Picture source: Generated by Unbounded AI

Bluetooth headsets connected with AI, with translation function are completely sold out in the United States.

On TikTok, you can see bloggers of various types recommending $9.9 in "translation headphones" to foreign consumers, especially in the United States where AI innovation is the most active, people are concerned about these so-called "access to AI" Bluetooth headsets are rushing.

No surprise, behind these "hot" headphones is a large number of Chinese entrepreneurial teams, and even well-known companies like Miniso, who have joined this wave of "AI headphones" together. In the tide of selling goods.

When AI became the largest "political correctness" at the moment, big model companies were still thinking about how to make money on the C side, and some people have already sold new "AI hardware" such as headphones to all over the world. Crazy "harvest" the pockets of foreign consumers.

How did they do it? What do those foreign users who are placing orders in the live broadcast room do with these "AI headsets"?

Advertisement of AI Translated Headphones with Different Shapes on TikTok｜Source: TikTok

01, "AI Headphones", Fascinated overseas

"Translation headphones are inflated."

Zhang Zejie, head of NebulaBuds, who provides App Solutions including translation and AI Assistant for Bluetooth headphones, told Geek Park that one of his Bluetooth Headphone customers have sales on TikTok every month of about 2 million yuan. After connecting the headphones' app to AI assistant and translation functions, their monthly sales jumped to 8 million yuan.

A headset factory owner in Shenzhen also shared his experiences: his partner, a small local team from Huaqiangbei, specializes in providing software solutions for Bluetooth headsets for small brands, in early 2024 I was still struggling to pay a few thousand yuan, but by the end of the year, I was already driving a luxury car to negotiate business. He sighed that this is the "Huaqiangbei Story" where ordinary people seized an opportunity and made a lot of money: "The past year, they have been lucky and made money too fast." /p>

The explosion of demand for translation headphones was completely beyond his expectations.

The customers Zhang Zejie serves include small and medium-sized brands, as well as big brands such as Huawei and realme. The solution provided by NebulaBuds mainly provides simultaneous interpretation, audio and video call translation, AI assistant, noise reduction and other functions for Bluetooth headphones through the App, rather than changing the hardware configuration of the headphones. Zhang Zejie introduced: "Some of our customers have had a lot of Bluetooth headphones in stock before. After connecting to our App, they can be sold overseas and successfully destocked."

At present, the United States has become a translatorThe largest sales destination for machines, followed by the Middle East.

Zhang Zejie explained: "We originally thought Americans could speak English, but later we found that there are a large number of Hispanics and other non-English speaking groups in the United States who need translation functions. The same is true in the Middle East. In addition, Southeast Asia , India and Europe also have market demand, while Africa's purchasing power is even stronger than Southeast Asia. "

"The market demand for AI translation functions has been growing steadily, and our platform has dozens of monthly Activation capacity of ten thousand." Zhang Zejie said.

Translation and AI functions have become sales passwords for the headphone market. An e-commerce seller of headphones also said: "As long as the headphones' AI functions are highlighted on the e-commerce platform, they can almost sell better." During the Black Friday in the United States, The sales myth of translated headphones on TikTok seems to prove this rule: a certain translation headphone of Miniso, sold more than $2 million in 30 days; a digital store sold about $30, and sold 1.8 million in a month. US dollar, ranked among the hot list.

In addition, there are also TikTok internet celebrities who filmed short videos of translating headphones with goods, earning $300,000 in sales commission income.

"When I used to sell our software solutions to headphone manufacturers, I would introduce specific functions such as AI and translation, but now I won't talk about it." Zhang Zejie said:

"In just one sentence, you can get a big order."

We underestimated the need for translation in diverse immigrant areas | Image source: Visual China

02. Immigration groups, buy AI headphones

With multiple headphone OEMs, software solution providers, and headphones going overseas During the seller's discussion, Geek Park found that the sudden explosion of translation headphones was partly due to the sellers' precise marketing, but the core was that it met the urgent needs of diverse immigrant-gathering groups.

On TikTok, several typical scenarios have attracted widespread attention in the short video advertisements posted by headphone brands. For example, Americans like to go to nail salons and hair salons, while many technicians are Vietnamese immigrants. A short video joke shows that after putting on the translation headphones, customers can finally understand the content of the manicurist’s chat.

