supported were mostly professional cameras.
For start - up enterprises, designing accessories around professional cameras is likely to lag behind. The product data of mainstream camera manufacturers are often kept confidential, and accessory manufacturers can only play catch - up. Once a certain camera model is discontinued, the inventory of accessory manufacturers will either be unsalable or piled up in the warehouse.
Ulanzi chose to design universal accessories for products and caught a wave of opportunity.
When Ulanzi was established, short - video platforms were just emerging, and online live - streaming was the mainstream at that time. Huajiao, Yingke, and Momo were extremely popular. Most live - streamers mainly used mobile phones as their live - streaming equipment, and the era when mobile phones became the mainstream for shooting videos quietly began.
Zou Qing recalled that when the company was still small, they seized the dividend of mobile phone live - streaming.
At that time, Ulanzi under Weiji Technology noticed that more and more people in China were using mobile phones for online live - streaming, but the brackets and fill lights were traditional photography equipment accessories used as substitutes, with poor results. Taking this opportunity, Ulanzi developed a mobile phone bracket with a fill light to solve the accessory problems of mobile phone live - streamers.
When Ulanzi noticed the popularity of Vlog videos, it took advantage of the situation to develop many accessories for Vlog shooting scenarios. The most popular product was its tripod, the MT - 08, launched in 2017. Ulanzi applied the concept of a selfie stick to mirrorless cameras, making the bracket quite small and convenient to carry around daily.
The MT - 08 has a very long life cycle. Even now, Zou Qing told 36Kr: "It still sells four or five hundred thousand units every year."
According to data from Precedence Research, the global camera accessory market size was 4.16 billion US dollars in 2024, is expected to reach about 4.79 billion US dollars in 2025, and is expected to reach about 17.21 billion US dollars by 2034, with a compound annual growth rate of 15.26% from 2025 to 2034.
With the global short - video wave, the photography accessory market has been expanding, with more participants and increasingly fierce involution - style competition.
Zou Qing chose to "compete on value", and his core method was summarized as "disruptive innovation".
Clayton Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School, divided innovation into sustainable innovation and disruptive innovation in "The Innovator's Dilemma". The former can improve and perfect existing products according to the needs of existing mainstream customers, while the latter attracts "low - end customers" or "non - consuming groups" ignored by the mainstream market by introducing a product that may be inferior in performance to mainstream products but has advantages in terms of price, convenience, and simplicity.
In the field of photography lighting, giants such as Godox and Aputure are carrying out "sustainable innovation" - releasing 5000 - watt lights today and 6000 - watt lights tomorrow, serving professional film crews. But Zou Qing noticed another group of people: ordinary people creating content on TikTok or Xiaohongshu. They don't need movie - grade lighting; they just need a light that is portable, bright enough, and inexpensive.
"Cut off those excessive professional functions, reduce the cost, and serve those less - professional users. Build a moat by combining our own ecosystem." Zou Qing said.
Getting personally involved in creating an IP has also become a form of innovation.
Every Wednesday and Saturday night, Zou Qing records videos in the photography studio and often works overtime until late at night. He said that creating an IP is not for selling goods but for building a "user co - creation flywheel".
"I'm the biggest customer service of Ulanzi." Zou Qing said. His WeChat ID is publicly available online, and he personally handles users' complaints and suggestions every day. Inside Ulanzi, there is even an unwritten rule: if a user complains to Zou Qing, it is regarded as a "level - one incident" for the company.
Zou Qing even established a "cloud shareholder" mechanism: if a user can come up with a feasible product idea and even draw a blueprint, they can get a sales commission after the product is launched.
Zou Qing clearly realizes that "in the early stage of the industry's rapid development, there were many unmet needs, and there were many products you could develop. At the current stage of product oversupply, there are fewer innovative points and fewer products that can be developed. At this point, we must co - create with users."
02 Acquisition and Hitching a Ride to Go Global
Zou Qing is a person with extremely sharp business sense. Many years ago, when he saw his customers making a fortune by doing business on eBay and sourcing goods from Huaqiangbei, he realized that he could do it too. After saving up his first pot of gold in three years, he wanted to do more, create a brand, and focus on a single product.
Weiji Technology was thus established. It seized the dividend period of domestic online live - streaming and the high - growth period of overseas short - videos. With affordable products, rapid iteration, and lightweight features, Weiji Technology has been on a fast track.
During the pandemic, the explosive demand for global short - video and live - streaming equipment masked many problems. Weiji Technology's revenue nearly tripled year - on - year in 2020. However, as the global supply chain recovered, a large number of small factories with only a few machines flooded into the market, and a price war broke out.
"That was the year when involution was mentioned the most." Zou Qing said.
In the melee, Weiji Technology's steps were once in disarray. It simultaneously cut the prices of its domestic and overseas products and got involved in the price war with the industry. Soon, Zou Qing realized that the price war was not a long - term solution. There are always small companies that can imitate Ulanzi's products at its cost price and sell them at low prices on e - commerce platforms.
"We decided not to compete on price but on value. Competing on value means that we need to make our product design, product innovation, supply chain, service, and brand more competitive. Continuously reducing the profit margin doesn't make sense." Zou Qing told 36Kr.
A multi - brand strategy has become Weiji Technology's new approach. In Zou Qing's view, the accessory industry is extremely fragmented, without absolute industry barriers and with low entry thresholds. It is very unlikely for a single company to monopolize the market. Creating photography accessory brands targeting different groups of people is the only way to enhance competitiveness in the long - term development.
JOBY became the target of Weiji Technology. The company was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA. It is well - known for its innovative GorillaPod flexible tripod, which can be fixed on various objects such as branches and rocks thanks to its wrap - around multi - directional joint design. JOBY holds a 67% retail share in the US flexible tripod market, and its global business covers 65 countries and regions.
JOBY has a simpler and more straightforward brand name compared to Ulanzi, making it easier for consumers to remember and spread. As a local US company, it has rich offline retail channel resources, which is an advantage that Ulanzi, mainly relying on online channels, doesn't have.
In the past, Weiji Technology tried to get Ulanzi into the offline markets in Europe and the United States during the process of developing overseas markets, but the results were not satisfactory.
Whether in the domestic or overseas markets, Ulanzi is known for its cost - effective prices and a large number of product SKUs. Even if Ulanzi only selects some products for offline sales, the discount activities on e - commerce platforms create a price difference between its products in the online and offline channels, reducing the willingness of offline channel dealers to sell its products.
"We found that offline channel dealers in Europe and the United States are more willing to cooperate with local companies. For Chinese brands to develop locally, they either need to set up their own sales companies or find distributors. If they choose distributors, they have to give them a 15% to 30% profit margin, which conflicts with Ulanzi's product pricing and profit." Zou Qing said.
Moreover, the acquisition price of JOBY was about tens of millions of yuan. Zou Qing told 36Kr that actually, JOBY's parent company wanted to sell the company to European or American enterprises, but among all the acquirers, Weiji Technology offered a more competitive price.
It might be a little - known fact that at present, the valuations of many well - known overseas brands are far lower than those of domestic hardware enterprises. An investor told 36Kr that the valuation of the well - known audio brand B&O is only tens of millions of US dollars.
For Weiji Technology, acquiring an overseas brand is a practical step towards going global. It can use China's supply chain resources to transform the products and use the overseas brand's channel resources to further develop the overseas market.