Innovative "little giants" to enter the international market

According to the "Semi-Annual Report" of foreign trade import and export released not long ago, in the first half of this year, the scale of China's foreign trade reached 19.8 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.4%, sending a positive signal that China's economy continues to recover. In the face of challenges, China has continued to expand its high-level opening to the outside world. A group of dynamic and innovative "little giant" enterprises have actively participated in international cooperation and explored ways for small and medium-sized technological innovation enterprises to expand the international market.

Recently, our reporter interviewed 3 specialized and new "little giant" companies and listened to them tell their stories of "going overseas".

Underwater robots "swam" overseas

"As a technology company, we have realized the plot of the science fiction novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" to some extent." Holding a notebook-sized underwater booster, Deep Blue Ocean Technology Co., Ltd. "Deep Blue Company") founder Wei Jiancang introduced to reporters, "This device can not only speed down underwater, but also plug-in smartphones and action cameras to meet consumers' underwater photography needs. If you like surfing, you can also Mount it on the bottom of an inflatable float and turn it into a powered float."

In 2013, Deep Blue Company was established in Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Zone, and is one of the first batch of underwater intelligent equipment manufacturers in the world for the consumer market. Today, the underwater boosters produced by the company are exported to more than 70 countries and regions around the world, and are widely used in scientific research and scientific research, underwater security, salvage and rescue, water conservancy and hydropower, offshore wind power, aquaculture and other fields, occupying nearly 65% global market share.

Walking into the production workshop of Deep Blue Company, a piece of dark black equipment that looks like a propeller is rolling off the production line. "The most difficult part is this part." Wei Jiancang picked up a piece of equipment, "This is the underwater propeller of consumer-grade products, and it is also the core component of all underwater unmanned robot equipment. Previously, similar products at home and abroad were close to each other. The generation gap of half a century is now basically at the same level.”

In order to solve the problem of reliable control and complete sealing of the thruster, in the early stage of development, the team members lived in the company or even beside the pool. "The first thing to do if you wake up without brushing your teeth or washing your face is to run to see the data." After a year of "soak", Wei Jiancang and his team finally launched the first underwater propeller independently developed by China. Under the premise of the same power, the thrust of this underwater propeller with small size and high thrust is more than 20% higher than that of similar foreign products.

In 2019, Deep Blue signed a cooperation agreement with three Japanese companies, and related products began to enter the Japanese and Southeast Asian markets, achieving a breakthrough in the "zero" export of China's underwater robots. "It turns out that fishermen need to use divers or underwater cameras to understand the fish information in the sea. The observation time and work efficiency are very limited. The underwater robots produced by Deep Blue can easily complete these tasks." A Japanese company said the representative.

With the gradual promotion of underwater sports such as diving, the shortcomings of traditional diving equipment that are heavy, large and expensive have gradually emerged. To this end, Deep Blue plans to launch lighter and cheaper personal consumer-grade products in foreign markets, covering areas such as swimming, diving, and parent-child entertainment.

In May 2017, Deep Blue released the White Shark MIX underwater self-propelled swimmer. Known as the first "underwater balance car", the White Shark MIX can provide underwater forward power at a speed of 1.5 meters per second, and can also mount underwater photography equipment. In 2018, the product was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, USA. At present, nearly 90% of the personal consumer products such as underwater boosters, powered floating boards, underwater drones, and smart surfboards launched by Deep Blue come from exports.

The incision of small medical devices is more stable

In an operating room at the Campinas State University Clinical Hospital in Brazil, Professor Amino Ramos, a 59-year-old member of the International Committee on Weight Loss and Metabolic Therapy, is performing minimally invasive gastric surgery on a patient. What he held in his hand was an all-electric endoscopic cutting stapler - it was both a knife and a needle, which could be cut and sutured at the same time.

More than half an hour later, the operation was successful. "Compared with the normal situation, the patient's blood loss is reduced by 50%, and the operation time is shortened by 20%. The patient's body is back to ideal, and he can eat liquid food the next day." Ramos said excitedly, "My secret is that this medicine comes from China's smart squeeze electric endoscopic cutting stapler."