There is a comment in the comment section that also confirms the urgent need for this scene: "When you mention nail art and hairdressing and translation, I was convinced in two seconds."

Another A typical scenario is that a taxi driver needs to receive passengers from different countries and can easily understand the passenger's language after putting on the translator headset.

These marketing scenarios show that in areas such as Europe and the United States, where immigrant groups are gathered and culturally diverse, the translation headphones are extremely practical, and this demand has not been fully explored and met before.

ThisIn addition, the low price is also the core factor in the best-selling of translation headphones.

The translation headphones sold by Miniso on TikTok are priced at around US$13.99 to US$23.99, which only costs more than 100 yuan to convert into RMB; some brands of translation headphones can be lower after discounts. To $8.99, it greatly lowers the threshold for consumers to try out.

A headset seller found that headsets with more powerful AI features and better experience are generally priced at one or two thousand yuan, but the sales volume is not ideal. The best-selling of low-priced smart headphones actually confirms consumers' demand for AI functions, but it only requires a lower experience threshold.

In terms of technology, the improvement of translation function experience by large model technology is also an important reason for the explosion in sales. Zhang Zejie said that after the wave of big model technology, speech recognition is more accurate, and big models can also help calibration. AI assistants are no longer "stupid" and have become a truly usable feature. "After the development of artificial intelligence reaches the chatGPT stage, compared with the smart speaker period, the availability of AI functions has been greatly improved compared to the situation where the smart speaker period is either incomprehensible or incomprehensible."

There is another explosion of translation headphones that cannot be ignored. Big background: The basic market of the headphone market has been growing rapidly. According to Canalys data, in the third quarter of 2024, TWS headphone shipments reached 92.3 million units, a year-on-year increase of 15%, and Xiaomi and Huawei achieved annual growth rates of over 50% in the global market. Among them, open headphones are growing particularly rapidly. IDC data shows that from January to August 2024, the open headphone market shipped 16.36 million units, a year-on-year increase of 271.5%.

Ear-hanging earphones are very popular｜Picture source: TikTok

03. AI is implemented, Huaqiangbei takes the lead

The hot sales of translation headphones indirectly reflect the huge potential of using AI functions as a selling point.

The owner of Huaqiangbei OEM, who serves many headphone brands, found that in the second half of 2024, headphones have not seen any new breakthroughs in product form and hardware technology for a long time, and the industry is shifting its attention to On the App side of the headphones, I hope to find new growth and selling points. At this time, the emergence of the "AI concept" hits the thoughts of many headphone manufacturers.

AI is stimulating users' new consumer demand, "Consumers are increasingly paying attention to the capabilities provided by headphone apps."

From the supply side, a new consensus is reaching: AI Functions will become the most important growth point for headphones in the future. He revealed that in 2025, many headphone brands will focus on AI capabilities.

Shenzhen Huaqiangbei Commercial District｜Picture source: Visual China

Many industry insiders said that the hot sales of AI translation headphones are also due to the previous bigFactory and large-scale startups have spread the word about AI capabilities, which has educated the market well, and many users have gradually begun to get involved in AI.

NebulaBuds currently connects to domestic AI assistants such as Doubao and DeepSeek (chatGPT is also connected to overseas), and using AI assistants in nebulabuds requires a fee. "Although Doubao has an independent free app, we found that many users are also willing to use the Doubao assistant provided in our app to show that everyone's demand for AI functions is real."

Being a big manufacturer comes from a big company Technology entrepreneurs and investors are debating whether AI hardware is feasible and sufficient, Shenzhen bosses are using $8.99 headphones to harvest the global market.

Zhang Zejie gave an example. Before the Spring Festival, after DeepSeek became popular, "We have been studying DeepSeek throughout the Spring Festival. Many Bluetooth headset and watch customers are urging us to access the DeepSeek function, and we have also realized it ourselves. It is two-way to connect to it. "It can be said that Shenzhen's hardware manufacturers responded very quickly in terms of product implementation and chasing new consumption trends.

On the one hand, AGI needs technical idealists to explore the future; on the other hand, AGI also needs to be implemented, and the pragmatic "lucky people" have already made money first. The combination of technological ideals and business reality may be the best path for AI to go to the mass market.