From an annual loss of 20 million to an annual revenue of 1 billion, a post-90s guy from Guangdong turned a "chicken rib" product into a global top trend.

Many times, whether a product category can ultimately be profitable involves complex driving factors behind it.

Therefore, before planning to enter, there's no need to rush to deny yourself, nor to easily dismiss the prospects of the track. After all, where the market will go in the future is inherently uncertain. Without trying it yourself, how can you conclude it won't work?

Take the USB mini fan for example. As the founder of the brand we are analyzing today said, in the early years it was just a 'chicken rib' category that no one valued. Consumers mostly picked randomly when purchasing, hardly paying attention to brands. In the public's perception, there was no need for brand selection for such small commodities.

Image source: JisuLife

So when the startup team decided to deeply cultivate this niche track, there was no shortage of opposing voices around them. Many friends and relatives advised them to stop losses in time. But the team still firmly bet on it, step by step turning the product into an overseas hit.

Now, the brand's products are exported to more than 40 countries and regions worldwide, with annual revenue reaching a billion-level scale, cumulative shipments reaching 50 million units, and it has topped global USB mini fan sales for several consecutive years, successfully forging its own branding path in a track flooded with low-price white-label products.

It is Shenzhen's local brand JisuLife (Jisu).

Next, let's take a look at how this brand established a foothold and made a name for itself in overseas markets.

Image source: JisuLife

The Path to Breakthrough: Abandoning OEM Business and Beginning the Era of Independent Brand

According to public information, Mr. He, the founder of JisuLife (Jisu), is a post-90s young man from Guangdong. After graduating from university in 2014, at the early stage of e-commerce dividends, he rejected a stable career and co-founded a Tmall store with others, undertaking ODM and OEM business.

In 2016, Mr. He registered Jisu Technology in Shenzhen, and the company began launching self-designed small home appliances, covering power banks, Bluetooth speakers, etc. Although only making slight scene innovations, it achieved good market sales.

In 2018, the brand launched the industry's first long-endurance handheld fan, which topped the domestic Tmall USB fan bestseller list, fully verifying the market potential of the portable fan track.

Image source: JisuLife

2019 was a key year for its transformation into an independent brand. Jisu completed the global registration of the English trademark JisuLife, voluntarily gave up the stable revenue OEM business, and fully focused on its own brand.

However, due to deviations in team decision-making during the early stage of transformation and blind category expansion, the company suffered its first loss since establishment in 2021, with a loss amount of 20 million yuan.

After strategic reflection, JisuLife decided to shrink its focus and concentrate on the portable mini fan niche track.

Image source: JisuLife

At that time, the vast majority of portable fans on the market had common shortcomings such as short battery life, insufficient wind power, and rough workmanship. In the view of founder Mr. He, these industry pain points were precisely the opportunity for the brand to break through.

In 2022, JisuLife launched its self-developed 'high-speed energy-saving fan' technology, and in 2023, it officially put mass-produced models into production.

The new technology greatly improved fan wind power and significantly reduced operating noise. The product abandoned common low-end battery cells used in ordinary devices, adopted high-density lithium batteries, focused on ultra-long battery life and fast charging, and added reverse charging for phones, quickly winning praise from consumers both at home and abroad.

In this way, JisuLife turned a fan priced at only a few tens of yuan into a hundred-yuan-level experience. At the same time, targeting multiple niche scenarios such as outdoor travel, baby strollers, office desks, and camping, it iteratively launched differentiated products like handheld, neck-hanging, desktop, and clip-on fans, precisely covering all-scenario cooling needs.

Image source: JisuLife

Building a Full-Channel Network: From Third-Party Platforms to Brand Private Domain

Product strength is the foundation, while channel strength is the 'blood vessel' for a brand to reach global consumers. For JisuLife, expanding overseas markets is not only a growth necessity but also a strategic choice to solve seasonal fluctuations in domestic sales.

The summer heat waves in Europe and America, combined with the year-round hot climate in Southeast Asia, make portable fans a sustained rigid demand, providing a natural market foundation for the brand's stable annual sales.

In terms of channel layout, JisuLife has adopted a dual-line parallel strategy of third-party platforms and independent sites.

Early in its overseas efforts, the brand joined Amazon North America and made it the core battleground. With outstanding design, long battery life, and quiet experience, many of its products have long been ranked on Amazon's Best Seller list.

Image source: Amazon

At the same time, JisuLife has also actively deployed on local Southeast Asian e-commerce platforms such as Shopee and Lazada, deeply penetrating these tropical markets with strong demand for cooling products.

If third-party platforms are the 'public sea' where traffic converges, then the independent site is the 'private land' where the brand operates autonomously.

In 2021, JisuLife launched a self-built independent site supporting multiple languages and adapted local payment methods. This move not only effectively receives traffic from various channels and precipitates the brand's own user assets, but more importantly, it gradually reduces dependence on platform rules, avoids high commissions, and gains greater pricing power and brand narrative autonomy.

Through this combination of strategies, JisuLife successfully increased the revenue share from overseas markets to nearly 90%, and overseas business has become its absolute growth engine.

Image source: JisuLife

Mastering Social Media Traffic: TikTok Matrix and Localized Content Marketing

In the era of mobile internet, social media has become the shortest path for brands to communicate with consumers. Being well-versed in this, the JisuLife brand places social media marketing, especially short video platform operations, at the core of driving growth.

Among them, TikTok, which has global traffic dividends, has become a key battlefield for the brand to break through the circle and spread.

JisuLife has adopted a refined account matrix operation model on TikTok. In addition to operating the global main brand account @jisulife.official, it has built multiple localized operation accounts for different countries and regions such as Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, UK, Mexico, etc.

Image source: TikTok

This strategy aims to deeply communicate with target users using local language, culture, and content preferences.

For example, the account @Jisulife-PH targeting the Philippine market publishes short videos of scenarios such as commuting, office, and outdoor activities, intuitively demonstrating the practical value of products in hot weather. It currently has 336,500 followers and 321,000 likes, establishing a good local user base.

Image source: TikTok

Beyond content seeding, live streaming sales are another conversion weapon.

Currently, during the TikTok Southeast Asia 7.7 promotion, multiple regional accounts of JisuLife will start live streaming simultaneously.

Take the operation strategy of the Philippine account as an example:

The brand combines the local back-to-school season to promote three core fan models, including a multifunctional 3-in-1 style, a long battery life model, and a portable mini model; simultaneously launches a new Butter Bear co-branded fan, with a free matching doll on purchase.

The live room offers exclusive discounts, with products directly reduced by 400 pesos, along with a one-year warranty and delivery time controlled within 1-3 days.

Through this combination of large price reductions, peripheral gifts, comprehensive after-sales warranty, fast delivery, and other multiple benefits to stimulate consumption, it greatly enhances users' purchasing desire and effectively drives live room transactions.

This social media strategy combining brand and performance enables a full-loop closure from exposure, interaction to direct sales for the brand's online marketing.

Source: TikTok

Conclusion

Currently, the global consumer market landscape is undergoing profound reshaping, cross-border e-commerce infrastructure is increasingly improving, and social media has greatly lowered the communication barriers for brands going overseas.

For Chinese companies and entrepreneurs aspiring to expand into the international market, this is undoubtedly a historic window period, with overseas markets waiting for more Chinese creations to fill the value space.

It is foreseeable that in the future, more Chinese brands, like JisuLife, will rely on their ultimate pursuit of products and deep understanding of the market to turn small products into big businesses on the global stage, showing the world more possibilities of Chinese brands.