"Our third-generation stapler has a built-in smart chip, and the green indicator light is on before the switch can be pressed, which can standardize and rigidize the relevant process and prevent human errors." Jiangsu Fenghe Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Fenghe") Zhang Xinghua, executive deputy general manager of a medical company”) said that according to the tissue thickness of different parts, the equipment can also “follow the changes” and flexibly grasp the incision plan.

From learning and imitation to independent innovation, the staplers developed and produced by Fenghe Medical Company have now been exported to 93 countries and regions, and are widely used in gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary and other surgeries, serving nearly 50,000 patients.

Ramos first came into contact with Fenghe Medical's products in 2013, "the products at that time did not impress me too much". Liu Tianze, vice president and head of overseas sales of Fenghe Medical, admitted that the market share of products in Latin American countries, which are the first to enter the market, is less than 3%. Therefore, since 2013, the company has devoted more than 10% of its sales to research and development every year, focusing on tackling key problems with the most cutting-edge technologies and products in the world at that time. After five years of research and development, the electric endoscopic cutting stapler was officially launched overseas, marking that the company has moved from learning and imitation to integrated innovation, and has reached the world's advanced level in the field of stapler manufacturing.

"It avoids the inconsistency caused by the feel, and the cutting is more stable. The quality is good, and the price is also advantageous." Ramos was impressed with the second-generation products of Fenghe Medical and recommended them to his peers after using them. The market share of Fenghe Medical's second-generation products in Brazil has been increasing, quadrupling or quintupling. At the beginning of 2020, the company launched the third-generation intelligent cutting and stapler of independent innovation in overseas markets.

Today, Fenghe Medical has successively established the School of Minimally Invasive Surgery in Mexico and Egypt, and teachers are recruited from both the world and the local area. The college has opened 20 training courses, and trained students from 7 countries, with a total of more than 160 person-times.

Make your home screen smarter

Enjoy various applications such as audio and video on demand, cloud games, somatosensory fitness, online shopping, office meetings, etc. through the large TV screen; you can enter the Internet of Things and enjoy various cloud services with just one password... In recent years, Shenzhen Huaxi Smart TV boxes, network communication products and other terminal hardware, as well as video cloud platforms and various software services developed by DaTech Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huaxida Company"), link upstream and downstream chip production, content production, copyright protection, etc. Supply chain companies go abroad to provide products and services to more than 300 operators in more than 100 countries and regions around the world.

"In the past, overseas operators needed to cooperate with four or five suppliers to integrate and deliver the audio and video system platform. It is very flexible and rarely has compatibility problems." said Li Jianyi, Secretary of the Board of Directors of Huaxida Company. In 2021, Huaxida's overseas revenue will increase by more than 80% year-on-year, and in the first quarter of 2022, its revenue will increase by more than 120% year-on-year, and its profitability will hit a new high.

Looking back over the past 10 years of "going overseas", Li Jianyi admitted that it was not easy. In 2010, following the global development trend of Internet TV, Huaxida Company transformed to carry out the research and development of OTT Internet smart TV box products, aiming at overseas markets. OTT refers to the provision of various application services through the Internet, and smart TV is one of the keys.

"At that time, ordinary home users overseas were still dominated by non-smart set-top boxes, OTT products had not yet become mainstream, and market expansion was extremely difficult." Li Jianyi recalled. After many exhibition promotions and repeated product debugging iterations, the company's business has gradually won the recognition of the Southeast Asian market, and used this as a springboard to enter the global market, becoming an important supplier of well-known international manufacturers, and has won the praise of many world-renowned content providers. Cooperation authorization.

"Huaxida's support for developing overseas markets comes from the continuous practice of technical 'internal strength'." Li Jianyi said that the company is working hard to bring Chinese audio and video, cloud games and other application ecosystems to overseas markets.